Autodesk Inventor Professional 9 Offers New FEA Capabilities

The Inventor Professional Software for Version 9 has added some great new functionality for engineers looking to better design their product. One addition to Professional, or Pro for short, is the addition of Finite Element Analysis also known as FEA. This capability comes from a partnership between Autodesk and ANSYS, the leaders in their prospective fields of CAD and FEA.

To better understand why this is such an improvement, FEA allows an engineer to perform Stress and Frequency analysis on their 3D models. After analyzing the results of the analysis, the designer can refine their design within the CAD environment before costly prototypes or tooling is made. This process reduces time to market for the finish part as well as creates a part that meets it form, fit, and function criteria while maintaining a minimal material usage. Without this capability the engineer has choices that require expensive prototypes to be produced for testing , designs that are over designed, waste material, cost more to manufacture, or run calculation that are very time consuming and if the part does not fit the calculation model, are just simple guesses at best.

To better understand the FEA within Pro the assumptions and conditions that the software uses need to be understood. These are as follows:
1. Linear Material Properties
a. Stress is directly proportional to the Strain
2. Total Deformation is small in comparison to part thickness
3. Results are temperature-independent
a. Temperature is assumed to not affect material properties
4. CAD model is broken down into small pieces
a. By breaking into small pieces the behaviors of each element can be calculated allowing the prediction of the overall shape to be simulated

To understand how to use this capability we first need to place constraints and loads on the model. This is accomplished via simple dialogues where the constraint or load type is selected and then the surface or element is selected. Most of these dialogues allow for directional components to be applied. This allows for not only magnitude, but also a vector that the magnitude goes through.



Once the constraints and loads are applied, results can be obtained for the following:
1. Equivalent Stress
2. Deformation
3. Safety Factor
4. Frequency Modes

To produce the results, simply select the Stress Analysis Update and Inventor Professional automatically meshes the model and runs the simultaneous equations to solve the model.




From these different results, the model can then be modified and reanalyzed to meet design criteria for any of the above conditions. Once this iteration process is complete Inventor Professional allows for a detailed analysis report to be generated in HTML format.


I have made a simple 1-2-3 block that will allow you to see the results of an analysis where my QC department wanted to know how much the 1-2-3 block deformed when a load of 500 Lbs. was applied to the top surface while the block sat on the CMM. Click on the Ansys Autodesk Report logo below to view the report that Inventor Professional generated.

As can be seen from the report, the block deformed by .00002 inches. This analysis reassured my QC personnel that the readings from the CMM were not being affected by the strength of the 1-2-3 blocks.

If you are looking to produce better designs quicker and more accurately, then the FEA capabilities within Inventor Professional can give new insight into you’re your products strengths and weaknesses. Please contact your Hagerman Sales Professional to discuss how Inventor Professional can benefit your product designs.