Creo Flow Analysis - Are you ready for Electrification Webcast Replay

Chapter Summaries

• 0:00 – Welcome & Agenda: Panelists, Q&A Setup, Session Overview Dana opens the CFD for Creo webinar and introduces panelists Rich Moore, Alex Zhang, and Li Shi from Simerics along with Todd Kraft and Tom Quaglia from PTC, then Rich previews the agenda covering Creo Flow Analysis fit, roadmap, and an electrification demo.
• 2:07 – PTC Digital Thread & Simerics Partnership: Analyst-Grade CFD in Creo Rich explains how Creo Flow Analysis brings the "unseeable" fluids and heat into the digital thread with full associativity, positioning Simerics Incorporated as PTC's strategic partner to deliver analyst-level CFD alongside high-end packages like Simerics MP, Ansys Fluent, and Star-CCM+.
• 5:20 – CFA Packages, Digital Thread Integration & Business Value Walkthrough of the Base, Plus, and Premium tiers (fluids/heat, radiation, moving/sliding mesh, cavitation, multi-phase, multi-component dynamics) plus the new Creo Flow Analysis RT real-time capability included in 2022, and integrations with Creo Simulate, Vuforia Studio, and Windchill for FSI, animated streamlines, and configuration management.
• 9:53 – Binary Tree Mesher, Fast Solver & On-Model Painting Rich details the three technical pillars behind CFA's speed: an automatic body-fitted binary tree mesh that adapts to sharp edges and complex Creo geometry, a solver that runs roughly 50% fewer iterations than competitors, and real-time result painting directly on the Creo model — enabling 2,000+ users across 400+ companies to run CFD on standard laptops.
• 12:30 – Creo 9 Enhancements: Expanded Tessellation, Gyroid/Lattice & Quilt Support Todd Kraft covers the two-year Creo 9 development push including a dual boundary-surface + full facet tessellation approach for higher meshing success on complex geometry, new support for gyroid and lattice geometry (heat exchangers), and quilt/non-watertight geometry handling for imported motor models.
• 16:05 – Productivity: Behavioral Modeling Integration, 3D UI Controls & Real-Time Flow New Creo 9 workflow additions including Behavioral Modeling Extension (BMX) hooks for parameterizing CFA outputs like inlet pressure to drive sensitivity, optimization, and feasibility studies, plus in-graphics 3D UI controls for datum planes and CPU-based real-time external flow (with internal flow planned).
• 18:09 – Electrification Vision: Current, Voltage & Magnetic Field Modules Rich outlines the plan to extend Creo Flow Analysis beyond fluids and heat by adding electric field simulation (current and voltage) and magnetic field simulation (direction and strength), giving mechanical Creo users electrical-engineer-caliber capability without requiring EE expertise.
• 21:35 – Live Demo: Venturi Multi-Project Setup & New Tessellation Function Alex Zhang demonstrates the new multi-project feature that stores multiple simulation versions per model and ties them to representations, then builds a Venturi baseline using the tree-based workflow with volumetric flow-rate inlet in ft³/s (new unit systems), showing PTC's faster and more robust dedicated tessellation function.
• 25:16 – New 3D Post-Processing UI, Streamlines & Real-Time Probe Tour of the new 3D UI that links on-screen entities to tree settings for click-to-change variables (velocity magnitude, pressure), animated streamlines with optional Vuforia export via custom shader, and the real-time probe that reports exact contour values on mouseover without setting up monitoring points or XY plots.
• 27:56 – Behavioral Modeling: Sensitivity Studies & Optimization Alex runs a BMX sensitivity analysis linking Venturi inlet radius to calculated outlet pressure, then launches a multi-variable optimization across inlet, outlet, and throat radii to maximize pressure drop — demonstrating iteration steps computed live and doubling baseline pressure with a few clicks.
• 31:19 – Busbar EMAG Demo: Thermal Setup with Polynomial Cp(T) & Binary Tree Mesh Alex sets up an e-motor busbar for a pure heat simulation, showing the Cartesian-cut-cell-style binary tree mesh with no partial cells or shape functions, and models insulation via a polynomial-function-of-T heat capacity plus convection/radiation boundaries with heat transfer coefficient and ambient temperature.
• 37:05 – Adding the Electric Field Module: Conductivity, Total Current & Voltage Boundaries Alex layers the new Electric Field module on top of the thermal project, assigning electrical conductivity to the AC rod, busbar, and terminals, then applies a total current boundary at the inlets and a zero-voltage boundary at the outlet — highlighting the seamless Simerics MP platform integration.
• 41:20 – Verified E-Field, Magnetic Field & Eddy Current Results vs. Analytical Data Alex shows expected slideware results matching lab and analytical solutions for the busbar E-field case, plus magnetic field validation examples including a paramagnetic cylinder in air, a coil-and-plate-with-hole magnetic flux comparison, and eddy current benchmarks.
• 43:15 – Analyst Round-Trip (SPRO/SGRD), Training, PTC Community Resources & Polls Alex demonstrates the SPRO/SGRD project files that let designers hand off CFD-ready Creo assemblies to analysts running Simerics MP on parallel/cluster hardware and back again, then Rich covers eight hours of instructor-led CFA training, Creo Help RANS tutorials, PTC Community how-to videos, and live poll results showing 55% "very interested" in electrification and 38% in magnetic field support.