When Mechanica optimizes your part, the shape changes it performs can affect any items associated with your part, such as reference parts. Shape changes can also affect features that you suppress prior to running Mechanica, in that these features may no longer fit the part or may lose a dimensioning basis.

Before you start Mechanica, take a moment to consider the effects of optimization shape changes in a wider context. Look at the various ways you use your part and make sure that the optimization does not inadvertently change related parts.

Click on these topics to learn how optimization affects various aspects of your part:

Optimization and Suppressed Features
When it optimizes a part with suppressed features, Mechanica may change the shape of the part such that the suppressed feature no longer fits the part or loses a dimensioning basis. Whether this phenomenon occurs depends on how you developed the part as well as how you planned your design parameters.

One of the most common examples of a suppressed feature problem lies in the area of parent/child relations. If you build a suppressed feature as a child of a dimension that Mechanica eliminates during optimization, the suppressed feature is no longer valid when you unsuppress it. You then need to rebuild that feature using a different dimensioning scheme.

Before suppressing any feature, review its dependencies on unsuppressed features and other aspects of the design. This approach enables you to better calculate predictable results of your shape changes and, thus, define your design parameter ranges more effectively. You can also determine in advance which suppressed features you may need to redesign after the optimization.

Optimization and Assemblies
If you optimize an assembly part, the changes that Mechanica makes during optimization may result in a part that no longer fits the assembly.

In most cases, these changes will be obvious when you preview your design parameters by animating or reviewing the part's shape. Subtle changes, however, may be more difficult to catch. Fit problems may be even less obvious if you suppressed any features to better accommodate a Mechanica sensitivity study or optimization.

As you prepare your part for use with Mechanica, be aware of which features and dimensions are critical in the context of the assembly. Determine whether the benefits of using such a feature or dimension in the optimization outweigh the cost of changing an entire assembly. Where possible, avoid creating design parameters for these features and dimensions.

Optimization and Generic Parts
　　When you optimize a generic part from a family table, the dimension changes Mechanica makes can affect other family members. For example, if you optimize the thickness of a generic plate and thickness is not a table-driven dimension, the other parts in the family undergo an identical change in thickness.

If you plan to optimize a generic part, review the family table to make sure you understand which dimensions are table-driven. Make sure you want Mechanica to change all instances of a particular dimension before creating design parameters that use the dimension.

Pay particular attention to table-driven dimensions that do not have values assigned for each part instance. In cases like these, Mechanica changes all part instances except those that have predefined values.

Optimization and Reference Parts
A reference part is a duplicate of a design part that maintains a two-way association with the design part. Various Pro/ENGINEER manufacturing modules, such as Pro/MOLDESIGN and Pro/DIEFACE, create reference parts for use in developing manufacturing tools.

You define manufacturing features like mold runners and sprues using the reference part as a basis instead of the design part. This approach allows Pro/ENGINEER to maintain a record of tooling features separate from the design part.

The associativity between the design part and reference part enables Pro/ENGINEER to dynamically update manufacturing tools created through its manufacturing modules. In other words, if you alter your design part, you simultaneously change the reference part and the manufacturing tool built from the reference part.

With this in mind, be aware that Mechanica changes the shape of any associated manufacturing tools at the same time that it changes the shape of your part. If Mechanica changes aspects of your design that define manufacturing tool features, the manufacturing tool may no longer be valid.

For example, when you use Pro/MOLDESIGN to create a mold and you define one of the runners as Point–Surface, Pro/MOLDESIGN places a runner between a datum point and the specified part surface. If Mechanica then eliminates the surface as part of an optimization, the runner will have lost its placement geometry and the mold will no longer be valid.

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