Scale Drawings in Flownex

Flownex Friday Tech Tips #17

Flownex has a pretty neat utility to capture geometry from a scale drawing and apply those inputs automatically to your flow network. In todays tip we’ll go over a simple example of how to implement this. We are using Flownex Version 8.12.8.4472

Adding a Scale Image

To apply a scaled image in our Flownex network we will want to navigate to the Scaled Drawings ribbon. Here we can click on Generate Scale Drawing and import our desired image. For this demo I’m using a waterblock idea I sketched up a long time ago to try to fix the overheating issue I was having with my Xbox 360.

Applying Dimensions to Network Components

We’ll notice that some dimensions are automatically associated with our new drawing. For instance, if we put some pipe components in to represent the flow paths we can see that the lengths are automatically updated. I know that these finned sections were about 90mm long so this checks out with what the scaled drawing is using.

We also have the option of associating dimensions with line segments we draw on the canvas. Since the cross-section of this flow path is rectangular perhaps a “duct” component would be better suited so that we can capitalize on the geometry association:

Other Useful Scale Tools

There are a few useful measurements we can do using the scale drawings utility that I didn’t highlight in this demo. Point measurements and Link Points can be extremely useful in a variety of scenarios; A couple of examples might be to define connection points on rotor cavities or elevations of connections to some type of container.

Bonus Tip!

• If your CAD is evolving we can swap out that image and then updating the measurements in our flow network is as simple as moving the components back into their correct places; Inputs update automatically!