ALTAIR SIMSOLID 2019

CH7 – POST-PROCESSING
Trainer’s Name Month XX, 2019
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Altair SimSolid, v2019

CHAPTER 7 – POST-PROCESSING

7) Post-Processing
• Interpreting results

• Creating a contour plot

• Contour legend controls

• Fast results switching

• Safety factor plots

• Failure criteria

• Display results

• Refine results plot on a face

• Animations

• SimSolid PowerPoint presentation

• Questions & Answers

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

INTERPRETING RESULTS

• Creating a contour plot

• Fast results switching
• Other display results
• Safety factor plots
• Failure Criteria

• XY plots

• Point probes

• Reaction forces
• Spot weld forces

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

CREATING A CONTOUR PLOT

• Once the analysis is complete, a Result
entity icon will appear in the Project Pick and
hold with
Tree and the Result Plot button will no LMB
longer be greyed out.

• To create a contour plot, click and hold

Pick type of
with the left mouse button (LMB) on contour to
the Result Plot button, then select the display
desired result type from the pop-up
menu.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

CONTOUR LEGEND CONTROLS

Select Value to
Set Upper
• Contour legend controls are on plot dialog Contour Bound

• Parts can be hidden during results display. Just RMB select

on the model or in the Project tree and pick Hide. Hold
down the CTRL key to select more than one part
Lock Max
Min
• Contour can be on deformed or undeformed part geometry Bounds Select Value to
Set Lower
Set Contour Bound
• Pick Show part edges button in main window toolbar to Output
Show Min/Max
Units
display undeformed edges Labels

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

CONTOUR LEGEND CONTROLS

• Max/Min labels can be displayed on model. Drag to reposition

• Legend controls can be hidden and legend can be dragged to any place in
graphics window. Click on legend to bring back controls

• Max/Min legend bounds can be locked during “Fast results switching”

(see next slide).

Show
Deformed Set Contour Colors
Shape 8, 16 or Continuous
Show Set Max Deform
NOTE 1: This lock only works when switch between identical results. Undeformed Scale
Shape

NOTE 2: Use bookmarks to save a contour plot settings, Start/Stop Current Animation
Animation Frame
including animations
Animation
Animation Steps Speed
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Hidelegendcontrols
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Altair SimSolid, v2019

FAST RESULTS SWITCHING

While contour is
displayed, pick
another analysis.
Contour will “fast
results switch” to new
data

While contour is
displayed, pick new
result entity. Contour
will “fast results
switch” to new data

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

SAFETY FACTOR PLOTS

• Safety factor plots
• Safety factors are used to characterize zones of possible material failure and are based on material specific failure
criteria

• Using Safety zones

• The display of failure criterion plots can be invoked by selecting the Safety Zones button in the results area of the
structural workbench toolbar. This opens the new safety zones dialog which displays all model materials along
with their default failure criterion

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

FAILURE CRITERIA
• The following four failure theories are implemented in SimSolid:
• Max von Mises Stress
Most appropriate for ductile materials, this theory is also known as the maximum distortion energy criterion, octahedral
shear stress theory or Maxwell-Huber-Hencky-von Mises theory. It is computed as the ratio of the material’s tensile yield
strength to the von Mises stress
• Max Shear Stress
Most appropriate for ductile materials, this theory is also known as Tresca’s or Guest’s criterion. It states that yielding
begins whenever the maximum shear stress in the model becomes equal to the maximum shear stress in a tension test
specimen that has begun to yield
• Max Normal Stress
Most appropriate for brittle materials, this theory is also known as Coulomb’s criterion. It is computed by examining the
ratio of the material’s tensile and compressive strength to the max principal stresses
• Christensen
This is a more recent theory that tries to bridge the gap between failure criteria for ductile and brittle materials. The
Christensen failure criterion is composed of two separate subcriteria representing competitive failure mechanisms. One
has a quadratic form similar to the von Mises criterion and the other is a Coordinated Fracture criterion similar to the
Coulomb-Mohr criterion.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

SAFETY FACTOR PLOTS

• Using Safety zones
• Safety zone contours are presented in 3 color bands (red, yellow and green). The threshold between bands are
controlled by the Safety Factor Low and Safety Factor High values. The factors act as multipliers on the criterion value
and reflect the degree of uncertainty that the user is looking to tolerate
• To view the safety zone contour plot, simply select one or more material rows on the dialog. CTRL or SHIFT select to
choose more than one row. For complex assemblies, the selected part can be easily located in the assembly using auto-
zoom in/out buttons (the plus and minus magnifier icons located at the bottom of the dialog)
• Notice that the rest of the model is displayed in wire-frame. If you prefer to see contours on all materials at one, select the
Show part shaded button on the main toolbar

• All dialog values (Failure Criterion, Safety Factor Low, Safety Factor High, Tensile Yield Strength and Compressive Yield
Strength) can be adjusted by the user. Contour plots will update on-the-fly as each adjustment is made. To see the
Tensile Yield Strength and Compressive Yield Strength values, simply scroll the columns using the horizontal slider on
the dialog. To see the database default material property values, select the Properties button

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DISPLAY RESULTS - SAFETY FACTOR PLOT

Pick and hold
with LMB 2. Pick Material name. Safety
factor contour will be
shown for all parts with this
material. Others will be
ghost hidden (transparent).

3. Pick number
to edit
contour band
valuethen
enter to adjust

1. Pick Safety Factor

3. Or, use sliders to
dynamically adjust
contour bands

NOTE: CTRL-Select multiple material names to show safety factors on more than one material group of parts.
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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DISPLAY RESULTS - XY PLOT

• While a contour plot is active, use the Graph button in the
Workbench Toolbar to display the XYGraph dialog

• Simply pick two or more points on the model to get an XY

plot of the result

• Drag on the plot to pan or use the mouse wheel to zoom

• The Refit button get you back to the original plot scales

• Use Save As to save the plot in a variety of graphic or text

formats.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DISPLAY RESULTS - POINT PROBE TOOL

• While a contour plot is active, use the Pick Info button

in the Workbench Toolbar to display the point probe
tool

• Simply pick one or more points on the model to get

numeric values at those locations.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DISPLAY RESULTS - REACTION FORCES

• SimSolid provides an extensive set of Reaction forces including:

• Boundary supports
• Connections
• Parts
• Spot welds

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DISPLAY RESULTS - SUPPORT FORCES

Pick a boundary
• Pick the Reaction force button in the support (use
CTRLto select
Workbench toolbar to display the multiple)
Reaction Force dialog

• Select any boundary support to get the

reaction forces summary

Reaction force and

moment vectors
Pick here to open
shown at centroid
Reaction force
of support area.
dialog
Parts with
supports
highlighted in blue

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DISPLAY RESULTS - CONNECTION FORCES

• Pick the Connections tab in the reaction forces dialog

• Resultant force and moment for the selected

connection is given along with the location of the force
centroid

• Only one connection can be selected at a time

• Force and moment vectors are displayed in the

geometry window

• Connecting parts are blue and red. Vectors are

oriented with respect to the blue part

• Use the zoom in (“plus”) button to zoom to the local

area of interest.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DISPLAY RESULTS - PART FORCES

• Total contact force and moments are displayed for one or more
selected set of parts

• Pick a part to add it to the list. The selected part will display a summary
of all connection and support forces excluding applied loads (including
body loads such as gravity) Part with no
appliedloads.
Forces sum to
• Some typical examples of use include: zero
• Connections only. No applied loads. Part force will sum to zero.
• Connections with applied loads. Part force will sum to
• Connections only. No applied loads with the exception that gravity is
active. Part force will equal part weight

• In addition, individual group of part connections can be examined. Select

the expand icon to the left of the part name to show the part
Single part connection
connections. Select one or more connections to sum forces on the group
forces and moments
as shown (example on right).

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DISPLAY RESULTS - SPOT WELD FORCES

Pick column name
to sort list Pick single Spot weld to
Pick here to open Spot view resultant force
weld forces dialog – vector on the model
Power edition only

Or, CTRL-Select and SHIFT-

Select multiple values to
sumforces

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

REFINE RESULTS PLOT ON A FACE

• A right mouse button (RMB) option is available to
locally refine result contours on a single part face

• This can be useful for long narrow regions that may

not have enough plotting resolution

• Note that this does not affect the accuracy of the

results. It only provides more sampling points to
map results. There is an upper limit on the
resolution that is allowed. Once reached, this
command will notify the user that no more
refinement on the face is possible

• Use with caution. Once additional points are

mapped, you cannot go back to the original plotting
resolution.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

ANIMATIONS
• How to export SimSolid animations
• SimSolid can export deformation or mode shape animations into a
H.264 encoded MP4 file. To export an animation, right mouse
button select any animation bookmark (those with a triangle in the
upper left corner) and choose the Save media to file(s) menu item.

NOTE: File will be encoded during export. Any window overlaid in the graphics
window will be included in the animation. This is done so that it is easy to
include additional information (for example an analysis summary dialog) in
the animation file.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

ANIMATIONS
• Video Player
• This file may now be included in other applications such as PowerPoint.

• Common settings to think about when replaying the animation in PowerPoint are Start on Click and
loop until stopped.

• These can be easily set in the PowerPoint Playback tab as shown.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

SIMSOLID POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

• Way to create a SimSolid PowerPoint
presentation
• Many times, a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation
is a useful medium to communicate SimSolid
simulation results. Here is a quick tip on how to
easily transfer Bookmark gallery images into
PowerPoint.

• First create your Gallery bookmarks. Note that

you can name each bookmark and even add an
onscreen caption. Bookmark names will be used
as the file name when the images are saved.
Captions are multi-line text the can be added to
any area of the graphics window. They are a great
way to comment on a relevant result.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

SIMSOLID POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

• Way to create a SimSolid PowerPoint presentation
• Be sure the gallery thumbnail has the latest graphics information by selecting the
Update item in the thumbnail RMB menu. Remember this will save the entire
SimSolid graphics area including any overlaid windows. That means that Info
dialogs (Assembly, Result, etc) can also be saved in the bookmark image.

• Now simply select Save as files to save the image files into a directory on your
local machine.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

SIMSOLID POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

• Way to create a SimSolid PowerPoint presentation
• Photo Album gives you several options to load and distribute your gallery images inside of PowerPoint. Here we use 1-
picture per slide with captions below all pictures. Notice that, in this context, the captions are the SimSolid image gallery
names. Be sure to select a Theme template and select Create.

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DEMO: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A PULLUP BAR

File Name and Location

…\INSTRUCTOR-DEMO\CH7\Pullup_bar.ssp

Demo Goals
1. Open project file
2. Set a Structural Linear Analysis to practice with bolt
tightening loads
3. Run and post-process results

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DEMO: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A PULLUP BAR

Step 1: Open project file
a) Open project file from …\INSTRUCTOR-DEMO\CH7\Pullup_bar.ssp

b) Click on Open. This file contains a first study (Design study 1) already set and ran for you.

c) Note that we are going to use the final file of the Demo of CH 6. You can also open that project file from
…\INSTRUCTOR-DEMO-SOLVED\CH6\Pullup_bar-FINAL.ssp

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DEMO: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A PULLUP BAR

Step 2: Set a Structural Linear Analysis to practice with bolt tightening loads
a) Create new Structural Linear Analysis (Structural 3)

b) Set loads and constraint as you did in Structural 1

c) Pick Nut tightening load

d) Pick the 4 nuts in the model

e) Enter 0.5 mm as Thread pitch

f) Select Torque as Nut tighetening method

g) Use 5 N*m as Torque

h) Use 0.1 as Friction coefficient

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

DEMO: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A PULLUP BAR

Step 3: Run and post-process results
a) From Project tree, click on Structural 3
and click on Solve icon

b) Plot Von Mises Stress result and click

on to look at bolt reaction forces

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NOTE: You can find the final file at …\INSTRUCTOR-DEMO-SOLVED\CH7\Pullup_bar-FINAL.ssp
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Altair SimSolid, v2019

EXERCISE 7A: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A HANGER BEAM

File Name and Location

…\STUDENT-EXERCISE\CH7\7A-Hanger_beam.ssp

Exercise Goals
1. Open project file
2. Set Structural linear Analysis
3. Run the analysis and analyse results

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

EXERCISE 7A: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A HANGER BEAM

Step 1: Open project file
a) Open project file from …\STUDENT-EXERCISE\CH7\7A-Hanger_beam.ssp

b) Click on Open

c) The material property, gap and penetration tolerances have already been set for you. See them from the Project tree

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

EXERCISE 7A: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A HANGER BEAM

Step 2: Set Structural linear Analysis

a) Create a new Structural linear analysis (Structural 1)

b) Create Immovable supports on the C-sections of the lower beam

c) Create -1000 N downward load in Z direction on the bottom surface of the hanger beam

C-sections of the lower beam

31 Step 3.b Step 3.c

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

EXERCISE 7A: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A HANGER BEAM

Step 3: Run analysis and analyse results

a) Click on Design study 1, BASELINE in Project tree

b) Click on Run all analyses

c) Plot the Displacement Magnitude and the Von Mises Stress

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

EXERCISE 7A: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A HANGER BEAM

Step 3: Run analysis and analyse results

d) Click on Reaction/contact force

e) Switch between the two supports you

set to visualize the total reaction force
and moment at support

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

EXERCISE 7A: STRUCTURAL LINEAR ANALYSIS ON A HANGER BEAM

Step 3: Run analysis and analyse results

f) Visualize the Safety zones with Von Mises Stress failure criterion

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Altair SimSolid, v2019

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

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