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CAESES Geo Engine for ANSYS Workbench

CAESES can be used as an external parametric geometry generator inside the ANSYS Workbench platform. It allows you to create new geometry candidates directly within ANSYS Workbench by simply changing the parameter set.

!Schematic

With the CAESES Geo Engine, the full automation of the meshing and simulation process of new geometry variants can be realized without any additional scripting. This document also gives recommendations on the exported geometry formats to make use of automatic detection of so-called “Named Selections”.

CAESES Workbench App​

CAESES Workbench App is an ANSYS Workflow ACT Application, created to perform the automatic two way data transfer between ANSYS Workbench and CAESES.

Once installed, a new category "CAESES Geometry" is added to the ANSYS Workbench Toolbox, that includes;

  • CAESES Geo Engine
  • CAESES TurboGrid Engine

!Toolbar

CAESES GEO ENGINE

This tutorial describes how to install the CAESES Workbench App and use the CAESES Geo Engine.

Making the CAESES Add-In Available​

In order to make CAESES Geo Engine available as an Add-In in the user interface of the ANSYS Workbench, we first need to install the CAESES Workbench App.

!Install

  • Within the ANSYS Workbench go to ACT Start Page.

  • In the opened ACT Start Page, click on “Manage Extensions”.

  • Within the Extension Manager, click on the + sign to install the CAESES Workbench App. You can find the referred app in your CAESES installation directory, under etc > ansys > CAESES_Workbench_App.wbex.

!App_Install

  • Click on the little arrow at the lower right corner belonging to the CAESES Workbench App, and select “Load Extension” and “Load as default”

  • When you return to the Project Tab within the ANSYS Workbench, the CAESES App should be visible on the left-hand side in the section “CAESES Geometry” – as shown in the picture:

!Toolbar

customize view

In case it does not appear, go to "View > Toolbox Customization", and activate the system “CAESES Geo Engine” in the corresponding widget.

Preparing the CAESES Project​

The idea is to generate geometry variants from within the user interface of the ANSYS Workbench.

what actually happens?

The CAESES model will be updated in the background i.e. CAESES is triggered in the batch mode, using the parameter input that you can enter in the ANSYS Workbench. These values are transferred to the design variables of your CAESES model, and a new geometry gets exported. The ANSYS Workbench detects such a new geometry, and you can connect it to an analysis component, for instance.

All you need in your CAESES project is a set of design variables as well as a configured geometry export:

  • Make sure that you have at least one design variable in your CAESES project.

!Design_Variable

  • Create a scope and put the geometry objects that you want to export into this scope.
  • Select the scope and configure the export type plus the file name in the object editor.

!Toolbar

export type

If DesignModeler is used, we recommend to use ACIS (*.sat) as export type. This file type gets supported by ANSYS DesignModeler when it comes to “Named Selections” creation using predefined color groups. See the appendix of this document for more information.

However if SpaceClaim is the geometry editor of preference, there exists no export type restrictions.

  • Finally assign an appropriate project unit.

    !Units

Export the CAESES Script File (*.fsc)​

Each CAESES geometry is an individual “configuration” of the CAESES Geo Engine connection in the ANSYS Workbench. The CAESES Geo Engine reads and exports the new parameters from ANSYS. It creates a new script file (*.fsc) for each design and runs CAESES with it in the background. The generated geometry is transferred to the ANSYS Workbench as geometry input for the new design point.

!Workflow

Let’s create the fsc-template file we need in the next step:

  • For an opened project in CAESES, choose "File > Export Script".

!export_fsc

  • Store it to a reference location on your PC.
  • Close the CAESES project.
note

Within the script file, the location of the CAESES project file and the CAESES binary location are specified which are going to be used later by the CAESES Geo Engine. If you change the .cdb CAESES project file location either edit and update the .fsc CAESES script file or recreate it.

The CAESES control file and the project file do not have to be at the same location.

Load the Configuration into ANSYS Workbench​

The exported fsc-file from the previous step contains all information for integrating a specific CAESES setup into the ANSYS Workbench:

  • Drag & drop a CAESES Geo Engine into the "Project Schematic" area of the ANSYS Workbench so that a new system called "CAESES Geo Engine" gets created.
  • In the context menu of the “CAESES Geometry” component, choose "Select an FSC file…"

!select_fsc

  • Select the fsc-file that you have exported previously.
  • Alternatively, one can mention the file location in the Geometry Property box by setting the “FSC file” input.

!select_fsc

  • Optional: In this box, the “CAESES Binary” is also an optional input, and needs not to be filled unless the user wants to use a different CAESES version.
  • Optional: In this box, the “CAESES license ID" is also an optional input, and needs not to be filled unless the user wants to use a specific CAESES license.
  • Choose “Update” to run CAESES in the background, and to create geometry.

Continue Work in ANSYS Workbench​

Now your CAESES geometry engine is ready and can be used. You can connect the "ANSYS Geometry" to other available system/component(s):

  • In order to transfer the geometry with the assigned Named Selections to systems that can consume geometry files; either in the context menu of the “ANSYS Geometry” select "Transfer Data To New" and choose a component or simply drag & drop an appropriate system.

!select_fsc

!select_fsc

  • By using double-click on the “Parameter Set”, you can directly change the design variables of the CAESES model. An update of the design point triggers CAESES in the background again.

!parameters

Appendix​

Boundary Definitions in CAESES​

The boundary definitions (inlet, outlet, wall etc.) can be already assigned in the CAESES geometry. The information will be transferred through the export file and gets interpreted by the ANSYS Workbench as “Named Selections”. This allows you to have a robust and fully-automated meshing even for models with topology changes (such as changing the number of blades for a turbine rotor etc.). This is what you need to consider in CAESES:

  • Assign the different colors according to the boundary definitions. You can use the default colors, or you can create own colors with more meaningful names. Names such as “inlet” or “wall” are easier to understand if you assign colors to several patches or geometries.

!face_NS

SpaceClaim: BRep Color

If the default preferred Geometry Editor is SpaceClaim, please be sure to assign a color to the BRep as well. The assigned color will be used to create the domain Named Selection.

!volume_NS

tip

As mentioned previously, if your default geometry editor in ANSYS Workbench is:

  • DesignModeler → choose the ACIS export (*.sat)
  • SpaceClaim → no export restrictions

Named Selections in the ANSYS Workbench​

The following pictures show a result where the Named Selections are automatically detected by the ANSYS DesignModeler and ANSYS SpaceClaim respectively:

!named_selections_dm

!named_selections_sc

The geometry faces are grouped according to their color settings in CAESES. Hence, you can continue with the details of your meshing procedure – all upcoming design variants will have the same Named Selections so that they can simply reuse your one-time meshing procedure. This finally allows you to run fully-automated design studies and optimizations of any application with CAESES and the ANSYS Workbench with just a few clicks.

SpaceClaim​

If you use SpaceClaim instead of DesignModeler:

  • you need to go to the menu under "Tools > Options". Select “SpaceClaim Direct Modeler” as the preferred geometry editor.

!color_tones

  • you also need to tell SpaceClaim to use the colors from the imported data, which you directly do in SpaceClaim through the menu under "File > SpaceClaim Options". Within the opened menu go to "File Options > General":
tip

Simply deactivate the option Use SpaceClaim color tones when importing so that the imported colors are taken instead.

!color_tones

Discovery​

If you use Discovery instead of DesignModeler;

  • you need to go to the menu under "Tools > Options". Select “Discovery” as the preferred geometry editor.

!color_tones

  • you also need to tell SpaceClaim to use the colors from the imported data, which you directly do in Discovery through the menu under "Settings". Within the opened menu go to "File Options > General":

!color_tones

Simply deactivate the option so that the imported colors are taken instead.

Final Setup

CAESES Project File​

If you want to take a look at the finalized model you can find the resulting CAESES project file ansys-workbench-app.cdb here:

Load Final Model