It’s been an interesting week if record-setting cold, the lack of electricity, and untreated tap water are things you find interesting. Yes, Texas sure has been putting on a show. Despite that, we were able to release a new version of Pointwise for CFD meshing. Good thing that the rest of the CFD world kept chugging along as evidenced by a slew of software releases, a gaggle of financial results, and an intrepid event coming this August that plans to be held in the flesh. Shown here are results from some of the research being done at the Turbulence Simulation Group at Imperial College London.
News
- nTopology is hosting a competition in their education community, nTopEd. They seek abstracts from academia on uses of their software in product design, sports, and other areas. Abstracts are due 02 April and if selected, you could be given one of three speaking slots in their online event in May.
- ESI‘s Q4 continued an improving trend since Q2 with total revenue down 10%. They call 2020 a rebuilding year.
- Siemens’ PLM software business was flat during the calendar quarter ending in December but the forecast for 2021 overall is 8-12% growth.
- The authors of Automated integration of extract-based CFD results with AR/VR in engineering education for practitioners see AR/VR as means for democratizing use of CFD. (In other words, getting actionable insights out of CFD solutions is too difficult with current practices and methods.) Purchase required for the full paper.
- Here’s Visualizing Data’s best of the visualization web for November 2020.
- Houston’s Imaginationeering [not Disney’s Imagineering] is a CFD consultancy.
- ANSYS is taking a survey about ANSYS Discovery. Why not share your thoughts?
- ENGYS is involved in developing ML-enhanced simulation tools.

Jobs
- Siemens Digital Industries has openings for
- Imperial College London has an opening for a Research Assistant/Associate in CFD.
- Pointwise has an opening for an Applications Engineer in mesh generation.
Events
- The von Karman Institute is offering an online, introductory course on OpenFOAM on 15-16 March.
- The 4th International Conference in Numerical and Experimental Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles and Trains (Aerovehicles 4) will be held on 23-25 August 2021 in Berlin. It is currently planned as an in-person event. Abstracts are due by 14 May.
- The 2nd Automotive CFD Prediction Workshop (AutoCFD 2) will be held at the same location on 26-27 August.

Software
- CPACS (Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Schema) is “a data definition for the air transportation system. CPACS enables engineers to exchange information between their tools. It is therefore a driver for multi-disciplinary and multi-fidelity design in distributed environments.”
- Only true geometers will be interested in reading about SolidWorks’ boundary surface feature.
- The Turbulence Simulation Group at Imperial College London is responsible for the Xcompcat3d suite of flow solvers.
- The QuickerSim CFD Toolbox is now part of the Altair Partner Alliance.
- VCollab is now available to MSC Software’s customers through MSCOne.
- Curious about running an FEA simulation in OnScale? Here’s your how-to article.
- Altair Simulation 2021 has been released.
- ITI launched CADfix Viz for converting CAD models for use in AR/VAR apps.
- Zenotech released PyEPIC for workflow management for their cloud platform.
CFD for…
- the 2021 Audi RS3 LMS, “designed completely using CFD.”
- building simulation.
- Red Bull Formula-1 (in the sense that the team’s poor on-track results are being blamed partially on CFD)
- a bladeless wind turbine that relies on vortex induced vibration

From Pointwise
- We’ve written the white paper Preparation of Geometry Models for Mesh Generation and CFD and made it available for free (registration required). Check it out and let me know what you think.
- We recently updated our handy Y+ Calculator app for iOS and Android. Get yours from the App Store or Google Play and impress your friends at parties. See the details on our website.
- To learn what the app does, here’s a video explainer on YouTube that someone (not us) made. [Thank you, sir.]
- Pointwise V18.4 R3 was released and now includes a native interface to the AzoreCFD flow solver.
MORPH
It doesn’t look like much in a still photo so head over to MindBuffer’s website to see the video of MORPH in (inter)action.
Bonus: Simple geometry shows how to easily slice a pizza so you and a friend get equal amounts.
P.S. Thank you to everyone who reached outby email and social media to see how folks at Pointwise were weathering the blackout and related problems here in Texas. We appreciate your messages of support.