Project Arro for Simulation Mechanical/CFD/Moldflow is an Invitation Only Technology Preview. This not our normal public technology preview because the simulation team is interested in working exclusively with existing Autodesk Simulation users. Project Arro is designed to enable Autodesk Simulation Mechanical, Autodesk Simulation CFD, and Autodesk Simulation Moldflow users to rapidly simplify and prepare CAD for simulation. Project Arro reads in native CAD geometry and neutral files, allows you to modify them with many built in direct modeling tools, and then writes out simulation-ready CAD files that can be more easily and efficiently meshed.
Since it's American football season, Give me an A. Give me an R. Give me another R. Give me an O. What's that spell? ARRO:
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A = Analyze geometry
Check model integrity (slivers, problematic edges, overlapping faces, interferences, etc) Detect and categorize features (holes, fillets, chamfers, embossed or raised features, etc)
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R = Repair problems
Option to "auto-heal" identified issues based on a given tolerance or criteria Split faces or stitch surfaces
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R = Remove unnecessary features
Rapid selection and defeaturing without affecting source CAD Associative simplifications (future)
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O = Optimize designs
Directly edit geometry with simple push/pull/modify commands to explore ‘what if’ scenarios Create alternatives that can be quickly and easily simulated using associative updates
The other day the team supplied me with a new build to post to the Autodesk Labs project. Senior Software Quality Assurance Engineer, Hugh Henderson, also shared what was in the new build:
Midsurface and Offset shell creation in the Surfaces workspace for FEA applications where 2D shells are desirable
Body and component suppression in the Solids and Surface workspaces. The Suppress command allows you to work with different design configurations without deleting geometry from the model. Also available via context menu.
Cut lines in Section Analysis make gaps and/or overlap between parts on the interior of the model much more easily visible.
Simulate in Mechanical, CFD, and Moldflow product launchers automatically push the geometry into your simulation application without manually exporting and importing a file. This is a work in progress and that only some versions of Simulation CFD, and Simulation Moldflow Insight are available right now.
Model Summary display reports properties such as number of bodies, number of faces, shortest edge, and smallest face as indicators of meshing suitability. Additionally, model mass and center of gravity are reported to help keep track of mass properties for certain simulation types such as impact, transient motion, and other event simulation. Invisible bodies are included, suppressed bodies are excluded from the statistics. Right click on the Model Summary display to hide it or copy info to clipboard.
Max Gap distance is listed for each edge pair in the Stitch dialog when it exceeds the specified tolerance. The table cross-highlights to the geometry. The stitch preview computation is multi-threaded when slider is moved.
Primitive boundaries can be used to quickly select interior or exterior bodies for isolation, suppression, etc.
Remove Features and Remove Faces dialog layout improvements. The Remove features button is larger, moved to the bottom of the dialog, and renamed Delete. OK and Cancel buttons are replaced by Close. The “Delete” key is the hotkey for the Delete button.
Selection presets have been added to facilitate face, body, or component selection. Quick access icons for face, body, or component selection priority are available on the Select panel.
Invert selection for Bodies, faces, components, etc. Useful for suppressing all other components. Or to hide other components (“H” key is the hotkey for Hide / Show)
Repair workspace browser has been enhanced to contain as many of the same commands from the solids and surfaces workspace as possible (including show all bodies / components)
The ‘Selection Tools’ panel has been consolidated with the Select panel drop-down
Thanks Hugh.
If you are an Autodesk Simulation user and wish to join this project, please email the team at [email protected]. Please make sure you mention which Autodesk simulation product you are using.
Mechanical cheering is alive in the lab.