diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index d1c3b4564..21a8ba62c 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -122,9 +122,6 @@ if ((Omega_h_MEM_SPACE_DEVICE AND Omega_h_MEM_SPACE_HOSTPINNED) OR
 endif()
 
 bob_option(Omega_h_USE_MPI "Use MPI for parallelism" OFF)
-if(Omega_h_USE_SimModSuite AND NOT Omega_h_USE_MPI)
-  message(FATAL_ERROR "Omega_h_USE_MPI must be enabled if Omega_h_USE_SimModSuite is enabled")
-endif()
 bob_option(Omega_h_USE_OpenMP "Whether to use OpenMP" "${Kokkos_HAS_OpenMP}")
 bob_option(Omega_h_USE_CUDA "Whether to use CUDA" "${Kokkos_HAS_CUDA}")
 
diff --git a/cmake/FindSimModSuite.cmake b/cmake/FindSimModSuite.cmake
index 87bc8bccf..81ee656d2 100644
--- a/cmake/FindSimModSuite.cmake
+++ b/cmake/FindSimModSuite.cmake
@@ -19,11 +19,24 @@
 #         include/*.h
 #         lib/ARCHOS/*.a
 
-set(SIM_MPI "" CACHE STRING "MPI implementation used for SimPartitionWrapper")
-if(SIM_MPI MATCHES "^$")
-  message(FATAL_ERROR "SIM_MPI is not defined... libSimPartitionWrapper-$SIM_MPI.a should exist in the SimModSuite lib directory")
+if (Omega_h_USE_MPI)
+  set(SIM_MPI "" CACHE STRING "MPI implementation used for SimPartitionWrapper")
+  if(SIM_MPI MATCHES "^$")
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "SIM_MPI is not defined... libSimPartitionWrapper-$SIM_MPI.a should exist in the SimModSuite lib directory")
+  endif()
 endif()
 
+macro(simLibCheckBootstrap libs)
+  simLibCheck(${libs} TRUE)
+  string(FIND "${SIMMODSUITE_LIBS}" "/lib/" archStart)
+  string(FIND "${SIMMODSUITE_LIBS}" "/libSim" archEnd)
+  math(EXPR archStart "${archStart}+5")
+  math(EXPR len "${archEnd}-${archStart}")
+  string(SUBSTRING "${SIMMODSUITE_LIBS}" "${archStart}" "${len}" SIM_ARCHOS)
+  message(STATUS "SIM_ARCHOS ${SIM_ARCHOS}")
+  set(SIMMODSUITE_LIBS "")
+endmacro(simLibCheckBootstrap)
+
 macro(simLibCheck libs isRequired)
   foreach(lib ${libs})
     unset(simlib CACHE)
@@ -98,17 +111,14 @@ message(STATUS "Building with SimModSuite ${SIM_DOT_VERSION}")
 
 set(SIMMODSUITE_LIBS "")
 
-set(SIM_BOOTSTRAP_LIB_NAME
-  SimPartitionedMesh-mpi)
+if (Omega_h_USE_MPI)
+  set(SIM_BOOTSTRAP_LIB_NAME SimPartitionedMesh-mpi)
+else()
+  set(SIM_BOOTSTRAP_LIB_NAME SimPartitionedMesh)
+endif()
 
-simLibCheck("${SIM_BOOTSTRAP_LIB_NAME}" TRUE)
+simLibCheckBootstrap("${SIM_BOOTSTRAP_LIB_NAME}")
 
-string(FIND "${SIMMODSUITE_LIBS}" "/lib/" archStart)
-string(FIND "${SIMMODSUITE_LIBS}" "/libSim" archEnd)
-math(EXPR archStart "${archStart}+5")
-math(EXPR len "${archEnd}-${archStart}")
-string(SUBSTRING "${SIMMODSUITE_LIBS}" "${archStart}" "${len}" SIM_ARCHOS)
-message(STATUS "SIM_ARCHOS ${SIM_ARCHOS}")
 
 option(SIM_PARASOLID "Use Parasolid through Simmetrix" OFF)
 if (SIM_PARASOLID)
@@ -157,12 +167,21 @@ set(SIM_OPT_LIB_NAMES
 
 simLibCheck("${SIM_OPT_LIB_NAMES}" FALSE)
 
-set(SIM_CORE_LIB_NAMES
-  SimPartitionedMesh-mpi
-  SimMeshing
-  SimMeshTools
-  SimModel
-  SimPartitionWrapper-${SIM_MPI})
+if (Omega_h_USE_MPI)
+  message(STATUS "cake mpi is enabled!")
+  set(SIM_CORE_LIB_NAMES
+    SimPartitionedMesh-mpi
+    SimMeshing
+    SimMeshTools
+    SimModel
+    SimPartitionWrapper-${SIM_MPI})
+else()
+  message(STATUS "cake mpi is disabled!")
+  set(SIM_CORE_LIB_NAMES
+    SimMeshing
+    SimMeshTools
+    SimModel)
+endif()
 
 simLibCheck("${SIM_CORE_LIB_NAMES}" TRUE)
 
diff --git a/src/Omega_h_meshsim.cpp b/src/Omega_h_meshsim.cpp
index a764d74c8..e2e445b52 100644
--- a/src/Omega_h_meshsim.cpp
+++ b/src/Omega_h_meshsim.cpp
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 #include "Omega_h_mesh.hpp"
 #include "Omega_h_adj.hpp"
 
-#include "SimPartitionedMesh.h"
 #include "SimModel.h"
 #include "SimUtil.h"
 #include "SimDiscrete.h"
@@ -639,7 +638,6 @@ void read_internal(pMesh m, Mesh* mesh, pMeshNex numbering) {
 
 Mesh readImpl(filesystem::path const& mesh_fname, filesystem::path const& mdl_fname,
     filesystem::path const& numbering_fname, CommPtr comm) {
-  SimPartitionedMesh_start(NULL,NULL);
   SimModel_start();
   Sim_readLicenseFile(NULL);
   SimDiscrete_start(0);