Detecting Point Fastener Locations and Applying Point Fasteners

From the Connections section of the action bar, click Point Fastener Detection

.

Choose the Search domain using one of the following methods:

From the 3D area or the tree, select the entities directly.

From the context menu, select one of the following options:


Option	Description:
All 3D part bodies	Includes the main PartBody in the search domain, including all 3D geometry. This is the default search domain.
Meshed supports	Includes only the parts that are already meshed in the search domain. Note: After you use this option, you can select additional features from the model; these features are appended to the list.
All geometries	Includes 2D and 3D features from ordered geometrical sets in the search domain, in addition to the regular 3D geometry.

Tip: You can use the context menu to review and edit the list of features included in the search domain.

Select one or more points to define the Fastener placement.

The selected points must be in reasonable proximity of the fastener location—along or between the bodies connected by the fastener.

Warning: There are no restrictions on the points that you can select to create the fastener. However, selection of an inappropriate point will likely cause the connection to fail during or before simulation.

Indicate a Search tolerance.

Appropriate supports must exist within the tolerance to generate a list when you search.

Optional: Specify the Number of supports to consider.

You can detect fastener locations for an exact number (=) or up to a number (<=). The default value is 10; therefore, fastener locations that connect up to 10 points are detected when you search.

Enter a Prefix to add to the names of the created fasteners.

Click Edit properties to review or edit the fastener properties applied at the locations you choose.

For more information about the fastener properties, see Defining Point Fasteners.

From the Engineering connections creation options, select one of the following:

Option	Description
One for all connection properties	Creates a single engineering connection for all detected fasteners.
One per connected parts	Creates or selects engineering connections based on which parts are connected.
One per connection property	Creates an engineering connection for each different connection property.
In current finite element model	Creates connection definitions in the current finite element model for any detected fasteners.

Optional: Select Create Automated Specification to save the detection tool options so that you can easily regenerate the connections after a model change. For more information, see About Automated Specifications for Connections.

This option is available only if you do both of the following:

Set the Search domain option to Meshed supports.
Set the engineering connection Creation location to In current finite element model.

Click Find supports.

A list of possible point fastener locations appears in the dialog box.

In the table of search results, use the context menu to modify the proposed point fasteners. The options are Edit, Locate, and Delete.

Tip: You can click a single row in the table, or use [Ctrl]+[Click] or [Shift]+[Click] to select multiple rows.

Optional: Repeat Steps 2 through 8 and click Find supports again to locate additional point fastener locations.

Support locations found using the changed options are added to the table. New matches are marked with an asterisk (*). You can modify the new selections as described above.

Click OK.