& Construction

Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing

Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Any referenced datasets can be downloaded from "Module downloads" in the module overview.
Transcript
00:09
So for this exercise, we're working with this cable sheave part file once again.
00:14
You will notice that it has already been set up from the previous exercises.
00:18
So the boundary conditions, so your Loads and your Constraints,
00:22
as well as the Solid Element Idealization with a material and then a mesh has already been defined.
00:29
So at this stage, this analysis is ready to run.
00:33
So I will select "Run" from the "Solve" panel on the ribbon.
00:37
This will kick off the Inventor Nastran Solver.
00:41
When it's finished, you should get a window that comes up and says Nastran Solution Complete.
00:46
If you are missing a Constraint or a Load or there's some type of instability in the model,
00:52
you may get a Nastran Solution Failed window.
00:55
In this case, we know that this is set up properly.
00:58
So we'll select "Ok" to view the results.
01:01
So the first result that's going to show up is your Stress.
01:04
This is going to be your SOLID VON MISES STRESS by default.
01:08
You will notice, it shows you the legend on the left hand side here.
01:13
And if you'd like to change the type of result being shown, you can simply use these drop down menus right here.
01:18
You have your type, your subtype and then the units.
01:22
So if I change the type to Displacement, it'll show my total displacement in inches.
01:29
And then from here, I can also add in things like animation.
01:33
So at the top where you see the Results panel, there's an option to Animate. If I select "Animate",
01:40
it's going to take this Displacement result along with the deformed model, and it will animate the result in 3D.
01:48
So it shows the load being applied with an exaggerated deformation to show the path that that load would take,
01:54
and the resulting displacement.
01:57
When you're done with animating, you can click "Animate" again to turn it off.
02:02
So now I'm going to take a look at another way that you can visualize your results.
02:06
We've already seen Stress and Displacement plotted as three dimensional contours on our CAD model.
02:13
The other way you can pull results is using the XY Plot function.
02:17
This is going to give you the actual exact values versus their position and their coordinates.
02:25
So for instance, I can right-click on "XY Plot" at the bottom of my browser and select "New".
02:31
This will open up the XY Plot dialog box.
02:34
This is where I can choose Nodal results or Elemental results to plot.
02:39
My nodal results are going to be things like displacement and reaction force.
02:43
Elemental results would be your normal principle or von mises stresses that would be added to your Y-Axis.
02:50
So if I want to plot, for instance, the displacement of each node along a given area or line,
02:59
instead of choosing individual nodes in their positions, I can check the box for Along Selected Entity.
03:06
And I can actually choose this line right here, this vertical edge of my flange.
03:12
And then I can choose on the right hand side here,
03:16
the type of data I'd like to plot, which is going to be Displacement in this case.
03:20
The resulting plot will show the position of each node relative to the origin or its distance away from the origin.
03:29
And then it's going to plot the displacement of each on the Y-Axis.
03:33
So if I click "Show XY Plot", you'll see the Displacement versus Distance from the origin,
03:39
in inches, you'll see that magnitude increase as we get further away from the origin at the bottom of the part.
03:46
So as we go up this line, as we get closer to that load, and this flange bends more,
03:52
we should see that displacement increase along that edge. And that's exactly what the plot is showing.
03:57
What's great about this plot is if you hover over each individual data point,
04:02
it'll give you the actual true value of the displacement and the position.
04:07
If I'd like to save this for future use, I can click, "Ok".
04:11
I can give this a name. So in this case, we'll call it Displacement.
04:15
And then I can click "Save" at the bottom of my window here and it will save it.
04:19
So I'll click "Close" and you'll see it saved under XY Plot as Displacement.
04:24
This is really helpful because I can go back at any point,
04:27
and double click on that plot and it will open up that plot and I can then pull the data again.
04:36
Now, in the next exercise, we will discuss the mesh and making refinements in more detail.
04:41
But it should be noted that if you would like to reduce or change the mesh size in any ways,
04:47
and then rerun the analysis that can be done very quickly.
04:51
If you select "Mesh Settings" from the Mesh panel up top, you'll notice the Element Size here is chosen as 0.787679.
04:59
Your value may be slightly different.
05:01
This value is based off of a percentage of the overall bounding box of the model and it is automatically calculated by the solver.
05:09
If I would like to manually type in a value, I can do so.
05:12
So let's say, I choose roughly half of this. Let's do 0.375 inches.
05:19
And then I select "Generate". This will regenerate the mesh.
05:23
Now the old results at this point are no longer valid because they cannot be mapped to the nodes and elements now displayed.
05:30
So if I select "Ok", and then I click "Run" again, I can regenerate the results for the new mesh.
05:36
Now, there are more nodes and more elements that have been created.
05:40
So this should take slightly longer to solve. But I'll go ahead and select "Run" once again.
05:45
And this is the iterative process that you will typically use when you're performing an FEA,
05:50
in order to determine how sensitive your result is to the mesh size.
05:56
So when the solution is complete, once again, I'll select "Ok" to view the results.
06:01
And I now should see a slightly different result for my Stress. Your Stress will have increased.
06:08
So double check your value for Stress. It should be larger than the prior exercise.
06:13
It may not match mine exactly depending on the version of Inventor Nastran that you're using.
06:19
If you look at Displacement, that value should have also changed, it may have increased, it may have decreased,
06:25
but it should be more accurate.
06:26
Now that we have more elements in the model, capturing that load and capturing the stiffness of the model.
Video transcript
00:09
So for this exercise, we're working with this cable sheave part file once again.
00:14
You will notice that it has already been set up from the previous exercises.
00:18
So the boundary conditions, so your Loads and your Constraints,
00:22
as well as the Solid Element Idealization with a material and then a mesh has already been defined.
00:29
So at this stage, this analysis is ready to run.
00:33
So I will select "Run" from the "Solve" panel on the ribbon.
00:37
This will kick off the Inventor Nastran Solver.
00:41
When it's finished, you should get a window that comes up and says Nastran Solution Complete.
00:46
If you are missing a Constraint or a Load or there's some type of instability in the model,
00:52
you may get a Nastran Solution Failed window.
00:55
In this case, we know that this is set up properly.
00:58
So we'll select "Ok" to view the results.
01:01
So the first result that's going to show up is your Stress.
01:04
This is going to be your SOLID VON MISES STRESS by default.
01:08
You will notice, it shows you the legend on the left hand side here.
01:13
And if you'd like to change the type of result being shown, you can simply use these drop down menus right here.
01:18
You have your type, your subtype and then the units.
01:22
So if I change the type to Displacement, it'll show my total displacement in inches.
01:29
And then from here, I can also add in things like animation.
01:33
So at the top where you see the Results panel, there's an option to Animate. If I select "Animate",
01:40
it's going to take this Displacement result along with the deformed model, and it will animate the result in 3D.
01:48
So it shows the load being applied with an exaggerated deformation to show the path that that load would take,
01:54
and the resulting displacement.
01:57
When you're done with animating, you can click "Animate" again to turn it off.
02:02
So now I'm going to take a look at another way that you can visualize your results.
02:06
We've already seen Stress and Displacement plotted as three dimensional contours on our CAD model.
02:13
The other way you can pull results is using the XY Plot function.
02:17
This is going to give you the actual exact values versus their position and their coordinates.
02:25
So for instance, I can right-click on "XY Plot" at the bottom of my browser and select "New".
02:31
This will open up the XY Plot dialog box.
02:34
This is where I can choose Nodal results or Elemental results to plot.
02:39
My nodal results are going to be things like displacement and reaction force.
02:43
Elemental results would be your normal principle or von mises stresses that would be added to your Y-Axis.
02:50
So if I want to plot, for instance, the displacement of each node along a given area or line,
02:59
instead of choosing individual nodes in their positions, I can check the box for Along Selected Entity.
03:06
And I can actually choose this line right here, this vertical edge of my flange.
03:12
And then I can choose on the right hand side here,
03:16
the type of data I'd like to plot, which is going to be Displacement in this case.
03:20
The resulting plot will show the position of each node relative to the origin or its distance away from the origin.
03:29
And then it's going to plot the displacement of each on the Y-Axis.
03:33
So if I click "Show XY Plot", you'll see the Displacement versus Distance from the origin,
03:39
in inches, you'll see that magnitude increase as we get further away from the origin at the bottom of the part.
03:46
So as we go up this line, as we get closer to that load, and this flange bends more,
03:52
we should see that displacement increase along that edge. And that's exactly what the plot is showing.
03:57
What's great about this plot is if you hover over each individual data point,
04:02
it'll give you the actual true value of the displacement and the position.
04:07
If I'd like to save this for future use, I can click, "Ok".
04:11
I can give this a name. So in this case, we'll call it Displacement.
04:15
And then I can click "Save" at the bottom of my window here and it will save it.
04:19
So I'll click "Close" and you'll see it saved under XY Plot as Displacement.
04:24
This is really helpful because I can go back at any point,
04:27
and double click on that plot and it will open up that plot and I can then pull the data again.
04:36
Now, in the next exercise, we will discuss the mesh and making refinements in more detail.
04:41
But it should be noted that if you would like to reduce or change the mesh size in any ways,
04:47
and then rerun the analysis that can be done very quickly.
04:51
If you select "Mesh Settings" from the Mesh panel up top, you'll notice the Element Size here is chosen as 0.787679.
04:59
Your value may be slightly different.
05:01
This value is based off of a percentage of the overall bounding box of the model and it is automatically calculated by the solver.
05:09
If I would like to manually type in a value, I can do so.
05:12
So let's say, I choose roughly half of this. Let's do 0.375 inches.
05:19
And then I select "Generate". This will regenerate the mesh.
05:23
Now the old results at this point are no longer valid because they cannot be mapped to the nodes and elements now displayed.
05:30
So if I select "Ok", and then I click "Run" again, I can regenerate the results for the new mesh.
05:36
Now, there are more nodes and more elements that have been created.
05:40
So this should take slightly longer to solve. But I'll go ahead and select "Run" once again.
05:45
And this is the iterative process that you will typically use when you're performing an FEA,
05:50
in order to determine how sensitive your result is to the mesh size.
05:56
So when the solution is complete, once again, I'll select "Ok" to view the results.
06:01
And I now should see a slightly different result for my Stress. Your Stress will have increased.
06:08
So double check your value for Stress. It should be larger than the prior exercise.
06:13
It may not match mine exactly depending on the version of Inventor Nastran that you're using.
06:19
If you look at Displacement, that value should have also changed, it may have increased, it may have decreased,
06:25
but it should be more accurate.
06:26
Now that we have more elements in the model, capturing that load and capturing the stiffness of the model.
How to buy
Privacy | Do not sell or share my personal information | Cookie preferences | Report noncompliance | Terms of use | Legal | © 2025 Autodesk Inc. All rights reserved
Sign in to start learning
Sign in for unlimited free access to all learning content.Save your progress
Take assessments
Receive personalized recommendations
May we collect and use your data?
Learn more about the Third Party Services we use and our Privacy Statement.May we collect and use your data to tailor your experience?
Explore the benefits of a customized experience by managing your privacy settings for this site or visit our Privacy Statement to learn more about your options.