Advanced Design Guidance Options

You can adjust the design volume to allow more or less room for generated shapes. By default, the bounding box used for solving the requirements is the volume area used by the geometries identified in the design. Advance options allow you to resize or position the bounding box for the generated shape.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: You need to create your initial geometry then set the location of the restraints, along with the direction and type of load you expect.

Use Design Guidance to generate a shape that supports your requirements.

Volume Options

After you have created your geometry and set the load and restraint requirements, you can edit the size and position of the bounding box.

  1. Load or create your geometry in the work area.
  2. Add loads and restraints, see Designing Models with Design Guidance.
  3. From the Design Guidance section of the action bar, click New Design or Redesign to open the Design Guidance dialog box.
  4. Optional: Click the Settings tab of the Design Guidance dialog box.
    1. Review the Material assigned to the geometry.
    2. In the Voxel Granularity section, select the granularity used in solving your design. Finer granularity provides a more refined shape but increases the time required to generate that shape.

      • Course - Solves the shape using a cube of 16 x 16 x 16 voxels.
      • Medium - Solves the shape using a cube of 32 x 32 x 32 voxels.
      • Fine - Solves the shape using a cube of 64 x 64 x 64 voxels.

    3. In the Desired Mass section, drag the slider to select the target mass of the new design shape.
  5. Optional: Click the Volume tab of the Design Guidance dialog box.
    1. Click Exclude regions and select geometries you want exclude from the generated shape.
    2. Click Preserve regions and select geometries you want included in the generated shape.
      The selected faces are included in the generated shape. Loads and restraints are included by default.
    3. Use the following to customize the Volume area for the design. By default, the bounding box used for solving the requirements is the volume area used by the geometries identified in the design.
    • In the Volume Size section set the:
      • X- length
      • Y- length
      • Z- length
    • In the Volume Origin section, set X, Y, and Z coordinates:
      • X
      • Y
      • Z
    • In the Volume Orientation section, set the angle:
      • X-angle
      • Y-angle
      • Z-angle
    • Click Auto fit design volume to reset the bounding box to include only the geometry used in the design.
  6. Optional: Click the Symmetry tab to generate a half, quarter, or eighth of the shape results.

    For more information, see Symmetry Options.

  7. Click Generate to generate a shape based on your geometry, loads, and restraints.
  8. Click the Results tab of the Design Guidance dialog box to view the results, see Viewing the Design Guidance Result.
  9. Click to save your shape results and selections in the Design Manager.
    The dialog box closes with the shape displayed in the work area.

Use the generated shape to model the solution with the Sketch and Feature tools. Run a stress and deflection study to make sure that the design solution does not fail under applied loads.

Symmetry Options

You can increase the speed in which a shape is generated by using Symmetry so that a smaller volume area is generated when there is uniformed requirement for the design. For example when designing a bridge, you can set the restraints and loads on half the model, click the Symmetry tab, and select On Boundary. Design Guidance generates half the shape and mirrors the other half to match the generated shape. Likewise, Symmetry can be used when designing a table. You can set a restraint for one leg of a table and apply a load on quarter of the tabletop. You can use Show full model in the Results tab to display the other three legs supporting for the full table top surface.

  1. Load or create your geometry in the work area.
  2. Add loads and restraints, see Designing Models with Design Guidance.
  3. From the Design Guidance section of the action bar, click New Design or Redesign to open the Design Guidance dialog box.
  4. Optional: Click the Settings tab of the Design Guidance dialog box.
    1. Review the Material assigned to the geometry.
    2. In the Voxel Granularity section, select the granularity used in solving your design. Finer granularity provides a more refined shape but increases the time required to generate that shape.

      • Course - Solves the shape using a cube of 16 x 16 x 16 voxels.
      • Medium - Solves the shape using a cube of 32 x 32 x 32 voxels.
      • Fine - Solves the shape using a cube of 64 x 64 x 64 voxels.

    3. In the Desired Mass section, drag the slider to select the target mass of the new design shape.
  5. Optional: Click the Volume tab of the Design Guidance dialog box.
    1. Click Exclude regions and select geometries you want exclude from the generated shape.
      The selected bodies are excluded in the generated shape.
    2. Click Preserve regions and select geometries you want included in the generated shape.
      The selected faces are included in the generated shape. Loads and restraints are included by default.
    3. Use the following to customize the Volume area for the design. By default, the bounding box used for solving the requirements is the volume area used by the geometries identified in the design.
    • In the Volume Size section set the:
      • X- length
      • Y- length
      • Z- length
    • In the Volume Origin section, set X, Y, and Z coordinates:
      • X
      • Y
      • Z
    • In the Volume Orientation section, set the angle:
      • X-angle
      • Y-angle
      • Z-angle
    • Click Auto fit design volume to reset the bounding box to include only the geometry used in the design.
  6. Click the Symmetry tab to generate a half, quarter, or eighth of the shape results.

    Symmetry allows you to generate a portion of the results to shorten the compute time. For example, if designing a bridge you might create the footing on one side of the bridge and half of the surface. Set the symmetry on the boundary. When the results are generated, use Show full model in the Results tab to add the other half and display the full shape.

    1. Select the Symmetry Plane Location:

      • At Center - Positions the symmetry plane at the center of the design volume.
      • On Boundary - Positions the symmetry plane on the design volume boundary.

    2. Select the symmetry axes. You can customize the bounding box by dragging the arrow handles.
  7. Click Generate to generate a shape based on your geometry, loads, and restraints.
  8. Click the Results tab and click Show full model. For more information, see Viewing the Design Guidance Result.
  9. Click to save your shape results and selections in the Design Manager.
    The dialog box closes with the shape displayed in the work area.

Use the generated shape to model the solution with the Sketch and Feature tools. Run a stress and deflection study to make sure that the design solution does not fail under applied loads.