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.

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® Fusion

Supported versions: any release

Autodesk® Inventor

Supported versions: Inventor Professional 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Note: Drawing mode is not supported.

Autodesk® Revit Architecture / Revit MEP / Revit Onebox

Supported Versions: Revit 2023, 2024 and 2025: 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 CFDXXXX.Addin configures the addin for Revit.

To manually configure the launcher, open CFD2026.Addin in a text editor. Change the value in the 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 2026, replace the current value in the line with C:\ Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2026\Launchers\Revit\CFD2026Revit.dll

Note: Be careful not to delete the end tag.

To finish configuring the launcher, copy CFD2026.Addin to the appropriate folder, based on the installed version of Revit

For Revit 2025: Copy CFD2026.Addin to C:\Users\All Users\Autodesk\REVIT\Addins\2025.

ANSYS SpaceClaim

Supported version: SpaceClaim 2023 R2

PTC Pro/Engineer Granite

Supported versions: Creo 9.0, Creo 10.0, and Creo 11.0.

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 2026

startup DLL

exec_file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2026\Launchers\ProEngineer-Wildfire\Creo11\CFD_2026_Creo110.dll

text_dir C:\Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2026\Text

revision 60

end

Siemens NX (UGNX)

Supported versions: 2306, 2312, 2406

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 2026, and you are using NX 2406, then add this line to the end of the file:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\CFD 2026\Launchers\NX

Dassault Systemes SolidWorks

Supported versions: 2023, 2024 and 2025