You need to define sensors to use them as constraints and goals. The tutorial defines two sensors, one for the factor of safety and the other for the mass. You define the factor of safety as the constraint and the mass as the goal to minimize.
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On the Variable View tab, in Constraints, select FOS (factor of safety).
The variable uses the tracked value from the factor of safety sensor (FOS) in the FeatureManager design tree.
- For FOS, for study, select Ready.
The Design Study updates the sensor value at each iteration by running the Ready study.
- For the condition, select Is greater than and for Min, type 2.
You require the optimal knob design to carry at least two times its operational load.
- In Goals, select Mass1 from the list of sensors.
- For Mass1, select Minimize.
You want to reduce the mass of the knob as much as possible, without violating the constraint on the
FOS.
| Constraints |
| FOS |
Is greater than |
Min |
2 |
Ready |
| Goals |
| Mass1 |
Minimize |
|
|
|
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Select Optimization and click Run.
The program selects the variables using a Design of Experiments method, invokes the Simulation study at each iteration, and finds the optimal solution. See SOLIDWORKS Simulation Help: Properties for the Optimization Design Study for a description of the method.