Superior Bidirectional CAD Interface

Existing native CAD geometry can be used directly with ANSYS explicit dynamics solutions with no need for translations to intermediate geometry formats such as IGES to ensure that parameters and other design information are not lost. ANSYS has provided native, bidirectional, integration with the most popular CAD systems for more than 10 years and also provides integration directly into the CAD menu bar making it very simple to launch world-class ANSYS simulation directly from a CAD system.
Because the geometry import mechanism from ANSYS is common to all CAD systems, the user has the flexibility to work within a single, common simulation environment while using multiple CAD packages and multiple ANSYS solution methods including explicit dynamics, structural mechanics, fluid dynamics and electromagnetics.

 

ProENGINEER® CAD model of perforating gun and cross section of one shaped charge mesh
Courtesy Schlumberger 

Circuit board CAD model and mesh in preparation of drop test simulation

 

ANSYS supports the following CAD systems: Autodesk® Inventor®, Autodesk Mechanical Desktop®, Autodesk Inventor Professional Stress, CATIA® v4 and v5, Pro/ENGINEER®, Solid Edge®, SolidWorks®, Unigraphics®, CoCREATE Modeling™ and SpaceClaim®. The ANSYS Workbench environment also supports the neutral format files of IGES, Parasolid®, ACIS® (SAT) and STEP to which any CAD system can export.

Geometries created with CAD tools are not always well suited for explicit dynamic simulations. For example, surfaces that do not meet or overlap may need to be corrected. Very small features may need to be removed to so that meshes can be created that can be used to generate accurate results efficiently. These operations can be done easily and conveniently with the ANSYS DesignModeler and ANSYS SpaceClaim Direct Modeler tools.