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Quick Example: CRTech SpaceClaim™A C&R Thermal Desktop® model of an industrial autoclave (pressure cooker) is required. The base is available as an Autodesk Inventor® part file, just one of many formats available for import.1
Imported into SpaceClaim, the part appears as follows:
No healing is needed because the part is very simple, and because the direct translation route has not introduced any CAD defects. (For demonstrations of healing and repair options, see Part 1 of the Junction Box example.) However, the part contains several features that are thermally unnecessary, and which would disrupt finite element meshing: bolt holes, an o-ring channel, and a notch cut at the face opposite the mounting flange. If Inventor is available to the user, the holes and o-ring channel features can be suppressed, but the notch cannot be suppressed without significant effort due to the way the part was generated. The part’s history is not relevant to SpaceClaim, which uses advanced direct modeling methods: any feature can be removed and the part can be modified as needed, even if the original file had been CAD-neutral “dumb geometry” such as STEP, IGES, or ACIS. First, the fact that there are no defects is verified using the Repair option to check for Gaps, Missing Faces, Split Edges, etc.
Since the Fill mode is already selected, clicking the green check mark at the right fills in all selected holes:
Rotating the view as needed to enable selections (using a 3D mouse or the right hand mouse button), the faces that form the O-ring can be selected and filled, as can the faces that form the notch. If too many faces are selected, the “fill” operation might eliminate too many faces and create a cone. If this happens, use control-z to back up and try again, being more selective. Surface can be added or dropped from the current selection set using typical control-left-click operations. The following simplified part should result:
The file is saved as “Pressure Cooker Cleaned.scdoc” At this point, if the optional module Mesh Generation for SpaceClaim is available, the user could specify meshing controls on each face, assign thermal property names, indicate that thermal contact will be needed to the top flange, indicate where the heater will be applied on the base, and prepare for convection calculations inside of the vessel. These designations would allow the model to be regenerated automatically if a change is made, such as if the flange thickness changed. Otherwise, if that module is not available, then the geometry can be fetched by the Thermal Desktop import manager to establish a link to the CRTech SpaceClaim file. Inside of Thermal Desktop, either type TDimportSC in the command line, or use the SpaceClaim Import button on the Thermal2 panel of the ribbon:
Browsing to the file “Pressure Cooker Cleaned.scdoc” (which, if it is not already open, Thermal Desktop will open a parallel session of CRTech SpaceClaim), the main page of the import manager results:
The “Generate Finite Element Mesh” check box and “Mesh Editor Action Script” tab are enabled with the Mesh Generation for SpaceClaim module. For the current model, only the “Import CAD Geometry” option is used, resulting in the imported solid as shown:
This solid can be used for scaffolding for finite difference objects, or the built-in Thermal Desktop tri/tet mesher can be applied. If a change is made to the geometry inside of CRTech SpaceClaim, the “Synchronize” button on the Import Manager or the “Sync” button on the Thermal2 ribbon can be used to refresh the geometry within Thermal Desktop. This quick example is intended to serve only as a brief introduction. More detailed examples are available, including the Junction Box example. Additional model preparation using the Mesh Generation for SpaceClaim module is also documented separately. 1 Optional Data Exchange packages are available to enable some of the options shown, including Inventor (*.ipt and *.iam files). |
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Additional Information
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