Sources are used in CFD-VisCART to refine the grid in localized regions of the domain. One of the many types of sources available is the Box Source where the user specifies a cuboidal box around the region a finer grid is required. In the earlier versions, the user would have to add a Box Source and then specify its X, Y and Z extents to position the box in the desired location.

When doing restarts, which is a continuation of a previous solution, there are a couple of options available in the CFD-ACE-GUI regarding where the data comes from, along with output and time options. This user tip will detail the various options available to the user.

Point entities in CFD-GEOM are placed in an XYZ (Cartesian) coordinate system. The Construction Plane tool enables you to position a plane in space, and place points on that plane to generate curve entities.

Welcome to the new ESI Group CFD Portal!  Since the initial announcement of the site last week, we hope you have had an opportunity to explore the site and use some of the features.  With this user tip, we will look at some of the sections of the new webiste.

Tips and Tricks

The Tips and Tricks section contains all the user tips that engineers at ESI CFD have published over the last two years.  There are well over 100 tips with topics on all the ESI CFD software products.   These tips provide you with shortcuts and tricks to help make your modeling process easier and more productive.  

When you enter the Tips and Tricks section, you will see a different section for each product:  CFD-ACE+, CFD-FASTRAN,  CFD-GEOM, CFD-VisCART, CFD-VIEW, CFD-CADalyzer, CFD-TOPO, and General Tips.  In this list, a link to the latest published user tip for each product is available.   The viewing options for CFD-ACE+ tips are shown in the table below (click links to see the different views.)

Once you have entered a specific product section, you will see the latest user tip at the top of the tip list with four randomly selected tips below it.  This is the default way to view the tips.  The other format will give you a list of all the user tips for each product.  The default sorting for the list is latest tip first and the oldest tip last.  You can sort this list by title (alphabetical) or by number of hits (you can see which tips people are looking at most!)  The default number of tips shown is 30, but you can modify this for a shorter or longer list.  Along with the sorting options, you can filter the tips by entering the string you are interested in and hitting Return.  The filter will return a list of all the tips in that particular section that contain the string you entered.

Online Compiler 

The online compiler has been improved!  The compiler now works like a wizard, asking your for the version information then giving you the appropriate platforms for that version.  Once you have selected your platform, simply browse to your file on the hard drive and click compile.  Once the compilation has completed, download your shared library. 

If you have any suggestions for the new website, please let us know.  We are always looking to improve and appreciate any feedback!

ESI Group, the pioneer in multiphysics modeling today announces the launch of its new “CFD Portal”. The new portal has been designed for our customers and provides a wealth of information on ESI Group’s CFD products (all of it searchable!)

In addition to general information about the industries we serve, the products we produce, and the services we provide, you will find information that makes you, the user, more productive with your ESI CFD tools.  

Community Forums* - interact with other users to discuss such topics as software usage, software customization, engineering applications, and computer hardware/os issues.

CFD Model Library - search or browse over some 120+ CFD models, all categorized by software tool, physics used, features used, and industry area.  All are ready to run and available for immediate download!  A great place to find tutorial and demo cases to help you learn the software and features!

CFD Paper Library - search or browse over the abstracts and author information of some 350+ papers and presentations representing work done with ESI Group CFD products. These also are categorized by software tool, physics used, features used, and industry areas.

Tips and Tricks - an archive of over 120 user tip topics.  You are guaranteed to learn something new with these tips and tricks!  

Download Software* - download the latest release and beta versions of the software for all 12 supported platforms. 

Compile Userubs* - use our remote "online" compile capability to compile your user subroutine on our systems.  Handy if you compile infrequently and don't have a fortran compiler yourself. 

Knowledge Base* - answers to some commonly asked questions.

* - requires customer login account, available free for customers with a valid support contract.
Learn more about how to register.

Best Regards,
Richard Thoms
Product Manager - CFD

As you have probably noticed by now, the new CFD Customer Portal is much different than the old support web site!  We believe it is much improved and will be a much better resource for you!

We also have a new login system, and while it is much easier than the old system, it is quite a bit different and may lead to some confusion on your first login attempt.

The old system had two levels of login, one to get into the support site, and a second to get into the community forums.  Those were two separate systems and therefore had two separate usernames and passwords.  Now we just have one single system and therefore only one username / password combination is requried!

Here is the best way for you to proceed.

If you never had an account on the old system then you should go straight to the "Register" link and proceed through the registration system.

If you had a login account to the support web site but DID NOT have a login account for the community forums then you should go straight to the "Register" link and proceed through the registration system. It is recommended that you DO NOT use your email address as your username (as it will be available for all to see!) 

If you had a login account to the support web site AND you had a login account for the community forums then you should attempt to login with the same username and password that you used for the old community forum boards. 

If you get an error message stating that your account has not been validated then you should send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it stating that you need your account validated and you should include your username, company name, and customer ID number (COIN).

If you get an error message that you used an incorrect username or password then you can choose the "Lost Password?" link and enter your username and email address. If a match is found then you will be emailed a new password.  Note your account may still need validation. 

Of course if you have any problems whatsoever with the login process do not hesitate to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Note that all registrations must be verified by a moderator to ensure that you are a valid customer under a valid support contract.  This may take up to one working day to accomplish.  Please be patient as we are faced with many requests as people are switching to the new system.