Problem Indicator

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I've been working on a design for some time now and have run quite a few analyses on it.  I ended up completely re-constructing the model after the file corrupted (we assume since nothing else worked, including a complete system wipe).  It has of course become more complex as time goes on.  It is taking longer and longer to run (7 hours) and now the results won’t show.  The analysis fails.  So, I’ve simplified it quite a bit in an effort to solve this.  It is hanging on meshing when I check the model or run the analysis, but it doesn’t hang when just meshing.  It hangs on Part 4, which is now showing what I assume to be an indicator of a problem.

Dumb question:  How can I find out what the problem is?  I cannot find it in any menus, right clicking, double clicking, etc.  Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how long the error has been there.  I assume just since I started having trouble with it running the analysis, but I just noticed it.  I feel like I would have noticed it if it’d been there the whole time.

The current state of the model has been simplified to what it was prior to the corrupt file when everything was running smoothly.

Ideas?

I am running Simulation Mechanical 2013 on a 64 bit Windows 7 machine.

[AstroJohnPE · Accepted solution]

Hi dbcox,

I'm not sure what the indicator means either, so I'm sorry that I cannot help with that.

But I can clarify that "meshing" a model normally occurs in two stages. When you import a model and click "Mesh > Mesh > Generate 3D Mesh", this step is creating a mesh on the surface of the part (the mesh that you see). When you do a "Check Model" or "Analysis > Analysis > Run Simulation" for the first time, this step is generating the solid mesh -- the mesh inside the volume (this mesh is not shown in the FEA Editor).

So in your model, the surface mesh is being created okay, but the solid mesh is failing for some reason. There was another thread recently related to dealing with solid mesh problems (your thread?), so that may help. Also, you can right-click on part 4 and choose "Create Solid Mesh". I think this will give you the opportunity to read the solid mesh log file which may give some indication of the problem. (My guess would be that the it is not able to fill the volume with elements.)

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info!  I opened just the part in question and had the same issue.  So I went back to the Inventor model and found some oddly shaped corners/intersections that I assumed would cause meshing problems.  I corrected them and the problem went away!