Hey there Fusion users,
By this time, I am sure many of you have heard about the release of Fusion 360 Ultimate. As part of this release, we have made a ton of updates to the Simulation workspace. One of the coolest additions has to be the Event Simulation study type. Event Simulation is a powerful analysis tool that is intended to help you solve problems with complex contact, large motion and deformation and nonlinear material. In simpler terms, if you are trying to test your design against a drop or impact test, look at how a snap fit connection might work, or if what happens when your design breaks, Event Simulation is probably a good place to start.
To help you get started, our team has put together 5 sample models to help you get a feel for how Event Simulation models are typically setup and the types of results to expect. These models can be found in the Simulation Samples section of the Data Panel. They are ready to run, simply save them to your project, press solve and see for yourself how Event Simulation can help you better understand your design.
As you begin your journey with Event Simulation, feel free to reach out with questions or feedback. We are eager to learn about the types of problems you are looking to solve.
Happy Simulating!
Mike Smell, Jeremy Wiesner and Lee Taylor
The axe chop model predicts what will happen if you take an axe to a stack of wooden boards. The axe is modeled using a rigid body and is given an Initial Linear Velocity in the direction of the boards. There are 7 stacked, independently modeled boards resting on steel blocks. As you can imagine, there’s lots of complicated contact that goes on with this model. Eventually the axe will strike the boards, and since the boards are modeled independently each board can potentially contact the other boards. Furthermore, if you break through the top board, the axe will propagate down and strike the next board below. This may sound like a burden to setup, but with Event Simulation the contact couldn’t be easier to define; the Global Contacts feature will take care of all of this automatically for you. Once this feature has been enabled, you’re ready to solve! (Approximate Runtime: 30 minutes)
A cylindrical-shaped projectile is launched towards a square block using the Initial Linear Velocity load type. Contact was enabled with a single click of a button using the Global Contacts feature. Open the model and try to guess what’s going to happen before you run it! Note that both objects in this model use a nonlinear stress-strain curve for their material, and element deletion is enabled with a failure strain of 25% (strain equal to 0.25). When you get the results back, don’t forget to try the Slice Plane option under the Results button to see what’s going on inside the objects during the impact. (Approximate Runtime: 10 minutes)
This is a great example of how we can use the Event Simulation study to predict the behavior of manufacturing processes, such as metal extrusion. This is a quarter-symmetric model, which is a good way to reduce simulation runtime for large models. The copper forming material is pressed through the die, which is modeled using a rigid body. When you animate the results you can see the forming material changing shape as its flows through the die. This is also a great example of how complex contact can trivially be defined and simulated using the Event Simulation study. (Approximate Runtime: 30 minutes)
Have you ever heard the “square peg in a round hole” idiom? You may have thought this was impossible, but not with Event Simulation! This is another example that leverages quarter-symmetry to reduce the solver runtime. The slightly too-large square peg is pressed down into the circular hole, at which point the square peg comes into contact with the edge of the hole. Nonlinear material properties are defined for both parts of this model. As the parts collide, plastic deformations develop causing the peg to permanently deform inward and the hole to stretch outward. (Approximate Runtime: 30 minutes)
Event Simulation is the perfect study type for predicting the behavior for all sorts of impact events. This model predicts the behavior of a common laboratory experiment: a projectile (often a bullet) impacting a series of successive metal plates at a high velocity. The goal is to determine if the series of metal plates can successfully stop the momentum of the projectile. In this sample model, the small titanium disc is given an Initial Linear Velocity in the direction of three aluminum plates, and contact is automatically generated by simply using the Global Contacts feature. Watch what happens when the disc punctures the first plate; this shows the powerful automatic contact feature of Event Simulation. As elements are deleted and the model is torn apart, the contact surfaces are automatically rebuilt and refined to adapt to whatever is happening in the simulation. (Approximate Runtime: 70 minutes)
Wow, democratizing this kind of power is heady stuff. Non-engineer tinkerers are going to have good times playing around. Engineers might worry about non-engineers becoming overconfident. But this will sort itself out in time. I'm an excited non-engineer mechanical designer looking forward to a better-informed workflow with my "real" engineer colleagues.
Extremadamente interesante esta información.
En este momento estoy desarrrollando el primer curso de (FEA) Fusion 360 + Inventor 2017 y cuando pensé que estaba terminando, Fusion actualizó con esta maravilla.
El reto sigue.
Saludos desde Venezuela
¡Eso es emocionante! Me alegra escuchar que usted está enseñando con nuestro software de simulación. Por favor, háganos saber si tiene alguna pregunta o sugerencia.
Last post translated:
Extremely interesting information. At this moment I am developing the first course of (FEA) Fusion 360 + Inventor 2017 and when I thought it was finishing, Fusion updated with this marvel. The challenge continues.
My reply translated:
That is exciting! Glad to hear you are teaching with our simulation software. Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Neat! I hope we will see more event simulation examples ranging from simple stuffs to more complicated ones! Use case scenarios will be helpful for those who is very new to Simulation. Also will accompanying each example with a PDF explaining why are things done in certain way be of help?
Omar Tan
Malaysia
Mac Pro (Late 2013) | 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 | 12GB 1.8 GHz DDR3 ECC | Dual 2GB AMD FirePro D300
MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2016) | 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 | 16GB 2.1 GHz LPDDR3 | 4GB AMD RadeonPro 460
macOS Sierra, Windows 10
Hi Omar,
Thanks for the feedback. We will continue to build out our learning materials to help users get started with Simulation in Fusion over time. Be sure to check out our step by step exercises for each of the study types in Fusion today.
Our commercial study types: http://fusion360.autodesk.com/learning/learning.html?guid=GUID-4EB16696-8951-47BC-8F15-10E614D8994F
Our preview study types: http://fusion360.autodesk.com/learning/learning.html?guid=GUID-815819F4-851A-4AE3-BFE4-B8DADCD0DB87
Thanks,
Mike Smell
Omar Tan
Malaysia
Mac Pro (Late 2013) | 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 | 12GB 1.8 GHz DDR3 ECC | Dual 2GB AMD FirePro D300
MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2016) | 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 | 16GB 2.1 GHz LPDDR3 | 4GB AMD RadeonPro 460
macOS Sierra, Windows 10
So this is where Terragrande ended up? I kept asking around about the explicit solver (I worked with Jeremy on the Dell tablet droptest 2 years ago) but nobody had an answer or even knew what it was. I was expecting to see it added to Nastran In-CAD eventually. Stumbled upon this post after visting the Nastran In-CAD forum to post an issue.
By chance, I am now evaluating Abaqus (due to the limitations of Sim Mechanical) and running an explicit run right now.
Mark Decker
Sim Specialists Division
Hagerman&Company
Hi @GerryJDail,
We do not provide users a method to extract the NAS file from Fusion. Further, the Event Simulation study type is powered by another Autodesk solver using Explicit solving technology, not the Autodesk Nastran solver. Today, this solver is only commercially available through Fusion, so you would not be able to replicate this example directly in Autodesk Nastran. If you are looking to solve a similar problem with material breakage, your best option would be to do this with the Event Simulation study type in Fusion 360 Ultimate.
Thanks,
Mike Smell
Product Manager, Fusion 360 - Simulation
Nice work Sir! Love it! Notice you're an Industrial Designer, would love to see some of the work you've done.
-Curt Chan
Thank you Curt, that's very kind of you, you can see some of my work on my Behance profile : https://www.behance.net/pmbidarra
All of my recent work (3D) there is done using Fusion 360, a lot of it is exhibition and stand design, for which I know Fusion wasn't exactly built for, it's an activity stuck between furniture design and architecture, but it's perfect for the job, lots professionals in this line of business will use SketchUp, SolidWorks or even AutoCAD+3D Studio, but Fusion beats any of these solutions because it's parametric unlike most of them and very flexible unlike the other one in that list.
But because we are specifically talking about Simulation here, I would like to show this particular project : https://www.behance.net/gallery/40191681/Outdoor-Displays-for-The-Lisbon-Oceanarium
These are Outdoor displays, made from welded steel, they are about 2 meters tall, I, a designer, not an engineer, used simulation in Fusion 360 to simulate how it would act under horizontal loads, like people pushing those displays, as they are fixed to the vertical columns and act as a big lever if you push on the other end. These simulations allowed me to design an elegant and relatively lightweight solution. 🙂
Awesome! We'd love to check out your dataset if you're able to share it. If not, no worries. I'm a big fan of your work and your porfolio. Excited to see what else you do with Fusion 360.
-CC
Hi Keith,
The Simulation workspace inside of Fusion uses two different solvers. The Autodesk Nastran solver is used for ALL study types EXCEPT Event Simulation. This is the same Nastran solver that you have access to with your Simulation Mechanical license. The Event Simulation study is powered by an explicit solver technology that was acquired by Autodesk after the acquisition of Nei Nastran and is only currently available through Fusion 360 Ultimate.
The MURAL image you posted suggests that we will be working to turn Nastran error messaging, which in its current form is very cryptic and not helpful to non-Nastran users, into something that is more easily understood in the context of everyday Simulation modeling.
I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Mike Smell
Product Manager, Fusion 360