CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
21 March 2005
Product News
CFdesign is an Integrated, Associative Solution for CATIA v5
Blue Ridge Numerics announced that CFdesign®, the engineering world's preeminent upfront CFD software, is now an integrated, associative, solution for companies developing products on the CATIA v5 platform. Currently in beta release for existing customers, CFdesign is set for general commercial availability to CATIA v5 companies in June 2005.
"CFdesign and CATIA v5 enable engineering innovation and more efficient workflow," stated Blue Ridge Numerics president, Ed Williams. "We are confident that our mature and proven upfront CFD platform will appeal to OEM and supplier companies within aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding, electronics, industrial machinery, and other key industry segments."
Consistent with the Blue Ridge Numerics mission to deliver on-demand fluid flow and heat transfer simulation tools for the design engineer, CFdesign relies completely on CATIA v5 for all geometry creation and modification. Within the CATIA interface, both CATParts and CATProducts are launched into CFdesign. The CATIA model automatically opens in CFdesign, complete with all geometry data including part and instance names. When a design change is made in CATIA, the change is immediately seen in CFdesign. The simulation is fully associative and supplies a simple environment for conducting multiple 'what if' studies during the early stages of product development.
CFdesign also features automatic void filling for CATIA geometry. By simply "capping" any voids on the model in CATIA, CFdesign will automatically convert voids into analysis parts, or fluid space. With traditional CFD tools the conversion of voids is manual and often quite time-consuming.
Models built in CATIA v5 are automatically meshed, prepared for analysis, in CFdesign. Using proprietary intelligent algorithms and a hybrid Finite Element approach, CFdesign meshes CATParts and CATProducts quickly and with very little user involvement. In most cases, the meshing process is transparent to the engineer.
Fluid Flow Capabilities
• Internal & External
• Laminar & Turbulent
• Incompressible, Compressible
• Steady State, Transient, and Two-phase
• Turbo machinery, Rotating & Translating Motion
Heat Transfer Capabilities
• Conduction
• Convection (natural, mixed, forced)
• Conjugate (simultaneous conduction and convection)
• Radiation
• Resistive (Joule)
CFdesign delivers a suite of interactive visualization tools for simulation review. Among them is the Design Review Center where multiple CFD simulation sets can be simultaneously viewed, providing an interactive, 3D apples-to-apples comparison of competing designs. The CFdesign Communication Center allows participants in the design review to view interactive simulation results on their personal desktop without access to CATIA or CFdesign . The Design Communication Center can also be used as a plug-in for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer.
Blue Ridge Numerics puts comprehensive fluid flow and heat transfer simulation upfront in the product development process where it creates tremendous value for small, medium, and large companies around the world.
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