The purpose of the Déjà Vu project is to expand functionality of the finite element analysis software produced by ANSYS Inc.The ANSYS software package has powerful analysis capabilities and is employed by engineers in many industries to expedite product development and manufacturing. ANSYS operates on CAD models of mechanical parts. It performs simulation of the part’s operation and computes various properties, such as stresses and displacements under application of forces, temperature distributions, resonant frequencies, and many others.
Results of analyses performed by ANSYS are stored in local files residing on the same workstation that was used to perform simulations. The results are then displayed by the ANSYS postprocessor. The postprocessor presents a graphical view of the part under analysis and can color-map various computed properties onto that view.
The postprocessor’s graphical views of the result data can be transformed in many ways, including rotation, zooming, etc. The postprocessor can also produce animations in which the graphical view changes to indicate computed changes of particular properties, such as displacements under a force. In addition, the postprocessor can be used to examine computed values of properties at specific locations on the CAD model.
Currently, the postprocessor runs as a part of the ANSYS executable; full installation of ANSYS and ANSYS software license is required to view analysis results. In order to view analysis results on a workstation not directly connected to the machine where the results were generated, the data has to be manually transferred to that workstation.
This limitation prevents effective use of ANSYS software in a modern collaborative engineering environment. Product development and manufacturing effort is often distributed between different teams or even different companies. To improve coordination and, therefore, speed and quality of product engineering and manufacturing process, simulation results must be easily accessible by all participants. This includes the original designers, management, manufacturing engineers—each of whom may be situated at multiple different physical locations, with distances ranging from ‘across a hall’ to ‘across the world’.
To enable seamless sharing of ANSYS result data, an easy to install and use remote viewer is needed. The Déjà Vu team will work on technology selection and implementation of such viewer. The goals of Déjà Vu project consist of the following:
- Identify distributed technology and software architecture for remote access and viewing of ANSYS result data.
- Develop a stand-alone ANSYS postprocessor that provides basic postprocessor functionality and can be used to view ANSYS result data at a remote workstation.