Back at it with Part III.  Here we go…

Assemblies

They made a nice little change to assembly analysis.  It is now possible to exclude a component from an analysis without suppressing it.  It is also possible to treat components as rigid, flexible, floating, or fixed in space.  Right click on the component in the analysis tree and select the option to apply.

Sheet Metal

Sheet metal components are automatically meshed using shell mesh in 2009.  The shell is created at the mid-plane of the sheet metal part without the user having to create the mid-plane surface separately.  It is possible to switch back to solids by right clicking on the shell in the Simulation tree and selecting “Treat as Solid”. 

Loads, restraints, connectors, and contacts can now be applied directly to the geometry.  The software will automatically apply them to the shell in the appropriate manner.  This includes symmetry.  No more restraining the normal translation and the other two rotations.  Much simpler.  I love it!

Connectors

It is now possible to check the Factor of Safety for Connectors.  Bolt and pin connectors are available in shell analysis studies.  Bolts and pins can also be applied to a mixed stack of solid and shell components.

Mesh

Mesh type is no longer selected when creating a study.  The mesh type that is used for any component can be changed within a study.  When a new study is created, each component defaults to a mesh type based on the geometry.  Structural components default to beam mesh.  Sheet metal components and surfaces bodies default to shells.  Everything else defaults to solid mesh.  Any of these can be changed by right clicking on the component in the Simulation tree and selecting the desired mesh type.  If you have a solid body and you want to treat it as a shell, you are now required to create a surface at the location where you want the shell.

Mesh control dialogue has been updated.  There is a new Mesh Density slider bar that can be used to refine or coarsen the mesh on faces or for entire components.  The option to apply a specific mesh size is still available.

A model simplification tool is built into the mesh menu.  When you right click on the mesh, there is an option to “Simplify Model for Meshing”.  This opens a simplify tool in the task pane.  A simplification factor can be applied to fillets, chamfers, holes, etc.  This is a neat little tool.  I will have to play with it to see what type of job it does.

The last topic that I need to go over is probably the one that everyone is waiting for.  Composites are new in Simulation 2009.  Look forward to an in depth discussion of composites in Simulation in my next entry…  after I do a little research and learn enough to do it justice…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 12:13 am and is filed under Announcements, COSMOSWorks, Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.