Setup > Design Study Tools
Use the controls in Setup > Design Study Tools to define the structure of the Design Study. Add a new design variation, pre-define settings, or assign the structure of a fully-defined scenario. These tools are an essential part of Design Study Automation, and provide several degrees of process automation to suit varying needs.
Add/Update Design
Add a design variation or iteration (a new geometry model) or modify an existing design. Use this with Parasolid-, Acis-, and Pro/Engineer-based models.
To add a design to a design study:
Click Setup>Design Study Tools>Add/Update Design.
Browse for and select the geometry file. Autodesk® CFD supports a wide range of file types, so select the desired file type from the menu adjacent to the File name field.
Select the design to update from the list of designs.
Select one of the options:
Update selected design to replace the geometry of the selected design with the new geometry
Create a new design to create a new design using the new geometry
For an example of adding geometry to a design study
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.
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.
Drop-Down Menu
Click the slide-out arrow on the panel title bar to access the following controls:
Script Editor
The Autodesk® CFD Application Programming Interface (API) provides ways to work with Autodesk® CFDfunctionality that are not readily available in the user interface. The API is based on the Python scripting language.
For more about the API Script Editor...
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.