As a CAE engineer at this stage, it is not uncommon to be familiar with or master two or three CAD and CAE software. From the beginning of this century to the present, the finite element theory has become increasingly perfect, the programming, operations, and sales of finite element software companies have become increasingly mature, the domestic finite element software market has gradually become saturated, and the working environment faced by CAE engineers is also different from what it used to be.
1 Grids are no longer the preserve of CAE engineers. When I went to college, CAE courses were mainly introductory. One course required learning five or six types of CAE software in one semester, and the average exposure time to each software was not the same. By the fifth class hour, when the teacher introduces a certain software, he will find a graduate student who is familiar with the operation of the software to guide the operation and teaching. At that time, the admiration for the seniors who could divide the grid and calculate the resulting cloud map was like the endless flow of a surging river, or like the Yellow River flooding out of control. At that time, grid drawing was really a technical job.
From geometry arrangement, pruning, cutting to mesh division, the quality of the mesh directly depends on the division ideas and operation techniques of the software operator. Nowadays, with the rapid development of major finite element software companies, mainstream CAE and CAD software versions are updated faster and faster. Each software version update brings the software itself to become more intelligent, more automated, and more humane. That is to say, one step towards becoming more stupid. Although meshing still occupies the main part of the CAE engineer's working time, we have to admit that meshing is faster and easier now. In the past two decades, meshing has experienced a transition from manual to semi-automatic to automated meshing. Even now, many CAD software come with built-in analysis modules, such as ANSYS's Discovery LIve and Discovery Aim modules. The CAE process is very mechanical and stupid, and the meshing is also very simple. However, the calculation does not lose accuracy because of the simplification of the meshing process. .
For many CAE beginners, the quality and calculation accuracy of the mesh they spend one or two days drawing in CAE software is not as good as the ten-minute automated meshing and calculation in CAD software. . Although CAE engineers are often called grid engineers by the outside world, I think that only CAE engineers at the beginning of this century and before truly fit this title. The simplification and stupidity of meshing have lowered the threshold for CAE analysis, the importance of pre-processing technology has gradually declined, and the status of CAE engineers has become embarrassing. Some people would say that CAE software operations can be popularized and replaced by CAD engineers, but the professional theoretical foundation of CAE engineers cannot be replaced. Then I would like to ask CAE engineers, how many of them use theoretical knowledge in their work? Most people's work is only for projects, and projects only need results. CAE software is becoming more and more operable, and the entry barrier to the CAE industry is getting lower and lower. Just like a brother with a doctorate said, find a child who has graduated from high school and train him for three months. You don’t need to tell him why, and he can draw grids. . Of course it is a bit exaggerated, but the fact is that although currently CAE engineers can still be unique in previous processing technology, there is increasingly no guarantee that CAE engineers will be competitive in the future.
I would like to ask CAE engineers, how many of them use theoretical knowledge in their work? Most people's work is only for projects, and projects only need results. CAE software is becoming more and more operable, and the entry barrier to the CAE industry is getting lower and lower. Just like a senior brother with a doctorate said, find a child who has graduated from high school and train him for three months. You don’t need to tell him why, and he can draw grids. . Of course it is a bit exaggerated, but the fact is that although currently CAE engineers can still be unique in previous processing technology, there is increasingly no guarantee that CAE engineers will be competitive in the future.
2 Structural optimization has become a new favorite. When CAD software begins to analyze and calculate, CAE software is no longer satisfied with analysis and calculation, and begins to focus on structural optimization. The development of topology supports the feasibility of CAE software in this regard.
Since the 1970s, CAE has had topology optimization functions. After decades of development, various optimization software have emerged in endlessly... Although structural optimization introduced CAE software more than 40 years ago, the Chinese CAE field has begun to pay attention to this aspect. This is still a matter of recent years. The reason is that after years of development, China's manufacturing industry has begun to transform from manufacturing to creation. Although it is currently just imitation and transformation, it at least shows that it is developing in this direction.
There must be a word in the hot search vocabulary of major simulation forums, namely structural optimization, which seems to explain certain problems. It is inevitable that optimization will become the new favorite of CAE. Regardless of industry needs, from the perspective of CAE engineers themselves, first of all, with the automation of grid division, analytical calculation is no longer the patent of CAE, and the competitiveness of CAE engineers in this area is not as good as before; secondly, Compared with analytical calculations, optimization still requires some theoretical foundations. This means that compared with analytical calculations, the threshold for optimization will be relatively high, and at least it will not be "choked" by other industries in recent years. Nowadays, some CAD software also has optimization functions. Although its algorithm, efficiency and rationality are not as good as CAE software, it omits pre-processing and the calculation results also have certain reference value. Most importantly, it illustrates that structural optimization is also simple. trend.
The development direction of 3CAE engineers. Being able to draw high-quality meshes and perform analytical calculations was a requirement for CAE engineers in the old days. Of course, if there is no pursuit of higher goals, it would be good to be able to achieve the above two points.
Looking at the future, I personally believe that the direction of CAE engineers should be:
① Optimization. Having said so much above, in general, optimization is the advantage of CAE engineers at this stage and for a long time to come. Unless China's manufacturing industry plans to continue to rely on plagiarism, otherwise, as long as the manufacturing industry needs innovation and creation, it needs independent design, and as long as it needs independent design, it needs structural optimization.
②Programming. The user interface system of CAE software turns CAE work into a window operation, but its core is still a computer language program. If meshing analysis and calculation is a primary school degree, learning optimization is at most a junior high school student, but if you are familiar with programming, you are a college graduate. Because the programming I am talking about is not just "Hello World", but more importantly, the mechanics behind the program. Unfortunately, it is estimated that not one person in a hundred is proficient in programming and is proficient in finite element principles.