3D Simulation Environment

When you open 3D Simulation, you are put into a specialized working environment suited to creating simulations for your products, resources, systems, and processes. Simulations give you a chance to test different aspects your products, manufacturing processes, resources, and systems. By default, in 3D Simulation, your content is modified on a transient basis only. Although you can elect to save modifications to product data, the information you save from one session to the next generally are the simulations you create to test the content.

This page discusses:

3D Simulation Panels

When you enter 3D Simulation, you see a stack of panels in left third of the window. You can use these panels to create the building blocks of your simulations: the behaviors, excitations, and simulation logic as well as analysis objects, called probes. See 3D Simulation Panel Basics.

Active Simulation Object (ASO)

The purpose of the simulation environment is to enable you to test aspects of your manufacturing planning. The ASO is the object that is the focus of the test. In most cases, you run a simulation on an object, and then need to test something about a different object, so 3D Simulation enables you to rapidly switch among ASOs.

When you enter the 3D Simulation environment, the top node of the model is defined as the ASO. For example, if your content has a robot station that contains a robot, the robot station is defined as the ASO. You can select a different ASO at any time. The panels available to you vary depending on the ASO. For example, a robot has home position and profile panels; the robot station does not. The ASO has its own panel, which shows you a list of the ASOs you have previously defined in the session, and which enables you to select a different ASO. See 3D Simulation Panel Features.

You can also select a different ASO using a dedicated command within the App Options panel and a selection assistant. See Selecting the Active Simulation Object.

Work Area

The environment has been created to enable you to focus on creating simulations. You can modify some of these options in Me > Preferences > DELMIA Infrastructure > 3D Simulation:

  • To help you focus on the ASO, the objects surrounding it are defined as low-light.
  • The floor is displayed. By default, it is fixed at 0, so any product, resource, or any part of either that is positioned below 0 appears immersed in the floor or below it. If you accept the default value, you can position products and resources above 0 to keep them from being immersed in the floor. Alternatively, you can choose to let the floor float depending on where you place the data.

Activate and Exit 3D Simulation

3D Simulation is not an app, but an environment in which you can test scenarios and other simulation behaviors and analysis for your manufacturing processes.

In most cases, you are in the 3D Simulation environment when you enter an app. In other cases, in the 3D Simulation section, you select an ASO and click Activate 3D Simulation . You return to a non-3D Simulation mode by clicking Exit 3D Simulation , which is in the App Options panel. See Creating a Simulation.

When you enter 3D Simulation, by default, you are put in Resource Selection mode, so that when you select a feature of a part or product, the whole entity is selected. You can change the default in App Options, and your change is saved so that when you next enter 3D Simulation, the change remains in effect. The command toggles between being enabled (highlighted) and disabled.

Some commands work most efficiently when you can select edges or surfaces. For commands like New Measure Between Probe , the Resource Selection mode is ignored.

When 3D Simulation is active, double-clicking an object (such as a product or resource) may change the current context, which may cause you to exit the 3D Simulation environment. If you double-click items under Representations on the tree, you are put into the Sketcher or Part Design app.

You can return objects to the design context by taking one of the following actions:

  • click Activate 3D Simulation
  • double-click another part, resource, or product, which both define that object as the new ASO and exits the transient mode.