how to join two parallel midsuperface

[andy1275]

Hi, I am new to use I-deas, and I have a problem to mesh to sheet metal.
I want just use the midsuperface, but I don't know how I can join them. I have tried with the comand superface dependancy but nothing dosn't work. I will try with connection element but I don#t like the solution. Please can someone give me a advice which is the best way to modelling this case in I-deas.

Many Thanks

 

[rmsark]

I've used i-deas up to ms8,this is what you need to do
Surfacwe Abstractions ICON
Provides you with tools for mis surfacing and iterpolated surfaces. A midsurface contains thickness information about its associated suface pairs. For thin walled part you can use this thickness info for shell elements which are created on mid surfaces.
You can set mid surface attributes including manual selection of surface pairs,process only surface pairs etcc
You will need to pick and define pairs of surfaces so software will know which ones need to be associated. You can also hide/show midsurfaces or delete individual ones you created or you can use add mid surface to connect pathes etc...
Once you have created mid surfaces you can then use thin shells to mesh.
Remember to create shell definitions if you want to use thin shell elements instead,eg of 2mm, 4mm etc These can be created using menu driven options IDEAS menus can be hidden so you need to uses menus to drive certain things so switch on menus as well.
If you use shell on outer surfaces then attributes must be defined , so each varying thickess hass differently defined thicknesses. If you use mid planes then thre material thickness should over ride shell thickness automatically. Try a simple secton then apply loads to see and check your results before applying to structure. Remenber just because you get results it does not mean they are correct!!
Good luck

 

[rmsark]

Another thing to remember is that before you run your analysis once you have created your thin shells on a mid plane or surface, you need to check the shell element normals which are hidden, switch it on (under menus) and display and make sure all are in same direction relative to planes, these can be in opposing directions so it is important that you modify them so they are in the same direction for any particular surface, you can then solve for loads otherwise the element averaging etc.. will not be correct
Regards