Free body diagrams

[brian.kilby]

I've been searching and searching and haven't found any simple way to convert all of my free body to electronic versions using PTC software. Is this something that Mechanica can do?

[matthew_loew]

Brian,

This is something I have done before inside of Pro/E using very basic
functionality. I simply use relations to represent the equations for static
equilibrium (especially good to use the "Solve" function so you don't have
to isolate all the variables individually). I pull the geometry (distances)
right from the model and the weight as well (or using hard-coded values in
the 'pre-geometry' phase. Using BMX I've been able to optimize reaction
loads and mass center locations on many designs.

Mechanica may be useful as well (especially if the design is statically
indeterminate) but requires the model to be meshable (the equation based
approach does not require any geometry). Mechanism functionality can be used
to calculate reaction loads as well.

I hope this helps.
Best regards,

Matthew

Matthew Ian Loew
309.253.8025 Cell
248.797.6055 Cell
908.497.6055 Fax
-
www.linkedin.com/in/matthewloew

[brian.kilby]

That makes sense. I was hoping to find something that I could count on everyone to use without having to go into detail with them on how the different relations and parameters work. It seems like a very basic thing that should be pretty easy using mechanica, I can give it all of the information it just won't simply output the force felt at a specific position. I may end up doing this in excel after all...

[robert.egleston]

It may also be worth looking into the use of Mathcad. You should be able to pull dimensions and parameters directly into Mathcad variables from pro/e. Mathcad is more readable than excel, handles units and has extensive equation solving capability.

[ChrisKaswer]

I agree, the Mathcad approach is light years better than Excel and would have complete associativity with the Pro/E CAD model and handle units. Another option is to evaluate your free bodies in Pro/Mechanisms (MDX/MDO). If the system you need to perform a free-body on is a mechanism to begin with, this would be the best method. Static analyses can be performed as well.