Troubleshooting libgfortran.5.dylib Missing Error and Compatibility Issues on M3 MacBook

[Xincong Yu]

Hello SimVascular Community,

I'm currently working on modeling the aorta for a project using SimVascular, but I'm encountering persistent issues when trying to create the data file for simulation. Here's an overview of my system setup and the troubleshooting steps I've attempted so far.

System Setup:

Device 1: MacBook with M3 chip, running macOS Sonoma
SimVascular Version: SimVascular_macOS_Catalina_2023_05.dmg JAN 16, 2024
svSolver Version: svSolver_macOS_BigSur_2022_07.pkg JUL 22, 2022

Device 2: Windows PC laptop Dell Alienware R15 x64, running Windows 11
SimVascular Version: SimVascular_Windows_2023_05.exe MAY 24, 2023
svSolver Version: svsolver_Windows_2022_07.msi AUG 19, 2022

Issue: On both systems, I receive errors when generating the data file for simulation. On my MacBook, the error indicates that libgfortran.5.dylib is missing, while on the Windows PC, the error occurs without specifying a missing library.

Troubleshooting Steps Taken:

Installed GCC via Homebrew: I installed both GCC versions 11 and 14 using Homebrew on my MacBook. I created symbolic links to make libgfortran.5.dylib accessible in the directory where svSolver expects it (/usr/local/opt/gcc/lib/gcc/11/). Unfortunately, this did not resolve the issue.

Manual Copying: I tried manually copying libgfortran.5.dylib from the GCC@14 folder to the GCC@11 path to ensure svSolver could locate it, but I still encountered the same error.

Re-modeled the Aorta: To rule out any issues with my model, I re-modeled the aorta from scratch, but the error persisted when trying to generate the data file for simulation.

Compatibility on Apple Silicon: Since my MacBook has an M3 chip, I considered the possibility of compatibility issues with SimVascular on Apple Silicon. To further troubleshoot, I also attempted to run SimVascular on my Windows PC, but I encountered similar issues there, with errors that did not specify the cause.

Question: I am wondering if there are compatibility issues with SimVascular on Apple Silicon, particularly with the M3 chip, or if there might be additional steps I need to take to ensure libgfortran.5.dylib is accessible to svSolver. Has anyone experienced similar issues, or could provide guidance on resolving this?

Thank you very much for any insights or suggestions!

Best,
Yuri

[David Parker]

Hi Yuri,

The latest svSolver will not be able to find the Fortran libraries on the latest MacOS releases.

I suggest using the svFSIplus solver since the svSolver is no longer supported and will soon be archived. However, the current release of SV does not support writing out svFSIplus XML files so you would have to create those manually or use the script here https://github.com/ktbolt/cardiovascula ... -to-xml.py.

The other option is to build svSolver from source. You will need to install Xcode and VTK to do this (see https://github.com/SimVascular/svSolver). I have build svSolver no problem on a MacOS M2 Ventura.

Cheers,
Dave