The Progress Window
The Progress window () displays the progress of the mesher, solver, or postprocessing evaluation during the process, including a progress bar and progress information for each mesher, solver, or postprocessing evaluation. You can view the progress from the status bar in the lower-right corner of the COMSOL Desktop.
The solvers call each other in a hierarchical order: the adaptive solver calls the linear, nonlinear, parametric, eigenvalue, or time-dependent solver; the parametric solver calls the nonlinear or linear solver; the time-dependent, eigenvalue, linear, and nonlinear solvers all call both the assembly and the linear system solver. The solver hierarchy is visible in the Progress window because each solver adds its own line when it is called.
This window is always available but is empty when no progress information is available. For a log of the progress information, see The Log Window.
Figure 20-9: An example of the Progress Window solving a model.
The Progress window has the following columns:
The Description column shows the solver name.
The Progress column shows an estimate of the solver progress.
The Convergence column shows an estimate of the solver’s convergence if available. Also see Convergence Plots for more information.
The Parameter and Value columns contain solver-dependent information: the adaptive solver shows the adaptive mesh generation number; the time-dependent solver shows the time; the parametric solver shows the parameter value; and the nonlinear solver and iterative linear system solvers show the iteration number.
If you want to continue an interrupted parametric or time-dependent solution, for example, click Continue ) in the Progress window’s toolbar, and then choose the available study that you want to continue. You can also right-click the main Study node and choose Continue, or click the Continue button in the Study ribbon, to, for example, continue a stopped or interrupted time-dependent solution or parametric sweep.
Cancel or Stop a Solver Process
You can cancel or stop the solver process if the model’s solving time or likelihood for convergence is not progressing as expected. Use the horizontal or vertical scrollbars if needed. On the status bar you can follow the progress, cancel the solver process by clicking the Cancel button (), or click the Progress button () to open this window. In the same way, you can also cancel the meshing and the evaluation during postprocessing.
You can use the Stop buttons that appear at each solver level to stop the solver’s execution. When you click a Stop button, the COMSOL software returns a current approximation to the solution if possible. For example, when you click it at the adaptive solver level, the underlying linear, nonlinear, parametric, eigenvalue, or time-dependent solver continues until it is finished, but the adaptive solver stops at its current generation, immediately returning a solution. Similarly, you can click the Stop button to return the current iteration for the nonlinear solver or an iterative solver. Also use the Stop button during time stepping to return all time steps up to the current one. The parametric solver works similarly: To return the solutions for all parameter values up to the current one, click the Stop button.