Thickness Control PropertyManager

You can apply member size restrictions for a topology optimization that prohibits the creation of very thin or very thick regions that may be difficult to manufacture.

To access the Thickness Control PropertyManager:

The final optimized design adheres to the member size restrictions you specify.

  • Right-click Manufacturing Controls, and select Specify Thickness Control
Minimum Member Thickness Specifies the minimum size of an optimized substructure and the required units. The minimum member size must be greater than two to three times the average mesh-element size.
A coarse mesh and a fine mesh lead to the same optimized topology if you specify the same minimum member thicknesses for both cases..
  Maximum Member Thickness Specifies the maximum size of an optimized substructure and the required units (optional). It is recommended that the average mesh-element size is three to four times smaller than the required maximum member thickness.
You may encounter convergence issues when you define one thickness control value for either a minimum or maximum member thickness that is not within an acceptable range. To resolve such convergence issues, specify both values for minimum and maximum member thicknesses within a reasonable range.
The CPU-time for the calculation increases quadratically if the mesh becomes too fine when member thickness controls are applied. To save calculation time, define thickness restrictions to areas of the model where very thin or very thick parts should be avoided. To identify these areas, the first step is to perform an optimization without any member size restrictions.