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The ANSYS Workbench platform is an environment that offers an efficient and intuitive user interface, superior CAD integration, automatic meshing, and access to model parameters as well as to the functionality available within the ANSYS Mechanical products.
Mechanical simulation with ANSYS Workbench builds upon the core ANSYS solver technology the industry has recognized and offers the following benefits for advanced analysis:
Native CAD Import
Parameter and Dimension Control
Defeaturing the geometry
Automated detection of connections
Automatic meshing with advanced options
Easy to use Pre-Processing Tools
Advanced solver capabilities
Advanced Post-Processing
Exploring your design
Communicating about your results
Capturing the knowledge
Examples using ANSYS Workbench
From Concept to Robust Design using ANSYS Workbench
With ANSYS you can use your existing native CAD geometry directly with no translations, no IGES, and no middle geometry formats. ANSYS provides native, bi-directional, integration with the most popular CAD systems since more than 10 years and also provides integration directly into the CAD menu bar making it simple to launch the ANSYS world class simulation directly from your CAD system.
Our geometry import mechanism is common to all CAD systems, giving you the ability to work with a single common simulation environment even if you are using multiple CAD packages.
We do support the following CAD systems: Autodesk Inventor / MDT, Autodesk Inventor Professional Stress, CATIA v4 and v5, Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, Unigraphics, CoCREATE. ANSYS Workbench also supports neutral format files: IGES, Parasolid, ACIS® (SAT), STEP – enabling the use of any CAD system able to export to any of these formats.
Parameter and Dimension Control
The ANSYS Workbench Environment uses a unique plug-in architecture to maintain associativity with the CAD systems for any model, allowing you to make design changes to your CAD model without having to reapply loads and/or supports. You can either pick the CAD dimension to change directly, or enhance your design iterations with ANSYS DesignXplorer.
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Geometry and design parameters can be retrieved from your CAD System |
ANSYS Workbench provides mechanisms to control the CAD parameters from the simulation |
Some details of the CAD model might not be relevant for the simulation. ANSYS DesignModeler will give you the ability to remove details like holes or chamfers, slice your model using symmetry planes, create additional parametric geometric features on your model and create enclosures and interior volume definitions.
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Geometry can be sliced to create symmetry regions |
Automated detection of connections
Once the geometry has been imported, ANSYS automatically detects and setup contacts or joints between parts of an assembly. You can modify contact settings and options and also add some additional manual contact definitions. Joints for flexible/rigid dynamics are automatically detected. Each contact or joint is easily identified using the graphical tools provided by the environment.
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Automated detection of contacts is performed upon geometry import |
Contact detection finds all possible regions even for large assemblies |
Automatic meshing with advanced options
ANSYS provides a wide range of highly robust automated meshing tools – from tetrahedral meshes to pure hexahedral meshes, inflation layers and high quality shell meshes. You have the ability to set your own mesh settings like surface or edge sizing, sphere of influence, defeaturing tolerances and much more.
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Robust automated algorithms |
Advanced options provides control over mesh sizing |
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High quality automatic shell meshing tool |
Assembly meshed with different element types |
Easy to use Pre-Processing Tools
Model setup has never been easier! Every boundary condition is defined relative to geometric entities, allowing to simply and accurately represent the physics of the model. Pick the appropriate boundary condition or load, define the entities it applies to and you are set! Even a bolt load definition does not require more than a few mouse clicks. You are able to easily create the most complex load histories for transient or nonlinear analyses. Material definition are available for isotropic material, temperature dependency, nonlinear materials like hyperelastic materials (rubber…) or plasticity.
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Boundary conditions are applied on geometric entities |
Fitting of hyperelastic laws to experimental data |
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Create and manage complex load histories over multiple time steps |
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ANSYS solver technologies help you solve models at any level of complexity: static linear analysis, modal analysis, models with multiple contacts, nonlinear materials, transient thermal analyses, transient dynamics, spectral analyses and much more. Various simulations can also be linked, allowing you to start from a steady-state thermal analysis that is used as the initial condition of a transient thermal simulation. From this one, you can then create thermal stress analyses at given time points to build a pre-stressed condition for a modal or buckling analysis – all in one single environment! Find out more about ANSYS capabilities for mechanical analysis here.
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ANSYS Workbench allows you to create independent or linked analyses |
ANSYS provides a comprehensive set of post-processing tools to display results on the models as contours or vector plots, provide summaries of the results (like min/max values and locations). Powerful and intuitive slicing techniques allow to get more detailed results over given parts of your geometries. All the results can also be exported as text data or to a spreadsheet for further calculations. Animations are provided for static cases as well as for nonlinear or transient histories. Any result or boundary condition can be used to create customized charts.
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Contour plots on bodies |
Results can be displayed on any part of the geometry |
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Customized chart for load-deflection curves |
Results exported to 3rd party applications |
A single simulation just provides a validation of a design. ANSYS brings you to the next level with DesignXplorer, a tool designed for fast and efficient design analysis. You will not need more than a few mouse clicks to get a depper understanding of your design, whether you want to examine multiple scenarios or create full response surfaces of your model and get sensitivities to design parameters, optimize your model or perform a Six Sigma analysis.
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DesignXplorer's three-dimensional chart navigator provides instantaneous feedback via a |
Communicating about your results
ANSYS lets you explore your design in multiple ways. All the results you get must then be efficiently documented: ANSYS will provide you instantaneous report generation to gather all technical data and pictures of the model in a convenient format (html, MS Word, MS Powerpoint…).
Click this image for full report image
ANSYS provides a unique set of tools that will allow you to capture knowledge, standardize on simulation processes and provide tools to perform the most complex simulations in a simple way. You will be able to create simulation wizards to guide the users through the steps required to perform a given simulation, automate simulation tasks… so you get the best and most comprehensive information on your design, faster.
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Simulation wizards guide the user step-by-step through a simulation process. |
Examples using ANSYS Workbench
ANSYS Workbench offers the power to take your concept designs to robust design within one single environment. Workbench provides an integration environment across CAD and geometry creation, Simulation and Optimization tool. Examples below show various advanced analysis applications in ANSYS Workbench:
