The Shape Animate Tool
During Global Sensitivity Studies, Mechanica changes the design variables within specified ranges to determine how sensitive certain measures such as Von Mises stress or maximum displacement are due to these variations. There are several tools available in Mechanica to help ensure that the design variables shape changes will not cause your geometry to fail.
You can use Shape Animate the Model from the Options dialog box to show the effects of one or more design variables on your model. Shape Animate enables you to view the shape changes that will occur at each step of the design study instead of just at a specific value.
When you click the Shape Animate the Model button to start the shape animation, Mechanica initially displays the model with the dimensions set to the start values. Mechanica then asks if you want to move on to the next step in the animation. You have the option of continuing or stopping the animation at each step. At the end of the animation, you have the option to restore the model to its original shape before the animation or replace the original model with the new shape.
Best Practices
Here are some Best Practices for using the Shape Animate functionality:
- Shape Animate is only available for Global Sensitivity Studies.
- Start with smaller shape changes to make sure that the shape changes are realistic before specifying the full range of movement.
- Review the relations (if you use Pro/ENGINEER relations to make dimensions move relative to one another). Try to locate errors in the relations or conflicts between relations if you are having problems with the Shape Animation.
- Review all the relations associated with the Pro/ENGINEER parameter to make sure you understand their implications. If you are having problems with the Shape Animation, try to locate relations which you may have forgotten.
- Review the parent/child relationships for your part and re-dimension the part if necessary to solve Shape Animation problems.
