11.11 Capturing your design and analysis intent

If used carefully, the feature-based modeling approach used by Abaqus/CAE allows you to capture both your design and analysis intent.

Design intent is the capability to make changes based on design considerations. For example, when you add a cut feature, you can select either a through cut or a blind cut. If the cut feature represents a bolt hole, you know that the hole must always pass completely through the part. As a consequence, you should select a through cut, and Abaqus/CAE recognizes that the hole remains through even when you change the thickness of the part.

Analysis intent is the capability to make changes based on analysis considerations. Although Abaqus/CAE allows you to create parts with complex, detailed geometry, your final goal is usually a finite element analysis of a meshed representation of the part. Excessive detail, such as fillets and small holes, can lead to regions with a very fine mesh that will, in turn, dominate the time taken by Abaqus/Standard or Abaqus/Explicit to reach a solution. The amount of detail you provide when you create a part in the Part module should be a reflection of your goals. Alternatively, you can create a part with detailed features but suppress them prior to meshing the assembly. For example, if a model takes several hours to analyze, you may wish to simplify it by suppressing features; you could then submit an analysis that runs faster and checks your basic modeling assumptions. If the simplified model behaves as expected, you can unsuppress the features and resubmit a full analysis.

For an example of different feature-based design approaches based on design and analysis intent, consider the cover plate shown in Figure 11–42.

Figure 11–42 A model of a cover plate.

You could create the three-dimensional shell that models the plate in several ways:

  1. Sketch a base feature that includes the four holes.

  2. Sketch a rectangular base feature, and add four separate cut features.

  3. Sketch a rectangular base feature, and add a single cut feature that cuts all four holes.

Either of the three approaches would generate the same part, but your design intent and your analysis intent govern the best approach. For example:


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