Associative versus non-associative assembly FEMs

Assembly FEMs support two basic workflows:

• Associative. In this workflow, you associate an assembly FEM with an existing assembly of parts, and map new or existing component FEMs to each component part. When the assembly configuration or the geometry of its component parts is updated, the assembly FEM is also updated.You can combine associative and non-associative component FEMs within the same assembly FEM. For example, you could add a non-associative component FEM to an associative assembly FEM to represent an impact structure for a drop test.

• Non-associative. In this workflow, you first create an empty assembly FEM. You then add component FEMs to the assembly FEM. Finally, you use Move Component to define the position and orientation of component FEMs.

When to use an associative assembly FEM

Create an associative assembly FEM when there is a CAD assembly of the system you will be modeling, and you have or can create geometry-based FEMs of the CAD component parts. Associative component FEMs inherit the orientation of the mapped CAD component, and do not need to be repositioned. When the CAD assembly configuration is modified, you can update the assembly FEM to reflect those changes.

When to use a non-associative assembly FEM

Create a non-associative assembly FEM when there is no corresponding CAD assembly, or when you need to assemble imported, non-geometry-based, or manual meshes. If you are modeling a problem that involves a large number of manual meshes, an assembly FEM can provide better tracking, management, documentation, and reuse than a single multi-mesh FEM file.

How do I

Resolve label conflicts in your assembly FEM files

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Assembly FEMs

Working with subassembly FEMs

Managing large assembly FEMs using the Simulation Navigator and Simulation File View

Assembly FEM updates

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Associative versus non-associative assembly FEMs, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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