Newb Question - Can't set Material Geometric Properties to Anything Besides Shell/Membrane

brandonman

I am brand new here and trying to learn the ropes with the free version before buying! Mecway seems to be the perfect middle ground for work that I'm trying to do, and right now, I'm experimenting with it. I am having some difficulty that I think stems from going from openVSP->.msh->Mecway. I'm hoping Mecway itself will give me the ability to tidy this up. It seems like it CAN, but I'm missing something obvious...

I exported a .msh from openVSP. This .msh file is simply 2d ribs and two 2d wing spars. It successfully imports into Mecway just fine. I can set all my constraints, and the forces being transmitted through the ribs. Great!

My problem is, when I Assign New Material to the Component, my only option is to define it as a "Shell/membrane" in the Geometric tab. I see all the options I actually want! I can see I-sections and circular tubes, which I want to experiment with the trade-offs of. But, they're un-selectable. All I can do is define these 2D faces as shell/membrane with a given thickness. For now, I'd be fine assigning that material to the entire component. (But, a side question, can I easily select a subset of the component's faces, and apply a different and cross section to just those?)

Is there something I'm missing here as to why I can't define other cross-sections of these 2d surfaces? I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. I am brand new to Mecway (as in, over the past few hours), and, frankly, have sometimes found openVSP to be really cumbersome. I've attached my .liml file.

cwharpe

All the various cross-sections are available for assigning beam properties to Line elements, not shells. When working with Line elements some consideration must be given to whether the connections are rigidly fixed or simply supported (pivoted), how to interface with shells, etc., but looking at your wing profile, I would definitely have modeled the components as shells. (Some of the other Forum members can better speak to bringing a 3D model in as a .step file, and automeshing from there.) There also exists modeling tools within Mecway to build the mesh internally. The following was created in a few minutes from your profile perimeter:



You also can create sub-components of what you've made, say Ribs and Spars, and assign them different shell thicknesses.

With Mecway you have a surprisingly powerful FEA program with a very user-friendly interface and good user support. I encourage you to experiment further, and follow a few of the Youtube examples.