Starting from a CAD System

The Design Study Manager and the Design Study Builder streamline the transfer of the CAD model to the Autodesk® CFD model:

The Design Study Builder and the Design Study Manager are complementary, and provide different levels of automation:

• You can use the Design Study Manager to launch and update designs individually.

  • Apply settings in Autodesk® CFD and add designs by cloning existing designs.
  • Return to CAD and modify the geometry.
  • Launch the Design Study Manager to update each newly cloned design.

• You can use the Design Study Builder to construct a complete design study in the CAD system.

  • Do the following to prepare the CAD model:
    • Create a separate variation for each design permutation. (Autodesk® Inventor uses "i assemblies." Solid Works uses "Configurations." Pro/Engineer uses "Instances.")
    • Place objects that will be assigned settings into CAD Entity Groups.
  • Do the following in the Design Study Builder:
    • Create a design study consisting of multiple designs. Link each design to a different CAD model variation.
    • Define settings, and associate them to the CAD Entity Groups.
  • Launch into Autodesk® CFD to run the analyses.
  • Update and add designs to existing studies by cloning directly in the Design Study Builder.

To Add a Design to a Design Study

Each tool has a different workflow for adding a design to an existing design study. These workflows are summarized:

This is the key difference:

• The Design Study Manager requires that designs be cloned in Autodesk® CFD prior to returning to the CAD system.
• The Design Study Builder provides tools for cloning designs. It is not necessary to clone in Autodesk® CFD.