User guide /

Test bench

A test bench tests one assembly from the same project and holds any number of experiments. Each experiment is one test of the whole assembly, a subassembly or one part, solved on the server; the page shows the result in 3D. Create a test bench with New → Test bench on the project page and pick the assembly it tests, or ask the AI.

The page

  • Left panel: the Experiments list. New adds an experiment; the edit button opens its setup: the subject, the Stress and Flow toggle, the setup and Run. Rename or delete an experiment at the top of its setup.
  • Middle: the subject in 3D. The setup shows the part with its supports in green and loads in orange; after a run the floating bar plays the result.
  • Right: the AI panel.

Setting up a stress test

  1. Under Subject, choose a part or a subassembly of the test bench's assembly. The parts of a subassembly that touch are joined into one solid, as if glued.
  2. Press Pick support and click the face the part is held by. fixed holds it in every direction; sliding only stops it moving through the face.
  3. Press Pick load and click the face the load acts on. A new load pushes on the face with 10 N; change the x, y and z forces in newtons, or switch it to pressure in MPa.
  4. Material uses each part's own material from the assembly, or one material for all of them. A part without one counts as PLA.
  5. Include the part's weight adds gravity.
  6. Choose the Resolution and press Run. The panel shows the typical time and the cost in credits before you run; coarse is right for trying things, fine for the final number.

The AI can do all of this for you: ask it, for example, "will this bracket hold 2 kg hanging from the hole?".

Reading the result

  • Safety factor: the material's yield strength divided by the highest stress in the part. Under 1 the part yields; for a 3D printed part aim for at least 1.5.
  • Peak stress and where it is: usually an inside corner, a hole or a thin wall. A fillet there or more material around it lowers it.
  • Largest movement: how far any point of the part moves, in mm.
  • In the Result view the part is coloured from blue (no stress) through green to red (at or above the yield strength). Hover to read the stress and movement at a point. Deformation exaggerates the bending so you can see it; Animate swings it back and forth.

When you change the setup or the part after a run, the result stays on screen marked as older than the setup until you run again.