Generative Design > Generative Design Workflow > Define a Generative Study
Define a Generative Study
You can perform structural or modal analysis on your part model using the Generative Design application. A fully defined study includes the following:
• Design spaces to indicate the body to optimize and the bodies to preserve or exclude from the optimization. From the Design Spaces group, designate bodies as starting, preserved, and excluded geometry.
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Only one body can be designated as the starting geometry.
• Contact between bodies—This is optional. Click Contact and define the interface between bodies in the Contact Definition dialog box. The contact allows loads and constraints applied to those undesignated bodies to be transferred to other bodies.
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You can create a contact only between an undesignated body and the starting geometry or between two undesignated bodies.
• Constraints and loads for the model. From the Physics group, select constraints and loads to apply to the bodies, depending upon the type of study you have selected.
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In a structural study, you select constraints and loads. In a modal study, you select only constraints.
You can define multiple load cases for a study. To add multiple load cases, do the following:
1. Click Add Load Case. A node is added to the Generative Tree.
2. From Constraints, select the constraints to add.
3. From Loads, select the type of load to apply on the model.
• Mass idealization to represent a concentrated mass without stiffness and no specific shape. This is optional.
• Design criteria that includes the design objectives and material definition. You can also add specific manufacturing and geometric constraints. Click Add Design Criteria and specify the design goal, manufacturing and geometric constraints, and materials to use in the Design Criteria dialog box.
You can define multiple design criteria for a study, but only one can be active at a time. The study results are calculated for the active design criteria. From the Generative Tree, select a design criteria node, and on the mini toolbar click Activate to activate it.
As you define the study parameters, they appear under the Generative Tree.
You must fully define a study before you can run topology optimization and then generate designs. After the generative design study is fully defined, the Optimize option is available. Click Optimize to run topology optimization on your model.
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