Lecture 4:

Geometry Modeling
15.0 Release

Introduction to ANSYS DesignModeler

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 Overview

In this lecture we will learn about:

• DesignModeler Concepts
• How to create a 3D geometry?
• How to modify/transform a geometry?
• Part Management
• Concepts in DM from meshing perspective

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 Preprocessing Workflow

Import/
Geometry
Geometry Meshing Solver
Modifications
Creation

Sketches and Planes 3D Operations Meshing Methods

Booleans, Hybrid Mesh: Tet,

3D Operations Decompose, etc. Prisms, Pyramids

Extrude, Revolve, Hexa Dominant,

Sweep, etc Sweep meshing
Geometry Cleanup
and Repair Assembly
Geometry Import Meshing
Options Automatic
Cleanup Global Mesh
Bi-Directional
Settings
CAD/ Neutral
Simplification,
Mid-surface, Local Mesh Settings
Fluid Extraction

Sizing, Controls,
etc.
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 Important DM Concepts
Body Types In DesignModeler
• Line body
– Has length and consists of points as lower entity
• Surface body
– Has surface area and consists of points & edges as lower entities
• Solid body
– Has volume and consists of points, edges & faces as lower entities
• Bodies are listed in the Tree Outline identified by default names and
icons

Line body Surface body Solid body

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 Important DM Concepts
Body States
– Active
• Active bodies merge automatically with bodies in contact or overlapping.
– By default, DM creates Active bodies. To avoid active bodies or parts to merge
together, use Add Frozen wisely.
– Frozen Active State: Single body after two
• Frozen bodies remain independent feature creation operations
• Why to use Frozen bodies?
– If Meshing requires bodies to be decomposed
– If Solver requires different boundary & continuum conditions to be applied to
different areas of the model
• “Unfreeze” can be used to Selectively convert Frozen bodies to Active State

Frozen State: Two bodies (one frozen)

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 3D Features
Tools for creating new bodies or modifying existing bodies

– Used to create bodies

– Requires lower dimensioned geometry as base objects
– Result is a line/surface/solid body

– Applies blend/chamfer on edges/faces of existing bodies

– Used to modify existing bodies

– Results in modified or new bodies

– Quick creation of primitive shapes (without sketch)

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 Extrude
Extrude Details
• Geometry Direction - Symmetric
– Can be a valid Sketch, selected face or Named
Selection
• Operation
– Allows Add Material, Cut Material, Imprint Faces,
Slice Material, Add Frozen Direction - Asymmetric
Preview of the
operation • Direction Vector
– Default option is Normal
• Other options are Reversed, Both-Symmetric and
Sketch
Both-Asymmetric
Extent - Fixed
• Plane axes, geometric edges and faces can be used to
specify direction
• Extent Type
Resultant – Fixed, Through All, To Next, To Faces, To Surface
body
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 Options for Operation
• Add Material
– Creates new body and unites with existing active bodies in contact or overlap
• Add Frozen:
– An independent body is created, with separate faces and edges
• Cut Material:
– Create holes or modify existing bodies by removing material
• Imprint Faces: Sketch
– Imprints the sketch on the faces of existing body. This only works for Active bodies
• Slice Material:
– Slice out resultant body from the existing Frozen body
Add Material Add Frozen Cut Material Imprint Faces Slice Material

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 Sweep
Sweep Details
• Selected profile is swept along selected path to
create bodies
• Profile
– Profile could be any sketch or entity to be swept
• Path
– Path could be a sketch or edge (open or closed) Alignment - Path
Tangent
• Alignment
– Path Tangent OR Global Axes

Swept
Model
Path

Alignment - Global
Profile Axes

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 Skin/Loft Feature
Skin/Loft Details
• Takes a series of profiles and creates a body
fitting through them
– All profiles must have the same number of
edges

Multiple
sketches

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 Thin/Surface
Thin Surface Details
• Creates Thin Solid or Shell (Surface)
– Creation based on Selection Type; Faces to Keep/Faces
to Remove/Bodies Only
– Faces to Keep: Selected faces used to form the thin
solid or surface
– Faces to Remove: Unselected faces used
– Bodies Only: All faces used
– Specification of zero thickness will create a surface
body (can specify offset)
– Direction for generation of thickness can be inward,
outward or both (midplane)

Inward Outward Midplane

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 Fixed Radius Blend
Fixed Radius Blend Details
• Creates a blend of specified radius on
face/edges

Face Selection

Edge Selection

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 Pattern
Pattern Details
• Creates multiple copies of selected features
in selected direction(s)
• Types of Pattern
– Linear, Circular and Rectangular

• Select Geometry (A Feature or bodies)

• Specify Direction, Axis, Offset/Angle, Copies
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 Body Tranformation

Body Transformation Tools

• Contains 5 tools for transforming bodies
– Move
– Translate
– Rotate
– Mirror
– Scale

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 Body Transformation: Mirror
• Creates a mirror image body reflected in
selected plane
– Used for creating a full model from partial
model which is Symmetrical
XY Plane
• Set Mirror Plane
• Select body/bodies to be mirrored
• Original body deletion controlled by ‘Preserve
Bodies’ option
• Example – Mirroring car body in the XY Plane
preserving the original

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 Body Operation: Move
• Moves and aligns selected bodies
• Select body or bodies
• Select option to Preserve Bodies
• Set Source and Destination Planes
• Example – Aligning two bodies using
corresponding source and destination planes on
each body respectively

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 Body Operation: Scale
• Scale selected body or bodies
• Select body or bodies
• Set Scaling origin
– World Origin : Global coordinate origin
– Body Centroids: Centroid of the bodies selected
Scale up : 2x
– Point: Selected Point
• Option to for Uniform or Non-uniform Scaling

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 Body Operation
Body Operation Tools
• Contains 6 tools for manipulating bodies

• Options vary depending on whether the bodies are Active or Frozen

• Cut Material is not available if all bodies are Frozen

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 Body Operation: Slice Material

• To Slice out one body from the another body

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 Boolean
Unite, Subtract and Intersect
• Unite: Merges two or more bodies
• Subtract: Target Body subtract Tool Body Tool Bodies
• Intersection:
– Union of All Intersections: Regions shared by
two or more Tool Bodies
– Intersection of All Bodies: Regions shared by
all Tool Bodies

Intersect all bodies Union of all intersections Union of all intersections

preserving input bodies
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 ‘Slice’ Operation under ‘Create’
Slice Options
• Slice By Plane
– Model is sliced by selected plane
• Slice Off Faces
– Selected faces are sliced off and separate bodies are created from them
• Slice Off Edges
– Selected edges are sliced off and separate bodies are created from them
• Slice by Surface
– Selected surface is used as a slicing tool to slice
• Slice by Edge Loop
– Selected edge loop is used as a slicing tool

Slice Off Faces

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 Suppression
Suppressing Bodies
• Behaviour of Suppressed Body
– Will not be exported or transferred to other
Workbench modules
– Not visible in Graphics view
– Identified by cross sign in Tree Outline
• How to Suppress or Unsuppress?
– Select the body to be suppressed, right click Suppressed

and select “Suppress Body”

– Select the body/bodies to be unsuppressed,
right click and select “Unsuppress Body”

• Please note: Suppressing & unsuppressing bodies may

change some features in tree, wherever they were used.

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 Visibility
Hiding Geometry
• Behaviour of Hidden Bodies
– In Tree Outline, Hidden body is identified by
transparent “tick-mark” sign
– Hidden bodies are transferred to other
Workbench modules and can also be
exported
• Useful when working with complex models Hidden
• How to Hide or Unhide?
– Select the body or face to hide, right click
and select “Hide Body” OR Press F9
– Right click “Show Body” to restore view

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 Named Selections
What are Named Selections?
• Any number of entities grouped together under one
name
• These can be used to:
– Group Entities together for display purposes
– Define boundary conditions
– Apply Mesh Settings
– Define Meshing Order
• Can be created using one of two ways
– Select an entity or a group of entities, click RMB, select
‘Named Selection’ from the context menu or…
– Select an entity or a group of entities, click on Tools menu
and select ‘Named Selection’
• Named Selections can be assigned to groups points,
lines, surfaces or solids.

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 Single and Multi-Body Parts
Working with Parts
• By default, DM places each body into one
part by itself
Single-body Parts Multi-body Parts
• Single-body parts : Individual parts are
meshed separately
– Non-conformal mesh at interface
• Multi-body part : Two or more bodies in a
single part
– Conformal mesh at interface if Shared
Topology set to “Automatic”
• Bodies can be grouped into a part in 2
ways :
– Select bodies. Click RMB and select Form New All bodies in a
Part single part
– Select bodies. Go to Tools  Form New Part
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 Single and Multi-Body Parts
• Case 1: In DM: 3 parts, 3 bodies consisting of 3 solids
• Result of transferring this geometry to Meshing
– Contains: 3 solids, 3 bodies
– Each solid is meshed independently DM
– Nodes are not shared and do not line-up
– No connection between the 3 mesh regions for fluid flow and/or heat
transfer
– Contact pairs are automatically created between parts/bodies in
ANSYS Mechanical to transfer loads Mesher
DM Mesh

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 Single and Multi-Body Parts

• Case 2: In DM: 1 multi-body part, 3 bodies/solids

• Result of transferring this geometry for Meshing
– Contains: 1 multi-body part, 3 bodies/solids DM
– Each solid meshed independently but node connectivity
among solids is preserved
– Contains internal face which can be used for Post Processing
Mesher
– No contact pair is created in ANSYS Mechanical
DM Mesh

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 Shared Topology
• Shared Topology can be completed manually using

• Uses of Shared Topology

Shared Topology can be set
– For getting Conformal mesh through its Form
– Imprinting for Contacts or Interface definition

• Options
– For generating a conformal mesh for a Multibody Part, Shared Topology
needs to be completed with “Automatic” setting
– If conformal mesh is not required between two bodies in Part, but imprints
of faces of one body on other are required (for defining contacts in
Mechanical or Interface in Fluent), Shared Topology needs to be completed
with “Imprint” setting
– For non-conformal, non-imprinted mesh on a body, Shared Topology setting
OR Shared Topology can be
needs to be kept “None” set for individual Part
manually
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 Custom Shared Topology

• This option allows users to Selectively keep

some bodies disconnected within same Part
• For Example: T-Joint formed by Two plates
Welded Together
• Objective: To Make mesh conformal between Weld and Both
Plates, but mesh should be non-conformal between plates
Non-conformal
Here Weld 1

Plate 2

Weld 2
Plate 1

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 Custom Shared Topology: Steps
• Form a part with all four bodies and Keep Shared Topology “Automatic” for Part
• For One of the plates (blue one), keep Custom setting of Shared Topology to None
– This will keep plate disconnected with remaining bodies, even when in same Part
• Use Connect operation Post Shared Topology to connect this body to both welds

Black line here shows

disconnected faces

Geometry Connectivity after Shared Topology Non-conformal mesh between two plates
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Conformal everywhere else
 Summary

What have we learnt in this session?

• Important Concepts in DM such as Body Types & Body States
• 3D modelling tools in DM
• Geometry Transformation tools
• Visibility, Suppression and Part Management
• Conformal Meshing and Shared Topology

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 Workshop 4.1 – Modeling

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