Nope, whenever you click SOLVE every load is applied to a node. Loads can be applied to solid model entities but keep in mind they're converted to nodal loads during the solve.
Hi,
yes, indeed it has, and not just one... It depends on what you exactly mean by "apply an arbitrary force and convert it to nodal forces".
Just to give some ideas, SBCTRAN in Classical transfers boundary conditions applied to solid model's entities (keypoints, lines, areas, volumes) into boundary conditions applied to the FE discretization (i.e. nodes, eventually through elements) - the SBCTRAN is automatically executed at the start of SOLVE; Remote Force in Workbench applies an external force ("floating" outside the discretized model) to a region (i.e. to a set of nodes); the same thing can be done in Classical, of course, via master node and MPC...
I think your question is a bit ill-posed. Or I may have misunderstood what you meant.
My problem was that I have a 3D mesh, but the applied force location is subjected to random change. So I cannot guarantee I will have a node at the load location.
Following the idea in your reply, I think a possible way for me is to put a new node at the force location, and connect this node to a set of nodes with link element.
I am using Solid 95 for the mesh, so I think I have to connect the new node to more than one node, since all the nodes have only translational DOFs. I'd like to try the Remote Force, but I am using ANSYS MultiPhysics.
Hi,
if you have a Multiphysics license level, you have the entire universe!!! ;-) Lucky you...
OK, the "links" method will work. I'd prefer a MPC184 method, which is about the same but is "cleaner" in my opinion.
Note that "Classical" and "Workbench" are two different "environments", with different possibilities and moreover philosophies, but you should have both anyway ("Multiphysics" enables all their capabilities), provided that they have been installed of course.