ANSYS APDL cosmetic element display?

[GeorgeEllwood]

Hello,
I'm doing an analysis in ANSYS APDL which uses beam elements. Once completed I'd like to get a cosmetic display of the elements. By that I mean I'd like to map onto the elements a realistic image of the thing they're representing. I've used the ESHAPE command before to show the elements, but in this case I'd like to show different geometry to that the ESHAPE command would show. I thought it was possible to do something like this when performing multibody simulations. It's not important and doesn't affect the results but it would be nice to show if possible.
Thanks
George

 

[0rel]

Hi George,

You can display the cross section of your beam elements. What do you mean by "shouw different geometry to taht the ESHAPE command would show" ?

 

[GeorgeEllwood]

Hi Orel,
I'm using a circular cross section beam element to prepresent my component and am able to change the material properties so that it behaves as I would expect. However in reality the geometry isn't circular so I'd like to project/map different geometry onto the element that would be more realistic. The component will be placed very close to several other components and I want to show that there will be clearance between them.
Thanks
George

 

[0rel]

Hi George,

As far as I know, you can only display line bodies or cross sections associated with it.

Regards,

Orel

 

[GeorgeEllwood]

Thanks Orel, that does seem to be the case. I think it's a possible feature in Abaqus, I think it's called a display body in that package. It's quite useful if you're carrying out a multibody analysis etc.
Cheers
George

 

[0rel]

I don't think I really understand what you are trying to do.

What are the shapes of your cross sections ? If they exist in Ansys, then you can display them, just assign different cross sections to your bodies (considering I understand what you are trying to do, which I'm not sure )

 

[GeorgeEllwood]

Hi Orel, when you're carrying out a multibody analysis such as the crank slot mechanism that appears in the ANSYS help. The model created is a simplified version of the real mechanism but has the same funtionality, however it's a series of lines and nodes. I wondered whether it was possible to map more realistic geometry onto the these lines and nodes. This could give a visual indication of where the components are in time and whether they'll be a clash with surrounding components. By the sounds of it it can't be done in ANSYS and its not important to the result.
Cheers
George