Description
Key Learnings
- Learn the power of Configurations to produce variations with feature parameters and physical material.
- Learn how to maximize configurations in Simulation and Generative Design Workspace.
- Learn how to generate configurable variations in Simplify and Edit Model Workspace.
- Analyze and compare the simulation and generative results of configurations.
Speakers
- Shekar SubShekar works on Fusion Simulation in the Product Design and Manufacturing group. He has experience developing various products at Autodesk like MDT, Inventor, and Fusion 360. He is one of the authors of the book, "Mastering Autodesk Inventor 2009 and Autodesk LT 2009", Wiley Publishing. His educational background include bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering. He completed the Advanced Certificate for Executives in Management, Innovation & Technology program at Sloan School of management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. He teaches classes at Autodesk University and is a frequent contributor to the Fusion Community forum. He volunteers for FIRST robotics programs..
- RPRahul PatilI am Product Manager in the Product Development and Manufacturing Solutions group at Autodesk where I manage the Simulation Product Line which includes Fusion 360 Simulation, Moldflow, Helius PFA, Inventor Nastran and the CFD products. I have been with Autodesk for over 6 years in this role and I currently based out of Toronto, Canada. I am a Mechanical Engineer by education and I have done my Masters in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Applied Finite Element Analysis from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.
SHEKAR SUB: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the product demo class on Configurations in Simulation and Generative Design. Let's start with a brief introduction. My name is Shekar Sub. I work in the Fusion 360 Sim and Generative Development. I've been at Autodesk for 26 years. I've been at AU many times-- very excited and glad to do this presentation today.
My educational background is listed here and focuses on software engineering. In the past, I've been a book author for Mastering Autodesk Inventor. I volunteered for FIRST Robotics, working with young minds on Autodesk Inventor and Fusion 360. My hobbies include walking, yoga, and tennis. With that, I would like Rahul to introduce himself.
RAHUL PATIL: Thank you, Shekar. So hello, everyone. I am Rahul Patil. I am a product manager in the Design and Manufacturing group at Autodesk. And I manage the Simulation product line, which includes products like Fusion 360 Simulation, Moldflow, Helius PFA, NASTRAN, and CFD.
I've been with Autodesk for over six years now. And I'm currently based out of Toronto in Canada. I am a mechanical engineer by education. And I have done my bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering, specializing in applied finite element analysis. Next slide, Shekar.
So during this presentation, we will be talking about different features we have implemented for Configurations in relation to Simulation and Generative Design. Along with that, we will also talk about things that we are actively working on or might consider working in the future.
The statements that we will make with regards to these features are not intended to be a promise or guarantee of business results, feature availability, or services availability in the future and just are a mere reflection of our current plans and are based on factors currently known to us, which could change at any point. We advise customers to not make any purchasing or investment decisions based on the reliance of these statements. And I'll hand it back to Shekar.
SHEKAR SUB: The learning objectives for this product demo class are to learn the power of Configurations to produce variations with feature parameters and physical material. While Configurations allows you to vary things like visibility, appearance, suppression, for Simulation and Generative Design workflows, we will focus on feature parameters and physical material, which are most relevant.
We will talk about how to maximize Configurations in Simulation and Generative design workspace, how can Configurations be leveraged in Simulation to optimize designs, and how can Configurations be used in Generative Design to vary the design spaces. We will also cover how to generate configurable variations in Simplify and Edit Model workspace, which has been there for quite a few years, the Simplify and Edit Model workspace. We will see how the introduction of Configuration changes the usage of Simplify and Edit Model workspaces. We will also talk about analyzing and comparing the Simulation and Generative results of Configurations.
In terms of our agenda today, we will first talk about what are configurations. And then we will talk about some key features for Simulation and Generative Design-- mainly, the Simplify and the Edit Model workspace workflows. How can we consume Configurations in Simulation will be covered, followed with the same for Configurations in Generative Design. Finally, some thoughts about the future in this area and summary-- with that, I would like to hand it to Rahul to talk about Configurations overview.
RAHUL PATIL: So Configurations as a feature in Fusion 360 allows you to create multiple part variations of a component in-- or an assembly within the same Fusion 360 file. The design workspace in Fusion 360 has the Configure command in the toolbar, which activates the Configuration table. Users can use the right mouse button on the feature in the timeline or the browser nodes to configure them as needed.
The configurations created by the user can be accessed and utilized in other workspaces in Fusion 360, like the Simulation workspace, the Generative Design workspace, Manufacturing workspace, or the Drawing workspace. These configurations are accessible in these downstream workspaces for all the downstream workflows that the user may want to perform in their product development process. Next slide, please.
Today, we enable the user to configure a lot of things in their design. Users can, most importantly, configure the feature parameters or the user parameters that they have created. This is, as Shekar mentioned, a big part of our focus in Simulation and Generative Design support for Configurations.
In addition to that, they can configure other aspects of design, like the material, appearance, visibility, suppression, and also some rules that they may have defined in the plastic tab or the sheet metal tab. We have also added the ability to create theme tables, where a user can set certain values to a particular parameter and then apply it one-- or apply it to one or more configurations. Next slide, please.
Now, coming to the use cases, design configurations can be used in multiple scenarios when creating families of models-- common examples are consumer products, like cellphones, toys, et cetera-- to even other machinery components, like brackets, walls, pumps, et cetera. Size variations is one of the most common examples of using Configurations. Other examples include creating different versions of design by specifications by, say, your country or application-- for example, the steering wheel example for the left-hand side drive or the right-hand side drive in different countries.
Configurations may also be used to create variations of design at different stages of manufacturing process. Depending on what stage of manufacturing process or the product development process you might be in, you might need a slight variation of the model to be able to perform the downstream workflows. Next slide, please.
Now we will talk about some of the key capabilities that we have implemented in the Simulation and Generative Design workspaces to support Configurations. Next slide. The first and foremost capability is that the users can access Configurations list and activate different configurations in the Simulation and Generative Design workspaces. This means that the user does not have to go back to the design workspace to access and activate particular configuration. When a user enters those workspaces with a particular configuration, we allow the user to create studies for that active configuration.
If they already have created a study or studies for that active configuration, then we will give user access to those studies. Similarly, if the user switches the active configuration in the Simulation or the Generative Design workspaces, then we give the user access to the any existing studies for that newly active configuration. The browser, as you can see in the images here, in the Simulation and GD workspaces is designed to display only the studies available for that active configuration. Next slide, please.
Now, another very important capability we have implemented is the concept of a unique working model association per configuration. Whenever a user goes to the Simulation or Generative Design workspace with a configured design, we create a Simulation or a Generative Design model associated with that configuration's working model. Any studies that the user creates associated with that Simulation or Generative Design model can be-- is only associated with that particular configuration. The user can also create multiple Simulation or Generative Design models associated to a particular configuration if they want to try out some minor design variations to test different what-if scenarios in Simulation or the Generative Design workspace. Next slide.
Now, enabling this working model association with the configuration and having studies associated with that Simulation model or the Generative Design model ensures that there is no overlap between studies associated with different configurations. The data that the user creates for a particular configuration through the Simulation studies or the Generative Design studies is only associated with that particular configuration. This also ensures that user data is preserved, even when the active configuration is changed in the design workspace or any other workspace. Next slide.
Along with that, if the user were to make any design changes to a particular configuration, then only the working model associated with that configuration goes out of date and would need to be rerun. And the studies associated with that working model only would be rerun to get the results for the latest changes. This means that the studies associated with any other configuration remain up to date and do not require a rerun. This ensures there is no data loss as well as the right data is preserved and not put out of date. Next slide.
Now, we've talked about the ability to create multiple Simulation models or Generative Design models associated with the configuration to try out different what-if scenarios. This can be done in the Simplify space in the Simulation workspace and the Edit Model space in the Generative Design workspace. As mentioned, the associativity of the Simulation or the Generative Design model is maintained with their respective configurations.
We also ensure the numbering of the Simulation model or the Generative Design model starts with one for every configuration. And the user has the ability to clone existing Simulation model or the Generative Design model, which will also allow them to clone the different studies associated with that model onto a new configuration, thus avoiding a lot of rework that the user may have to do to set up very similar simulations for a different configuration. Creating a Simulation-- a new Simulation or a GD model essentially creates a snapshot of active configuration from the design workspace. Next slide, please.
Now, the question might come up from users on whether to use the configurations or to use the Simulation or Generative Design model for some design variations. So here's a side-by-side comparison which highlights the key benefits of using Configurations. They are a new feature, and with a lot many more capabilities compared to the Simulation or Generative Design models.
Using the Configurations table allows the user to automate a lot of actions related to design variations as well as gives them a lot more control over the changes. The variations can be done easily in the design workspace for Configurations. And the specific design changes can be applied only to a particular configuration and not others.
The parameters used for design variations can be easily modified from the Configuration table, whereas in the Simulation or Generative Design models, user will have to modify the parameters individually directly from the timeline. With that, I'll hand back to Shekar to demo how this works.
SHEKAR SUB: Thank you, Rahul. So just to summarize, we learned about the power of Configurations. And then we learned about how changes made in the design workspace get propagated to the Simulation models or the Generative models in Simplify or Edit Model workspace. And here, I will show a demo between the design and the Simplify and Edit Model workspaces-- mainly, the design and the Simplify Edit Model-- Simplify workspace.
So in this demo, I have a sheet metal tab. And I'm going to create three different configurations using distance as a parameter. So one will be small size. Next will be medium. And the third one will be large. And then I will go to Simulation, at which time-- here, you can see that changing different configurations shows the three different configurations that we created. Going to Simulation, you can create a study. And when you come to Simplify, you can new-- or clone a Simulation model.
In this case, I'm cloning a Simulation model. So I also got the studies. And here, I'm making a pattern of holes in Simulation model 2 of configuration 1. So that change only affects Simulation model 2 of configuration 1.
And next, in configuration 2, I am making another change where I'm creating another Simulation model-- again, a pattern of holes. And that affects only Simulation model 2 in configuration 2. And when I do a new Simulation model, we will be prompting you for studies because the studies were not cloned. And any changes you make in the Simulation model stay in the Simulation model. Any changes you make in the configuration propagates to all the Simulation models.
And then lastly, we will show that when you make a change in design workspace, like adding a hole, for example, or in this case, I'm making the third configuration the largest, 175 millimeters-- so that affects only configuration 3. It doesn't affect configuration 1 and 2 or its Simulation models. When I change configurations, I can see that only the third configuration becomes longer.
And if you want to make a change in the design workspace, a global change, that will be available in all the configurations and all the Simulation models. Here, I'm putting a hole in the design workspace. And when I go to Simplify workspace, no matter which Simulation model I check, that hole on the left side, the single hole on the left side, will be there in all the configurations and all the Simulation models.
So any global change-- make it in the design workspace. That will be available in all the configurations, all the Simulation models. Any minor change that you need to make for a Simulation model that needs to remain in the Simulation model, you make that change in the Simulation model, like Rahul mentioned. And then if you make a change to the configuration table parameter, then that will affect all the configurations' Simulation models.
Let's see how Configurations can be used in Simulation. We have listed three use cases on how Configurations can be used in Simulation. In Simulation, there are 11 studies that we offer today. So using Configurations, you can create any of these 11 different study types and get results. Not only that, given that Configurations's power is in generating variations, design variations, using parameters and/or materials, for example, you can create parametric optimization like variations. You can generate all the variations. And we will see in an example later how you can tabulate the results of the different variations and see which is the result that you want to send it to manufacturing or for further analysis.
Also, the third use case is results can be compared and visualized. The compare environment, whether with the old viewer or studies like linear static stress or nonlinear static stress, or the new viewer for some of the newer studies, like injection molding and electronic cooling, we offer comparing of the results in both the workspaces. All the functionalities of the Results workspace is available on Configurations. You can not only see configurations in the Results and Compare environment, but you can also analyze the results and pick the solution that you want.
Here is another demonstration of an impeller to show how Configurations can be leveraged in Simulation. The best part of this is you do not have to worry about Simplify and Edit Model workspace if you are just doing the simulation. Only if you need to go and make some changes to the Simulation models, like local changes to the Simulation models, then only you need to go to the Simplify or the Edit Model workspaces and use the new Simulation model or T Clone Simulation model. In this demonstration, you will see that you can stay in Simulation and run the different design variations with different design studies and then see how the different variations can be analyzed in Compare.
Here I have an impeller. And then I'm creating a design variation using two parameters called Upper Land and Lower Land. These are two angle values of the impeller. And you can create a theme in Configuration table, like Rahul talked about.
In the theme, just to simplify, I am keeping the same values for the Upper Land and the Lower Land. And I'm looking at angle values starting from 35 to 50. So I have four angle values. But there is more value if I add material variation to this.
Next, I'm going to add material variation. In order to add the material variation, you can go to the browser and on a body, if you-- right mouse button and say Configure, you can add the material. And then from the Material column, you can create a theme table. And here, I'm selecting two materials, like aluminum and then titanium. One is a soft material. Another is a hard material. And I want to see what is the performance of this impeller with these two materials.
Now, before this, like any other simulation, I have to do the setup. I have to define some constraints and loads. For the eight different configurations with angle variation and material variation, I will set up the impeller so that I can get meaningful results. So I'm creating a thermal stress. I'm adding a pin constraint so that the shaft holds the impeller. And then I'm going to put a moment of 10 newton-millimeter on all the 16 faces of the impeller. I can set up any additional studies as needed. In this case, I also set up a model study. And then I go to the Compare.
The Compare-- you can see that I can compare the different configurations. At the dropdown at the bottom, you could see the eight different configurations. And you could see that the stress values were changing. Basically, I got a lower stress on the titanium one. And I got a little bit higher stress on the aluminum one. And then I can look at displacements. I can look at strains or heat flux.
You can change the layout here. And you can view multiple configurations, up to four. And then things like the synchronized camera, the synchronized legend, synchronized result, all that works, even with the introduction of configurations.
Once you generate the results, you can prepare a table. In this case, I have eight different configurations. And you can see that when I look at the min and the max stresses, I just want to look at the max stress today to select the configuration row that I'm interested in. We can see that with aluminum, I got stresses ranging from 541 MPa all the way-- I think that is the highest. And the lowest I got was 516.53 MPa. So I'll probably go with that for now.
And then if I look at-- in terms of the lowest max stress, I got it on the impeller 50 titanium. So here, 50 is the angle of the impeller blade, which is a parameter in the sketch. And titanium is the material. As you can see here, you can combine your experiments with any number of materials, any number of parameters. And you can add visibility and suppression to that.
So next, let's look at an example of suppression. How does suppression works? Again, like Rahul mentioned, in the Configuration table, you can set up your design to have some of the components or parts in it to be suppressed. By doing that, you can, again, generate different variations.
So this is a injection molding study. And you can see there are some grills at the front of the enclosure. This is a housing sample that we have. In fact, all the demo models are-- some of them are samples that I selected. And I just added configurations to them.
So let's look at this example. And you can see here that I will use the bottom part of the housing to create an injection molding study. In the first configuration, I will have the highlighted grills to be present. In the next one, I will remove half of the grills. So instead of four grills, I will have only two grills. And in the third one, I will have no grills.
So you can see in the Configuration table, you can also use the column to add your own comments. So it's important to name your configurations. Here, for example, I'm naming them as Four Grills, Two Grills, or No Grills. It's up to you. It is important because when you go to Compare, you will have some meaningful configuration rows to compare.
So I created three configurations. And you can see the grills are there in the first one. In the second one, only two of them are there. In the third one-- no grills on the side.
And then I go to Simulation. And I have to switch from the top to the bottom part of the housing, which is easily doable in injection molding setup. And once I select that, I can switch the configuration rows, like Rahul mentioned, in Simulation. And then I can select any configuration, add steady state, add the setups. And once I do the setup, I'm ready to do the solve and generate the results. And in this case, the results are shown in the new viewer, which is a web component.
And in the Compare environment, you can, again, see that I have three configurations. So I will have a vertical layout on the left. And then I will have two split windows on the right so that I can compare my three different configurations. And as you can see, the values are changing. The bottom values, the mean values, for the time to ejection temperature-- they are changing. And again, you can construct a table and look at your values for the different configurations and select your configuration that you want to proceed with the next steps.
So this is a good example of how suppression can be used with Simulation. So just to summarize, in the results, the Configuration dropdown is always available. For example, you see in the top right, I had four grills, two grills, and no grills. You can switch at any time. And you can look at the results.
You can look at the individual results. And you can do things like slice plane or cutting planes or you can look at the different results, analyze them. And you can compare the configurations. So here, I'm showing both the old viewer on the bottom left and the new viewer on the bottom right.
Now we just went through how Configurations can be used in Simulation. How about Generative Design? In Generative Design, again, the use cases are you can look at the two different generative studies. And you can rapidly generate various combinations on configurations of these two different studies.
Also in Generative Design, you can also vary the design space. What I mean by that is we have a clamp sample, the motorcycle triple clamp that is used where we apply three different load cases, like tension, compression, torsion in the Generative Design samples. I'm taking that samples. And I'm varying the width of the preserve geometry. Here, the green bodies are the preserve geometry. You can see at the bottom, I have design space 1, which is a small-- which will produce a small-width motorcycle clamp. Design space 2 will provide a medium-sized clamp. And design space 3 will produce a wider clamp, or a large clamp, let's say.
And let's say I want to look at the response. And I want to look at the maximum von Mises stress or the mass once I set up these design spaces. In order for this to be done in Generative Design without Configurations, it is possible. But you end up creating a whole lot of studies than you actually can visualize.
With Configurations, you just limit to the number of rows in the Configuration table. And then those are the potential combinations of the design spaces. And then you can add these two studies and get various studies and their results.
And again, just like in Simulation, Generative Design environment-- the Compare environment was also enhanced to support Configurations. And we added some more functionalities in the Explore workspace, where we look at the different outcomes of Generative Design to support Configurations.
Now, let's look at the demo that I was talking about. How did I vary the design spaces? So in this demo, I have three bodies. And this will dictate the width of the clamp. And as you can see in the demo, I'm going to build, again, around eight different configurations. And again, I will also use material as a parameter. In this case, I'm using aluminum and steel.
First, I need to build the small, the medium, and the large configurations. And there is a extrusion, which has a distance. And I'm using that as a parameter to change the width of the clamp that will be generated, and then create some variations using the parameters.
The beauty of Configurations is once you create one row, adding additional rows is as easy as going to the table and clicking the plus button. And the geometry will be generated automatically.
Then, again, I have to come to the Generative Design setup, select my preset geometries. I'm going to apply some constraints. And for the third one, I'm going to mimic that using loads in two different directions of same value. And then I'll copy the load case, which should happen next. And then I will name them to be Tension or Compression. And Tension and Compression are basically-- I'm applying forces in different directions-- in opposite directions, I must say-- and then doing the setup. And once I generate the results, you can see here you can sort it by configurations or-- here, I'm isolating a configuration.
On the left, you can see there are checkboxes next to the configurations. By clicking or unclicking, I can only look at one configuration or many. And next, I'm doing a compare of selecting three different configurations that I'm interested in.
And the legacy functionality of Compare continues to work with Configurations, also. And here, I'm looking at four different models and trying to understand. Look at their mass. And then the max von Mises stress to see which one I should select.
So again, just to facilitate my analysis, I'm going to construct a table, which we will show next with these values. And that will give me a overview of the mass and the stresses next to each other. It can be seen here.
Again, you can see I have the naming convention. Again, use whatever works for you. Here, I renamed the configuration 1 through 8 so that I can remember the index. And then I varied the material, steel and aluminum. And here you can see that configuration 1, steel, and configuration 2, aluminum, at the top, two rows-- they have the lowest mass. And then in terms of the max von Mises stress, I'm looking for the ones with the lowest ones for my analysis today. And I see it on configuration 4, aluminum, and configuration 5, steel. So with this, it gives you an idea how Configurations can be used in Generative Design results.
In terms of the summary, in the viewer, or Generative Design, you can, first of all, sort results by configuration. You can select a configuration. It will show all the outcomes in the order of the configurations, like configuration 1 through 8 in this case.
The view outcomes per configuration-- you can go and select only one configuration and select only one outcome to analyze. Not only that, you can also isolate and reset by configurations. This-- I have found it to be very useful because with eight configurations and three to five, at least, outcomes per configuration, it becomes innumerable outcomes to analyze. So it isolates only one particular configuration.
So it's as easy as going and unchecking the checkboxes of the configurations that you don't want. Then you can see only the configuration you want. Then when you go back and check all the configurations, you get back all the configurations, or you can do a reset. The Reset button just resets it back to the default, all the configurations being checked. That's an easy tool to look at only the results of one particular configuration row. And like we already saw, you can compare different outcomes across different configurations.
With that, I would like to pass it on to Rahul to talk about the roadmap.
RAHUL PATIL: Thank you, Shekar. So there are a couple of things that we are looking at working on right now as well as in the future. One of the first things that we are actively working on right now is a capability called Copy Study. The idea of Copy Study is to be able to copy a study from one configuration across to another configuration.
The main value addition here for the user is to avoid having to repeat the same setup tasks that they have to do from one configuration going to the other configuration. So if you created a study for configuration 1 and you want to create the same study for configuration 2, today you will have to do it manually-- apply the loads, apply the constraints, and apply all the conditions, and then so on. The Copy Study feature will enable you to pick the studies from one particular configuration and apply them to a different configuration.
The second important feature that we are considering working on is to consume the Generative Design outcomes as configurations. As Shekar talked about different use cases of configuration in Generative Design, some of the outcomes that the user may generate during the Generative Design studies could be a variation of their existing design. For example, in cases where they are doing some kind of lightweighting of a particular component, they may want to use that as a configuration to-- for other downstream workflows, also to-- and as well as to do some post-processing design modifications on that particular outcome. So this feature will enable the user to consume a Generative Design outcome as a configuration in the Configurations table.
In the longer term, we are also considering having the ability to configure the Simulation or the Generative Design studies in the Simulation or the Generative Design workspaces, respectively. The idea here is to have a similar table for configuring Simulation studies or the Generative Design studies like you would see in the design workspace. The user would be able to vary different loads, apply different constraints for different studies across different models. This, essentially, becomes a configuration of Simulation studies or a configuration of Generative Design studies.
There are many more features that we will consider in the future. At this point, we are not in a position to discuss those. Next slide. I'll hand it back to Shekar to summarize the presentation.
SHEKAR SUB: Thank you, Rahul. In terms of summary, we looked at how to use Configurations to generate design variations, how to use parameters, material, suppression, and other things, such as visibility and appearance, that you could use to generate different configurations.
So name your configuration rows accordingly-- appropriately so that you can later consume them in Compare and Results workspace. Set up your configurations to do as many variations as you need. And then you can leverage such configurations with Simulation to optimize the designs.
We saw how you can set up different studies per configuration row. And if you want to make any modifications to the Simulation models or the Generative models, those are the local changes that only affect the Simulation or the Generative models. Make them in Simplify and the Edit Model workspace. And then you can go to Compare or in the Results workspace and look at the different results and then pick the one that's most optimal to your workflows.
You can leverage Configurations to vary design spaces in Generative Design. We looked at, in the motorcycle clamp example, how you can set up so that you can generate different preserve geometries using Configurations. And then rest of the workflow in Generative Design is same as before.
So in short, Configurations allows you to create design variations and optimize your designs. We have more functionality coming in the future releases, like Rahul mentioned. And we hope that you use Configurations in your Simulation and Generative Design workflows.
There are other classes, other events going on on Configurations at AU 2023. Please attend these other classes or product demos, if possible. And make sure you can leverage Configurations to the maximum in your Simulation and Generative Design workflows. With that, we would like to end the presentation. Thank you.