CRTech TD Direct® User’s Guide Instructions for TD Direct and Introduction to SpaceClaim Engineer® For C&R Thermal Desktop® Version 6.0 February 2017 C&R Thermal Desktop® is a registered trademark of Cullimore and Ring Technologies, Inc. SpaceClaim Engineer® is a registered trademark of SpaceClaim Corporation. This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. The content of this manual is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Cullimore & Ring Technologies. Cullimore & Ring Technologies assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book. Prepared, distributed, and supported by: Cullimore and Ring Technologies, Inc. (303) 971-0292 [email protected] www.crtech.com Authors: Timothy D. Panczak Mark J. Schmidt Douglas P. Bell Brent A. Cullimore Table of Contents 1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 1-1 1.1 Purpose.............................................................................................................. 1-3 1.2 Important Concepts........................................................................................... 1-3 1.3 Software Modules ............................................................................................. 1-5 1.4 What’s New ...................................................................................................... 1-6 1.4.1 Version 5.8............................................................................................ 1-6 1.4.2 Version 5.7............................................................................................ 1-7 1.4.3 Version 5.6............................................................................................ 1-7 2 Getting Started ..................................................................................... 2-1 2.1 Creating a TD Direct Document....................................................................... 2-2 2.2 Creating a TD Direct Importer.......................................................................... 2-5 2.2.1 Controlling Visibility............................................................................ 2-7 2.3 Editing a TD Direct Importer.......................................................................... 2-10 2.3.1 Options Tab......................................................................................... 2-10 2.3.2 Dimension Overrides .......................................................................... 2-12 2.3.3 Mesh Editor Action Script .................................................................. 2-13 2.4 Synchronization .............................................................................................. 2-15 3 Creating, Importing, and Preparing Geometry ................................ 3-1 3.1 Creating Geometry............................................................................................ 3-3 3.2 Importing Geometry ......................................................................................... 3-6 3.3 Preparation ........................................................................................................ 3-8 3.3.1 Repair.................................................................................................... 3-8 3.3.2 Defeaturing ......................................................................................... 3-11 3.3.3 Simplification...................................................................................... 3-13 4 Meshing with TD Direct ...................................................................... 4-1 4.1 Before Meshing................................................................................................. 4-1 4.2 Tags................................................................................................................... 4-2 iii 4.2.1 Length Units ..........................................................................................4-5 4.2.2 Faces and Edges Selection.....................................................................4-5 4.3 Mesh Controls ...................................................................................................4-5 4.3.1 Default Mesh Controls ..........................................................................4-5 4.3.2 Local Mesh Controls ...........................................................................4-10 4.3.3 Mesh Size and Type ............................................................................4-12 4.3.4 Curvature Refinement .........................................................................4-17 4.3.5 Mesh Quality .......................................................................................4-18 4.3.6 Structured Meshing .............................................................................4-19 4.4 Thermal Tags...................................................................................................4-26 4.4.1 Conductance/Capacitance....................................................................4-29 4.4.2 Surface Treatment ...............................................................................4-34 4.4.3 Radiation Analysis Groups..................................................................4-34 4.4.4 Domains...............................................................................................4-35 4.4.5 Measurement Symbols ........................................................................4-39 4.4.6 Grip Manipulators ...............................................................................4-39 4.5 Assemblies and Multiple Instances .................................................................4-40 4.6 Troubleshooting Unsuccessful Meshing .........................................................4-44 5 Tutorials................................................................................................ 5-1 5.1 Basic Mesh Tutorial ..........................................................................................5-1 5.1.1 Domain Sets and Domain Tags .............................................................5-9 5.1.2 Mesh Interfaces ...................................................................................5-17 5.1.3 Local Mesh Controls ...........................................................................5-25 5.1.4 Driving Dimensions.............................................................................5-27 5.2 Swept Mesh Tutorial .......................................................................................5-32 iv 1 Introduction This document introduces CRTech TD Direct®, a tool for generating C&R Thermal Desktop® models directly from CAD geometry. Geometry may be imported from external systems such as Pro/E, SolidWorks, Catia, and NX, as well as STEP and IGES formats. Solid and surface geometry may also be created natively using simple and intuitive direct modeling features. TD Direct is CRTech’s extension of SpaceClaim Engineer®. Together, they allow ge- ometry creation, importation, defeaturing, healing, and simplification of detailed design models in preparation for thermal model building. TD Direct provides powerful finite ele- ment meshing with an easy to use thermally oriented user interface that directly and dynam- ically links with a Thermal Desktop model. Pro/ETM, SolidWorksTM, Raw Design Geometry NX CADTM, CATIATM, InventorTM, STEP, IGES, ACIS, etc. Geometry Preparation TD Direct®/ Advanced Meshing SpaceClaim® Modeling and Thermal Desktop® Analysis For sake of simplicity in this document, the use of the name TD Direct implies both the functionality provided by CRTech’s extension and the underlying functionality provided by SpaceClaim Engineer. In general, the geometric creation and modification functionality is provided by SpaceClaim Engineer, and the thermal specific editing and mesh generation are provided by TD Direct. The relationship between TD Direct and SpaceClaim Engineer is identical to the relationship between Thermal Desktop and Autodesk’s AutoCAD®. TD Direct is seamlessly integrated with SpaceClaim Engineer, and together they present a single coherent user interface for thermal model preparation and construction. Introduction 1-1 TD Direct is automatically installed by the Thermal Desktop installer. If you have the latest Thermal Desktop version installed, you will also have the latest TD Direct version installed. TD Direct can be installed (via the Thermal Desktop installer) before or after SpaceClaim Engineer is installed. Once installed and licensed, the TD Direct extensions will appear when SpaceClaim Engineer is launched. SpaceClaim Engineer can be obtained from CRTech as a bundle with a license for TD Direct, or an existing SpaceClaim Engineer installation may be used. Model geometry can come from many sources (customers, co-workers, suppliers) and also in various formats. Conversion or incorporation of this data into a thermal/fluid model must often be repeated as designs are revised. TD Direct maintains a live, bidirectional link with Thermal Desktop for model synchronization. Geometry in TD Direct can be parame- terized and driven by Thermal Desktop symbols, automatically updating the finite element mesh and connectivity information with a one-button synchronization operation. Thermal model information is applied directly to the high level