Once you have created the solution sensors and parameters for use in an analysis, you can enter the Product Engineering Optimizer (PEO) workbench to create and run the optimization. The workbench is described in the Product Engineering Optimizer User's Guide.
Note: The incremental solution techniques used to solve each analysis step produce solution sensors that are a list of values. This list format prevents the use of the Algorithm for Constraints and Derivatives Providers in the Optimization dialog box.
This task shows you how to create and run an optimization.
Select the Optimization tool from the PEO toolbar.
In the Problem tab, do the following:
Select the optimization type.
Select the parameter to optimize.
Enter the “free” parameters that can be varied to optimize the desired result.
In the Constraints tab, enter the parameters that will limit the analysis.
Click Run optimization at the bottom of the dialog box.
A progress bar indicates that the optimization process is running.
Once you define the optimization problem and select Run, the optimization process submits jobs, attaches the results, and updates the solution sensors until the termination criteria are met. The automated job submission uses the Full Analysis and From Model options so that no interaction is required between analysis runs.
Updating a solution sensor or activating an image from the Nonlinear Structural Analysis or Thermal Analysis workbench will display results from the attached output database. If you are in the PEO workbench, updating a sensor or activating an image will trigger a new optimization run if any of the analysis parameters have changed.
Tip: To make parameters and optimizations available in the specification tree, select Tools>Options and toggle on Show parameters and Show relations in the General tabbed page for the Analysis & Simulation options.