Alan,

There doesn't need to be a merger to use ICEM with Fluent. You can do that already. Regarding CFX has "not looking like a proper CFD code" is superficial. Apparently you don't know much about it since you thought ICEM could only be used with CFX.

I use both codes extensively. I prefer CFX.

I have not used CFX but have used both ICEM and Gambit. I would say Gambit looks and feels archaic. So I think that Gambit is going to be dead before long. As far as I know Fluent was not planning a update to Gambit anyway..

I think the merger will spawn even greater competition once the dust settles. Traditional CFD has been the big three. You now instantly make it the big 2 (in simple terms). This will hopefully force these companies to make their products better and maintain their mammoth size.

Otherwise, there are other great codes out there waiting for a piece of the pie. Although there has been alot of time invested in Fluent, CFX and Star. This doesn't give them or us the users the right to let them determine the market. We should set requirements, expectation, functionality etc and they should respond/deliver.

As for the reference that there is no need for automatic meshing. I couldn't disagree more. CFD is becoming more common, like it or not. I don't like the word commodity as it has a negative sound. However, there are guys out there that want to do ball park checks and validations. Automatic meshing is a requirement for these "non-specialists".

I am looking forward to the future as I think there is way more to come than we can imagine today.

-c