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ITI TranscenData's solutions for CAE offer analysts the ability to automatically and interactively repair and transform CAD geometries prior to analysis, ensuring that solid or surface models are robustly translated into target systems with the appropriate level of detail. Our data exchange technology offers a full range of import and export functionality for pre-processing CAD data from native and neutral formats.
Accelerating the CAD to CAE Process
CAE analysts have more extensive requirements to ensure that geometric data is ideally suited for their specialist applications. The CAE user is constantly faced with CAD model issues that cause meshing failures and have a significant negative impact on analysis lead times including:
- Overly complex, badly defined and corrupt geometry
- CAD model features such as fillets, small holes, short edges, small faces and other modeling artifacts that are valid in CAD but negatively impact and constrain meshability
ITI TranscenData’s out-of-the-box solutions can be customized for different CAD sources and CAE packages. Our software enables analysts preparing CAD data for finite element analysis to perform various functions, including:
- Collapsing of short edges and sliver faces
- Hole and protrusion removal
- Joining of edges, faces and solids
- Fillet and round removal
- Feature detection and removal
- Topology imprinting for mesh consistency
- Surface and solid splitting tools
- Surface and solids meshing
Master Model Driven FEA, CFD, EM Solutions
With ever shortening product design cycles, the emphasis on simulation tools to provide timely results to drive the design is greater than ever. This pressure dictates FEA, CFD and EM analysis being driven off the master model CAD data. CAD provides the geometry but a great deal of analysis time is still spent working with the geometry to prepare it for analysis.
Some possible reason for lack of interoperability between CAD and CAE include:
- Unstitched solids
- Invalid geometry representation or math forms
- Surface normal inconsistency
- Complex un-needed features
- Sliver faces, tiny edges, small diameter holes
These reasons and many more are possible causes for delay in establishing a suitable mesh, applying boundary conditions and getting results. CADfix is uniquely positioned in the CAD to CAE data flow with its ability to read and write multiple geometric formats, repair poor quality geometry, de-feature and simplify complex geometric definition. In the end, CAE analysts are starting with much more robust geometric definitions for their analytical needs.
CADfix
CADfix provides a solution for the problems of data exchange and re-use between different engineering systems and applications. CADfix’s suite of translation and repair tools allows the user to import CAD data and then repair and manipulate it to a form most suitable for the downstream application, with the main objective of eliminating expensive CAD model repair and rework. The result of two decades of ongoing research and development, CADfix offers true interoperability between a comprehensive selection of CAD, CAM and CAE systems through an unrivalled series of automatic and manual geometry manipulation tools.
To learn more, please visit the CADfix Product Page.
CAE Pre-Post Processing
CAE Modeling Technology Package
The CADfix CAE modeling solution (CADfix CAE) provides all the tools necessary to prepare models for finite element, boundary element, and finite difference analysis. The interactive graphics environment simplifies the creation and manipulation of geometry. Models can be imported from CAD data and CADfix CAE used to clean them and prepare them for meshing. Boundary conditions, loadings, material and physical properties can be defined and assigned to the model. Advanced capabilities include allowing the user to define multi-point constraints, and interpolating analysis results onto a new mesh as a loading.
The images to the right show a CAD model which has been imported, defeatured to varying levels, and meshed using the CADfix CAE.
Meshing
CADfix CAE meshing provides mesh generation functionality to create volume, surface and beam element meshes. These can be quad or triangular meshes for surfaces, tetrahedral or hexahedral for volumes. The finite difference mesher produces cartesian grids for wires, surfaces, and volumes. Meshing tools enable the setting up of controls for meshing, whether element size, meshing algorithm, or the lattice grading for finite difference meshes. A range of mesh quality checking facilities are provided to ensure mesh integrity.
Results Presentation
CADfix CAE also gives the user powerful visualization facilities for analysis results. These include:
- Contour plots
- Animation graphing
- Model probe line plots
- Sections
- Polar plotting - 3D and 2D graphs
The image (right) shows a CADfix CAE model of the Eurofighter 2000 aircraft. This model was created by British Aerospace based on importing data from CATIA. The geometry was meshed and analyzed for lightning strike behavior. The results shown in the image are from this analysis, taken at sections cut through the aircraft and the surrounding airspace.
Geometric Reasoning
ITI TranscenData's Geometric Reasoning technology is currently in development for selective deployment within controlled and limited customer applications. Geometric Reasoning is accomplished based on the medial object of a solid which is a skeletal representation providing a comprehensive source of information for a variety of applications. Many engineering scenarios require more extensive geometric information than can currently be provided by typical CAD or Product Data Interoperability software products and this is the goal of Geometric Reasoning technology.
The medial object is constructed by rolling a disc around inside a face, or a sphere inside a volume. The locus of the center of the maximal diameter disc/sphere forms the medial object. The medial object also carries radius information, and is thus a complete representation of the original object.
Typical applications of CADfix Geometric Reasoning using embedded Medial Object Technology include:
- Mid surface computation
- Finite element meshing subdivision
- Machine tool cutter path definition
- Feature recognition
- Automatic model defeaturing
- Shelling a volume model
- New applications still to be determined with customers
To Download the entire Geometric Reasoning Presentation, click here.
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