Introduction

Introduction#

An introduction to the basic features of the Flow360 WebUI including navigation and key concepts.

Contents#

Section

Contents

Dashboard

Navigation manual through the Flow360 Dashboard

Starting a project

Guidelines on how to start a project

Workbench layout

The layout of the project workbench

General workflow

The example of a general workflow in the application

Project tree

Description of the project tree and the concept of a project

Keyboard shortcuts

Available keyboard shortcuts in the Flow360 WebUI

Project settings

Configuration and metadata for projects and simulation runs

Workspaces

Your private workspace, the company shared workspace, and moving projects between them

Detailed Descriptions#

Dashboard#

The Dashboard serves as the central hub for managing and monitoring your CFD projects in Flow360. It provides an intuitive overview of your simulations, resources, and project status.

  • Recent Projects: Grid view of recent CFD projects with status indicators, project details, and quick actions.

  • FlexCredits: Displays your available computation credits.

  • Pending Resources: Overview of computational resources in use, including running, queued, diverged, or failed jobs.

  • Start with the Example: Quick-start option for new users with pre-prepared simulation scenarios.

Starting a Project#

This section guides you through creating a new project in Flow360, whether starting from geometry, surface mesh, or volume mesh.

  • New Project Form: Entry point for creating CFD simulations, allowing selection of workflow type, solver version, units, and description.

  • Creation Methods:

    • From geometry: Upload CAD files for automated meshing.

    • From surface mesh: Use a pre-generated surface mesh.

    • From volume mesh: Use a pre-generated volume mesh.

  • Supported Formats: ESP, EGADS, STEP, IGES, ACIS, STL, CGNS, and more.

  • Key Fields: Project name, solver version, unit, description, and creation method.

Workbench Layout#

The Flow360 workbench provides an interface for CFD simulations, with defined regions for setup, visualization, and analysis.

  • Viewer Region: Central 3D workspace for geometry, mesh, and results visualization.

  • Simulation Setup/Analysis Panel: Control panel for all simulation parameters and settings.

  • Entities Browser: Tools for visual representation and inspection of model and results.

  • Coordinate System: Persistent indicator of axes orientation and view direction.

  • Top Navigation Bar: Main navigation and tool selection area.

  • Bottom Status Bar: Displays operation status, progress, and inspector tools.

  • Viewer Bar: Switches between geometry, mesh, and visualization modes, also contains entity selection tools.

General Workflow#

This section outlines the systematic approach to setting up and running CFD simulations using the Flow360 GUI.

  • Setup: Configure simulation parameters in a top-to-bottom sequence.

  • Verify: Use the inspector tool to check setup completeness and resolve errors.

  • Run: Initiate the simulation, including automated meshing if starting from geometry.

  • Monitor: Track simulation progress and analyze results in real time.

  • Visualize: Inspect mesh and results using the interactive 3D viewer.

Project Tree#

The project tree is a hierarchical visualization of your CFD workflow, from geometry to results. It helps track progress and navigate between stages.

  • Icons: Represent geometry, surface mesh, volume mesh, case, fork, and draft states.

  • Structure: Flexible hierarchy supporting geometry-first, surface-mesh-first, and volume-mesh-first workflows.

  • Branching: Supports multiple branches at each level for mesh sensitivity, parameter studies, and continuation runs (forks).

  • Component Actions: Open in workbench, create new run, interpolate, rename, view details, expand/collapse, delete.

Project Settings#

The Project Settings panel provides access to project-level configuration, run settings, and project metadata. This panel allows you to manage project properties, configure units, and view project statistics.

  • Run Settings: Configuration options for the current simulation run, including units system, mesher options, solver version, and run statistics.

  • Project Details: Project-level metadata including project name, ID, folder location, tags, description, and project cost.

  • Units Management: Change all units in the setting system at once through the units system configuration.

  • Mesher Options: Toggle between standard and AI-powered surface meshing, and enable beta mesher features.

  • Statistics: View detailed timing information, FlexCredit costs, and status for runs and projects.

Workspaces#

Workspaces are the top-level containers for projects. Every user has a private workspace, and companies can enable a shared workspace where the whole team works on the same projects.

  • Workspace selector: Switch between your private workspace and the shared workspace from the top of the left sidebar.

  • Shared projects: Projects in the shared workspace are visible to every member of the company; a draft opened by one member is read-only for the others while it is open.

  • Moving projects: Move projects between the private and the shared workspace from the project list.