Simple dimensioning

Altair Forum User

Hi,
I just want to be able to create a simple geometry like a rectangle in Hypermesh and then change its dimensions easily with a dimension parameter. I tried this according to the tutorial 'dimensioning' from Hypermesh tutorials. 

Let's take a mere rectangle created using Geometry ->  Surface -> rectangle. When I create a dimension 'height' for one of its edge, the dimension 'height' appears as a feature but not as a parameter which means that I can't change the height of this edge. 

 

 

Please see below the image from the tutorial and note the difference with my example :

 

So, finally, my question is how do use the dimensioning features if I create my own geometry in Hypermesh ? I feel dumb asking this question and you may feel dumb being asked this question, but I proved that it doesn't work like it's supposed to be working. Thank you in advance !

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tinh

Hi,

I think just offset dimensions are parameterizable

 

Altair Forum User

Well, how does it come that distances between two points (the thickness for instance) are parameterizable in the tutorial then ?

The tutorial said : In this tutorial you will learn how to create and edit dimensions on geometry using the Dimensioning tool. This tool is used to change one or more dimensions of existing geometry, thus changing the basic shape of solids and other enclosed volumes. With the dimensioning tool, you can select dimensions of or between surfaces, and modify those dimensions as required with the use of dimension manipulators.

Thank you for your answers in advance ! 

Altair Forum User

It appears that the dimensioning tool only applies to 3D geometries indeed. It's a shame that it's not as intuitive to parameterize a geometry in 2D as it is in 3D...

I would like to parameterize my 2D shape once and for all and simply and rapidly modify the input for geometric parameters to try different configurations... Is there any way to solve this problem ? It was very simple to do in every other software that I used...

Regards,
MV

tinh

Hi,

HM is not a cad software so I think altair will not focus on those functions although they can do it.

If your 2d cad is simple, you can parameterize it by tcl. 

Altair Forum User

Hi Tinh, 
What is tcl ? 

The fact that HM is not a CAD software doesn't deal with this issue, it's just annoying and weird that a simple tool as 'dimensioning' is available in 3D and not in 2D. 

Regards,
MV

tinh

Maybe in next versions they will design that function, let's wait.

Open file command.tcl in Documents you will see how you cad was built, you can set dimension values by tcl variables and modify them with your configs

Altair Forum User

I am planning to use only Hypermesh to create and mesh simple 2D geometries and Fluent for its specific models and solvers.

It's a bit depressing when you just want to study different parameters and you have to go again all over the whole process of meshing and modeling. I am not talking about design of experiment, but do you (or anyone else) has good tips to gain efficiency in the whole process from hypermesh to fluent when you study 2D geometries ? That's what I was trying to do with the dimensioning tool for instance.

 

Sorry for the sophisticated question... ! 

Have a good day,
MV

Altair Forum User

Hello @MV78,

Greetings!!!

 

Since, you are looking for changing the parameters of geometry, and later meshing , like a contionous iterative process. 

 

You will require some generic coding, and if you either do it with TCL scripting then in HyperMesh. You could also try ANSA, it has also link with Python scripting - which is very quite powerful. 

 

Moreover, HyperMesh is a pre-processor , built for various platforms(OPtistuct, LS-Dyna, Abaqus, Nastran, Marc, MadyMo..etc), and they are trying to include most of the options, and for that it requires time.

 

If you find a solution regarding dimensioninig, please do share on this forum.

 

 

Thanks & Warm Regards,
Akshay S.Patil

Altair Forum User

Greetings !
Regarding TCL scripting, my project isn't focused on optimization so hopefully I won't need it. I understand that hypermesh is still in development - good luck to them - but there are already dozens of advanced tools implemented and the dimensioning one is broken for 2D while it's available for 3D.

It's available for a cube and not for a square...

Thank you for the advices ! 
Regards,
MV

tinh

If it's just a simple square and you want to change its size, why don't you make a cube? when you change cube size by dimentioning tool, its square faces will be resized, too /emoticons/default_wink.png' srcset='/emoticons/wink@2x.png 2x' title=';)' width='20' />