Swapping materials for simulations

[nigel76FS8]

There must be a way to do this, but I can't figure it out.

How do I set the material for a simulation? Easy, despite the "properties" on right click being different to the "properties" on right click of the name. So, I set the material to bronze, or brass or whatever, and I can run the simulation just fine. Now, I want to run the simulation again, with aluminium, or brass, etc. How?

I can't figure it out. The only way is to go back to the model, and change the properties there, which breaks the simulation I've already run. And if I swap it again, it breaks it again.

Yes, there's the materials browser, but that doesn't seem to let me change the materials, because it only lists the materials in the model, and they change each time I change them.

Anyone know the (probably obvious) answer?

[Andrea.Heckenberg]

Hi @nigel76FS8,

have you tried creating a new simulation model? In the Simulation workspace, on the ribbon, click Simplify, then clone the original simulation model so you have all the settings and click Finish Simplify. Then you can change the material for the cloned model without affecting the original model

[nigel76FS8]

Hi Andrea,

Thanks for the help.

I think I'm stuck still. I've got two solved solutions for different materials, I did an override of "silver" and turned it into "Bronze" on the cloned study OK, but I still can't compare the two solutions? They still both come up as one material or the other. What I'm trying to do is compare the strength of, in this case, silver and bronze, under the same scenarios.

[TheCADWhisperer · Accepted solution]

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@nigel76FS8 wrote:

What I'm trying to do is compare the strength of, in this case, silver and bronze, under the same scenarios.

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Set up the first Study 1.

Clone Study 1 as Study 2, 3...

Override the material for Study 2, 3...

Run the analysis for each Study.

Create a Report specifying the desired information from each study to be included in the Report.

[henderh · Accepted solution]

Hi @nigel76FS8 were you able to compare the results two different materials?
I agree with the others and will add my $0.02

The material defined in the Design workspace is used by default, unless you specify an 'override' study material. By using a study material override you can perform the 'what if' without changing the model in the Design workspace.

1. Setup study 1 that will use the original material from design

2. Right click on study 1 in the browser -> clone study

3. In the cloned study -> Study Materials -> choose a different material as the study material override

4. Solve both studies -> Go to the Compare workspace using the Compare command in the Results tab in the ribbon

5. Use the study selector chooser in the lower left of the viewport to toggle the study displayed in that pane
6. Now you can compare the result differences between the two materials

Hope this helps!