AutoCAD and FDS

[Kevin McGrattan <kevin.mcgrattan@nist.gov>]

All

Recently, Dave Sheppard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms (ATF)
wrote a computer program that converts a 3D AutoCAD drawing
into rectangular
blocks that can be read into FDS. For those who are
interested, there is a zip
file at

ftp://ftp.nist.gov/pub/bfrl/mcgratta/FDS2.2/PC

that contains the program plus the Visual Basic source code.
The program is called
dxf2fds because it filters the popular AutoCAD formatted
``.dxf'' files into FDS
format (i.e. the OBST lines). Sheppard's progam essentially
takes the .dxf file and
creates an input file for FDS which requires final editting
by a user to fill in
the grid dimensions, surface properties, etc.

We haven't yet had time to write any documentation, but it's
fairly easy to use the
program as is. Get the file dxf2fds.zip from the ftp site,
run the set-up program,
then run the program by feeding it a .dxf file. Note that
this program is NOT an
AutoCAD program. All it does is filter the AutoCAD output.
It's up to the user to
purchase his own favorite package. We do not intend to
re-invent the wheel vis-a-vis
AutoCAD. There are plenty of good packages out there
already.

dxf2fds works only with the latest version of fds2p2 (FDS
2.2) available at the
same ftp site. Remember that we use the 2.2 to indicate our
working version. If you
have downloaded a version 2.2, it might be stale. Get a new
one. We only change the
date of these working versions, not the version number.

We're hoping to move FDS 2.2 to an official release this
summer. Keep the bugs
coming, but remember to check that you are running the
latest before you send in a 
bug. Same is true for Smokeview, since you need the latest
Smokeview (sv3p0.exe) to
use the dxf2fds program. Assuming your input file was
created by dxf2fds, toggling
the ``q'' will show you the AutoCAD drawing, the rectangular
obstructions, and the
FDS geometry.

Good luck, let me know how it goes.

Kevin

-- 
Kevin McGrattan
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8663
Gaithersburg MD 20899-8663

Telephone: (301) 975 2712
FAX:       (301) 975 4052