I was really happy to hear about the Autodesk Simulation transfer utility back in April 2012 when I attended the Autodesk Media Summit. The utility allows Simulation users to export results visualizations as models that can be rendered in Autodesk Showcase. It’s a pretty nifty idea.
Autodesk Exchange App Store
The utility is not yet incorporated into the products, but is available for free from the Autodesk Exchange, their App Store. The store is broken down by products. In the image below, I’ve pulled up the Autodesk Exchange Simulation Section.
Autodesk Simulation CFD Add-Ins
Once installed (and restarted), the Export FBX utility will be found in a new Ribbon tab named Add-ins. This option will export most any results visualization, including traces and planes.
Autodesk Showcase
The resulting FBX file can then be added to an existing project by way of the Import functionality in the application menu. Showcase will then translate the data, and place it in the project at its origin point, using its original units.
Tip: Be very aware of the units in all projects concerned. Translating these results in Showcase is not for the faint of heart.
Materials can be applied to the results as well, but disrupt the colored results pattern. Be aware however that once the material is applied, the results colorations will be removed. No UNDO functionality appears to be available for this.
Tip: Use the ‘O’ hotkey in Showcase to show the Organize dialog. There you can see your traces and other project models. While working with the results models, I usually keep this dialog open.
