Bearing connector degrees of freedom

[aaronh]

Anyone have a good way to implement some sort of retaining ring with bearing connectors (similar to pin connectors)? I use pin connectors to simulation bearings, but they don't have the self alignment option like bearing connectors do.

[FEAnalyst]

So what you are looking for is a combination of pin connector with retaining ring (axial translation blocked) and bearing connector with self-alignment (off-axis shaft rotation allowed), right ? I’m afraid that you can’t create such custom connectors in SW Simulation. Advanced FEA software like Abaqus (the same vendor - Dassault Systemes) allows users to define any combination of connectors and constraints they want, based on individual degrees of freedom. But it’s understandable that one may want more freedom with connectors in SolidWorks as well.

[aaronh]

Yeah, that's correct. I didn't think there was an immediate solution, but I was hoping that someone might know a trick that I don't. Like Abaqus, NX Nastran also has the ability to manually set degrees of freedom right down to the node level. SW Simulation is much more automated, which is nice from an ease of use standpoint. However, it has limitations from a more complex study point of view.

[jayar]

Yeah, that's correct. I didn't think there was an immediate solution, but I was hoping that someone might know a trick that I don't. Like Abaqus, NX Nastran also has the ability to manually set degrees of freedom right down to the node level. SW Simulation is much more automated, which is nice from an ease of use standpoint. However, it has limitations from a more complex study point of view.

If you place a point in a location of interest then you will end up with a node at that point. Then you can apply any constraint on the point that you wish.