Organizing and searching through data takes a lot of time that could otherwise be used more productively. To address this challenge, we have developed PreonDock. Since we started using it at FIFTY2, it has changed the way we work. Not only has our productivity increased, but it has also made our daily work easier.
Keep reading to discover how PreonDock has changed our daily work with PreonLab and how it can do the same for you.
In the current information age, the ability to quickly acquire critical information separates winners from losers. And yet, all too often, many of us fail in our quest to obtain the information we need, resulting in wasted time, frustration, and duplicated effort. Multiple studies reveal that engineers spend, on average, up to 25% of their time organizing data and searching through. This valuable time could be more productively utilized for modeling, analysis, and improving product design.
Fig 1: Several studies have shown how much time is spent searching for information.
At FIFTY2, we encountered this challenge and needed a solution. To improve our productivity, we developed PreonDock, which became the essential foundation supporting our daily engineering work with PreonLab. PreonDock makes work easy and enjoyable by helping us with data management and cross-team collaboration. The days of spending hours digging for simulation data are over – everyone has access to simulation data that is relevant to them.
PreonDock is a comprehensive web-based platform that makes our day-to-day work much more productive. It taps into various aspects of daily operations, not only for engineers and developers, but also for decision-makers. It helps us work better, communicate more efficiently, and, consequently, be more productive. We are confident that it can help you too.
1. Easy access to results
PreonDock can be accessed directly through a web browser, eliminating the need to install additional software on each user’s workstation. Log in and you are good to go. Your data is transmitted over the network in real-time, ensuring constant and immediate access. You can easily access a scene setup, statistics plots, images, or an interactive 3D view of your scene, directly from a browser.
Fig 2: 3D viewer in PreonDock with e-motor geometry.
2. Improved team collaboration
Sharing results, images, and charts is super easy. You can just copy the link and send it to someone. As long as you have given them permission, they’ll be taken straight to what you’re seeing. This way, your whole team can access data needed in discussions. See how it works in the following video.
3. Integrated job management system
An important part of PreonDock is also a job management system. It allows you to easily start, stop, and monitor simulation jobs, keeping an eye on computational resources. PreonDock admins can customize it to match the team’s needs. The beauty is that none of this demands manual script editing from the end user.
You can simply select a desired queue and PreonDock takes care of the rest. When a job’s status changes, each user gets an instant notification, helping you stay on top of all simulation tasks around the clock.
In addition to that PreonDock makes use of PreonPy and PreonLab’s native status file. This makes it possible to monitor the health of the simulation and predict the expected end time. If the simulation does not progress as expected, you will receive a notification about that!
4. Project and data management
With PreonDock, your PreonLab data is effortlessly organized into custom projects. This approach gives you complete control over various setup variants and simulation runs. Comparing simulation setups and results becomes trivial and is always just a few mouse clicks away!
PreonDock’s search capability further ensures you will never lose time scouring your scene folders for that one good simulation again. After searching for a specific keyword, it automatically highlights it, making it easy to find the data you need.
Fig 3: Search function automatically highlights found results and makes it easy to find the data.
Each search result displays job runtime statistics and job status, enabling a good overview of all listed simulation jobs.
Finally, PreonDock introduces a user-friendly data management capability. It enables you to clean up data and always keep a healthy disc storage status.
5. Seamless comparison of simulation variants
To make it even easier to stay on top of your data, you can inspect selected variants via PreonDock’s setup comparison tool. This feature enables a comparison of simulation setup, results, or statistics for multiple simulation scenes. The differences immediately stand out by applying ‘show differences only’, eliminating any doubt in your simulation setup. Using this feature, you can avoid making costly mistakes in the simulation setup and keep track of all project variants.
PreonDock has changed how we work at FIFTY2. By utilizing it for CFD simulation work, we have saved a lot of time and increased our productivity. We now spend significantly less time managing data than ever before. Our scenes and results are available at a single location, and we can easily access and share them with everyone on the team.
Furthermore, our engineers love it since PreonDock has become the playground, where they are just a mouse click away from another simulation and an engineering insight. Finally, they can focus on what they really want – engineering.
Fig 4: PreonDock – the final piece enabling you to save time and be more productive.
If you also want to reap the benefits of PreonDock, contact us, and we will help you implement PreonDock in your team. Bring your simulation workflow to a new level with PreonLab and PreonDock.
Start simulating the right way.