Another week, more CFD news. Some really cool applications this week including the aircraft for a new air racing series and this screen capture of Synthetik’s simulation of air blast loads on a Gummy Bear. You also have the opportunity to share your thoughts in a survey on design technology. A couple of articles on colormaps are included so that our CFD images present the “forest of numbers” in their best light. All this and much more.

CFD for…

• bag filtration.
• Toyota Motor Sports.
• design optioneering. [First time I’ve seen that euphemism.]
• air blast loads on a gummy bear.
• Manta ANN2 Formula Air Grand Prix aircraft.
• When creating CFD graphics, please take into account the importance of colormaps. [Authored by a professor at Texas A&M. Whoop!]
• While on the topic of colors, here’s The Perils of the RGB Colormap.

Software

• What’s new in SOLIDWORKS 2021? Better meshing for one thing.
  • More on SolidWorks 2021 from Engineering.com. [5.1 million users!]
• Altair’s software, including the CFD code AcuSolve, will be available as a SaaS on Oracle’s cloud platform as part of the two company’s expanded partnership.
• Speaking of Oracle, here’s a description of their cloud strategy.
• Pointly aims to apply AI to the classification of point clouds.
  • Originally seen on WorldCAD Access from which I learned that some folks say AI stands for “actually ignorant.”
• Autodesk was going to remove STEP export from Fusino 360. Now they’re not.

Miscellaneous

• Digital Engineering launched their 2020 Optimal Design Technology Outlook Survey. Why not take a few minutes to share your thoughts and maybe win a prize?
• Roush has an opening for a Senior CFD Analyst.

Events

• The call for papers for AIAA Aviation 2021 is now open with a due date of 10 November. The event is scheduled for 7-11 June in Washington, DC. [And let’s hope it can be held in-person.]
• There’s no URL yet for the 2021 International Meshing Roundtable but I’m told it will be held online in June and the call for papers will open before the end of October.
• The Numeca International Global CFD Summit 2020 will be a virtual event on 1-2 December.
• Short notice but next week’s 1st International Conference on CAE Interoperability 2020 is now an online event, 19-20 October, and the agenda is online.

From Pointwise

• Pointwise released version 18.4 of our meshing software with the first of a planned serious of automation features collectively called Flashpoint. In V18.4, surface meshing has been automated. Given a geometry model and a handful of user-specified goals, the surface mesh is generated automatically including viscous resolution and anisotropy. We’ll have a lot more to say about Flashpoint in the coming weeks.

Get Lost in a Forest of Numbers

Back in the day it was “You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.” Today, those of us engaged in numerical simulation may feel like “You are lost in a forest of numbers.”

Thanks to alert reader Carolyn, I can share with you today the installation Forest of Numbers by Emmanuelle Moureaux. It’s an example of how a simple concept executed with precision can have a dazzling effect, especially when experienced at the scale of this work.