Creo Simulate > Modeling Structure and Thermal Problems > Meshes > FEM Meshes > Assembly Meshing > Connections in Assembly Meshing > Load Paths for Hierarchical Meshes
  
Load Paths for Hierarchical Meshes
The way that you establish load paths in hierarchical meshes depends on whether you are working with unmeshed components or pre-meshed components:
Unmeshed Components—Between a group of unmeshed components, Creo Simulate recognizes load paths just as it would for a flat mesh.
Pre-meshed Components—Between a group of components where at least one component has a pre-existing mesh, Creo Simulate recognizes load paths only if you create assembly-level beam, or spring, idealizations or place rigid or weighted links to connect the components.
As a prerequisite for placing the beam, spring, gap, rigid link, or weighted link, the pre-meshed component must contain hard points on any meshed pieces of model geometry you want to connect. You can create the assembly-level beam, spring, rigid link, or weighted link at any time using datum points on your model. But, before you generate the component-level mesh, you must assign a hard point mesh control to the datum point. Otherwise, Creo Simulate does not respect the beam or spring when you mesh the top-level assembly.
To understand how you create this type of connection more fully, you can review an example.
Return to Creating Load Paths for FEM Meshing.