Top key features of the previous Simufact Welding versions

Simufact Welding 8 offers Simufact’s own embedded meshing technology which usage is user-friendly and intuitive. Users can create basic geometries directly in Simufact Welding and mesh them with internal meshers that support hexahedral and tetrahedral elements as well as solid shells. The meshing technology also supports local refinement boxes, allowing to create denser meshes in weld seams or weld spots. It makes the daily work of a welding specialist more comfortable. Simufact users become advantage of the wide product range of MSC Software: Creation of large and complex models is supported by the companies owned mesher of MSC Software. Customers do not need to use third-party products for meshing large, complex welding models.

Simufact Welding 8 comes along with a widely reworked fillet generator which is now able to create meshed geometries based on quadrangular shapes including groove welds, plug welds, bead-on plate, etc.  Triangle-based fillets can now be created with respect to given (uneven) leg lengths, so that the number of nodes per leg corresponds with the relation of leg length. Additionally, created mesh cross-section are visible in the generator preview window, so the mesh quality can be controlled directly here without the need to create and control meshes afterwards. This leads to better mesh quality and improves the calculation stability and also quality of results.

The recently released version of Simufact Welding 8 offers more realistic clamping tools. During the simulation clamps can be activated, deactivated or fixed in space for a certain time period. The transfer of clamp properties, such as activation or fixation time, forces, stiffness, as well as the extended creation wizard reduce the effort needed to create and configure large numbers of tools with similar properties. Especially for complex assemblies with high number of tools those new features reduce the time needed for proper model setup.

These both new features make the model setup more intuitive and make positioning of components in the model easier. Using gravity positioner Simufact Welding 8 is able to automatically calculate the behavior of a geometry falling onto other geometries under the influence of gravity. The calculation includes friction and damping and furthermore the user also controls the precision of the calculation. The bounding box positioner allows easy positioning of geometries relative to each other. From the user’s perspective, it is a usability improvement which largely reduces the time needed for preprocessing.

Simufact Welding 8 offers in its graphical interface an extended and improved functionality for the import and the export of UNV-files. Users are now more flexible while importing files from third-party products. Even if imported files are not following the UNV standard definition or include some user defined result types, import settings can now be edited and configured before importing the UNV-files into a Simufact Welding project. The new version also offers new functions for exporting UNV-files: Users can now decide if they only want to view the files in a third-party product or if they want to use them for subsequent steps such as structural analysis or NVH-analysis, in this case, results needed for further calculation are exported in integration points and can be used for following analysis steps.

The latest version of Simufact Welding provides an interactive view control widget in model and result views. The widget combines the functionality for view control (view angles, zoom, mirroring, rotations, reset to defaults) as well as view synchronization (synchronizing several views open in one project). Also, the synchronization now supports live synchronization, automatically changing view settings, result type and selected increment in all open views if those settings are changed by the user in one of the open views. Using the widget enables the user to work faster and more efficiently while evaluating the results of the simulation, comparing different models and their results. In addition, the representation of geometries in the view (mesh, solid, contours and so on) is now controllable for the complete model as well as for single geometry.

Best-Fit method: By touch of a button compare simulation and reference model

In Simufact Welding 8, users can easily compare the simulated model with a reference model (e.g. a CAD model or measured surfaces) using the “best-fit method”. In the best-fit-method the software automatically determines the position at which the deviation between both geometries is the lowest and shows this deviation in the result view. The visual presentation of the results, based on measurements, allows the user quickly assess whether the deviations are within the permissible tolerances. For this function, Simufact has integrated Hexagon’s 3DReshaper technology.

Faster calculation of thin-walled sheet metal parts by solid-shell elements

Through the use of solid shell elements, assemblies made of thin sheets require less calculation time because the required number of elements in the model drops significantly.

The software can also convert many models with hexahedron elements into solid-shell meshes. To do this, Simufact Welding 7 checks whether clear upper and lower surfaces are present. If these specifications are identified by the conversion function, the previous hexahedron mesh can be converted to solid-shell mesh.

Shorter calculation time for resistance spot welding processes

In Simufact Welding 7, Simufact introduces the simplified calculation method “Thermal Cycle” for resistance spot welding processes. This method, which is already used for other welding processes, complex and large assemblies can be calculated in a shorter computing time.

If the shape of the nugget  is for example already known from process models or measurements, the user can additionally simplify the calculation by directly predefining temperatures in the nugget without previous calculation.

Automatic detection of edges with node sequences for faster model set-up

This new feature automatically detects the edges of a component. The automatic edge detection simplifies the work on the model and helps to avoid errors when creating welding paths on curved surfaces and edges. On top, users can create complex welding paths much easier.

Fast alignment of components

Using the transformation matrix, engineers can position and move the workpieces quickly and individually in the software. The user can position the same workpiece independently in several models. Contact positioner allows fast alignment of components to each other. In this way, the user saves time since manual corrections are no longer required.

Increased quality of resistance spot welding simulation by adding additional coating data

The material properties influence the result quality of resistance spot welding processes by the resistances in the material. Simufact Welding 7 contains 16 common coatings, which enable the user to take into account the electrical properties of coated sheets and to further increase the quality of the simulation. No effort is required to determine the resistance data.