Generating Swept Volumes

You can create swept volumes to plot the position of three-dimensional products or parts at each step of the simulation. This lets you visualize the space occupied by a mechanism during its simulation.

This task shows you how to:

See Also
About Swept Volumes

Create Swept Volumes

  1. From the Mechanism section of the action bar, click Swept Volume .
    The swept volume element is created under the Probes node of the active mechanism.
  2. In the tree, select one or several bodies to sweep.
  3. Optional: Select a Reference product to trace the motion of the selected body or bodies according to the relative motion of the reference product.

    Tip: To generate the swept volume of nonmoving elements, select a moving element as the Reference.

  4. Optional: To edit the parameters of the swept volume, click Parameters.

    Note: By default, the wrapping parameter is selected to create an envelope around the swept body or bodies.

  5. Optional: To interpolate the mechanism positions:
    1. Select the Filter positions check box.
    2. In the Precision field, enter a maximum distance value between two positions.
  6. Optional: Enter a value for the size of the grain during the simulation.

    Depending on the value, the grain is coarser or finer.

  7. Optional: To simplify the representation of the selected body or bodies, select the Enable simplification check box, and enter an accuracy value.
  8. Click .

You can now visualize the results of a swept volume by running an analysis case referencing the active mechanism. For more information, see Computing Analysis Cases.

Note: After the computation of the analysis case:
  • The swept volume of the mechanism appears in the 3D area.
  • In the tree, the result of the swept volume appears under the Probes node of the Results element.
  • In the tree, under the Model node, a 3D shape corresponding to the geometric representation of the swept volume appears under the root product.


Tip: To hide the swept volume generated in the 3D area, in the tree, under the Model node, right-click the Surface element included under the corresponding Geometrical Set and select Hide .

Edit Swept Volumes

You can edit a swept volume to modify its visualization parameters or to generate the swept volume of different bodies from the mechanism.

  1. To edit a swept volume, in the tree, do one of the following:
    • Double-click the swept volume element under the Probes node of the active mechanism.
    • Click the swept volume and select Edit Feature on the context toolbar.
  2. In the Swept Volume dialog box, edit the swept volume.
    • Modify the bodies and reference marker.
    • Modify the swept volume parameters.
  3. Click .
To update the results of the swept volume in the work area, compute the analysis case associated with the active mechanism. For more information, see Computing Analysis Cases.
Note: If you modify the properties of the analysis steps included in the associated analysis case and compute the analysis case again, the results of the swept volume are updated.