Q2.1 After running Patran I have several files
created in my home directory. Which files do I keep?
Q2.2 Have set up the f.e. data. Ran the ABAQUS analysis. No
errors reported in the *.msg.* file. However the *.fil does not show up
under the list of "Results File" on the "Read Results" form. What do I do?
Q2.3 After creating a separate directory for
running Patran from a separate, I can't find any of the Patran files in
that directory?
Q2.4 I have accidentally deleted the patran database
(*.db) or it appears to be corrupted. What do I do?
Q2.5 The patran database I was using has grown
into several Megabytes in size. What do I do?
Q2.6 When I open existing PATRAN
database the heartbeat continues to flash red indefinitely. What is the problem?
Q2.7 What do I need to specify
to create a ABAQUS restart (*.res) file?
Q2.8 Why is that one has to give names to
everything in PATRAN?
Q2.9 What is the significance of the names
used for job, job step and load case in a ABAQUS analysis?
Q3.1 How do I remove/add point/line/surface/node/element
labels?
Q3.2 How do I find the positive normal to a surface?
Q3.3 I have a 3D mesh displayed in wireframe mode.
How do I get a hidden line or shaded view?
Q3.4 I have zoomed in to part of the f.e.mesh and I
am using the middle mouse button to rotate it and check it. But Patran automatically redraws
the whole mesh to fit the viewport. How do I prevent this from happenning?
Q3.5 How do I display the f.e.mesh with shrunken
elements?
Q3.6 I have a 3 dimensional model and I would like to spin it ie. rotate it slowly so that I can view it from different
directions. How do I do that?
Q3.7 When an entity selection has to be made the
`Select menu' which usually appears next to the form does not appear ie pop up.
What do I do ?
Q3.8 Can the default select entity cursor be changed to show a pair of crosswires?
Q3.9 Is it possible to change the centre of
rotation?
Q4.4 I have drawn the stress tensors first and then
subsequently generated a fringe plot which appears superimposed on the previous
plot. How do I clear the screen in between plots?
Q4.5 How do I get the fringe plot drawn on
the undeformed mesh?
Q4.6 How do I get the fringe plot drawn on
the deformed mesh?
Q4.7 How do I remove the element boundaries from the
plot and just have the mesh outline?
Q4.8 The deformed shape looks very distorted. How do
I change the displacement magnification?
Q4.9 I am creating a fringe plot of the displacement
magnitude. The plot looks OK but the legend displays zeroes for all the fringe bands.
What do I do?
Q4.10 In displaying the results some numbers appear
superimposed on the plot. What are these and how do I remove them?
Q4.11 How do I change the number of fringe bands
or the fringe interval?
Q4.12 Can the results values used in the fringe plots
be scaled?
Q4.13 How can I produce a contour plot (just lines)
instead of a fringe plots (colour bands)?
Q4.14 I have carried out one analysis and looked at the results.
I have modified the mesh and re-run the analysis and looked at the result and these
are fine. However If I try to look at the results of the first analysis they look
wrong. What do I do?
Q4.15 I have carried out one analysis with a coarse mesh. I would like to refine the mesh. On what basis do I refine the mesh?
Q4.16 Is it possible to display the nodal values of the fringe plot?
Q4.17 How do I get a shaded view of the deformed mesh?
Q5.1 I have created a small arc (curve) and it is
displayed by a 'V' shaped line. What do I do?
Q5.2 When I created a ruled surface with old versions of PATRAN green
lines were drawn which represented the surface. Why are these lines absent with the latest version of PATRAN?
Q5.3 How do I find the centre of gravity, volume, mass and 2nd moment of area of the geometry
I have created?
Q5.4 Is it possible to create a triangular surface?
Q5.5 I need to create a surface with curved sides. When I tried to create it using opposite sides it ignores the curved sides and creates a trapezium. How do I correct this?
Q5.6 I need to create a superimposed
set of surfaces. How can I make a copy from an existing surface?
Q5.7 In trying to create a graded mesh can I connect a corner point of one surface to the middle of another side?
Q5.8 I am creating a new model and I am placing the
different parts of the model in different groups. However
the newly created surfaces, solids seems to end up in the wrong groups.
What do I do?
Q5.9 How do I create a circle (circular surface) ?
Q5.10 How do I create an ellipse (elliptical surface) ?
Q5.11 How do I create a graded (unstructured) mesh with fine elements nearer the central hole in a thick cylinder problem ?
Q5.12 Can I use super-imposed surfaces
for modelling a part of the mesh which is of different thickness?
Q5.13 I need to change some dimensions of the geometry and re-create a mesh. Are there any short-cuts?
Q6.1 The f.e. mesh I have created has many more
elements than I had expected. What do I do?
Q6.2 What do I do to get the current mesh seeds
displayed?
Q6.3 How do I go about assigning mesh seeds differently
to different parts of the geometry? It seems tedious if the geometry is complex and
has many surfaces?
Q6.4 When making copies of surface already assigned
mesh seeds does the information about the mesh seeds 'remembered' by the copies?
Q6.6 I am trying to create a `Beam is Space' for use with ABAQUS and I am getting the following error message : A Value for Property "Definition of XY Plane" must be entered. Check the remaining property values.
Q6.7 I am trying to create shell elements using the 'Finite Element' form. The only choice I can make is the order
of the element : Quad4, Quad8. What needs to be done?
Q6.8 The geometry I have created is dividied into different groups. I want to create a new single group (say called `fem') to receive all the finite elements that will be generated. How do I do that?
Q6.9 Is it possible to assign mesh seeds
at points which do not follow the uniform / one way bias / two way bias options?
Q6.10 Can equivalencing be used to join the
nodes from 2 different parts (of an assembly) created and imported from Pro/ENGINEER?
Q6.11 Is it possible to create an unstructured 2-dimensional mesh?
Q6.12 Is it possible to create an unstructured mesh made up of quadrilateral elements?
Q6.13 I have imported a cylinder (as part of
an assembly) from Pro/ENGINEER but I cannot mesh it using brick elements. Why is that?
Q7.1 How do I display the icons (markers) denoting
loads and displacement fixities for checking?
Q7.2 How do I remove the icons (markers) denoting
loads and displacement fixities from display?
Q7.3 How do I fix a node in the y direction only
i.e. it is free to move in the x direction?
Q7.4 I have created a series of surfaces and then trying
to apply uniform pressure (u.d.l.) to one side of these surfaces but in some surfaces
it is directed in the wrong direction?
Q7.5 I want to apply self-weight of the elements
as loading. How do I do that?
Q7.7 Is it acceptable to specify boundary conditions on curves/lines not used in specifying the geometry?
Q7.8 How can I specify the Load
Proportionality Factor for a RIKS analysis step?
Q7.9 How can I specify a triangular pressure distribution?
Q7.10 How does one deal with the interface conditions between parts (of an assembly) imported from Pro/ENGINEER?
Q7.11 Given the choice of specifying the
boundary conditions either on the geometry or on the finite elements which is preferrable?
Q7.12 I need to apply a radial pressure
to a circular hole in a plate for an imported mesh. Is there a simple way of selecting
all the nodes along the circular hole?
Q8.1 Is there a library of properties for standard materials?
Q8.2 I have an object which consists of 2 different materials. How do I specify the different materials?
Q8.3 I am doing a plane stress analysis and the geometry even though consisting of a single material has 2 regions with different thicknesses. How do I specify these?
Q11.4 How do I specify a non-linear analysis step?
Q11.5 How do I turn off the Perturbation option in a STATIC step?
Q11.6 In trying to open the analysis form
getting the following warning message : The PCL library file, mscnastran.plb, which would typically be associated with the current analysis preference, MSC/NASTRAN, does not exist?
Q12.1 I have carried out a analysis of a static loading on a curved surface and the obtained displacements are small compared to the magnitude of the loading. What is wrong?
Q12.3 How can I delete the results from the Patran database after post processing?
Q12.4 I have used the Shell elements (S4R5) with 5 section points in an ABAQUS analysis. How do I generate a fringe plot of the stress results at section point 5?
Q12.5 If I want to carry out a
simple calculation ie calculate the mean of sig-xx and sig-yy stresses and produce a fringe plot of the results how do I do that?
Q12.6 I am trying to create a
graph plot along a surve and and getting the error message : "No F E Entity could be found in results post processing". What is the problem?
Q12.7 I have read the results
from ABAQUS back into the PATRAN database but when the results case was selected there was nothing in the box marked "Select Deformation Result" (for Object : Deformation). What is the problem?
Q12.8 I am trying to read the results from ABAQUS back into the PATRAN database but the heartbeat continues to flash red indefinitely. What is the problem?
Q12.9 In modifying an existing
finite element mesh what shall I do with the old results?
Q12.10 The deformed shape looks strange. What could be the problem?
Q12.11 I have carried out an ABAQUS analysis using 8 noded brick elements (C3D8) to find the eigen modes and eigen values. These results do not agree with experimental results. Why is that?
Q14.1 How do I get the results/data from a
XYPlot into a file?
Q14.2 How do I read in my experimental results
into PATRAN so that a plot comparing f.e. results with experimental results
can be generated within PATRAN?
Q14.4 I have created many XYWindows and when trying to tidy by deleting some of the XYWindows using the xterm delete option caused PATRAN to crash. What should I do?
Q14.5 I tried to create a new XY Plot and all 3 XYWindows had the newly created plot. The old plots in XYWindows 1 and 2 were overwritten by the new one. What do I do?
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