Hi All,
I want to perform various solidworks simulation like thermal, motion analysis etc on an assembly created in autodesk inventor. So my question is can we perform these test directly on the imported assembly or do I need to convert it to solidworks file and give all the mate relations first?
Kindly share your experience of SWX Simulation as I am new to it.
Best Regards,
Yash
but if its a large assy then it will be troublesome to give each and every mates again.
redefining mates for a motion analysis is not typically that big a deal. Most assemblies have only a handful of moving parts (or moving subassemblies). You can either use loc mates for parts or organize them in subassemblies to lock a bunch of parts together. I can imagine assemblies with large numbers of individual moving parts (and I have worked with them) but they are pretty hard to come across and getting things to work well requires some skill - I am talking like 40 or 50 moving bits - I was trying to appoximate a very flexible body using the segmented approach - like a roller chain but not really..
Structural or Flow simulation would not care whether it is imported geometry.
Hemant is correct regarding Motion. Motion analysis would make use of existing mates in order to define DOF between components in the assembly. Otherwise, it would simply be a collection of unconnected parts. You would need to define each of the mates. An alternative may be to purchase translator that can preserve the mates from Inventor. I'm not sure if such a translator even exist. You might search the SW partner products or the web in general...
If you have a large assembly but motion is only occuring between a limited number of components, then you can create rigid groups and will only need to define a limited number of mates.
Hi Paul,
Can I take it as SWX simulation can easily be used for static analysis of imported parts and not the dynamic analysis.
Regarding translators, few days back I came across TansMagic a partner product for SolidWorks, due you have any idea about it?
Thanks & Regards,
Yash
Yash. SolidWorks can work with imported geometry for any of these tasks. The only issue that you seem to be dealing with is losing mate information that may be used by SolidWorks Motion to run a kinematic study. This may be an inconvenience, but does not mean that you can't proceed with the analysis after defining the mates you need. I have run linear statc, nonlinear, dynamic, flow, and motion studies on imported geometry without any problems. I would only bother with a translator if re-creation of assembly mates represented a great deal of work and therefore there were a significant ROI on purchasing such a tool. Anyway, in general, once imported geometry is in SolidWorks, it can be used in any simulation study.
I have heard of TransMagic, but do not have any direct experience using it. Sorry.
Paul
bolt connectors aside, Isn't that what simulation does with every solidworks model ie. convert it to a dumb solid in the background? It almost has to be true.
Well, that is essentially correct, but it doesn't really convert the geometry. Simulation, as with any analysis tool, creates a FE mesh, upon which the boundary conditions are applied. After meshing, the software doesn't need or use the solid geometry. That is why it doesn't really care whether the original geometry was feature based or imported solids.
SolidWorks motion is different in that it works with the solid geometry and using any existing mates to define relative motion between bodies. It doesn't really need feature history, so the parts could be imported bodies, but mates need to be established at some point in order to define DOF within the assembly.
Well, if it doesn't really convert the geometry then why does my pet buzz kill ie. "update all components" need to exist? Because of that, I think the solidworks integration with ansys workbench is actually a much more transparent interface to see at a glance what state the synchronization is between fea and solidworks.
My explanation was probably poor. If you want to say that the solid geometry is converted into a finite element mesh, then that would be correct. ANSYS would perform the same operation. My point was that there is no conversion from feature based solid geometry to an imported-like featureless body during a FEA study. There is no point. The mesh is mapped to the solid geometry in whatever state it may exist, and then the study progresses from that point.
SW Sim will ususlly detect when the model needs to be remeshed due to changes in boundary conditions or model geometry. In cases where the model has changed significantly (bodies excluded, suppressed, or added or element type changes, etc.) then 'update componets' may be used to rebuild the part tree. Workbench probably needs to closely monitor the link between SolidWorks and itself to ensure that any changes to the model are synced with it's FEA model. Maybe a more direct answer would be that you should not to frequently click on 'update components' when using SW Sim, unless you are continuously making significant changes to the model such as I described above. If you are simply changing features, etc., then a re-mesh would be required, but that should be it.
you canot perform motion analysis on imported assembly as mates are not preserved on importing of any assembly u need to give mates individually and about thermal i dont know much about it.