Autodesk Falcon

[Carlos]

Well, you guys seem, well a little down on Autodesk freeware, just so you can go on-and-on-and-on about what stuff can't do, remember it's freeware - I'm going to write a new thread on freeware recommending 3Dish, CADish freeware over the next little while, so you can just whale away at it. Expect it over next few days.
For Now
Autodesk Falcon doesn't satisfy? Then you haven't heard of Autodesk's Education Program. Would a free student copy of Autodesk Simulation CFD 2013 satisfy? They even will let you download if your in between jobs and unemployed and help you learn a new skill with their free online training University. Can you ask for anything more ?

Autodesk Simulation CFD 2013 Free Education Download Center - and about 30 of their other applications:
http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=home&logout=1

[Carlos]

I've started a thread for Freeware CAD and modeling programs, you can't see it on the frontpage, it's in general chat
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13106&p=358482#p358482

[astracrazy]

well i've signed up, is it really free (Autodesk Simulation CFD 2013)? What's stopping anybody signing up and downloading?

[slimjim8201]

I think many miss the point of this technology preview. This is a labs project released to the public to show off some of the cool things going on in the skunkworks. Project Falcon uses a structured voxel grid and an LES simulation approach. You do have control over grid size, but it's limited to uniform spacing at the moment. In our testing, we've seen very good numbers for accuracy. Assuming the grid is fine enough, you can expect reasonable results.

Given the lack of control on grid spacing, I don't feel that this tech preview is best suited for a geometrically complex design like an F1 car. A more blunt body car shape (a road going production car for instance) would be a better fit.

Interface design, results interrogation techniques, data reporting, and other notable CFD mainstays are all works in progress.

Give it a shot before knocking it. I think its pretty fun to use, especially for someone new to CFD. It requires VERY little effort from the user.

[Wuestenmaus]

Let's hope this software is more stable than Autocad 2013 on Windows 7

[denny]

Hey guys, thought it would be worth letting everyone know an update to Falcon was just posted. An overview video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX2RwUVLBpk

Some of the primary updates:

Pressure shading on surfaces (shows pressure distribution)
More easily adjustable mesh resolution and size/position of the air domain
Solver performance and speed improvements
Windows and Mac OSX compatible
Reads in a wide variety of geometry formats (STL, OBJ, 3DS, 2D image files and others)

[etsmc]

A New version of this product has been released.

[gixxer_drew]

Fun to play with, very simple GUI. Its sort of like a CFD trainer for kids or something.

Seemed worthless for any serious effort. Nothing you couldn't learn better buying an 1/18th scale toy car and running the garden hose over it. It tolerates crap geometry which is nice, but then the accuracy gets even worse. I tried a model with holes in it (surface model) and air was just flowing right though and out the back so that feature seems for nothing.

I stuck a GT car model in there for fun to see how it compared to tunnel or other CFD values. I'll be kind and say they were "wildly inaccurate".

[astracrazy]

why use this when you can not get khamsin for free (non commercial that is)

[CottrellGP]

why use this when you can not get khamsin for free (non commercial that is)

We do but many of us dont know how to set Khamsin up.

[astracrazy]

theres plenty of info 1 page back on the khamsin challenge page