Python + CAD for Aerospace Design

We've developed a useful geometry modeling tool for simulation-based design at Aerion. It's a headless, scripted, parametric CAD system tuned for aerospace applications. We're using it in our optimization-centric design process to generate thousands of designs every week on our HPC cluster. The image above is a CFD-ready surface mesh output from this software. The mesh below shows a model of the popular split-scimitar winglet.

Here's why we think our software is powerful:

1. Headless: run dozens of instances in parallel on your HPC cluster.
2. Scripted: it's Python-driven. No need to learn a special new language. It integrates well with your existing computational processes.
3. Parametric CAD system: not just simple wings and fuselages. Our tool sits atop the ACIS CAD kernel, so it provides blends, fillets, surface/curve intersections, solid geometry booleans, lofts, sweeps, revolves, and other operations that any legitimate CAD system should support.
4. CAD-compatible: no homegrown mathematical functions. Standard NURBS surfaces, and excellent interoperability, so you can import/export to/from most common CAD formats, including CATIA V5.
5. Mesh sensitivities: compute gradients of surface mesh with respect to design variables. We use it extensively with the adjoint-based Cart3D design framework.
6. Mac/Windows/Linux: whatever works for you.

Hats off to Bharath Mukundakrishnan for creating this software from scratch in six months!