Defining Morphing areas

A morphing area (MORPH_AREA) is a node group which will be modified independently of other morphing areas during the morphing process. All nodes in one morphing area obtain the same morphing displacement in one morphing step.

This task shows you how to:

Related Topics
In Other Guides
MORPH
MORPH_AREA

Define Morphing areas in Tosca ANSA® environment

  1. For each morphing area add a MORPH_AREA block via right-click on MORPHING folder (added to your optimization task within the Task Manager with right-clicking on SIMULIA Tosca Structure Task > New > MORPHING).

  2. Define a Name for your MORPH_AREA, then select GROUP_DEF for ND_GROUP.

  3. In GROUP_DEF, press ‚?‘ key and select or define a node_group describing the area to morph.

  4. As TYPE select the direction of the morphing displacements vectors.

  5. As TRANSITION_ZONE, enter the number of nodes to be used as transition zone.

Define Morphing areas in Tosca Structure.gui.

  1. Choose Command > MORPH_AREA.

  2. In the MORPH_AREA dialog, select the corresponding node group (predefined at the command GROUP_DEF) and enter the number of transition zones as shown in the following figure:

SIMULIA Tosca Structure Parameter File

  • The command appears as follows:

        MORPH_AREA
      ID_NAME  = <MORPH_AREA_name>   [string]
      ND_GROUP  = <MORPH_AREA_nd_goup> [string]
      TYPE =  NORMAL | VECTOR
      CS = <CS_name>   [string]
      VEC_DIR = <x>, <y>, <z>
      TRANSITION_ZONE = <number_of_transition_nodes> [integer]
    END_
    • For every morph area the nodes specified by ND_GROUP can be moved either in normal direction (TYPE=NORMAL) or in a distinct direction (TYPE=VECTOR).
    • The latter enables Tosca Structure.morph to move e.g. holes or groups of nodes into the same direction.
    • The parameters CS and VEC_DIR are used to specify direction.
    • The direction VEC_DIR is interpreted as a vector in the coordinate system CS, which is CS_0 by default.
    • The main purpose of the CS is to support movements in cylindrical coordinate systems and thus, only rectangular and cylindrical ones are supported.