Creating and Visualizing Contacts

A contact defines the connection between two surfaces. Simcenter STAR-CCM+ allows you to define contacts directly in 3D-CAD. Face contacts in the 3D-CAD model become contacts between part surfaces, and, ultimately, can form interfaces in the physics regions.

In 3D-CAD, you can create contacts manually or as a result of other operations such as imprinting faces or bodies. When you create geometry parts from a 3D-CAD model Simcenter STAR-CCM+ preserves any face contacts between part surfaces. Before you create geometry parts, you can visualize the contacts defined in the 3D-CAD model using the Contacts table view.
  1. To create contacts in 3D-CAD, you can use one of the following methods:
    OptionWorkflow
    Imprint selected faces or bodies.See Imprinting Faces or Imprinting Bodies.
    Create an Extrusion, Revolved, Lofted, Swept, Linear Pattern, or Circular Pattern Feature using the Imprint body interaction.See Extrusion Features, Revolved Features, Lofted Features, Swept Features, Linear Pattern, or Circular Pattern.
    Use the Create Face Contact option.
    1. Right-click either a Body or Body Group within the 3D-CAD tree, and select Create Face Contacts.
    2. In the Create Face Contact dialog, select the desired properties. For more information, see Contact in 3D CAD Reference.
    3. Click OK.
    When importing geometry into 3D-CAD, 3D-CAD also imports any predefined imprints and creates the corresponding contacts.
The Contacts table view lists all contacts defined in the 3D-CAD model. For each contact, the first column displays the bodies containing the face pairs that form the contact. The remaining columns display information on the face pairs, including their ID, area, area difference, Tolerance, and the feature used to create the face pair.
  1. Open the Contacts view in one of the following ways:
    • In the Visibility toolbar, click the arrow next to the right-most icon and select (Show Contact Table).

      The contact browser table displays existing contact pairs found by examining all bodies in the model.

    • In the 3D-CAD Model tree, right-click either the 3D-CAD Model 1, Body Group, Design Filter node, or one of the selected Body nodes and select Show Contacts.

      If you launch the contact browser table from the 3D-CAD model node, the contact browser table displays existing contact pairs found by examining all bodies in the model. If you launch the contact browser table from a selected body, body group, or design filter node, the contact browser displays the contact pairs associated with the selected bodies, bodies included in the selected body groups, or bodies in the design filter.

    • In the 3D-CAD Model tree, right-click the feature used to create the contacts and select Show Contacts.

      The contact browser table displays existing contact pairs found by examining all body pair combinations defined in the selected features. If the feature contains target and tool lists, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ does not search for items within these lists for contacts. Only combinations of target bodies with tool bodies are searched.

    • In the 3D-CAD View 1 scene, right-click one of the selected bodies or the selected Body Group and select Show Contacts.

      If you select a body or body group before selecting Show Contacts, the search for contact pairs is limited to those bodies. If no bodies or body groups are selected, the contact browser table will contain contact pairs found among all bodies in the model.

    • In the Feature Toolbar, click either the (Body Feature) or (Body Group Feature icon and select Show Contacts.
  2. To choose what information appears in the table, right-click the table header and select the desired table columns within the Show table columns dialog.

    When restoring a column, the corresponding filter is restored. When the columns are hidden from the table, the corresponding filter is also hidden.
  3. To isolate particular body pairs, select items in the table and click (Isolate the selected contact pairs).
  4. To isolate particular face pairs, select items in the table and click (Display only face pairs in main scene).
  5. To display the contacts present among the selected bodies, click (Show Contacts Among Selected Bodies).
  6. To visualize the contact pairs in an auxiliary view, click (Display contact pairs in auxiliary scenes).


    The auxiliary view splits the contact view into two separate views—one for each side of the contact.
  7. Optionally, choose the colors for the face pairs in the main scene:
    1. In the menu bar, select Tools > Options.
    2. Within the Options window select 3D-CAD.
    3. Select either Primary Filter Result Selection Color or Secondary Filter Result Selection Color and select the required color.
  8. To select the color of the Side-1 and Side-2 faces in the auxiliary scene, click (Change face pair color) or (Change face pair color).
  9. To make the bodies in the auxiliary view transparent, click (Make body pairs transparent in TOP auxiliary scene) or (Make body pairs transparent in BOTTOM auxiliary scene).
  10. To project the face pairs through the bodies, click (Display face pairs through bodies).
  11. To define a set of filter conditions:
    1. Display the table columns for the desired filters.
    2. Click (Filter Contact Pairs).
    3. In the Filter Contact Pairs sub-panel, click the drop down next to the desired filter options and define the filter operators.
    4. If you chose Filter Body Name or Feature Name, enter a text string. For Filter Area, Filter Area Difference, and Filter Tolerance/Gap, specify a value.
      Alternatively, you can copy Side-1, Side-2, Area-1, Area Diff., Gap Distance, and Feature values directly from the contact pairs table and paste them into the Filter Contact Pairs sub-panel.
    5. To apply the filter, click Apply or press the Enter key.
    6. To hide the Filter Contact Pairs sub-panel with the filters active, click Hide.
    7. To hide and reset the Filter Contact Pairs sub-panel, click Cancel or click (Filter Contact Pairs).
  12. To rename, color, or create a filter from a contact:
    1. Activate the checkbox of the required body pair or face pairs. Activating the body pair checkbox automatically activates all associated face pairs.
    2. Select the (Activate Feature Menu) node and select the desired feature.
    3. If you select Rename, specify the desired name within the Rename window.
    4. If you select Color, specify the required properties within either the Rename and Color Faces or Color Bodies dialog.

      If the Create Filter option is selected a new design filter is created automatically under the Design Filters node in the 3D-CAD Model tree. The design filter references the selected faces or bodies within the contacts table.
  13. To expand or collapse all the results within the tree table, click (Expand Tree) or (Collapse Tree).
  14. To display the body and face pairs in a sortable table, click (Display the contact pairs as a sortable table).
  15. To reposition the view without needing to zoom or pan the view, select an item in the table and click (Set focus on the selected result).
  16. Click Close.
  17. When converting the 3D-CAD geometry to parts, if contacts are generated using different tolerances within 3D-CAD deactivate the Create Part Contacts from Coincident Entities option within the Part Creation Options dialog.