I'm interested in simulating a bolted joint.  In Ansys, I can use a bolt whose geometry is line-on-line at the bolt and nut interfaces with the mating flanges.  I can then set the initial interference at either location through options on the contact elements and it will put the bolt in tension for me.  (Alternatively, I can model the initial interference into the geomety and tell the contact element to use the geometry to determine the initial interference, which seem to be the approach that Simulation uses.)  I would like to be able to set the initial interference through an option in the contact (rather than using the actual part geometry) because I need to iterate on the values to get the correct preload in the bolt (it's not known precisely a priori) and that's more easily done through multiple studies in a single assembly than through creating multiple bolts with different lengths.  Is this something I can do in Simulation?  If it is, it is not obvious.

Thank you.