we are happy to announce another update on SimScale featuring a new project-wide unit system and multiple additions to our 3D Viewer! You can get an overview over all new features by having a look at the feature highlight videos. Additionally you can find some detailed info below:
English unit system next to SI
You have now the option to select a unit system based on Inch, Pound, Second and Fahrenheit when creating a new project. Over the past platform updates all properties and values in the UI e.g. in the settings panels, in the viewer and all plots have been updated to display the corresponding unit. Selecting now the English unit system you can define all input values in units that you are comfortable with as for example pressure in pound per square inch (psi) or mass in pound mass (lbm).
We extended the navigation capabilities of our 3D Viewer and added some very helpful highlight features to define and understand simulation setups faster.
Zoom dependent on mouse pointer position
We changed the zoom behavior from zooming always to the middle of the screen to focusing on the current position of the mouse pointer. This makes it very easy to focus on certain details in the model without the need to drag the model around.
Improved navigation via orientation cube
We changed the coordinate axis at the lower left of the viewer into an orientation cube and extended the functionality. You can now easily access all axis-aligned views like e.g. Front, Left, Bottom and also rotate your model 45 degrees around all axes. This feature helps a lot when selecting multiple entities with the box selection tool.
Dominant highlighting of entities
Highlighted entities e.g. hovered, selected or assigned entities are now always visible even if they are covered by a different geometry part. In this case the bounding edges of the entity are displayed dominantly on top of the visible parts. This helps a lot when trying to investigate complex models with many interior components like for example in electronics cooling.
Additionally you can easily get an overview over a simulation setup by walking through the contacts, materials and boundary conditions in the tree.
If you are intested in this application, you can find the light bar model used for the feature highlight video on GrabCAD
It looks as though the 3D viewer enhancements are only in the Mesh Creator and Simulation Designer but not the Post-Processor. Any reason why it is not available for the Post-Processor as well?
Yes: the Post-Processor is based on a different technology and hence technically separate from the 3D viewer in the Mesh Creator or Simulation Designer. We’ll align this later, likely in the scope of a general overhaul of the Post-Processor and enhancement of it’s features.
After this latest update an old bug has resurfaced. When I import a CAD from OnShape, it is faceted and of poor resolution. This problem was addressed in this thread and fixed but it has since reappeared:
I submitted an issue to support last week but no one has responded.
we are aware of this issue. Please note that this is only affecting the visualization of your BRep model in the viewer, not the quality of the model and thus also does not influence your results! We are already working on a fix.
Ok, thanks. I didn’t bother meshing the geometry this time because last time, the meshes came out faceted as well. But this time, it looks like they are smooth and meshed properly.
