How can one create a surface roughness in Inventor

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently facing the following problem, having been trying to solve it on my own with several ideas. Now, however, I came to the point, where I don't want to waste time anymore and ask some people, who have more clue about Inventor than me.

Task: I am using Autodesk Inventor Professional 2016 to create CAD-Files, export them as STEP and use them for FEM simulation. In this case, I'm simulating a production process, where surface roughnesses might have an influence on the process behaviour. For this, I have to simulate several surface roughnesses - if possible down to R_max = 0,8 micrometers.

Tries: What I already did, is to simulate the surface roughness of 50 micrometers R_max with a sinus-curve. Obviously it's not a plausible surface because it's way too periodic, but it could've shown some influences. However, trying to create other roughnesses this way failed due to the resolution of the program I guess. So, whenever I tried to have a smaller amplitude and a higher frequency, the sinus-curve looked super awry and didn't even have the R-value I wanted to have.

Question: So, I'm asking you now. Maybe I was just too stupid and didn't see an obvious option being a lot easier than what I have tried and you can help me out with that! I hope to get an answer on that. Already found a thread, where someone asked a similar question two years ago and didn't get a reply. Is there a good way to create surface roughnesses in Inventor 2016 Professional?

Thank you very much for your help!

[mcgyvr]

I would think your FEM program might have that functionality (friction constants,etc..).. Don't think Inventor does that at all.. 

[JDMather]

Somebody posted info about an add-in they wrote that I think might do something close to "texturing" a face (it was really a complex pattern tool) - but I don't think that is the way to go as the analysis mesher would "choke" on the complex geometry.