Manage Parts

About Parts, Part Assemblies, Part Instances

A part is an engineering representation of a physical part, and a part assembly is a group of part assemblies and/or parts. Part Instances, which are recognized from PDM, are automatically converted to Part Instances on import into HyperMesh.

Parts and Part Assemblies

HyperMesh supports CAE parts ( ) and part assemblies ( ) and PDM parts () and part assemblies ( ).

Parts assemblies and parts facilitate the one-to-one mapping of a CAD hierarchy into the HyperMesh environment as a CAE hierarchy. The CAE hierarchy can be created manually or can be imported from a PDM system via a neutral file format such as PLMXML.


Figure 1. PDM BOM


Figure 2. HyperMesh BOM

If a part is comprised of multiple components, such as cast parts or tailor-welded blanks, you can perform actions such as visualization view modes, model management, and connector link definition at the part level.

Parts can be used to organize a physical part that is made up of multiple components in a CAE model as a single part.

When using a part, you can organize multiple components that represent physical parts into a single part.


Figure 3. Cast Part in Part Browser

In the Part Browser, collapsing all folders at the part level enables you to see all owned and referenced entities. Expanding folders at the part level displays a nested list of all referenced components and their entity specific attribute values which are shown in the respective columns.

Part Instances

The Part browser provides limited support for part instances of externally sourced BOMs.

Part Instances () share UID and Part names. The name assigned to child instances is incremented by *.ixx, where xx indicates the number of the child instance. The positioning of Part Instances is dictated by the transformation matrix applied to the Part in the PDM system. Part Instances can also be created interactively in a session. Upon creation, you will automatically be prompted to transform the part via the Transform tool.

In circular, symmetric, or rectangular patterns, certain parts may appear in a BOM multiple times. Typical examples include bolts, hinges, and symmetric parts.

Creating or saving part representations for instantiated parts saves a single representation in the repository. Importing instantiated parts positions them according to their respective 4 x 3 transformation matrices.

Create Parts, Part Assemblies, and Part Instances

Only CAE parts and part assemblies can be manually created in HyperMesh. PDM parts and part assemblies must be imported imported into HyperMesh.

In the Part Browser, right-click and select Create > <entity type> from the context menu.

The new part, part assembly, or part instance is created and displayed in the browser. Part assembly or part level entities cannot be modified or deleted.

Upon the creation of a part instance, you will automatically be prompted to transform the part via the Transform tool.

Import Parts, Part Assemblies, and Part Instances

PDM parts and part assemblies can be imported into HyperMesh via a PDM generated PLMXML file.
  1. From the menu bar, click File > Import > BOM.
    The Import browser opens.
  2. In the File field, navigate to the file that contains the parts, part assemblies, and part instances to import.
  3. Define additional options as needed.
  4. Click Import.

Organize Part Assemblies and Parts

Organize part assemblies, parts, and components in your model.

Entity organization rules are as follows:
  • The Model is the root of the hierarchy in the browser. It represents the contents of the HyperMesh binary file and can contain part assemblies, parts, and components.
  • A part assembly can contain part assemblies and parts. These can be both assemblies and parts.
  • A part can only contain components.
  • Reorganize part assemblies, parts, and components in the Part Browser.
    1. From the Part Browser, left-click on an entity and drag and drop it to a new location.
    In Figure 4, Component B is being reorganized into Part B.
    Figure 4.
  • Reorganize components into a new part using the Organize panel.
    1. From the Tool page, click the Organize panel, Parts subpanel.
    2. Use the comps selector to select the component(s) to move.
    3. In the dest part field, select the part to move the selected components into.
    4. Click move.

Save Assemblies as HyperMesh Binary Files

The part assembly binary file is self-contained and includes the part assembly based hierarchy and attributes such as components, properties, and materials.

You can perform all necessary tasks such as geometry updates and meshing in the distributed HyperMesh binary file. The completed file can then be imported into the master HyperMesh session by importing a model.

  1. In the Part Browser, right-click on a part assembly and select Save As from the context menu.
  2. In the Save As dialog, save the binary in the representations directory for the current binary file.
In Figure 5, the LeftRail_A_000433_Safety part assembly in the Frame_Assembly_000495 part assembly is being saved as an HyperMesh binary file.
Tip: Alternatively, you can select multiple Parts in different assemblies and select Save As from context menu.


Figure 5.
Because the saved part assembly is self-contained, all HyperMesh entities shown in the Part Browser are saved to the binary file. Opening the saved binary file in a new HyperMesh session results in the Part Browser view shown in Figure 6.


Figure 6.