[MechE]

I am looking for a mesh generation software and cad software separate or combined. I was looking on the site and saw about 50 different meshing software and would like to know which is preferred? and if there is a preferred CAD software!

Thanks

MT

[julien.decharentenay]

Hi MT,

It is a very good question. The first step is probably to assess which CAD and meshing software can be used with your CFD package. Secondly the software price is a big factor (a free software is probably going to be more limited that a paid one).

Re meshing, I found that Harpoon was a reasonnably good stand-alone meshing package (but expensive). It had a good connectivity with CAD package and CFD softwares.

Good luck. Julien

[jchawner]

MT:

The first thing you need to consider is exactly how much geometry/CAD functionality you need. Will you need to create complex geometry including Class A splines, fillets, patterns, solid modeling, feature tree, etc? Or are you looking for something more basic? This will help you decide whether you can use something free (e.g. Blender) or something moderately priced (Rhino) or something more expensive (CATIA V5) or if you can use what's built-in to your mesher.

Regarding the mesher, you need to determine whether it's compatible with the flow solver you plan to use. Will it export native files or at least allow you to customize the export? Does it support the cell types you need or want to generate? Will it read the CAD data you're creating (see previous paragraph)?

Finally, you need to know what you want out of your CFD. What types of quantities do you need to compute and how accurately do you want to compute them?

I realize these are more questions and answers to your question. But when people recommend what they prefer, it's usually because it meets their particular requirements. And those requirements may not match yours.

Best Regards