7.2.4. Mapping Profile Data to a File

The Map to File transformation option enables you export CFX results onto the mesh of a profile file, writing the mapped results to a new profile file. This enables you to send CFX results to another application with results already interpolated to the mesh coordinates used by the other application.

To use this option:

Set Source Profile to the profile file that contains the results to export. For example, if you want to export CFX results to another application, select a profile file that contains exported CFX results.
Set Write to Profile to the name of the profile file that will result from this mapping process; this profile file will contain the results of Source Profile on the mesh of Target Profile.
Set Mapping Definition > Target Profile to the name of the profile file that defines the mesh to which to map the profile data; the mesh must include face connectivity data. If you are writing, for example, a mapped profile for input to Ansys Mechanical, then the Target Profile file contains a definition of the Mechanical mesh. The Target Profile file is not overwritten.
Leave Add Node Mapping Status Variable selected to create variable Node Mapping Status, which has a value of 1 for a mapped node and 0 for an unmapped node. This variable can be visualized in CFX-Pre (by coloring by a profile variable) or by importing the profile into CFD-Post.

The alignment setting, Norm. Vec. Alignment (normal vector alignment), controls how the source mesh is mapped to the target mesh. In the mapping process, an attempt is made to map each mesh face in the target mesh to one or more mesh faces in the source mesh. The alignment settings provide a way of excluding certain source faces from this mapping process to avoid spurious matches, for example, at corners, or mapping to the wrong side of a thin structure such as a blade.

For each source face and target face, the surface normal can be calculated, and the angle between each source/target face pair can be calculated – the "face normal angle". Source faces are excluded from the mapping for a particular target face if this face normal angle falls outside a specific range, depending on the Norm. Vec. Alignment option.

Suppose the Alignment Tolerance is theta. The default for theta is 45 degrees.

With Norm. Vec. Alignment set to Aligned, a source face would only be mapped when the face normal angle is between 0 [degree] and theta.
With Norm. Vec. Alignment set to Opposite, a source face would only be mapped when the face normal angle is between 180 [degree] and ( 180 [degree] - theta ).
With Norm. Vec. Alignment set to None, the face normal angle is only used to exclude spurious matches at corners; that is, a source face would only be excluded from mapping when the face normal angle is between 85 and 95 degrees (independent of the Alignment Tolerance setting).

The cfx5profile script enables you to map profile data without having to use CFX-Pre, for example as part of a batch process. Command line help is available by providing the -h argument.