Associating primitives

This CAD file represents a simple length of pipe. We want to generate a pneumatic model within Simcenter Amesim that is comprised of one bend, one expansion, and two straight pipes.

Procedure

1. Browse your directories to select the following file pneumatic_pipe.x_t. The file is located in $AME\demo\Platform\1D3DCAE\CADImport\CAD.

Figure 45: pneumatic_pipe.x_t

The piping is a group of four bodies that correspond to one bend, one expansion, and two straight pipes.

2. All actions dedicated to the creation of the model in Simcenter Amesim are available and grouped in the 1D modeling feature. To access these functionalities you need to activate the mode by clicking the Activate 1D modeling button from the toolbar.

The Piping wizard , Association builder , Primitive association and Sketch generation buttons are now available.

3. Primitive association allows you to associate a CAD Import primitive with a CAD body. The primitive is defined by a domain and a type (for example, domain can be Fluid, Thermal, 3D Mechanical... and the type can be Bend, Pipe, Volume...). It also defines the connection ports and extracts their properties from the CAD body. There are several ways to do Primitive association. In this example, we will use the Association builder.Open the Association builder.

4. The Association builder allows you to make associations easily either by doing automatic detection or by doing manual association on a multi-selection of bodies.Select all the bodies from the 3D View or the Object tree.

Figure 46: Association builder

5. Click the Detect association button.

The Detect association dialog proposes a detection algorithm for some specific primitives (mainly piping primitives). You can select the domain you want to work with and then the type of primitives you want to identify. Note that you can keep all types of primitive selected without any trouble.

Figure 47: Detect association

6. In the Detect association dialog, keep the Fluid domain selected and keep all the selected types. Click the Detect button.

Figure 48: Association builder after a detection

You can see that all the associations have been made automatically.

7. There is one issue with the Bend primitive (association displayed in red) that requires a manual action. From the Association builder, you can edit the association by clicking the edit button .

Figure 49: Primitive bend

8. Some of the ports are automatically defined by the faces of the CAD body. For those that are not set you can select the faces manually by clicking the edit button . For Port B select the other planar face of the bend.

Figure 50: Selecting a port of a primitive

The primitive is fully defined now, as well as all the associated parameters. These parameters are automatically computed depending on the shape of the ports and the body. Figure 51: Primitive bend without issue

9. Click OK to validate the Primitive association dialog.

You can see now in the Association builder dialog that all the associations have been correctly made (you can edit each of them using the edit button to check. Figure 52: Association builder: no remaining issue

10. Click the Close button.

In the object tree, you can see the primitives that the CAD bodies are associated with. Figure 53: Primitive association completed

The color of the body changes to match the primitive type (yellow for Bend, blue for Pipe, etc.) so that you can easily check the final result.

Results

Once this step is complete, your 3D CAD model is ready for the generation of the corresponding model within Simcenter Amesim.