Version compatibility between Autodesk Simulation CFD and Solidworks

[prem.savio]

Can anyone please tell me the version compatibility between Autodesk Simulation CFD and Solidworks.

That is if i want to launch a model from Solidworks 2012 in CFD 2012, will that be possible? or do i need to have Solidworks 2011?

An image describing the issue in this case is attached.

[Royce_adsk · Accepted solution]

Hi!

I maintain an extensive list in this knowledge article: http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/simulation-cfd/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/...

Best regards,

[prem.savio]

Thank you very much. That is exactly what I was looking for.

I need one more clarification. But I will describe the scenario clearly before i ask that.

One of our customer has Autodesk Simulation CFD 2012 installed. Also, he has Solidworks 2012 and Solidworks 2013 on the same machine. He reported to us that he is not seeing the cad connection in solidworks 2012/2013 (He has a license for this connection) to launch the model in CFD 2012. We resolved it by getting him to install Solidworks 2011 and now there is a cad connection in Solidworks 2011. But what is interesting here is that after installing Solidworks 2011, the icon to launch the model in CFD is also present in Solidworks 2012 & Solidworks 2013.

Now my doubt is this. Since CFD 2012 supports Solidworks 2010 & 2011, shouldn't this be not happening? or is it normal?

[Royce_adsk]

Very good observation!  What is interesting with the Soldiworks launcher is that it has traditionally been very robust with foward versions.  Meaning, usually, we can manually configure the Solidworks launcher and it will work even when it didn't exist at the time the software was written.  Though, when you run the installer it does not know certain versions so if you only have newer versions installed it won't automatically register the needed DLL. Once the DLL is registered it is registered for all versions of Solidworks.  That is why it is now visable in 2012 and 2013.  Keep in mind it has been known to be very robust for future versions, but it is untested by QA so you could run into some issues at times.

Now you might ask how do you manually configure the Solidworks launcher?  

We have an article that captures this workflow:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/simulation-cfd/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/...

To answer your simple question: It is normal and the expected outcome.

Best regards,

[prem.savio]

Thank you, Royce, if i may call you that, for that wonderful explanation because it tells me everything i want to know. And yeah, the credit for the observation belongs to the customer because he was the one who noticed that.

I'll look forward to your replies to the messages that i may post in the future.

Anyway, thank you very much.

Regards

Prem Savio

[Royce_adsk]

Anyone is welcome to call me Royce 

Glad I could help!