Home
Model Build and Assembly
Create, organize and manage parts and subsystems.
Manage Parts
About Parts, Part Assemblies, Part Instances
A part is an engineering representation of a physical part, and a part assembly is a group of part assemblies and/or parts. Part Instances, which are recognized from PDM, are automatically converted to Part Instances on import into HyperMesh.

Welcome
What's New
View new features for Altair HyperWorks 2024.
Get Started
Learn the basics and discover the workspace.
Tutorials
Learn more about the Altair HyperWorks suite of products with interactive tutorials.
Startup Procedures and Customizations
Start and configure the applications.
Tool Finder
View a list of deprecated panels and their newer, equivalent workflows.
Manage Files and Data
Create, open, import, and save models.
Sessions and Report Templates
Set up sessions and create report templates.
Interface with External Products
Solver interfaces supported in HyperMesh.
Entities and Solver Interfaces
A solver interface is made up of a template and a FE-input reader.
Browsers
Browsers provide a structured view of model data, which you can use to review, modify, create, and manage the contents of a model. In addition to visualization, browsers offer features like search, filtering, and sorting, which enhance your ability to navigate and interact with the model data.
Sketching
Create and edit 2D parametric sketch geometry.
Topology
Create, edit, and cleanup geometry.
FE Geometry
FE geometry is topology on top of mesh, meaning CAD and mesh exist as a single entity. The purpose of FE geometry is to add vertices, edges, surfaces, and solids on FE models which have no CAD geometry.
Meshing and Elements
Explore the different types of mesh you can create in HyperMesh and create and edit 0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D elements.
Model Build and Assembly
Create, organize and manage parts and subsystems.
- Manage Parts
  - Open the Part Browser
    Use the Part Browser to create, organize and manage the CAE part structure/hierarchy.
  - About Parts, Part Assemblies, Part Instances
    A part is an engineering representation of a physical part, and a part assembly is a group of part assemblies and/or parts. Part Instances, which are recognized from PDM, are automatically converted to Part Instances on import into HyperMesh.
  - Create Parts, Part Assemblies, and Part Instances
    Only CAE parts and part assemblies can be manually created in HyperMesh. PDM parts and part assemblies must be imported into HyperMesh.
  - Import Parts, Part Assemblies, and Part Instances
  - Organize Part Assemblies and Parts
    Organize part assemblies, parts, and components in your model.
  - Transform Parts Assemblies and Parts
    Translate, rotate, reflect, scale, and position selected parts and part assemblies.
  - Save Assemblies as HyperMesh Binary Files
    The part assembly can be saved as a self-contained binary file, which will include the part assembly based hierarchy and attributes such as components, properties, and materials.
  - Manage Representations
  - Manage Part Revisions
    Manage, control and update Major, Study and Library Part revisions using the Part Library.
  - Manage Configurations
    Group common and unique parts/part assemblies together in part sets, and organize parts and part sets that are unique to a configuration.
  - PDM Live Connection
    Using PDM live connection, on-demand downloading of datasets from external PDM systems such as Teamcenter is possible
  - Map Legacy Solver Decks to Available Part Hierarchy
    Align existing legacy decks, which lack part hierarchy, with an established part hierarchy.
  - Teamcenter - HyperMesh Integration
    All BOM-related information, including part/assembly hierarchy, part attributes, and representation information is organized and displayed in the Part Browser.
- Manage Subsystems
- PostgreSQL Installation and Configuration
  Also referred to as Postgres, PostgreSQL is an object-relational database management system with emphasis on extensibility and standards compliance.
- Section Library
  Use the automotive section library for rapid concept development in the early phases of the vehicle design process.
- Organize Entities
  Use the Organize tool to move or copy entities into their proper destinations.
- Match Parts
  Automatically group selected parts into part sets based on comparison method and criteria selected.
- Classify Parts
  Set up and use machine learning (ML) models to automatically classify parts under user-defined labels and into part sets.
- Renumber Entities
  Use the Renumber tool to review and organize the IDs of model entities.
- Reorder Entities
  Change the order of named entities in database.
- ID Management
  Manage the IDs for the entities that you create, and define ID ranges for the entities in each Include file in order to avoid ID duplication across files.
- Perform Representation Operations
  Use the Reps tool to perform representation operations for parts and subsystems.
- Manage Scenarios
  Scenarios are a mechanism to apply controls to engineering entities.
- Mechanism Browser
  Create and articulate a kinematic mechanism based on FE mesh using the Mechanism Browser.
- Model Verification
  Perform automatic checks on CAD models, and identify potential issues with geometry that may slow down the meshing process using the Verification and Comparison tools.
- Systems
  Local coordinate systems can be used for setting up loads/boundary conditions that do not act in the global axis direction, transforming results, defining material orientation, and many other operations.
- Create Vectors
  Define vectors in 3D space.
- Assign Properties and Materials
  Define physical and mathematical characteristics of parts.
- Generate Contacts Automatically
  Use the Auto Contacts tool to determine contact interfaces between selections of components or elements. Based on the user-specified options like proximity tolerance, surface creation method, main surface type, and secondary type, the tool generates contacts based on set segments or node and element combinations.
- RBE2s, RBE3s, and MPCs
  Create, review, and edit RBE2/RBE3 elements and MPC equations.
- Create and Edit Curves
  Use the curve editor to create and plot XY curves.
- Analytical Rigid Surfaces
  The Abaqus solver offers the flexibility of modeling rigids as surfaces using primitive geometry.
Composites
HyperMesh composites modeling.
Connectors
Create connections between parts of your model.
Morph
Rapidly change the shape of the FE mesh without severely sacrificing the mesh quality.
Skeleton Modeling
Create a reduced ordered model to facilitate optimization at the concept phase.
Design Space
Workflow to support topology optimization model build and setup.
Optimization
Setup an Optimization in HyperMesh.
Design Explorer
Multi-disciplinary design exploration and optimization tools.
Validate
Validate the model built before running solver analysis.
Analyze
Models require loads and boundary conditions in order to represent the various physics and/or physical equivalents to bench and in-use testing.
Axisymmetry
Reduce a full 3D model with axisymmetric surfaces while accounting for imperfections.
Concept Modeling
Tools and workflows that are dedicated to rapidly creating new parts for specific use cases, or amending existing parts. The current capabilities are focused on stiffening parts.
Crash and Safety
Tools used for crash and safety analysis.
Airbag
Use airbag folder utilities and export a resulting airbag in a Radioss deck.
Aerospace
Essential utility tools developed using HyperMesh-Tcl.
Aeroelasticity
Import an aeroelastic finite element model with Nastran Bulk Data format.
Certification
Framework to plug certification methods to assess margin of safety from the model and result information.
PhysicsAI
Use PhysicsAI to build fast predictive models from CAE data. PhysicsAI can be trained on data with any physics or remeshing and without design variables.
Results Data
Results data can be post-processed using both HyperMesh and HyperView.
Developer
The Developer ribbon contains tools for automation and customization.
Plot Data
HyperGraph is a data analysis and plotting tool with interfaces to many file formats.
Multibody Modeling
MotionView is a general pre-processor for Multibody Dynamics.
Media Files
MediaView plays video files, displays static images, tracks objects, and measures distances.
Tabulate Results
Use TableView to create an Excel-like spreadsheet.
Text Files
TextView math scripts reference vector data from HyperGraph windows to automate data processing and data summary.
Publishing and Reporting
Create, define, and export reports.
Collaboration Tools
Explore, organize and manage your personal data, collaborate in teams, and connect to other data sources, such as corporate PLM systems to access CAD data or publish simulation data.

View All Altair HyperWorks Help

About Parts, Part Assemblies, Part Instances

A part is an engineering representation of a physical part, and a part assembly is a group of part assemblies and/or parts. Part Instances, which are recognized from PDM, are automatically converted to Part Instances on import into HyperMesh.

Parts and Part Assemblies

HyperMesh supports CAE parts ( ) and part assemblies ( ) and PDM parts () and part assemblies ( ).

Parts assemblies and parts facilitate the one-to-one mapping of a CAD hierarchy into the HyperMesh environment as a CAE hierarchy. The CAE hierarchy can be created manually or can be imported from a PDM system via a neutral file format such as PLMXML.

Figure 1. PDM BOM

Figure 2. HyperMesh BOM

If a part is comprised of multiple components, such as cast parts or tailor-welded blanks, you can perform actions such as visualization view modes, model management, and connector link definition at the part level.

Parts can be used to organize a physical part that is made up of multiple components in a CAE model as a single part.

Figure 3. Cast Part in Part Browser

In the Part Browser, collapsing all folders at the part level enables you to see all owned and referenced entities. Expanding folders at the part level displays a nested list of all referenced components and their entity specific attribute values which are shown in the respective columns.

Part Instances

The Part browser provides limited support for part instances of externally sourced BOMs.

Part Instances () share UID and Part names. The name assigned to child instances is incremented by *.ixx, where xx indicates the number of the child instance. The positioning of Part Instances is dictated by the transformation matrix applied to the Part in the PDM system. Part Instances can also be created and broken interactively in a session. Upon creation, you will automatically be prompted to transform the part via the Transform tool. When broken, instances are split into two separate parts that are independent of each other.

In circular, symmetric, or rectangular patterns, certain parts may appear in a BOM multiple times. Typical examples include bolts, hinges, and symmetric parts.

Creating or saving part representations for instantiated parts saves a single representation in the repository. Importing instantiated parts positions them according to their respective 4 x 3 transformation matrices.