How to make Altera-Modelsim free download version to work?

Why are you using a 7 year old version?
Modelsim-Altera should run without a licence for suitably small designs. However the older versions may have needed a licence server, which you probably don't have.
Theo

You need older versions of the software to generate designs for older chips, as the software drops support for older "obsolete" chips (even if you can still buy them).
Even though it is listed as "free to use", you still need a license file, which you can apply for and get for free on the Altera web site.
How to set the environment variables to point to the file you get will depend on your operating system, but it generally will be in the control panel.

Hi Richard,
Thank you for your response.
My project does not need any chip, but a concept project, to make sure it works without linking to any FPGA chip.
I will try to get a licence file based on your advice, and am trying to buy a commercial one.
Weng

Hi,
May there be 3rd party FREE simulation tools in VHDL and Window 7/10 that are purely designed to do simulation only except Modelsim?
Thank you.
Weng

If you don't specifically need this old version of the software for handling old chips, then why not use newer and better versions, and save yourself the fuss with the licence files?

Quartus yes, but not for Modelsim. (there may be some models of chip-specific logic cells if you want to simulate synthesised logic, but most users are simulating direct from HDL source code)
That used to be true (hence why I queried using an older version), but is no longer. For recent Quartus and Modelsim, you don't need a licence for Quartus Lite and Modelsim-Intel FPGA Edition.
Quartus prompts whether you want to ask for a 30 day trial licence, but it still works for a limited set of FPGAs and IP cores without. (eg Cyclone is included in Quartus Lite but Stratix needs Quartus Std with a paid licence)
Theo

There's a legitimate reason to use an old version when synthesising, because porting from one version of the tools to another is nontrivial (particularly with respect to supplied IP cores, which can change functionality in incompatible ways). So if somebody gives me a project built with a particular version, the first thing I do is try and build with that version, then port forward and see if it still works. Timing can often be markedly different between versions (not always for the better).
However, I can't think of an instance when simulating where you might need to use an older version of the simulator.
(give or take issues like 32 v 64 bit versions of tools and whatever your host OS supports)
Theo

f ulate no t h a Hi Theo,
Where can I download Quartus Lite and Modelsim-Intel FPGA Edition?
I downloaded from Intel website and got Altera_installer_12.1. I clicked t he application Modelsim.10.1b and it immediately popped a window saying fat al licence error.
After entering Intel website I really missed and don't know which is which.
If you are kind enough, please give me the exact address. I downloaded just yesterday. So actually I downloaded a different version from yours.
I ask for an old version, not because I use any old chip, but it is free. I f it is true that "For recent Quartus and Modelsim, you don't need a licenc e for Quartus Lite and Modelsim-Intel FPGA Edition", absolutely I would lik e to download a 2008 VHDL version simulator.
Writing code in VHDL 2008 is much easier than in VHDL 2002.
Thank you.
Weng

You will find the same thing with Lattice. You need to obtain a free license to run their free tools. Not a big deal, but it runs out after a year and you need to get another free license.
Rick C.
Tesla referral code --

Yes, I realise that - and I recommend not changing the tools for an existing project without extremely good reason. (I work mainly with embedded software, rather than programmable logic, but the same applies there.)
However, my understanding is that the OP is doing tests and experiments with new code and a new design, so this does not apply.

..snip If you are a student then I would recommend the student edition which has far less limitations (instance limits) although for some unknown reason it is still single language only:

Mentor used to have lots of FPGA vendor OEM agreements (by my count at least 6), nowadays there are only 3(?) left:
Intel:
Microchip:
Microchip(MicroSemi):
So true, however, make sure your synthesis tool can handle 2008 as changing your code back from 2008 to 2002 is a real pain.
Good luck, Hans.

You'll need to login.
The dropdowns allow you to select 'Lite' and whatever version you need. 18.1 is the most recent.
I wouldn't use this for your first time, but because I end up deploying Quartus to servers a lot, I wrote a Python script to download and install the Linux version:
This doesn't have a complete database of URLs, only the ones I've needed for particular jobs, and it has a few rough edges. Happy to take pull requests. (the URLs can be generated programmatically, but Altera kept changing the format between versions so I gave up and just pasted them all in)
Theo

GHDL is a free VHDL simulator.
Kevin

Hi Kevin,
Thank you for sharing the most important information. The problem is that I have no experience with Linux system.
Do you have any experiences with GHDL?
Weng

I prefer Modelsim but I did try GHDL. It works under Windows as well, which is what I used.
Kevin

Hi Kevin,
I registered an account in GitHub, and I found I missed and could not find GHDL in any version.
Could you please give me the website to download GitHub window version?
Thank you.
Weng

Kevin

Hi Kevin,
Thank you very much !!!
I am not an experienced application user. Here I copied all related download file names from the website you suggested above:
ghdl-0.35-llvm-3.8-ubuntu14.tgz 14.1 MB ghdl-0.35-llvm-macosx.tgz 12.2 MB ghdl-0.35-mcode-fedora26.tgz 2.83 MB ghdl-0.35-mcode-macosx.tgz 2.26 MB ghdl-0.35-mcode-stretch.tgz 2.93 MB ghdl-0.35-mcode-ubuntu14.tgz 3.15 MB ghdl-0.35-mcode-windows.installer.ps1 6.19 MB ghdl-0.35-mcode-windows.zip 2.31 MB ghdl-0.35-mingw32-mcode.zip 3.05 MB ghdl-0.35-mingw64-llvm.zip 12.7 MB ghdl-gpl-0.35-mcode.tgz 2.61 MB Source code (zip) Source code (tar.gz) Download statistics:
Do I have to download all listed files into one holder of Window 10, run ghdl-0.35-mcode-windows.installer.ps1 and that's all?
Thank you.
Weng

Why not use the Windows executables?

--
Mike Perkins 
Video Solutions Ltd