You can define Contacts as bonded, sliding, separating, or no
contact. When running SimSolid analysis, you can have a mixed case of sliding and separating
contacts. When running OptiStruct analysis, all contacts must be either sliding or
separating.
This tool detects possible contacts in your model. If contacts aren't found, you can manually
increase the search distance to find contacts between parts.
Click the Open Contacts Table
satellite icon that appears when you hover over the Contacts tool to view a list of all contacts
in your model.Figure 1. Model with Contacts Defined
Defining Surface Contacts
Find neighboring surfaces and designate whether they should be bonded, sliding,
separating, or have no contact.
When you open the Contacts tool
on an imported CAD file, the Create Automatic Contacts guide panel is displayed. For
more information, please see Automatically Defining Contacts. If you're opening an .stmod file
with contacts defined, a guide bar is displayed. You can click Create
New to create new contacts, or you can select existing contacts to
review and edit them.
The default contact is bonded
so models will be connected and run without any changes. When you add connections
such as fasteners, joints, or welds, the bonded contact is changed to no contact for
faster runs. You can change the connections to sliding or separating for more
accurate results, but this will increase your run times.
Note:
If no contacts exist in a model, you'll be prompted to create them when
running analysis. Use the Contact Type for Maintain and
Find dropdown in Preferences > Inspire > Run Options to select the type of contact that is created.
If a model contains a single contact and disconnected group, you'll be
prompted to review them when running analysis.
A geometric change to a part will mark its contacts, and you'll be
prompted to review them when running analysis.
If models from previous releases of Inspire are out of synch, you'll be
prompted to update contacts.
Defining Group Contacts
Create contacts between groups of parts manually.
On the Structure ribbon, select the Contacts tool.
Select the Part to Parts tab in the Contacts tool.
Figure 2. Using OptiStruct
Figure 3. Using SimSolid
Select Surface or Parts from the
By dropdown to choose the detection method.
Note: The
Method control is available only when using
OptiStruct as the solver.
Select the Primary and Secondary
parts in the model.
Note: Click to expand or collapse
the list of selected parts. You can right-click a selected part and select
Remove to remove it from the selection.
Enter the allowed Gap between parts or select
Auto to search
automatically.
Enter the allowed Penetration between parts or select
Auto to search
automatically.
Change the Resolution to define the accuracy of the
search.
Click Find to find contacts among
selected parts.
Note: Use the Contact Type for Keep and Find dropdown in Preferences > Inspire > Run Options to select the type of contacts that are created.
Figure 4. Using OptiStruct Figure 5. Using SimSolid
Right-click and mouse through the check mark to exit, or double-right-click.
Automatically Defining Contacts
Create contacts between parts automatically.
Note: When you open the Contacts tool on an imported
CAD file, the Create Automatic Contacts guide panel is displayed. To turn off
this behavior, select the Don't show this again checkbox.
On the Structure ribbon, select the Contacts tool.
Note: Click to expand or collapse
the list of selected parts. You can right-click a selected part and select
Remove to remove it from the selection.
Enter the allowed Gap between parts or select
Autoto search
automatically.
Enter the allowed Penetration between parts or select
Autoto search
automatically.
Change the Resolution to define the accuracy of the
search.
Click Find to find self-contacts
for the selected parts.
Note: Use the Contact Type for Keep and Find dropdown in Preferences > Inspire > Run Options to select the type of contacts that are created.
Right-click and mouse through the check mark to exit, or double-right-click.
Reviewing and Editing Contacts
Click a selected contact to open a microdialog and change the type. The options are
Bonded, Sliding,
Separating, or No Contact.
Select Bonded if parts are bonded or glued together.
Select Sliding if there is relative sliding between the
parts.
Select Separating if the relative parts can separate.
Select No Contact if parts are close, but you don't want them
to have contact.
Change the Resolution to define the accuracy of the
search.
Disconnected and Overlapping Groups
Find and review any disconnected or overlapping groups of parts using the
Disconnected Groups tool on the Contacts
icon.
To
Do this
Note
Configure off a group
In the Disconnected and Overlapping Groups dialog, select the
desired group, and then select Configure
Off.
When the group is configured off, it's excluded from
calculations like mass summaries, static weight calculations,
optimization, etc.
Delete a group (Del)
In the Disconnected and Overlapping Groups dialog,
select the desired group, and then select .
Or select the desired group and press the
Delete key.
Fit a group (F)
Select the group, and then press
F.
To show the entire model, press
F again.
The view is adjusted to fit tightly around the selected
groups. If no groups are selected, the view fits all shown
groups.
Isolate a group (I)
Select the group, and then press I.
To show the entire model, press I
again.
Isolating an object zooms in and temporarily hides all other
objects.
Contacts Table
The Contacts table lists all of the contacts in your model including the type of
connection and the parts it connects.
Click the Open Contacts Table satellite icon
on the Contacts tool to display the table.
The table data can be edited with the following actions:
To
Do this
Note
Filter the contacts list
At the top of the table, select Show All Contacts to
show all contacts or select the contact types you want to include in the
display.
Rename a contact
Select the cell in the table and then click again to make the field
editable.
Change the connection type
Select the cell in the table and then select a different option from the
list.
Change the search distance
Select the cell in the table and then enter a value.
This shows the minimum gap (the exact minimum distance between the two
parts).
The search distance for an individual contact defined in this table
will override the global Auto search distance defined in the Find Options on the guide bar.
Change the clearance
Right-click on a column header.
In the Property dialog, turn on Clearance.
By default, the Contact Clearance and Friction columns are
hidden.
Two parts with a 3 mm gap and 1 mm clearance means contact will not
occur until the gap decreases to 2 mm.
Friction is a range between 0 and
1 where, 0 is sliding and 1 is bonded.
Add friction to a Sliding or Separating contact
Right-click on a column header.
In the Property dialog, turn on Frictional
Value.
Enter a value between 0.2 and
0.8, where 0.2 is low friction and 0.8 is high
friction.
Sort a column
Click the column header. Click repeatedly to toggle between ascending and
descending order.
Add or remove columns
Right-click on a column header.
Note:
Contact Clearance and Frictional Value
columns are hidden by default.
Two parts with a 3 mm gap and 1 mm clearance will not contact until the gap changes to
2 mm.
Frictional Value is a range between 0 and 1 where 0 is sliding and 1 is bonded.
Contact Clearance
Contact clearance is an advanced feature used to either force or prevent contact in
cases where there is a slight separation between contacting parts. It is only
considered when running an analysis or optimization with Sliding or Separating
contact types defined.
To edit the contact clearance for an individual contact:
Click the List Contacts satellite icon on the Contacts tool.
Right-click a column header on the Contacts Table and select Clearance to add
it to the table.
Enter a clearance for the desired contact in the table. To enforce a contact
from the beginning of the solution, set the contact clearance to 0.0. If you
want the parts to operate independently and only contact if they physically
touch during the load case, remove 0.0 and set the value to (none). To enforce
an interference fit, enter a positive clearance. To add clearance between
touching parts, enter a negative value into the contact clearance field.
Figure 6. Original Model. There is a 0.5 mm gap between the button and the corresponding contacting
part. Figure 7. No Contact. Deflection is < 0.5 mm, so no contact occurs. Figure 8. Contact. Deflection is > 0.5 mm, so contact occurs between the parts. Figure 9. Enforced Contact. Contact is enforced between the parts when clearance is 0.0.
Mouse Controls and Keyboard Shortcuts
To
Do this
Select a contact
Left-click a contact to select it.
Select multiple contacts
Hold down the Ctrl key and left-click, or use box
selection.
Deselect contacts
Hold down the Ctrl key and left-click a selected
contact.
Deselect all contacts
Left-click on an empty space in the modeling window.
Delete part contacts
Select a manually defined part contact in the Contacts table and click
Delete.
Exit the tool
Right-click and mouse through the check mark to exit, or double-right-click.
Valid and Invalid Contacts
Inspire detects contact between surfaces and solids, but not all cases are considered
valid.
satellite icon that appears when you hover over the Contacts tool to view a list of all contacts
in your model.
to expand or collapse
the list of selected parts. You can right-click a selected part and select
Remove to remove it from the selection.
to search
automatically.
to find contacts among
selected parts.
Note: Use the Contact Type for Keep and Find dropdown in to select the type of contacts that are created.
. 
satellite icon
on the Contacts tool to display the table.
on the guide bar.
