Draw lines for use them like Beam elements

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am trying to draw some lines on Inventor on an assembly, for use then on Simulation Mechanical like Beam elements. If I draw them via 2D Sketches, when I import the geometry to Simulation Mechanical, those lines doesn’t appear. I draw them on Inventor via 3D Sketches, and when I import the geometry to Simulation Mechanical, I say "YES" when it asks if I want to import 3D sketches. I can give them Beam element type, but when I want to setup the element definition, an error message appears (I enclose a picture with the error). Which will be the better way to draw these beam elements? I think drawing them directly with the draw feature of Simulation Mechanical is a little bit complicated (because you don’t have reference points for draw them easily).

Thank you for your answers,

Best regards,

Ibon Ruiz de Alda

[AstroJohnPE · Accepted solution]

Hi Ibon,

There are two types of lines that can be drawn in Simulation Mechanical: regular lines that  are the mesh to form elements, and construction lines that are used for creating meshes but which are not part of elements themselves. The error message implies that the lines from the Inventor sketch were imported as construction lines. Is that the case?

I assume that they are construction lines, so go to "Selection > Select > Construction Lines". If the line gets selected when you left-click on it, then it is a construction line. Your options are to either convert it to a regular line ("Draw > Modify > Attributes" and uncheck "Construction Object") or use the construction line to generate a mesh of beam elements ("Mesh > Structured Mesh > Divide 1 Object"). Note that I have seen instances where trying to modify multiple construction lines using the first method (editing the attributes) does not show that the checkbox is checked for "Construction object". I did not pay attention to the circumstances, so I don't know if you will encounter this or not.

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

Thank you for your answer. It works perfectly when you import straight lines created on 3D sketches. But I have tried importing arc curves, and I can select them with the “construction objects” filter selected, but when I go to Draw/Modify, Attributes square appears deactivated, so I can`t change the attributes of the selected arc curves. Any ideas for changing the attributes of curved lines?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Ibon

[AstroJohnPE]

Hi Ibon,

Sorry that I could not respond until now.

For construction arcs, you may need to change them one at a time. When you edit one construction arc, you can uncheck the "Use as Construction" checkbox and specify how many straight line segements you want to use. That is, arcs only exist as construction objects. When converted to mesh lines, they need to be straight lines.