About Preload Steps

You can define a single preload step for your structural analysis case. Whether you define the preload step before or after you define other steps, it becomes the first step in your analysis case.

When you define a preload step, you can define any contact interactions, restraints, or bolt-related loads for the bolts included in the preload step. If you define the preload step after you define the other steps of your analysis case, the app transfers some of these features from those steps to the preload step. For example, the app transfers all contact interactions to the preload step. In addition, the app transfers any ball joints or hinge-related restraints to the preload step. If you defined a single perturbation step before defining the preload step, the app transfers all restraints (except bolt-related restraints) to the preload step. If you defined multiple perturbation steps before defining the preload step, the app does not transfer any restraints. The app does not transfer loads or output requests to the preload step.

You can open the Feature Manager to view the state of the features in your analysis case. Features that the app transfers to the preload step are displayed as a dark blue bar under the preload step and as a light blue bar under the step from which they were initially defined. For more information, see Feature Manager.