Material designation will not change....even though I changed it!!!

[DeanLong]

Frustration level is a 7.7 at the moment. I have two materials that I want to run a part in to compare in Simulate Lite. However, I cannot get the material to change from one to the other. Even going back to the "Part" and using "Prepare, Change Material" will not effect a change over in Simulate Lite.

Can anyone shed some light on this issue?

Thanks,

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[danderson]

Are you working in an assembly?

Try assigning the material in Simulate. Click on the assign material icon in the ribbon and see if this works.

Hope this helps,
Don Anderson

[346gnu]

Hi,

What version are you using? I did the following in Creo3 M030.

From within Simulate Lite I am able to change the material properties using the 'assign' link at the bottom of the 'process guide'.

if I change the material I get the following dialogue:

I am able to re-run and get different results

I can also do this via the model tree from within Lite by right clicking 'material assignment'

I find when I delete the material assignment using the model tree, the process guide does not update until I try and run. It then fails stating that there is no material; which is true but late.

From within Parametric I am able to use FILE > PREPARE > MODEL PROPERTIES .... remembering to RIGHT CLICK ASSIGN

These properties are used in Lite even though I have other materials in the model 'loaded' when in Lite and I haven't used Lite to assign a material.

I can delete materials in the model via the model tree when in Lite. I can delete ALL materials from the model via the model tree. This is a change of behaviour from earlier versions of Simulate/Mechanica. It used to be that the material assigned in Parametric could not be deleted from within Simulate/Mechanica.

What should be changed is that when I assign a material in PARAMETRIC using FILE > PREPARE > MODEL PROPERTIES, then reassign in Lite using the 'assign' link at the bottom of the process guide, there is no warning that something is being 'overridden' (when I have seen it think the message uses the word 'hidden') in favour of my latest material selection.

This last point is something that happens in Simulate too. A model has material properties assigned but unless one is diligent enough to check the part in parametric there is no way of telling. A material assignment should automatically be created and visible in the Simulate model tree if a material was assigned to the part in Parametric.

[DeanLong]

Gentlemen,

Don, I am not working in an assembly. I have one part that I want to run comparative analyses to see my differences. I have tried assigning in and out of Simulate Lite.

Charles, I have tried all that you have suggested. Assigning and un-assigning both in and out of Simulate Lite does not give me any love. I can get to the Confirmation Window you have shown above, answer yes to both prompts and the material will not change. The only thing that has "worked" is I have gone as far a deleting ALL the materials AND the constraints AND the loads, save the model, exit (Creo2, by the way), come back in and assign the material I want. That is no solution but the only thing that seems to work.

And, how did you guys get "Correct" answers to my post before I responded? Isn't that up to me? ;o)

Thanks for the suggestions.

[346gnu]

Dean,

My tests were with a simple part.

Your work around is painful and should not be necessary.

Can you upload you part and give the exact version and cut of s/w?

Did you confirm that the material had not changed by right click > edit definition on the material assignment in the model tree?

How did you determine that the material had not changed? Was this by reviewing displacements, stresses?

('correct' is via a green star just beneath the last line of a reply I think and yes it is up to you as far as I know. Your question isn't answered yet ! )

[DeanLong]

Charles,

I think my frustration yesterday was clouding my exploration and vision.... I got back into this part this morning and found the only way I can change the material for the FEA, is to delete the multiple materials in the part. In other words, I can have only one material designation at a time in the "FILE, PREPARE, MATERIAL PROPERTIES BOX. Even un-assigning (Material A) and re-assigning (Material B) does not give the ability to change it over in Simulate Lite. It gets "stuck" on whatever material is holding on in Lite.

It seems to be a bug to me. I am off maintenance so I cannot create a Product Idea.

Thanks for the info

[346gnu]

Dean,

ok, it doesn't seem to be a bug. It's a logical thing and you just have to understand how the software deals with things and then work with it.

To help your reverse engineering of the behaviour :

You can have multiple materials in a part.

Only one of these can be assigned at any one time.

The Highest level Simulate material assignment will always win over a material assigned in parametric (and for assy's, at part level in Parametric and Simulate)

A Simulate material assignment will always be the latest user issued instruction regardless of what you do in Parametric. (every time you go back to simulate, the assignment reappears until you delete it from within Simulate).Hence my comment that a warning should be issued because Simulate 'silently suppresses' assignments from Parametric.

The golden rule for users should always be :

... know where you are, IF IN DOUBT, REASSIGN IN SIMULATE and allow material assignments of which one may be blissfully unaware to be suppressed; silently or otherwise.

This rule overcomes the common problem of ad-hoc material assignments in Parametric only having Densities for mass prop calcs. The analysis model starts to run and then fails with an errors that suggest dodgy material properties (eg. E, nu=0)

ttfn

[DeanLong]

Charles,

Agree with 99.3% of what you said. The 0.7% is I could not have multiple materials present in the part. It simply would not allow Simulate to change material. Once I deleted (I.E. removed it from the list) the second material...no problem. It's an easy enough change as I have the material saved and it a few extra clicks to get it switched.

Cheers....

[346gnu]

Dean,

Perhaps that's a Creo 2 thing (my tests in Creo 3 because that is what I had running at the time)

A part should be able to have multiple materials

There can be only one material assignment for a part

Simulate assignments should over ride parametric

Assy level assignments should over ride part level

If your model got stuck then file a call as it could catch many out and that's not good.

atb

[DeanLong]

Perhaps...Creo2

Do you know if the Annotation arrows color can be changed?

[danderson]

Dean,

FYI, I found when the materials are added before going into Simulate Lite you are not able to change which one is assigned while in simulate lite Creo 2 using file>prepare model>material> assign.

To change the material assignment you have to get out of simulate lite, then within part mode file> prepare model > assign the new material (you can have as many material files in the model you want). Then go back into Simulate Lite and rerun the analysis which will now use the new assigned material.

Another option is to assign a material while in Simulate Lite which is a different than what was assigned in part mode. But I was able to assign a material, run the analysis, view the results and then assign a new material while in Simulate Lite by licking on materials in the popup dialog under welcome to Creo Simulate Lite (have to select yes when prompted to delete) and then re-run the analysis. It appears to reference the materials that were added to the part level.

Simulate Lite seems very limited in function,

-not able to save multiple analysis
-not able to pick what type of analysis you want to perform

-not able to specify analysis settings like in standard creo

Just my thoughts,
Don Anderson

[DeanLong]

Don,

Yes, I started to realize this as I tried to break things! Kind of silly, but I guess has some (flawed) logic to it.

Also, agreed on the functionality limits in Lite. I do FEA sparingly so spending the billion dollars on the full hot order is a tough pill to swallow. I am using Lite for the Brute Force insight, not the deep dive into failure. That may not be the best thing to do but it's better than nothing. My only beef is the limit to 200 surfaces. I mean PTC already has Lite so limited in scope, why not just give the ability to look at a full model, regardless of surface count, especially so, since I cannot see a "Symmetry" pick in the Constraints. Having to de-feature is bad enough....but having to half, or sometimes quarter my model, to get under 200 is scary!

Thanks.