Introducing the HandySCAN 3D Scanner (Silver Elite Series Edition)

Today, I am going to explore the new HandySCAN 3D scanner from the Silver Elite series. This powerful scanner comes packed with proven, patented optic technology that makes it an all-in-one device for scanning parts of all shapes and sizes. You will immediately notice the quick plug-and-play setup time. The moment you hold the scanner, you’ll recognize the well-balanced, ergonomic design, making it easy to operate comfortably. The buttons are thoughtfully placed and it seems just as intuitive as VXelements, Creaform’s proprietary software. This makes it easy to wield without fumbling.

But it isn’t just comfort and ease of use that make the HandySCAN 3D scanner a revolution. By capturing 480,000 measurements a second, this scanner is the fast path to quickly go from a physical part to ready-to-use files.

Additionally, the HandySCAN 3D scanner uses seven blue (grid-formed) lasers. This lets it easily capture what are typically difficult-to-get surfaces.  The triangulation of the reflective targets provides self-positioning. This lets the scanner and the part to move, while the scanner maintains its orientation. The benefit here is that now we can capture details of the part from various angles. Possibly even more notable is the single-laser line that is useful for capturing the small details in hard-to-reach places. Having all this versatility while holding accuracies up to .0012” (.030mm) makes this scanner one of the most useful tools in both Reverse Engineering and Quality Control inspection workflows.

How Do You Get One?

I hope you are excited as I am about getting a professional-grade scanner at a truly accessible price—starting in the low $20K range. Get ready to join over 5,000 and growing users worldwide that are benefiting from this multifaceted tool in the rapidly growing industry 4.0. Please check with your local sales representative to get the best pricing including limited and introductory offers. Let’s Grow Together! Learn more about us at GoEngineer.com

Ryck Hoopes
Applications Engineer, Manufacturing Solutions
Computer Aided Technology

I am looking forward to the software release date for several of the included enhancements, including what will be in SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023.  If you’d prefer to watch, I’ve created a video with this info as well:

SOLIDWORKS Plastics Materials Database – Material Grades

I posed this very question last year, “What would an annual release of SOLIDWORKS Plastics be without changes to the material database?”.  SOLIDWORKS is, of course, updating its material database for 2023. Now, you’ll see many new, commercially available material grades in the polymer database.  Additionally, we’re seeing more than 50 materials in the existing database receive updates with the latest material property values, as supplied by the resin vendors.  SOLIDWORKS is also removing many obsoleted resins from the SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 material database.  For those of you keeping score, the SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 material database includes resins from 196 companies, spanning 138 material families. This also includes more than 4000 commercially available resin material grades for our injection molding analysis.

SOLIDWORKS Plastics Materials Database Manager

One of the first things users will notice with the SOLIDWORKS Plastics Materials Database Manager is a facelift to the user interface.  This is an interesting change that I welcome!  Light colors on a white background can be difficult for some individuals to see. SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 replaces the yellow-on-white in SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2022 (Figure 1) with a medium gray-on-white (Figure 2).

Figure 1. SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2022 Polymer Database

Figure 2. SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 Polymer Database

The astute reader will notice that several tabs, such as Elastic Modulus and Poisson’s Ratio, have been removed across the top of the interface.  I appreciate the decluttering of tabs where, in most instances, the included material property data was a constant value and not temperature-dependent.  Another subtle change is moving the material polymer family and resin manufacturer name from the title bar and into separate material property fields (Figure 3).

Figure 3. New material property fields

There are a few other Plastics Materials Database Manager changes not currently in the Pre-Release version of SOLIDWORKS 2023. However, they should become available in an early 2023 service pack.  For example, filled materials will include detailed fiber properties in an expandable material property field (Figure 4).

Figure 4. New fiber properties

The database will include both solid density and melt density for many resins in an expandable Density section.  Also, Thermoset resin material properties will include PVT data for the cured and uncured states, Heat of Reaction and Induction Time Constants, and Ejection Conversion and Initial Conversion data from resin manufacturers, when available.  The solver for SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 has also been enhanced to account for these additional material properties to improve the accuracy of Fill, Pack, and Warp simulations.

Summary and Report

In SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023, you can now access the Summary and the Report of the finished analysis separately when right-clicking on the Results folder (Figure 5).  This is a simple – and great – addition to SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023!

Figure 5. Summary and Report changes

Along with this change, when accessing the Summary information, there are tabs with more content for easy access to the pertinent information from a solved SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 analysis (Figure 6).

Figure 6. New Summary information and tabs

More Reporting Options

You’ll also notice changes to how SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 creates reports (Figure 7). SOLIDWORKS removed the Classic and Light report options from prior versions of SOLIDWORKS Plastics. Now, we see an updated report template.  We will also be able to select the type of report – MS-Word, MS-PowerPoint, HTML, or all formats – to generate instead of having all possible report formats created by default.  This will save time if you choose a single report format.

Figure 7. Updated report generation

The changes coming in SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 are new and updated materials, a user interface change, and better summary and report options.  On the surface, it seems there are only three updates for 2023.  Digging into the details of each enhancement shows a lot more going on “under the hood” to make these happen.  I hope you’re looking forward to SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2023 and taking advantage of the new features and enhancements.  Now go make your products better with SOLIDWORKS Simulation!

I hope this part of the What’s New series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions in SOLIDWORKS 2023.  Please check back to the CATI Blog as the CATI Application Engineers will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2023.  All these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.”

Bill Reuss
Sr. Application Engineer Specialist, Simulation
Computer Aided Technology

What is Design Innovation Month?

DESIGN INNOVATION MONTH 2022 – Live Events, Webinars, Virtual Showroom, Contests

Design Innovation Month is CATI’s “What’s New in 2023” event for SOLIDWORKS, 3DEXPERIENCE, and 3D Printing & 3D Scanning technology.   This year we’re going back to the future to bring you in-person events, live and on-demand webinars, demonstrations, in-depth blog posts, and prizes!   Best of all, it’s free of charge!  Check the DI Month Hub for all the details and to sign up for your nearest live event.

It’s that exciting time of the year again! This October, we get to show the public what’s new not only SOLIDWORKS 2023 CAD, but also SOLIDWORKS 2023 Simulation! Every year, SOLIDWORKS gives us new enhancements and tools to improve the performance, usability, and more of SOLIDWORKS Simulation. We review all the great customer feedback, and the developers at SOLIDWORKS use that information to improve SOLIDWORKS with each release.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest new enhancements in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023. You can also watch this in video format:

Improved Underconstrained Bodies tool

In previous years, we used the Underconstrained Bodies diagnostic tool to detect any rigid (or free) body modes. Bodies that are not adequately supported by fixtures, connectors, or contact conditions can translate or rotate freely. The problem is that the rigid body movement did not offer a realistic visualization of the whole assembly.

In SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023, the Underconstrained Bodies tool performs a Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) for faster detection of free body modes and a more realistic visualization of unconstrained displacements for the whole assembly. Also, SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and Premium users can use the Underconstrained Bodies tool to include contact interactions and bolt connectors when detecting rigid body modes of components. Check out Figure 1 below to see this in action.

Fig. 1 Underconstrained Bodies 2023

Penalty Stiffness Control for Contacts

New in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023, the Contact Penalty Stiffness Control tool allows you to set a scale factor of 1.0 to reach an accurate solution for studies with contact interactions in linear static studies. However, you can select a lower scale factor to obtain an approximate solution faster to assess design iterations and the overall behavior of the model. This will trade some contact pressure accuracy to achieve convergence easier, with faster solving times. See Figure 2 below to see a preview of how this looks.

Fig. 2 Contact Penalty Stiffness option

Bonding Between Nonfacing Surfaces

When creating bonded local interactions (contacts sets) on non-facing surfaces in previous years, the program would error out. This prevented you from creating the bonded connection in your preprocessing setup.

Now, in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023, we see great the bonding interaction has been improved by allowing surface-to-surface bonding on faces that are not facing each other and have no projection area between them. This new capability applies to linear static, frequency, buckling, linear dynamic studies, as well as fatigue and design studies associated with linear static studies. See Figure 3 below.

These were just a few of the great enhancements to SolidWorks Simulation 2023. The more advanced Underconstrained Bodies algorithm, the new Penalty Stiffness Control for Contact tool, and Bonding Between Nonfacing Surfaces and more will help you get convergence in your simulation results faster and with better accuracy.

Now go make your products even better with all the new SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023 enhancements!

I hope this part of the What’s New series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions of SOLIDWORKS 2023. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the CATI Application Engineers will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2023. All these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.” 

Nick Pusateri

Senior Application Engineer Specialist, Simulation

Computer Aided Technology 

What is Design Innovation Month? 

DESIGN INNOVATION MONTH 2022 – Live Events, Webinars, Virtual Showroom, Contests 

Design Innovation Month is CATI’s “What’s New in 2023” event for SOLIDWORKS, 3DEXPERIENCE, and 3D Printing & 3D Scanning technology. This year we’re going back to the future to bring you in-person events, live and on-demand webinars, demonstrations, in-depth blog posts, and prizes! Best of all, it’s free of charge! Check the DI Month Hub for all the details and to sign up for your nearest live event. 

Figure 1. Image courtesy of Dassault Systemes.

One of the downsides of hexahedral elements is the meshed geometry must be such that there is a sweepable shape. This means that overhangs, extra extrusions, and holes that don’t follow the sweep direction would all make it impossible to use these advanced elements for analysis. Many simulation programs get around this by splitting or “partitioning” the shape into separate volumes that are sweepable. As usual, 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation does this as well but ups the ante above those other tools. Let’s take a look at partitioning for simulation on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.

Partitioning for Better Meshing

We’ll start with the part below. It is a cylinder from an air-cooled motorcycle engine. Notice the removal of small features like fillets on the simplified version in the figure below.

Figure 2

We can take the simplified model into the Structural Model Creation app to get feedback on how to best mesh this shape. Select the compass, click Structural Model Creation, click “Partition Hex Mesh,” and finally select the component itself as a support. 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation will then color the part according to the methods that can be used to mesh it.

Figure 3

The orange color on the part in the figure above indicates a volume that is NOT mesh-able by hexahedral elements. As is, 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation will assign a tetrahedral mesh instead. However, many of the areas on this model could be split from the others into sweepable shapes. This is where partitioning comes in!

Meshing in 3DEXPERIENCE with the Partition Tool

The partitioning tool is most easily accessed via the Simulation Model Preparation app included with your 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation role. Simply click the compass and select the app from the list to launch it. This app contains sets of tools used for simplification of CAD models for use in simulation. We’re looking for “Partition” under the “Idealize” tab. See figure 4 below:

Figure 4

All we must do to partition the component is to select the part as the “Volume to partition” and use cutting elements such as faces, planes, surfaces, etc. to divide the part into sweepable features. For example, if I want to partition one of the assembly tabs, I can select the face that it is extruded from as a cutting element. If we extrapolate that face infinitely, it will cut through the tab, separating it as its own volume. See below:

Figure 5

Now if we check the color coding to view the types of mesh we can use for each volume, we see the small extrude we split off is colored yellow-indicating a hex-meshable volume. See below:

Figure 6

Automatic Partitioning for Automatic Meshing

We can continue splitting features manually to create the fully partitioned model. It’s a simple process that works very well. However, recently one of the updates to the meshing feature in 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation has added an automatic partitioning tool to do all of that work for you! All you must do is select the volume, and click the checkbox for “Automatic Partitioning,” and soon you will have a fully hex-meshable part! You can see my example below:

Figure 7

As with all automated tools this will not work for every geometry, but in my experience, it does a great job splitting prismatic parts like this one. A further benefit of using the “Partition” tool is that the partitioned hex-mesh will be fully conforming. That means that adjacent volumes of hex meshes will share common nodes at the volume’s boundary.

Figure 8

Figure 9. Image courtesy of Dassault Systemes.

Finally, if you are attempting to mesh a part that has non-sweepable volumes, the partition hex-mesh algorithm will assign tetrahedral elements to the non-hex volumes and create a “tie contact” between the volumes automatically! Optionally, you can also specify a layer of pyramid elements to act as a conforming mesh boundary between the hexahedral elements and the tetrahedral elements. You can see a visual representation of how that works below:

Thank you for partitioning some of your time to read my blog today. Simulation model preparation is a vital step in achieving accurate simulations, and again the 3DEXPEREICNE Platform goes above and beyond in enabling engineers to do what they do best.

Matt Sherak
Sr. Simulation Product Specialist
Elite Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Reaction forces are exerted by a body when an external force is being applied to it. For instance, if you’re walking on the street, there will be a resultant reaction force exerted by the street. This reaction force has two components. First, we have a vertical component to support the force from your weight. The second is a tangential component, friction. And so, from this example, it becomes apparent that those forces are only present at constrained nodes, and not free ones. This is also where Abaqus calculates reaction forces.

Let’s take a look at two ways to find and plot the reaction forces, as well as why you might choose one over the other.

Model Setup

The model below shows an explicit simulation of a rigid sphere bouncing on a trampoline. We’ve modeled the trampoline bed as well as the trampoline frame using S4 elements. As for the sphere, we’re using R3D4 elements. Lastly, we’ve modeled the springs as SPRINGA elements.

The legs of the trampoline frame are fixed in all degrees of freedom (ENCASTERED). Additionally, the bases of all seven legs of the frame are tied to a reference point using a kinematic coupling constraint. Since this is a drop test, we’ll apply an initial velocity of 5 m/s to the rigid sphere. A gif shows an animation of the simulation, with the color field set to von Mises stress.

Because the legs of the frame are constrained in all degrees of freedom, Abaqus will calculate the reaction forces there, and only there.

There are two ways of extracting the reaction force:

1. To obtain the data at better resolution with a higher sampling rate, you can request the reaction force history output at the reference point tied to the legs. You can adjust the frequency to output at higher sampling rates.
   • In Abaqus/CAE, this is done by Output > History Output Requests > Create, then choosing RF under Forces/Reactions
   • In the input file:

     *Output, history, time interval=0.0005
     
     *Node Output, nset=Set-1
     
     RF1, RF2, RF3, RM1, RM2, RM3

     (Set-1 contains the reference point mentioned earlier)

     

2. If you forget to request the history output, Abaqus, by default, outputs preselected field output variables. After step 4 (below), be sure to select the reference node tied to the legs of the trampoline frame. You can find this under the Elements/Nodes tab.

Plotting Reaction Forces Results and Discussion

To highlight the difference between the two methods of obtaining the reaction force, I’ve overlaid the reaction force from the history output as well as that from the field output in one plot. This plot shows the force on the legs of the frame obtained from the history output. The period is 0.0005 seconds, or a sampling frequency of 2000 Hz, resulting in 2000 points. Additionally, you’ll see the same force obtained at a much lower sampling frequency from the field output variable, shown in yellow.

Within the range of 0.8 s to 1 s, it is clear that the force from the history output is well sampled, while the force obtained from the field output is under-sampled and does not represent the complete behavior of the structure.

Capturing the reaction force at a high sampling rate is typically only a concern for high dynamic systems. This is not the case when using Abaqus/Standard to run static analyses. For such studies, it’s sufficient to observe the reaction force coming from the field output, as the last increment is what matters.

Conclusion

To summarize, I would advise you to always output reaction forces using the history output rather than the field output. Depending on your application, and if you want to output the reaction force at a high sampling rate, you can do this without sacrificing memory on your disk.

Bilal Abdul Halim
Application Engineer Specialist, Simulation
Computer Aided Technology

That’s where 3DEXPERIENCE Works comes in. 3DEXPERIENCE Works makes selections from the 3DEXPERIENCE portfolio to provide an easy and productive starting point for SOLIDWORKS businesses that are ready for a digital transformation.

The 3DEXPERIENCE solutions connect people in an interactive environment to securely share, collaborate, and manage data at any time and on any device while accelerating your product development process.

When you think about the future, you can expect the 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio to be dynamic. Therefore, you may see products added, removed, or combined as they evolve.

Within the portfolio, categories, or “domains” are the groupings for each product. As of right now, these are the current domains:

• Designer/Engineer
• Governance/Management
• Engineer/Analyst
• Manufacturing/Production

Each of these domains includes the core collaboration and product lifecycle management functionality of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. Do note that you may see this solution presented in a couple of ways. First, you may see it as the Platform Contributor role. Alternatively, you could see it as two roles, Collaborative Business Innovator and Collaborative Industry Innovator.

3DEXPERIENCE Works Domain Breakdown

Designer/Engineer

This domain includes 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight. Something to know about these tools is that neither of them runs in the cloud. Instead, you install and run each on a local computer. Other cloud-based design and planning tools included are 3D Creator, 3D Sculptor, and Project Planner. With these roles, designers and engineers have better control over their CAD data and better visibility over the product development process.

Governance/Management

This domain includes Project Planner and Social Business Analyst. Social Business Analyst allows you to aggregate and analyze information from online sources to quickly determine trends in topics related to the user’s business.

Engineer/Analyst

This domain includes 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE STRUCTURAL roles like Structural Mechanics Engineer. Structural Mechanics Engineer provides comprehensive structural analysis to guide engineering decisions and optimize product performance while reducing reliance on expensive prototyping.

Manufacturing/Production

This domain includes 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE NC PROGRAMMING roles like NC Prismatic & Mill Turn Machine Programmer, and Production Engineer. These roles make your manufacturing more efficient, minimizing errors, preventing bottlenecks, and maximizing utilization, with complete visibility and traceability of the entire manufacturing process.

The 3DEXPERIENCE Works cloud portfolio connects your entire organization, providing the tools and platform to design, develop, manage, and manufacture in a collaborative, real-time ecosystem.

Todd Myers
Senior Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Measuring Geometry: Measure Command

Starting off with the basics, the measure command is a wonderful tool to grab some measurements from imported geometry. When it comes to straight pipes/tubes, it’s easy to grab some edges of the geometry, choose “minimum distance”, and get your value.

Creating a 3D Sketch

Unfortunately, as soon as we move on from straight tubes, this technique doesn’t work as well, so we had to get more creative. Utilizing a 3D sketch, you can convert the edges of each section of tubing and give yourself the major points of the path.

Measuring Geometry: Lines & Arcs

Then, by adding in some more sketch elements, you can connect them together using straight lines and tangent arcs. Pull up your measure tool, and now you’ve got a centerline to pull measurements from. Additionally, you can derive both a bend angle and an arc/chord length as well.

Measuring Geometry: Planes & Dimensions

Now there is still another angle to derive, and this is where things got interesting. In order to calculate the angle of rotation, some additional reference geometry would certainly come in handy. Utilizing the centerline we created in a previous step, we can select end points of lines to create planes that are parallel to those lines. Once created, we can use smart dimensions to pull the angle of rotation off from those planes.

In my student’s case, all he really needed as far as measurements is what I’ve shown here. I didn’t want to stop here, I wanted to make sure he had every tool in his arsenal that he could; I made sure to mention that there are a few add-ins available for SOLIDWORKS that are designed specifically for tubing. If this is all you’re doing every day, shortening the process via any means possible is always welcome.

Let me know if you guys want to see more about working with tubing in SOLIDWORKS, and hopefully, this article will help save you from any trouble that may result from measuring imported geometry.

Brennen Sands
Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Background

Everyone always says the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But, is it really a straight line and is that the shortest amount of time? Have you ever heard of something called the Brachistochrone Curve? The word “Brachistochrone” /brekistekron/ is actually two words in Greek for “shortest time”. This was first pondered by Galileo Galilei in 1638, who thought that an arc of a circle would be the best option for a particle of light going from point A to point B in the shortest period of time. The arc is a good option, but there are better solutions.

Let’s fast-forward to 1696, Johann Bernoulli posed the shortest path thought as a challenge to all the mathematicians, specifically Isaac Newton. At that time, Sir Isaac was a lot older than Johann. Oddly, Isaac Newton didn’t like to be challenged by someone he felt was beneath him academically. So, he decided to take on the challenge and found a solution within a single night while it took Johann two weeks to solve. Isaac then proposed his answer anonymously in a journal called “Philosophical Transactions”. Apparently, after Johann read it, he responded with “I recognize the lion by his claw”.

So, what Johann concluded was that as the particle moves down a curved path, because of conservation of energy, the velocity (v) of the particle is proportional to the square root of the distance from the top of where the particle started. See Figure 1 below. Therefore, the loss in potential energy can then be set equal to the kinetic energy. If we take those equations and solve for the velocity, we see that the velocity becomes proportional to the square root of the distance “y” from the top of where the particle started. See Figure 2 below. Now, since v is proportional to y it follows that as the particle moves down the curve it is also following what is called Snell’s law everywhere on the curve. See Figure 3 below.

So, if we look at whatever the time minimizing curve is, and take any point on a curve, the sine of the angle between the tangent line at that point and the vertical divided by the square root of the vertical distance between that point and the start of the curve will become some constant independent of the point chosen. After seeing this Johann recognized it as the differential equation for a cycloid. Cycloid being the shape traced by a point on a rim of a rolling wheel. See Figure 4 below.

Fig. 1 Particle on curve path

Fig. 2 Velocity proportional to square root of y

Fig. 3 Snell’s Law correlation

Fig. 4 Cycloid traced path

Now, you may be asking what does sine of theta divided by the square root of y have to do with a cycloid. Well, in 2015 a professor and mathematician at Penn State named Mark Levi published a note showing that if you look at the geometry of a cycloid, and through a few modifications at the right places, the principle of velocity over the sine of theta becomes constant. From there we find Snell’ law is embedded into the motion of the cycloid itself. This was a great discovery in proving why the cycloid path would be the shortest time a particle would have to take to get from point A to point B.

Fig. 5 Cycloid path versus other paths

Testing and Learning with SOLIDWORKS Motion

Now, enough with the theory and math, let’s have some fun. Is there a way to show this phenomenon in SOLIDWORKS? The answer is yes using SOLIDWORKS Motion analysis which is available in SOLIDWORKS Premium and in all SOLIDWORKS Simulation packages. A problem like this is exactly the thing to start learning SOLIDWORKS Motion and getting our feet wet. To do we want to design something similar to Figure 6 below. The key thing is to make sure of is that one ramp is a straight path (orange ramp), the other is a cycloid path (middle blue ramp), and the third ramp is shaped more like a parabola. See Figures 7 to 9 below for the dimensions I used.

Fig. 6 Finished model views

Fig. 7 Straight shaped ramp dimensions (in)

Fig. 8 Cycloid shaped ramp dimensions (in)

Fig. 9 Parabola shaped ramp dimensions (in)

Activate SOLIDWORKS Motion and Setup Basic Constraints

After creating your own Brachistochrone Curve assembly you will want to turn on your SOLIDWORKS Motion add-in. From there, click on the Motion Study tab at the bottom of your screen followed by switching the motion study type to Motion Analysis. See Figure 10 below.

Fig. 10 Motion analysis activation

Now, we need some contacts. Let’s create a Contact for all the components of the assembly using the settings shown in Figure 11.

Fig. 11 Contact setup

Next, apply Gravity to the study using the setting shown in Figure 12 below. The gravity value I used is not the normal 9.8 m / sec^2. The reason why was to slow the gravitational effect down a bit in the study. This way the balls don’t bounce around a lot on the ramps during their fall. Note each ball was positioned at the same height on each ramp before being released.

Fig. 12 Gravity setup

Next, go into the study properties and change the Frames Per Second value from 25 to 200. Doing this will result in better accuracy of how the program calculates the motion in the analysis. See Figure 13 below.

Fig. 13 Motion study properties

Next, adjust your timeline Key property to 2.5 seconds and then click the Calculate button. See Figure 14 below.

Fig. 14 Adjustment of timeline

Viewing Results of the Motion Study

Once the program calculates the analysis, the motion study animation should look something like Figure 15.

Fig. 15 Results from each study type

Now that you’ve run your Motion study animation, you can graph results like the displacement, acceleration, and/or velocity. This will give a graphical representation of each ball’s travel down the ramp. See Figure 16 below. For example, I did a linear displacement and linear velocity plot of the middle cycloid-shaped ramp’s ball. You’ll see the setup below in the figures.

Fig. 16 Create a plot option

Fig. 17 Linear displacement plot setup and graph plot

Fig. 18 Linear velocity plot setup and graph plot

Lastly, you can save the graph plots in CSV file format to be used in Excel. See Figure 19 below.

Fig. 19 Results from each study type

Final Thoughts

I hope you found this blog useful in learning what the Brachistochrone Curve is, a bit of the history behind it, and how to create your own model in SOLIDWORKS and then use learning how to use SOLIDWORKS Motion analysis to prove the theory. I know I did!

For more information reach out to your friendly CATI account manager. Check out the CATI YouTube page, and additional Simulation Blogs on the CATI blog.

Nick Pusateri
Senior Application Engineer Specialist, Simulation
Computer Aided Technology

Let us look at the setup for the model. We have a series of periodic loads that are applied in real life over 24 hours. These loads vary in duration as well as temperature depending on the time at which the loading is applied, during that 24-hour window.

For example, the load is periodic and turns on and off at a set time of 101 seconds on, and 6 seconds off. The load is applied at the first hour at 450 degrees C. For the second hour 50 degrees C, and 650 degrees C and so on.

To create a manual time curve to define this series of events would be tedious. It is better to use the periodic application of the load and divide the overall 24 hours of real time run into multiple projects at given temperatures. We can divide the 24 hours into sections by transferring the boundary conditions as an initial condition in the subsequent run.

To apply the periodic load, go to your heat source (or given boundary condition) and choose dependency. Dependency allows the user to adjust the loading via a time, goal, or parameter dependency. In this case we will use time and add the time curve to reflect 101 seconds on and 6 seconds off. Choosing periodic repeats this cycle.

In this case the heat source is 50 degrees C for 1 hour. Doing the overall 24 hours in a set of stages per hour allows the user to vary the temperature and reuse the periodic loading. Run the first hour project to completion. Clone the project naming it per the second loading condition. Edit and adjust the heat source (or boundary condition you want to vary) and change it to the new temperature.

The next step is crucial to continue the run from the end of the first study. Edit the General Settings by right mouse button on the “Input Data” folder and choose General Settings.

Go to the “Initial and ambient conditions” section

At the pull down to the right of Parameter Definition choose “Transferred”

Browse to the previous study. And choose OK

This simple pull down allows the user to start the new subsequent study from the previous studies ending thermal, velocity, and pressure mapping. These two SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation options, Periodic loading, and Transferred Flow parameters allow a user to setup and run a long duration set of studies with varying inputs over time.

For more information reach out to your friendly CATI account manager. Check out the CATI YouTube page, and additional Simulation Blogs on the CATI blog.

Robert Warren
Simulation Specialist, Elite Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

First, a brief word about ideal and real gases.

Gases are a continuum of molecules that are constantly in motion, colliding with one another and the vessel they are contained in. This interaction and the resulting pressure within the contained gas is related to the amount of energy in the collection of molecules, which can be determined in one of two ways – treating them as either an ideal gas or a real gas.

Ideal Gas

As the name suggests, an ideal gas represents the behavior in a way that simplifies the calculation by considering the collisions as perfectly elastic with no intermolecular attractive forces.

The relationship between pressure (P), temperature (T) and volume (V) of the gas is characterized by the equation:

PV = nRT,

where “n” is the number of moles and “R” is the universal gas constant.

Real Gas

The calculation of real gases more accurately captures the performance of the molecular interaction by modifying the ideal gas law. There are several methods to do this. In SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation it is done by implementing the modified Redlich-Kwong equation of state. A description of this formulation can be found in the Flow Simulation help file by searching for “Real Gases”

Notice from the list of “Real Gases” below that there are multiple predefined materials that were also shown in the “Gases” category, plus multiple common refrigerants.

Let’s see the difference between the two property listings for methane. For ideal gases, the physical properties are explicitly defined. The “Table” designation indicates that the properties are temperature dependent. For real gases they are predicted through the state equation using the range of pressures and temperatures listed.

Real gas can change phase (liquid, vapor or supercritical) based on the temperature and pressure conditions. Vapor and supercritical phases are valid areas of inclusion in the Flow Simulation solution and are shown in the phase diagram below (copied from the help file.) Areas 10-12 indicate the valid areas (vapor or supercritical); if conditions fall outside these regions (areas 1-9) a warning is issued within the solver monitor window. In other words, the program can not directly represent liquid-vapor phase change, nor can it represent the gas at pressure and temperature conditions outside the min/max ranges.

During post-processing, you can check the expected phase of the material for the conditions in the simulation through a cut plot. When the plot parameter is set to “Real Gas State”, the color bar is replaced with a schematic phase diagram indicating the meaning of colors shown on the plot.

For more information on this important topic and a complete technical description of real gas behavior in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, please consult the help file on the subject of “real gases”. Using this set of materials in your projects, I think you’ll find an increased level of accuracy for certain problems that simulate industrial and chemical processes.

Kurt Kurtin
Sr. Product Manager, Simulation
Computer Aided Technology