About Representations

Parts can be modeled with different element configurations or mesh densities based on what type of analysis you are running. From the Part Browser, you can have multiple representations of a part accessible from a single model; these representations can be loaded in as needed. The various types of representations are shown in the Representation Control Manager. To launch the dialog, click the Controls icon on the Assembly ribbon, or right-click anywhere in the Part Browser and select Representations > Controls in the context menu (see Define Representation Controls).

Figure 1. Representation Control Manager

Each representation has a name and type assigned. The representation types that can be automatically created through BatchMesher are: Geometry, Midsurface, Display, CFD 2D Mesh, Hexa Bounding Box, Hexa Thin Solid, Midmesh, Rigid Body Mesh, Shell and Tetra.

There are certain representation types that can only be defined once for each part and these representations have reserved names. These representations are:

Name	Type
CAD	Geometry
Commons	Midsurface
Display	Display

Figure 2. Representation Types

A folder-based representation repository stores all CAE data created during the model build and assembly process. CAE data stored in the representation repository includes the geometric and FE representations of the parts.

Common Representation

The Common representation consists of midsurfaced geometry. It is derived from the CAD representation and forms a single, common input for creating any subsequent discipline-specific shell mesh representations. This common input enables one-time creation and clean-up steps for all future shell representations.

During creation, the CAD is sent to the BatchMesher for midsurface extraction. Upon completion the CAD is saved to the repository and you can opt to immediately load the representation into the session.

HyperMesh entities are generated from the PDM Metadata, if available, in the post-run procedure of the BatchMesher operation. The PDM PID is assigned to the component and property IDs, the PDM MID and PDM Material are assigned to the material, and the PDM Thickness is assigned to the thickness attribute of the property. If the PDM Thickness is blank, the CAD thickness calculated during the midsurface operation is automatically assigned to the thickness attribute of the property.

Figure 3. PDM Column Data in Part Browser

Alternatively, you can send solid parts to the BatchMesher. If thin-solid detection is enabled in the Common representation control (see Define Representation Controls), solids are detected and saved as the Common representation without processing. By default, the midsurface algorithm "skin" is used. CAD representation does not need to be loaded into the session to generate the Common representation, since it is sent directly to the BatchMesher for processing.

When you create a Shell representation, the Common representation residing in the repository is automatically sent to the BatchMesher for processing. The Common representation does not need to be loaded in the session to generate Shell representations. In case it does not exist, it is automatically generated by extracting the midsurface from the CAD representation.

Display Representation

The main purpose of this tool is to provide a lightweight version of imported geometry that allows fast loading of large assemblies, leading to significant time savings. This is a convenient way to perform initial inspections of the model. You can select the Display representation option when importing Geometry files (Figure 4) and after importing a BOM file (Figure 5).

Figure 4. Importing Geometry

Figure 5. Display selection

Supported geometry file formats are: Acis, Catia, CatiaV6, Creo, Inspire, Inventor, JT, Rhino, NX native, NX third party, Parasolid, SLDPRT/SLDASM, STEP, VDAFS.

Respective import options can be accessed from the Part Browser using the context menu Representations > Settings > Load > CAD: Load Options.