Home
Boundary Conditions
Boundary Conditions available for SimSolid.
Hinge Constraints
Connect faces or spots to a ground support.

Welcome
What's New
View new features for SimSolid 2025.1.
Get Started
Learn the basics and discover the workspace.
Tutorials
Discover SimSolid functionality with interactive tutorials.
Interface with External Products
Interfaces that support SimSolid output file format.
Geometry
Information about treatment and properties of geometric entities in SimSolid.
Assembly
Summary of available functionality for defining the properties and behavior of parts in the model.
Connections
Connections are used to define the association of different regions of interest between parts in an assembly.
Create Analysis
Create an analysis for your project.
Boundary Conditions
Boundary Conditions available for SimSolid.
- Available Boundary Conditions for Analyses
  A comparison chart showing the available boundary conditions for each analysis type.
- Immovable Constraints
  Enforce zero translational displacements in all directions on faces, edges, vertexes, and/or spots.
- Slider Constraints
  Enforce zero displacement in normal to the surface direction on faces and areal spots.
- Hinge Constraints
  Connect faces or spots to a ground support.
- Spring Support
  Set an elastic foundation at selected faces.
- Virtual Spring Support
  Create a virtual spring support with finite stiffness and spring force between two different parts or between a single part and ground. Springs can be applied on both faces and spots.
- General Constraints
  Constrain displacement of faces, edges, vertices, or spots in Modal analysis.
- Alignment Constraints
- Cable Tightening/Rod Preload
  Apply shortening or change of length for cables/rods.
- Pressure
  Apply positive pressure towards a face or negative pressure outwards from a face.
- Force/Displacement
  Apply uniform loads and/or displacements to faces, edges, vertices, or spots.
- Gravity Load
  Simulate the force of gravity as it affects your model.
- Translational Inertia Load
  Apply a uniformly distributed translational inertia load over the volumes of the parts in an assembly.
- Rotational Inertia Load
  Apply a uniformly distributed rotational inertia load over the volumes of the parts in an assembly.
- Inertia Relief
  Simulate deformations and stresses in cases where you have an unconstrained structure to which an active load is suddenly applied.
- Remote Load
  Apply distributed loads (tractions) to faces, general virtual connector, or spots that are statistically equivalent to a load applied on a single point.
- Remote Displacement
  Apply displacements to faces and/or spots that are statistically equivalent to a load applied on a single point.
- Thermal Load
  Simulate deformations and stresses induced by the temperature changes in your model.
- Bearing Load
  Apply a varying pressure load to full or partial face(s) of revolution.
- Hydrostatic Pressure
  Define pressure exerted by a fluid at equilibrium.
- Distributed Mass
  Apply distributed mass across selected faces.
- Bolt/Nut Tightening Loads
  Available for blind bolts (bolt without a nut), bolt with nut/bolt on threaded rod, nut on generic post or handle.
- Base Excitation
- Volume Expansion/Shrinkage
  Apply volumetric expansion/shrinkage coefficient over seam welds or other parts in the assembly.
- Temperature
  In thermal analysis, limit temperature on the selected faces, edges, vertices, or spots to a prescribed value.
- Thermal Convection
  In thermal analysis, define a convective heat exchange condition on faces and spots.
- Surface Heat Flux
  In thermal analysis, apply uniformly distributed heat loads to faces and spots.
- Volume Heat Loads
  In thermal analysis, simulate internal heat generation and internal heat absorption in volumes.
- Solar Loads
  Apply heat loads based on the sunbeam’s direction for thermal analysis
- Wind Loads
  Theory of wind load
Post Processing
Run analyses and view a variety of results in SimSolid.
Design Study
Design studies allow you to quickly evaluate and compare the structural performance from different design scenarios.
Verification Problems
Solved verification models.
Frequently Asked Questions
This section provides quick responses to typical and frequently asked questions regarding

Hinge Constraints

Connect faces or spots to a ground support.

Three types of hinges are available:

Ball hinge: Can rotate in any direction about the remote point.
Rotating hinge: Can only rotate about the hinge axis. The axis is defined by the remote point coordinates and a vector.
Rotating-sliding hinge: Can rotate about the hinge axis and also slide along the axis. The axis is defined by the remote point coordinates and a vector.

In the Project Tree, open the Analysis Workbench.
In the workbench toolbar, click Hinge/Pivot support.

Create one of the following types of supports:

Type	Do this
Ball hinge	In the Hinge Support dialog, select the Ball radio button. Under Apply to, use the radio buttons to specify whether to apply connector to a Face or Spot. If applying to spots, you can create new spots by clicking Create new spot. In the modeling window, click to select specific parts on the model. The remote point coordinates are set in COG by default. To edit the coordinates, clear the Set in COG checkbox and specify values for the X, Y, and Z fields.
Rotating hinge	In the Hinge Support dialog, select the Rotating radio button. Under Apply to, use the radio buttons to specify whether to apply connector to a Face or Spot. If applying to spots, you can create new spots by clicking Create new spot. In the modeling window, click to select specific parts on the model. The remote point coordinates are set in COG by default. To edit the coordinates, clear the Set in COG checkbox and specify values for the X, Y, and Z fields. Go to the Axis tab and specify values for the X, Y, and Z fields.
Rotating-sliding hinge	In the Hinge Support dialog, select the Rotating sliding radio button. Under Apply to, use the radio buttons to specify whether to apply connector to a Face or Spot. If applying to Spots, you can create new spots by clicking Create new spots. In the modeling window, click to select specific parts on the model. The remote point coordinates are set in COG by default. To edit the coordinates, clear the Set in COG checkbox and specify values for the X, Y, and Z fields. Go to the Axis tab and specify values for the X, Y, and Z fields.

Click Apply.