TheoryandMechanicaModelTopics UnderstandingSurfaceRegionsLecture UnderstandingSurfaceRegions.

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Understanding Surface Regions

Models can be optimized for analysis using surface regions.
Surface Regions divide your models into areas where you can apply loads and constraints.

Surface Regions
Lecture

Optimizing Models for Analysis using Surface Regions You use regions to apply loads and constraints to particular footprints on a model. You can create surface regions in Mechanica to apply loads and constraints to specific localized surface areas. Surface region creation is a two-step process:

Defining the region boundary is accomplished by sketching a datum curve feature to represent the boundary. You can create a separate datum curve feature for each region that you need to define. You cannot define multiple region boundaries with only one datum curve feature. Creating the region consists of splitting a model surface into smaller surfaces, or regions, using the datum curve as a boundary.

You must define regions before mid-surfaces for shell modeling because creating regions can invalidate existing shell pairs. Best Practices You should define regions before mid-surfaces for shell modeling because creating regions can invalidate existing shell pairs.

UnderstandingSurfaceRegionsDeomonstration UnderstandingSurfaceRegions_demo.mp4 UnderstandingSurfaceRegionsProcedure

Procedure: Creating Surface Regions

Scenario
Create surface regions by selecting existing datum curves and sketching new ones. SurfaceRegions surface_region.prt

Task 1. Open Mechanica and create a sketched Surface Region.

1. Click Applications > Mechanica. 2. Click Surface Region .

3. Right-click in the display area and select Define Internal Sketch.... 4. Select the top surface as shown as the sketching plane reference. Click Sketch from the Sketch dialog box to accept the defaults and start Sketch mode.

5. Sketch a rectangle as shown. 6. Click Done Section to exit Sketcher mode. and select Default Orientation.

7. Click Named View List

8. Select the same surface of the model (top) that you selected as the sketching plane reference in the steps above as the surfaces to split reference. 9. Click Complete Feature . 10. Cursor over the top surface of the model and note that the newly created surface region can be selected.

If the surface region had not been created, only the entire top surface could be selected instead of the smaller surface region.

Task 2. Create a surface region by selecting a datum curve, save the model, and erase it from memory.
1. Click Surface Region .

2. Select the circular datum curve shown in the figure.

3. Select the same surface that the sketch was sketched on as shown. 4. Click Complete Feature .

5. Move the mouse over the right surface of the model and note that the newly created surface region can be selected. 6. Return to the Standard Pro/ENGINEER mode by clicking Applications > Standard. 7. Click Save from the main toolbar and click OK to save the model. 8. Click File > Erase > Current > Yes to erase the model from memory.

This completes the procedure. UnderstandingSurfaceRegionsExercise

Exercise: Creating Regions

Objectives
After successfully completing this exercise, you will be able to:

Create surface regions. Create curves for surface regions. Split surfaces into surface regions using curves.

Scenario
In order to constrain or load a specific portion of a part's surface, you need to create a region on the part. By sketching a curve onto a surface, you can create a region that splits a specific surface on the part into multiple sections. In this exercise, you learn how to create regions and understand their effects on pairing by creating a simple sketched region. UnderstandingSurfaceRegions trigger.prt

Task 1. Create the first datum curve.

1. Press CTRL and select features Round id 190, Round id 277, and Round id 508 in the model tree. 2. Right-click, select Suppress, and click OK. 3. Start the Datum Plane Tool

in the feature toolbar.

Select datum plane RIGHT and drag the new plane to 35, as shown.

4. Complete the datum.

Click OK. Click Edit > Select > Deselect All. and select datum plane DTM1.

5. Start the Sketch Tool

Click Flip to switch the sketch view direction. Ensure that TOP:F2(DATUM PLANE) is set as the Sketch Orientation Reference. Set the Orientation from Left to Top. Click Sketch. in the main toolbar to disable their display. from the main toolbar.

6. Click Plane Display 7. Click No hidden

8. Right-click in the graphics window and select Centerline. Sketch a centerline along the vertical reference. 9. Click Rectangle in the Sketcher toolbar and sketch a rectangle ensuring that it snaps symmetrically about the centerline. Edit the dimensions, as shown.

10. Click Done Section 11. Click Shading

from the Sketcher toolbar.

in the main toolbar.

12. Middle-click and drag to orient the model approximately, as shown. Note that the sketch exists within datum plane DTM1 and not on the surface of the TRIGGER.PRT.

13. With the newly created sketch still highlighted (in red), click Edit > Project to project the sketched curve onto the surface of the TRIGGER.PRT.

Select the surface, as shown on the left. Click Complete Feature .

Task 2. Use the datum curves you created to define the regions.
1. Enable Mechanica Structure by clicking Applications > Mechanica.

Ensure that Structure is selected in the Model Type dialog box and click OK. in the Mechanica Objects toolbar.

2. Click Surface Region

Click Split by chain from the dashboard. Select the projected rectangular curve you created in the previous task (shown highlighted in orange in the figure).

Right-click and select Surfaces. Select the overall surface that the sketch curve resides on, as shown, highlighted in cyan. Click Complete Feature .

3. Click View > Model Setup > Mesh Surface to verify the defined regions by meshing the surfaces.

Click inside the sketched rectangle. Set the Mesh Spacing for the 1st direction to 4. Note that the Mesh Spacing for the 2nd direction is set to 3. Click Select Reference in the Mesh dialog box. Click outside the sketched rectangle. Click Close in the Mesh dialog box.

The mesh surface in the previous step is a Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 functionality for visualizing surfaces. The mesh surface does NOT generate

elements on the model.

Task 3. Define a mid-surface shell idealization.

1. Press CTRL + D to orient to the standard orientation. Click Repaint main toolbar to repaint the model without the mesh. 2. Click Shell Pair

from the

from the Mechanica Object toolbar.

Select the surface as shown. Click Accept Settings .

3. Examine the resulting shell and solid geometry.

Click AutoGEM > Review Geometry > Apply. Click Close to close the Simulation Geometry dialog box. Note that Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 has automatically changed the AutoGEM setting from Solid to Solid / Midsurface because you have created a shell pair. Note the shell geometry in green.

Task 4. Create a mixed mesh to view the elements, save the model, and erase it from memory.
1. Click Material Assignment from the Mechanica Objects toolbar.

2. Click More... next to the Material field.

3. Add NYLON to the Materials in Model list by selecting NYLON.MTL in the Materials in Library list and clicking Add Material . 4. Click OK to close the Materials dialog box. Verify that the Material field is set to NYLON and click OK to close the Material Assignment dialog box. 5. Click Simulation Display

in the Mechanica Actions toolbar.

Select the Mesh tab. Click Shrink Elements to enable it and set it to 20%. Click OK to close the Simulation Display dialog box. from the main toolbar.

6. Click Create

7. Click Create in the AutoGEM dialog box to manually mesh TRIGGER.PRT. 8. Review the AutoGEM Summary dialog box by doing the following:

Click Create in the AutoGEM dialog box. Click Close to close the AutoGEM Summary dialog box when you are finished reviewing the mesh. Click Close in the Diagnostics dialog box. Middle-click and drag to orient the model, as shown. Note that the surface region breaks the mesh along its boundaries.

9. Visually inspect the mesh.

Click Close to close the AutoGEM dialog box. Click Yes when prompted to save the mesh. > OK to save the model. .

10. Click Save

11. Click File > Close Window

12. Click File > Erase > Not Displayed and click OK to erase all models from memory.

This completes the exercise.