This section discusses the automatic joint creation in Mechanical. You can also create joints manually as discussed in Manual Joint Creation section.
Creating Joints Automatically
You can direct Mechanical to analyze your assembly and automatically create fixed joints and/or revolute joints.
To create joints automatically:
Insert a Connection Group object under the Connections folder using the Context tab option or using the option from the context menu (right mouse click) for this folder.
From the Details view of the Connection Group object, choose Joint from the Connection Type drop-down menu.
Select some bodies in the model based on the Scoping Method. The default is Geometry Selection scoped to All Bodies.
Configure the types of joints (fixed and/or revolute) you want Mechanical to create automatically through the appropriate Yes or No settings in the Details view. These properties will be applied only to scoped geometries for this connection group. You can set defaults for these settings using the Options dialog box under Connections .
Note: When both the Fixed Joints and Revolute Joints properties are set to Yes, the revolute joints have priority; the search for revolute joints will be processed first followed by the search for fixed joints.
Choose from the context menu (right mouse click) for the Connection Group. Appropriate joint types are created and appear in the tree as objects under the Joints folder. Each joint also includes a reference coordinate system that is represented as a child object to the joint object.
Note: For automatic joint detection, the Search Across property only supports options , , and . The and options are only available with model assembly.
Display the Joint DOF Checker or the redundancy analysis and modify joint definitions if necessary.