ContamFMU issues when using Contam3.4 + EngergyPlus 9.10

[Nicholi Shiell]

Hello,

I am attempting to help  a research at my university run their Contam + EnergyPlus simulations on a Ubuntu VM in our private cloud. The researcher is creating their simulation files in windows, and then transferring those files to the VM. However, when we attempt to run the simulation I get the following error in the eplusout.err file:

** Severe  ** ExternalInterface/InitExternalInterfaceFMUImport: Error when trying to
 **   ~~~   ** get the path to the binaries of instance
 **   ~~~   ** "ContamFMU" of FMU "ContamFMU.fmu".
 **   ~~~   ** Check if binaries folder exists where the FMU has been unpacked.
 **  Fatal  ** ExternalInterface/StopExternalInterfaceIfError: Error in ExternalInterface: Check EnergyPlus *.err file.

When I look in the directory where the ContamFMU file has been unpacked I see there is a folder binaries\win32\contam3x.exe. 

I have tried replacing the windows binary with a linux binary but that doesnt work. 

How can I convert the ContamFMU from windows to linux?

[Dols, William Stuart (Fed)]

There is a Linux version of ContamFMU on the NIST Multizone Modeling website, here: https://www.nist.gov/el/beed/nist-multizone-modeling/software/contam-3d-exporter.

 

You must also use a Linux version of ContamX 3.4 within the ContamFMU.fmu file, along with the Linux version of ContamFMU.so.

These are available here: https://www.nist.gov/el/beed/nist-multizone-modeling/software/contam/download-contam.

 

- Stuart

 

From: con...@list.nist.gov <con...@list.nist.gov> On Behalf Of Nicholi Shiell
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2026 3:31 PM
To: CONTAM <con...@list.nist.gov>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [contam] ContamFMU issues when using Contam3.4 + EngergyPlus 9.10

 

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[Nicholi Shiell]

Hello William,

Thanks you very much for your prompt reply!

We tried doing as you suggested, however we got the following error:

energyplus: Segmentation fault         (core dumped) energyplus -w Ottawa_CWEC_2020.epw -r BaseCaseV20.3.idf

we are running the following versions:

EnergyPlus, Version 9.1.0-08d2e308bb, YMD=2026.06.11 13:18

contam-x-3.4.0.3-Linux-64bit.tar.gz

ContamFMU-3.4.0-Linux.tar.gz

We were wondering if maybe we need to build the .so file from source for our specific versions?

thanks again!

Nicholi.

[Nicholi Shiell]

If I run the simulation using the '-x -D' command line args the simulation does not segfault. I am not sure if that is a useful bit of information:

energyplus -x -D -w Ottawa_CWEC_2020.epw -r BaseCaseV20.3.idf

[William Dols]

Useful information, indeed, assuming your co-simulation ran successfully. 

- Stuart