General
Note the following general limitations associated with the definition of Condensed Parts:
The Master Degrees of Freedom Nodes (MDOFs) may be reduced by the solver during the:
Generation of a Condensed Part.
Solution of a Substructure Generation analysis
This could be the result of a constraint defined on the MDOF nodes. The application reports this with a warning. In addition, in this case, there could be a discrepancy between Mechanical MDOFs and solver MDOFs. A warning message will also display while eliminating the redundant degrees of freedom.
The application does not write Named Selections scoped to the interface nodes of a Condensed Part to Use Pass input file unless the Named Selection is used in the scoping of a nodal boundary conditions (Nodal Force, Nodal Pressure, Nodal Displacement and Nodal Orientation) in the Use Pass.
For Imported Condensed Parts:
Does not support Rigid Dynamics analyses.
The application does not import load vectors from Super Element Matrix (.dmig) files. As a result, they cannot be applied to the Use pass.
When you import superelements from another system into your current system using an Imported Condensed Part object, and you change the Unit System of the Imported Condensed Part, the application does not automatically resize Interface Mesh nodes. They can be resized using Rescale option from Annotation group of Display tab.
Note the following when you are working with Model Assembly:
If the assembled system includes imported condensed parts and you change the transfer property, Number of Copies, and update, the application may not import the exact copies of the geometry and/or source mesh.
The application does not currently support importing condensed parts that are included in the source system.
If you use the option on the mesh or an Imported Condensed Part object, the application also clears the scoping for joints created using the Imported Condensed Part interface. In this case, recreate the joints.
The application only shows the outline of the superelement when the active object is an Imported Condensed Part or Condensed Geometry.
If your analysis includes only Imported Condensed Parts and no geometry file, parameters and design points are not supported. However, you can import a model and suppress the bodies to use the Parameter options..
Reinforcements using the Mesh Independent Method are not supported with Condensed Parts and Imported Condensed Parts.
Remote Solve Manager (RSM)
You can employ RSM for the Generation and Use passes only. Solution processing for the Expansion Pass using the RSM is not supported. The application always performs the Expansion Pass process on your local machine. The Generation Pass uses the default queue selected in the Solve Process Settings dialog. And, the application always performs the Generation Pass in synchronous mode regardless of the settings of the Advanced properties in the Solve Process Settings. You cannot scope result Probes to objects which are fully contained inside any Condensed Part. For example, a spring can be fully contained inside a Condensed Part if the topologies of both the reference and the mobile scoping are on bodies that belong to the Geometry Selection scoping of the same Condensed Part.
When you have 1) active Expansion Settings in the Worksheet and 2) you set the Scoping Method property for a result to , the only supported option for the Item Type property is .
Also for this specification, Material IDs and Element Name IDs are not available for the Material and Element Type Information selection on the Solution Quantities and Result Summary page of the Worksheet.
For Harmonic Response analysis or a Transient analysis linked to an upstream Modal analysis, the On Demand Expansion Options property is available (see Options for Analyses). If you set this property to , either manually or from the setting, the condensed part results are always expanded. As a result, Expansion Settings specifications become redundant.
When the On Demand Expansion Option property is set to , only displacement results can be evaluated on Condensed Parts.
Contact and Target contact may get flipped internally to meet Condensed Part requirements.
The edge-edge contact between a shell body and beam body is not supported when the Target side of the contact pair is on the shell body that belongs to a Condensed Part.
Elements cannot use Lagrange multipliers, such as interior contact regions cannot using the Normal Lagrange Formulation.
The following are not supported:
Force Reaction and Moment Reaction probes (Expansion Pass only)
Pipe Idealization
Spot Weld connections
Symmetry Region scoped to a Condensed Part
Cyclic Symmetry
Linear Periodic Symmetry
The option does not detect imported loads or connections, however, they can be added manually. For the imported objects that are associated with condensed parts, use the promote feature in the worksheet of the imported objects in order to be able to perform interface detection.
For Joints internal to a Condensed Part, the application only supports Fixed joints and Bushing joints (with Formulation property set to ).
The Rotational Velocity and Thermal Condition loads are only supported on a non-condensed part.
Once you have scoped and generated Condensed Parts, any mesh modifications made to the parts of the model that do not belong to the generated Condensed Parts, do not require you to regenerate the Condensed Parts. That is, Condensed Parts maintain an up-to-date status following mesh changes to other model parts. However, there are a few exceptions. If you have imported your model using external systems, External Model and/or Mechanical Model systems, any geometry modifications to geometries not specified as a Condensed Part, do cause the Condensed Parts to become obsolete and require regeneration. In addition, the use of features such as Mesh Edit, Element Orientation, or Mesh Numbering objects cause up-to-date Condensed Parts to become obsolete and require regeneration.
Condensed Parts require regeneration if you make any geometry modifications in the CAD application. This applies even if you have the Smart CAD Update option (SpaceClaim only) of the Advanced Geometry Options in Geometry cell properties of the Project Schematic. See the Geometry Preferences section in the CAD Integration documentation for more information.
When importing .mechdat files, the Solution object displays with an unsolved state.
The application does not display finite element connection lines for any object scoped to the bodies included in the definition of a Condensed Part.
Note: For additional restriction information, see the MATRIX50 Element Description in the Mechanical APDL Element Reference as well as the Assumptions and Restrictions (within Superelement) topic in the Substructuring Analysis section of the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference.
Rigid Dynamics Analyses
Note the following specific limitations for Rigid Dynamics analyses:
You can apply loading conditions only to the interfaces of Condensed Parts. Remote Displacements and Remote Forces applied to the Condensed Parts using geometry selection, must match the scoping of an interface of the Condensed Part, or be applied directly via Remote Point selection. Inertial loads are automatically applied on all Condensed Parts by the Rigid Dynamics Solver.
Contact cannot be used to connect Condensed Parts with the rest of the model.
For On Demand Expansion, the supported results are Total Deformation, Directional Deformation, and all Stress and Strain results except the vector Principal. The limitations on these supported results are:
Only global CS evaluation is supported.
For the stress and strain results, only the averaged results display is supported.
Modal Analyses
Note the following specific limitations for Modal analyses:
Pre-stress analysis is not supported with Condensed Parts.
Rigid bodies are supported but it is best that at least one body be Flexible.
Rotational Velocity and Thermal Condition loads cannot be scoped to a Condensed Part.
Fracture Analysis is not supported when Condensed Parts are defined in the model.
Motion Analyses
See Condensed Part and Imported Condensed Part in the Motion in Workbench User Guide for details of specific limitations in Motion analyses.
Random Vibration and Response Spectrum Analyses
You cannot currently run expansions for Random Vibration and Response Spectrum analyses.