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[kdai2]

Found a consistently reproducible bug (on two different workstations) when using ANSYS Workbench/Mechanical with the CAD plugin for Solidworks.

Software used: ANSYS 2019R2 w/ Research License; Solidworks Student 2019-2020

Problem: ANSYS Workbench will only import named selections from Solidworks' Named Selection Manager when initially importing geometry. Any additional updates within Named Selection Manager will not update into ANSYS Workbench.

Hypothesis: After initially importing geometry into ANSYS workbench, ANSYS modifies the Solidworks file with some kind of software flag to indicate that the named selections were imported from Named Selection Manager. However, this software flag prevents future updates from Named Selection Manager.

 

How to reproduce:

1. Create geometry in Solidworks. Create named selections using Named Selection Manager


2. Save the Solidworks file.


3. Import Solidworks geometry into ANSYS. Check that named selections imported properly.


4. Check to see if ANSYS modified the Solidworks file (look for asterisk in file name at top of Solidworks screen).


5. Create a new named selection within Solidworks's Named Selection Manager


6. Update geometry in ANSYS


7. See if ANSYS updates with the new named selection. In my testing, the new named selection does not show up.

The key point is step 4. Whenever I import geometry into ANSYS, my Solidworks file becomes modified (indicated by an asterisk). If I save the file with the modification or continue to use the modified file, then Named Selection Manager will not update into Workbench. However, it is possible to close the modified Solidworks file without saving, then reopen the Solidworks file, and Named Selection Manager will continue working and update properly into ANSYS. Essentially, this means that everytime I import/update geometry from Solidworks into ANSYS, I need to close Solidworks (to remove the ANSYS software flag) and reopen it.

 

Potential workaround: There is an alternative way to create named selections within Solidworks for faces and edges, but not points. Right click on a face/edge, go to "Face/Edge Properties", and rename the Entity to "NS_xyz". However, vertices and points do not have a property manager within Solidworks, so this bug is particularly annoying if you need named selections for points/nodes of interest.

[Keyur Kanade]

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Regards,

Keyur

 

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