How the final results can look, with a mathematically optimised shape. This rips through a standard linear static analysis of your model and gives you a quick set of results based on your load cases (it’ll solve all of them at once if you need it to). The optimisation process has changed a little in the latest release with 2014 seeing a quick analysis tool introduced into the system. These allow you to define standard planes of symmetry as well as defining conditions that will steer the results towards an outcome that’s suited for machining, for stamping or moulding. For example, the constraints icon not only has constraints, but also, depending on which part of the icon you select, lets you apply forces, torques and pressures.Īnother area to pay attention to is the symmetry and design for manufacturing constraints. These are worth studying in some depth as each has multiple uses and gives you access to a number of operations. As with most Inspire commands and operations, these are selected from the row of icons across the top of the screen. Loads and constraints are pretty obvious. Next up is the definition of the boundary conditions. These give the system a steer when running through the optimisation, but this is by no means essential. The system comes with a shortlist of most common engineering materials, such as steels, aluminiums, titaniums and a couple of plastics options. Once done, it’s time to define the characteristics of the study. This will flag them up in the UI in a maroon colour, so you know what’s what. Whichever method, once you have them in the Inspire session, you can define them as such, which is a quick right click and selection of the “Design Space option. Inspire’s new tools allow you to take imported solid geometry and make adaptations and edits where needed One of the most powerful capabilities in Inspire is the ability to split up a model into geometry that needs to be retained and that which is open to be optimised - these are referred to as a Design Spaces.Īn understanding of multi-body modelling processes will be an advantage here, as it’s the perfect way of defining these Design Spaces - either in your CAD system and importing them or building them from scratch (the former is perhaps, for complex forms, the most efficient). This allows you to grab geometry (such as cut outs in spar like components) and use those as separate design spaces for optimisation, which we’ll explore next. The goal here being that you’re looking to reduce the mass of a component, but only have areas that can be changed or reworked. These are ideal when you’ve got a specific set of geometry you want to optimise. There are also tools for cleaning up solid geometry.įrom selecting faces and deleting them, to identification of pockets and such. In the first and most basic instance, this means that you have the now familiar tools for pushing and pulling faces of solid geometry into the position you want - select the face, drag the handles and you’re done. This has been a particular focus for the 2014 release. The issue has always been that while the ‘from scratch’ modelling tools were perfect for just that, if your imported geometry wasn’t exactly what you needed, there wasn’t too much support for making quick edits to knock it into shape. Previous releases of Inspire have done a good job of bringing data in from your CAD system or letting you model basic forms from scratch.