Inquiry- creating complex solid for stress analysis

[CarbonWerkes]

Hi

Im fairly new to Solidworks. Im having trouble finding a method to create a single solid 3d body that might contain various tabs (for example) for stress analysis. Target object might be something like a beach chair, where I want to determine stress on legs. Normally, I would create the component parts (legs, body of seat, etc), and combine as an assembly, but this yields a group of parts that I cannot export to Ansys or other FEA tools for stress evaluation. I am able to use 'Combine' in the Part mode to create solids from parts, but control over placement of objects (i.e. rotation, mates, etc) seems very poor. Is there a way to 'export' a solid body from an assembly? Or, do I have to do some intermediary process (i.e. a subtractive cut between the assembly and a block of material, and then reverse that (sort of like creating a part from an injection mould...))? There must be a simpler way- but I cant find it. Thanks in advance-
Best regards,
Roland

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Check out the SW Help file index for save, assembly as multibody part


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[ctopher]

'Save as' a part or parasolid.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[CarbonWerkes]

Chris

I tried that initially, and it created a part with 2 surface(s) entries (was testing with just 2 parts in an assembly). I suppose I would need to then convert (these) into a solid using some of the techniques described in the forum (thicken->solid)?

Best,
Roland

 

[CarbonWerkes]

Seems that the "save as multibody" works, though the part is still represented as a collection of bodies once opened as a 'part.' As long as the meshers are OK with it, so am I.

Thanks for the help all- great forum here. I hope I can contribute.

Best,
Roland

 

[ctopher]

Welcome!

...I hope I can contribute

You just did! I'm constantly learning from this forum every day.
Thanks,

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[Heckler]

I think it would be better if you created the assembly then imported that into the FEA program. Then you would have to assign all you boundry conditions, loads and constraints. If you plan to use SWx as your design tool then it's worth learning how to deal with assemblies.

Don't forget to search this forum and the FAQ for your answer before posting a question. Their is a lot of knowledge base here....have fun

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

You can also use the Join function in an assy.

See also Combining parts in an assembly thread559-138566

BTW, in SW06 you can use the Mate function in a multi-body part, which greatly simplifies positioning the bodies.


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091