Using Publications
A publication acts as a reference to a geometric or datum entity in a CATIA V5 part or product. You can use publications as supports for any feature in Nonlinear Structural Analysis or Thermal Analysis, as long as the entity referenced by the publication is appropriate. The following types of publications can be used in Nonlinear Structural Analysis or Thermal Analysis:
Face
Face publications can be used in place of surface geometry or construction plane supports; for example, when defining pressure loads or surface orientations.
Edge
Edge publications can be used in place of line geometry or construction axis supports; for example, when defining line mass densities or the axis of rotation for initial velocities.
Vertex
Vertex publications can be used in place of point geometry supports; for example, when defining point heat fluxes or the handler point for rigid body constraints.
Axis system
Axis system publications can be used in place of user-defined axis system supports.
Plane
Plane publications can be used in place of construction plane supports; for example, when defining surface orientations.
Axis
Axis publications can be used in place of construction axis supports.
To use a publication as a support for a feature in Nonlinear Structural Analysis or Thermal Analysis, select the publication from the specification tree. Publications appear under the Links Manager objects set, as shown in Figure 8–4.
Publications are similar to groups (see Creating Groups), except they are defined on the CATIA V5 part or assembly; they are not features of the analysis document (see Working with CATIA V5 Files). You can create publications in the Part Design or Product Design workbench; you cannot create new publications in the Nonlinear Structural Analysis or Thermal Analysis workbenches. For more information about creating publications, see Publishing Elements in the CATIA V5 Part Design User's Guide.
Publications allow you to modify a model without invalidating the features defined in the analysis document. If you modify the entity to which a publication refers in a CATIA V5 part or assembly, all of the features in the analysis document using that publication are updated to refer to the new entity. When replacing parts in an analysis document, if the old and new parts include publications with identical names, any analysis features that use these publications are updated to refer to the published entities on the new part. The same behavior applies to replacing assemblies.