iCP Faqs
Licensing
What is the cost of an iCP license?
The cost of a permanent commercial license of iCP is 5.000 €, whereas the reduced fee of a permanent R&D license (students, universities and research centres) is 1.000 €. You can also obtain a free trial license, which is valid for a period of three months. You can obtain your license by filling in the following form
Do I need a new license file for new releases of iCP?
No, your license is valid for all versions of iCP.
My permanent license expired, how do I get a new one?
If you have a permanent license, we will provide you with a new license free of cost. Please contact us at techlabs@amphos21.com and send us the Hostname and MAC Address of your PC. How to obtain Hostname and MAC Address
Installation
What are the requirements to install iCP?:
Your computer needs to meet the following requirements in order to install iCP:
- 2Gb of RAM. Systems with at least 8Gb RAM are recommended.
- Windows 7 (or higher), 64-bits.
- Java JRE 8 or higher, 64-bits
- COMSOL version 5.4 to COMSOL 5.6
- Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2015, 2017 and 2019
Which Operating Systems support iCP?
The commercial version of iCP is available for Windows only. iCP can also be run with Linux, but requires additional technical support. If you are interested in running iCP in a Linux environment, please contact us at techlabs@amphos21.com.
Troubleshooting
If you are running into any issues when running iCP, have a look at the following table where we summarize the most common errors and their solutions.
If you are not getting enough information to determine where the issue comes from, you can run the simulation in Debug mode. ICP_INSTALLATION_PATH/iCP_Debug.exe produces a verbose output that could be helpful in some cases.
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Error reading the JSON | Check that your file has the correct syntax and that all the Ids referred to exist. Check that you have not left an important field blank. |
| Duplicated variables | COMSOL does not accept duplicated names. The interface may create a huge number of unknowns and we must check that they do not have the same name as existing variables. |
| Evaluation variable not found | Check that you are not trying to evaluate a variable that does not exist. Note that COMSOL is capital sensitive |
| Not able to connect to the server. Error “A model with the tag X is used by another client#root” | The COMSOL Server instance is automatically opened by iCP. If the “portNumber” of the JSON file points to a comsol server already open, verify that the port is not being used. One port can handle only one iCP simulation. If the port is being used change the “portNumber” to a new value. Comsol Server should be initialized the first time it is used giving a username and password. This has to be done only the first time it is opened. |
| iCP stops working right after showing the following message ([INFO] → “Version of Visual Studio Redistributable Not found. Please install VC Redist v14.” | Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017 or 2019 (x64: vc_redist.x64.exe) is required to run iCP. Can be downloaded from: https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe |
| Comsol module not found when running iCP ("Failed_to_initialize_physics_interface" error message). When opening a Comsol file, an error message stating “module not found”. | Check that iCP Physics interface module is correctly installed. This file contains the COMSOL physics interfaces that are used in iCP. It should be installed in YOUR_USER_PATH /.comsol/[COMSOL_VERSION]/archives. Check also that you are running COMSOL under the correct licensed user. If you are using Comsol 5.5, make sure that you are not working in standAlone mode (not supported) and that you are using at least the second update (build 325), as previous versions have a bug when it comes to importing external physics. |
| The iCP config file is not properly configured, please set the Comsol Path. | Check the iCP.cfg file and set the COMSOL_INSTALLATION_PATH properly. iCP.cfg file must be in ICP_INSTALLATION_PATH/iCP.cfg. E.g. C:\Program Files\iMaGE\iCP-1.6\iCP.cfg |
| iCP doesn’t run and “access is denied” error appears in the command window. | In some versions of Windows the rights to modify the iCP program file folder might be denied. Full control of the folder should be given to the current User. To do so, go to ICP_INSTALLATION_PATH, right click on the iCP folder and edit the security section to give full control of the folder to the User. |
| Transport step crash. | Check the error.mph file created in your problem folder to figure out what happened. Check that your input COMSOL file works standalone |
| Reactive step crash. | Check the error.mph file created in your problem folder to figure out what happened. Check that your input PHREEQC file works standalone. Check that the conservative transport does not suffer over/undershooting. |
| The COMSOL server crashes in the middle of the calculation: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded | The maximum amount of memory allocated to run the Java program is not enough. That might be due to 1) a hardware limitation, not enough RAM memory available; or 2) COMSOL limitation of RAM memory used. For the second case, you may consider to modify the comsol.ini file located in: YOUR_USER_PATH/.iCP/[ICP_VERSION]/[GUID_STRING]/ and tune up the JVM values as your needs (Figure 10-1). Even if iCP does not crash, you may consider tuning JVM values to improve performance (see Comsol information). You can also avoid this issue by working in standalone mode. |
| The COMSOL server crashes in the middle of the calculation: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space | You need to adjust the memory parameters of the java virtual machine. Try increasing the -Xmx parameter in the iCP.l4j.ini and iCP_console.l4j.ini files that you can find in the ICP_INSTALLATION_PATH. You can also avoid this issue by working in standAlone mode. |
| NullPointerException error | Check that the Explicit Selections of the chemical domains are well selected in COMSOL input file and that their tags are correct in the .json file. |
| Value -999 of some variable | If you obtain a variable value -999, there probably is some problem of communication in the coupling variables. Check your variables in the input files. |
| Erratic/strange chemical results | If you obtain strange results for the chemistry in general (solute concentration, pH and pe) make sure that all the iCP physics in COMSOL are selected for the same domains and that you are using the same mesh and discretization for all of them. Also, for iCP versions up to 1.6, make sure you have deactivated the “compute boundary fluxes”, “Crosswind diffusion” and “Streamline Diffusion” options of all physics. Check that you are not using any physics in COMSOL that use internal DOFs (typically Solid Mechanics physics). If the erratic behaviour is observed only for pe, make sure your PhreeqC model has a redox pair that controls pe. |
| Strange chemical results, results change when the model is run again. | Make sure your PhreeqC file is “clean”: Only the relevant Keywords should present in the file, as described in Section 6.5. |
| How to know the GUID string of my iCP instance. | Every time iCP is installed generates a unique number to prevent that the configuration files alter other installed instances. This GUID string is stored in the iCP.cfg file that can be found in ICP_INSTALLATION_PATH. After the installation, all related configuration files will be in YOUR_USER_PATH/.iCP/[ICP_VERSION]/[GUID_STRING]/ |