Simulation > Creo Ansys Simulation > Getting Started with Creo Ansys Simulation > Assigning Materials—Creo Ansys Simulation
Assigning Materials—Creo Ansys Simulation
To run a simulation study, the portions of the model that participate in the study must have materials with valid material properties assigned to them. When you create a new part or body in Creo Parametric the default material PTC_SYSTEM_MTRL_PROPS is automatically assigned to the part or the body. This material does not have any valid material properties defined by default. Ensure that you assign material properties to it before using it in a simulation study.
There are two workflows for assigning materials:
Assigning a material to an assembly, a part, or a body in Creo Parametric—you can access and modify the assigned materials in Creo Ansys Simulation.
Assigning a material to an assembly, a part, or a body for a specific simulation study in Creo Ansys Simulation—The material and the material assignments are saved with the simulation study and are not available in Creo Parametric. For different studies, you can assign different materials to the same component.
Viewing Assigned Materials in a Model in Creo Ansys Simulation
When you have a complex model with many parts and subassemblies you might want to view and modify the material assignment for individual components in the model before you run a study. You can use one of the following methods to view all materials in a model:
Select the simulation study from the Simulation Tree. Right-click and select Material Report.
A list of each component and the material assigned to it is displayed. Click a component in the report to view it in the Graphics Window.
You can also use the search tool, located at the lower right of the screen. This is useful if you want to search for all the components with the default material PTC_SYSTEM_MTRL_PROPS, or all components with a particular material.
1. Click search tool or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + F, to open the Search Tool dialog box.
2. Specify the following values for each of these fields in the Search Tool dialog box:
Look for—Part
Look by—Part
Look in—Select the assembly or subassembly for which you want to change the material assignments.
On the Attributes tab, select Expression for the Rule field, and specify the following values in the Criteria area:
Type—String.
SymbolPTC_MASTER_MATERIAL
Comparison—is equal to.
ValuePTC_SYSTEM_MTRL_PROPS or any particular material that you want to search for.
Assigning a Material in Creo Parametric
Perform the following steps within Creo Parametric, to assign a material, or change the existing material assignment for a part or a body:
1. Click File > Prepare > Model Properties to open the Model Properties dialog box.
2. Click change in the Material field to open the Materials dialog box.
3. Double-click Legacy-Materials, or Standard-Materials_Granta-Design to select from the existing materials library or create a new material.
4. The selected material is displayed in the Materials in Model area. Right-click and select Set as Master to assign the material to the part or the body.
5. Click OK to assign the material.
To assign materials in assembly mode from within Creo Parametric use the following method:
1. Press the CTRL key and select multiple parts from the Model Tree.
2. Right-click and select Edit Materials. The Assign Material dialog box opens. The selected parts appear in the Parts box.
3. If the required material is already present in one of the parts, perform the following steps:
a. Click inside the Source model box.
b. On the Model Tree, select the part containing the required material. The Materials drop-down list shows the materials in this part.
c. Select the material from the drop-down list.
d. Click OK. The material is set as the master material for the selected parts.
4. If the required material is not present in any of the parts, perform the following steps:
a. Click Other. The Materials dialog box opens.
b. Browse the Materials in Library list and double-click the material to add. The material is added to the Materials in Model list.
c. Click OK. The Materials dialog box closes.
d. In the Assign Material dialog box, click the drop-down list and select the material.
e. Click OK. The material is set as the master material for the selected parts.
Assigning a Material in Creo Ansys Simulation
Perform the following steps within Creo Ansys Simulation, to assign a material to a part or a body or to change the existing material assignment:
1. Click Ansys Simulation > Simulation Material. The Simulation Material dialog box opens.
2. The References collector displays the selected component.
When an assembly is the selected reference the material assignment is applied to all the components of the assembly. Optionally, select the assembly. right-click and select List Components to display all the components of the assembly in the References collector. Select individual components and right click and select Remove if you don’t want to apply the material to specific components.
3. Select a material from the Materials list which displays all materials in the model or click More to open the Materials dialog box.
4. Double-click Fluid-Materials, Legacy-Materials, or Standard-Materials_Granta-Design to select from the existing materials library. Alternatively, create a new material.
5. Click Select to assign the material to the component.
If a material is assigned to a top model of an assembly in Creo Ansys Simulation, but no material is assigned to individual components, then the material assigned to the top assembly is used in the simulation study.
Material Assignment Precedence
A model can have multiple material assignments that reference the same part. In such cases the following precedence is followed:
1. Direct Assignment in Creo Ansys Simulation has the highest precedence.
2. In-direct assignment in Creo Ansys Simulation.
* 
In the case of multiple indirect assignments the precedence is based on “closeness” that is the parent will have precedence over grandparent. For example for a part in a subassembly, the material assigned to the subassembly will take precedence over material assigned to the top assembly.
3. Material assigned in Creo Parametric has the lower precedence than a material assigned in Creo Ansys Simulation
For detailed information on creating new materials refer to the topics in the Related Links.