Innovation Intelligence ® SimLab Automation Training Nirmal Subbaiah May, 2013

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. SimLab Automation Topics CAD Import Design Parameters Attributes ( Color, Group etc) Parameters CAD & SimLab Parameters How to define and use. Templates Mesh spec, Contact, LBC, Material/property Process Capture ( Project Menu) Repeat process for same model with different parameters Repeat process for different models with similar attributes DOE

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. SimLab Automation CAD Import SimLab’s Direct CAD Import gives access to design parameters exposed in CAD software and allows the definition of parameters inside SimLab that define feature modification (Regeneration), which enables the user to study the influence of design parameters on the result. The group information of entities like faces and edges can also be imported into SimLab as groups which enable the user to define mesh control, loads and boundary condition. Regenerating the model will retain the group information

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. SimLab Automation Import for different CAD systems

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Unigraphics

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Step 1. Open a part and select Modeling application Creating Parameters

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Step 2. Select Tools/Expression Creating Parameters (Contd.)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Step 3. Select “All” in “Listed Expressions” which will list out all design parameters Creating Parameters (Contd.)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Step 4. Select a parameter and rename preceding with SL_ Creating Parameters (Contd.)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Groups Entities which are grouped in UniGraphics by an unique name will be imported into SimLab as groups with the same name.

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Creating face group Step 1: set selection filter to face

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Creating face group (Contd.) Step 2 : Select face/faces and right click to set property

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Step 3 : Enter name for the group of faces Creating face group (Contd.)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Step 1: set selection filter to edge Creating edge group

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Step 2 : Select edge/edges and right click to set property Creating edge group (Contd.)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Step 3 : Enter name for the group of edges Creating edge group (Contd.)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. ProE

Parameters can be created in Pro/E by selecting Tools / Parameters To add parameter select Parameters/Add Parameter from Parameters dialog Parameters in Pro/Engineer (Ex: Con_Rod.prt)

Create the following parameters BigEnd_Dia=56.0 SmallEnd_Dia=38.0 Thickness=21.0 Creating Parameters

Assigning the Parameters Right click on section and select “Edit Definition”

Double click the dimension and enter the parameter name Assigning the Parameters (Contd.)

Right click on feature and select “Edit Definition” Assigning the Parameters (Contd.)

Double click the dimension and enter the parameter name Assigning the Parameters (Contd.)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Catia

CATIA knowledge ware allows to create parameters and assign it to features. SimLab gives access to these parameters and allows the definition of parameters inside SimLab to study there influence in results without redesigning the CAD model. CATIA – Knowledge ware

Step 1. Clicking the icon will display the dialog box. Step 2. To create a new parameter, click “New Parameter of type” after selecting its type(Length). The new parameter appears in the “Edit name” field. Define its name, value and click “Apply” Creating parameters in CATIA

Create the following two parameters BigEndRadius=26.0 SmallEndRadius=10.0

The new parameter will be listed in the specification tree. User can create any number of parameters with predefined value.

Tools | options | Infrastructure | Part infrastructure | Display tab provides options for customizing the display of elements in the specification tree. Checking “Parameters” and “Relations” will display those in specification tree Parameters and Relations in Specification tree

This is an example to show how the parameters is associated to a feature. In this example the radius of big end is associated to a parameter “BigEnd_Radius”. Step 1. Clicking the icon (from Knowledge tool bar) will display the dialog box. Step 2. Select sketch from specification tree and select the dimension for big end radius. The selected dimension will be highlighted in the formula dialog Using parameters

Using parameters (Contd.) Step 3. Select Add Formula

Step 4. Select parameter “BigEnd_Radius” from specification tree and click “OK” Using parameters (Contd.)

The new relation will be listed in the specification tree Using parameters (Contd.)

Step 1. Select “Generative Shape Design” Workbench Creating publication

Step 2. Select “Operations/Extract” Step 3. Extract the faces which are to be published Creating publication (Contd.)

The extracted face will be listed in the specification tree Creating publication (Contd.)

Step 4. Select Tools/Publication Creating publication (Contd.)

Step 5. Select the “Extract” feature from the tree Step 6. It can be renamed to user defined name by selecting the name field. This name will be the name of the group in SimLab Creating publication (Contd.)

To read the publication information from the CATIA file the application protocol is to be set as “214 iso” Select Tools | Options | General | Compatibility | STEP and set “Application Protocol(AP) to “214 iso” and click “OK”. This will enable the user to import the publications as “SimLab group”. CATIA – Publication

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Preparation before recording a process Before recording a process, prepare the templates/specs required for the whole process.

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Recordable operations Any dialog with hand symbol can be recorded in.sls script.

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. SimLab Parameters

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Using Parameters Any edit box that is marked in yellow will accept a parameter in place of a number ( Float / Integer) or Name( String)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Mesh Specification files Template Generic – but needs user intervention GeomID Specific to a model Face Color Generic – can be assigned automatically Body/Group Name Generic – can be assigned automatically.

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Mesh Spec Creation - Demo

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Color spec Standard color coding should be followed. Colors can be applied in CAD systems or inside SimLab. Each feature should be identified with unique color. Import the model and use Render Mode | Face Color to see the colors assigned to faces. RGB values can be seen in output window when a face is selected. After applying meshcontrols to different features, export a mesh specification file using Color option. This spec can be imported to any model which was color coded with the same color standard. ( Ed: Holes – Blue, Planar Face- Red, Fillets – Green)

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Color – mesh spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Color – Mesh spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Color – Mesh Spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Color- Mesh spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Color – Mesh Spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Color – Mesh Spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Color – Mesh Spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Group / Name – Mesh spec Entities ( Faces, Edges, Body)should be assigned a specific name SimLab will read the name details and create groups. After creating mesh controls, export using Group/Name based mesh specification file. This file can be used for any component with similar features and names assigned in the same way how it was used in the original model.

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Group / Name - Mesh spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Mesh controls applied

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Mesh controls – Export

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Using Parameters in Mesh Spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Record a Process Create Project directory Project, Input, Output Input Files CAD, Mesh spec, Contact template etc. Record

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Record a Process

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Import Step

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Import Mesh Spec

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Surface Mesh

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Volume Mesh

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Transfer Group

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Apply Pressure on Bigend_VM Group

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Apply Constraint on SmallEnd_VM group

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Create Material / Apply Property

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Export Solver Deck

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Close Project

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Replay the script for Different model Rename Model#2 to the orginal name used in the script Copy model#2 to Input folder and run script New model should have same attributes of the model used while recording the process.

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Interactive Play

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Run scripts in batch mode SimLab.bat –auto d:\script.sls SimLab.bat –auto d:\script.sls -param d:\Param.xml -doe designExperimentFile.xml -nographics –nowait -auto -param -doe -nographics -nowait

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. DOE Go to Applications | Special | DOE Choose Project Folder.

Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. DOE Select number of factors and levels Choose variables. Enter values for each iteration Click “Design Experiments” Run.