I'm still faced with the same problem........ trying to subtract the volume of a solid constructed in ProE from a cylinder made in GAMBIT. I tried importing the file as IGES, STEP and PARASOLID. My aim is to subtract the volume of the solid from the volume of the cylinder to get the flow domain and mesh the flow domain. But then, I always get an error message saying: CAN'T OPERATE ON VOLUME (of the solid) WITH NON- REAL GEOMETRY.

What can I do to get this fixed? Tried all possible means......... is there any other way it can be done?

You're either importing virtual geometry, or your causing your geometry to go virtual. I've never seen Gambit import an iges or step as virtual (that direct Pro/E import add-on for Gambit that you can buy will import the geomtry as virtual, so don't use that... export a Step or Iges from your CAD package and import them directly into Gambit) so that implies that you're doing something to the geometry before you try subtracting it or that there is something hung in the memory. Your steps should be:

1) Import Geometry (I have the best luck with STEP files, but IGES files usually work for me as well... I've never bothered with PARASOLIDs) 2) Create Cylinder using real geometry (either extruding a circular face, or creating a cylinder directly) 3) Subtract your imported geometry from the cylinder 4) Perform any volume decomposition (splitting the volume to aid in meshing) 5) Once you're confident in the geometry setup, then you can start merging faces together 6) If you're using sizing functions then apply them now 7) Mesh your geometry (usually you'll mesh faces then the volume) 8) Apply BCs and export the mesh

Do not perform any geometry cleanup commands before trying to subtract the volume. Once you go virtual, there's nothing you can do with the volume other than mesh it (and split or merge faces and edges). I recommend starting from a new file (so you have a completely blank slate to work from so there's no virtual geometry hung up in the memory) and go in the order I described above. Sometimes you'll get an "ACIS Error" if this happens when you try and subtract the geometry, then try healing the imported geometry (this keeps the geometry real) and then try subtracting it again. Usually this will fix it for you.

Hope this helps, and good luck, Jason

Thanks a lot, Jason and Renato- for all the help! I could at last mesh the flow field.

Regards, Vidya

[mazhar1613]

hi!
i m new student of CFD. i hav developed a model in pro\e wildfire 2.0. for simplicity, i hav developed an annular pipe of lingth 253in or simply a annulus space b/w them(hollow pipe). i m saving as a copy in iges formate for gambit. but when i perform direct vol meshing,it could not mesh the whole pipe. when i 1st mesh the edges along the length of pipe and then perform vol meshing, it meshes the whole pipe like a solid pipe.
plz, tel me the detail steps for pro\e model exporting to gambit and perform mesh.
i will b g8ful 2 u!

[-mAx-]

can you post pictures? it would be easier to understand