less than ideal documentation
I am trying to import step files in from Pro/e.
Is there a step file configuration that tends to work better with CAEDIUM professional?
Currently use Pro/E for modeling, Mechanica and Ansys for FEA and was looking to add CAEDIUM professional as an alternative to Fluent.
Can't reliably import step files so they act the way your tutorial files do (which I notice tend to be done in your native format.)
Is your intention to get an income stream from CAEDIUM professional or is this more of a labor of love?
Not having a phone number or even a help file that allows me to search for information on a menu pick is EXTREMLY frustrating.
At the very least payng customers expect a manual and more immediate support than a forum.
Is there a training course availible?
I would gladly shell out $900 if I could get training.........right now my frustration level is making Fluent look pretty good.
Do you guys own a phone?
Feedback
Questions? Ideas? Problems?
Can you be specific about your problem?
Often the problem with external geometry is that it models the solid region of a model rather than the air around it. To get reliable models you need to produce a water tight solid model representing the air/water around your model - this often takes the form of subtracting your original model from a large outer box. The best place to perform this Boolean operation is likely in Pro/E, though Caedium can perform the operation too after import.
STEP (.stp) is the preferred geometry exchange format for Caedium.
Sometimes the visualization facets for a model may look poor, but the underlying geometry is fine. For more on facet controls see "Visual Facets Control".
Can you be specific about the problem you are seeing with your imported models?
Rather than trying a complicated model, it is often better to first try a simplified model as in the tutorials, created especially for CFD during your learning period. Then when your experience grows you can transition to more complex configurations.
Our entire documentation is available under "Tutorials".
A good resource for Caedium help is the search form - top right on every page on our site.
You can find a link to our contact form, which presents our phone number, on the bottom of every page on our site.
If you buy a 1 year Caedium Professional subscription we can provide one-on-one webinar training.
However, Symscape is not ANSYS and Caedium is not FLUENT. If you are expecting the same level of training and support as ANSYS provides for FLUENT, but at a discounted price then I think you will need to look elsewhere.
Got the Pro/e import setting right
After some experimentation I have discoved that Cadium crashes within minutes if you are trying to work on STEP geometry imported from Pro/e.
This is not unique problem that is only related to CAEDIUM. I have also experianced similar issues when trying to process Pro/e models with CAM software.........even Pro/e's in house CAM software doesn't like thier own native files unless they are setup right.
After a weekend of experimantation I found the following settings allows me to import STEP files from Pro/E Wildfire 5 (ALLWAYS stay 1 release behind PTC unless you like to be a beta tester) into CAEDIUM.
Evidently not all STEP files are the same.
1)You need to go into Pro.config and set pro/e to output AP209DIS STEP files
2) Only try to import solid models. Models that contained surfacing or shelled features crashed......a lot.
3) Make sure the "surfaces" box is unchecked (even if your models don't contain surfaces or shells) when converting the Pro/e model to a STEP
ALSO............if your native Pro/e model contains boolean operations you need to configure ALL the models you are working on to have the same minimum element size used to construct the geometry. This is done by making sure the Model is constructed with elements with a minimum size specifically defined using ABSOLUTE accuracy and not the typical RELATIVE accuracy default setting. Something wacky seems to happen between Pro/E - STEP Conversion - CAEDIUM if you don't have ALL the Pro/e models set to the same element sizes.
One you get the right settings models seem to import into CAEDIUM that you can actually use.
The only issues I now seem to have are related to my inexperiance with CFD and CADIUM.
Pro/E STEP to Caedium
Thanks for following up and providing these tips on exporting STEP from Pro/E for Caedium.
Please could you share one of the STEP files that caused Caedium to crash? If you could upload the file to a file sharing service, such as Dropbox, and then email me the link using our contact form that would be great.