Substituting Parts into an Assembly

[RF_engineer]

Hello,
So I have ran my initial analysis and need to make changes to a few parts in my assembly, is there a way to substitute new CAD parts into the existing assembly without having to redo all of the preprocessing?

 

[BlasMolero]

Hello!,
Yes, at some level FEMAP can automatize this process.
In FEMAP you can add/import/replace new components in a meshed assembly if you activate in FILE > PREFERENCES > INTERFACES the option to create geometry references. When this option is ON, a geometry reference will be created automatically for each piece of geometry when it is imported. If you modify the source CAD geometry then FEMAP will inform you and you can update the FEMAP model as well, automatically.

At any time you can run FILE > REFERENCES command to see the status of each component and you can update or remove the reference.

Depending on the type of geometry file that was referenced (*.x_t, *.sat, *.igs, *.stp, etc.) and the extent the geometry was changed can have a substantial effect on the usability of the mesh and any geometry-based loads and boundary conditions that are currently in the model. Be sure to verify all loads and boundary conditions in the model are correctly applied after new geometry file has been read into FEMAP.

The above meshing approach is valid for 3-D solids meshed with CTETRA 10-nodes elements, but please note live out there is not only 3-D solids, most of the time in run FEMAP the type of element that I most use is 2-D Shell 4-nodes elements meshing MIDSURFACES created in FEMAP based on 3-D SOLIDS imported from CAD systems in PARASOLID or STEP format: MIDSURFACES are created in FEMAP automatically, yes, and I can tell FEMAP to update the SOLID model if the CAD geometry was edited in the source CAD system, but MIDSURFACE generation should be performed manually by end user .... don't expect miracles!!.

Best regards,
Blas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blas Molero Hidalgo
Ingeniero Industrial
Director

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