The model chosen to demonstrate some of the advantages of using Ansys Object Generator is shown below. It consists of a box and a lid which are connected with a large number of fasteners. One method of connecting them is with the use of simple beam elements which are easily generated in Ansys Workbench. However, even when easy, it becomes a chore when a large number of them are needed.
In this example, first, a simple beam with an assumed diameter of 6 mm spanning from the middle of the lid hole to the middle of a box hole will be generated. The first beam is created as usual…
Notice the nearby holes being empty! Now a Named selection is created of through-hole surfaces in the Lid as well as a similar Named Selection of through holes’ surfaces in the Box, see below.
The next step is to open the Object Generator dialog box in the Automation tab.
The first step in the Mechanical Application Wizard (the dialog box) is to identify the object to be used as a template, i.e. what is desired to be patterned, see the image below.
Once the beam which was created earlier is selected in the model tree, the Object Generator dialog box is opened.
Here the two named selections are selected from pull-down menus for Reference and Mobile scoping. The following task is to enter an approximate range for beams length. The software will create beams of the same length as the reference beam, but it is a good idea to still give a small range in case of slight differences in geometry of scoped bodies in all locations.
A default choice for geometry to be scoped to is Adjacent Entities but there are options to choose Each Entity or All Entities by Part if so desired. Here the beams need only be created between the generated named selections, so the default selection is left unchanged. The next is to select whether to Ignore the original or create an object in its place as well. Again, as no additional beams are needed in the place of the initially created beam, the default selection is kept. If no custom names are needed, click on Generate to create desired beams in all holes between the Lid and the Box as shown below.
As can be seen below, beams between the Lid and the Box are created between all scoped geometries, and the job is done!
This example was to show how the job of a fastener creation can be done in a more efficient manner while using the Object Generator to automate and expedite the creation of loads, boundary conditions, beam connections, and other features in Mechanical Applications. I hope this was helpful!
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