& Construction
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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Rigid Body Connectors provide a method of connecting mesh nodes together for an FEA. Typically, this is used to connect a face or edge to a singular control point. A force, constraint, or lumped mass can be applied to the control point to influence the mesh. Some examples are shown below:
When choosing a Rigid Body Connector, you have two sub-types: Rigid and Interpolation. Rigid (RBE2) elements are perfectly stiff and can’t deform relative to the control point. When using Rigid elements, the dependent entities will move exactly how the independent entities move. Interpolation (RBE3) elements are typically used to distribute loads. When using Interpolation elements, the displacement of the reference nodes is the weighted average of the displacement of the "entities to average."
While creating a Rigid Body Connector, you must select the Dependent Entities and an Independent Vertex/Point. Multiple faces, edges, or points can be chosen as Dependent Entities. This allows you to transfer a load or mass across several surfaces or holes at once. The dialog box also contains Degrees of Freedom (DOF) checkboxes (TX, TY, TZ, RX, RY, RZ). These are the active DOF for the rigid elements. The boxes that are checked represent the translational and rotational directions in which they provide rigidity. Deactivate any DOF in which you want to allow relative motion between Independent / Reference Point and the Dependent entities.
Rigid Body Connectors can use a sketch point or a work point as the Independent vertex. These points can easily be constructed within Autodesk Inventor for the FEA. The “Point at Center” option will automatically create a work point at the center of all the selected entities. This can save you the hassle of creating the point manually.