Learning Forum

[leoansys]

Hi There,

Is there a way to automatically generate joints between line body vertices in ANSYS Workbench Mechanical, or Spaceclaim? I am using ANSYS Worknech 2019 R2.

To give an overview of my goal, I specifically want to use joints so I can specify a nonlinear stiffness to represent the joint yielding between beams and columns, as per my previous post here. I am familiar with Share Topology and End Releases, however my understanding is that this is either pinned or rigid, so no partial rigidity is possible. So to give an example of my problem, I have a simple line body frame as shown:

I want to apply individual joints to the beams and columns, and I have also modeled a joint at the base so I can assign nonlinear stiffness, so have 12 joints in total. This is simply an example, but imagine a model with say 1000+ joints. I can manually assign the joint using 2 vertices as the scoping method as shown, but this is obviously very time consuming for a large model (note exploded view used, vertices are actually coincident):

However, I cannot see how to automatically generate the remaining contacts like you would for solid or surface bodies. Can this be done using a script, command, named selections, or otherwise? Note the reference coordinate system orientation will also be of importance.

Thanks in advance

[Sandeep Medikonda]

Yes, you can do this using ACT scripting or probably using APDL scripts as well. 

I would say, start with the links provided in the ACT Start Page (In WB, under Extensions)

[Sandeep Medikonda]

If you have a named selection for the vertices. We could use a command like "NUMMRG,NODE,,,SELE" to find nodes that are coincident and create joints between them.