In lieu of a Korean speaker I’ve run this through DeepL.
The UI of Ansys Fluent is becoming increasingly cumbersome.
I have been using Fluent 6.3 or Ansys 14 since its release. The recent Fluent UI is evolving in a direction that makes it progressively harder to use.
I find this incomprehensible, hence my posting here.
For reference, the version currently in use is 2024R2.
The primary computers used are an Epyc 7742 x 2 CPU + 256GB RAM workstation or a W5-3425 + 64GB RAM workstation.
1. Response speed has slowed.
The UI response speed is infuriating every time I open a single Sub Window.
The v17.0 UI was truly exceptionally responsive. Opening a window to modify Boundary Conditions responded instantly. Selecting a list in Case View immediately updated the Task Page.
With the current 2024R2, it requires approximately 1-2 seconds. I often view lists containing anywhere from dozens to over a thousand Boundary Conditions. The difference in response speed is stark. Improving this responsiveness is truly urgent. It is highly correlated with work fatigue.
2. In the Case View window, you must double-click to change to the Task Page.
Previously, a single click would change it immediately. As mentioned earlier, I handle a very large number of Boundary Conditions or Cell Conditions. Double-clicking causes the numerous lists to repeatedly appear and disappear, further slowing down an already sluggish UI. It would be preferable to revert to a single click.
3. Inadequate categorisation
Currently, Boundary Conditions are categorised roughly as interior, wall, inlet, outlet, and clip or iso. The problem is that conditions like porous jump and fan are now lumped under interior. Previously, you could select based on each specific condition. For example, you could immediately recognise that an item named porous jump had actually been changed to interior. Now, however, you must enter the Boundary Condition section and search for the specific name to find the correct option. It’s extremely painful.
4. Inability to see how many boundary conditions I’ve selected
Previously, the list window for each sub-window displayed the total number of boundary conditions currently present and how many of those were selected by me.
Now, a filter occupies that space. It is of little help. I have used it extremely rarely. Rather than saying the filter is unnecessary, I would request that the functionality showing the list count be restored.
5. The Apply button in the Boundary Condition Window
Previously, pressing the OK button would close the window, allowing me to recognise that ‘the value I entered has been applied’.
However, it has now changed to an Apply button, and the window remains open. Unable to tell if my entered value has been applied correctly, I end up pressing the Apply button twice. If the value is important, I close the window and reopen it to check.
What used to be a simple task of pressing the OK button once now requires me to press the Apply button twice with unease, close the window, then reopen it to verify the value.
At this point, if I could swear, I would have hurled every curse imaginable.
I would curse the person who changed the UI like this.
They must surely be a spy sent by Ansys’s competitors.
Or perhaps someone who deliberately makes things inconvenient to inflict pain on users for their own pleasure.
6. The rubbish ribbon menu
It’s not that I dislike the ribbon menu itself.
I used it well in v17.0.
But the current UI takes up far too much unnecessary space. Even compared to MS Office’s ribbon menus, it’s pointlessly cluttered with empty space. It can’t even be resized, nor is the text particularly large. And the icons aren’t properly left-aligned either.
If you don’t understand, just look at the Mesh section in Fluent’s Domain Tab. Check the alignment of Display, Info, and Units.
In the Zones Tab, the alignment between columns 1, 2 and 3 is also off.
And please make it bold.
I feel compelled to vent my frustration once more.
The person who designed this UI ought to experience the UX from my perspective. And I hope they endure the same bloody awful experience as I have.
7. The double-layered list is infuriating.
In the Surface Integral list, the right-hand list contains two items.
The structure requires selecting each material property, then selecting a sub-list again.
But at some point, the sub-list window changed to allow text input.
I simply wanted to click and find the value, just like the first list. Now, I absolutely must press the tiny arrow on the right. Why?
If you’re going to do it, do it for both. Why make the first list a dropdown and the second require text input?
As I wrote this, my anger flared up again, and I momentarily typed a curse before deleting it.
8. Change the output order
I often perform named selections in the Fluent solver. When dealing with numerous and irregular named selections, I generate the mesh under a single name and then separate it in Fluent Meshing. Afterwards, with the Surface Integral window open in the solver, I display the relevant face via Mesh display and click on it.
Then, when I press Write in Surface Integral, the output appears in the order I clicked. It appears in the order I selected, not ascending order. I then transfer those names directly to Excel, create a journal to rename them, and process it via TUI.
However, it now outputs in ascending order, not the sequence I selected. I can no longer perform this task as described previously.
……I feel like swearing profusely right now.
To conclude, I wish to add one more point.
Fluent is not a fancy programme. It should be robust, lightweight, and powerful. Even if it looks like something a primary school pupil cobbled together in Visual Basic, it’s fine as long as the functionality is strong. It has unnecessary features like Mesh Display rendering, floor reflections, and grid functions, but I turn them all off and use it that way. I can’t demand they be removed, as someone might like them, but I wish they were OFF by default. Instead, I have to do this every single time I start it up. It’s infuriating.
I want to vent my frustration at the UI designers.
I want to vent my frustration from the depths of my soul.
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