Start & Learn > Launch

Use Start & Learn > Launch to create a new design study (an alternative to launching from CAD) and to open existing design studies. Additionally, use Design Study Automation tools before creating or opening a design study to configure automation settings such as Templates and Rules.

New

Use New to create a new design study from a geometry file (instead of launching from CAD).

On the New Design Study dialog, click Browse and select a geometry file. There are several supported formats, so select the desired one from the file type menu.
Specify a name for the Design Study.
Click Create new design study.

New on the Quick Access toolbar and New on the Start & Learn tab perform the same function.

Note: Names of Design Studies, Designs, and Scenarios must not contain punctuation such as "<", ">", "?", ":", "/", "]", "[", "\", ".", ",", or " ' "

Open

Click Open to either open an existing design study or a share file.

The Design Study is the highest level in the Autodesk® CFD file structure, and the only level that can be directly opened. Designs and Scenarios are accessed within the Design Study.

Note: The file extension of the Design Study file is cfdst. The file extension of a share file is cfz.

For more about the Design Study structure...

Options

Click Options to customize the user interface and modify preferences with the User Interface Preferences dialog.

Drop-Down Menu

Click the slide-out arrow on the panel title bar to access the following controls:

Templates

A Template is a file that contains the model settings for one or more scenarios that define a design. Templates provide consistency for design studies that contain similar settings.

For regular users, Templates eliminate the need to repeatedly define the same settings.
For sporadic users, Templates are a convenient starting point, and ensure consistency with other design studies.
Being able to save and apply frequently used settings, independent of any geometry references, benefits all users.

After opening a Template into a design study, drag each setting from the Design Study bar to the appropriate model entity.

For example, a multi-port manifold must be redesigned to minimize pressure drop. Each design is geometrically different, but the flow rates, outlet pressures, and materials are the same. A Template is created that contains these settings. It is applied to each new design, and the user simply associates the settings with the surfaces and parts. The Template ensures consistent settings for all designs, and reduces the amount of time and effort.

For more about Templates...

Rules

Rules are associations between a CAD entity and an Autodesk® CFD setting. You can use them to automatically assign settings to frequently recurring CAD components. Rules are usually applied automatically when the design study is launched.

For example, a line of control modules share many common parts. A naming convention is used in the CAD part library so that each component is named the same in all models. The heat dissipation of each component is known, and must be applied consistently for all design studies. Create a rule that assigns the part name to its corresponding heat dissipation value. When a model is launched into Autodesk® CFD, the heat dissipation value is automatically assigned to the part. Because each module contains hundreds of these parts, Rules significantly reduce the number of manual steps needed to define the simulation.

For more about Rules...

Flags

Flags are configuration options that are a useful way to modify many different aspects of Autodesk® CFD.

Select, invoke, and manage these flags using the Flag Manager.

The Flag Manager organizes and provides visibility to the collection of flags.
The Flag Manager provides clarity as to which flags are used in a scenario.
The Flag Manager ensures consistency for sharing design studies that use flags.

For more about the Flag Manager...

Script Editor

The Application Programming Interface (API) allows users and application developers to access functionality without directly using the user interface commands. A script editor based on the Python programming language is provided that allows scripts to be created, edited, searched, and run.

For more about the Application Programming Interface (API)