Project Dalton: How do I work this?

"Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
 Into the blue again after the money's gone
 Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
 You may ask yourself, how do I work this?
—"Once in a Lifetime," Remain in Light, Talking Heads, 1981

Project Dalton is our free technology preview of a 1D flow analysis tool that allows you to develop and analyze complex piping systems and distribution networks. Project Dalton helps you understand how such systems will perform when subjected to different operating parameters and routing options. Project Dalton imports system descriptions as PCF files and then you set physical and operating parameters for your system. Project Dalton then solves for a variety of results, including pressure, velocity, flow rate, mass flow rate, and Reynolds Number.

Brian Frank is one of our Product/Product Line Managers in our Design, Lifecycle, and Simulation division. In Autodesk Labs terms, Brian is the product champion behind Project Dalton. Brian approached me about conducting a technology preview on Labs. He's the one with the domain knowledge who answers all of the tough questions. He's the one who leads the team that provides the builds. I am more of the publicist and bean counter, so it should make sense to you when I say from whom I got this document:

Yep that's right — Brian and his team wrote it.

So if you want to get a copy for yourself and see how Project Dalton does that thing it does, you can log into the Autodesk Feedback Community, join the Project Dalton project on Autodesk Labs, and download the document using the link on the project home page.

Join Project Dalton on Autodesk Labs.

We are anxious to hear your thoughts at [email protected] or in the feedback forum on the project. Hopefully you won't be saying to yourself, "My god, what have I done?"

Answering "How does this work?" so I know "How do I work this?" is alive in the lab.