Blue Ridge Numerics, a worldwide leader in the emerging upfront CFD software category, has announced the immediate availability of a special programme designed to provide engineering students and faculty with affordable access to CFdesign for effective, hands-on instruction of fluid flow and heat transfer topics within existing MCAD-centric courses.

The CFdesign Academic Instruction Programme was unveiled at the American Society of Engineering Educators annual conference currently in progress at the Chicago Hyatt. Blue Ridge Numerics developed the programme around the needs and requirements expressed by university faculties involved primarily with the education of undergraduate mechanical engineers in Asia, Europe and North America.

Already in use at dozens of universities around the world, CFdesign is often first implemented for senior design projects and later used to enhance existing courses. Harry S. Wildblood, Chairman of Project Design Activity at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, summarises his experience with CFdesign: "We have used CFdesign successfully in our Senior Engineering Project Course for about four years. Its ease of use and associativity with native Autodesk Inventor 3D models makes it especially applicable to our programme in which students must get up to speed quickly to do customised analyses for design purposes. The cost, capability, easy management of licensing and responsiveness of technical support personnel, have all made CFdesign a valuable asset to our project programme."

The CFdesign Academic Instruction Programme includes native MCAD integration with all major systems (Autodesk Inventor, Catia, CoCreate, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, Solid Edge and UGS NX) along with full mode heat transfer and full spectrum flow simulation functionality, including the ability to optimise 3D designs involving flow-driven motion (turbines, for example) and motion-driven flow such as that found in pumps.

CFdesign is available with an annual licensing option or perpetual licensing that includes five years of support and upgrades. North American pricing begins at $2,500 for network implementation that supports as many concurrent users as necessary. Pricing and availability outside the US varies.