The First New CFD-Based Design Software for Electronics in 10 years
 
6SigmaET brings a new level of productivity to electronics cooling design.  6SigmaET overcomes many of the ease-of-use problems that have plagued analysis tools from the beginning.  New levels of automation and intelligence are achieved that make 6SigmaET usable by the broad community of design engineers.
  • 6SigmaET makes available a broad range of intelligent modelling objects such as: PCBs, chip sockets, electronic components such as resistors and capacitors, temperature controlled fans and blowers, card and drive bays.
  • Additionally 6SigmaET greatly expands modeling automation. Objects come with rules that auto-place, align, collision detect and error check, as well as grid generation rules which automatically ensure the optimum grid is always used.
  • Simulation results are object associated as well.  Display of critical temperatures and airflow patterns can be initiated from the objects directly. Highly customisable automatic report generation ensures communicating the results of the study is easy and effective.
  • Automated revision control and design timeline tracking is included to enable the designer to organize design variations and track design progress from concept to production.

This new level of intelligence and automation offered by the 6SigmaET enables the designer to focus more intensely on the design and away from software operations.  The result is a shortened learning curve, increased design productivity and tighter integration with the electrical and mechanical design and manufacturing.

 
 

Features & Benefits:
State of the Art Graphical User Interface                                                                                                                             + / -


A state of the art Graphical User Interface (GUI) is extremely easy and intuitive to use. The interface allows the user to build as well as analyze the models in the same window and is fast and responsive and extremely robust.


    6SigmaET
  • High definition Multi-View graphical display for:
      -  2-D and 3-D views of whole model
      -  Specific objects in their own view
      -  Simulation Results
      -  Profile Plots
      -  Comprehensive numerical summary data
  • View objects in either solid, wireframe, transparent or textured mode individually or globally controlled using the highly customizable Layer Manager
  • User based mouse controls - define your own mouse controls to fit your own preference
  • Dockable windows and toolbars
  • Model Tree clearly shows relationships between objects
  • Property sheets to define object parameters:
      -  Clear layout with logical grouping of parameters
      -  Intelligent; parameters vary as appropriate for actual settings
      -  Allows changes to more than one object at a time
  • Easy access to both local and network libraries
  • Multi-level undo/redo feature
  • Global or local change of units - Metric or Imperial
  • Global or local search feature for objects within a model
  • Crash recovery manager to prevent data loss due to a crash
  • Automatic flagging of collision errors and warnings during model build reduces the time spent on trouble shooting a model

 

Version Tree                                                                                                                                                                              + / -


The version tree in 6SigmaET is a revolutionary feature that consolidates all the various designs in a singular version tree, allowing for a tighter integration into the product design cycle.

  • Include design changes in the version tree by creating new versions
  • Create multiple alternates of one version and perform analysis on all alternates
  • Accept the preferred alternate and reject the remaining
  • Store accepted and rejected alternates or versions with results in the version tree
  • Move forward or backward in the design to review critical engineering decisions
  • Compare results from multiple versions or alternates side by side
  • Change tracker automatically records and displys the changes made between versions and /or alternates

 

Conceptual Board Design                                                                                                                                                        + / -


By integrating both board level chassis level analysis, 6SigmaET is the only tool that fully integrates the design all the way from conceptual board design to the final system design.

  • Conceptual board layout using the built in wind-tunnel environment
  • Optimize component layout from a thermal standpoint
  • Finalize mechanical keep-out zones for component heatsinks
  • Push final board layout forward in timeline for a chassis level thermal analysis
  • Export the final board design back into your preferred EDA tool(s)




Electronics Specific Parts                                                                                                                                                        + / -


6SigmaET has been developed keeping the end user in mind and the nomenclature used in the electronics industry. The entities in 6sigmaET are parametrically defined and know their function and behavior, which makes the model easier to build and analyze.

  • Chassis
  • Vents - rectangular or circular
  • PCB - rectangular or non-rectangular shapes
  • Chip Sockets
  • Chips - 2-Resistor and simple models
  • Resistors
  • Capacitors
  • Inductors
  • Daughter board Sockets for DIMMS, Mezzanine Cards, and PCI or PCIe cards
  • Card Bays - easilt put together a Cisco or Juniper type telecomm chassis model with multiple line cards
  • Chassis Bays - "chassis within a chassis" concept to model blade servers or vertical blade rack solutions
  • Drive Bay - for hard disc drives, CD / DVD drives
  • Power Supply Unit
  • Temperature controlled Axial Fans & Blowers
  • Thermal Interface Materials
  • Heatsinks with cutouts:
      -  Extruded
      -  Pin Fin with square, rectangular, round and elliptical fins
      -  Stacked Fin - both horizontal and vertical with square, rectangular,       round, elliptical, or user defined polygon shape
      -  Complex geometry imported from MCAD
  • Heatpipes
  • Internal cabling
  • Embedded vias and heat spreaders in PCBs
  • Obstructions
      -  Solid with defined holes - rectangular, cylindrical or any polygon
         defined outline to represent any complex geometry like shrouds
         and baffles
      -  Perforated - to allow flow through small holes or slots defiined
         by either the size and pattern of holes or bt open area percentage



EDA Import                                                                                                                                                                                  + / -


By making the IDF import smarter, 6SigmaET truly can cut the time taken to import and modify an IDF file compared to other tools that claim to have IDF import capability.

  • Bi-directional link allows for import and export of IDF files
  • IDF Import with intelligent mapping of components
      -  Automatically mapping IDF library components to entities      within 6SigmaET based on reference designators and
         entity name
  • Import component power
  • 2R values
  • Component keep-outs
  • Holes
  • Vias


 

 

MCAD Import                                                                                                                                                                              + / -


Use the 3D MCAD model as is for analysis in 6SigmaET with minimal simplification or translation. The object based gridding in 6SigmaET automatically recognizes the CAD model and prepares it for the simulation.

  • Import multiple native 2D AutoCAD Drawings and use it as a tracing paper for building the 3D model
  • Import multiple complex STL Shapes from your preferred MCAD Software
  • Sophisticated post-processing displays results on the full STL shape





Gridding & Solver                                                                                                                                                                      + / -


With fully automated gridding, 6SigmaET saves set-up time and ensures the optimum grid is always used.

  • Object based gridding - pre-defined gridding rules automatically decide the best grid for the simulation
  • Able to handle angled / rotated and imported MCAD geometry within a state-of-the-art Cartesian grid
  • Advanced distributed memory Multi-grid solver technology
  • Extremely fast and robust 64 BIT solver capable of solving models in excess of 20 million grid cells using up to 16 processors








Post Processing                                                                                                                                                                        + / -


A comprehensive set of post-processing displays ensures easy analysis of the results of the CFD simulation. In addition, fully customizable reporting makes it easy to communicate the results, especially when comparing multiple alternates.

  • 2-D and 3-D Result planes showing distribution of temperatures or pressures
  • 2-D and 3-D Flow patterns
  • Profile Plots
  • Streamline and Ribbon plots and animations
  • Summary data, including total heat soource and total flow rates in the model
  • Minimum, Maximum and Mean temperatures available for each object individually and in Table summaries
  • De-rated Fan curves showing operating point
  • De-rated noise values for each fan and a total for all the fans in the model
  • Customizable automatic reports including standard pre-defined views and / or user defined graphical views
  • Save WMV or animated GIF movies

 

 
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