NX Tutorial

This short tutorial is intended for students attending the course of Theory of Vibration.
It provides the necessary information to download and install the NX software.
Moreover, it gives an overview of the features that you will use in the project
assignment.

Installation
In order to carry out the project, you need to install the commercial software Siemens
NX. It can be downloaded and installed using the link here below:
http://samcefstudent.ltas.ulg.ac.be/doku.php?id=start
Remark: To have access to the link, you need to use the University Wi-Fi or the VPN*.
Otherwise, you will have the following error message:

Download “Siemens NX 1859”. You can have access to the instructions in French or
in English.
In order to use NX, you will have to be connected to the University Wi-Fi or to use the
VPN.

*The VPN is an out-of-campus connection allowing access to all the resources of the
University. To install it, please follow the instructions:
https://my.segi.uliege.be/cms/c_18131675/fr/mysegi-faq-vpn-uliege

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Modal Behaviour Analysis using Siemens NX
To perform the modal analysis of a structure using NX, you will need to go through
three steps. In the first part, you will build the geometry of the structure. Secondly, you
will create the mesh and define the structure properties. Finally, you will define the
constraints on the structure and run the simulation.
Remarks:

• Do not forget to save your work regularly!

• Avoid special characters in your file names or file paths
• Choose your own folder for the files path and not NX default folder: you will not
have write access in this folder.

1. Drawing the Model

• Open NX software.
• Under the tab “Home”, click on “New”. A window will pop-up.
• In that window select the tab “Model” and select the first type of file with the name
“Model” as shown in the figure below. Enter the name of your file (avoid space and
special characters) and select the folder in which you want to store it (do not keep
the default folder!). You will have to store all the different files in the same folder.
Finally, click on “OK”. This will create a new file with the extension “.prt”.

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You will now have to build the complete structure. Even though the truss is composed
of 3D beam elements, there is no need to draw elements with a thickness. Indeed, you
can only draw 1D elements (i.e. lines and points) to which you will give the
corresponding properties later.
To draw the structure:

• Go to the tab “Curve”. You will use “Point” and “Line” as shown in the figure
below.

• Enter the coordinates of the different points of the structure

• Link the different points according to the structure using “Lines”.
• Save your file.

To observe your structure in 3D you can click on the middle button of your mouse and
move it or click on the symbol

2. Mesh and properties

In this section, you will divide the structure into finite elements (mesh the model) and
you will assign the beam geometry and properties. For this part, you need to create
again a new file.

• Under the tab “File”, click on “New”. A window will pop-up.

• For this part, select the “Simulation” tab (see the figure next page)
• Select the file “Samcef” of type “Fem”
• Enter a name for this new file and add it to the same folder as the “.prt” file
previously created.
• This will create a new file with the extension “.fem”.

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A new window will pop-up. Check the following items:
(1) The part associated is the file you have previously
created
(2) Click on “Geometry options”. In the new window,
select “lines” and “points”.

(3) Ensure that the solver is “Samcef”.

(4) Ensure that the Analysis Type is “Structural”.

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Beam elements

Once the file is created, you can create the mesh. Go to the “Home” tab. In the subtab
“Mesh”, select “More”. There, you will find the option “1D Mesh” as represented in the
figure above.

A new window will pop-up. Check the following points (see figure below):
1. Click on the beams (lines) with the same properties
2. Select the correct Element Properties: “Beam [T22]”
3. Indicate how you want to discretize your beams (number of elements per beam)
4. Tick the box “Merge Nodes”: that way, all the nodes at the end of beams that
intersect will be merged in a single node.
5. Click OK.
You will see a “1D collector” in the right column, called “Simulation Navigator”, with a
“Beam collector” for each type of beam.

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 Remark: If you do not have all the elements explicitly present in your beam
collector, you might have the following error: “The third node is too near of the 1-2
axis”

Element cross-sections
The next step is to define the different beam sections. In the part “Mesh” → “More”,
you now select “1D element Section” (2). The “Beam Section Manager” window will

pop-up. You can “Create Section” by clicking on the icon with the beam as shown
by the red arrow in the figure hereunder. The “Beam Section” window will pop-up.
Enter in that window the type of section and the different dimensions. You must create
different sections if your project includes different sections. Do not hesitate to change
names.

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Once you have defined all the different sections, you have to add them to the
corresponding beams (i.e. Beam collectors previously defined).

• In the “Simulation Navigator”, expand “1D Collectors” and right click on a

“Beam Collector” and select .

• A new window named “Mesh Collector” will pop-up.

• Click on edit next to beam property. A new window named “Beam Property”
pops-up.

Material properties
You can now give the previously defined properties to the beam elements.

1. Click on “Show section manager” next to “Fore Section” and select the
section corresponding to the beam collector selected.

2. Click on “Choose Material” next to Material to select the corresponding

material. A new window named “Material List” pops-up. There, select the
desired material. If the required material does not exist create it using the create

button at the bottom of the window.

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Lumped masses (if needed)
To create lumped masses, go to the tab “Nodes and Elements” → “Element Create”,
and choose 0D mesh. If you have several different lumped masses, change “Add to
existing” to “Create New”. When done, click on OK.
You will be able to change the properties by expanding the “0D collector” and then
“Concentrated mass”. You can then right-click on each 0D element and choose “Edit
mesh associated data”.

Rigid connections (if needed)

For the rigid beams, do no create 1D mesh with beams. Instead, go to “Home” → “1D
connection” and create “RigidLinks” with the option “Point to Point” between the
adequate points. You do not need to have lines defined between these points a priori.
You will see green lines appear automatically when the “RigidLinks” have been
correctly defined.

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Flexible support (if needed)
For flexible supports, you can create a new “0D element” but change “Concentrated
mass” to “Grounded Bush”. In order to input the stiffness properties, right-click on
“Bush Collector” and select “Edit”. In the new window, click on “Edit” next to
“BushProperty”. You will be able to enter the properties in the new window. Then, click
OK on all windows.

Check for duplicate nodes

At the end, it is always better to check for duplicate nodes. If you realise that some
nodes are not connected to each other while they should, you can use the “Merge
nodes” menu (Nodes and Elements → Checks and Information → More). That way,
you will be able to first see if there are any double nodes in the structure using “List

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nodes”, and, if it is the case, to merge them by selecting them and clicking “Merges
nodes”.
N.B.: If you want more information, you can check the following Siemens tutorial about
“Modelling a beam and cross section”:
https://docs.plm.automation.siemens.com/docs/nx/1847/en_US/sc3d_2019_1_tutorials/conten
t/default/1.0/sc3d_2019_1_tutorials/en_US/tutorials_prepost/tutorials_prepost/modeling_a_b
eam_and_cross_section.html

3. Simulation
You will now have to create a third file. Exactly, as you did to create the “.fem” file,
open a new Samcef file but in this case choose “Sim”.

A window called “Solution” will pop-up. In that window, make sure to have the following
items:

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 (1) Solver is Samcef
(2) Analysis Type: Structural
(3) Solution Type: Modal Analysis
(4) Indicate the number of eigenfrequencies you want to compute
You can now add the constraints of your model (if particular boundary conditions need
to be applied, otherwise, this step is skipped). Under the tab ‘Home” select the
constraints corresponding to the project under the subtab “Constraint Type”.
If you have some difficulties to select the desired node (e.g. because it wants to select
a line, but not the node), just let your mouse over that node and it will become a cross,
offering different options.

Eventually, you can launch the computation by clicking on .

After the computation, check the errors and the warnings. If everything has gone well,
you can go in the results to analyse them.

You will find the results in the second tab of the right column:

There, double click on “Structural”. The button will change colour and
you can now expand to see the results. You can see the different eigenfrequencies
and eigenmodes.
Remark: you can animate the displacements to observe the different eigenmodes. For
this, go to the tab “Results” in the sub-tab “Animation”

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