Problem statement and positioning¶
Start here. Primary project document for reviewers and interviews.
Disclaimer: disclaimer.md — unofficial portfolio demo.
Core positioning¶
CAE Copilot is a documentation assistant for CAE software workflows — not a solver replacement and not a live automation bridge to vendor GUIs.
The product is designed as a multi-CAE platform with pluggable adapters. The first adapter targets ANSYS Rocky (DEM) using official v26r1 manuals indexed locally with citations.
One-line summary:
CAE documentation copilot — cited answers from Rocky manuals, tutorial steps, script drafts, and deterministic DEM helpers. Human engineer stays in control.
The problem (Rocky engineer)¶
ANSYS Rocky ships extensive documentation: user manual, tutorial guide, scripts API, module reference, CFD/SPH technical manuals, verification guide. Engineers spend significant time:
- finding the right section across multiple PDFs,
- translating tutorial prose into repeatable setup steps,
- looking up Python API patterns for
app.GetStudy()and particle processes, - cross-checking coupling options (Fluent, one-way vs two-way).
CAE Copilot reduces navigation and retrieval time while keeping every claim traceable to a manual page.
Five engineering problem areas¶
These are the enterprise adoption failures the platform design addresses. The Rocky adapter is the first concrete demo of each response:
| # | Problem area | Rocky demo response |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Document chaos — thousands of PDF pages, no governed index | Manifest-driven ingest, page-aware chunks, /kb/stats |
| 2 | Black-box AI — answers without auditable sources | Mandatory citations, eval citation hit rate |
| 3 | AS-IS automation — GUI macros on broken workflows | Documentation-first; live solver control deferred (Stage 3) |
| 4 | Vendor / model lock-in — single cloud LLM or CAE stack | Model-agnostic LLM; pluggable adapter per CAE product |
| 5 | Unvalidated calculations — arithmetic inside the LLM | Deterministic DEM tools with Pydantic validation + retry |
See Enterprise patterns below for the portfolio framing table.
What this demo does (and does not)¶
| In scope | Out of scope |
|---|---|
| RAG over Rocky v26r1 PDFs with page citations | Live Rocky COM/API control |
| Tutorial-style setup answers | Running DEM jobs from the copilot |
| Script drafts for manual copy into Rocky | Publishing Ansys docs in git/images |
| DEM helper tools (particle count, units, timestep heuristic) | Replacing Ansys support |
Demo paths¶
Knowledge: Question → RAG (manuals) → Cited report
Setup: Tutorial question → RAG → Numbered steps
Scripting: API question → RAG → Draft .py (copy to Rocky)
Calculation: Numeric helper → Tool → Report
Enterprise patterns (portfolio framing)¶
| Pattern | CAE Copilot response |
|---|---|
| Black-box AI | Mandatory citations + eval golden set |
| Vendor lock-in | Model-agnostic LLM; adapter per CAE product |
| GUI macro automation | Documentation-first; live integration deferred |
Stage 3 in the roadmap is live CAE integration (license/API required) — honestly deferred for this portfolio build.
See walkthrough.md for the 3-minute demo script.