Geometry Import Settings

Options for defining treatment of geometry before import.

To access these settings, on the menu bar click Settings > Geometry import settings.

Face faceting parameters

SimSolid uses lightweight facets to represent part faces. Assembly, part names, and hierarchy are retained. Default facet settings should be sufficient for most geometries, but adjustments can be made.

The following faceting parameters are used to control tessellation:

Angular deviation (degrees) - influences the tessellation of curves with relatively small radii in comparison to the overall CAD model.
Chordal deviation (mm) - maximum distance between the actual part surface and the tessellated surface.

You can set these deviation values using the Resolution menu. Four options are available: Standard, Enhanced, Fine, and Custom. The Custom menu option allows you to input each parameter manually.

Note: As a best practice, start with Standard and refine only as required to capture geometry curvature. Setting these values smaller will increase the analysis solution time.

Units for dimensionless CAD files

Select the units from the dropdown for dimensionless CAD files CAD reader.

CAD reader

Parasolid, Parasolid+ spatial and legacy readers are supported. Parasolid+ spatial will use spatial reader for CATIA V5 and V6 formats and Parasolid reader for other formats.

Import Skins

SimSolid can import surface CAD parts, if present in an assembly, when Import skins is enabled. This imports the surfaces (Top/mid/bottom) and then you can apply respective thickness. Currently, it supports uniform thickness parts (Sheet metals).

Note: SimSolid does not import a part with missing surfaces in an enclosed volume part, so it may pop-up a warning message during import. Except for plugin files and STL formats, SimSolid can import skins from assemblies or as part files by all CAD formats currently in use.

Import materials

SimSolid will attempt to look for and read any part metadata attribute that contains the material property name string. If this name string matches an existing name in the SimSolid material database, the corresponding SimSolid material properties will be applied. If it is not found, SimSolid will notify the user that material properties cannot be applied.

Note: SimSolid does not support the general imprint of CAD Material property data. The Import materials option will not work with all CAD files, as SimSolid currently supports CATIA, NX, and JT only. See the Define Custom Material Database topic for information on how to duplicate material property definitions present in the CAD system.

If the material was not found, SimSolid pops up a dialog for you to browse and choose an alternative material from the current SimSolid material database. This works for multiple materials in an assembly that matches the CAD metadata attribute.

Custom metadata attributes

You can list any custom metadata attributes desired in the text box. SimSolid will search in the order listed and these values will take precedence over any internal default values.