Apply materials

Learn how to apply materials to components in a simulation study.

1. From the Simulation workspace, Setup tab, select Materials > Study Materials to open the Study Materials dialog.

   Note: When you right-click a particular material in the browser to access the Study Materials command, all components that use the same material are automatically preselected. Therefore, changing the material assignment updates all of the parts that have the previous material in common. If you do not want to change all of the preselected components to a different material assignment, deselect the components you wish to leave unchanged. Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking a selected row to deselect it.

2. Choose the desired Material Library to use for populating the material selection drop-down lists. The choices are:

   • All libraries: Menus list all materials from the Fusion Material Library, the Fusion Nonlinear Material Library, the Favorites library, and any user-defined libraries that you have created.
   • Favorites Library: Menus display only materials added to the Favorites library in the Material Browser. Initially, this library is disabled. It is enabled only when you add a material to the Favorites.
   • Fusion Material Library: The menus list only the materials included in the Fusion Material Library.
   • Fusion Nonlinear Material Library: The menus list only the materials included in the Fusion Nonlinear Material Library.

3. Use the drop-down list in the Study Material column to select a material. The selection overrides the default material or any material assigned in the Design workspace. It also replaces any previous study material assignment.

   Note: A yellow exclamation mark next to the material name means that the material cannot be used in the simulation. If you pause the cursor over the yellow exclamation mark, a pop-up message indicates the reason the material is unacceptable. Possible reasons for an unusable library material are:
   • One or more specified properties are missing or outside of allowable limits. For example, the material strength must be specified for structural stress analyses.
   • The material type is not appropriate.

   Even though you can select such materials, you are not able to solve the simulation. Select a valid material (without the yellow mark) to simulate your design.

4. Use the options in the Safety Factor column to specify what material value is used as the basis of the Safety Factor calculation:

   • Yield Strength The maximum stress a material can withstand without permanent deformation.
   • Ultimate Tensile Strength The maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking.

5. Specify material overrides for as many components as needed.

6. If you want to see the physical properties of a material, select the Study Material row for which you want to see the properties. Then, click the Properties button to expand the dialog box. The list at the right end of the dialog shows the basic Physical material properties for the selected row of the table. The list does not show the Appearance or Nonlinear properties.

   If your material has nonlinear, temperature-dependent, or hyperelastic properties, a View advanced material properties button appears in the expanded dialog. In such cases, do the following to see the properties:

   1. Click the View advanced material properties button to display the Material Browser dialog. The frame at the top of this dialog lists the Document Materials, with the material that you selected in the Study Materials dialog highlighted.
   2. Click Edit at the right end of the selected document material row to expand the dialog and see all of the material properties. (Edit only appears when the cursor is over a material row in the table.
   3. Close the Material Browser dialog when finished reviewing the advanced properties.
   4. Optionally, from the Setup tab, select Materials > Study Materials to return to the Study Materials dialog.

7. When finished, click OK to apply the changes and close the Study Materials dialog.

Assign a material to multiple components

You can select multiple rows in the Apply Materials dialog and change the material assignment for multiple components in one operation:

1. Open the Apply Material dialog.
2. Click a row in the dialog to select the first component for which you want to change material assignment.
3. To select multiple rows, press and hold the Ctrl key and select more rows. Alternatively, to select a series of contiguous rows, use the Shift key while clicking the last row in the series.
4. Select a material using the drop-down list in one of the selected rows. The material that you choose is assigned to all selected components.