2009

■ Apply a force, pressure, bearing, moment, or body load to vertices, faces,
or edges of the part, or apply a motion load directly to a part.
■ Apply fixed or non-zero displacement constraints to the model.
■ Evaluate the impact of multiple parametric design changes.
■ View the analysis results in terms of equivalent stress, minimum and
maximum principal stresses, deformation, safety factor, or resonant
frequency modes.
■ Add or suppress features such as gussets, fillets or ribs, re-evaluate the
design, and update the solution.
■ Animate part through various stages of deformation, stress, safety factor,
and frequencies.
■ Generate a complete and automatic engineering design report that can be
saved in HTML format.
Understanding the Value of Stress Analysis
Performing an analysis of a mechanical part in the design phase can help you
bring a better product to market in less time. Autodesk Inventor Simulation
Stress Analysis helps you:
■ Determine if the part is strong enough to withstand expected loads or
vibrations without breaking or deforming inappropriately.
■ Gain valuable insight at an early stage when the cost of redesign is small.
■ Determine if the part can be redesigned in a more cost-effective manner
and still perform satisfactorily under expected use.
Stress analysis, for this discussion, is a tool to understand how a design will
perform under certain conditions. It might take a highly trained specialist a
great deal of time performing what is often called a detailed analysis to obtain
an exact answer with regard to reality. What is often as useful to help predict
and improve a design is the trending and behavioral information obtained
from a basic or fundamental analysis. Performing this basic analysis early in
the design phase can substantially improve the overall engineering process.
Here is an example of stress analysis use: When designing bracketry or single
piece weldments, the deformation of your part may greatly affect the alignment
of critical components causing forces that induce accelerated wear. When
6 | Chapter 1 Get Started With Stress Analysis