Defining a Maximum Truss Thickness (Maximum Member Size)

You can define a maximum truss thickness to design components that are better suited for manufacturing. This restriction avoids local accumulations of material by splitting these areas into several thinner parts.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: The maximum member size restriction can only be used with the sensitivity-based algorithm. Maximum member size constraints with the controller algorithm are not supported.
See Also
About Member Size Control
In Other Guides
DVCON_TOPO

Define a Maximum Member Size Restriction in Tosca Structure.gui

  1. Choose Command > DVCON_TOPO in Tosca Structure.pre.
  2. Define the Maximum Member Size as shown in the following figure:

  3. Or use the DVCON_TOPO command: 

    
DVCON_TOPO
  ID_NAME       = <Name of DVCON object>
  EL_GROUP      = <Element group to be restricted>
  CHECK_TYPE    = MAX_MEMBER
  THICKNESS     = <Maximum thickness of structures>
  MIN_THICKNESS = <Minimum thickness of structures>
  DISTANCE      = <Averaged distance between structural members>
  METHOD        = FILTER | LOCAL_VOLUME
  APPROXIMATE   = YES | NO, optional: <scale factor>
END_