Connectors and Connector Terminology

Connectors are a geometric representation of connections between entities. The advantage of connectors is the ability to create multiple connections at a single time. Hundreds or even thousands of connections that would normally have to be created manually one at a time can be mass created, even before the part is meshed. They can be used to create numerous types of connection elements such as:

Connector Terminology

The terminology for creating and editing connectors is somewhat unique. Below we go through the link of connector terminology and give a brief description of what each term means.

• Link Entities - The entities that are being connected
• User can explicitly define link entities or specify a search tolerance
• Can be components, elements, surfaces, nodes, or tags
• Typically components are linked
• Connector Location - Where the entities are linked
• Nodes – created at the node location
• Points – created at the point location
• Lines – created on the line. The line may be split into multiple projection locations as specified by the offset, spacing, and density values.
• Elements – created at the element location (adhesives only)
• Surface – created at the surface location (adhesives only)
• Connector Realization – The creation of the finite element representation of that connector
• Rigids, springs, etc., or custom configurations such as ACMs, CWELDS, etc.)
• Connector State – Whether an FE representation of a connector has been created
• Unrealized - The initial status of the connector entity upon creation
• Realized - The status only if creation of the FE weld representation at the connector was successful
• Failed – The status if creating the FE weld representation at the connector was not successful
• # of Layers – number of FE weld layers to attempt to generate for the connector
• 2T, 3T, etc






• Connect When – Specifies when the link entity information is added to the connector
• Now - Allows you to add link entity information now. For this option, you must select the connect what entities and num layers to successfully create a connector.
• At FE Realize - The link entities to the connector are determined while realizing the connector. The link entities are determined by the projections and proximity from the connector location.
• Re-Connect Rule – Defines method for connector re-attachment during part swapping/replacement
• None - If a link entity is deleted, the link entity is removed from the connector
• By ID - If a link entity is deleted, the connector retains the ID of the link entity, and will to a new entity with that ID upon realization
• By Name – Same as the by id rule except that the entity name is retained