Fluent users: what part of the workflow feels like unnecessary clicking rather than engineering?
I’m working on an early prototype around Ansys Fluent/Workbench, but the main reason I’m posting is not to showcase it.
I’m trying to understand what Fluent users would actually want something like this for.
The current demo is very limited and controlled, but this is what it does:
I press Ctrl+Shift+L and the assistant opens.
It has Ask mode and Execute mode.
I connect it to an already-open Workbench project using the StartServer() port.
In Ask mode, I can ask:
- “What is the current CFD state of this project?”
- “List the current boundary conditions and zone names.”
- “What values do I need to set for the velocity inlets and pressure outlet?”
It reads the project/Fluent state through APIs and gives a CFD-oriented answer instead of just raw Workbench cell states.
In Execute mode, I can give a controlled one-shot prompt for a mixing elbow case:
- set both velocity inlets
- set the pressure outlet
- run hybrid initialization
- run 100 iterations
- display a velocity magnitude contour on the symmetry plane
I’m using Workbench/Fluent APIs where possible, not trying to do everything through GUI automation.
My current hypothesis is that a lot of Fluent work is not always “hard physics” — sometimes it is knowing where to click, remembering the setup sequence, checking what state the case is in, repeating the same setup actions, cleaning/preparing geometry for meshing, and making sure the right zones/BCs are actually being used.
But I may be wrong about which part matters most.
So my question for Fluent users is:
What part of your Fluent/Workbench workflow feels most painful, repetitive, or unnecessarily manual?
For example, is it:
- cleaning CAD/geometry before meshing?
- setting up the mesh?
- figuring out zones/named selections?
- setting boundary conditions?
- checking whether the case is solve-ready?
- convergence/debugging?
- creating the right contours/reports after solving?
- something else entirely?
Also: what would you trust an assistant to do, and what would you absolutely not trust it to touch?
I’m trying to decide what the first real problem should be before I keep building.
Blunt feedback is welcome.