Best Practices for Importing CAD

Hello all,

Looking for some solutions or tips for importing CAD, appreciate any help :slight_smile:

When importing CAD models (.stl files) into Molflow, is there an ideal way of modeling that is easier to be handled by Molflow?

I have tried hollow tubes and components, but there might be leaks in some of the internal geometry.

Then you can create a solid component that is matches the volume of the internal component volume, though it does not seem to allow for leaks as the molecules are trapped inside the geometry (due to it having solid inlet and outlet.

Let me know if there is any way that works best that I can try. Thank you.

I’ve put some advice here: Documentation: designing geometries for Molflow | Molflow+

With even some tutorials for SpaceClaim and Autodesk Inventor.

Modeling for any simulation (not just Molflow) is usually the hard part. For a proper model and CAD exporter, there shouldn’t be any leaks, internal or external.

Here at CERN we usually try either to model the internal volume, or export to Molflow with the real model, swap the normals, and use Smart Select to remove the unnecessary outer layer. Usually models coming from CAD editors are leaktight after collapse.

Great, thank you for that Marton. I have had some luck modeling within the software’s design features and the video webinar proved very helpful in modeling general combinations of pipes.