You can finally simulate as much as you wish you could, not just as much as you can.
Run Your First Simulation
Step-by-step guide to run your first FDS simulation on Inductiva.AI. Easily launch, monitor and analyse results.
This tutorial will show you how to run FDS simulations using the Inductiva API.
We will cover the box_burn_away6 from the FDS GitHub repository to help you get started with simulations.
Prerequisites
Before running the simulation, you’ll need to download the required input files. You can either:
- Manually download them from the FDS GitHub repository and place them in a folder named
Fires, or - Download automatically here.
Once downloaded, you’ll be ready to submit your simulation to the Cloud.
Running a FDS Simulation
Here is the code required to run a FDS simulation using the Inductiva API:
"""FDS example."""
import inductiva
# Allocate a machine on Google Cloud Platform
cloud_machine = inductiva.resources.MachineGroup( \
provider="GCP",
machine_type="c2d-highcpu-2",
spot=True)
# Initialize the Simulator
fds = inductiva.simulators.FDS( \
version="6.9.1")
# Run simulation
task = fds.run( \
input_dir="/Path/to/Fires",
sim_config_filename="box_burn_away6.fds",
on=cloud_machine)
# Wait for the simulation to finish and download the results
task.wait()
cloud_machine.terminate()
task.download_outputs()
task.print_summary()
Note: Setting
spot=Trueenables the use of spot machines, which are available at substantial discounts. However, your simulation may be interrupted if the cloud provider reclaims the machine.
To adapt this script for other FDS simulations, replace input_dir with the path to your FDS input files and set the sim_config_filename accordingly. Be sure to specify the FDS version compatible with your input files.
When the simulation is complete, we terminate the machine, download the results and print a summary of the simulation as shown below.
Task status: Success
Timeline:
Waiting for Input at 21/07, 12:31:57 0.986 s
In Queue at 21/07, 12:31:58 37.173 s
Preparing to Compute at 21/07, 12:32:35 5.523 s
In Progress at 21/07, 12:32:41 47.271 s
└> 47.116 s /opt/fds/Build/ompi_gnu_linux/fds_ompi_gnu_linux box_burn_away6.fds
Finalizing at 21/07, 12:33:28 0.518 s
Success at 21/07, 12:33:28
Data:
Size of zipped output: 5.35 MB
Size of unzipped output: 39.30 MB
Number of output files: 25
Total estimated cost (US$): 0.01021 US$
Estimated computation cost (US$): 0.00021 US$
Task orchestration fee (US$): 0.010 US$
Note: A per-run orchestration fee (0.010 US$) applies to tasks run from 01 Dec 2025, in addition to the computation costs.
Learn more about costs at: https://inductiva.ai/guides/how-it-works/basics/how-much-does-it-cost
As you can see in the "In Progress" line, the part of the timeline that represents the actual execution of the simulation, the core computation time of this simulation was approximately 47.2 seconds.
You can view more details about your simulation task in the Inductiva Console Inductiva Console, including the task timeline, logs, output storage, and other features to support your workflow.
