ANSYS Fluent Meshing

Release 16 Update

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

R16 Highlights

Usability/Workflow
Performance/Robustness
New Features

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved interface
Graphic tools
Surface meshing/repair
Workflows

Workflow
Improved CAD import options
Minor changes to CAD import panel
Simplified CAD Options panel
Only important options remain

Object Creation
Increased flexibility in Object and
Zone granularity
All combinations are supported
New terminologies
R16

R15

Selecting CAD Faceting will result

in Geometry Objects upon import
Selecting CFD Surface Mesh will
result in Mesh Objects upon import
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Workflow
Exporting from SpaceClaim to Fluent Meshing
Checklist for STL export
Save As STL
Export options
File
For multi-assembly Per component
For single assembly Per body

Resolution: Custom
Deviation: use 1/10 of min-size
Angle: ~ of expected curvature angle
Facet Maximum edge length: ~Max size

This will create one STL per body/part

Fluent Meshing STL import

File > Import > CAD
Multiple file read option
Pattern: *stl
One Object per file
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Workflow
STL import from SpaceClaim
High-quality, conformal faceting
Often results in zero free faces

SpaceClaim
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Fluent Meshing

Model tree

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Improved interface: Model Tree
Model
Access to meshing utilities

Geometry Objects
Note that wrap objects were
unified with mesh objects

Mesh Objects
Face Zone Labels
Represents original CAD/face zones

Volumetric Regions
Essentially the same as Domains

Cell zones
Manage your cell zones from the tree

Unreferenced
Entities that do not belong to any objects
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Context Menu:
Construction Geometry

Note that all construction

tools can be accessible
from Boundary-> Create

Sizing
Scoped Sizing New option
Size Function

Material Points
Periodicity New option
For Size function, wrapper,
prisms, etc.

Groups
Object Management
Opens the Manage Objects panel

Prepare for solve

Previously denoted Cleanup
Deletes all objects, removes post-fix, renames , etc..
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved Workflow with Scoped sizing

Scoped sizing
vs.
Scoped to Objects or Zones
Uses Object Filters, wildcards
or individual selections

Wildcards allow for easy re-use

on new models

Read and Write Controls or

use TUI for scripting

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Size Function
Assigned to Zones
Individual selections only
Need to use groups as a workaround to
assign to Objects
Wildcard only in customized TUI

Manually created

TUI command support only

Improved Workflow
Creating Size Fields using Scoped Sizing
Access to global and local sizing controls
Can be scoped to
Objects or Zones
Mesh, geometry or un-referenced
object types
Wildcard strings or selections

Option to create, modify, delete,

draw, list, write or read scoped
sizing
Compute or delete size fields
Invoke size field filters

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Scale factors

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved Workflow
Size estimation and visualization
Use a Preview tool to estimate
Ability to visualize size field on
local min and max

Ctrl-t + Ctrl-p to access the

Preview Sizes panel

selected zones

Ctrl-t + Ctrl-c to display size contours

Ctrl-y for size probing

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Create Periodicity
Used to create (recover)

matching periodic meshes after meshing

Accessible from Model tree, Scoped sizing and Size Function
Invokes periodic Size function and re-projection of periodic zones during
wrapping
Input the Pivot and Axis for the periodic coordinate system or use Define and 6
points
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2
3

4
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Context Menu:
Geometry Objects - header
Draw all
Select all

Individual objects in the tree

Geometry Objects individual

Draw

Draw the full model

Draw options

Add/remove/select from Graphics

List Selection

Transfer selections from Tree to

open Panels

Diagnostics

Geometry (on Objects)

Connectivity and Quality (on Zones)

Merge

Pop-up menu to assign new Object name

Rename/Change property

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Rename has been expanded to

include property management

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Context Menu:
Geometry Objects - individual
Delete

Objects

Optionally including Faces and Edges

Convert to mesh objects

Wrap

Sub menu with common

operations needed prior to wrapping

Remesh

Will create mesh objects

Advanced

Extract edges
Create intersection loops

Summary

Diagnostics, connectivity
and quality summary

Info

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Cell zone type, priority, face zones and edges zones

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Context Menu:
Mesh Objects individual
Many common operations with
Geometry Objects, with a few
exceptions;

Join/intersect

Starting point for Build Topology

Recover periodic

Linked to the periodicity definition

Auto Mesh
Advanced

Remove Gaps
Sew (global)
Extract edges
Intersection loops creation

Check Mesh

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Same as in Fluent

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Context Menu:
Unreferenced
Entities not belonging to any objects

Unreferenced heading
Draw, Draw option, List Selection and Info

Same as in Objects

Create New Objects

Opens the Create object form

Sub-set of functionalities from Object Manage panel
Can also be accessed from

Delete All

Unreferenced individuals
Example using Cell Zones

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

R16 Highlights

Usability/Workflow
Performance/Robustness
New Features

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved interface
Graphic tools
Surface meshing/Workflow
Volume meshing

Short-cut icons and miscellaneous tools

Tool- tip information is displayed at the top of the screen

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Icons for shortcuts
Tool-tips on top of screen
Entity Selection filter and
common display options
Utility functions
Entity operations on the
bottom

Exposure of Icons will change

depending on selected
entities
Selection options
View operations
Examine options
Loop/Cap creation

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Entities Selection :
Position - Ctrl-x
Point - Ctrl-p
Edge - Ctrl-e
Face - Ctrl-f
Zone - selected - Ctrl-z
Object - Ctrl-b
Edge selection mode - Ctrl-Shift-z
Show Mesh - Ctrl-Shift-e
Show all - Ctrl-Shift-a
Clear All - F2

Example: Entities Operation for Zones:

Information - Ctrl-i
Remesh - Ctrl-shift-r
Hide - Ctrl-shift-h
Separate - Ctrl-shift-s
Isolate - Ctrl-shift-i
Merge - Ctrl-shift-h
Undo - Ctrl-shift-u
Feature capture - Ctrl-shift-f
Rename - Ctrl-shift-n
Yank zone - Ctrl-shift-y
Smooth - F6
Set as Target - Ctrl-s
Repair - Ctrl-r
Delete - Ctrl-w

Improved Workflow
Improvement to Part Management
Change Zone Name/
Property (Ctrl-Shift-n)

Ability to assign:

Zone Name
Boundary type
Wrapper recovery type

Move zones into Objects

using yank (Ctrl-shift-y)

You can transfer zones from

one or several objects into:

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One existing object, or

A new object where the
object name can be changed
Any empty object will be
automatically deleted

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved Feature
Several options of graphics (zone based) remeshing (Ctrl-Shift-r)
Sizing assignment using:
Size Field
Feature angle access

Constant size
Preview

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Icons for graphic short-cuts
Selection, display and examine options

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Icons for graphic
shortcuts
Selection options
View operations
Examine options
Loop/Cap Creation

Selection options
Location (F4)
Box

Visible (Ctrl-Shift-v)
Previous (Ctrl _ )

Polygon (F4)

Deselect last (Esc)

View operations
Similar surface area (Ctrl-Shift-d+ Ctrl-s)
Similar curvature (Ctrl-Shift-d+ Ctrl-c)

Examine operations
Explode (Ctrl-Shift-x)
Transparent (Ctrl-Shift-t)

Centroid (Ctrl-l)
SF Size (Ctrl-y)

Distance (Ctrl-d)

Create Loop
(Ctrl-Shift-l)
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Create Loop Options

Improved Workflow
Improvements to Capping/Patching
Fewer nodes needed in loop creation
By default, loop follows
the shortest path
Loop can optionally follow
feature instead

Capping robustness
Handles more complex patches

1
2

New
option

Default
behavior

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved Workflow
Capping as part of CHT workflow
Adding a conformal patch to an Object

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Set Object
before capping (object turns red)
Create loop around opening
Cab Label name can be assigned
Invoke conformal remesh of Cap
Capped zone is added to Object
Node merge is automatically invoked

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

New Repair feature

Fill punched holes
All holes/openings in bodies with a conformal mesh/faceting are being
automatically capped
Workflow
Pick a face

and Repair

Behaviour based on Caps settings

Available through Display -> Controls

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

New Mark feature

Marking tool (Ctrl-Shift-j)
Can be used to accumulate marked faces for remesh and separate
operations
Multiple criteria
Mark by:

Selection
Angle
Quality
Islands
Flood-fill
Rings

Mark settings:

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Set parameters for the above criteria

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Object preparation
Example: Using a combination of Repair and Mark tools to
prepare a part for External Aero meshing
Fill all punched holes (~20 in total)
Mark faces on one side using several
options

Floodfill, angle, island, rings

Separate (Ctrl-shift-s) to create a face zone

on each side for different prism settings

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability - Miscellaneous
Icon/Graphics
Sticky Keys
Ctrl Select will immediately execute
the previous short-cut
Particularly useful for Hide

Free/Multi
Immediate show/no-show
of free /multi/edges

GUI
Selection helper in task page
Including Objects

Objects
Wrap and Mesh Object unification
Many restrictions dropped in Type modification,
Cutcell, Sew, etc.
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

R16 Highlights

Usability/Workflow
Performance/Robustness
New Features

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved interface
Graphic tools
Surface meshing/workflow
Volume meshing

New Feature/Performance
Hybrid Wrapping
One wrap, with high and low assignments
High: Include imprinting for accurate
capturing of features
Low: Exclude imprinting for faster turnaround
time and better initial cell quality

High
Low

30% faster Wrapping assuming

50% of Low Wrap

Imprinting Speedup
Example: full size

Automotive UTM model

R15: 257 min
R16: 42 min
Six times Faster!!

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

High Wrap
Low Wrap:

Improved Workflow
Simplified wrapper workflow
Separate GUI for Edge extraction
Geometry recovery Options
Default is High
Controls to specify Low recovery option
on selected objects/zones

Reduced GUI for Shrink Wrap

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Workflow
New color option to visualize Wrap recovery option

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Ctrl+Shift+c and Ctrl+g

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Face Zone Labels for wrapper
Before wrapping the Objects are representing the zones corresponding to
original bodies

After wrapping the Face Zone Labels represent subsets of zones on the
wrapper surface corresponding to original bodies

Original and wrapped zones superimposed

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Context Menu:
Face Zone Labels heading
Join/Intersect

Face Zone Labels individual

Join/Intersect
Diagnostics
Recover Periodic

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Recovers (e.i. mesh match) the periodic

Boundary Zones linked to Face Zone Labels
Supports simultaneous recovery of fluid and solid
Zones

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Workflow
Wrap workflow
1. Execute Pre-wrap commands

2. Wrap

3. Compute Regions

4. Improve wrapper quality

5. Auto Mesh

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Usability
Face Zone Labels for Build topology
Before Build topology Mesh Objects represents the zones
corresponding to original bodies

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After Build topology the Face Zone Labels are representing the zones
corresponding to original bodies

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Robustness
Join/Intersect
Increased robustness of Join/intersect operations
Ability to undo/skip join locations that could produce bad joins
All join locations are automatically re-meshed to improve cell quality

Example: Joining 9 bodies

R15

15 out of 16 pairs successfully joined

Cells over 0.6 skewness on successful joins: 75

R16
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16 out of 16 pairs successfully joined

Inc.
Cells over
0.6 19,
skewness
on above joins: 4
2015 ANSYS,
February
2015

Improved Workflow
Context Menu:
Volumetric regions - header
Always Compute Regions before Volume meshing !!

Topology checks
Orienting normals
Baffle handling

Validate Regions in case of modifications

Region type/name, scoped prism

Select Regions based on type

Fluid/Solid/Dead

Draw/Select/Delete baffles

Volumetric regions - individual

Diagnostics

On Fluids in particular

Change Type

Fluid/Solid/Dead

Operations

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Merge/Rename/Delete

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved Workflow
Connectivity and Quality diagnostic
tools applied on Zones
Accessible from Labels, Regions, etc.
Avoids using inflation and high quality
related criteria for solid regions.
Diagnostics also supported through
TUI to allow for customized scripting
of connectivity and quality
improvement operations

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Workflow
Typical build topology workflow
1. Merge Objects

5. Compute Regions

2. Join Intersect

6. Improve surface mesh quality

using Diagnostics on Fluid region

3. Verify Face Connectivity using

Diagnostics
7. Auto Mesh
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

R16 Highlights

Usability/Workflow
Performance/Robustness
New Features

42

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved interface
Graphic tools
Surface meshing/workflow
Volume meshing

Usability
Context Menu:
Cell Zones - header
Access to Auto Mesh
Including new scoped prism control

Ability to select individual cell zones

based on type
If the Volume mesh is incorrect,
Delete All
Change the volume mesh settings and Re-mesh
Note that a copy of the region is maintained before
meshing. For large models, it can be disabled by setting
/mesh/auto-mesh-controls copy-object-zones to no

Cell Zones - individual

Draw
Will draw the surface mesh
of the volume cells

Delete
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved Workflow of Scoped Prisms

New Scoped prisms

vs.

Commonly used defaults

Scoped to Walls, labels or zones
Using wildcards or individual
selections

Wildcards allow for easy re-use on

new model

Read and Write settings for scripting

Automatic post stair-stepping

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Prisms (zone specific)

Default is often 1
Assigned to Zones
Individual selections only
Only workaround through groups
Wildcard only in customized TUI

TUI command support only

Optional post -ignore

Usability
New Scoped prism option
accessible from Auto Mesh
Scoped Prism name tag
Only the most common

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offset methods are exposed

Scope to objects
Choose between Fluid, Solid or
scoped regions using wild-cards
Grow on all, only-wall or scoped
zones/labels using wildcards
Can draw selected zones to
ensure the correct selections
Ability to create/modify
list/delete/write and read
the scoped prism controls
Specific Growth options

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

New Feature
New Scoped prism option accessible from Auto Mesh
Using Post stair-step removal in areas of bad quality
Parameters controlled from Growth option panel
Highly recommended to use Auto-node-move
with ICEM CFD quality to further improve quality
Wheel-ground example

Worst ICEM-CFD quality reduced from 0.999 to 0.975

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Workflow/ Limitations
The Volume meshing workflow of various situations
Failed meshes
Failed meshes (including boundaries) will appear in the Unreferenced folder
If /mesh/auto-mesh-controls/create-object-on-failure is set to yes, a new mesh object
is created with the prefix failed-

Cutcell meshes
Cutcell mesh (including boundaries) will appear in the Unreferenced folder

Partly filled/incomplete meshes

Tet initialize, Create Prism, HexCore only, Cavity re-meshing etc.
Currently not supported using mesh objects

Limitations on LINUX systems only

Model tree can only support 1000-2000 expanded items at a time.
Workarounds:
After import, use graphics to delete/merge objects
Only work with one expanded tree at-a-time
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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

R16 Highlights

Usability/Workflow
Performance/Robustness
New Features
Beta Features

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Improved interface
Graphic tools
Surface meshing/workflow
Volume meshing

Conformal import option (Beta)

Third CAD import option
Conformal Tessellation : conformal CAD-like
faceting

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Conformal import option (beta)

Rough Import time comparison
Free nodes
1. 76741
2.
317
3. 2361

faces
417339
212145
632208

1) CAD faceting

time/s
90
120
180

Conformal import supports gap

closing and re-meshing
2) Conformal
Faceting (beta)

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

3) CFD Surface
mesh

Native Polyhedral Meshing (beta)

Native polyhedral mesh generation in Fluent Meshing
Use (show-poly-ui #t) to access
Scoped Boundary layers are recommended
Both Local regions and Size Fields (including BOIs) are supported
It is producing good meshes on mid-size problem with well resolved
proximity. For very large cases, there are still robustness issues

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Native Polyhedral Meshing (beta)

Generic Oil Platform

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Max quality limits (orthoskew) ~ 0.9

Number of polyhedral cells = 3.1 million
Poly creation time (including 3 boundary layer) : 20 min

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Native Polyhedral Meshing (beta)

Generic Combustor

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Max quality limits (orthoskew) 1.0 (one cell > 0.95)

Number of polyhedral cells = 5.8 million
Poly creation time (including 5 boundary layer) : 33 min

2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Native Polyhedral Meshing (beta)

Advantages vs. Fluent solver conversion
Tet grid generation based on polyhedral quality criteria

Significant improvements in average and worst cell quality

Ability to use post quality improvement tools (ANM)
Minimum poly splitting usually reduces cell count with 10-20 %
Additional quality improvements (small edge/face removal)

~ 50% Memory reduction

~ 30% total creation time reduction
Limitations (eliminated at full release)
Poly cells are not supported by the object tree and the zones are not part of
any objects
Some of the standard TUI operations are unavailable:
Boundary manage to delete unnecessary zones

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Miscellaneous beta features

CAD import
/file/import/cad-options
create-regions-per-body?
derive-zone-name-from-object-scope
named-selection-tessellation-failure
If nothing is chosen, failed will be used

reconstruct-topology?
Useful when having high quality STL files

replacement-character
Characters between strings in object names default (:)

use-body-names?
use-part-names?

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015

Miscellaneous beta features

Volume Meshing
/mesh/auto-mesh-multiple-objects
Allows for multiple-objects meshing in one command

Size Function
/size-functions/controls
Curvature method
Facet-computation or Import-curvature

Meshed-sf-behavior
Soft (default) or hard

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2015 ANSYS, Inc.

February 19, 2015