Calculate Assembly's Mass

Calculate the volume and weight of a part or an assembly and mark the location of the mass center in the model. When you calculate a model's mass, the program stops at Mass Calculation dialog box, from which the data can be copied to clipboard. Gravity Center symbol appears in the assembly tree after the calculation. Its color turns to red when the calculation needs to update.

Note:
  • Zoom in to the Gravity Center mark by selecting Gravity Center from the feature tree and selecting Zoom in the context-sensitive menu / press Z key.
  • Set the gravity center mark visible or hide it by the G key.
  • Open the Mass Calculation dialog box by double clicking Gravity Center from the feature tree.

Part's mass calculation

Weight calculation is performed based on the geometry of the model. The coordinates of the mass center and moments of inertia relative to the mass center are also presented in the calculations. Specify the density of a part used in calculation in the part properties. If no density is specified for a part, the program will use the default density in the calculations.

Assembly's mass calculation

When the weight of an assembly is calculated, you can calculate the total weight of all parts visible in the model, or the weight of parts selected from the assembly. If you calculate the total weight of all parts visible in the model, mass is also calculated for those parts that are not collected on the assembly's parts list. Weight of the parts hidden from the assembly are not calculated.

Calculate a Mass

You can start the calculation when nothing is selected in the model window.

  • On the tab, in the Tools group, click Mass calculation.

Alternatively, perform the Mass calculation by the context-sensitive function.

  • If you calculate the total weight of all parts visible in the model, select the context-sensitive function Other Exports> Weight calculation.
  • If you want to calculate the weight of certain parts, select parts in the assembly and the context-sensitive function Other Exports> Weight calculation.

    Select the mass center measurement point from the part/assembly or accept the absolute origin of the model as the measurement point by clicking the middle mouse button.

Calculation results

Assembly - The total weight of all parts visible in the model or parts selected in the assembly is calculated. Weight of the parts hidden from the assembly are not calculated. The weight calculation is performed to the end even if the assembly is included unusable geometry.

The calculation results are opened in Notepad (default editor) for viewing. Volume, weight and mass center are displayed in the result. List of the hidden parts, which weight were not calculated, is also included the result. The calculation results are automatically saved in the active project with a file name formed from the model name and the extension _mass.txt. If the project is not active, the calculation results are saved in the common text directory Shared/texts.

Additionally, the result of the weight calculation is added to:

  • The properties of the part model
  • The archives data of the part or assembly models
  • The archives data of the part or assembly drawing

When editing a part or changing the density value, you can recalculate the weight of the part or the assembly by pressing F5 key or with the context-sensitive menu function Refresh, if the mass center mark already exists in the model.

 

Note:
  • You can later open the result file from the Vertex directory Shared/projects/project_name.
  • The program calculates the location of the mass center in relation to the absolute origin unless the mass center measurement point is specifically selected from the model. When a part is modeled, the origin of its first sketch defines the absolute origin for it.
  • Define the density of a part by first selecting the part, then the context-sensitive function Properties. Click the Item Data button in the dialog box and specify the density value.
  • You can edit the default value of the density by selecting >  System Preferences >  Mechanical Engineering. Enter a value for the density on the Mechanical tab.
  • When the weight of an assembly is calculated, parts with geometry are included in the calculation, but bulk items defined for the assembly are not.
  • The results of the calculation are opened in Notepad (default editor), or the text editor that has been registered for the .txt extension.
  • The mass center is displayed in the model drawing. You can delete the mass center from the model after the weight calculation. In complex models the mark slows down the processing of the model. The result will remain in the archives data. However, if you change the geometry of the model afterwards, the weight will not be updated.