Create custom fastener using FE Configuration File:
Connectors define which parts of a model must be fastened to each other and how the connections have to be performed. We have multiple fastener realization types such as bolt(general) , bolt (CBAR) etc which can be selected from the connector control manager.
Figure 1 : Fastener Realizations
The template definition of all connector’s realization types are preset in an FE configuration file (feconfig.cfg) By default, the feconfig.cfg file is loaded from <install_directory>/hwdesktop/hw/bin/win64 directory.
Figure 2 : FE configuration file
An example template definition for bolt (CBAR) fastener realization is as follows:
CFG optistruct 53 bolt (CBAR)
*filter bolt
*style bolt 0
*head
rigidlink 1 1
*body 0
bar2 1 1
The command after *head and *bolt defines the element type for bolt head and body respectively. For bolt(CBAR) fastener realization bolt head is defined by RBE2 elements (rigidlink) and bolt body is defined by CBAR element (bar2) . Each connector realization is associated with a unique id which is ‘53’ for bolt(CBAR)
Figure 3 : bolt (CBAR) Fastener
We can create new fastener realizations by taking references from existing realizations by editing the FE configuration file. The first step is creating a new FE configuration file by saving the existing file with a new name. It is not recommended to have more than one config file of the same name, even in different directories, as the results can be unpredictable as to which one will be used by default.
I am sharing method to create custom fastener realization by giving examples for three custom fasteners based on customer feedback in the Optitruct solver profile:
- bolt(CBEAM) : This configuration will create CBEAM element for bolt body. I have replaced ‘bar2 1 1’ by ‘bar2 2 1’ . The first argument for bar2 is the element type which is ‘1’ for CBAR element and ‘2’ for CBEAM element. Matrix Browser can be used to query the element type of elements in general.
CFG optistruct 10000 bolt (CBEAM)
*filter bolt
*style bolt 0
*head
rigidlink 1 1
*body 0
bar2 2 1
Figure 4 : bolt(CBEAM)
- bolt(3 cbar) : This configuration will create 3 cbar elements for bolt body. The 2nd argument for bar2 is the Length Location Flag which denotes a percentage of the distance between shells the length of a given weld should be. To create a series 3 cbar elements for bolt body use bar2 1 0.33
CFG optistruct 10001 bolt (3 CBAR)
*filter bolt
*style bolt 0
*head
rigidlink 1 1
*body 0
bar2 1 0.33
bar2 1 0.33
bar2 1 0.33
Figure 5 : bolt (3 CBAR)
bolt (CBAR HEAD): This configuration will create CBAR element for bolt head. We will replace rigidlink 1 1 by bar2 1 1 for *head.
CFG optistruct 10002 bolt (CBAR HEAD)
*filter bolt
*style bolt 0
*head
bar2 1 1
*body 0
bar2 1 1
Figure 6 : bolt (CBAR HEAD)
Once the FE configuration file is updated with the custom fastener realizations, we can load it in the connector control manager.
Figure 7 : Custom connectors
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