mmccall

In the drawing mode.. you can also set up a template drawing.. that way all the attributes are there once you pick that drawing... I have several setup for myself that way... put things on different layers... etc.. do what ever you want...

Good job.... I will also post some useful catalogs... Think there needs to be a thread... or some other location just for people to store and upload catalogs?... Since they are useful tools... just to get them organized in one location...

One thing to be aware of... Sometimes when doing an assembly analysis.. I may think through the process and make an attempt to reduce the complexity of the geometry or the assembly to drive down analysis time... If you are running an assembly.. and have all your contact analysis constraints there.. then change your mind and decide on reducing the number of components and making up for it with additional constraints.. be careful... you may get an error message about the model... Just run a geometry check to be sure.. . What happened in one particular case.. after repeated changes and model checks... I finally understood one critical vague error statement... in essence something was wrong with my contact element... This struck me as being strange... since I had reduced the analysis to one part.. meaning.. I replaced all the other components with equivalent constraints.. AAAAHHH... the contact element still showed up on my tree browser... even though I was no longer analyzing an assembly... the element still read "Contact (default: bonded)".. when it should have read "Contact (default: free)" No problem..just blow away that analysis record (delete from the analysis folder to get rid of the file from memory al together) and re-mesh from IC again... Problem solved... got my results and everything works fine... MY DESIGN REALLY SUCKS !! more work ahead..

8020_test_2.zip

UUUhhh... cant seem to get the pics loaded..

Algor.. Surface Contact.. and Free Surface The 2 photos show an example of the difference between Surface and Free surface contact What we have is a simple assembly with a load on the end (from left to right: base plate, middle plate, upper and lower pins, and end plate) We are only concerned with the load carrying ability of the pins.. the shear across the pins.. so this is not a bolted joint and assuming no friction between the plates.. The constraints are applied so that only vertical movement is allowed in all the plates.. the base is fixed in all axis In the 8020 test 2 we took an easy setup and simply applied a surface to surface contact condition across all the components.. At first glace it would seem that this type of setup would be just fine for this case.. we dont want any of the components to pass through each other.. and we dont want any friction between the plates, so we force the pins to carry the load but notice that you have a high stress concentration at the corner of the middle plate and the top edge of the end plate this is where the 2 nodes try to slide past each other.. What Does Surface-to-Surface Contact Do? By default, in order for loads to be transferred between nodes, the nodes must be matched at the beginning of the analysis. For example, if two bodies begin an analysis separated, no interaction will occur during the analysis; the bodies will pass through each other. Surface-to-surface contact allows you to create pairs of surfaces that may come into contact with each other during the analysis. The processor will determine the distance between the nodes on these surface at each time step of the analysis. When the nodes are sufficiently close to each other, a stiffness will be applied to prevent penetration. Now lets look at the 8020 test case here we actually applied a free no-contact condition between the end plate and the middle plate, but left the surface contact condition between the pins and the end plate.. This condition still has no friction and with our boundary condition applied such that the plate can only move in the vertical direction, we see that we are now loading only the pins the max stresses have moved to a more logical location in the assembly

Be careful when running a Contact Analysis.. in any program... I have a T-beam... structural component.. and I have many different configurations with differing rivet, bolt and dowel pin combinations... I was running the analysis.. and despite having all the constraints correct and the pins tied down... both Mechanica and Algor completed the analysis.. but the results couldn't be trusted... there were a number of warnings.. things floated out of position and the stresses were way too low... Just as my general rule.. .you can have a warning.. just not too many... or you had better watch out... be sure to read what it is... I later realized what the problem was... I had my constraints set up for a contact analysis between a pin and the beam it went though, but the configuration I was using didn't have a hole in it... so the pin would simply pull out of place and never receive a load... Took a while to find it .. a pretty large assembly... Another "lessons learned"..

If you are running an analysis from within IC... and you are having problems with Algor completing the mesh, or a series of errors saying that there is a problem with the geometry... you may try: 1) exporting the geometry as a step file... then opening it directly in Algor... Now.. this is a situation with a fundamental problem... the ability to make quick design changes are lost... because you are dealing with geometry outside IC... so I hope you don't have alot of changes to make.. not to mention having to set up all the constraints again... Remember.. chances are that you will be in Metric Units if you forgot to change your setup... so just make adjustments to the results and convert as necessary... if you just change the units in Algor, the geometry will not change.. all the results will be incorrect... you will actually need to re-scale the geometry.. Which means... if you are in english units.. just export an Iges format... but geometry quality, may suffer.. ie being able to get a water tight solid after meshing... 2) export the geometry as a step file and re-import into IC... then start the Algor mesh again... now you will be able to make geometry changes.. etc..

YES... I switch kernels quite often.. mainly with blends.. Just don't do anything silly... like take the switching option away !!!

Analysis Forum I really feel that this is long overdue. I was wondering how the users and IC would feel about having an Analysis Forum? Now that IC has an integrated (to some extent) analysis package, maybe a forum like this would be useful, to give hints, discuss problems, concerns, results etc. of IC and ANY Analysis package I envision this forum as a place where analysis questions could be discussed.. I am NOT some analysis expert I am very interested in the subject.. and with my current contract, I am getting deeper and deeper into it. I dont necessarily believe that there would need to be a separate discussion room for each analysis package at this time, but I guess it could be,... a specialized room where you could get more into the specific problems, hints, share files etc. for IC / Algor, IC / Cosmos users and so on for that matter even Mechanica users like me.. (gag !!) If this did become the case, I would hope that there would also be a General Analysis Forum where conversations covering meshing, importing / export tips, load and constraint setups and general 3D geometry sharing could also take place across the entire IC / ANALYSIS community. In any case the target goal would be collaboration of ideas, problems, etc of IC and ANY analysis package. This would also serve as a good place to do a sanity check of the results of one analysis package vs another of course there would have to be some file sharing etc, I am confident that we are all smart enough to come up with a way to engage in sharing tips without this becoming some massive Product Engineering Piracy Forum so keep the sensitive details sensitive Hey just another way to make the community even closer So far, I havent come across a forum working over a CAD Program site like the one I am proposing.... speak up if you know of one.. but then again .. SO WHAT!!.. I think we need one... Maybe it works on a General open forum or maybe it should be internal only to the IC users.. I dont know there may be some good ideas to come across that IC could use to improve or expand their relationship with Algor there may also be some new problems and bug reports that may crop up Think this is a good idea? I could really use it I really like Algor, Cosmos and sometimes Mechanica. And we all LOVE IC lets see if this could work to better IC in some way. Howard....

Finally got it loaded... SWEET !!! Now its time to get to it...

Looks like from the explanation given to me from the folks at Algor.. that when you load Algor, it will automatically sniff for the IC and make things run and the button icon will show up automatically... Or atleast somewhere in the pulldown menue... Downloading now.. will know in about 2hrs!!!

Will the link into IC automatically be there when you get Algor?...will that icon automatically show up? I should be getting Algor this week.. just wondering if there is any particular package or do I just specify that I am using IC ?

Well Kevin... we could just break your legs!.. What do you think about that? Hold you hostage .. force IC to make these changes...

HA!!.. one sure warning is when "failure to install addins" error starts poping up...

NICE !!

HA!!.. and 8.0 will be released ... WHEN???

Will need definitely tune in on XM radio... hard to do CAD and drive... !! "Was suppressing a feature when ... BAM!!!... somebody steped in front of the car... ooohhh well... must have been a Pro-E user... wanted to commit suicide!!"

HA!!... FIRE OUT !!!! Put the fire out... too bad I have to start it EVERY day... got a powerful workstation so I can run IC to do all the really tedious work ... then import and run the analysis in WildFire... Man.. I need to hurry up and get Algor... but... better be careful... why would they need me if I stop using their system???.. HA!... This new module is one more step to win people over... a little at a time... Got the company Pro EXPERT on board !!

This new module for V8 is slick.. I hope IC plans on including a way to know the motion limits or interference locations... I hope we will still be able to apply a smart dim to a link and get its max and min angle outputs...or use any of the existing smart dims to get measurements throughout the manipulations.. Will IC automatically stop the motion at each limit?, or where an interference will occur?

That is really slick... I have used IPA quite a bit... to do animations.. makes doing animations in Pro much easier... You can't constrain things as logically as you can in IC animations.....really slick camera sweeps are possible.. with pauses.. really easy overall. IC animation is still much better... A useful program when you have a package that doesnt have or has a really complex animation package...

HA!!..FEMPRO... Yeah.. they have a really good interface.. much like COSMOS... I like the automated report writing also.. COSMOS does the automated report writing also... I was trying to do a situation much like the piston example... where they were able to window drag all the top faces to set the constraint to those faces... In Mechanica, you would have all day to set up a surface region... the window selection ability is much better.. Assemblies are really slick !!... Did you see that real world comparison of the sledge hammer on that aluminum beam?... really accurate... being able to realistically get results in the inelastic region... man... slick... then how it is able to show the residual stresses and the effects.. man... I have seen and know some real ABACUS power users.. I can't wait to get some of their input on Algor... It seems like you need a PHD to run ABACUS... GUYS and GALS... if you haven't gone to the Algor site, you really should... cool way to spend a friday evening looking at all the movies... they just play through...

"IronCAD is very pleased to announce the integration of ALGOR's FEMPRO application from within IronCAD. " YEAH BABY!!... about time!!!... I am so SICK of importing and exporting and dealing with Pro/Mechanica... I think I will sue IC for mental anguish... forcing me to use other programs...HA!!.. Where do I place my order... somebody give me a call... "FEMPRO which provides direct CAD/CAE data exchange and full associativity for each design change in IronCAD" I am going to MAX that package out... let me check the bank... AND CFD!!!... here we go with intake design again..

HHHMMMMM!!! Yeah.. that is a pain...

When importing step files from Pro, especially when importing large assemblies... be sure you have the kernel set to PARASOLID. That way, when the assembly regenerates, it will keep all the part names from PRO.. although the order may still be questionable... still wants to re-stack things in the browser... If you keep it on ACIS, IC will throw away all the names and default to part1, part2 etc...