| The SWAU Report, Issue 38 | Tuesday, September 25, 2007 |
Introduction
SWAU — pronounced “swah-oo” — is the Southwest
ANSYS Users (SWAU), an organization of ANSYS users and people interested
in ANSYS, who are located in the Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico,
Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Western Kansas, and El Paso). The goal of
the organization is to provide a sense of community for ANSYS users
in the region, to serve as a means of communication about ANSYS,
and to provide technical and peer resources to those interested in
becoming ANSYS users.
News!
PADT Announces New Training Classes
(Available for registration now!)
We are pleased to announce three recent additions to our training class offerings:
205 – ANSYS Workbench Simulation Dynamics. This class covers how to complete modal, harmonic response, random vibration and transient simulations within the ANSYS Workbench Simulation interface.
For more details, click here
206 –ANSYS Workbench Rigid & Flexible Dynamics. This class covers the rigid (kinematic) dynamics capability added in Workbench Simulation 11.0, along with combining rigid and flexible dynamics.
For more details, click here
302 – ANSYS Workbench Simulation Heat Transfer. This class covers thermal analyses including steady-state, nonlinear, transient, conduction, convection and radiation. For more details, click here
We offer a wide variety of regularly scheduled classes but we can also work with you to set up custom classes at your facility or ours.
PADT - Wants You!
PADT is looking for a highly motivated individual to join our team in the following positions:
-FE Analysis Engineer
-Mechanical Lab Manager
For more information please visit the Job Opportunities page on our website.
Become an APDL Master with PADT's APDL Guide
Teach Yourself ANSYS Customization with PADT's APDL Guide
This guide is a compilation of course notes from PADT’s very popular ANSYS Customization with APDL class. By popular demand, PADT has turned these notes into a 288-page guide that steps new and experienced ANSYS users through all of the details of APDL scripting. Its 12 chapters include reference information, examples, tips and hints, and eight workshops. The guide, available in hardcopy only, is an invaluable resource to anyone who wants to start using APDL or become an ANSYS “power user”. At $75 plus shipping, this manual will quickly pay for itself by saving you hours of research and trial-and-error.
For more information on this guide or how to purchase, please visit our website .
ITER Selects ANSYS Solutions for Design of Experimental Nuclear Fusion Facility
Project Aimed at Producing Large-Scale Clean Energy for Future Generations
ANSYS, Inc. announced that the multinational organization ITER has adopted software from ANSYS to validate the design of its groundbreaking international fusion power plant development project. ITER aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power. The partners in the project -- called the ITER Parties -- are the European Union, Japan, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of India, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the U.S.A. ITER will be constructed in Europe at Cadarache in the south of France.
To view full article, please click here:
ANSYS Airpak 3.0 Makes Airflow Modeling Workflow Processes more Productive
Release Introduces Key New Technologies for Design of Ventilation Systems
ANSYS, Inc. announced the release of version 3.0 of its ANSYS(R) Airpak(R) airflow modeling software. ANSYS Airpak has set the standard in the industry for simulating room air distribution and thermal comfort since 2000. This version of ANSYS Airpak software introduces key enhancements that increase productivity, improve the meshing technology and enhance the realism of displayed results. ANSYS Airpak technologies are now part of the ANSYS, Inc. suite of products, from the company's acquisition of Fluent Inc. in 2006.
To view the full article, please click here:
ANSYS Makes List of 40 Fastest-Growing Software Companies
Company Ranks Second Overall
ANSYS, Inc. announced that it is the second-ranked company on Baseline magazine's list of 40 Fastest-Growing Software Companies. ANSYS was the only computer-aided engineering (CAE) software company that made the list.
According to the Baseline report, the median revenue growth among all 49 qualifying companies was 13 percent. In 2006, aided by the Fluent Inc. acquisition, ANSYS revenue jumped more than 66 percent. The Baseline report also indicated that the biggest public software companies are increasingly relying on acquisitions for growth. "Some established companies regard their acquisitions as another way of doing R&D of continuing to offer innovative products to a customer base that may be happy to consolidate vendors but doesn't want the pipeline of new ideas to dry up," the report notedTo view full article please click here:
Announcements
PADT is pleased to announce that our sales and support teams have successfully completed ANSYS, Inc.'s certification requirements and can now officially sell and provide technical support on the FLUENT products. We have been eagerly awaiting our certification since we are long time FLUENT users and feel that offering the two best CFD products on the market will be a huge benefit to our customers. So from now on, feel free to come to PADT for your ANSYS, CFX, AND FLUENT needs.
Featured Article: CAD & Workbench: Sorting out the Options
By Eric Miller
If you ask most people what they like best about Workbench, 30% will tell you the robust meshing and 30% will say the CAD connections1. Getting your geometry into Design Modeler, Simulation or CFX Mesh is so much easier in Workbench than in almost any product, that it always surprises us when users are unaware of how this works and how great it is. So, we thought we would cover a few key facts about this killer capability.
Supported Formats
The first thing to know about formats, is that they fall into two classes: Readers and PlugIns. Readers simply translate from the CAD format into Workbench’s internal format On the other hand, a PlugIn actually interfaces with software from the CAD vendor to open up the geometry in the native format and give Workbench the information it needs in the native format. We sometimes refer to reader geometry as “dumb” and plugin geometry as “smart” because the plugin geometry is associative back to the CAD files (see below).
The table below lists the formats supported by Workbench at V11. It also gives a brief summary of what does and does not come over from the geometry file into Simulation. Pretty much all types of geometry come into DesignModeler, so if you need surfaces or curves from an unsupported format, go through DM. Attributes and Names are important because these are pieces of information attached to geometry, like loads from a motion simulation or names on entities that can be used to make your simulation job much easier.
How it Works
The readers work in a fairly simple way. It takes the geometry file and parses through the description of the entities and topology (how things are connected) and builds a geometric model in Simulation or DM. For the non-CAD formats (IGES, STEP, etc…) it often converts to the Parasolid format first, then to the Workbench format, so don’t be surprised if you see something about Parasolids during import when you don’t have a parasolid file.
The PlugIns are a bit more complicated, but deliver a lot more power. What the PlugIns do is actually start up the CAD package in a batch mode. Therefore, you need to have the CAD tool loaded on your machine and you need a license for the CAD tool for things to work right. If you have your file already open in your CAD tool, it will just use that session.
If you are bringing in the file for the first time, it builds the geometry and topology and stores any parameters that you have asked to be transferred (this is done by specifying a prefix on the parameter names) in the parameter manager. If you are doing an update of modified geometry, it can be much faster since it is just updating geometry, topology and parameters.
One quick hint: Set your options in Workbench to release the CAD license when you are done. If you don’t do this, you will hold on to your CAD seat even if Workbench is not using it.
Bi-Directional Associativity
The big deal when using PlugIn’s, is the bi-directional associativety that it allows. If you change a geometry parameter either in Workbench or in the CAD system itself, you can ask for an update and the Workbench model will update the geometry. Further, (this is the big deal) any mesh, loads and boundary conditions that you assigned to the geometry will retain their associativity to the model. This can literally save days compared to antiquated methods of remeshing.
If you make a topology change, meaning add a new surface or delete a surface, things may not update 100%. It depends on the magnitude of the change and the CAD system. But even if it isn’t 100%, most of the model updates and you may only need to redo a few loads and BC’s.
As you can imagine, this makes “what-if,” optimization and probabilistic studies very easy.
Try a PlugIn Today
If you are currently using ANSYS or reading “dumb” geometry into Workbench, give your salesperson a call and ask for an evaluation license for a PlugIn for your CAD tool. Give it a shot; it will pay for itself very quickly.
1These percentages fall in the SWAG category, but are probably pretty close. What about the other 40%? Well they fall in that “other” category and mention stuff like automatic contact detection, automatic report, the model tree, ease of use, fast graphics, etc…
Questions?
Questions?
For more information or questions about these promotions, please contact PADT Sales.
PADT Training
There is a special 15% discount for new students registering for the ANSYS Workbench Simulation Structural Nonlinearities class on October 18-19.
Courses Offered in October, November, and December
| No courses are scheduled in this time period. |
SWAU Seminar Series
Seminars Offered in October, November, and December
| No seminars are scheduled in this time period. |
Other Offerings
Did You Know that PADT, Inc. Offers:
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