Geometry

Double-click on the geometry button, , in the Project Schematic area, which should launch the Design Modeler in ANSYS. Choose meter as the desired length unit. A folder called "A: Static Structural (ANSYS)" should be expanded in the tree outline of the Design Modeler. If it is not expanded, then expand it now.

Proper Orientation

Click once on the XYPlane button, .  Next, click once on the royal blue Z vector (displayed below) which should be in the bottom right section of the Design Modeler window.


Now, you should be looking directly at the XY plane and the axes in the bottom right corner should be oriented as they are in the image below.

Line Sketching

First, click on the sketching tab, , which is located underneath the "Tree Outline". Next , click on the rectangle button, , and draw a rectangle somewhere above the x axis in the top right quadrant of the XY Plane as shown below.


Next, click the line button, , and draw two vertical lines that connect the bottom left and the bottom right corners of the rectangle to the x axis. Remember that a "P" should appear when the mouse is directly over a rectangle corner and a "V" should appear when the line your drawing is vertical. Lastly, make sure that a "C" appears before you click on the x axis to terminate the line segments. You should now have an image comparable to the one below.

Dimensioning

Now, the dimensions of the plane frame structure will be inputted into ANSYS. The plane frame structure has symmetry in its geometry, so "equal length" constraints will be used in order to shorten the dimensioning process. First, click on the "Constraints" tab, , then click on the "Equal Length" button, . Now, click on the two vertical sides of the rectangle you drew, then click on the two vertical lines you drew. Next, click on the "Dimensions" tab, , and select "General", . Now, click on bottom left vertical line and click once more to place the marker. Repeat this action with the upper left vertical line and the top horizontal line. Your Design Modeler window should look similar to the image below.


Now, the lengths need to be inputted. Input the length of the sides in "Details View" table. Input 3m for the length of the two vertical dimensions, and input 4m for the length of the horizontal line as shown below.

Line Body

At this point a line body will be assigned to each segment of the sketch. Click on "Concept" then click on "Lines From Sketches" as shown below.


Now click on "Sketch 1", , and then click the "apply" button, which should be within the "Details of Line 1" table. Now, click on the "Generate" button, , and the line body will be created.

Cross Section

At this point a cross sectional area will be assigned to the frame elements. Click on "Concept", then click on "Cross Section" and lastly click on "Rectangular" as shown below.


Now, specify the base and height of the cross section. The height and the base both have a length of 0.346m.


To assign the cross section to the line body, expand "1 Part, 1 Body", , then click on "Line Body", , until it is highlighted. The cell to the right of "Cross Section" in the "Details" table should be highlighted yellow. Click on the arrow at the right side of the yellow cell and choose "Rect1" as shown below.

3D Rendering

In order to make sure that the cross section was assigned to the solid body click on "View", then click on "Cross Section Solids" as shown below.


Then click on the little turquoise dot, , located by the axes in the bottom right portion of the screen. You should now see the the plane frame rendered in 3D as shown below. Don't be misled by this graphical rendering; our model consists only of lines representing the mid-lines of each frame member.


You can close the Design Modeler and you may want to save your project.

Transfer "Line Bodies" to Mesher

Note: This step needs to be done only in version 13.0. It can be skipped in version 14.0 and later.

In order to make sure to get the geometry data transferred to the Model a couple of steps must be taken. First, right click on "Geometry" then click on "Properties". Under "Properties of Schematic A3: Geometry" expand "Basic Geometry Options" and check the box to the right of "Line Bodies" as seen below.

Go to Step 3: Mesh

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