Ansys Workbench: Tips and Tricks

Meshing:
Flowthrough / Continuous mesh
- This is accomplished in Ansys Classic through the use of the VGLUE command. It basically knitts the shared surfaces of two volumes forcing node-to-node continuity. In Workbench you simply select the desired bodies in the Design Modeler and use "Form new part." Now when you bring them into simulation contact will not be formed between them, instead the elements at the shared surface will be joined by sharing nodes.


Errors:
"Failed to submit solve job"
- I'm not sure exactly why this error came about, as indicated by it's relative vagueness, but by simply closing other programs and remeshing I was able to get it to solve.

CAD/FEA Tips and Tricks

Being of generation Y, I have grown up using the web as my infinite help file, diy resource, and general question answerer. If I have a random thought or question my first "quick-glance" resource is to type it in a search engine in the form of a question, "how thick is a human hair?" Having recently entered the workforce I continue the same habit even when it invoves using much more advanced tools, "how do I [insert something relatively advanced/complicated] in [inster program]." When using programs like Solidworks, Unigraphics, Ansys Classic or Ansys Workbench the web is almost devoid (not entirely though) of usefull suggestions or explainations of even the most common problems. As a result, from now on when I figure out a unwebumented issue I'll try and post it.


Here is an index of the relevant tool/program posts: (if it isn't hyperlinked, that means it hasn't been created yet)

• Ansys Workbench
• Ansys Classic
• Unigraphics NX 6
• Solidworks 2009

FTP Server Capacity Upgrade: Adding a Second Drive to the DNS-323

For the past couple months the server has been sitting at around 95-99% capacity, which on a 1TB drive means about 950-990GB of data. Six months ago was the first time the server filled up and as a result I was relegated to DVD burning duty for an entire weekend. As it becomes harder and harder to choose which programs/movies/shows to take of the server I decided (with the helpful funds of an anonymous contributor) to invest in increasing the capacity of the server by 1.5X. Here's the drive that I purchased:

• Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM

Last night the server went down for a couple hours while I added and formatted the second drive. For those of you with a DNS-323 of your own be sure to remove the first drive or when asked to format it can wipe the original! After adding a second drive I now have a bit of a file structure issue. Because I'm not using any form of raid, both drives show up a separate volumes and as such, I need to chose which files to migrate to the new drive. The division needs to make sense and be somewhat functional. Decisions, decisions. In the meantime, the server is back up, happy downloading!

The addition of this drive brings my entire hard drive data space (if we include CDs and DVDs the number roughly doubles) to... 1TB+1.5TB+500GB+500GB+160GB+320GB = ~4TB!!!

What Grinds My Gears - Take 4

Today's grind my gears is going to have a work related theme. I wonder why...

• The use of stock clipart in business presentations. Seriously, are we in 5th grade still where this is acceptable?
  
• The use of ridiculously large picture files in presentations when they are only going to be made the size of a thumbnail. Resize people! (20mb 5 slide presentation is unacceptable)


• Out of control acronyms (Universities are just as bad sometimes)


• Phrases like, "think outside the box," "exciting time to be in this business"

The Ultimate Backup Solution

I'm not a stranger to data loss. I have had a total of 4 hard drive failures, 2 of which resulted in important (personal) data loss, of which one was successfully recovered by a data specialist company, one of which all hope was lost. Read: gone forever.

I definitely took these experiences in stride, and learned to adjust my data habits to be more resilient to hard drive failures, or freak accidents. Here is opinion of an ultimate backup solution:

1. Digital Backups - these are a must for catching small data losses in between the complete hardware backups

• SyncBack - I can't say enough good things about this program. It is by far the most user friendly and quickest to set up, but at the same time remains completely customizable for power users like myself. And to top it off, it's FREE. Make sure to do test runs and periodically make sure it has completed runs. Haven't had a problem yet, but you can't be too sure.
• Weekly - at a bare minimum they should be weekly backups, and if you're constantly taking pictures/movies or working on projects it should really be daily.
• Completely Different Hard Drive - this is a must. If you just back up the data to a different location on the same drive you might save yourself from the most benign data corruption issue, but anything more and you're data is toast, along with your backup. If need be purchase a small external hard drive or at the rate thumb/flash drive capacities are increasing one of those might work.

2. Hardcopy Backups - If anyone tells you that having just a digital backup is adequate, they clearly haven't met Murphy. That and something called an electrical spike.

• CD/DVD Media (Tape is even better if you have enough of it) - Make sure to get a decent quality brand. You'll know you don't have one if your recording fails more than once in 10 or so discs. (either that or you're trying to multitask too much or your computer sucks)
• Twice A year / 6 Months - I have found this to be a sufficiently frequent yet not too consuming time period between backups. If it helps, use occasions such as the new year and then mid summer to remind that it's time to backup.
• Bare Minimum - for this backup I recommend doing just the bare minium of My Documents/Videos/Pictures etc because you don't want to go through too many DVDs and make the task too arduous.
• Protection - Be sure not to put these backup discs back on a spool (the 25-50 set holders) because they're too prone to scratching and other damage. Instead pick up a cheap $5 disc case and use that.
• Firesafe or Emergency Box - This one isn't required but if you're like me and your entire life is stored in a digital library I recommend putting your hardcopy backups in a small firesafe or one of those emergency boxes with your important documents. It doesn't take up much space and you can grab it quickly in an emergency.

3. Cloud Backup - I have yet to find a cost effective and speedy enough service to place my digital files online for extended periods of time in the form of backups. But this is definitely an option and one that will be increasingly viable as we move towards cloud computing (all data online).

As any conscious netizen should do, please do your own research and make up your own mind. Don't blame me for anything that happens to your data, my suggestions are exactly that. That being said, I hope that I may have said something that will help your data be more secure.

What Grinds My Gears - Take 3

Another edition of what grinds my gears. Feel free to contribute your own and I'll post them in the next edition.

• Guys who put on underwear/pants last (even after socks!) when changing
• People who stand ridiculously close behind you when you're using an ATM
• People who take up both gas pumps with their car
• People who stop at a light really close to the car in front of them so they can't start moving until the car in front gets far enough away. (I may come up with a mathmatical model to prove how dumb they are)
• People who assume a $200 camera will take as good a picture as a $2000 one... SERIOUSLY!?

Cross-fire FTW: Benchmarks of Improvement

Yesterday I received a first-of-a-kind package, my first second GPU! This is quite the milestone in my book. I've always wanted to have two GPU's in one of my desktops and I finally decided it was worth it to put off an upgrade for 6-12 months. Here's what I ordered:

• SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
• Thermaltake A2018 120mm Blue LED Case Fan - Retail

I decided to throw the fan in for good measure because one of my fans has been periodically turning off and with two GPU's I don't want to risk an overheat. Plus... it's BLUE!

My original card is:

• DIAMOND Viper 3870PE4512SB Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

For the love of me I can't figure out why I originally paid twice as much for the Diamon card when I could have gotten two Sapphire's for the same amount. Other than the fact that it had a full 5 eggs, takes up two expansion slots and is pretty (also possibly factory overclocked) they're basically the same card. So now I have the Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3870 512MB cross-fired with a Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB. Just like Dyno-ing a stock car before you mod it (LINK TO POST ABOUT MODDERS), of course I had to benchmark my computer to get the before and after performance. I am more than happy with the percentage performance improvement for the given cost - compared to upgrading the system. Here are the numbers:

I'm not sure why the CPU scaled up at all but it's not that significant when compared to the overall score improvement which is ~35%. That's pretty huge if you ask me. I know it's not double, but I wasn't expecting perfectly scaled results. Who knows... maybe overclocking is what I need to get that CPU score somewhere respectable. [Insert diabolical laugh]