When you open Visiometa you need to create a New project. Following the opening, you will see the General User Interface. You need to open the MODELS MENU to IMPORT a new geometry. https://visiometa.com/files/downloads/drive_housing.step (Some browsers may show the file as .txt type. Save it without txt extension to have a step-file). You need to “Select” the geometry in the MODELS MENU in order to instentiate it. Click “Instantiate” in the MODELS MENU to create an origin in the LAYOUT MENU of the MAIN FEATURES. To assign an instance to the geometry you need to mark it in the LAYOUT MENU and switch to the INSTANCES TOOLBAR. Here you can select an instance for the cast part: chill insert: feeder sleeve: feeder volume: gating system: mold section: sand core:

Alternatively the entities involved maybe defined thru the LAYOUT MENU: When you click on the name “i.e. Fused Shape 1” in the FEATURE MENU of the LAYOUT MENU this opens its DIALOGUE on the right hand side of the screen. To assign an entity to the geometry you need to click on the arrow in the Domain entry in order to open the select entity window. In the FEATURE MENU you find entries for Casting and Mold. To assign a material to the Domain you need to open the Domains Menu from the Main Features. Now click on the name of the Damain (when purple) to open their DIALOGUE on the right side of the screen. You assign the material by click on the arrow . This opens the Select Entity window with the materials arranged in a folder structure. When selected, you can see the selected material in the DOMAINS MENU after the name of the Domain. The same has to be done with the mold material.

In the BASIC SETTINGS you can define your space which is meshed later and where the calculation is performed. Adapt the bounds to the part by click onto the face and drag them. (The bounding box maybe altered later if required to enable the design of the casting system.)

For sand casting it is a good choice to select the overall dimensions of the drag and cope mold half. When you open the EDITOR TOOLBAR at the bottom of the screen, bounds can be introduced here also by click onto BOUNDS . To add a Constraint Plane click onto the “Layout button” in the MAIN FEATURES. Then open the LAYOUT TOOLBAR at the bottom of the screen. A click onto the CONSTRAINT PLANE in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR adds a plane into the workspace. A click onto the considered constraint plane in the LAYOUT MENU opens the CONSTRAINT PLANE DIALOGUE.

“Support” is the offset of the plane (position within the workspace in mm), “Normal” allows to change its orientation by selecting “Horizontal”, “Vertical” or “Lateral” according to the orientation of the instance. You may even use the Rotation functionality which can be opened by pressing the button.

To add a grid to the constraint plane open the WORKSPACE TOOLBAR and click on “Graticule” button to open its DIALOGUE. Set “Visible” and “Snapping” onto “True”. Set the “Resolution” onto a useful value, e.g. 50.0 mm with a subdivision of 10. The size of graticule is 5 mm now. When you click and hold the right mouse button in the workspace, its coordinates are shown in brackets, e.g. (-55 | -5 | 0).

To add a vertex, you open the LAYOUT TOOLBAR in the MAIN FEATURES again. (Vertices are used for the placement of components or for the design of Edges.) To add a vertex click with the right mouse button at the chosen position in the workspace grid.

Click onto the “Create Vertex” button in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. The vertex is shown in the workspace as well as in the LAYOUT MENU. Its DIALOGUE can be opened by clicking onto the name of the considered vertex in the LAYOUT MENU Entity list, or by using the “Inspection Mode” of the EDITOR TOOLBAR and selecting the vertex by left mouse click in the workspace.

The selection of a vertex can be done by selecting it in the LAYOUT MENU within the Layout Entities, or by clicking the “Inspect” button in the EDITOR TOOLBAR. Alternatively you may use the “Select” button in the EDITOR TOOLBAR or you press Ctrl (Strg) on your keyboard and click onto the desired vertex in the workspace. In the FEATURE MENU of the LAYOUT MENU, the corresponding vertex is marked then also.

When a further vertex is produced, the previous one is deselected, indicated in the LAYOUT MENU Entity List by the missing hook as well as the color change to purple in the workspace.

To move a vertex within the workspace you need to “select” it and enter the new coordinates into its DIALOGUE on the right hand side. Alternatively, you may use the “Translate” button in the EDITOR TOOLBAR to change to the translate mode. You may now drag and drop the vertex with the mouse in the workspace.

To bind a vertex to the corresponding constraint plane, you “Select” it as well as the constraint plane in the LAYOUT MENU, then open the LAYOUT TOOLBAR and click “Bind Constraints” . To remove the binding of a vertex (or vertices) from a constraint plane, you “Select” it and also the constraint plane in the LAYOUT MENU and “Unbind Constraints” in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR.

To create an Edge between two vertices “Select” both and use “Create Edge” in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. By this the vertices are deselected and the edge is selected. Alternatively you can create a further vertex and an edge between them by placing the locator at the intended vertex position in the workspace and then use the “Extend Graph” from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. The binding of vertices to a constraint plane is important as it affects the orientation of components assigned to edges and vertices later on.

To assign a component to a vertex you “Select” the vertex and then open the PATTERNS TOOLBAR. Choose the component you want to design. Click onto the End of the Straight to open its PROPERTIES DIALOGUE and you may change the shape from “Blind” to “Ingate”.

To create a feeder and assign it to a vertex, you need select the vertex and then select the “Feeder” from the PATTERNS TOOLBAR and open the FEEDER DIALOGUE by clicking onto the feeder name in the LAYOUT MENU (the name appears in purple). In the FEEDER DIALOGUE you can select its “Shape” as “Side” or “Top”. Enter the local part Modulus (data out of the modulus analysis (default is 0,3 cm)). You can set the “NeckModulusFactor” to 1.0, you may increase it later according to the modulus analysis results of the feeder. You may change the “PartingRatio” (default is 50%). 0% means the feeder neck is in the drag mold - and with 100%, the feeder neck in the top mold. The “HeightRatio” (default is 0%) is to modify the feeder height with 0% for the feeder height = 1.5 x feeder Ø and 100% for the feeder height = 2.0 x feeder Ø.

Feeder necks can be designed by opening the STRAIGHT DIALOGUE by clicking onto the straight listed in the LAYOUT MENU entity list. The setting of the “FeederNeck” onto “True” in the STRAIGHT DIALOGUE (default is “False”) creates automatically a feeder neck with dimensions according to the feeder zone modulus.

Open the “End” menu by clicking onto the end listed in the LAYOUT MENU entity list and set the shape onto “Ingate” creates sharped edges. Open the EDITOR TOOLBAR for analyzing of the cross section properties and select PROPERTIES . With “Inspect” and the selection of the cross section area of the straight, the PROPERTIES DIALOGUE opens. The cross section area in this case is limited to “Generic” only.

If the casting geometry does not fit to the standard feeder neck properties, you may adjust its dimensions as close as possible by setting “FeederNeck” in the “Straight” DIALOGUE onto “False” and then open the EDITOR TOOLBAR and “Inspect” in the EDITOR TOOLBAR you may set “Shape” onto “Generic” and change the “CalculationBasis” from “TotalArea” to “TotalHeight” and you can use the fields “TotalHeight”, “TotalArea”, “DraftAngle”, “Diameter” (Width) etc. for the design of the feeder neck.

You can do the same for the feeder neck cross section area next to the feeder body, as both areas are not necessarily the same.

To check the modulus of the straight, click onto the modified straight and check the modulus according to the custom dimensions calculated by Visiometa. The feeder neck modulus has to be the same then entered into “PartModulus” in FEEDER DIALOGUE. If the modulus of the custom feeder neck does not match with the local part modulus, go back to the cross section areas of the feeder neck and design a feeder neck according to local part modulus and most close to the existing geometry.

A full 3D view of the created design can be found in the LAYOUT MENU of the MAIN FEATURES. You need to “Build Patterns” . Here you may also export the marked components by using of “Export Selection” which opens an explorer window where you can select the export file type.

The Model Exporter opens automatically where you may select the export mode “Fusion”:

• True = all data are fused to a single file
• False = all data are saved as single files

“Start” in the MODEL EXPORTER DIALOGUE starts the export.

In the OVERVIEW MENU there is a table of the volumes and weights of your design:

• “Bounding Box” = volume and weight of the bounding box
• “Mold” = volume and weight of your mold
• “Part” = total raw part volume and weight
• “Circulation” = volume and weight of the feeding and gating system
• “Total Cavity” = pouring volume and weight
• “Casting Yield” = raw part volume / pouring volume

To do an analysis of the part including your design, change to BASIC SETTINGS MENU in the MAIN FEATURES. Check if the bounding box includes your design and update it if necessary.

Change to the DISCRETIZATION FEATURES . Then an input of the number of cells is required. For a good analysis you should check the minimal wall thicknes of the part to include at least one complete cell. You may either click onto the relevant default button or fill in manually into “CellCount” or “CellSpacing”.

The higher the cellcount the more accurate the analysis will be, but on the other hand higher resolutions require longer calculation times. To include the design components (your gating system), you need to set the “Include Design Components” checkbox to “True”. Update the discretization by . Change to the ANALYSIS MENU and “Update” the modulus analysis. For the design of a proper feeding system always the “Thermal Modulus” should be used.

The region which solidifies last shall be the Feeder. In order to achieve controlled solidification no region shall solidify isolated except for the feeder.

Selection and deselection of elements:

• in the LAYOUT MENU by change from to
• or by click into the workspace and press enter button of your keyboard to select everything, vertices and instances
• to deselect everything click into the workspace and press backspace button of the keyboard

The file of our tutorial example can be downloaded from https://visiometa.com/files/downloads/drive_housing.step. (The file may be shown as .txt in your browser and you may have to start the download manually. It is saved in binary format and shown as .txt in your explorer in the download folder. Rename the extension to “.stp”.)

Open Visiometa and create a New project. In MODELS of the MAIN FEATURES “Import” the file.

Select the part in the LAYOUT MENU and instentiate it. In the LAYOUT MENU select the part and switch to the INSTANCES FEATURE TOOLBAR. Here select Castpart to assign the Domain Casting to the geometry data. Switch to the Domains Menu from the Main Features to assign a casting material. Howering over the text Casting and click on it when it appears purple opens the Casting Domain DIALOGUE on the right side of the screen. To assign the material click in the material entry. This opens the “Select Entity” window. Where you can select AlSi7Mg as material for the casting and in a second step Green Sand for the mold. In BASIC SETTINGS create a bounding box with 10% Margin. Switch to the DISCRETIZATION MENU and select the minimum CellCount. Create a Design mesh by “Update” . Switch to the ANALYSIS MENU and “Update” the Thermal Modulus analysis.

With the “Show Hotspots” in the ANALYSIS MENU you open the Hotspot Detection DIALOGUE and “Execute” the calculation.

This calculation is the basis for the design of the proper feeder size.

Switch to the LAYOUT MENU (click once in the workspace) and press the spacebar of your keyboard to open the RADIAL MENU (shortcut). Select Topview and Orthographic Projection.

Switch to the LAYOUT TOOLBAR at the bottom of the screen. At first produce a constraint plane in X and Y with a Support of Z = 0. To show a graticule open the WORKSPACE TOOLBAR at the bottom of the screen. Select “Graticule” to open the GRATICULE DIALOGUE. Set the Resolution to 50 with a Subdivision of 10 and enable “Visible” and “Snapping”. This gives a mesh of 5 mm space and the elements will be placed at the grid points. Place the locator at (-60|-10|0) to produce a vertex here by switching to the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. Place the locator now at (-60|-40|0) to use “Extend Graph” which produces a second vertex for the feeder, as well as an edge. The feeder can be built by selection of the “Feeder Cone” from the PATTERNS TOOLBAR with the marked vertex in the LAYOUT MENU. In the FEEDER CONE DIALOGUE enter the PartModulus 0.61, set the NeckModulusFactor to 1, a PartingRatio of 100 % brings the gate into the top mold and a VerticalNeckRatio of 90 % produces a narrower, but higher gate. In the STRAIGHT DIALOGUE change from FeederNeck “False” to “True”. The last step is to modify the End of vertex 1 by opening of it's DIALOGUE and change of the Shape from “Blind” to “Ingate”.

For the second feeder we need a larger Bounding Box. Change to the BASIC SETTINGS MENU and increase the Margin to 25% and “Update Dimensions”. Place the locator at (30|15|85) and create a vertex, then place the locator at (60|15|0). We can switch back to the LAYOUT MENU and use “Extend Graph” from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. All vertices and the constraint plane must now be marked and bound to the constraint plane by “Bind Constraints” from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR.

Produce the second feeder by marking the relevant vertex with PartModulus 0.53, set the NeckModulusFactor to 1, PartingRatio of 100 %. In The STRAIGHT DIALOGUE set FeederNeck “True” and change the shape of the End to “Ingate”.

The idea is to use the larger feeder as feeder for two part cavities and the parts will be filled through this feeder. (They are connected with the runner.) For this a translation of the larger feeder to X = 0, Y = 0 and Z = 0 would be helpful. In the picture you see the center of the larger feeder in yellow which should be shifted to the position of the locator at 0|0|0 (Background modified for visibility.)

For the translation of elements open the EDITOR TOOLBAR. Select all elements (except for the constraint plane). Open the GIZMO LOCATOR by clicking in the WORKSPACE TOOLBAR and enter the position 0, 0, 0. This moves the locator to the postion. Change to “Translate” mode in the EDITOR TOOLBAR. With drag and drop (position of feeder1 to 0|0|0) the selected components can be moved to the locator position.

To produce a copy of design elements used for the second part it is recommended to copy the housing and only the smaller feeder, its vertices and the edge and create a “Compound” by marking the elements and then use “Compound” from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. You may rename the Compound by using the “Header details” of the COMPOUND DIALOGUE and rename to “Part1”. Then you mark the compound “Part1” in the LAYOUT MENU Entity List and select “Duplicate” from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. The DUPLICATE DIALOGUE opens. You built the “Compound” for the second cavity by clicking “Apply” in the DIALOUGE. Rename the Part1(Clone) to “Part2”. Now you deselect “Part1” and select the second compound “Part2” and open it's DIALOUGE. Here you can use the Rotation and use “Assign” Z 180°.

Finally the missing edge between the shared feeder and Part2 has to be built by placing a vertex at (0|-30|0), selecting the shared feeder cone vertex and use “CreateEdge” to build a straight between them. The End has to be set to a “Ingate” shape and in the straight DIALOGUE change FeederNeck from “False to true”.

As a new compound is placed always at the position of the locator, it should be moved back to (0|0|0). Then you produce a “Compound” with “Part1” and “Part2” as well as the shared feeder and the connecting edges (at the same level of “Part1” and “Part2”) and rename it to “Cavity1”.

Your cavity now should look like this:

Create your mold by entering the dimensions in the BASIC SETTINGS MENU .

Apply a rotation of Z 20° to “Cavity1” by opening of COMPOUND DIALOGUE.

Place the locator at x -150 y 120 and then change to the “Translate Mode” in the EDITOR TOOLBAR. You may now select the joint feeder to place it at the locator position.

You need to produce three copies of “Cavity1” to produce “Cavity2”, 3 and 4. You may use the COMPOUND DIALOGUE and enter the new positions of the copied cavities here. Their positions should be:

The following picture gives an overview:

To create runners between the cavities, mark the vertices of the relevant shared feeders (in the cavity compounds) and use “Create Edge” from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR.

NOTE: From the last “Create Edge” the edge maybe selected in the Layout Entity list. To work with “Extend Graph” you have to deselect it in the list.

For the remaining runner system you place vertices at following positions: (You may use CREATE VERTEX for the first vertex (#3) and then use “Extend Graph” in order to directly produce the whole runner system with a series of mouse clicks.) For this you have to select vertex 2 first.

Vertices shown in () already exist as at this positions the shared feeder of the cavities. Therefore their vertices need to be selected and an edge created between them by the CREATE EDGE in the LAYOUT TOOLBAR.

Vertex 5 is the lower end of the downsprue. Vertex 10* shall be placed after the following constraint plane is built.

Build a second (Constraint) “Create Plane” for the downsprue with the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. The plane is inserted at the position of the locator. (Shall be at X=250.) It's orientation should be “Lateral” (in the direction of the Z-axis).

The funnel is located at Vertex 10 (the top of the downsprue)

Vertex 5 and 10 can not be bound by “Extend Graph”. You need to place the locator at the position of Vertex 10. Build it and afterwards use “Select” from the EDITOR TOOLBAR, mark Vertex 5 and 10. When both vertices are selected use “Create Edge” from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR. Bind Vertices 3 to 7 to the first constraint plane (1,2 and 8,9 are already bound to the constraint plane). Bind Vertex 5 and 10 to the second constraint plane in “Lateral” orientation. (Vertex 5 is bound to both constraint planes.)

For the definition of the section cuts of the runner system you need to switch to the EDITOR TOOLBAR to the “Properties” function. It is important that you are in the inspection mode (Else the Dialogue would not be shown.) The section cuts are shown in green colour now. They can be defined by their individual dialogues. You may also use the “Group Edit” function from the LAYOUT TOOLBAR to assign the same entries for similar sections. For this, the section cuts need to be selected by Control (CRTL) of your Keyboard and left mouse click. The selection can be identified visually as the color changes from green to yellow. The following table contains the settings to create the runner system. An End will be shown as single section cut. Vertices, which are shown as “Joint” in the LAYOUT MENU, have two section cuts. These are shown in the table with their corresponding partner vertex, creating the Edge between them. (To be read as section cut at postion of vertex A in direction to vertex B.)

To start with the definition deselect all Layout entities with backspace.

Finally the casting system “Components” can be defined. Ends and joints are created automatically as can be seen in the LAYOUT MENU Entity List, but if a special “Component” shall be used on an Edge or a Vertex, this needs to be defined. In this case it is the Vertex 10 where a “Funnel” needs to be built instead of an “End” with the COMPONENT TOOLBAR with a shape of “FlushSlope” (defined in the FUNNEL DIALOGUE). The connecting “Joint” of the downsprue to the runners (Vertex 5) has to be a “Slope” with angular shape. A joint (which has been assigned automatically) will lead to an error message, as it only can link vertices in a plane. (A Solpe allows to change into another plane.) The Edge of Vertex 10-5 needs to be a downsprue with round shape and the edges from vertex 2-3 and 7-8 shall be a “Filter”.

To resume from the “properties” function and get back to the regular Layout representation click twice on the LAYOUT in the MAIN FEATURES.

In the FILTER DIALOUGE enter the following information:

You may use the OVERVIEW MENU to export the file. The project can be saved with the FILE TOOLBAR.

(Tutorial pdf S. 248)