Has anyone out there used star-works yet? I have used star tons but was wondering what star-works is like as a usable system, presumabley it does not encorporate some of the more advanced features. Hows the pre/post processor and the solver?

I am one of the instructors for STAR-Works in the USA and developed the training material for it currently being used in Europe and the States. In other words this is a biased response!

Briefly, if you are familiar with SolidWorks or any other general solid modeling package then you will be able to learn and run all of STAR-Works in a few hours (a day at most). Its aimed at non-experienced CFD users such as designers and CAD people and provides them with quick, easy and accurate solutions for common flow problems, such as duct flows, low speed external aerodynamics and such like. It therefore only contains "basic" models by default to limit user confusion and speed up the setting up process.

Since STAR-Works uses the STAR solver directly, then advanced features such as transients, compressible flow, alternative boundary conditions and so on can be added in if you know the PROSTAR commands for them. Alternatively, the STAR-Works model that is built is directly compatible with PROSTAR and can therefore be used to add in extra features via the STARGUIde.

The pre-processor is simply an extra menu added into the SolidWorks interface from which all operations can be performed. The post processor is already pretty extensive and includes most things other than graphing and numerical data output (although these things can be done in PROSTAR if desired).

All in all, the package is already powerful but very easy to use, as can be acknowledged by several new users here in the States. Expect new features to be added in the near future.

how transferable are .mdl and .pst files between star and star-works

The model and post files are directly transferrable from STAR-Works to PROSTAR but not vice versa. As mentioned in the first response, STAR-Works uses the normal STAR solver and therefore produces the same output files as a normal STAR-CD run. Although STAR-Works saves the setup information in a series of different files, it creates the model file just before the analysis is run (for the specific task of transferring information into PROSTAR should you need it).

If you are a current SolidWorks user then the you can get the STAR-Works plug in as part of the latest STAR-CD release on Windows (v3150A.520). All you need is a test licenses from your local CD-adapco Group office.

Hope this information helps you.