Assign mass to a component

[p_riggs]

I've seen a few people ask if it's possible to assign a mass (and centre of gravity) to a component, overriding its calculated properties, and the answer always seems to be 'no, use a custom material and calculate its density to give your component the right mass'.

This seems like an awkward hack to provide a very simple feature. The use case is something like this:

I'm modelling some existing component, and I want to create a simple placeholder for it, with the correct mass. I know the mass, I know the external dimensions, this could be a straightforward task. But the workaround requires that I do some calculations to get the density right, and then hope that the CoG is in the right place, because if it's not, I have to modify my placeholder design to hack that too, and then recalculate density. Then if I modify my placeholder, I must go through the process again because changing the geometry changes the mass.

Can I bump this as a feature request? Thanks.

[jhackney1972]

Your suggested change to the Fusion application will probably never happen because of liability concerns.  If you create a artificial mass and center of gravity for a model and down the road someone uses them for say a lifting point and rigging.  When the lift is executed the load swings wildly due to a miss calculation of the center of gravity and the rigging breaks hurting someone, then You can expect to be sued for negligence.  Autodesk is not going to add a feature that would allow anyone to make the same mistake as they would then be subject to being sued. 

[TrippyLighting]

---

@jhackney1972 wrote:

Your suggested change to the Fusion application will probably never happen because of liability concerns. 

---

This can be done in other CAD applications!

[TheCADWhisperer]

---

@jhackney1972 wrote:

Your suggested change to the Fusion application will probably never happen because of liability concerns. 

---

Can do it in Autodesk Inventor Professional.

Pretty standard practice - for example, you get a sub-assembly valve from a vendor that is just a shell of the geometry rather than the complete geometry.  Override the mass so that when used in your assembly has correct properties.

A variation of this question came up on the Inventor forum this morning...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/weight-calculation/td-p/13428740