Accessing simulation data

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I am part of a team working on the design and analysis of spacecrafts and satellites.

We also have a VR tool through which we want to interactively visualize simulations.

I haven't seen any plugin/feature that can potentially assist with this. There are some tools available that can be used to generate simulation meshes with corresponding data in virtual reality.

Is there a way to access this simulation data from a solution, more specifically nodal data?

[mcmillr]

Hi Sameer. Are you saying that you have a Fusion model, and you have generated Fusion Simulation results, and now you want to transfer the FEA mesh and nodal results from Fusion Sim into another visualization tool?

There is currently no documented way to do this, Fusion Sim currently lacks an API.

There are some files on disk that hold this data, but we have not documented the format for end users.

Sorry if that is not the answer you were looking for...

[Anonymous]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the response! Yes that is exactly what we are looking to do. It is essential for us to have this feature.

Is there a way for the end user to gain access to the files on disk? Even if the format is obscure, we can work with it.

Are there any plans to develop the API for Fusion Sim? If not, we will have to consider switching to another simulation tool ANSYS or NX...

If not, is there another tool within the Autodesk family that can be used for this purpose?

Thanks,

Sameer

[mcmillr]

Sameer, I checked with some others on our team and we are reluctant to document the internal details of our storage implementation.

There is some support for providing an official export capability though, but it might take a few months to get this done and into a product release. Our releases normally slow down toward the end of the year due to the holiday season.

If we were to provide an export command, would the VTK format work for your purposes?

https://www.vtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/file-formats.pdf

[Anonymous]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the update. As for the format, VTK will work just fine. Any format is good as long as we can leverage it.

In terms of time, we cannot wait for a few months' duration unfortunately. Can you give me an exact time frame to provide the export command?

If it's going to take longer, could you shed some light on whether Nastran In-CAD has this feature?

Thanks,

Sameer

[mcmillr]

Nastran InCAD provides several different options for result output, and you can access the files on disk.

The default is FEMAP Binary, or FNO. The other formats are FEMAPASCII, PATRANASCII, PATRANBINARY, NORANASCII, NORANBINARY, NASTRANXDB, and CADAS.

In the latest version of Nastran InCAD 2018.1 there is a bug with FEMAPASCII output, it may work in an older version, and this will be fixed in the next version.

To set the output format, you go to Parameters, Edit, Output Control Directives, and set the RSLTFILETYPE.

After you solve, you can right click on the Results node in the browser and choose "Show in Folder".

This folder will contain the .NAS input file along with the output (FNO or otherwise).

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I'll take a look at it.

Can you also give me any further details on the VTK export availability?

[mcmillr]

Re: VTK output - We are discussing it now, I won't be able to say when it would be released, or even if we choose to go with that format.

The advantage of something like VTK is it is simple to understand and parse. FNO has the advantage of working with existing tools like FEMAP, but it is much more difficult to implement code that reads it, if you don't already have access to a reader implementation. We also have customers who would like us to write out the Nastran input file. We will need to sort this out and then make some plans on what we can deliver when.

[Anonymous]

Fair enough.

Thanks Rob. I'll await further updates.

[Anonymous]

Hi Rob,

I am currently looking at Nastran In-CAD and assessing our options. I'd appreciate it if you could give me a time estimate on Fusion Sim.

We'd like to get something by the end of the year or early January or we'll have to move to another tool which is too bad since all our CAD is on Fusion.

Sorry to rush you on this but I'd really like to get further details.

Thanks,

Sameer

[Anonymous]

Just to avoid confusion, the last post was from my personal account.

Sorry about that.

[mcmillr]

Hi Sameer. If we decided to implement a solution, the earliest it could be released would be February.

Autodesk has a long break at the end of December so there is no January release of Fusion planned.

I understand that places you in a bind, sorry about that.

I will let the product team know about your situation.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rob.

Is there any interim solution that we could use to develop the infrastructure on our end until the actual release?

[mcmillr]

Hi Sameer, sorry for the delayed response due to the US holiday.

Since you have a trial license of Inventor/InCAD, you could try generating FNO or NEU and trying to develop tools to read those formats.

If we decide to implement this export feature in Fusion and one of those formats is supported, then you would be in good shape.

I cannot however make any guarantees at this point on when we would implement this export feature in Fusion and what specific formats would be supported.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply Rob.

I'll try out your suggested method and see where we get.

Please do get back to me with further updates when your team gets to a decision.

-Sameer

[Anonymous]

Hi Rob,

Just wanted to check in and inquire if there are any updates on this front.

We've been waiting for a while to get our project underway. I have also been experiencing issues with Fusion in the design workspace and all things considered, we might have to look at other options if Fusion cannot meet our requirements.

Kindly let me know if you have any info for me.

Thanks,

Sameer

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous, 

I am the Product Manager for the Simulation workspace in Fusion 360. I work closely with @mcmillr and we have been discussing the request you have made in this thread. After evaluating the requirements to address this request and evaluating this against our current priorities and strategy for the Simulation workspace, this is not something we plan to do in any near term. If this is something you need in a timely manner and is an absolute blocker to your project, than you will have to pursue another option. As @mcmillr suggested, our Nastran InCad solution with Inventor may be a better near term solution, as it already allows for the export of data in some neutral FEA formats. 

Thanks, 

Mike Smell 

Product Manager, Fusion 360 

[lrbrundrett]

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To set the output format, you go to Parameters, Edit, Output Control Directives, and set the RSLTFILETYPE.

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Hi - I am assuming that this information is only applicable to Nastran InCAD, not to Nastran found in fusion 360?

Thanks