- [Instructor] This video shows
a basic shell meshing operation,
carried out using a sheet metal body.
Now you will have created the file baseline_plate
in a previous video.
If not, you can open either the SOLIDWORKS file
or a Parasolid file from the exercise files.
So let's open the file.
Now this is the third exercise we're going to complete
using this geometry, so for this approach,
which is going to go to sheet metal bodies, go to insert,
sheet metal, and convert to sheet metal.
Now the thickness of this body is recognized
as 0.2 of an inch, and it's given a default radius for bends
of just under 0.4 of an inch.
And we need to define a surface, and this is a datum surface
to define the flattened part from.
So I'm going to choose the bottom of this object,
that's the minus Z surface.
Just check OK, you can see,
there's a new sheet metal part created.
Let's create a new study.
Let's name this as sheet_plate,
and it's set to a static analysis, so check OK.
Now under baseline_plate, there's just one body.
The icon indicates that this is a sheet metal surface.
We can also see a preview that it's 0.2 of an inch thick
and we're using a thin shell.
Right-mouse click and edit the definition.
I have full preview on,
so notice that all the work has been done for us.
Sheet metal body gets translated directly
as a shell definition, with a correct thickness
and mid-surface shell positioning.
Let's just check the offset, and it's set to middle surface.
We're going to keep the type as thin, and just check OK.
Right-mouse click on baseline_plate, and apply the material.
And we're going to use the usual alloy steel,
so we apply and close.
Right-mouse click on mesh and create mesh.
Accept the defaults, so just click OK.
Now if we hover over the solid geometry,
convert-solid, we can see that the shell mesh
is positioned correctly, mid-surface of the body.
Right-mouse click on mesh
and choose render shell thickness in 3D.
Now we can see the bottom surface in orange
and the top surface will be in green.
And if we hover over the geometry,
we can see it's positioned exactly correctly.
So the thickness and the offset are correct.
Let's change back to a 2D visualization
and right-mouse click on fixtures, choose fixed geometry,
let's choose the bottom edge of the plate
and choose advanced, we need to choose reference geometry,
again we use the front plane.
I will constrain along direction one in X,
normal to the plane, in other words, Z,
and then rotation about direction two,
which is rotation about the Y axis.
Check OK, right-mouse click on fixtures again,
choose fixed geometry,
pick the corner vertex, go to advanced.
We need some reference geometry,
again we use the front plane, and we'll stop translation
in the Y direction, direction two.
Check OK, now as before,
this sets up a minimum constraint set
to allow the plate to shrink laterally when stretched.
Right-mouse click on external loads, choose force,
now choose the bottom edge, use selected direction.
Again we use front plane as the datum,
and I want to apply the load along the plane
in the X direction.
And the load's gonna be 1,000 pound force.
Now in this video, we've seen how to create
the shell elements from the sheet metal body.
We didn't have to apply
any offset correction to the elements.
In the next video, we're going to apply the loading
and check out the results.
We'll also investigate the load and constraint
application regions we've just set up
in a little bit more detail.