Reading Time: 10 minutes
Target audience: new-to-Luminary or unfamiliar with the Tags functionality
In this Tutorial
This tutorial will guide you through the process of setting up a model in Luminary using the new Tags functionality, covering the following steps:
Creating tags in a CAD package
Importing the CAD file with tags into Luminary
Managing tags (creating, deleting, and assigning tags to surfaces and volumes)
Applying settings to your geometry using tags
By the end of this tutorial, we'll demonstrate how tags can propagate from your CAD model through model setup to reduce the time required to group surfaces, and simplify the application of boundary conditions to your model.
For this tutorial, we'll be working with a parasolid model of a wing and engine, called the Cranked Plaftorm. The tags have already been created in the CAD model for you, but we will walk through the steps starting from the CAD package to provide you with a full understanding of the end-to-end workflow.
Let's Get Started
In Luminary open your Projects tab and click New Project. Browse to the Tutorial tab and click the "Cranked Platform: Tags" Sample Project to create a new Project where you will run this Tutorial.
This Project will already have the geometry loaded, and it has been migrated to the Setup environment. Simulation settings have already been applied as well, however mesh parameters have not.
Overview: Creating and Importing Tags
Before importing your CAD geometry into Luminary, organize your CAD geometry for simulation. This has already been done for the model that we will be using in this tutorial.
Use assembly names, surface names, colors, or selection sets to group entities in your CAD package. See the compatibility matrix for CAD metadata here.
Ensure naming conventions in the CAD model align with project requirements to maximize reusability.
Group geometry entities (e.g., surfaces and volumes) that share similar properties or roles, such as engine surfaces or wing volumes.
Tip: the purpose of organizing your geometry before import is to simplify the application of simulations settings (meshing parameters, boundary conditions, physics, etc.) and reduce the time spent in simulation setup. It also allows you to reuse the settings in a new project for the same or a similar geometry.
After preparing your CAD file, import it into Luminary:
Create a new blank project.
On the File Upload modal, click Browse and select your file.
During import, Luminary will auto-generate tags based on CAD metadata (e.g., names, colors, and selection sets). These tags will appear in the Geometry Tree.
Importing Tags
The Geometry tree is located on the left side of the screen, and contains: Tags, Surfaces, and Volumes.
Tags are Luminary's mechanism for organizing and referencing geometric entities within the platform. Tags are strings that are associated with geometric entities, and a single Tag can apply to any number of entities. Tags are automatically imported from the metadata of the underlying CAD geometry, including names, selection sets, colors, etc. You can read more about Tags here.
Once your CAD geometry is imported, you can manage tags directly within the UI, with full flexibility to:
Rename tags
Add or remove tags
Organize tags to fit specific project structures
In this model, three tags have been automatically imported: Engine, Structure, and Wing:
The Engine and Structure surface groups can be seen under Surfaces. The surfaces within these surface groups have automatically been applied to the Engine and Structure tags. The surface groups are purely for organizational purposes in the UI; all settings are applied using tags as a reference, allowing for flexible geometry management and the reuse of settings in new projects.
In this example, the Engine tag contains the Engine volume:
The Structure tag contains the Structure Volume:
And the Wing tag contains all of the Engine and Structure surfaces:
Applying Settings Using Tags
Before continuing, we need to create a farfield to encapsulate the wing. Select Farfield from the geometry modification toolbar at the top of the screen. Keep the default values and click Apply. You'll notice a new tag called Farfield is created automatically, and is associated with the farfield surfaces. You'll also notice that a tag named Fluid has been created. The newly created fluid volume is automatically assigned to it. Similarly, the Wing tag now contains the wing and engine surfaces.
Select Load to Setup. The geometry check process will begin to ensure that the geometry is ready for model setup and meshing.
Once the geometry check process is complete, we'll set up the model physics:
Under Physics in the Physics Checklist, expand Fluid Flow 1 and select Volume Selection.
Click Clear All and click in the box. From the geometry tree, expand the Tags section and select the Fluid tag.
Click the plus (+) sign next to Boundary Conditions, and select Wall.
Click in the Surfaces box and select the Wing tag from the geometry tree to assign the wall boundary condition to all of the wing surfaces.
Click the plus (+) sign next to Boundary Conditions, and select Farfield.
Click in the Surfaces box and select the Farfield tag from the geometry tree to assign the farfield boundary condition to the farfield surfaces.
This demonstrates how tags can propagate from your CAD model through model setup to reduce the time required to group surfaces, and simplify the application of boundary conditions to your model.