Define generative materials, manufacturing methods, and objectives

00:02

Define generative materials, manufacturing methods and objectives.

00:07

After completing this video, you'll be able to select generative materials,

00:11

define generative study objectives

00:13

and select generative manufacturing methods

00:18

in fusion.

00:18

We can carry on with our data set from the previous video or if you had any difficulty,

00:23

you can upload the supply data set.

00:24

GEN design MFG method dot F 3D.

00:28

At this point,

00:29

we've set up our design space which is

00:31

our preserve obstacle and starting shape geometry.

00:34

And we've defined our design conditions which are our loads and constraints.

00:38

The next step in the process is to define

00:40

our design criteria as well as our materials.

00:44

The design criteria has two sections, objectives and manufacturing.

00:48

The objectives are going to be defining what our convergence status is

00:53

and what this means is what is our final goal? Are we trying to minimize the mass? Are

00:58

we trying to maximize our stiffness?

00:60

Are we also taking a look at things like modal frequency in a design

01:04

displacement or even buckling?

01:06

Now, there are going to be some use cases for each of these.

01:10

However, for our example, we're going to stick to the default minimizing mass.

01:15

There's a default safety factor limit of 2.0 And this is of course,

01:18

taking a look at when the design will fail based

01:21

on the input loads and constraints that we have.

01:24

So keep in mind that there are many different ways that we can define our

01:27

objectives and limits as well as include additional

01:30

statements such as displacement and modal frequency.

01:33

If you want more information on these,

01:35

clicking the small I icon in the bottom

01:37

left and going to more information will navigate

01:40

you to the help file and give you more information on each of these setups,

01:44

we'll say, OK. And next, we want to move on to manufacturing.

01:48

Manufacturing is gonna define some of the criteria

01:51

for how we can restrict our design.

01:53

And what I mean by that is we have unrestricted

01:56

which doesn't place any additional constraints on our design.

01:59

But we also have things like additive.

02:02

This allows us to dictate things like overhang angle that can be unsupported

02:06

the build direction such as Z plus or Z minus

02:10

and even the minimum thickness value.

02:13

So keeping in mind that some of these constraints are going

02:16

to define the way in which our generative study builds.

02:18

These can help us create final outcomes

02:21

that are better suited to our manufacturing method

02:24

for our design. We're going to take a look at using unrestrict

02:28

additive milling as well as casting.

02:31

So when we take a look at each of these, we can do things like include all directions

02:36

or we can pick individual directions that we're interested in.

02:39

Keep in mind that every manufacturing method that we pick will result in an outcome.

02:45

This means that we have got one outcome for unrestricted.

02:48

And now we've got six outcomes for additive. Currently, there's one for milling

02:53

and there is gonna be one additional for casting when we add it.

02:57

Now each of those outcomes will be solved for

02:59

any materials that we define in our study.

03:02

So the more that we add to this,

03:04

the more outcomes that we're going to get.

03:07

But keep in mind that there is going to be a limit.

03:09

If we continue to add materials and manufacturing methods,

03:12

we're going to increase the calculation time.

03:14

So while it is helpful to add as many as you need,

03:17

keep in mind that we don't want to add

03:19

too many so that we drastically increase that calculation time

03:23

for the milling section. We've got a couple of options.

03:26

We've got three axis, five axis as well as 2.5 axis.

03:30

When we take a look at three axis milling,

03:32

we want to be mindful of the orientation of the tool.

03:36

Right now, we've got holes in the Z direction and we've got holes in the X direction.

03:41

So when we're creating configurations for milling,

03:44

we wanna make sure that we include the directions that

03:46

the tool will need access for those specific holes.

03:49

We can also include a five axis milling setup,

03:52

which doesn't need to take into account the orientation of the part.

03:56

Now five axis is a little tricky because it

03:58

will create some very unique and intricate geometry.

04:01

So if you don't have access to multi

04:03

axis machines, then that's something that you want to make sure that you exclude.

04:07

If we were to include a 2.5 axis setup. This is going to have a slight limitation

04:12

because all the geometry really needs to be accessible from a single direction

04:17

when we have a 2.5 axis. This will also output a two D sketch for us.

04:22

This is also similar to two axis cutting

04:25

because our design has preserved geometry with orientations in both X and Z.

04:31

It's not really a good fit for 2.5 axis milling or two axis cutting.

04:35

We can however, include casting as an available option.

04:39

When we think about casting, we need to think about the ejection direction.

04:43

This will dictate things like draft angle.

04:45

We can also manipulate minimum draft angle as well as the minimum thickness.

04:50

We're gonna leave these as the default values for now and say, OK,

04:54

now that we've defined our objectives and our manufacturing,

04:57

we can take a look at study materials.

04:60

The study materials can be defined by all methods or

05:03

we can go to each specific manufacturing method we picked,

05:06

for example,

05:07

unrestricted would typically be some sort of additive or lost casting method.

05:12

But it really just takes a look at

05:14

no additional restrictions placed on the manufacturing.

05:17

By default, it'll have this aluminum material.

05:20

When we move into the additive section,

05:22

it'll also have this aluminum material as default.

05:25

When we move into milling, we may have an aluminum 6061.

05:29

And if we want to add any additional materials to milling,

05:31

we can do that from the fusion materials library

05:35

and we can take a look in our metal section

05:37

and we can pick any applicable materials.

05:40

Keep in mind that aluminum 6061 and 7075 are

05:44

likely going to create some very similar outcomes.

05:47

However, we can have both of them,

05:49

which would create an individual outcome for all of our milling setups.

05:53

This mean all the orientations for our three axis milling

05:55

as well as the orientation for our five axis milling.

05:59

If we want to include any additional materials such as steels,

06:02

we can navigate to the steel section

06:05

and we can have steel in here.

06:07

Keep in mind that we are taking a look at simulation data

06:10

for the loads and constraints that we created in our study.

06:13

This is gonna have a direct impact using multiple materials because it's going to

06:17

change the way in which the material is added or removed during the study.

06:21

Next,

06:22

we go to casting and there is a default aluminum

06:24

material here which we're gonna leave and we're gonna close

06:28

now that we've defined everything. Note that we can go back to our precheck

06:32

note that some bodies are hidden,

06:34

which again is perfectly fine because we've

06:36

hidden our obstacles and our starting shape.

06:38

But we still have this warning about the milling head diameter.

06:41

If you are using milling as a manufacturing method,

06:43

it is best to double check the milling head as well

06:47

as the tool holder and tools that you're gonna be using.

06:50

If you use a tool holder or a tool diameter, that's too large for your geometry,

06:55

it will have a negative impact on the outcomes.

06:58

We are using the default size because this is more than likely going

07:01

to give you this warning and we're going to leave it and select close

07:05

before we solve our study. We do also want to take a look at our previewer.

07:09

The previewer is a preview solve which will allow us to

07:13

take a look at the build volume or build space.

07:16

Keep in mind that because we are using a starting shape,

07:19

you'll notice that the beginning of this is

07:21

going to show the starting shape as our preview

07:24

from here as it continues to build,

07:27

it will take a look at the structural constraints and loads that we've applied

07:30

and it'll either add material or remove

07:33

material as it progresses through those studies

07:36

because we have an initial build volume here.

07:38

I don't need to allow this to go any further

07:41

and we can toggle off the previewer

07:44

because it can take a good bit of time to

07:46

solve a generative study from one to several hours.

07:50

We are going to begin by enabling our simulation extension.

07:54

We're gonna use the 14 day free trial

07:56

and this will allow us to access and solve

07:59

these generative studies without using any cloud credits.

08:03

Next, we're gonna select generate

08:04

continue because we don't care about the hidden bodies.

08:07

We know they will be included.

08:09

That's gonna still show the warning here and we can generate one study.

08:13

While this is being generated,

08:15

we will be able to see the results in real time inside of our outcome viewer.

08:19

But we're going to allow this to solve and then

08:21

we're gonna check back in once it's been completed.

08:25

So make sure that everything is saved and up to date.

08:27

And once this is done, we'll check back in and take a look at our outcomes.