CFD Software - What is everyone using?

In my experience, go with whatever user interface you like better. Capabilities are more or less similar across the board, and the price of your time wasted learning an awkward user interface will far outweigh the cost difference between programs.

If you have a very specific or unusual application, then talk to the software vendors to see how well it will work - most CFD software started out targeted at one type of problem, like pumps or planes. They are all fairly general now, but one might work faster or be easier to set up because of its history.

Fully embedded with your CAD will save you lots and lots of time. Unless Pro/E is very entrenched in your company or industry, I would look at getting rid of it. It has a watered down, over-complex user interface compared to Inventor, Unigraphics or SolidWorks, and is much, much more expensive. People claim you can do more with it, but that's not really true, it just has a longer history. SolidWorks was written by ex-Pro/E engineers that thought it was overpriced and poorly designed. You can have fully embedded COSMOS in SolidWorks, including FloWorks. Sorry to sound like a salesman, I just hate Pro/E... Let us know what you go with and how it works.

Thanks Butcher. We are committed to Pro/E and like it a lot. The EFD GUI is very easy to use and the support during our trial has been excellent. Actually we asked about SW and it is the same product that SW licenses from Flomerics to build that product. But we aren't a SW house. I guess I answered my own question then. I'll post again with progress.

No offence Butcher, but I must disagree with you. I have used Pro/E, Solid Works, Inventor, Solid Edge, Catia, Mechanical Desktop, etc.

Pro/E is by far more powerful than the mid range Mcad Programs (SW, SE). When it comes to complex Geometry like creating Pump volutes via lofting, Pro can handle it just fine while the others crash attempting to solve for geometry.

Additionally, Pro is actually cheaper than Inventor. (I just got pricing for each last week)

As far as CFD goes, I am a huge fan of ANSYS Workbench. Their CFX program is awesome, and super easy to use.

It just depends on what you are using it for.

I'm surprised on the Inventor price. I looked at it a few years ago while I was in school and it was much cheaper, but after thinking a little more, I realize that was before they started including embedded ANSYS.

I just got Pro/E and SW prices, and commented on Inventor and UG based on what I've heard or seen they cost in the past (obviously that was outdated, sorry about that).

I used Inventor for about 5 years, have used Pro/E Wildfire 2 for about 8 months, and I'm switching to SW after using it and UG on some friends' machines.

I've found the UI on Inventor and SW much more transparent than Pro/E. It always seems to take more clicks to do the same thing. Anytime I wanted to do something, the tool was right there, I didn't feel like I needed training. Pro/E has the very advanced functions upfront, which is good sometimes but made learning it slow for me. Inv/SW make more intuitive assumptions, but are still capable of the advanced functions, as far as I've run into. For me, this makes initial rough design work much faster. I like to 'sketch' in 3d before I start details.

Capt, you are right on the lofting in Inventor - it never worked well until about version 10, but since then I had no trouble with it. For surfaces like you mentioned, I sometimes used splines so they could be auto update from equations or excel files, but haven't done that sort of thing in Pro/E. Have you run into other things that run better in Pro/E, or that other ones can't do? I use explosions, animations, and kinematic analysis for satellite and robotics systems, and found Pro/E slower for that. Not trying to change your mind on Pro/E, just curious.

Sorry I got you guys off topic from CFD to CAD, but I guess my point is that whatever user interface clicks for you is the way you should go.

Off the CFD topic but...Pro/E is much better for me because of the following every day reasons..

1. I use equation/relation driven models alot and the editor in Pro/E is far better then SW for this. Not to mention the variables are much much shorter!

2. I like the sketcher in Pro/E much better, it does not seem to "loose" constraint as often as SW does.

3. I have found that complicated large assemblies bring SW to its knees in short order and I can do huge assemblies in Pro/E with ease.

4. FEA in Pro/E is far better then SW from the simple all the way to the advanced stuff like composites and assemblies etc. Yep there are a few quirky things but Mechanica is really nice IMHO. I use it mostly for composites analysis.

That is the short list.. Oh yeah...enjoy your CFD

Hi Butcher,

That "embedded" thing can be a real gotcha, though. A lot of companies are trying to jam their FEA/CFD/Magnetic simulation tool etc right into the CAD tool's interface. That means they gotta shoehorn their existing product into the existing menu and code structure of the CAD tool. That's going to take up a huge amount of development effort and isn't often going to lead to the smoothest user experience.

Worse, the programmers have to scramble to rewrite and fix everything everytime the CAD company makes a new release or sometimes even just a bug patch (where what they are fixing for the CAD tool causes an unexpected failure in how the simulation tool is attached under the hood). So, these companies are continually chasing that instead of focusing all their efforts on adding new functionality and quality.

There's a great article from Desktop Engineering on this stuff here:

If you plan to have guys/gals running the tool who also use (actually love) CAD, then you definitely want a tool that integrates at the kernal level (no more IGES and STEP for God's sakes! It's 2007!). I'd stay away from any of the tools that even have "geometry creation/editing" tools if that's the case. If those tools exist, it means the company would really prefer you to use them. If they don't, the company is committed to CAD users. But, I think it's way smarter to go with an "integrated" tool that's best in class and has a wider user base across lots of CAD tools instead of an "embedded" tool which has been shoehorned into the ugly guts of the CAD tool. You are way safer that way.

Of course, you also gotta ask yourself "Who do I want using this tool in my company?" If it's a guy who doesn't use CAD often, you are better off looking at a standalone tool... 1 learning curve is enough, no matter how short.

Anyways:
Integrated = usually good
Embedded = usually bad

Be interested to hear what he comes up with...

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