CAD Connections

CAD Connections are the connection between CAD tools and Autodesk® CFD. During the Autodesk® CFD installation, the Connection is automatically configured for the most recent installed version of the selected CAD tools.

To add or remove a CAD launcher, run CFDConfig.exe from the Autodesk® CFD installation folder. Note that if you are using Windows 8 or 8.1, you will need to run CFDConfig.exe as admin.

For more about CAD connections

Manual Installation

These steps describe how to install the Connection for each supported CAD tool. Use these if the Connection does not appear in the CAD interface or to configure the Connection for a different installed version of the CAD tool:

Autodesk® Inventor

Supported versions: Inventor Professional 2016, 2017, and 2018

Note: Drawing mode is not supported.

Autodesk® SimStudio Tools (Sim Modeler)

Supported version: 2016R1, 2016R2, and 2016R3

Autodesk® Revit Architecture / Revit MEP / Revit Onebox

Supported Versions: Revit 2016, 2017, and 2018: onebox, Architectural, and MEP

The Revit launcher is installed automatically if the installer detects any of the supported versions of Revit.

To manually configure the Revit CAD Connection

The file CFD2018.Addin configures the addin for Revit.

To manually configure the launcher, open CFD2018.Addin in a text editor. Change the value in the <Assembly> line to contain the correct path to the Revit launcher dll in the Autodesk CFD installation folder.

For example, if Autodesk CFD is installed in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2018, replace the current value in the <Assembly> line with C:\ Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2018\Launchers\Revit\CFD2018Revit.dll

Note: Be careful not to delete the </Assembly> end tag.

To finish configuring the launcher, copy CFD2018Addin to the appropriate folder, based on the installed version of Revit

  • For Revit 2016: Copy CFD2016.Addin to C:\Users\All Users\Autodesk\REVIT\Addins\2016.
  • For Revit 2017: Copy CFD2017.Addin to C:\Users\All Users\Autodesk\REVIT\Addins\2017.
  • For Revit 2018: Copy CFD2018.Addin to C:\Users\All Users\Autodesk\REVIT\Addins\2018.

SpaceClaim

Supported version: SpaceClaim 2015 and 2016

PTC Pro/Engineer Granite

Supported versions: Creo 1.0, Creo 2.0, Creo 3.0, and Creo 4.0.

To manually configure the PTC Creo CAD Connection...

If the CFD launcher does not appear in the Creo user interface, you should add it manually:

Either append to or create a protk.dat file in the C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo X.X\Common Files\MXXX\text folder. (Note that MXXX is the date code, and you should use the appropriate folder for your system.) The file should contain the following lines, but you should modify the paths as necessary:

name CFD Desktop 2018

startup DLL

exec_file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2018\Launchers\ProEngineer-Wildfire\Creo2\CFD_2018_Creo20.dll

text_dir C:\Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2018\Text

revision 20

end

Note: When using Win 8 or 8.1 and plan to launch with the Mechnica option, you will need to install Pro/Engineer as an administrator.

UGNX

Supported versions: 8.5, 9.0, 10.0, and 11.0

The launcher is configured by editing the custom_dirs.dat file in the UGS\NX #.#\UGII\MENUS folder. Edit this file by appending the location of your Autodesk® CFD NX launcher file. For example, if your Autodesk® CFD installation folder is C:\Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2018, and you are using UGNX 9, then add this line to the end of the file:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2018\Launchers\UGNX\NX9

Note: Be sure to remove any references to older versions of Autodesk® CFD if the UGNX launcher was enabled with a previous version.

SolidWorks

Supported Versions: 2015, 2016, and 2017.

For more about launching from CAD