How to use a CAD Face in a boundary condition

Ajay Prasad

November 09, 2023 13:20

Objective:

How to use a CAD Face in a boundary condition.

Applies to:

Force
Surface Force
Bearing Force
Pressure
Point Force, Point Moment
Surface Heat Flux
Convection Boundary Load
Radiation Boundary Load
Displacement Restraint
Point Restraint
Temperature Restraint
Tie Constraint
Structural Bounded Contact
Thermal Bounded Contact
FE Mesh Component 0 is not associated with a CAD Body error

Procedure:

Note: If you are running into the error FE Mesh Component # is not associated with a CAD Body, then you most likely have a CAD Face that isn't associated with a mesh. Continue reading below to solve this issue.

1. Select the CAD Face List overload in the boundary condition block.

2. Use the CAD Face directly as an input or the CAD Face List block to select multiple CAD faces for scoping your boundary condition.

3. Associate the FE Mesh with the CAD body containing the CAD faces selected in the above step.

Mesh: The FE Mesh is to be associated with the CAD Body.
Geometry: CAD bodies from which the boundary CAD faces are scoped.
Tolerance: Tolerance is the Maximum distance between selected mesh elements and the chosen topology.

Associate FE Mesh block also helps you scope boundary conditions to multiple FE meshes generated by duplicating and replacing the Mesh input for the new Mesh. You can use the Associate FE Mesh block to assign different FE Meshes to different CAD Bodies for multi-component analyses. A Boundary Condition that is scoped to a specific CAD Face will only be applied to the mesh associated with the CAD Face. This is useful to distinguish features near each other, like neighboring Boundary Conditions or FE Connectors. For example, a Tie Constraint takes Independent and Dependent boundaries, which typically overlap in 3D space. Those boundaries can be assigned to two CAD Faces in the same location but from different CAD Bodies.