Bit late with this, but I’ve just been working on the full review of CFdesign for the next issue of DEVELOP3D, but I thought now would be as good of a time as any to put together a few thoughts on the latest release of CFdesign and get them out there.
The Blue Ridge Numerics guys have always gone great guns for CAD integrated Computational Fluid Dynamics and simulation but they’ve excelled themselves with this release. What’s new? the answer is not a massive amount. The question should be, what can you do more efficiently? And the answer to that is a LOT.
What the 2010 release is all about is two things. Firstly, giving you the tools to conduct multiple design studies within a single file and a single dataset. That’s not particularly unique, but it’s new to CFdesign (you could accomplish similar using workarounds in previous releases). The tools now available mean you can set-up multiple studies, reuse settings, meshes, model set-ups, then use that as the basis for multiple studies, whether you’re changing geometry, playing with part positions, whether you’re playing with multiple heat or fluid settings. It really doesn’t matter. The system let’s you contain and interact with everything relating to a project in a single place. THat’s going to save you a lot of time hunting around for information you ‘just had‘.
The second part is the ability to work with that mass of data, conduct comparisons, to create output from it, whether’s the usual vector plots or more standard (and usually more useful) charts. The new Design Center gives you tools to load up multiple results sets, display and synchronise common datasets and use the results to make design decisions – which is what it’s all about.
Other updates include new tools for handling data shifting between CFdesign and your workhourse CAD system (it works with the majority of major systems… and some smaller ones), tools to quickly create volume models for exterior flow problems (using push/pull modelling tools) to name but a few.
We’ll have the full run down in a little while but in the mean time, and as ever, CFdesign’s Product Manager, Derrek Cooper’s been hot on the case and given us a video tour of what’s new. Check it below.
And if that’s not enough, with a review in October, with Greg’s look at how Blue Ridge are taking advantage of hardware advances for increasing simulation efficiency (which HAS to be read) in the September issue, I don’t know what is.
