Problem importing and meshing a file to fluent from solidworks

- February 7, 2020 at 9:50 pm
  
  pauliman
  Subscriber
  
  Hello,
  
  I have had an issue uploading a file of a building that I created in solidworks. I am attempting to upload the file into designmodeler to create a wind tunnel around it to be used in fluent. I have had a couple issues. The first and most important is how long the file has taken to load into designmodeler. Once we successfully created a file that uploaded in a slightly more reasonable time we ran into issues while meshing. Hopefully we can figure this out when we have a file that is quicker to work with.
  
  I wanted to clarify, while the file was created in solidworks we have tried identical igs, dwg, step, stl, x_b and solidwork part files as well. We have had issues with all of them in some regard.
  
  I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about why the files take such a long time to load. Is there a certain file type that is recommended for ansys? I would give the specs of the computer attempting to complete the task, however, it is a university lab and I do not have access to that information at this time but can find out. I can attach the file in question in any format if that would be helpful, please just let me know.
  
  Thank you,
  
  Paul
- February 7, 2020 at 10:12 pm
  
  pauliman
  Subscriber
  
  Hi again,
  
  Just clarifying as my first message could be confusing and lacked my actual question in a way that makes sense:
  
                 What is the best/most efficient file to upload to ansys. (We have had best luck with dwg)
  
                  What computer requirements would be required to run a file that is 45+Mb
  
                             Is there a way to reduce the file size that you know of or recommend
  
                   What are the factors that impact the time required to upload and work with a model.
  
  Essentially is there anyway we can reduce the time.
  
  Many thanks,
  
  Paul
- February 8, 2020 at 11:40 am
  
  peteroznewman
  Subscriber
  
  I expect the building model you have is very detailed and has both internal and external faces. The sheer number of faces is what is making it take a long time. Do you need the internal faces? If not, take the external faces and fill the interior so you have a solid body that only has external faces. That will reduce the number of faces maybe in half.
  
  I often create simple solid shapes that have the essential features of the geometry I start with, while ignoring all the non-essential features. If you do this, the geometry will import into DesignModeler in no time. For example, say the building has louver vents to pull air into the HVAC, and each individual blade of the louver is in your building model. If the individual blades are not essential, delete all the blades and replace them with a single rectangular face that represents the inlet surface area for that vent.
- February 8, 2020 at 5:39 pm
  
  pauliman
  Subscriber
  
  Hi Peter,
  
  Thank you for the information. For our model, however, we are attempting to see the effects of the external building facade effects the drag of the building. Therefore all the faces are external faces and there is a considerable number of them as you suspeceted. Is there anything that you think we should try before we alter the design of the building?
  
  Thank you for your assistance it is greatly appreciated.
- February 8, 2020 at 7:42 pm
  
  peteroznewman
  Subscriber
  
  Can you share the geometry file? If so, I would want to see the Parasolid .x_b file type. You would have to put that into a .zip file before you can attach that to your post. You can only attach the file if it is < 120 MB.
- February 8, 2020 at 9:35 pm
  
  pauliman
  Subscriber
  
  Yes, thank you again.
- February 8, 2020 at 11:30 pm
  
  peteroznewman
  Subscriber
  
  Okay, the solid body has 93,000 faces on the exterior, so it is going to make all operations become very slow.
  
  One idea is to use a smaller piece of geometry for the building, like 1/4 of the height.
  
  Another idea is to use symmetry and cut the building in 1/2 again.
  
  Fluent has symmetry boundary conditions that can be used.
  
  Combined, that lets you cut the number of faces by a factor of 8.
- February 9, 2020 at 4:47 am
  
  pauliman
  Subscriber
  
  Okay, thank you very much for the assistance, we will try those ideas! Also, is there a file type you would recommend?
- February 9, 2020 at 11:01 am
  
  peteroznewman
  Subscriber
  
  For moving from SolidWorks to DesignModeler, Parasolid is the best choice. Inside DesignModeler, use File, Import External Geometry file.
- February 9, 2020 at 5:07 pm
  
  pauliman
  Subscriber
  
  Okay, thank you so much!