Updated Project Arro for Simulation Mechanical/CFD/Moldflow available via Autodesk Labs

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.

The project gets its name because it is an acronym:

• 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.)

• R = Repair problems

  Option to "auto-heal" identified issues based on a given tolerance or criteria Split faces or stitch surfaces

• R = Remove unnecessary features

  Rapid selection and defeaturing without affecting source CAD Associative simplifications (future)

• 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, Andrew Sears, also shared what was in the new build:

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What's New in Arro October release (2.1.113)

The Solids and Surfaces workspaces have been consolidated into a single CAD Modeling workspace. This will improve the discoverability of both solid and surface commands:

• The Remove panel is renamed to Simplify.

• Suppress and Unsuppress commands are added to the Simplify panel.

• Remove Features has an improved icon.

• The Insert components command is easier to find in the Insert panel.

• "H" key can now be used as a hotkey to hide components in the Repair workspace.

Primitive shapes can be created on a curved face. We are no longer restricted planar faces and workplanes. This is useful for geometry cleanup, for placing a sphere on a portion of a face with geometry issues. The sphere can then be removed, leaving behind clean geometry.

Interference detection can now specify which component will be cut from, and which will be preserved.

Selection Priority can be toggled off by clicking on the checked icon. We've listened to your feedback and made it easier to revert to the selection filters active prior to using the Selection Priority.

Select Adjacent Faces is a new selection type. Select a 'seed' face, edge or vertex and the surrounding faces will be selected automatically. Hold down CTRL to select / deselect additional faces from the selection set.

A Global Coordinate System Axes is added. Use the View menu to Show or hide it:

Stitch command has Find in Window in the unstitched table. This makes it easy to find what edges will not get stitched. The edges highlighted and brought to the front.

The Select by Boundary Centroid can be specified by clicking on a body in the canvas. This makes it much easier than keying in (x,y,z) coordinates manually.

Known Issues:

• Extract the installation files near the root folder of the drive (e.g. c:\Autodesk\Arro). This will ensure there won't be any long file path problems.

• Model Summary menu may not appear if a previous version of Arro has been installed. Delete the file C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Neutron Platform\Options\\NULastDisplayedLayout.xml

• The coordinate system axes are not visible by default. Use the three bar menu -> View to show it

• The browser may not refresh automatically after certain operations (e.g. undo suppress or stitching surfaces that contain geometry issues). It may be necessary to mouse over the browser with the cursor to refresh it.

• Use the save icon to save documents. Using CTRL+S or closing the unsaved document will bring unnecessary dialogs

• Although the ‘Simulate in Moldflow' and ‘Simulate in Mechanical' commands may appear, pushing a model to Moldflow is not yet supported.

• In the stitch dialog, sometimes we are showing unstitched edges that are below the edge tolerance distance. This is not correct and all edges under the tolerance value should not show up in this dialog.

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Thanks Andrew.

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.

Amelioration is alive in the lab.