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Assumptions and limitations for exporting a model
The following section describes the Thermal Model Exchanger assumptions and limitations when you export a Thermal Desktop model to a Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal XML file.
Exporting heaters
You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export Heaters from Thermal Desktop to Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.

User documentation
- Introduction
  Thermal Model Exchanger is a Windows application that allows you to transfer thermal models between Ansys Thermal Desktop^TM and Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal. The application supports the transfer of meshes, material and optical properties, and boundary conditions of your model.
- Thermal Model Exchanger user interface
  The Thermal Model Exchanger user interface consists of a top border bar and an information window.
- How to use Thermal Model Exchanger
  The following section describes how to use Thermal Model Exchanger to transfer thermal models between Thermal Desktop and Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
- Simcenter 3D entities supported by Thermal Model Exchanger
  This page summarizes the Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal entities supported by the Thermal Model Exchanger during the import.
- Thermal Desktop entities supported by Thermal Model Exchanger
  This page summarizes the Thermal Desktop entities supported by the Thermal Model Exchanger during the export.
- Assumptions and limitations for importing a model
  The following section describes the Thermal Model Exchanger assumptions and limitations when you import a Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal model into Thermal Desktop.
- Assumptions and limitations for exporting a model
  The following section describes the Thermal Model Exchanger assumptions and limitations when you export a Thermal Desktop model to a Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal XML file.
  - Exporting meshes
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export meshes from Thermal Desktop into Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
  - Exporting primitives
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export primitives from Thermal Desktop into Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
  - Exporting domain tag sets
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export Domain Tag Sets from Thermal Desktop into Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal as Groups.
  - Exporting symbols
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export symbol values from Thermal Desktop into Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
  - Exporting thermo-physical properties
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export thermo-physical properties from Thermal Desktop into Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
  - Exporting heat loads
    Thermal Model Exchanger supports the Total Load and Flux types of Thermal Desktop Heat Load. It converts these entities into the Heat Load and Heat Flux types of Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal Thermal Loads respectively.
  - Exporting heaters
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export Heaters from Thermal Desktop to Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
  - Exporting boundary nodes
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export boundary nodes from Thermal Desktop into Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
  - Exporting contactors
    Thermal Model Exchanger exports Thermal Desktop Contactors as a Thermal Coupling type of Thermal Coupling simulation objects in Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
  - Exporting radiation
    You can use the Thermal Model Exchanger to export radiation from Thermal Desktop to Simcenter 3D. The surface selection varies depending on the settings in Thermal Desktop.
  - Exporting orbits and space environment
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export External Heating Environment boundary conditions from Thermal Desktop into Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
  - Exporting a case set
    You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export case sets from Thermal Desktop into Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.
- Legal notice

Exporting heaters

You can use Thermal Model Exchanger to export Heaters from Thermal Desktop to Simcenter 3D Space Systems Thermal.

In Thermal Desktop, a Heater with a sense temperature selection is exported to Simcenter 3D as a Thermal Load heat source with a modelling object of type:

Thermostat when Proportional is set to Off in the Heater dialog box. It operates in bang-bang mode. If the temperature falls below the on temperature, the heater power is activated, and it is deactivated above the off temperature. This behavior is equivalent to the thermostat in Simcenter 3D.
Active Heater Controller with Proportional type when Proportional is set to On in the Heater dialog box. It operates in proportional mode. If the temperature is between the on temperature and the off temperature, the power is proportional to the range between these temperatures. This behavior is equivalent to the active heater controller in Simcenter 3D.

In Simcenter 3D, the element selection for the Thermal Loads is defined based on the load selection in the Thermal Desktop's Heater and the element selection for the thermostat or active heater controller is defined based on the heater's sense temperature selection.

For the heater selection types in Thermal Desktop, Thermal Model Exchanger supports exporting loads applied on surface faces and edges and sense temperature on surface faces. If the load or the sense temperature is applied on a mixture of surfaces and nodes, only the surface selection is exported. The node selection will be ignored during the export.

In Thermal Desktop, the Sense Method for the Heater allows you to set the Combined Temperature Across Sensor Selection method for the Thermostat or Active Heater Controller modeling objects in Simcenter 3D 2406 or later versions.

In Thermal Desktop, the method you select for how the software treats thermostats in the steady state analysis is not exported. Simcenter 3D uses a global setting and the Sink to Average Temperature method is used by default in the exported steady state solution.