In addition to the well-known data exchange and geometry repair tools, CADfix CAE (also named FAM - Field Analysis Modeller) provides capabilities for meshing, material and physical property definition, constraint and loading definition, and interfaces to analysis packages. Mesh control parameters, properties and boundary conditions are assigned to the CAD geometry, while full associativity and parentage is maintained with the resulting CAE mesh. This is packaged within the highly customisable CADfix CAE graphical user interface and analysis framework with an extensive API.
CAD Data Reuse for CAE with CADfix
In today's fast-paced product design industry, simulation tools play an increasingly critical role in driving timely results to shape the design process. One key component of this is the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and Electromagnetic (EM) analysis. With shortening product design cycles, there is a growing emphasis on these tools to deliver timely results and facilitate design decisions. However, a great deal of time is still spent on preparing CAD geometry for analysis. CADfix, a tool for pre-processing CAD data, offers a solution to this problem by automatically and interactively repairing and transforming CAD geometry before analysis.
CADfix offers a full range of import and export functionality for pre-processing CAD data from native and neutral formats. This makes it a valuable tool for CAE analysts who need to work with CAD data from various sources. The software provides a robust translation of solid or surface models into target systems. In addition, CADfix can read and write multiple geometric formats, repair and heal poor quality geometry, and simplify complex geometric definitions. This makes it uniquely positioned in the CAD to CAE data flow, providing a comprehensive solution for pre-processing CAD data.
The importance of the master model in CAE analysis cannot be overstated. The CAD model provides the geometry for analysis, and as such, the analysis time spent working with the geometry can be significant. CADfix addresses this challenge by providing CAE analysts with much more robust geometric definitions for their analytical needs. By ensuring that solid or surface models are translated effectively into target systems, CADfix can help to reduce the time and effort needed for pre-processing CAD data, leaving more time for analysis.
CADfix offers a range of interactive tools that enable CAE analysts to quickly and easily prepare CAD geometry for analysis. These tools include geometry healing, simplification, and feature suppression. The software also provides interactive and automated techniques for identifying and repairing common issues in CAD geometry, such as gaps, overlaps, and self-intersections.
One of the key benefits of CADfix is that it enables CAE analysts to work with CAD geometry more efficiently. The software streamlines the process of pre-processing CAD data, reducing the time and effort required to prepare geometry for analysis. This can help to shorten the product design cycle and accelerate the time to market.
In conclusion, CADfix is a powerful tool for CAE analysts who need to work with CAD data from various sources. By providing a full range of import and export functionality, as well as interactive and automated tools for repairing and transforming CAD geometry, CADfix can help to streamline the process of pre-processing CAD data. This enables CAE analysts to work more efficiently, reducing the time and effort required to prepare geometry for analysis. Ultimately, this can help to accelerate the product design cycle and deliver timely results to drive the design process.
CAE analysts must ensure that geometric data is ideally suited for specialist applications. CAE users constantly face CAD model issues that cause meshing failures and have a significant negative impact on analysis lead times including:
- Overly complex, badly defined and corrupt geometry
- CAD model features such as fillets, small holes, short edges, small faces and other modeling artifacts that are valid in CAD but negatively impact and constrain meshability
The Medial Object is constructed by rolling a disc around inside a face, or a sphere inside a volume. The locus of the center of the maximal diameter disc/sphere forms the Medial Object. The Medial Object also carries radius information, and is thus a complete representation of the original object.
Throughout the life-cycle of a product, designs can be worked on repeatedly by different engineers, sometimes by multiple departments and even by external companies. It is important to be able to quickly identify changes and inconsistencies between different CAD models and derived simulation mesh data throughout these engineering processes. CADfix provides three tools for the CAD, CAE, simulation, and advanced manufacturing sectors that will allow users to quickly and easily identify differences between CAD models and mesh data.
Following a CAE simulation, it is often necessary to rework the CAD to adjust the CAD model based on the results of the analysis. This manual work can be time-consuming and often requires CAD models to approximate the results of the simulation or to be built from scratch by hand, with limited reuse of the original model geometry.
Geometric Reasoning is accomplished based on the medial object of a solid which is a skeletal representation providing a comprehensive source of information for a variety of applications. Many engineering scenarios require more extensive geometric information than can currently be provided by typical CAD or Product Data Interoperability software products and this is the goal of Geometric Reasoning technology.
Preparing CAD models for successful mesh generation continues to be a crucial part of the design to analysis process. A common problem in CAD models is features that are very small compared to the desired mesh size. Small features exist for a variety of reasons and can require an excessive amount of elements or inhibit mesh generation all together.
