Hi all,

we gotta drop using Build and switch 2 that ICEM CFD 4.CFX thing. In Build it is possible 2 export the geometries in neutral, IGES, Parasolid xmt and STEP formats. But all have disadvanteges - that'll be a work to do to export & generate again our Build-built geometries.

Does anyone have some good additional advices, how to export/save our Build-generated geometries to make it easier/efficient? cos we will have to use that ICEM thing soon and won't be able 2 use Build

Thanks for your help

bogesz

Hi bogesz

As I am sure you know, neutral format only contains very basic geometry data, IGES often leaves surfaces out and is only approximate anyway. I have no experience with STEP. Parasolid is the preferred format for getting stuff into ICEM CFD 4.CFX.

Don't forget that CAD2MESH V2 will be coming out soon, and that is based on ANSYS DesignModeller, so it will have a completely new front end again. I'm not sure when exactly it is coming out, but I think it will only be a matter of a few months.

I haven't tried it, but I think the best way to migrate would be to get the optional parasolid license for CFX-Build and export your geometry that way. Let me know how it goes.

Regards, Glenn

STEP format will be sufficient, because for mesh generation in ICEM you only need your surfaces(and additional curves and points where your mesh must have hard edges and points), because ICEM absolutely does not need your solids(in ICEM`s solid replaced by material marker...you know). But for export from Build I maybe chose neutral(because we export from Patran). My advice is to try what you have currently for export and if it not works then think about additional licenses.

I've run into the same problem. Although STEP or parasolids would be the preferred method, you need the CAD import/export licenses to generate these files. If you don't have the CAD "readers" (a misnomer since you can't write without them) already, you probably aren't going to get them, at least not from CFX. You "might" be able to get them directly from MSC, but I'm not sure the cost for an annual license of the parasolids reader is worth it, unless you've got LOTS of files to convert.

The IGES (which is free) export works ok in theory, since you only need surfaces. However, the IGES import in ICEM is deporable. Only half the surfaces come in, and sometimes the ones that do come through aren't where they're supposed to be.

A workable solution I found was to import the IGES model into Pro/E if you have it, which has the best IGES read/write utilities I've found. From there, I generate either a STEP file, or in my case, use the is direct Pro/E interface to ICEM-CFD. It creates the whole project with boundary families and all directly out of Pro/E. This project can then be read in ICEM-CFD-4.CFX. Not pretty or elegant, but it works.

Jeff

In my case I prefer to work with CATIA v4 model files (we are using CATIA v5). ICEM have good import of that type. We also have CATIA CAA interface (same as direct interface but for v5), but currently I think that export to model format best suits to me.