How to Import Mesh and solid bodys together

Hello everyone,

I am currently working on an aerodynamic project and have encountered an issue when importing my geometry into SimScale.

I created an assembly in Autodesk Inventor (.iam) consisting of a BMW M4 reference model and a rear spoiler that I designed myself. The spoiler was positioned and aligned relative to the vehicle using assembly constraints and reference planes.

After completing the assembly, I exported the entire project as a STEP file and uploaded it to SimScale. However, when the geometry is imported, only the spoiler is visible. The vehicle itself does not appear.

Some additional information:

  • The spoiler is a solid body created directly in Inventor.

  • The vehicle is not a native CAD solid. It was imported as a mesh model and is displayed in Inventor as a mesh body (triangulated geometry).

  • Within the Inventor assembly, the vehicle is listed as a mesh and not as a standard solid body.

  • I also noticed that under the “Third Party” section in the assembly browser there is an entry with my project name ending in “.htm”.

My questions are:

  1. Is SimScale unable to import mesh bodies that are included in a STEP assembly?

  2. Do I need to convert the vehicle mesh into a solid or surface body before exporting?

  3. Is there a recommended workflow for combining a mesh vehicle model with a CAD solid spoiler for CFD simulations in SimScale?

  4. Could the “.htm” third-party reference be related to the missing geometry during export?

My goal is to simulate the airflow around the complete vehicle and spoiler assembly, so I would like both components to be imported correctly into SimScale.

Any advice or recommended workflow would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your help.