This week’s blog post will focus on the new features for CAD and meshing within the latest release of Simcenter STAR-CCM+, version 2510. There are many new features within these topics in the new version, and we have selected three of them to explain more thoroughly and four shorter descriptions as honorable mentions.
Multi-target Boolean subtract (and speed-up for the operation)
The subtract operation is often used when creating a fluid domain, and this release has spoiled us with both faster execution time and more functionality. Subtract operations are available in both 3D-CAD and under operations within the main GUI tree-structure, and the improvements apply for the operation within the tree-structure.
When setting up a subtract operation you select input parts (parts that will be used in the operation, both as results and tool bodies) and target parts (the parts, among the input parts, that should become resulting bodies). New resulting parts will appear automatically in the Parts list. With the multi-target functionality there is the possibility to obtain several resulting bodies (output parts). See the picture below for an example of several output parts. The same resulting parts could previously require many operations, but now the cross-referencing will save a lot of set-up time.
The number of output parts are adjusted automatically depending on which parts are overlapping. And if you modify the settings the output (resulting parts, and number of resulting parts) are adjusted accordingly. So, all parts that are not target parts are treated as tool bodies, and if target parts are overlapping they will not affect each outer.
This operation also works for shell parts. But if several shell parts are included in the operation, either all of them have to be target parts or none of the should be target parts. This is because subtracting a shell part from another shell part does not create a surface and as therefore not allowed.
When it comes to the speed-up, the expected execution time is now around 60% less than the previous release. This applies for the discrete subtract Boolean operation, without CAD-projection.
Convert revolved and planar meshed faces into Brep sheet bodies
Already in version 2306 the Mesh-to-CAD functionality, which can convert tessellated triangulated bodies (like .stl files) into CAD bodies, this was mentioned. Which would turn CAD without functionality of modification (dead CAD) into pure CAD that could be parameterized. However, this feature is still under development as a research project, released as a beta-feature. If it would turn into a full functional feature it would truly change the way of working with CAD. And now, the first step is reached.
Planar and circular faces are recognized and converted into Brep format (boundary representation) sheet bodies by the Revolve Mesh to CAD feature. As seen in the picture below, a body with planar and circular tessellated faces is converted into sheet bodies. And if there are faces that cannot be converted the operation will be performed with partial success without error messages. The downstream CAD operations will be enabled for this body as well. The sheet bodies can then be sewed together with sewing operations to obtain a pure CAD quality model. Revieling the possibility to go from mesh to CAD for these first types of geometries.
Note: if the input quality is low, causing the operation to fail, remeshing the input faces might help.
Additional note: There is also the functionality to convert CAD bodies into meshed bodies, going the other way, using Brep to facet.
Pattern along path
Creating patterns can now be achieved along a path. Linear and circular patterns have previously been the only choices, but now you can use a path (based on a sketch for example) as guiding to define how the pattern should flow.
See the video below to understand how to create and modify your pattern to your desired result. Right-click on your input body and define which path you want to follow. The number of instances can even be exposed as a parameter. To define how far along your path you want the instances to flow, there are handy sliding bars to ease the definition.
The possibility to cut a pattern along a path is also available. This will save time since you don’t have to create the pattern and then use a new operation to subtract the result from another geometry. See picture below for the available patterns in 3D-CAD.
Honorable mentions
There are often many new features and improvements for the topic of CAD and mesh in each release of Simcenter STAR-CCM+. This time there was even more news than usual. We therefore have one additional honorable mention this time, usually only three are presented. Please have a look at all the features in the documentation at the new features chapter: https://docs.sw.siemens.com/documentation/external/PL20250714501835942/en-US/userManual/starccmp_userguide_html/STARCCMP/GUID-718303BF-EB89-4AAA-8503-C1032FB908E1.html
Parametric surface morpher – support for rotation: The displacement method of rotation is added to the surface morpher operation. The operation can be parameterized and in the operation. you select target, fixed and floating surfaces/curves. The rotation supports definition in all types of coordinate systems (local, cartesian, cylindrical, spherical). A great area of use is when changing rotation angle for a side mirror for a car.
Pattern instance skipping in Linear and Circular pattern features: There are even more news for patterns. Linear and circular patterns now have a skip option, where you can select rows or columns to skip in the creation. There is even an interactive selection where you can choose the positions to skip in a table. This makes it a lot easier and faster to create a pattern that does not fully populate a standard pattern.
Show only unique bodies: Instance bodies is a neat feature, but when still working with other parts of the CAD model it can be difficult to see if many instances are created. The possibility to only show unique bodies hides all instances that are not the original body. In this way you will have a cleaner model to work with and a way of only showing the original bodies.
Turbomachinery mesh – CAD projection: CAD projection is now available in the Turbomachinery workflow. Previous the remesher was needed to be run prior to meshing for this dedicated workflow. With CAD projection as default it is no longer required, as long as the CAD tolerance is below 10e-7m. To read more about how CAD projection works we recommend you to have a look at the prior blog post on this topic: https://volupe.com/simcenter-star-ccm/explaining-tessellation-cad-projection-and-cad-boolean-in-simcenter-star-ccm/
We at Volupe hope that this blog post has been helpful and makes your every-day work as a simulation engineer more effective. Go ahead and download the latest release, version 2510, of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ as Siemens Support center. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at support@volupe.com.
Author
Christoffer Johansson, M.Sc.
support@volupe.com
+46764479945
