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CAD Import Module

Import CAD Files into COMSOL Multiphysics® with the CAD Import Module

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COMSOL has the best multiphysical simulation capabilities in my experience. Technical support from Elisa at TECHNIC as well as the engineers at COMSOL has been great.

Dr Gyani Shankar Sharma, UNSW Sydney

COMSOL is an important part of our research in plasma physics. We use it in the design of plasma systems and it helps us to obtain a greater understanding of the underlying physics.  We have always valued the quick support from TECHNIC and COMSOL and it has been a pleasure to work with them.

Associate Professor Cormac Corr, Department of Materials Physics, Australian National University.

Comsol has become a valuable part of our design and decision making process.  The exceptional flexibility and access to the physics and solvers in Comsol has allowed us to have deeper understanding on thermomechanical solutions.  Technic and Comsol have always been quick and helpful to resolve any issues and provide helpful advice on their products.

Ryan Barron, Rakon Ltd

At Scion we use COMSOL Multiphysics to understand energy processes, such as the interplay of non-linear solid mechanics and heat & mass transfer during biomass compaction, to design new or more efficient processes.

Muthasim Fahmy, Scion Engineering

We use COMSOL Multiphysics to design the customised muffler.  With it, we can simulate the insertion loss at different spectrum with different muffler designs.

Lisa Li, Barclay Engineering

Importing CAD Files

All CAD software supports the export of Parasolid®, ACIS®, STEP, and IGES file formats, which can then be readily imported into COMSOL Multiphysics®. In addition, the CAD Import Module allows you to import the native file formats of a number of CAD systems, such as SOLIDWORKS®, Inventor®, PTC® Creo® Parametric™, NX™, and AutoCAD®. The separate File Import for CATIA® V5 provides support for importing the native file format for this system. When you have installed the CAD Import Module, all CAD files are automatically converted to a Parasolid® geometry using the Parasolid® geometry engine that is included with the module. These geometries can subsequently be changed by the tools within COMSOL Multiphysics® and the CAD Import Module, including, for instance, a conscious change to the geometry. An example of this is creating a model domain around a CAD design, such as an enclosure for use in, for example, a CFD, acoustics, or electromagnetics analysis. Most CAD models are geometries of the objects to be manufactured, and simulation may be used to model the phenomena around this object, such as the flow of air. When these changes have been made, the CAD Import Module can export them in the IGES, STEP, Parasolid® or ACIS® file formats for import into other tools.

Supported Formats for File Import

Note that not all file formats are supported on all operating systems; for details, see the system requirements.

File Format
Extension
Version
Import
Export

Processing Geometry for Analysis

When running a finite element analysis, cleaning up the geometry for the analysis is just as important as importing the geometry itself. The CAD Import Module contains the necessary tools for repairing geometry that inherits errors upon transfer, defeaturing geometry that is overly detailed, and removing geometric entities that cause unnecessarily fine meshes.

Repair a Geometry on Import
Defeature a Geometry for Analysis
Perform Virtual Geometry Operations to Simplify Mesh
Interfacing Directly with CAD Software
The goal of building the CAD model is to obtain a digital representation of the real product. This digital version contains the 3D geometry of the product together with the information needed for manufacturing it. While a 3D CAD geometry is usually true to the real object it represents, small and hardly noticeable anomalies can occur throughout the geometry. This may be due to numerical limitations in the computer's ability to represent complex shapes, limitations of some older CAD file format, human errors, or translation of the data between file formats. These small anomalies may result in, for example, faces that do not meet exactly at the edges or inconsistent face normals and edge directions. In turn, this may lead to problems with forming valid, watertight geometric objects when generating a mesh within COMSOL Multiphysics®. Therefore, geometry repair is always performed by default during the import process to get you started with your simulations.
In addition to the automatic repair that occurs on import, the CAD Import Module provides features that allow you to manually repair your CAD models after import. You can, for example, manually select faces and knit them together to form a solid using a specified tolerance to close gaps. Alternatively, you can automatically locate the edges of gaps and use these edges as input to generate a new face that covers the gap and forms a solid.
Once the CAD model has been properly repaired, it may still be difficult to use in a simulation due to the complexities of the geometry and the number of small geometric features in the model. If not removed from the geometry before meshing, these features may lead to an overly inflated number of mesh elements, and therefore, require more computational resources than necessary.

While some features, such as fillets, grooves, threads, and holes, are required for an eventual manufacture, they may not always be relevant to an overall simulation of the CAD model. The CAD Import Module has the tools to remove them and simplify the geometry. You can delete fillets and chamfers; fill holes; and delete groups of faces, replacing them with a uniform surface through filling or patching.

Other unwanted features may have resulted from the CAD modelling and import process itself, like small faces, sliver faces, spikes, and short edges, for instance. For these unintentional features, you can select their type in an interface and specify a tolerance value to identify and remove all occurrences of this geometric feature. Defeaturing can also be performed automatically as part of the import process, utilising the same tolerances specified for repairing.
Performing virtual geometry operations is similar to the defeaturing process, except that the imported geometry remains unchanged. Instead of changing the geometry, the virtual geometry operations instruct the mesher to ignore certain features that either do not influence the simulation greatly or are not particularly relevant to the desired simulation. The meshing subsequently takes place on a virtual geometry. Such operations involve ignoring vertices, edges, and faces; forming composite edges and faces; collapsing edges and faces; and more.

There are two ways to employ virtual geometry operations. The faces, edges, and vertices to be ignored can be manually selected, but there is also an automatic Remove Details operation to automatically recognise and remove small features by using a sequence of virtual operations (which can then be edited as necessary).

These operations are included in the base package, COMSOL Multiphysics®, and are a great complement to the defeaturing tools of the CAD Import Module. This functionality is particularly useful when the features of the geometry cannot be easily removed through defeaturing or repair, or when the simulation requires you to keep the curvature of the geometry intact.
You can choose from a large material database that includes:

The CAD Import Module provides tools to ensure a smooth transition of a geometry from a CAD software to your COMSOL Multiphysics® analysis, which is perfect for a CAE engineer who does not have access to the CAD program. If you are a CAD user who is looking for a CAE tool, the LiveLink™ products from COMSOL provide additional functionality to connect your CAD system directly with COMSOL Multiphysics®. The synchronisation feature in the LiveLink™ products automatically updates the geometry in one program when changes are made in the other. With the LiveLink™ products, you avoid the import/export and reimporting of the entire CAD geometry when you want to make changes for further analysis. Additionally, parametric sweeps can automatically be run based on a geometric entity such as the length of an edge, and you can even run analyses to optimise the CAD geometry based on result parameters.

The list of current products that contain this functionality are as follows:

 

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Every business and every simulation need is different.

In order to fully evaluate whether or not the COMSOL Multiphysics® software will meet your requirements, you need to contact us. By talking to one of our sales representatives, you will get personalised recommendations and fully documented examples to help you get the most out of your evaluation and guide you to choose the best license option to suit your needs.

Fill in your contact details and any specific comments or questions, and submit. You will receive a response from a sales representative within one business day.

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