While working with the FEA portion of Inventor Professional recently, I found some additional workflows that may be a time saver for those performing calculations and edits.
1) Edit geometry while in the context of the FEA application.
My old workflow was to switch back to the part environment to make edits to my model. You can access your features by expanding the browser, right clicking on faces to create new sketches, heck, you can even double click and use 3D grips!
2) Export results of FEA.
Yes I know there is the "Report" button that exports all the results in an html format, but what if I want some of that data connected to my drawings or accessable in my models? After running the simulation, click on the paramaters button. Here you can choose some results such as min. and max Safety Factor and the numbers you used and output them to the part iProperties.
Check It Out Here
Most of us would agree that FEA on parts is important. So how do we get that done on a welded bracket that we are fabricating? Well since Inventor only has ANSYS part level FEA, I came up with a pretty accurate way to test my brackets that have multiple parts welded together. I use the original welded assembly and turn it into a derived assembly/component. This allows me to make it into a single part, and now I can run it through the stress analysis engine for a solution.
Checkout this short video file for a step by step run through.
Give it a try on your next welded bracket!
Jim
Just another CAD Geek
