More complex assemblies can be created with IP protecting abstracted parts.
Engine subassembly undergoing an eigenvalue analysis. (Image courtesy of MSC Software.)
The latest release of MSC Apex focuses on improving assembly creation and introducing new connections for abstracted parts.
These abstracted parts, dubbed computational parts, are designed to protect an engineer’s intellectual property when sharing meshed geometry with colleagues.
Apex simplifies the mesh geometry into a numerical matrix which can then be added to an assembly. The assembly can then be used in a simulation with the computational part behaving as it would if it were the full geometry.
MSC Apex is a generative simulation workflow platform. The platform solves the simulation incrementally subassembly by subassembly. For this reason, changes to a design will only affect the simulation results of the subassemblies and computational parts the change is associated with. To go into detail about how MSC Apex works, read our previous article.
Image demonstrates how changes in the design will only affect the simulation results of the sub-assemblies and computational parts the change is associated with. (Image courtesy of MSC Software.)
“Incremental changes to the design, whether on parts, attribution, but also assembly layout, are captured in a dependency chain,” said Hugues Jeancolas, MSC Apex Sr. Product Manager. “That allows the user to automatically regenerate the model and visualize simulation results at a click of a button, giving users a unique flexibility to rapidly iterate on design alternatives early in the design process.”
Much of the improvements to the latest update of MSC Apex, named Eagle, comes in the form of increasing the complexity of assemblies with more connection options. Users are now able to use rigid links, springs and mesh dependent tie connections to connect their wires, sheets, solids subassemblies and computational parts.
This release also launches the student edition of MSC Apex, which will be free. For more information on how to get the student version follow this link.
Other improvements to MSC Apex Eagle include:
- Beam profiles
- Point masses
- Tetrahedral-hexahedral meshes for solid bodies
Previous releases of MSC Apex included the launch of its structural solver in March of last year and its model checking ability in August of last year. With these previous releases introducing so much additional capability, users may have been expecting another monumental enhancement.
Maybe in the next release we will see multiphysics or other simulation technologies.
What would you like to see in MSC Apex? Comment below.
