Recently, SimScale, the simulation software as a service (SaaS) provider, added CAD capabilities to its user interface (UI). The beta enables the platform’s 200,000+ users to clean up their geometries, in the cloud, during the pre-processing and iterative stages of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) workflow.
Engineering.com sat down with SimScale to dig into how these CAD tools will benefit the engineering community.
Naghman Khan, a product engineer on SimScale’s Marketing team explained the new workflow, “you start in your CAD tool and you might need to make some simplifications to move the model into your simulation tool. The SimScale UI is designed to be easy to use. You don’t have to leave SimScale to make design changes. You can perform simple modifications like moving faces.”
Currently, the CAD capabilities are designed to clean up models once they are imported into the UI. For more complex projects, automated optimization iterations are available with API setup and third-party software support.
However, there are significant benefits to utilizing CAD tools in the simulation platform’s UI.
“It’s not a fully fledge CAD tool. I say it’s a good tool with all the required features for the CAD cleanup rather than the geometry sketching,” said Khan, “If you are cleaning the CAD model, you don’t need to leave SimScale anymore.”
How SimScale Works
The SaaS provides engineers access to high-fidelity CFD and FEA tools, through the cloud, via a user-friendly UI. As a result, users no longer need cost-prohibitive computational resources to perform these tasks.
“We’re a cloud simulation tool,” Khan said. “So, you don’t have any local installs or dedicated hardware—which can be expensive. It can be accessed anywhere and it’s also scalable. If you want to run hundreds of simulations in parallel, SimScale is the option. We can offer customers up to 96 cores!”
To further democratize simulation, users can access this technology, for free, through a community plan. This access comes with supporting material to help engineers learn simulation. For instance, the community shares projects on the SimScale website. These projects can be used as a starting point, or learning tool, for others in the community.
The cloud platform offers other tools to get users up-to-speed on simulation. For instance, Khan said, “We offer wizards that can get architects performing simulation in 20 minutes. The support reviews are great. You have the ability to open a chat anywhere from the SimScale platform. We have people dedicated to answering those questions.”
Subscriptions offer users more capabilities, like cloud credits. Before you run a simulation, the platform notifies the user how many credits it will utilize and what it would cost. Users can then buy extra credits as they need them, automatically, or regularly.
The platform also offers collaborative tools. Administrators will be able to limit the permissions of people on their team or manage costs. “It’s seamless,” said Khan, “you can use team projects as if it’s your own.”
The Benefits of CAD in Simscale
SimScale’s CAD mode editor is a usability benefit. Traditionally, if engineers noticed that the geometry wasn’t optimized for the simulation, they would have to go back to their CAD provider to clean it up.
Once the geometry is imported into the simulation tool, there was no guarantee that the first cleanup was enough. In some cases, the model could pass between the designer and simulation specialist, through this bulky process, multiple times before any innovation and iteration can be done. These delays could stifle simulation-led design.
“You don’t have to go back to the CAD and edit it and then remesh,” said Khan. “You just need to nip back into [SimScale’s] CAD mode and make the change.”
This workflow improvement doesn’t stop with the simplification of pre-processing. It also enables engineers to tweak and iterate the design without needing to remesh or take the geometry back into CAD.
Khan adds that adding CAD tools to the UI also enables more customers to use CFD and FEA. As an example, architects may be given a CAD model for a simulation, but they might not have the authoring tools to clean it up. But with SimScale, they now have access to this workflow. Some tools included in the CAD mode, include:
- Flow Volume Extraction, for internal and external regions
- Scaling
- Imprint
- Facet Spit
- Delete Face
- Extrude Face
- Delete Body
- Close Sheet
- Union
- Subtract
- Intersect
- Split
The Future of CAD in SimScale
Khan explains that the current roadmap for the CAD mode is to improve its usability. Enhancements could include making the extrude feature work more like a move face feature, with a box select capability. The goal of these improvements is to offer all the tools needed to prepare a CAD model so it’s ready for simulation.
“We are looking for things to make every day easier,” he said. “Like anything that can select a large number of faces is much appreciated.”
SimScale notes that the next big feature to be added to the CAD mode will be optimization and design comparison workflows. For example, mention was made of the ability to parameterize geometry for automated design studies. There is no date set for these improvements, but the team is already working on them.
Khan adds that the big play isn’t to produce a fully integrated CAD/CEA tool. He explained, “in the long term, we get more flexibility from linking to more CAD tools in the future.”
Darren Lynch, a CFD application engineer at SimScale, clarified this statement, “I see this as alongside [CAD] integrations. I would go to [a CAD tool] to make my design and if the cleanup gets too complex I would do it there too.”
Tools that will be included in SimScale CAD mode in the future, include:
- The ability to move parts
- The ability to rotate parts
- Extend features to given entities
- Replace complex parts with a bounding box representation
- Improve selection mechanisms
- Automate common clean-up workflows