2.1 Importing Mesh, Case, and Data Files

You can directly import a FLUENT case or mesh file into a FLUENT-based system by right-clicking on the Setup cell and selecting the Import FLUENT Case... option from the context menu. You will be prompted for a specific case or mesh file. After you select a file, FLUENT launches and loads the file you specified. If you import a case file, the physical model settings, boundary condition information, material properties and solver settings are also loaded into FLUENT.

When you import a case file in which the number of iterations (or time-steps) specified in the Run Calculation task page is greater than 0, the state of the Setup cell becomes Up-to-Date and the state of the Solution cell becomes Refresh Required.

When you import a mesh file or a case file in which the number of iterations (or time-steps) specified in the Run Calculation task page is 0, the state of the Setup cell becomes Attention Required because additional information must be specified in FLUENT before you can proceed.

If you import a case or mesh file into a system that contains a Mesh cell, you are informed that the imported information will not be compatible with the information coming from the Mesh cell and asked whether the Mesh cell (and Geometry cell, if it also exists) should be deleted and replaced by the mesh from the imported file.

If you import a case or mesh file into a system that has a connection to a Mesh cell in an upstream system, you are informed that the mesh is being provided to the current system from an upstream system and asked whether the connection should be deleted and the mesh replaced with the mesh from the imported file.

If a case or mesh file is imported into a Setup cell that already has settings information associated with it, the settings information is deleted when the new file is imported.

You can also directly import a FLUENT data file into a FLUENT-based system by right-clicking on the Solution cell and selecting the Import Initial Data... option from the context menu. You will be prompted for a data file. Importing a data file does not affect the state of the system. This option is not available if FLUENT is already open or an incoming connection is providing data.

When case and data files are imported into FLUENT, they are treated as start-up files and not results files. Therefore, when you import a case and data file from a previous calculation, the state of the Solution cell becomes Refresh Required and not Up-to-Date.

In order to post-process the results from an existing set of case and data files in ANSYS CFD-Post, at least one iteration (or time-step) must be performed in FLUENT from within Workbench in order to bring the state of the Solution cell to Up-to-Date. Alternatively, if you do not intend to perform any calculations, you could create a Results component system, double-click on its Results cell to open ANSYS CFD-Post and then load the FLUENT data file using the Load Results option under the File menu in ANSYS CFD-Post.

Alternatively, you can also import pre-existing mesh, case, and data files from within FLUENT by using one of the following options:

File $\rightarrow$ Import $\rightarrow$ Case...

File $\rightarrow$ Import $\rightarrow$ Data...

File $\rightarrow$ Import $\rightarrow$ Case and Data...

When mesh, case, and data files are imported from within FLUENT using these commands, the behavior is exactly the same as when files are imported from the Project Schematic.

In addition, you can also import the mesh from pre-existing mesh and case files from within FLUENT by using the following option:

File $\rightarrow$ Import $\rightarrow$ Mesh...

When using this command, you are given two options:

Discard Case, Read New Mesh   - this discards any settings information currently in FLUENT and imports the specified file. If the specified file is a case file, the settings information from that case file is also imported.

Replace Mesh   - this preserves the settings information currently in FLUENT and imports only the mesh from the specified file.