Detect automatic contacts that are generated to verify that they represent the physical interactions of your model accurately. Only one contact type serves as the default for automatically inferred contacts, so it can be necessary to modify some contacts afterward.
For each simulation, you can access its tolerance value and contact type in the simulation properties.
Detect automatic contacts before simulation
- On the Contacts panel, click Automatic Contacts
. The model is evaluated, and contacts added where faces satisfy two criteria:- Distance between faces does not exceed the Tolerance value set in the Simulation Properties.
- Angle between the faces is within 15 degrees of being parallel.
When automatic contacts are generated, geometry decoration for mixed (solid + shell) and pure shell displays in the browser, indicating one of three types of contact:- [E-E] Edge-Edge, between two edges
- [E-F] Edge-Face, between an edge and a face
- [F-F] Face-Face, between two faces
- To change the contact type, edit individual contacts or multi-select contacts and enter the change.
Add contact conditions between component faces
- On the ribbon, click Manual Contact
, or in the browser, right-click the Contacts node 
, and click Manual Contact. - Select the first component or component face where contact occurs. Note: To enhance selection, turn on the filter reference. Select the component first, and then specify the contact face.
- Select the second component or component face where contact occurs.
- On the list of types applicable, specify the contact type. Static analysis lists all contact types. Modal analysis lists only Bonded and Spring contact types.
Normal and Tangential Stiffness are available only for spring contacts.