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SIEMENS

Femap 101

Student Guide

Version 10.3

Siemens PLM Software


Proprietary and restricted rights notice

This software and related documentation are proprietary to Siemens Product


Lifecycle Management Software Inc.

© 2012 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. All Rights


Reserved.

All trademarks belong to their respective holders.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3, Rev 010612 ii


Femap 101 – v10.3

Training Class Agenda

Day 1

Lesson No Topic Workshop(s)

1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap 

2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1 

3 Geometry Creation and Editing 

4 Overview of Materials

5 Overview of Properties

6 Meshing Overview 

Day 2

Lesson No Topic Workshop(s)

6 Complete Meshing Workshops 

7 Boundary Conditions – Loads and Constraints 

8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

9 Model Display and Visualization 

10 The Meshing Toolbox 

11 Analysis Set Manager

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 iii
Day 3

Lesson No Topic Workshop(s)

12 Postprocessing 

13 Midsurfacing 

14 Assembly Modeling 

15 Finite Element Modeling Debugging

Student Topics

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 iv


Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process
Using Femap

Purpose

This lesson provides an overview of general overview of Finite Element Modeling and
Analysis and the tools in Femap available to generate FEA models.

Topics

• What is Finite Element Analysis?


• What comprises a FEA model?
• Femap Modeling Process Flow
• Femap Model Objects and Commands
• Femap UI Overview
• Units
• Femap Model File Formats
• Femap Preferences

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1-1
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

What is Finite Element Analysis?


A Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a mathematical simulation of a physical structure
when internal and external forces are applied to it.

It can be used to simulate the following types of physical behavior:


• Structural
• Thermal
• Fluid Flow
• Optical
• Electromagnetic

Femap can be used to model the first four types of FEA models.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1-2
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

What comprises a FEA model?


A Finite Element Analysis model is a collection of:
• Finite Elements - well-defined mathematical models of:
• Beam and Rod elements
• Surface or Shell elements – triangular or quadrilateral
• Solids - tetrahedral or hexahedral
• Miscellaneous elements such as Springs, Mass, Rigid, and Contact
• Material attributes
• Boundary conditions (loads and constraints)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1-3
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Takeaway
A FEA model is at best, an approximation of a physical structure.

The accuracy of the results from a FEA model are only as good as the quality of
the mesh and the accurate application of material attributes and boundary
conditions to a model.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1-4
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Objects and Workflow for Generating a FEA Model

Geometry

Materials
Boundary Conditions
• Constraints
• Loads
Properties

Mesh

Analyze

Post process

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1-5
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Geometry

Import Geometry Create Geometry Modify Geometry

File, Import Geometry,


Geometry,
Geometry commands
commands
File, References Modify, commands

Direct CAD geometry interfaces


 Solid Edge, NX (Unigraphics
and I-deas), ProE, CATIA, and
SolidWorks.

Industry standard CAD geometry


Interfaces
 Parasolid, ACIS, IGES, STEP,
STL

Femap geometry creation and


editing
 Points, 2D and 3D curves
 Surfaces
 Solid creation and editing
operations
 Midplane surface extraction and
editing

Additional geometry cleanup and


editing tools are available in the
Meshing Toolbox

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1-6
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Materials and Properties

Materials Properties

Model, Material commands Model, Property commands

Material Types: Property Types:


• Isotropic • Line elements
• 2D and 3D Orthotropic • Plane elements
• 2D and 3D Anisotropic • Volume elements
• Elastomers – Hyperelastic, Foam, • “Other” elements
etc.
• Analysis program specific types
(NX Nastran, MSC Nastran, LS-
Dyna, Abaqus, Marc)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1-7
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Boundary Conditions

Constraints Loads

Model, Constraint commands Model, Load commands

Femap models can contain multiple Constraint Sets and Load Sets
Constraints and Loads can be assigned to geometry or meshes
For loads, the Model Info window allows:
 Creation, editing, highlighting,
and deletion of Load and
Constraint sets.
 Creation, editing, highlighting,
and deletion of individual
Loads, Load Definitions,
Constraints, and
Constraint Definitions.
 Creation and editing of Body,
Nonlinear, Dynamic, and
Heat Transfer loads and
settings.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1-8
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Model Objects and Commands – Meshing

Mesh Control and Multi-


Single Nodes Single Elements
element Meshing

Mesh, Mesh Control,


commands Model, Node… Model, Element…
Mesh, Geometry command command
commands

Additional mesh creation and editing tools are available through the Meshing
Toolbox

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Model Objects and Commands - Analysis

View Results
Analyze Report
(Postprocess)

List, Output,
View, Select… (F5)
commands
Model, Analysis View, Options… (F6)
command View, Advanced Post…
Data Table
commands
operations

Generate and submit analysis with


the Model, Analysis command

The PostProcessing Toolbox is the


primary interface for generating
graphical display of simulation results
with:
 Deformed plots and/or
 Contour plots
 Freebody diagrams

The Post toolbar also has shortcuts


to display deformed and contour plots

Use the Data Table and the set of


List, Output commands to generate
a table of results

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1 - 10


Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Overview of the Femap Graphical User Interface (GUI)


Femap’s GUI has multiple components:
• Model graphics pane
• Multiple models can be opened and displayed simultaneously
• Dynamic zoom, pan and rotation supported via the mouse or through the use of
a 3D mouse device
• Command menus - user customizable
• Toolbars - user customizable
• Docked, floating and stackable “panes”
• Status and Tray Bar on the bottom of the Femap window

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Model Units


Femap is unit-less and does not track or maintain consistent units Likewise, most FEA
solvers are unit-less.

But…
• Femap standard material and beam section property libraries use in-lbs units
• Solid geometry defaults to inches on desktop and to meters in Femap model
databases (.modfem and .NEU files). Conversion of geometry units from meters
use the Geometry Scale Factor.
• Parasolid (regardless of product) always stores data in meters

Units conversion tool lets user convert units of data in model

User must be aware of current units system being used


• You can use the File, Notes command to make a notation for future reference and
to add a comment in the analysis file.

The following two pages have charts that show consistent unit values that should be
used to obtain accurate results.

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Model Data Input to Achieve Accurate Results –


Structural Problems
Femap model data should be input with values in the following units when using NX
Nastran as the solver for a structural solution:

English SI SI SI
Model Data
lbf – in- s mN – mm - s N – mm - s N–m-s

Length inches mm mm m

Mass Density lbm/in3 kg/mm3 Tonnes/mm3 kg/m3

Force lbf mN N N

Stress,
Pressure,
Modulus of
psi kPa MPa Pa
Elasticity and
Shear
Modulus

Moment,
lbf/in N/mm N/mm N/m
Torque

Velocity in/sec mm/sec mm/sec m/s

Acceleration in/sec 2 mm/sec 2 mm/sec 2 m/sec 2

Temperature F C C C
Coefficient of
Thermal in/degF mm/degC mm/degC m/degC
Expansion

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Model Data Input to Achieve Accurate Results –


Thermal Problems
Femap model data should be input with values in the following units when using NX
Nastran as the solver for a thermal solution:

English SI SI SI
Model Data
lbf – in- s N – mm – s mN – mm – s N–m–s

Length inches mm mm m

Mass Density lbm/in3 kg/mm3 Tonne/mm3 kg/m3

Temperature F C C C
Coefficient of
Thermal in/F mm/C mm/C m/C
Expansion

Energy lbf-in µJ mJ J

Thermal
Conductivity lbf/sec-F µW/mm-C mW/mm-C W/m-C

Specific Heat lbf/sec2-F µJ/kg-C mJ/Tonne-C J/kg-C

Heat Transfer
Coefficient lbf/in-sec-F µW/mm2 mW/mm2 W/mm2

Heat
Generation lbf-in/sec µW mW W
(Flux)

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Units Conversion
Use the Tools, Convert Units command to convert units.
• Convert all quantities using conversion of basic units
• Convert specific entities with individual conversion factors

E.g. convert N-mm units in model to N-m


• Length: 0.001 m = 1 mm
• Mass: 1000 kg = 1 tonne
• Force: 1 N = 1 N
• Energy: 0.001 N•m = 1 N•mm

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Model File Formats


Femap models are stored as binary .modfem files
• Femap model files saved in versions prior to Femap v10.2 are stored as .mod files
• Femap automatically converts older version .mod or .modfem files to the current
version of Femap
• When this conversion occurs, you are presented the FEMAP Neutral File
Converter message box, then the Neutral File Read Options dialog box, where
you confirm the options for converting from the older model file.

A Femap Neutral File (.NEU file extension) is a Ascii text file and can be exported from
Femap using the command, File, Export, Femap Neutral. This command allows you
to write a Neutral file for an earlier version of Femap (v4.1 through the current release of
Femap).
• Entities not supported in the earlier version of Femap will be ignored in writing the
Femap Neutral File.
Femap Neutral files are read into Femap files using the command File, Import, Femap
Neutral. The Neutral File Read Options dialog box allows the selective import of
geometry, mesh, output, groups and/or views into the active Femap model.
CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1 - 16
Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Preferences
Preferences are used to configure Femap for optimum performance and the way you
prefer to work. These are described in detail in the Femap Commands manual and in
Femap’s online help.
• Preferences are stored in the femap.ini file under the main Femap installation folder
• If you specify a different Start In location for your Femap startup shortcut, Femap
will first look in that location for a femap.ini file and use the preferences set in that
file. In addition, any changes to preferences will automatically be stored in the
femap.ini file in that folder.
• If no femap.ini file exists in your startup folder, changes will be made to the
femap.ini file in the main Femap installation folder, provided that you have write
permission for that folder.
Set preferences with the File, Preferences command for:

• Messages
• Views
• Render
• User Interface
• Database
• Geometry/Model
• Interfaces
• Library/Startup
• Color
• Spaceball

The following pages


describe four (4) of the most
important Preferences
settings: Geometry/Model,
Render, Database and
Library/Startup.

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Preferences – Geometry/Model – Solid Geometry


Scale Factor
Select between the Parasolid or Standard geometry engines for your Femap model.
The Parasolid engine is recommended, otherwise, only wireframe geometry can be
imported, created and/or edited.
• You can modify the Geometry Engine and allow editing of solids in a part initially
created using the Standard Geometry Engine by changing the Femap preference to
Parasolid.

Femap stores geometry in meters. The Solid Geometry Scale Factor is used to
internally store your geometry units as meters in Parasolid.
• For example, if you select Inches, the Scale Factor is 39.37 (inches/meter). Femap
uses the inverse of this number to store the geometry in its model database (1 inch
= .0254 meters).
• This scaling will allow you to import and model parts that are outside of the
Parasolid modeling limits ( +/-500 x 500 x 500).

Note: If you import geometry with a different scale other than the file’s original scale,
new or modified geometry will be out of scale with the imported geometry.

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Preferences – Render Tab


The Render dialog box lets you control the level of functionality that you have while in
Render mode.
• Hardware Acceleration can be toggled off if your graphics card drivers are causing
instability in Femap, or if your graphics card does not fully support OpenGL, such as
in a laptop without a graphics accelerator chip.
• Including less entities with the Include In Dynamic Rotation option will speed up
dynamic rotation of large models.
• Advanced/Debug messages can be turned on to help the Development team
diagnose complex geometry issues if they arise.
• Setting the BitBlt Delay can be used to help with performance on consumer or
game-oriented graphics cards.

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Graphics Card Performance Considerations


Desktop area resolution should be taken into consideration when using Femap. Having
a very fine screen resolution can increase the time animations need to generate and the
time individual windows need to refresh.
If Femap appears to be having graphics errors, it could be the driver for your graphics
card. Update the drivers for your graphics card often!
• Drivers from the manufacturers of the graphics card chipset tend to be more stable
then the drivers from the maker of the graphics card. (e.g. use an ATI or nVidia
driver vs. an ASUS driver)

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Preferences – Database Tab


The Database tab defines various performance settings:
• Database Options
• Database Performance
• Timed Save
• Scratch Directory

Click the Database Options Help button for detailed information on settings in this tab.
• Note that any changes made in the Database tab requires you to exit and to start a
new Femap session.

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Preferences – Database – Scratch Directory


This option specifies the location of Femap’s Scratch Directory folder where
temporary, scratch, and recovery files are written during a Femap session
• If this option is left blank, Femap will write its temporary files to the Windows TEMP
folder location
• When a Windows TEMP variable is not defined, the location of the Femap
scratch files defaults to your Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local
Settings\Temp folder. In many cases, this is a location on the network other
than your local PC.
• Setting the Femap Scratch folder or setting the TEMP variable to a network file
location may seriously degrade Femap’s performance and dramatically increase file
save times. In addition, if your network fails for any reason, any opened files in a
Femap session have the potential to be corrupted.
• Exit and restart Femap after changing the Scratch Directory folder.

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Lesson 1 The FEA Modeling Process Using Femap

Femap Preferences – Database – Database Performance


These options specify:
• Database Memory Limit - sets the maximum amount of system memory that
FEMAP will use to hold parts of the model and results in memory.
• Max Cached Label - sets the largest label for which FEMAP will reserve memory.
This option must be set to a ID higher than any entity in the model.
• Default value is 5,000,000
• Blocks/Page - sets the "page" size. The optimum setting of this number often
depends on the speed of the disk and controller.
• Generally, this should only be changed with high-speed physical drives and/or
disk-caching enabled.
• Open/Save Method – generally this should be changed only when you experience
very slow opening and saving of Femap models.
• The Read/Write Test may be used to determine which Open/Save Method
should work best on the current machine. When finished, results of the test will
be written to the Messages window and the "recommended" setting will be
displayed in the Open/Save Method drop-down.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 1 - 23


Lesson 2 The FEMAP User Interface –
Part 1

Purpose

This lesson provides an overview of the Femap User Interface.

Topics

• Femap Main Window Layout


• Graphics Windows
• Femap Main Menus
• Toolbars and Customizable Menus
• View Manipulation – Part 1
• Dockable Panes
• Model Info Tree
• Entity Editor
• Status Bar and Tray
• Right Mouse Button
• Entity Selection
• Setting the Pick or “Snap” Mode
• Locate and Vector Dialog Boxes
• Shortcut Keys
• Online Help

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-1
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Femap Main Window Layout

Femap Main Femap Title Bar


Menu

Named Tab for Graphics Windows

Tabs for “Stacked”


dockable panes Femap Graphics Window

Floating dockable
pane

Current Model Status


FEMAP Trays
(FEMAP Menu Help when FEMAP Status and
in command) Tray bar

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-2
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Graphics Windows
Femap’s graphics windows have the ability to display:
• Wireframe, hidden line, or rendered FEA models
• XY plots of functions and analysis results.

Multiple Models can be opened at the same time each with multiple views.
• A single model with multiple views has the view name displayed in the view tab
• When multiple models are open, each view has their view tab displayed as
Model Name : View Name

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-3
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Graphics Windows (continued)


Dynamic Viewing
• Views can be dynamically rotated, zoomed, and panned using the mouse.
• Through the use of a supported SpaceBall device

True Windows - provide easy transfer from Femap to other Windows programs.
• Cut and Paste
• Windows Metafiles
• JPEG, BITMAP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG picture file formats
• AVI and Animated GIF animation files

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-4
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Femap Main Menus


Provides access to most Femap operations through drop-down menus.
• Menu commands displays short-cut keys (hotkeys) and shows toolbar icons on
menu (includes user-defined shortcut keys and icons, when assigned)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-5
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Customize Dialog Box


Toolbars
• Turns toolbars on and off
• Create and delete user-
defined toolbars.

Commands
• Add regular and user-
defined commands to an
existing menu or toolbar.

Keyboard
• Designate and manage
shortcut keys (hotkey)
combinations for specific
commands.

User Commands
• Create and manage user-defined commands.

Options
• Set options on the toolbars such as using large icons, showing tooltips (with or
without shortcut keys), and menu animation options (options are selected for ALL
toolbars).

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-6
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Toolbars
Dockable Toolbars
• Toolbars can be docked anywhere
around the perimeter of the main Femap
window.
• When “docked”, toolbars can be placed
next to one another or “stacked” on top
of one another.

Floating Toolbars
• Toolbars can be “peeled” off the perimeter of the main Femap window and made to
“float” anywhere within the main Femap window.
• “Floating” toolbars can be reshaped.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-7
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Customizing Toolbars
Three (3) methods to customize or create a new toolbar:
• Select the Tools, Toolbars, Customize command
• Right-click in a toolbar pane or outside of any Femap pane
• Click the Customize icon (down-arrow icon) on a docked or floating toolbar and then
select Customize from the context-sensitive menu.

Clicking the Down icon in a toolbar


allows direct access to that toolbar
and has options to disable
commands in that toolbar.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-8
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Creating Custom Toolbars


Click the New button inside the Toolbars tab, then give the new toolbar a unique name.

1. Click the Commands tab and choose a category.


2. “Drag” the desired command or menu onto the blank toolbar
3. Alter any icons using the individual icon editing tools explained on the previous page
4. Close the Customize dialog box and start using the new user toolbar.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2-9
Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Toolbars – Icon Editing Menu


While the Customize Dialog box is open, you can also edit individual icons by placing
the cursor over any icon and clicking the right mouse button. This will bring up a menu
as follows:

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 10


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

View Manipulation
View Rotation, Zooming and Panning

View Orientation Toolbar

Entity Display Toolbar

View Toolbar

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

View Rotation, Zooming and Panning


Views can be dynamically manipulated with the mouse by holding a mouse button and
keys and dragging the mouse in the Graphics window:

Action No command active While a command is active

Left or Middle mouse


Rotate Middle mouse button
button

Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Middle
Pan Ctrl+Middle mouse button
mouse button

Shift+Left or Shift+Middle
Zoom Shift+Middle mouse button
mouse button

The mouse’s Scroll wheel can be used for dynamic zooming.


Femap Preferences can be modified to swap the use of the Ctrl and Shift keys for
dynamic viewing.
• Located under the User Interface tab, Mouse Interface options.

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

View Orientation Toolbar


The View Orientation toolbar allows you to rapidly reorient a view to one of Femap’s
standard nine (9) views.
• This toolbar is not activated as part of the standard Femap GUI layout, you will need
to activate and place it.

The Isometric, Dimetric, and Trimetric view orientation(s) can be modified using
Femap’s Preferences.
• Select the View tab and set the angles for these views under the View and Dynamic
Rotation section.

As an alternative, you can use the View, Rotate, Model command (F8 hotkey) to rotate
or orient views.
• Version 10 added the option to “Rotate Around” any coordinate system, including
those defined by the user.

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Entity Display Toolbar


The Entity Display toolbar toggles the display of different entity types within a Graphics
window.

Coordinate
Systems Constraints
Text
Nodes
Surfaces

Regions Elements
View Analysis
Model Toggle
Loads
View Geometry
Toggle Curves
Connectors

View Labels
Toggle

Points

Note: Display of aeroelasticity components (Panel, Mesh, Spline and Control


Surfaces) are toggled using the Aeroelasticity toolbar.

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Entity Display Control with the View Visibility dialog box


The View Visibility dialog box controls the display of entities in a manner similar to the
Entity Display toolbar, but in more detail.
• Access via the View, Visibility command, the Ctrl+Q hotkey or by clicking the View
Visibility icon on the View toolbar.

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

View Toolbar
The View toolbar allows control of the active view orientation, magnification, view style,
and layers.

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

View Toolbar – View Style Icon Pulldown Menu


The View Style menu controls settings for view type (wireframe, hidden line, etc.), mesh
display, element colors, mesh size indicators and other commonly used display settings.

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Dockable Panes

There are eight (8) standard dockable Two other dockable panes are available
panes for customization of Femap:
• Model Info • Program File
• Meshing Toolbox • API Programming
• PostProcessing Toolbox
Can be turned on and off using the Tools
• Entity Editor menu and the Panes toolbar.
• Entity Info Panes can be resized when docked or
• Data Table floating.
• Data Surface Editor
• Messages Window

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Dockable Panes – Display Configurations


Panes can be shown on the screen in a few different configurations
• Floating
• Docked
• Docked and “Stacked” (click Tab to activate Pane)
• Docked and Tabbed (Retracted) – Place cursor over tab to have pane “fly-out” and
be used (Docked and Tabbed Panes can also be “Stacked”)

The Push Pin Icon is used to toggle a dockable


pane from simply “Docked” to “Docked and
Tabbed”.

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Dockable Panes - Positioning


Docking position indicators are used to position Dockable Panes in specific places in the
interface and can also be used to “stack” the panes.
• Docking locations appear as arrows.

Docking position indicators only appear when a dockable pane is being dragged from
one position to another.
• An outline of where the pane will be positioned will appear when the cursor is placed
over a specific Indicator.

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Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Messages Pane
Can be turned on and off using the Tools, Other Windows, Messages menu or with
the Messages icon on the Panes toolbar.
• Provides information on commands Femap is performing, and their status.

• The Messages pane is also the default location for listing the results of Tools, Check
and List commands
• The command List, Destination is used to toggle on and off results of List
commands to the Messages pane. This command can also be used to specify
listing out to a file.

• Error listings are also sent to the Messages pane.

Font, font size and text colors for the Messages pane are set using the File, Preferences
command under the Messages tab.

Undock the Messages pane by double-clicking on its title bar. To return it to its previous
docked location and size, double click its title bar again.
• The Messages pane can be resized when docked or floating.

Copy or Save Information from List


• Highlight and Cut or Copy
• Data Table information can be pasted into the Messages pane

Note: When typing in the Messages window, anytime you type a shortcut key, the
command assigned to the key will be invoked.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 21


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Messages Pane – Other Options


Format contents of the Messages window with the context sensitive pop-up menu (right-
mouse click).

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 22


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Model Info Pane


Can be turned on and off using the Tools, Model Info command or with the Panes
toolbar.

Provides quick access to “top-level” entities in Femap through an easy to navigate tree
structure.

Top-level items found in the tree include:


• Coordinate Systems
• Geometry – Solids and Sheet Solids
Only
• Connections
• Properties
• Regions
• Connectors
• Aero Model
• Model
• Elements
• Materials
• Properties
• Layups
• Loads and Constraints
• Functions
• Data Surfaces
• Analyses – Analysis Sets
• Results – Output Sets
• Views
• Groups
• Layers
• Selection List

Active objects appear as blue bold text

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 23


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Model Info Pane – Additional Features and Selection List


Context-Sensitive menus available for each item in the Model Tree by highlighting an
item then clicking the right mouse button.

Multiple entities can be highlighted at the same time in order to perform operations on all
of the entities at once.

Active Entity of each entity type is displayed with Blue text in the tree.

Selection List – used when Select Multiple is active in the Select Toolbar.
• Lists each entity type currently in the selection set
• Displays the number of entities of each entity type in parentheses

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 24


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Model Info Pane – Icons


• Collapse/Expand All
• Collapses or expands ALL categories in the Model Info tree at once. Can be
used to only show what you need to view specific entities.

• Reload From Model


• Reloads the Model Info tree with all current information from the model. Always
collapses the whole tree completely.

• Reset All Visibility Options


• Toggles the display of all entities on

• Send To Data Table


• Sends selected data to the Data Table pane for sorting, filtering, and evaluation.
The Data Table MUST be open and unlocked for this icon to be used.

Show When Selected pull


down
 Toggle on/off and settings
for highlighting of selected
objects. Similar to the
Window, Show Entities
command.

Note: Defaults for Show When Selected can be set in the Show Entities
Defaults section found on the User Interface tab of the Preferences dialog
box.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 25


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Model Info Tree – Context Sensitive Menus


Context-Sensitive menus are available for each item in the Model Tree by highlighting
an item then clicking the right mouse button.

Menu is different for each entity type in the tree.

Some context sensitive menu commands require that multiple entities be chosen to
activate a command. (e.g., MultiSet Animate)
• Select individual entities while holding down the CTRL key.
• Hold down the SHIFT key and select a first
entity and a last entity to select a continuous list of entities.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 26


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Entity Editor
Turn on and off the Entity Editor pane with the Tools, Entity Editor menu or with the
Panes toolbar.

Provides information of specific entities in Femap displayed using different types of


fields. The types of fields include:
• Numeric Value - Enables you to enter a numeric
value for a specific field
• Text - Text can be typed directly into these fields.
Usually in a Title, Text, or Notes field
• Drop-down menu button - Button has arrow
facing down. Lists options for that can be
selected for a particular field.
• Options button - Button has three dots. Brings
up the color palette or a dialog box that is used
to change the information in that specific field.
• Read Only - Cannot be changed. Shown in
Blue text.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 27


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Entity Editor (continued)


Entities can be sent to the Entity Editor using the following entry methods:
• Model Info pane
• When an entity in the tree is highlighted, it will appear in the Entity Editor
(Analyses and entities in the Selection List from the tree will not populate the
Entity Editor when highlighted)
• Select Toolbar
• When activated, the last chosen
entity will appear in the
Entity Editor pane.
• Data Table pane
• Once the Data Table has entity
data in it, every time a row
containing entity data in the table
is highlighted, it will appear in the
Entity Editor.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 28


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Entity Editor – Icons

• Lock/Unlock Toggle - When unlocked, the Entity Editor will always display the
entity that was last selected using an entity entry method. When locked, the data
in the Entity Editor will remain there until the pane is unlocked.

• Copy to Clipboard - Copies the current data in the Entity Editor to the clipboard
so it can be pasted into the Messages window or an outside program

• Clear All – clears the contents of Entity Editor window. Does not delete the
entity.

• Categorized - Default listing method of the Entity Editor. For each entity, groups
similar parameters, options, and settings together for more efficient use.

• Alphabetic - Displays all the fields without any categories in alphabetical order

• Collapse/Expand All - Collapses or expands ALL categories in the Entity Editor at


once. Can be used to only show what you need to modify specific entities.

• Reload From Model - Reloads the Entity Editor fields with the values that are
currently in the model for the chosen entity. Use this to recover the original values
for all the fields, except for modifications made with a prior Update Model action.

• Update Model - Applies any changes made in the Entity Editor to a chosen entity
and saves the changes to the model database

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 29


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Entity Editor – Other Options


Expand/Collapse toggles
• Allow you to collapse and expand individual categories and sub-categories inside
the Entity Editor.

Entity Editor Help


• Shows a title and short description of what each field of every entity represents.
Also documents the Nastran Bulk Data entry (if applicable) the field will produce
when a Nastran Input File (*.DAT, *.BDF, or *.NAS file usually) is exported.

Context Sensitive Menus


• Different menus appear when the
right mouse button is clicked
depending on what type of field is
currently highlighted. For
instance, when a Text or
Numerical Value field is
highlighted, a menu will pop-up
which will allow you to Undo
(reverts to last saved value while
field is still highlighted), Cut,
Copy, Paste, Delete, or Select
All.

Note: You can use calculator


functions (addition,
subtraction,
multiplication, and
division), as well as
exponentials (i.e.
1.234E4 for 12,340 OR
5.67E-3 for 0.00567) in
any real number field.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 30


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Status Bar and Tray


Can be turned on and off using the Tools, Other Windows, Status Bar command.
• Located at bottom of Femap Main Window
• Provides running total of nodes and elements in model.

• Displays a short description of commands when in the menu structure of Femap or


positioned over icon.

Tray on Right
• Displays and activates object sets
• Properties
• Load Sets
• Constraint Sets
• Groups
• Output Sets
• Change Current Object or create a new one by clicking on a set
• Right-clicking the Status Bar brings up a customization menu which can be used to
toggle individual Tray items on and off

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 31


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Right Mouse Button


Provides quick and convenient access to common commands.

OK and Cancel for commands and dialog boxes

Previous Command
• Recalls the last command executed

Modify the Workplane.

Show Tooltips
• When activated, shows information for a
highlighted entity in a “Tooltips” window
(small yellow window in the main graphics
window)
• Works much like Dynamic Query in
previous versions of FEMAP when there
is entity active in the Select toolbar

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 32


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Right Mouse Button - continued


Picking Options - Snap To, Pick Query, Pick Any Inside, Pick All Inside
• See section on setting the “snap” mode”
Select
• This menu of options allows you to control
which coordinates will be selected when
you use the graphics cursor to pick a
location.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 33


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Right Mouse Button - continued


Equations
• Brings up the Equation Editor in FEMAP
(a field must be highlighted in a dialog
box for this option to be available).

Visibility, Post Data, and XY Data


• Convenient method of changing view
parameters
• Menu commands for these option
several layers down, right mouse button
provided easy access

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 34


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Entity Selection Dialog Box


The Entity Selection dialog box is used by commands to build a list of entity IDs that will
be used for the operation.
• The Add method allows you to graphically, and through Methods, add entity IDs to
the list of IDs.
• The Remove method allows you to graphically remove entity IDs from the list, and
is dependant on the order you removed the entities. So if you were to add the entity
ID after removing, it would still be included in the list.
• The Exclude method allows you to exclude entity IDs permanently from the list
(Used primarily with Groups)
• The Delete command will delete the entity ID from the list.
• Selection methods with the Method button vary depending on the entity type.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 35


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Entity Selection Dialog Box - Continued


The Entity Selection dialog box is used by commands to build a list of entity IDs that will
be used for the operation.
The Pick button allows you to:
• Switch between Normal, Front, and Query picking
• Select entities graphically from the screen using a Box, Circle, Polygon, or Freehand
shape
• Hotkeys are available for the following:
• Box – press and hold the Shift key
• Circle – press and hold the Ctrl key
• Polygon – press and hold the Ctrl+Shift keys
• Select based on Coordinate(s), Around a Point, Around a Vector, or Around a Plane
• Specify options for selecting Combined Curves and Boundary Surfaces
• Add additional entities based on entities already selected using Add Connected
Fillets and Add Tangent Surfaces
• Select entities matching the Color selected from a color palette.
• Select From List button. For objects that have "Titles" the "Select from List"
button can be used to choose entities from a list dialog box. Ctrl+L in a dialog
box field brings up the list of "Titled" entities.
• The Preview button graphically highlights the entities selected.

Note: Clicking the icon in a Femap Entity Selection dialog box takes you
directly to the Femap User Guide through on-line help and has a table of all
the Selection methods for each entity type.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 36


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Using the Filter in the Select from List Dialog Box


When the Select from List dialog box is used, you can filter the selection list to reduce
the number of entries to select from .

• Enter the filter string and push the Filter icon to reduce the search list to the
those entries that contain the filter string
• You can enter additional filter strings or push the Clear All Filters icon to
clear your filter and return to the original, unfiltered selection list.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 37


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Setting the Pick or “Snap” Mode


For any Femap operation where a location is
used to specify a coordinate, you can set the
Pick or “Snap Mode” to one of four types:
• Snap to Screen (default)
• Snap to Grid – snaps to the nearest grid
location on the current XY Workplane
regardless whether the workplane’s
display is toggled on or off.
• Snap to Point – location snaps to the
nearest point on the visible model. Points
do not need to be displayed.
• Snap to Node – location snaps to the
nearest node on the visible model.
Nodes do not need to be displayed.

The snap mode can be specified


by either:
• Using the standard context-
sensitive menu activated by
clicking the right mouse button
in the Graphics pane.
• Using the Snap Mode pull-
down menu on the Select
toolbar.
The current Snap Mode is always
displayed on the Select toolbar.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 38


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Locate Dialog Box


Whenever a location is required in Femap, the Locate – Enter … dialog box will appear.
• Enter coordinates directly (relative to specified Coordinate System) or
• Click the Methods button to change
the method of specifying a location
• See section 4.3.1 Entity Selection
in the Femap User Manual
(user.pdf).

Note: Setting the Method in the Locate dialog


box does NOT change the Snap Mode

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 39


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Vector Locate Dialog Box


Whenever a vector is required in Femap, the Vector Locate – Select Vector … dialog
box will appear.
• Enter coordinates directly (relative to specified Coordinate System) or
• Click the Methods button to change the definition method of the vector.

Note: To change the Method of specifying the coordinates of the vector, place the
cursor in one of the coordinate boxes, and press the Ctrl+Z hotkey.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 40


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Plane Locate Dialog Box


Whenever a Plane is required in Femap, the Plane Locate – Specify Plane … dialog box
will appear.
• Enter coordinates directly (relative to specified Coordinate System) or
• Click the Methods button to change the definition method of a plane.

Note: To change the method of specifying the coordinates of the plane, place the
cursor in one of the coordinate boxes, and press the
Ctrl+Z hotkey.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 41


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Shortcut Keys
Femap contains preprogrammed shortcut keys for commonly used commands.
• F5 - View Select
• F6 - View Options
• F8 - View Rotate
• Ctrl+D - View Redraw
• Ctrl+A - View Autoscale Visible
• Ctrl+G - View Regenerate
• Ctrl+Z – Undo
• See Appendix A of the Femap User Guide for a complete list of preprogrammed
shortcut keys
• Preprogrammed Keys shown on Menu Structure

Dialogue Box Keys – available when in a command.


• Ctrl+A - Measure an Angle
• Ctrl+C - Windows Copy
• Ctrl+D - Measure a Distance
• Ctrl+Z - Use Standard Coordinate Selection Dialog Box to define location.
• And Many More (See Appendix A of User Guide)

Customizable Shortcut Keys – Use the Tools, Toolbar, Customize command


• Customized shortcut keys can be saved to a .LAYOUT file and imported into other
installations of Femap.
• In some cases, importing a .LAYOUT file with customized shortcut keys only into a
new version of Femap will not recreate some or all of the customized shortcut keys.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 42


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

Creating Customized Shortcut Keys


Click the customize triangle on any toolbar and select Customize from the menu, then
choose the Keyboard tab.

Choose a Category from the drop down list, then highlight the command from the
Commands list.

Once the command is highlighted, place the cursor in the Press new shortcut key field
and key in a new character or keyboard combination.
If the key or keyboard combination has already been defined, FEMAP will bring up a
dialog box stating “This shortcut is currently assigned. Do you want to re-assign this
shortcut?”
By clicking the Yes
button, the key or
keyboard combination
will be added to the
“Key assignments:”
list and replace the
previous command
assigned to that key.
After you have
chosen the correct
key or keyboard
combination, click the
Assign button.

Note: When typing in the Messages window, anytime you type a shortcut key, the
command assigned to the key will be invoked.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 43


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

On-Line Help
Menu Help - Femap provides description of each command while pointing at it or
accessing it on the Status Bar .

Help is context sensitive


• Access a command
• Click F1 to access HELP
• Help Window will appear with description of the current command.
• Shift + F1 to choose a command with the “What’s This?” cursor.

Notes: Femap Help does not work in Google’s Chrome browser.


With Internet Explorer, enable the option, Allow active content to run in files
on My Computer, in order for the Femap Help system to operate properly.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 44


Lesson 2 The Femap User Interface – Part 1

FEMAP Help Menu


Full On-Line Help System accessed through
the Help Menu.
• Toolbars
• Dockable Panes
• NX Nastran – access the complete NX
Nastran documentation set
• What’s New
• Examples
• Using Help
• Programming – access the API
Programming Guide
• Basic Language – access when the API
Programming window is open
• Tip of the Day
• Femap on the Web
• Technical Support – access FEMAP
Technical Support via the web
• About – access to licensing info and input
of license keys

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 2 - 45


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Purpose

This lesson provides an overview of the Femap’s geometry import, creation and editing
tools.

Topics

 Geometry Overview
 Parasolid Geometry Kernel
 Geometry Import
 Solids Overview
 Geometry Cleanup
 Geometry Preparation Command
 Wireframe Geometry Creation and Modification
 Surface Geometry Creation and Editing
 Solid Geometry and Editing
 General Geometry Modification Tools
 Additional Geometry Tools for Meshing

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-1
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Geometry Overview
Femap supports the creation and modification of wireframe, surface, and solid geometry
using the Parasolid geometry kernel

Femap reads multiple CAD formats

Femap geometry creation and editing


• Points, 2D and 3D curves
• Surfaces
• Solid creation and editing operations
• Supports Solid, Sheet and Non-manifold Bodies
• Midplane surface extraction and editing (to be covered in a separate lesson)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-2
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Parasolids Geometry Kernel


Parasolid geometry is always stored in SI (meters) no matter what unit it is created in.
• Parasolid has a “box” with dimensions of 1000 x 1000 x 1000 with it’s origin at the
center of the box
• Default Coincident Point Tolerance of 1.0E-8
• Parallel Tolerance of 1.0E-11 Radians
• Independent of product (Femap, UG NX, Solid Edge, etc.)
From the Parasolid documentation:
• “To allow precision to be handled correctly, all parts of a body must be within this
box…”
• “It is highly recommended to set the default unit in your application code to one
meter…”

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-3
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Solid Geometry Scale Factor


Scaling of geometry is managed in Femap with the Solid Geometry Scale Factor.
• Set in Femap’s preferences under the Geometry/Model tab
• e.g. - When the models length is in millimeters, a length of 1.0 mm on the desktop
will be stored as .001 meters in the database
• Effectively scales the “box” to +/- 500,000 mm in X, Y, and Z from the origin.

Can also be set in the Solid Model Read Options dialog box for Parasolid and ACIS files
and the STEP Read Options dialog box for STEP.
• When the dialog boxes are opened, the Geometry Scale Factor reflects Femap’s
preference.
• Geometry Scale Factor for Meters = 1
• Geometry Scale Factor for Inches = 39.37
• Geometry Scale Factor for Millimeters = 1000

Note: If you change the Geometry Scale Factor to a value other than the value of
Femap’s preference in one of these dialog boxes, Femap’s preference will
update to the input value.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-4
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Geometry Importing
Import geometry with the File, Import, Geometry command.
• Import Geometry icon can be found on the Model toolbar

Direct CAD Interfaces


• Solid Edge (.par, .psm, .pwd, .asm)
• NX Unigraphics (.prt)
• NX I-deas (.idi)
• Pro/Engineer (.prt, .asm)
• Catia v4 (.mdl, .exp, .dlv)
• Catia v5 (.catP*) – optional
• SolidWorks (.sldprt, .sldasm)
Standard CAD Interfaces
• Parasolid
• ACIS
• STEP (AP 203 Solids, AP 214 Surfaces)
• IGES
• DXF
• STL – reads .stl files as triangular surface mesh

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-5
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Geometry Updates from CAD


When solid geometry is imported from a CAD file, a reference to the source file of the
geometry imported is created in the Femap model.
• The reference is based on the time/date stamp of the CAD file(s) imported, including
modification(s) to components in an assembly.

The File, References command is used to view the status of a reference in Femap.
• If the time/date stamp is modified due to changes in the CAD model, this will be
shown in the Reference Manager dialog box.
• Femap’s default preferences are set to generate references upon import and to
automatically check for reference updates when opening a model.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-6
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Solid Bodies
A Solid body is completed enclosed by surfaces and has no gaps or dangling surfaces.

• Any Solid body is shown in the Model Info pane’s Geometry tree with this icon:

Note: Running the Tools, Mass Properties, Solid Properties command will show
that a Solid body has Volume.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-7
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Sheet Bodies
Sheet bodies have one or more contiguous surfaces that do not enclose a volume
• For multi-surface Sheet bodies, all surfaces must connect on a common edge with
one other surface as the Base and Side Walls solid body below.
• Since the eight Rib bodies do not connect on a common edge with any other
surfaces, these are all separate Sheet bodies.
• A Sheet body is shown in the Model Info pane’s Geometry tree with the icon below.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-8
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Non Manifold Bodies


Non Manifold bodies are connected solids that can be a combination of Solid and/or
Sheet bodies.
• Creating Non Manifold bodies from mid-surfaced geometry can also be very useful
for meshing purposes, as surfaces coming together at “T-Junctions” share a common
curve.
• A Non Manifold body is shown in the Model Info pane’s Geometry tree with this icon:

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3-9
Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Geometry Checking and Cleanup


After importing geometry, it is strongly recommended that you check and fix all solid
geometry before attempting to mesh

• The Solid, Geometry, Cleanup command


checks the validity of selected solids in your
Femap model file. Options for this command
are described on the next page.

• The Meshing Toolbox has the Entity Locator tool to locate curves and surfaces within
solids by specifying a search method and size. You will use this tool in Exercise 3b –
Geometry Modification and Preparation.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 10


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Geometry, Solid, Cleanup Command


Remove Redundant Geometry
• Cleans curves imprinted on surfaces and merges surfaces that are part of the
underlying original surface. This is the only option that is enabled when the
command is executed.
• Disable this option if you want to maintain
splits of surfaces such as surface to
surface intersections or imprinted curves.

Remove Sliver Surfaces


• Removes small “sliver” surfaces resulting from
inaccuracies in solid geometry operations.

Check Geometry
• Checks the validity of the solid. Will show that
an imported solid body is in reality a sheet
solid if imperfections are detected.

Match Model Scale Factor


• Use when solids imported are at a different
Solid Geometry Scale Factor than the factor set in Femap preferences.
• Adjusts the selected solid(s) to the factor set in Femap preferences.
• Must have Check Geometry option enabled.

Advanced cleanup options - See section 3.4.2.22 of the Femap Commands manual.
• Has options to repair and remove small features.
• Surface Heal and Stitch option is similar to Explode and Stitch commands. Can
only be used on one solid at a time.

Note: If you still have problems cleaning geometry for meshing, an alternative
technique is to Explode the problem solid, then Stitch it back together.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 11


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Wireframe Geometry Creation and Modification Topics


Workplanes

Wireframe Geometry Defaults

Lines

Arcs

Circles

Splines

Wireframe Geometry Modification

Boundary Surfaces

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 12


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Workplanes
The Workplane is used to define the local “X-Y” plane for 2D wireframe and some solid
geometry creation commands.

Access via the Tools, Workplane command or the F2 hotkey.


• Snap Options control display of the grid spacing, etc. of the workplane

• Workplane display can be toggled on and off in the Workplane Management dialog
box using the Draw Workplane check box or with the View Style, Workplane icon
on the View toolbar
• Grid display options in the View Options – Tools and View Style dialog box
controls color and fill settings for the workplane

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 13


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Wireframe Geometry Defaults


Default colors for curves are set in Femap’s Preferences dialog box.
• Color can also be set for a model with the Tools, Parameters command or in the View
Options dialog box.

Color, ID, Default Length, Spline Order, etc. are set in the Geometry Parameters dialog
box.
• Press the Parameters button in the Locate - … dialog box to manage these settings.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 14


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Lines
Creation with the Geometry, Curve – Line
commands:
• Locate on the Workplane:
• Project Points
• Horizontal
• Vertical
• Perpendicular
• Parallel
• Midline
• At Angle
• Angle to Curve
• Point and Tangent
• Tangent
• Rectangle

• Locate in 3D space:
• Continuous
• Points
• Coordinates
• Offset
• Vectored

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 15


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Arcs
Arcs are always placed on the Workplane

Arc creation with the


Geometry, Curve – Arc commands:
• Center-Start-End
• Radius-Start-End – two points on the arc
define the start and end of the arc. A
positive radius will create an arc less then
180 degrees while a negative radius will
generate an arc greater than 180 degrees.
• Angle-Start-End– two points on the arc define the start and end of the arc; a positive
angle will generate the arc from the start to the end in a counterclockwise direction –
a negative angle will generate the arc clockwise from the start point to the end point..
• Chord-Center-Start – locate the center, start point for the arc, and a chord length
less than twice the radius.
• Points – locate the start point, a point on the arc, and the end.
• Center and Points – use this to create an arc in 3D space. Specify by four points:
Center, start, end, and a fourth point that defines the direction of the arc.
• Start-End-Direction – specify the start and end points, and the tangent direction for
the start point.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 16


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Circles
Circles are always placed on the
Workplane

Circle creation with the


Geometry, Curve – Circle commands:
• Radius – two points define the
center and a point on the circle.
• Diameter – two points on the circle
define the diameter.
• Center – define the center and the
radius of the circle.
• Two Points – locate two points on the
circle and enter the radius.
• Point-Tangent – locate the center
point and a tangent curve.
• Concentric – create a circle by selecting an existing circle and the new circle’s
radius.
• Points on Arc – create a circle by three points.
• Center and Points – create a circle by defining the center, starting point on the
circle, and a point defining the positive direction of the circle.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 17


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Splines
Splines can be generated by Control Points
or by Points on the spline (the spline’s control
points are automatically generated by Femap).

Four (4) point Bezier splines are created when


using the following commands:
• Ellipse
• Parabola
• Hyperbola
• The Equation spline is created by specifying
coefficients of parametric cubic equations.
• A Tangent spline is created by specifying the
start and end points of a spline and the tangents
at those points.

• The spline created by the Blend command creates a spline blending two curves. A
Blend Factor controls the interior shape.
• The Offset spline uses a point projected onto the Workplane to determine the offset
location.
• Combine a set of contiguous curves into a single curve using the Multiple Curves
command. Not to be used with sharp corners.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 18


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Boundary Surfaces and Sketching


The Geometry, Boundary Surface command creates planar surfaces made up of a
boundary curves. This command is very useful when the wireframe geometry needs to
be converted to surfaces and/or solids.
• Can include multiple holes.
• Boundary Surface(s) are non-Parasolid surface(s) – use the Geometry, Surface,
Convert command to convert into a Parasolid surface.

The Geometry, Sketch command creates a Boundary Surface from curves created
during the Sketch command sequence.
• Also accessible from the Solid toolbar – once the sketch is completed, you have the
option to extrude or revolve the “sketched” boundary surface.

The Modify, Edit, Boundary command allows you to add or remove curves from an
existing Boundary Surface.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 19


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Wireframe Geometry Editing


Wireframe geometry can be edited with the
following commands:
• Modify, Trim
• Trims the intersection curves. These curves
must extend past one another – will not
extend to the intersection.
• Modify, Extend
• Extend the end point of the selected curve(s)
to a point projected from the point normal to
the curve.
• Modify, Break
• Splits the selected curve(s) at a point
projected from the selected point normal to
the curve.
• Also available in the Meshing Toolbox’s
Geometry Editing tool.
• Modify, Join
• Trims and/or extends the selected curves to
their intersection point.
• Modify, Fillet
• Creates a tangent arc between the two
selected curves.
• Modify, Chamfer
• Creates a chamfer between the two selected
curves.

Note: Except for the Break operation, these commands cannot be applied to solid
or surface geometry curves.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 20


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Surface Creation and Non-Manifold Geometry Commands


Edge Curves
• Creates a surface from 3 or 4 curves.
Aligned Curves
• Lofts a surface through curves.
Sweep
• Used to sweep multiple-curve cross sections along a curve
Convert
• Used to convert boundary surfaces and surfaces made with the standard FEMAP
geometry engine into Parasolid surfaces. Only planar boundary surfaces will be
converted with the Convert command.
Remove Hole
• Used to remove interior voids in surfaces.
• Can also be used to remove holes in solids.
NonManifold Add
• Used to combine surfaces which do not enclose a volume and/or contain non-
manifold features (i.e., T-junctions) into a Parasolid “General Body”
• May also be used to combine solids and surfaces into a Parasolid “General Body”
Recover Manifold Geometry
• Used to “break” a Parasolid “General Body” created using the NonManifold Add
command into manifold sections.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 21


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Surface Curves
The Geometry, Curve - From Surface set of commands are used to create curves on
surfaces with the following techniques:
• Intersect – select two intersecting surfaces and/or solids.
• Project – project the selected curve(s) normal to the selected surface(s).
• Project Along Vector - project the selected curve(s) along the specified vector onto
the selected surface(s).
• Parametric Curve – specify a location to generate a curve along a U or V direction
on the selected surface.
• Slice – split the selected surface(s) and/or solids by a plane.
• Split at Locations – generate a parametric curve on a surface by specifying the start
and end locations of the curve.

When the Update Surfaces option is enabled (default for new models), the curves
become part of the surface and will “split” the surface into multiple surfaces (if the
curves selected make up a closed loop). Otherwise, the curves generated by this
command are simply internal curves of the surface.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 22


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Surface Curves (continued)


The Offset Curve/Washer command generates curves offset from the selected curves.
• The Washer option is used to generate concentric arcs around the selected arc(s).
• Washers can also be created in the Meshing Toolbox’s Geometry Editing tool.
• Offset Curves is used when the curves to be offset are around non-planar holes or
around non-circular interior features.
• For cases where offsets of non-planar curves are requested, deselect the
AutoSelect Surfaces option.
• The Save Split Lines option creates connecting lines from the selected arc(s) to the
concentric arcs and tags the surface around the arcs to use mapped four corner
meshing.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 23


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Surface Curves (continued)


The Pad command generates a square centered at the selected hole. Pads can also be
created in the Meshing Toolbox’s Geometry Editing tool.

• Pad Width = 2 X Hole Diameter X Pad Size Factor


Pad Size Factor = Pad Width / (2 * Hole Diameter)
• Setup Mapped Meshing sets the mesh sizes around the four surfaces on the pad
area for Four sided Mapped Meshing
• Three (3) options for aligning the orientation of the pad:
• Auto Align
• Vector Align
• Tangent Align

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 24


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Surface Curves – Point to Point


Geometry, Curve from Surface, Point
to Point command -select two points on
a surface (First Point for Face Split and
Second Point for Face Split), Similar to
the Split at Locations command, except
that the points must exist on the surface.
The surface to split is automatically
determined by the two points selected.
• This operation also exists in the
Meshing Toolbox’s Geometry Editing
tool.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 25


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Surface Curves – Point to Edge


Geometry, Curve from Surface, Point
to Edge command -select an existing
point on a surface (Split Point) and curve
to project the point to (Split Edge).
• This operation also exists in the
Meshing Toolbox’s Geometry Editing
tool.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 26


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Surface Curves – Edge to Edge


Geometry, Curve from Surface, Edge
to Edge command -select an edge (Edge
to Project To) and then the Edge(s) for
Point Projection. The resulting curve(s)
are normal to the Edge to Project To.
• This operation also exists in the
Meshing Toolbox’s Geometry Editing
tool.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 27


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Solid Geometry Creation


Extrude and Revolve 2D profiles
Primitives
• Block
• Cylinder
• Cone
• Sphere
Stitch
Explode
Editing operations
• Fillet
• Chamfer
• Shell
• Thicken
• Remove Face

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 28


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Additional Solid Modeling Creation and Editing Tools


Boolean operations
• Add
• Remove
• Common
• Embed
• Intersect

Face imprint and splitting


• Slice
• Slice Match
• Slice along Face
• Embed Face

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 29


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

General Geometry Modification Tools


Copy geometry via the following commands:
• Geometry, Copy
• Geometry, Radial Copy
• Geometry, Scale
• Geometry, Rotate
• Geometry, Reflect

Move geometry via the following commands:


• Modify, Project
• Projects points onto curves, surfaces, vectors and planes
• Modify, Move To
• Moves a point from its current location to the selected location
• Modify, Move By
• Modify, Rotate To
• Modify, Rotate By
• Modify, Align
• Modify, Scale
• Allows scaling in three directions of the specified coordinate system

Modify a points location with the following command:


• Modify, Edit, Point

Change color and transparency with:


• Modify, Color
• Modify, Transparency

Change layer with:


• Modify, Layer

Modify the ID of the geometry with:


• Modify, Renumber

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 30


Lesson 3 Geometry Creation and Editing

Additional Geometry Tools for Meshing


In some cases, you may need to modify geometry for meshing . In addition to the
Geometry tools covered in this lesson, there are additional techniques that will be
covered in subsequent sections:
• Mesh, Geometry Preparation command
• Midplane Modeling
• Meshing Toolbox
• Entity Locator
• Feature Suppression
• Feature Removal
• Feature Editing
• Geometry Editing
• Combined / Composite Curves
• Combined / Boundary Surfaces

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 3 - 31


Lesson 4 Overview of Materials

Purpose

This lesson provides an overview of creating and editing materials with Femap.

Topics

• Defining Materials
• Types of materials supported
• “Other” Types of Materials
• Using Functions for Defining Material Properties
• Nonlinear Material Models
• Modifying Materials
• Material Libraries

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-1
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

Defining Materials
Create new materials with the Model, Material
command or right-click on the Material object in
the Model Info pane

Default material type is Isotropic


 Type values directly into the fields provided; or
 Access the material library by selecting the
Load button

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-2
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

Materials Supported by Femap


Isotropic
• Properties are constant in all directions (values entered as a single value).

Orthotropic – 2D and 3D
• Direction dependent.
• Define in two planer or three principle directions.

Anisotropic– 2D and 3D
• Properties specified as a general 3x3 (2-D) or 6x6 (3-D) elasticity matrix.

Hyperelastic
• Materials subject to large deformations
• Input distortional and volumetric deformations or stress/strain data

Fluid
• Defines materials such as liquids and gases used in fluid flow and/or heat transfer
analysis.

Other Types
• Materials with attributes unique to specific solvers. Descriptions follow on the next
page.

To select a different material


type, click the Type button in
the Define Material dialog box,
and then select a different
material type, e.g., Hyperelastic.

Note: The default material


Type changes to the
last selected type.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-3
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

“Other Types” of Materials


“Other” Materials are for solver specific materials such as Nastran, NX Nastran,
MSC.Nastran, LS-DYNA, MARC, and ABAQUS/Explicit Material types. The “other”
material types specific to NX Nastran are shown in the Define Material dialog box below.

NX Nastran Advanced Nonlinear Materials


• Hyperelastic Mooney-Rivlin
• Hyperelastic Hyperfoam
• Hyperelastic Ogden
• Hyperelastic Arruda-Boyce
• Gasket Material
• Hyperelastic Sussman-Bathe
• Shape-Memory Alloy
• Viscoelastic

Additional Other Types – material definitions unique to specific solvers


• LS-DYNA
• MARC
• ABAQUS/Explicit
• Sinda/G
• Nastran Fluid material (MAT10)
• Nastran Equivalent Laminate (Multiple MAT2)
• MSC.Nastran Hyperelastic
• NEi Nastran NITINOL
• User Defined material types for custom program interfaces.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-4
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

Using Functions for Defining Materials


Femap supports the definition of materials
that vary with:
• Temperature
• Stress
• Strain
• Frequency

Materials that allow the use of Functions


are:
• Isotropic
• Orthotropic (2D and 3D)
• Anisotropic (2D and 3D)
• Fluids

These variances are defined using


Functions. Functions can be defined and
stored in a library using the command,
Model, Function
• You can also right-click the Function
object in the Model Info pane and select
New from the menu

• The Define Materials


dialog box also has a
button to define new
functions without
leaving the create or
edit material
operation

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-5
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

Function Definition Dialog Box

The Define Function dialog box has a pull-down to select the Type of function. For
materials, you should select one of the following:
• Temperature dependent material: 2..vs. Temperature
• Frequency dependent material: 3..vs. Frequency
• Strain vs. Stress: 4..vs. Stress
• Stress vs. Strain: 13..Stress vs. Strain

The Data Entry field of this dialog box has multiple options for defining functions

Use the Paste from Clipboard option to take data from a spreadsheet and copy it into
your Femap function.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-6
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

Assigning a Function to a Material Attribute


When a Function is being used to assign material attributes, there are two options for
selecting the function:
• In the field that you are using a function, enter a scalar multiplier of the selected
function (in most cases a value of 1), and then with the cursor still in that field, press
the Ctrl+f hotkey. This will activate the Select Function dialog box.

• Click the Function References tab, click the Function pull-down and select the
function to be applied to that field. Just like when using the first option, the value
entered in the material field will cause the material attribute to be the scalar value
time times the function used for that field.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-7
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

Nonlinear Material Models


The following table lists the materials that can be defined as nonlinear and the type of
nonlinearity:

Material Type Nonlinear Elastic Elasto-Plastic Plastic


Isotropic  

Orthotropic (2D  
and 3D)

Anisotropic (2D  
and 3D)

To assign the type of material nonlinearity and the attribute for the nonlinearity, select
the Nonlinear tab in the Define Material dialog box and then select the Nonlinearity
Type.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-8
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

Modifying Materials
Use the Modify, Edit Material command:
• Enter the Material ID you want to edit; or:
• Select an element with the material you want to edit; or:
• Alternatively, you can click the Select from List icon ( )or:

In the Model Info pane – select the material(s) to be edited, right-click and
then, select Edit from the menu.
• Right-clicking on the Materials heading in the tree will select ALL
materials for editing.

Note: The Visibility Toggle icon to


the left of the material name
indicates whether or not
objects using that material
are displayed in the Femap
model view(s).

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4-9
Lesson 4 Materials and Properties

Material Libraries
Femap has the ability to store an retrieve materials in a materials library. In the Femap
main installation folder, there are four material database files that can be used:
• material.esp: small library of metals in English units
• mat_eng_in-lbf-psi-degF-BTU.esp: extensive metal alloys library in English units
• mat_eng_mm-N-tonne-degC-Watts.esp: extensive metal alloys library in metric
(mm) units, material density in Tonne/mm3
• mat_eng_SI.esp: extensive metal alloys library in SI units

Since these libraries can be deleted during the uninstallation of Femap or replaced when
performing a repair of a Femap installation, any customization of these libraries should
be accomplished by copying these databases to a location other than the Femap
installation folders and regularly backed up.

To load a material from a materials library, click the Load button in the Define Material
dialog box.

To store a new or modified material to a library, click the Save button in the Define
Material dialog box.
• Saving a material does not over-write an existing material, but creates a new
material database entry.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 4 - 10


Lesson 5 Properties

Purpose

This lesson provides an overview of creating and editing properties with Femap.

Topics

• Element Types
• Defining Properties
• Editing Properties

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-1
Lesson 5 Properties

Element Types
A Property defines the element shape (type) and associated material. Properties define
additional analysis information for each element type, and are controlled by the element
type.

Femap supports the following element types:

Line (1D) Elements: Plane (2D) Elements:


• Rod • Shear Panel
• Tube • Membrane
• Curved Tube • Bending Only
• Bar • Plate
• Beam • Laminate
• Link • Plane Strain
• Curved Beam • Axisymmetric Shell
• Spring Damper • Plot Only
• DOF Spring
• Gap
• Plot Only

Volume (3D) Elements


• Axisymmetric
• Solid

Other Elements
• Mass
• Mass Matrix
• Rigid
• Stiffness Matrix
• Slide Line
• Weld/Fastener

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-2
Lesson 5 Properties

Defining Properties
Create new properties with the Model,
Property command or in the Model Info
pane, right-click on the Property object
and select New.
 The default property (element type) is
Plate
 Change the type by clicking the
Elem/Property Type button
 Other types are selected with
Elem/Property Type dialog box.
 Selecting a different element/property
type makes that type the default type

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-3
Lesson 5 Properties

Define Property Dialog Box


Property data includes (depending on Element / Property Type)
• Material selection
• Select the Material icon ( ) to create a new material if the material for the
new property has not yet been defined.
• Property Values – these attributes will change based on the property Type.
• Thickness
• Area, etc
• Mass and inertia
• Radius
• Stress Recovery Points (Beams)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-4
Lesson 5 Properties

Bar and Beam Properties


For Elem/Property Type Bar, Beam, or Curved Beam
• Enter values directly; or
• Use the Shape button to enter cross-sectional data

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-5
Lesson 5 Properties

Bar and Beam Shape Input


Choose either a Standard or NASTRAN (PBEAML) category of Beam.

Choose a standard shape from the Shape drop down list in the Cross Section Definition
dialog box.
• Enter appropriate values for a shape and specify the Stress Recovery locations.
Use the arrow buttons to locate these points.
• The Reference Point can be used to set the mesh location and when used, Femap
will automatically calculate offsets from the beams shear center.

Choose General Section under Shape to select any planar surface as the cross
section of a beam.

Beam properties will be automatically calculated by after clicking OK.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-6
Lesson 5 Properties

Beam Orientation and Offsets


Nodes on beams are located by default at the shear center of the beam.

Offsets can be preset when creating or editing a Beam element.


• Offset is from the shear center unless the option to Compute Shear Center Offset
is turned off.

The Mesh, Mesh Control, Attributes on Curve command has options to preset beam
Offset and Orientation.

Use the Modify, Update Elements, Line Element Orientation command to change
orientation of the selected beam elements.

The Modify, Update Elements, Line Element Offsets command is used to change the
offset of the selected beam elements.
• Can also change the offset by setting the location of the node to the beam
Reference Point.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-7
Lesson 5 Properties

Beam Coordinate System


Bar and Beam elements have a local coordinate system for each element.
• X axis of the beam is along the length of the beam
• Pt A is the start of the Beam
• Pt B is the end of the Beam
• Y and Z axes are determined by the beam’s property definition.
• FEMAP prompts for an
alignment vector when
creating beam elements.
• This vector is used to
specify the direction of
the Y-Axis specified in the
Beam Property.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-8
Lesson 5 Properties

View Settings for Line and Planar Elements


Femap’s View Options (View, Options or the F6 hotkey) has settings to help in
displaying line and planar element attributes.

In addition, the View Style pulldown menu on the View toolbar has shortcuts to toggle
line element display settings on and off.
• Offsets – toggle display of line (and planar) elements offsets.
• Orientation – toggle display of line (and planar) element orientations.
• Thickness/Cross Section – toggle display of line (and planar) element cross
sections.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5-9
Lesson 5 Properties

Modify, Update Elements Commands


Reassign Element Properties and Materials

Line Element settings

Plane Element settings

Element Order

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5 - 10


Lesson 5 Properties

Modify, Update Elements General Commands


Type – assign a different property to the selected element(s). The element(s) must be
of the same shape (Line, Plane, etc.)

Formulation – modify formulation of elements of the same type.


• e.g. Change a Nastran Spring element to a Nastran CBUSH element.

Property ID – assign a different property ID to element(s) of the same type.

Material ID – assign a different material to the selected physical property.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5 - 11


Lesson 5 Properties

Modify, Update Elements Commands


for Line Elements
Line Element Orientation – update beam/bar element orientations

Line Element Offsets – update beam/bar element offsets

Line Element Reverse Direction– reverse element connectivity. i.e.; Swap A and B
nodes.

Beam/Bar Releases – update beam/bar element end releases

Beam Warping – update beam warping as defined using NASTRAN SPOINTs

Remove Cross Section – removes beam/bar element section shape while retaining
properties

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5 - 12


Lesson 5 Properties

Modify, Update Elements Commands


for Plane Elements
Reverse Normal/Orient First Edge – offers options for setting the normal direction and
orientation of 2-D element(s).

Material Angle – set or modify the material angle of selected element(s). Used for
direction-dependent materials and laminates.

Split Quads – splits quad element(s) into triangles

Adjust Plate Thickness/Offset – modify the thickness or offset of the selected


element(s).

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5 - 13


Lesson 5 Properties

Modify, Update Elements,


Adjust Plate Thickness/Offset Command
Used to modify element thickness and offsets of Plane Elements

Modify the Thickness of the selected elements, including creating and/or modifying
variable thickness shells
• Automatically creates new properties for the variable thickness planar elements.

Modify the Offset distance of the selected plane elements.


• By default, nodes are located at the midplane (1/2 the thickness) of shell elements.
• Use the Mesh, Mesh Control, Attributes on Surface command to preset the
offset.
• Constant element offset can also be set in FEMAP 10 and above when meshing
surfaces by pressing “More Options” button and setting the appropriate options in
the “Offset” section.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5 - 14


Lesson 5 Properties

Modify, Update Elements Miscellaneous Commands


Linear/Parabolic Order – update the Order of the selected element(s) to/from
Parabolic.
• To convert from Parabolic to Linear, select No in the first dialog box presented in
the command.

• You must manually delete and/or merge any midside nodes for elements converted
from Parabolic to Linear.

Midside Nodes – moves the midside


nodes on the selected element(s) to
the midside of the element. Use after
nodes have been moved.

Rigid Thermal Expansion – assign a


Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (α)
to the selected Rigid Element(s).

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 5 - 15


Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Purpose

This lesson provides an overview of the tools available in Femap to control and
generate meshes.

Topics

• Recommended Meshing Workflows


• Mesh Control
• Feature Suppression
• Geometry Meshing
• Hex Meshing
• Mesh Modification Tools

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 6-1
Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Recommended Meshing Workflows


Before any meshing, set a reasonable Default mesh size for the model then set the
mesh sizing for the objects to be meshed

Break edge curves where needed


Create any needed Curves on Surfaces and Mesh Points on
Surfaces
Solids Suppress any features as needed
Set the Mesh Size on Solids
Assign solid Attributes
Set the mesh size on individual surfaces as needed

Break surface boundary curves where needed


Create any needed Curves on Surfaces and Mesh Points on
Surfaces
Surfaces Suppress any features as needed
Set the Mesh Size on Surfaces
Assign surface Attributes
Set the mesh size on individual curves as needed

Break curves as needed


Curves Set the Mesh Size on Curves
Assign curve Attributes

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 6-2
Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Mesh Control

The Mesh, Mesh Control menu creates settings for:


• Default mesh size
• Set mesh size on curves, surfaces and solids
• “Hard” mesh points
• Mesh Attributes - assignment of element properties
to geometry
• Mesh approaches on surfaces
• Suppression of geometric features during meshing

Many of these commands are also on the Mesh


toolbar.

Preview mesh sizing on curves with the View,


Options (F6), Labels, Entities and Colors,
Curve – Mesh Size option
• Toggle Mesh Size symbols with the View
Style, Mesh Size icon on the View
toolbar.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 6-3
Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Mesh, Mesh Control Commands


Mesh, Mesh Control, Default Size
• Used to define the default element size.
• If you only need a uniform mesh, this will be the only mesh control operation you
need to do.
• Used along curves that have no other sizing specified

Mesh, Mesh Control, Size commands


• At Point, used to specify the size along any curve that references that point, and
does not already have a size specified.
• Along Curve, specifies the element size, or number of elements to be placed,
and how they will be spaced along the curve.
• On Surface, used to specify the size on all of the curves referenced by the
surface, and gives other options for controlling the mesh on the surface.
• On Solid, provides the same basic mesh control as the previous, but also has
additional options that pertain primarily to multi-solid meshing, and hex meshing.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 6-4
Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Mesh, Mesh Control Commands (continued)

Mesh, Mesh Control, Interactive, allows you to interactively modify existing mesh
sizes along one or more curves.
• Add: The current curve mesh size is increased by the number of elements
specified
• Subtract: The current curve mesh size is decreased by the number of elements
specified. It is not reduced below 1
• Set To: The curve mesh size is set to the number of elements specified

Note: Interactive sizing with automatic re-meshing is available in the Meshing


Toolbox under the Mesh Sizing toolset.

Mesh, Mesh Control, Custom Size Along Curve, can be used to place nodes at
specific locations along curves, and match one curve's mesh sizing to another curve or
curves.
• See example on following pages

Mesh, Mesh Control, Mapped Divisions on Surface, allows you to specify divisions
for a mesh on 3 and 4 sided surfaces

Mesh, Mesh Control, Mesh Points on Surface, defines specific locations on a surface
where nodes will be created when the surface is meshed

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Example - Mesh, Mesh Control, Custom Size along Curve

Initial Mesh Sizing

Initial Mesh after setting Mesh Approach on Surface to Mapped


Four Corner using the vertices of the three straight edges

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Example - Mesh, Mesh Control, Custom Size along Curve


(continued)

Resulting mesh after applying the Mesh, Mesh Control, Custom Size along
Curve command matching the bottom edge to the top three (3) edges.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Mesh, Mesh Control Commands (continued)


Mesh, Mesh Control, Attributes
• At Point - used to assign meshing properties to points, so that when the points are
meshed, the properties will automatically be assigned to the points
• Along Curve – used to assign a 1D property (rod, beam, etc.) to the selected
curve(s).
• When the selected property type requires additional input such as orientation
and offset, you are prompted to assign those attributes
• On Surface - most commonly used for assigning plate properties to surfaces, and
should be used when meshing multiple surfaces with different properties in one
meshing operation.
• Includes ability to pre-assign plate offsets to surface
• On Volume/Solid – assign a solid property to the selected solid(s)

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Mesh, Mesh Control Commands (continued)


Mesh, Mesh Control, Approach on Surface, used to specify whether FEMAP will
create a free/boundary mesh or a mapped mesh. There are several options for free and
mapped meshing. For details, see section 5.1.2.15 in the Femap Commands Manual
• Femap primarily uses the Free-Parametric approach for meshing

• Femap will automatically assign the corner points when the Mapped – Four Corner
option is selected and no points are selected

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Surface Mesh Approach: Mapped – Three Corner

Mapped Three Corner Mesh

Mapped Three Corner Fan Mesh

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Edge and Feature Suppression


Use the command, Mesh, Mesh Control, Feature Suppression
• Removing Loops works on surfaces and solids
• Interactive feature suppression is also available in the Meshing Toolbox under the
Feature Suppression toolset.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Setting Mesh Sizing on Surfaces


Use the Mesh, Mesh Control, Size on Surface command.
• Select the Replace Mesh Size on All Curves option to override mesh sizes on any
curve that has had it’s mesh size set by curve mesh sizing command(s).
• Use Min Elements on Edge to set the number of elements on curves whose length
is less then the Element Size setting.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

How Femap determines Default Element Size on Surfaces


For both solids and surfaces, Femap provides a recommended Element Size by
dividing the average length of the curves on the selected surface(s) or solid(s) by 6.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Max Angle Tolerance


Max Angle Tolerance controls the maximum allowable angle between the tangent of a
surface’s boundary curve at the start of the element edge and the angle of the free edge
of the element. With this option enabled, the length of all free edges on the selected
surface(s) must be less than or equal to the Element Size.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Setting Mesh Sizing on Surfaces (continued)


Max Elem on Small Feature and Max Size of Small Feature are used to control the
number of elements around the perimeter of an interior boundary.
• Max Size of Small Feature is the effective diameter of the interior feature calculated
by taking of the perimeter length of the interior feature divided by pi.
• The default value of this option is equal to the value of the Element Size.

Vertex Aspect Ratio is used to optimize mesh sizing at locations where both long and
short curves are joined at common vertices

With Vertex Aspect Ratio


Option Enabled

Vertex Aspect Ratio Option Disabled

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Mapped Meshing Refinement and Suppress Short Edges


Options
The Mapped Meshing Refinement option attempts to refine the mesh for 3 or 4-sided
surfaces.

Suppress Short Edges suppresses any edge on the selected solid(s) or surface(s) that
has a length less than or equal to the specified percentage of the Element Size.
• Suppressing short edges on certain solids or surfaces may cause the mesher to fail.
While not common, an error stating you have a "hole" in the mesh will inform you of
this situation.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Parameter vs. Length Based Mesh Sizing


Femap, by default, uses Parameter/Length mesh sizing
• This first sizes all curves using parameter-based sizing, then determines an
average distance between each of the mesh locations on each curve. If the
distance between any of the mesh locations is more than 1% different than the
"average distance", then that curve is resized using length-based sizing.
For many cases, there will be no difference between Parameter and Length-based
mesh sizing, however, for complex curves and surfaces such as splines, there is a
difference:

Parameter-based
Mesh Sizing

Length-based
Mesh Sizing

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Curvature Based Mesh Refinement


The Curvature Based Mesh Refinement option, Refinement Ratio is similar to Max
Angle Tolerance except it uses a length ratio instead of angles
• Refinement Ratio = Chord Height / Chord Length
• Chord Height = maximum normal distance from the element edge to the curve
or surface
• Chord Length = length of the element edge

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Setting Mesh Sizing on Solids


Use the Mesh, Mesh Control, Size on Solid command.
• Similar to the Automatic Mesh Sizing dialog box for surfaces except for:
• Selection of either Tet Meshing or Hex Meshing
• Auto Boundary Small Surf option
• Assembly / Multi-Solid Sizing options

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Mesh Sizing on Solids Options


Auto Boundary Small Surf attempts to combine any surface on a solid that has a area
less than or equal to the specified percentage of Element Size squared with an adjacent
surface that is tangent or nearly tangent to the small surface.

The Assembly / Multi-Body Sizing options can be used to automatically set mesh
approaches on solids with adjacent surfaces when multiple bodies are selected .

• Adjacent Surface Matching – when surfaces on two adjacent bodies are


coincident and have sizes and boundaries, Femap will slave the mesh size and
approach of the two surfaces.
• Use the Remove Previous Slaving option to remove the mesh sizing and slaving
on bodies that have had mesh sizes previously applied.
• Adjust Colors changes the colors of surfaces that have mesh sizes set. The
following lists the colors and their meanings:
• Dark Transparent Blue – free surfaces that have mesh sizes successfully
applied.
• Light Solid Blue – surfaces that have been matched to an adjacent surface for
the purpose of creating a continuous mesh.
• Red – surfaces on solids that cannot be hex meshed.
• Skip Sizing on Slaved Surfaces – skip mesh sizing on surfaces that are slaved to
another surface.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Boundary Surface from Surfaces on Solid


The command, Geometry, Boundary Surface, From Surfaces on Solid
• Takes the surfaces you select, and uses the enclosing outer curves to form a
regular boundary surface.
• The surfaces must be stitched into a solid.
• This feature works best with surfaces that have small to moderate curvature.
• Can be used to remove sliver surfaces by selecting surfaces that surround the
sliver.
• This capability is also found in the Meshing Toolbox under the
Combined/Boundary Surfaces toolset.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Geometry Meshing
Mesh, Geometry, Point - is the most basic of the automatic meshing commands.
• Will generate nodes (and elements for 0D element types such as Mass Elements) at
the selected points.
• Allows you to specify the beginning node and element ID.

Mesh, Geometry, Curve


• Creates a mesh of nodes and 1-D elements along a curve

Mesh, Geometry, Surface - creates nodes and planar elements on a selected set of
surfaces.
• Must first define the mesh sizing using one of the various Mesh Control commands
• There are also basic Mesh Control options on the Automesh form, as well as Mesh
Smoothing, and Element Shape options

Mesh, Geometry, Volume - creates nodes and elements in a selected set of volumes.
• Since this command uses a mapped meshing technique, the number of
nodes/elements along opposite faces of a volume must always be equal

Mesh, Geometry, Solid - Produces a 3-D solid tetrahedral mesh in a solid part

Mesh, Geometry, Solids From Elements - meshes a plate element mesh that
encloses a volume into a solid element mesh

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Automesh Surfaces Dialog Box


The Mesh, Geometry, Surfaces command opens the Automesh Surfaces dialog box.
By default only a portion of the available mesh options are visible.

You may specify the following options:


• Mesher – Triangle or Quad
• Toggle generation of Midside Nodes
• Toggle Mapped Meshing on or off

To see all of the surface meshing options available, press the More Options button.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Automesh Surfaces Dialog Box


The expanded Automesh Surfaces dialog box has the following options:
• Mesher – Triangle or Quad
• Pre-V10 Meshing can be used to have FEMAP mesh using the “old” meshers
and options.
• Toggle generation of Midside Nodes
• Connect Edge Nodes and a Tolerance can be set to automatically merge
nodes on surfaces of stitched bodies.
• Toggle Mapped Meshing on or off and set various mapped meshing options.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Automesh Surfaces Dialog Box (continued)


Expanded Automesh Surfaces dialog box (continued):

• Select the Smoothing option and settings to reduce mesh distortion.


• Laplacian moves the node towards the centroid of the surrounding nodes.
• Centroidal moves a node towards the centroid of the element-weighted centroid
of the surrounding elements.
• Offset options allow you to offset to the top face, bottom face, or by a specified
value as the mesh is created instead of having to do it as a secondary step.
• If an offset is applied as part of the Mesh, Mesh Control, Attributes on Surface
command, that value will be used if no value is set in the Automesh Surfaces
dialog box. If a value is entered, it will override the previously set attribute value.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Automesh Surfaces Dialog Box


Expanded Automesh Surfaces dialog box (continued):

• Post-Meshing Cleanup is on by default and detects certain patterns in the mesher


to eliminate them
• Cut Quads with Angle Deviation Above specified degrees
• Min Elements Between Boundaries forces the mesher to attempt to put the
specified number of elements between adjacent boundaries
• Max Element Aspect Ratio attempts to create elements which are under the
specified aspect ratio
• Quick-Cut boundaries… splits boundaries with more then the specified number of
nodes into smaller pieces for meshing.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Quad Edge Layer Option for Quad Meshing of Surfaces


• Use the Quad Edge Layer option to set the “depth” of quad elements around
features

0 1 2 3
Layers Layer Layers Layers

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Automesh Solids Dialog Box


When applying the command, Mesh, Geometry, Solids, the Automesh Solids dialog
box is activated. With this dialog box, you specify the following options:
• Surface Mesh Only
• Allow Mapped Meshing
• Toggle Midside Nodes
• Merge Nodes
• By default this options
is set to 0..Off
• 1..New Nodes only
• 2..All Nodes
• Tet Growth Ratio – specify a factor to increase the size of the interior elements
over the size of the initial surface mesh.
• Initial Size Ratio – used to provide additional control for the size of the mesh.
Lower values results in denser meshes.
• Update Mesh Sizing – activates the Automatic Mesh Sizing dialog box for solids.
• Options – activates the Solid Automeshing Options dialog box

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Mesh, Geometry Preparation Command


Beginning with Femap v10.3, the Mesh, Geometry Preparation command can be used
with meshing solid(s) that either fails meshing or has a poor quality mesh due to
geometry issues such as slivers or small surfaces.

• The Prepare Geometry option is used as the basis for the settings in the Geometry
Preparation Options dialog box. This is activated by clicking the Prepare Options
button.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Manual Meshing Tools


Model, Element command.
• Creates a single element

Mesh, Between command.

Mesh, Region command.

Mesh, Revolve, Extrude and Sweep commands.


• With these commands you can revolve , extrude, or sweep curves or line elements
into plane elements, and plane elements into volume elements. You can also select
face(s) on volume element(s) to create additional volume elements.

Mesh Copy, Radial Copy, Scale, Rotate and Reflect commands.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Manual Mesh Modification Tools


Mesh, Editing, Interactive command.

Mesh, Editing, Split command.

Mesh, Remesh command set.

Mesh, Smooth command.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Semi-Automatic Hex Meshing


Femap can automatically hex mesh solids that are valid mapped meshing solids (solids
of extrusion or revolution)

Preparing the solid for Hex Meshing


• Begin by slicing the solid into simple sections that are extrusions using the following
commands:
• Geometry, Solid, Slice
• Geometry, Solid, Slice Match
• Geometry, Solid, Slice Along Face
• Geometry, Solid, Embed Face

Meshing the Solids


• Use Mesh Control to set the size and link the adjacent surfaces
• Then Mesh, Geometry, Hex Mesh Solids

Note: Solids of revolution must be sliced so that the solid comprises is


less then a 360-degree revolution. e.g A straight, pipe section
must be split in half.

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Lesson 6 Meshing Overview

Meshing Toolbox
In the next section, you will learn about the Meshing Toolbox. This toolbox allows for
interactive modification of geometry and meshes to improve the quality of meshes:
• Geometry Feature Suppression
• Geometry Feature Removal
• Feature Editing
• Geometry Combined/Composite Curves
• Geometry Combined/Composite Surfaces
• Geometry Editing
• Mesh Sizing Toolbox
• Mesh Surface Toolbox
• Mesh Locate Toolbox
• Mesh Quality Toolbox

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Purpose

This lesson provides an overview of Femap’s capabilities in managing, creating and


editing boundary conditions .

Topics
• Constraint Sets and Constraints
• Load Sets
• Body Loads
• Load Categories – Structural, Thermal, and Fluid loads
• Creating and Editing Loads
• Structural Load Types
• Thermal Load Types
• Fluid Load Types
• Advanced Femap Loads
• Load Set Options for Advanced Analyses

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7-1
Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Constraint Sets
The Model, Constraint, Create/Manage Set command creates a new Constraint Set or
activates an existing Constraint Set.
• This command is also available in the Status Bar.
• You may create as many different Constraint Sets as necessary.
• Combine multiple Constraint Sets with the Model, Constraint, Combine command.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7-2
Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Constraint Set Manager Dialog Box


Activating the Model, Constraint, Create/Manage Set command opens the Constraint
Set Manager dialog box.
• The selected constraint set becomes the active set when the Done button is clicked.

With this dialog box, you can:


• Create a New Constraint Set.
• Change the name of an existing constraint set by selecting a constraint set and then
clicking the Update Title button.
• Renumber the selected constraint set.
• Delete (the selected) or Delete All constraint set(s).
• Copy the selected constraint set.
• Create Referenced Sets for Nastran SPCADD/MPCADD constraint sets.
• Requires that a combined set already be created and selected.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7-3
Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Creating New Constraint Sets


Selecting the New Constraint Set button in the Constraint Set Manager dialog box
activates the New Constraint Set dialog box.
• When a model has no constraint sets, you can only create a Standard constraint set.
A Standard set is used to contain geometry and nodal constraints.

• Clicking the More button will create the constraint set with the ID and Title and will
then resets the options in the New Constraint Set dialog box to enable the creation of
a new constraint set.
• If one or more constraint sets are in a model, you can also create a Nastran
SPCADD/MPCADD Combination constraint set.
• A combined set references one or more Standard constraint sets.
• When a Nastran deck is created by Femap, it writes out the Nastran SPCADD and
MPCADD cards as needed.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7-4
Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Nastran SPCADD/MPCADD Combination Constraint Sets


To reference Standard
constraint sets, select a
Combination constraint in set
the Constraint Set Manager
dialog box, or right-click the
combined constraint set in
the Model Info pane and
select and select Referenced
Sets button in the dialog box
or the context-sensitive
menu.

The Reference Constraint Set for Nastran SPCADD/MPCADD dialog box will list the
Available (standard) Sets and the Referenced Sets.

Manage references by selecting one or more Standard reference sets and click the Add
Referenced Sets or Remove Referenced Sets.

Note: Nastran combined sets are not displayed in the graphics window unless Show
Constrained Entities is selected from the context-sensitive menu in the
Model Info pane.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7-5
Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Creating Constraints
Use the Model, Constraint commands, Constraint toolbar, or the Model Info tree.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7-6
Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Nodal Constraints
Nodal Constraints - specify six (6) specific degrees of freedom with the Model,
Constraint, Nodal command
• X translation = 1, X rotation = 4
• Y translation = 2, Y rotation = 5
• Z translation = 3, Z rotation = 6
• Specify Coordinate System

Constraint Equations relate the motion or displacement of one node to the motion or
displacement of one or more other nodes. To create these, use the command, Model,
Constraint, Equation.
• Often referred to a MPCs

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7-7
Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Geometry Constraints
Geometric constraints - applied to
geometry and “expanded” to nodes
during export to an analysis file.
• Model, Constraint, On Point
• Model, Constraint, On Curve
• Model, Constraint, On Surface
• “Expand” Geometric constraints
manually by using the Model,
Constraint, Expand command.

Available when
constraining a
surface.

Available only for arcs or


cylindrical surfaces.

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Editing Constraints
Edit Constraints with:
• Modify, Edit, Constraint –
Definition
• Modify, Edit, Constraint –
Individual
• Individual constraints in a
Constraint Definition may
be edited. If the
Constraint Definition is
subsequently edited, the
individual edit is
overwritten by the value of
the Constraint Definition..

• You can convert a Constraint Definition to Individual Constraints by right-clicking a


Constraint Definition in the Model Info pane and selecting Remove Definition
Model Info tree
• Includes the option to Edit Where Applied – add and/or remove entities where
a constraint is applied. (new in v10.1)
• Entity Editor

Note: Constraints created prior to Femap v9.3 are shown in the Model Info tree as
Other Constraints.
This also applies to all FEMAP models created by importing analysis files.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7-9
Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Creating Load Sets


The Model, Load, Create/Manage Set command creates a new Load Set or activates
an existing Load Set.
• This command is also available in the Status Bar Tray
• Create new load sets with the Model Info pane
• You may create as many different load sets as necessary.

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Load Set Manager Dialog Box


Activating the Model, Load, Create/Manage Set command opens the Load Set
Manager dialog box.
• The selected load set becomes the active set when the Done button is clicked.

With this dialog box, you can:


• Create a New Load Set.
• Change the name of an existing load set by selecting a constraint set and then
clicking the Update Title button.
• Renumber the selected load set.
• Delete (the selected) or Delete All load set(s).
• Copy the selected load set.
• Create and manage Referenced Sets for Nastran Load Combination sets.
• Requires that a combined set already be created and selected.

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Creating New Load Sets


Selecting the New Load Set button in the Constraint Set Manager dialog box activates
the New Load Set dialog box.
• When a model has no load sets, you can only create a Standard load set. A
Standard set is used to contain geometry, nodal, elemental and body loads.

• Clicking the More button will create the load set with the ID and Title and will then
resets the options in the New Load Set dialog box to enable the creation of a new
load set.
• If one or more load sets are in a model, you can also create a Nastran Load
Combination load set.
• A combined set references one or more Standard load sets.
• When a Nastran deck is created by Femap, it writes out the Nastran LOAD cards
as needed.

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Nastran Load Combination Load Sets

To reference Standard load sets,


select a Combination load set, in the
Load Set Manager dialog box, or right-
click the load set in the Model Info
pane and select and select
Referenced Sets button in the dialog
box or the context-sensitive menu.

The Reference Load Sets for Nastran Load dialog box will list the Available (standard) Sets and
the Referenced Sets.
• Manage references by selecting one or more Standard reference sets and click the Add
Referenced Sets or Remove Referenced Sets.
• Set the Overall scale of the combined load set.
• Set the scale of the For Referenced Set.

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Standard Combined Load Sets


You can also create a standard combined load set by combining multiple Load Sets into
a new Load Set or another existing Load Set with the Model, Load, Combine
command.
• Allows you to specify the Scale Factor of the Load Set(s) combined
• Combined Sets are copies of the combinations and will not update if the original load
set is modified

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Body Loads
Body or Global Loads – applied to the entire model
• Translational Acceleration (gravity) and Rotational Acceleration
• Use to apply the weight of the structure as a load
• Rotational Velocity and Center of Rotations
• Specify the Coordinate System for translational and rotational accelerations and
velocities
• Thermal – Default Temperature
• Required for all Nastran Heat Transfer analyses

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Creating Load Definitions


Use the Model, Load commands, Load toolbar, or the Model Info pane to create a Load
Definition.
• A Load Definition is a container of all the loads created using one of the techniques
above.
• Load Definitions can be Removed which takes all the loads in the load definition and
converts them to “Other Loads”.

Note: Loads created prior to Femap


v9.3 are shown in the Model
Info tree as Other Loads.
This also applies to all
FEMAP models created by
importing analysis files.

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Create Loads Dialog Box


After selecting the mesh or geometry to be loaded, the Create Loads on (Entity Type)
dialog box is opened. In this dialog box, you specify:
• Title
• Color and Layer
• Coordinate System
• Load type – select from one of the available types in the list (force, pressure, etc.)
• Direction –only available when specifying directional loads
• Load Input Values
• Phase - used for Frequency Response loading only
• Midside Node Adjustment – follow the distribution of loads as specified in Femap’s
preferences under the Geometry tab
• Total Load – when multiple entities are selected to apply the load to, enable this
option to distribute the load across the selected entities so that the sum of the loads
equals the load input value.
• Enabled by default when multiple entities are selected for loading.

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Editing Loads
Edit Loads with:
• Modify, Edit, Load – Definition command
• Modify, Edit, Load – Individual command
• Individual loads in a Load Definition may be edited. If the Load Definition is
subsequently edited, the individual edit is overwritten by the value of the Load
Definition.
• You can convert a Load Definition to Other Loads by right-clicking the Load
Definition in the Model Info tree and selecting Remove Definition.
• You can highlight any number of individual Loads of the same type found in the
Other Loads section of a Load Set in the Model Info tree and combine them into a
Load Definition using Create Definition
• Model Info pane
• Includes the option to Edit Where Applied – add and/or remove entities where a
load is applied. (new in v10.1)
• Entity Editor

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Structural Load types supported by Femap

Load Type Points Curves Surfaces Nodes Elements

Force     

Force Per Length -   - -

Force Per Area - -  - -

Force Per Node -   - -

Bearing Force - -  - -

Moment     

Moment Per Length -   - -

Moment Per Area - -  - -

Moment Per Node -   - -

Torque -  - -

Displacement     -

Enforced Rotation     -

Velocity     -

Rotational Velocity     -

Acceleration     -

Rotational Acceleration     -

Distributed Load - - - - 

Pressure -   - 

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Bearing Force on Surface


Beginning with version 10.1.1 of Femap, you can apply a Bearing Force to a surface or
surfaces eliminating the need to create Radial Coordinate System(s) and distribute the
load using an Equation or Data Surface.
• Femap automatically adjusts the value of the individual nodal forces created when the
analysis deck is generated to equal the Magnitude input in the Create Loads on
Surfaces dialog box

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Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Bearing Force on Surface (continued)

• The Load Angle (default = 180 degrees) is the total angle that the bearing load is
applied across the selected surface(s). The direction of the bearing force is the
bisector of the Load Angle and is specified after approving the inputs of the Create
Loads dialog box.
• Normal To Surface will distribute the load normal to the selected surface(s).
Disabling this will distribute the load in direction specified.
• When multiple surfaces are selected, the Total Load option is automatically enabled
spreading the specified Magnitude among all the surfaces selected, otherwise, the
magnitude will be applied to each surface
• When the Traction Load option is selected, the distributed load will “pull” on the
surfaces pointing away from the solid volume instead of pushing on the surfaces
pointing towards the solid volume

Once the inputs for the Bearing Loads are completed and the OK button is pushed, you
will be prompted to specify the direction of the bearing force.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 21


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Torque Loads on Surfaces


Also beginning with version 10.1.1 of Femap, you can apply a Torque to a surface or
surfaces eliminating the need to apply individual forces to surfaces or by assigning a
moment to a node and connecting it to the surface nodes with a rigid element.
• Femap automatically adjusts the value of the individual nodal forces created when the
analysis deck is generated to equal the Magnitude input in the Create Loads on
Surfaces dialog box

• Once the inputs for the Torque are completed and the OK button is pushed, you will
be prompted to the location and orientation of the axis about which the torque is
applied.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 22


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Thermal Load types supported by Femap

Load Type Points Curves Surfaces Nodes Elements

Temperature     

Element Temperature -   - -

Heat Flux (Heat Energy


    
/Unit Area)

Heat Flux per Length -   - -

Heat Flux per Node -   - -

Heat Generation (Heat


    
Energy / Unit Volume)

Element Heat Flux -   - -

Convection -   - 

Radiation -   - 

Element Heat
-   - -
Generation

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 23


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Fluid Load types supported by Femap

Load Type Points Curves Surfaces Nodes Elements

Static Fluid pressure     -

Total Fluid pressure     -

General Scalar     -

Steam Quality     -

Relative Humidity     -

Fluid Height Condition     -

Unknown Condition     -

Slip Wall Condition     -

Fan Curve     -

Periodic Condition     -

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 24


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Advanced Femap Loads


Femap has the ability to create variable loads via:
• Functions – time and frequency dependant loads

• Method
• Constant value entered into the Value field
• Variables – distributed or position dependent loads
• Click the Advanced button to create or edit the Variable
• Data Surfaces – advanced methods for creating variable loading conditions

Note: A load’s Value is used as a scalar multiplier of the Function, Variable or Data
Surface.
Check the sum of the applied load using the command Tools, Check, Sum
Forces.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 25


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Advanced Loading with Functions


A Function allows you to create general X vs. Y tables of information.
• Only Time or Frequency dependant functions can be used to create loads.
• Can also be used define nonlinear material properties.

Data can be created in four ways:


• By choosing a Single Value to enter in the X and Y values one at a time.
• Using a Linear Ramp, you pick a starting and ending X and Y value.
• An Equation where you specify the starting and ending values of X and delta X and
then enter Y as a function of X.
• Use the Paste from Clipboard function to attain data from a two column
spreadsheet, or a listing of two comma separated values from a text file.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 26


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Advanced Loading with Variables


You can make load equations as a function of a coordinate, nodal, or element centroidal
location without having previously created a function.
• !x, !y, and !z return the X, Y, and Z coordinates of nodes, elements etc.

The Equation Editor is accessible with the CTRL+e hotkey.

You can also combine Variable loads with Functions

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 27


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Data Surfaces
The Data Surface Editor pane allows more flexible and complex load definitions.

After setup, the data surface can be edited directly using the Data Surface Editor.

Access to all Data Surface types


(except Tabular) are available
through the Create Load dialog box,
allowing setup on the fly.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 28


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

One-dimensional Data Surfaces


Along Coordinates Data Surface
• Interpolate linearly between at least three data points
• Multiple piece-wise linear data points
• Multiple splined data points

Enter or select the 3-D point locations and data values, and FEMAP does the rest

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 29


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Two-dimensional Data Surfaces


Between Coordinates Data Surface
• Bilinear interpolation between 2, 4, or 8 data points
• Parametric interpolation between 2 or 4 data points
• Options to select a Curve for 2 points or a Surface for 4 points to define the
parametric space.

Simply enter the 3-D point locations and data values, and Femap does the rest.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 30


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Output Map Data Surfaces


Maps output from one model as a data surface source for another

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 31


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Other Data Surfaces


Mesh Data Surface
• Node / Element ID surfaces

Tabular Data Surface


• 2-D / 3-D spreadsheets
• Multi-dimensional – array of points
• Linear interpolation

Arbitrary 3-D Data Surface


• Enter Scalar or Vector data

Equation Data Surfaces


• Similar to using Variables

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 32


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Support for Advanced Load Definitions

Data
Load Type Functions Variables
Surfaces

Force / Forces Per Length / Force Per Area  - -

Force Per Node / Moment Per Node   

Bearing Force - - -

Moment / Moment Per Length / Moment Per


 - -
Area

Torque - - -

Displacements / Rotations / Velocities /


  
Accelerations

Distributed Loads / pressure   

Temperatures   

Heat Flux / Heat Flux Per Area  - -

Heat Flux Per Node / Heat Generation /


  
Element Heat Flux

Convection / Radiation   

Fluid Loading  

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 33


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Dynamic Analysis Load Set Options


For any of the dynamic analysis sequences listed below, you can use the Model, Load,
Dynamic Analysis command to set up the options for:
• Direct Transient
• Modal Transient
• Direct Frequency
• Modal Frequency
• Random Response
• Response/Shock Spectrum
Many of these options can be set and modified using the Entity Editor after a Load Set
has been selected using the Model Info tree.
As an alternative to using load set options to set dynamics options for a Nastran
dynamics analysis, you can also define these same options with the Dynamics option
setting in a Analysis Set.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 34


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Nonlinear Analysis Load Set Options


The Model, Load, Load Nonlinear Analysis command sets the Solution for these
three types of Nonlinear solutions:
• Static
• Creep
• Transient

Many of these options can be set and modified using the Entity Editor after a Load Set
has been selected using the Model Info tree.

As an alternative to using load set options to set dynamics options for a Nastran
dynamics analysis, you can also define these same options with the Dynamics option
setting in a Analysis Set.

Note: After selecting the type of Nonlinear Analysis, click the Defaults button to
automatically enter the NX Nastran Nonlinear defaults and modify as
needed.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 35


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Heat Transfer Analysis Load Set Options


The Model, Load, Heat Transfer command is used for:
• Radiation
• Free Convection
• Forced Convection

Not required for conduction only models.

Many of these options can be set and modified using the Entity Editor after a Load Set
has been selected using the Model Info tree.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 36


Lesson 7 Loads and Constraints

Notes on Loads
NX Nastran Displacement and Enforced Rotation loads require constraining the loaded
object in the direction of the applied load
• e.g. A Displacement Load of x=.10, and y=.10 applied to a point requires that the
corner be constrained in X and Y.

For NX Nastran Advanced Nonlinear (SOL601), loads should be applied with a time-
based function.

For solvers other than NX Nastran, refer to the Femap Users Guide for details on the
loads supported by Femap for the solver used Also refer to that solver’s documentation
on how to apply loads.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 7 - 37


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface –
Part 2

Purpose

This lesson provides an introduction to selection, viewing, and data collection tools in
Femap’s user interface.

Topics

• Select Toolbar
• View Options
• Data Table
• Programming Interfaces

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-1
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar
The Select Toolbar allows you to select entities one at a time or create a list of selected
entities that will remain active until you toggle off or clear the selection list. This
functionality allows you to choose entities of different types first and then perform
multiple commands from the menus or the toolbars on the selected entities.

The Select toolbar is essential to the use of the dockable panes, especially the Entity
Editor and Data Table because the selector is often the best way to place an entity into
either of these panes.

The Select toolbar consists of 5 items which aid in the selection process:
• Selector Entity Menu
• Selector Modes Menu
• Selector Actions Menu
• Selector Clear (Clear current selection list)
• Snap Modes (Snap to Screen, Snap to Grid, Snap to Point, Snap to Node)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-2
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Entity


This menu allows you to
choose which type of entity
you would like to select. The
current entity type available
to be selected will be marked
with a check mark in an
orange square.

The Selector Entity icon


visible on the toolbar will
change to the icon of the
current entity type being
selected. You can toggle this
icon back and forth between
no selection and the current
entity by clicking the icon.

The entity types are


separated into geometric
entities, finite element
entities, and text.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-3
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Modes


The Selector has different modes to help you select the correct entities, create a
“Selection List”, and modify a Selection List.

• Add To Selection - Adds entities to the current selection list when Select Multiple
is active or simply chooses entities when Select Single Item is active. This is the
default

• Remove From Selection - Removes entities from the current Selection List when
Select Multiple is active. Only allows selection of entities currently in the Selection
List. Does not highlight anything when Select Single Item is active

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-4
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Modes (continued)


Normal - This mode highlights entities which are able to be selected when the cursor is
placed over a specific entity. This is the default selection mode.

Query - This mode allows you to choose a position on the screen near the entity you
wish to select, then “drills down” into the graphics window and selects all the entities that
would be touched by an imaginary line perpendicular to the screen. After the entities
have been identified, it opens a dialog box and places them in a list for you to choose
the correct entity. As you highlight entities in the list, they will be highlighted in the
graphics window as well. Once you have found the correct entity, click the OK button.

Front - This mode always selects the entity “closest to the front of the screen”. It uses
the same premise as Query to “drill down” into the screen with the imaginary line and
then simply selects the top-most entity in the current view. If the “top-most” entity is
already chosen, it selects the next one along the line, moving into the screen.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-5
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Modes (continued)


Select Any Inside - This is a “box” pick mode which signifies that any entity entirely
enclosed or has a start or end point within the outline of a selection “box” will be
included in the selection. “Box” picking includes Circle, Polygon, and Freehand picking
and is only available when Select Multiple is active.

Select All Inside - This is the other “box” pick mode which signifies that only entities
completely inside the “box” will be included in the selection.
Select Related - When this mode is toggled on, it selects ALL other entities that are
related to the selected entities and places them in the selection list. To toggle it off,
simply select it again. By default this mode is OFF.
 When Select Related is turned on, Select Multiple is also automatically toggled on.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-6
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Modes (continued)


Select Single Item - Restricts selection to only one item at a given time. As each entity
is selected it will update the Entity Editor dockable pane. This is the default.

Select Multiple Items - Allows you to create a Selection List. A Selection List can
contain multiple entities of one type or multiple entity types. As each entity is selected it
will update the Entity Editor dockable pane, as well as add the entity to the running
totals of the Selection List in the Model Info tree.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-7
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Modes (continued)


Show Tooltips - When this mode is
activated, a “Tooltip” note will pop up
with useful information about the
entity which is currently highlighted.
To toggle this option off, select it from
the menu again. It can also be turned
on and off using the right mouse
menu in the graphics window, when
the Entity Selector is set to None.
• e.g. When entity selection is set
to Node, the “Tooltip” will contain
Node number, Coordinates,
Definition Coordinate System,
and Output Coordinate System.
When post-processing, the
Contour Output Vector will
appear in the “Tooltip” for
elements and the Deformation
Output Vector will be appear in
the “Tooltip” for nodes.

 While a “Tooltip” pop-up window is


displaying information, if you click the
left mouse button, the information will
be sent to the Entity Editor and/or the
Data Table dockable panes, as long as
the panes are visible in the FEMAP
interface AND unlocked.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-8
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Actions Menu


This menu contains “Actions” the
Selector can use for specific types of
selections. There are various “Box”
pick options, grow and shrink
commands to build up or cut down a
selection, use of the typical FEMAP
entity selection dialog box, group
commands, copy and paste, and the
ability to send a selection over to the
Data Table.
• Box - Creates a rectangular
selection box to pick multiple
entities at once. Holding the Shift
key also activates this option.
• Circle - Creates a circular
selection “box” to pick multiple
entities at once. Holding the
Control key also activates this
option.
• Polygon - Allows you to create a
selection area by creating a multi-
sided shape using a click of the
mouse to end one “side” of the
polygon and begin the next “side”.
The polygon can have as many
sides as you would like and is very
helpful in selecting individual
nodes in uniquely shaped
geometry
• Freehand - Allows you to create a
selection area by holding down the
left mouse button and “drawing” a
freehand sketch. Works very
similar to the Polygon mode, but
the shape is not limited to the use
of only straight lines.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8-9
Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Actions Menu


Coordinate – Select objects by X,
and/or Y, and/or Z coordinates by:
• Above or Below a specified value.
• Outside or Between minimum
and maximum values.
• At Location within a tolerance.

Around Point – Specify a coordinate


(In a specified coordinate system) and
select by:
• Farther Than or Closer Than a
specified radial distance from the
point.
• Outside or Between minimum and
maximum values of the specified
radial distance.
• At Location within a tolerance of the
specified radial distance.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 10


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Actions Menu


Around Vector – Specify a vector and
a radial distance from the vector.
Select objects:
• Farther Than or Closer Than a
specified radial distance from the
vector.
• Outside or Between minimum and
maximum distance from the vector.
• At Location within a tolerance.

Around Plane – Select a plane and the


normal distance from the plane. Select
objects by:
• Positive Side or Negative Side
distance from the plane.
• Outside or Between minimum and
maximum distance from the plane.
• At Location within a tolerance of the
specified distance.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 11


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Actions Menu (continued)


Grow - Adds the elements surrounding the
currently selected elements to the Selection
List. In general, it will start with the selected
element and expand out one element in all
directions to non-selected elements. The
selection will move out an additional
element layer every time the Grow
command is used

Shrink - Removes the outer-most layer of


selected elements from the Selection List.
Works in the reverse direction as the Grow
command.

Initial Selection 1st Growth Iteration 2nd Growth Iteration

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 12


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Actions Menu (continued)


Dialog - Brings up the specific FEMAP
Entity Selection dialog box for the entity
currently active in the selector. This allows
you to use all of the entity specific selection
methods available on menu when the
Method button is clicked inside the dialog
box

Create Group - Brings up the Save


Selection as Group dialog box. Allows you
to create a new Group or to add, remove, or
exclude the entities in the Selection List
from the active Group.

Load Group - Allows you to add the entities


of any existing Group to the current
Selection List.

Export Neutral – Takes the objects in the


Selection List and writes a Femap Neutral
File.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 13


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Actions Menu (continued)


Copy - Allows you to copy all of the entities in the
Selection List and “Paste “ them into a different
model. When the Selection List is copied, the entity
data is sent to a modified version of a FEMAP
neutral file and is placed on the clipboard. Once on
the clipboard, it can be “pasted” into a different
model using the Paste command on the Selector
Actions menu (Ctrl+v will not work in this case)
• You MUST be sure that all entities related to a
specified entity are included in the Selection List
before using the Copy command. This will
assure an accurate transfer between models
occurs. One way to assure a Selection List will
be complete for copying purposes is to use the
Select Related mode of the Select toolbar.

Paste - This command allows you to “paste” a


copied Selection List into a another opened Femap
model. The Paste command recognizes that a
modified FEMAP neutral file is on the clipboard and
reads that neutral file into FEMAP.
• When the Paste command is used it will bring
up the Neutral File Read Options dialog box to
allow you enter an ID offset and select other
options to aid in the prevention of overwriting
entities in the current model.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 14


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Selector Actions Menu (continued)


Add to Data Table - Takes all of the
entities in the Selection List that are the
entity type currently active in the Selector
and sends their data to the Data Table. The
Data Table MUST be “unlocked” in order for
this command to be available.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 15


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar –
Context Sensitive Menus
While a certain entity type is active in the selector, only that entity type will be available
for picking in the graphics window. Since FEMAP is only highlighting one specific entity
type at a time, there are context sensitive menus for each entity type (except Text).
These menus can be accessed by highlighting an entity in the graphics window and then
clicking the right mouse button. These Context Sensitive menus contain frequently used
commands for each entity type.

Any time there is an active entity in the Select Toolbar, clicking Alt + clicking the right
mouse button in the graphics window will bring up the Quick Access Menu instead of the
context sensitive menu related to the active entity. This can very helpful for picking
mode purposes and to toggle Show Tooltips.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 16


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Select Toolbar – Clear Selector Options


Select Toolbar has two options for clearing a Selection List:
• Clear All – clears the entire Selection List
• Clear Active Entity – clears only the active Selector Entity

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 17


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

View Options
The View, Options (F6 hotkey) command allows you control the way your view is
displayed. See the View Options section of the Femap Commands manual for details on
the multiple options available in these dialog boxes

There are three major categories in the View Options dialog box:
• Labels, Entities and Color – controls the way text, geometry and mesh entities,
and the color of entities are displayed in the active view.
• Tools and View Style – controls view entities, style and display of view objects
such as Symbols in the active view.
• PostProcessing – controls the options for displaying graphical and XY plots of
analysis results.
• Use the Apply button to update the active view without leaving the View Options
command.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 18


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

View Background and Entity Visibility


The view background can be modified with the View, Background command. With this
command, you can specify a background that is either
• Transparent
• Solid
• Shaded
• You also have the option to specify a bitmap as a logo background. The bitmap for
the logo is specified in the Femap Preferences dialog box in the Views tab.

A view with its View Options, Entity Display settings, and Background can be saved to a
View Library within the Visibility dialog box (activated with the Ctrl+Q hotkey or from
the View toolbar) by clicking the Save View button.
• A saved view will
update the active
view’s settings by
clicking Load View.
• Changes made to
the active view can
also be removed
via the Reset View
button in this dialog
box.

Saved views can also


be set as the
Startup View for all
new models via the
View tab of the FEMAP
Preferences.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 19


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Data Table
Use the Tools, Data Table command or the Panes toolbar to turn the Data Table on
and off.
• When the Data Table is first opened, it is “locked”. The Lock/Unlock icon must be
selected to unlock it to enable it to receive or update data.

Data is placed into an interactive, dynamically changing “table” using various methods to
fill the table provided it is unlocked
 Each item appears as a single row separated into a number of columns when it
enters the Data Table.
 Information of entities of the same type can be sorted, filtered, and evaluated to help
you understand what is occurring in your model before and after analysis.
 In many ways, the Data Table is a complement to the other dockable panes and can
also simply be an alternate method to list and view entity data
All FEMAP entities which can be selected using the Select toolbar can be sent to the
Data Table.
Several commands are available for listing and sorting results when the Data Table is
open and analysis results sets are loaded into your FEMAP model:
 List, Output, Summary to Data Table
 List, Output, Results to Data Table
 List, Output, Nodal Changes to Data Table

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 20


Lesson 8 The Femap User Interface – Part 2

Programming Interfaces
Program Files
• FEMAP has the ability to record and replay command sequences using Program
Files.
• Program Files can be edited to accept user input.
• Program Files may not be compatible between different versions of FEMAP.

API – FEMAP has an Application Programming Interface that can be used to customize
FEMAP for applications such as:
• Automate tasks such as swapping the background colors of views for printing .
• Calculate the midplane stresses on shell elements.
• Interface with other programs for the purposes for importing, modifying, or reporting
data.
• FEMAP has a built-in Basic language programming environment through the API
Programming pane.
• Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual C++.NET can also be used to develop custom
applications for FEMAP.
• The API can be used to embed FEMAP into other applications; open, create, and/or
modify FEMAP models; or to develop standalone FEMAP applications without using
FEMAP’s GUI.
• Examples of API applications are shipped with FEMAP in FEMAP’s API folder. The
Custom Tools toolbar is set by default to point to this folder.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 8 - 21


Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Purpose

This lesson provides an introduction to selection, viewing, and data collection tools in
Femap’s user interface.

Topics

• Geometry, Material, Property and Layer Visibility Toggles


• View, Advanced Post, Model Contour Data command
• Visibility Dialog Box
• Comparing Groups and Layers
• Layers
• Groups
• View Options

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-1
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Geometry, Element, Material and Property, Display Control


Beginning with Femap Version 10.1, display of Element (by Type or by Shape),
Materials, Properties and can be controlled from the Model Info pane. Femap v10.1.1
adds the ability to toggle solids on and off.
• The box to the left of the object’s ID/name is the Visibility Toggle and indicates
whether or not the object is displayed.
• Indicates that the object is displayed.

You can also select one or more of the same object type and then Right-click to bring up
the Visibility Toggle menu.

Femap will display the combination of selected geometry, element types, materials,
properties and groups, eliminating the need to organize the model by layers or by
creating additional groups.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-2
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Display Control Example


Example: Wing model with multiple groups, element types and shapes, materials and
properties.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-3
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Display Control Example (continued)


Display only a portion of the model with elements comprised of Aluminum alloys:

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-4
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

View, Advanced Post, Model Contour Data Command


To display material and mesh attributes as a Contour, Criteria, or Beam Diagram plot,
use the command, View, Advanced Post, Model Contour Data. This command is
also directly available on the View toolbar.

Model data that can be graphically plotted is:


• Element Quality
• Material Data
• Property Data
You cannot simultaneously display model data and analysis results.

Example – Display Plane Element Thickness as a Criteria plot without labels:

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-5
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Visibility Dialog Box


The Visibility dialog box is accessed by using either clicking the View Visibility icon on
the View toolbar or by pressing the Ctrl+q hotkey. Note that the active view number and
title is displayed in the upper left corner of the dialog box.

With this dialog box, you can toggle the display of:
• Entity / Label - allows you to toggle the display of individual load and constraint
types
• Group
• Layer –allows you to create new groups as well as toggling the display of layers
• Loads / Constraints – also allows you to set and control the display of single or
multiple Load and/or Constraint Sets
• Geometry
• Connection
• Coordinate
System
• Element
• Material
• Property

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-6
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Comparing Groups and Layers

Layers Groups

Can be assigned to multiple


Groups
Can be assigned to only Assign by rules, relationships,
one Layer and/or clipping.
Entities
Imported with some CAD Automatic generation tools.
geometry formats. Reference Groups for
managing “groups” of Groups
(Femap v10.1)

Multiple / User Controlled


Display
Multiple / User Controlled (single Group only prior to
Simultaneously?
Femap v10.1)

Displayed Layers only


Optional “No Pick” layer Only entities in the displayed
Graphical Selection prevents graphical groups can be selected
selection of entities on that except when Select All is
layer (except when Select used.
All is used).

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-7
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Layers
Create new layers using the Tools, Layer command. This activates the Layer Manager
dialog box.

The Layer Manager dialog box has options to:


• Create a New Layer
• Assign ID, Title and Color
• View Options allows display of colors by layer (by entity type)

• Update a layer name


• Renumber a single layer Note: If you delete layer(s), any entities on the
deleted layer still exist in the Femap model,
• Delete a layer and you will need to reassign them to another
• Delete All layers layer in order to make them visible and
selectable.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-8
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Layers in the Model Info Pane


Layers objects
 Create New layers
• Activate layers
• Manage layers
• Delete layers

Selection List objects


 Select the object(s)
in the Selection List,
right-click the
mouse and select
Layer from the
menu.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9-9
Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Defining and Populating Groups


Use the Group, Create/Manage command to
create a Group, then use other commands to add
entities into group

Group Clipping – Group, Clipping commands


• Selects all entities inside/outside clipping
region by:
• Coordinate
• Screen
• Plane
• Volume
• Set Clipping first, then rules.

Group Rules
• Various entity selection commands, either by
ID or using relationships to other entities, e.g.
Group, Element, On Surface
• Entities can be added to group using any
combination of selection methods
• When selecting entities, use the Exclude
option if you want the selected entities
removed permanently from the group.

Referenced Groups allow a group to link to one or


more other group(s).

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Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Group Management
The Group, Create/Manage command opens the Group Manager dialog box. The
Layer Manager dialog box has options to:
• Create a New Group
• Assign ID and Title

• Update Title updates the title of the group


• Renumber the selected group
• Delete a selected group
• Delete All groups
• Manage Referenced Groups
• Deactivate the active group with None Active

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Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Control of and Automatic Generation of Groups


The Group, Operations command set:
• Use Automatic Add to add to the either the Active or Selected group as you model
• Evaluate and Evaluate Always are used to update groups as the model is modified.
• Limit use of Evaluate Always in large models.
• Copy and Condense groups
• Combine groups using Boolean operations
• Use Add Related Entities to add entities to existing groups such as Loads and
Constraints on Surfaces, Nodes on Elements, etc.
• Generate commands can be used to automatically generate and maintain groups in
the model by:
• Solids
• Property
• Material
• Element Type
• Output
• Superelements
• Layers

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Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Using Booleans with Groups


The Group, Operations, Booleans command allows you to create a new group:
• Add / Combine – take all entities from the selected groups.
• In all – take entities that are common to all of the selected groups.
• Not in Any – take entities that do not exist in any of the selected groups.
• Subtract – remove the entities from the selected groups from another group.
• Only in One - take only the entities that exist in one of the selected groups.
• Not in All - take only the entities from the selected groups that do not exist in all of
the selected groups.

Note: To see examples of the Group, Operations, Booleans command, go to


Section 6.4.3.2 of the Femap Commands Guide.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9 - 13


Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Group Creation and Control from the Model Info Pane


Right-click on a group name
to bring up the context-
sensitive menu for groups.
• Create a New group
• Combine groups into a
new group
• Add Related Entities
• Toggle Automatic Add
to the Active or Selected
group
• Show the Full Model,
Active Group or
Multiple Groups (a
further explanation of this
follows).
• Activate the selected
group
 List the contents of the
selected group(s)
 Delete the selected
group(s)
 Manage Referenced
Groups

 Add to Selection – adds the contents of the selected group(s) to the Selection List
 Export Neutral exports the contents of the selected group(s) to a Femap Neutral file

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9 - 14


Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Group Display Control


Multiple groups can be displayed using either the View Visibility dialog box or via the
Group tree in the Model Info pane.

To activate the Visibility dialog box to control display of groups:


• Click the View Visibility icon on the View toolbar
or
• Right-click in the graphics window and select Visibility on the context-sensitive
menu
• Select the Group tab in the Visibility dialog box
• Choose between:
• Show Full Model – when selected, the selection of individual groups in the
group list section of this dialog box is grayed out.
• Show Active Group
• Show Single Group – when selected, the selection of individual groups in the
group list section of this dialog box is grayed out.
• Show/Hide Multiple Groups
• The Visibility Toggle is the box to the left of the group’s ID and name and
indicates whether or not the group is displayed.

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Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Group Display Control (continued)


The display of groups can also
be controlled from the Group
tree in the Model Info pane.
• The box to the left of the
group’s ID and name is the
Visibility Toggle and
indicates whether or not
the group is displayed.
• Indicates that the
group is displayed.
• Indicates that the
group is hidden.
• A blank checkbox
indicates that the
group is not displayed.
• Indicates that all
groups, except for
those hidden are
displayed.

You can also select one or


more of the same object type
and then Right-click the
Visibility Toggle.

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Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

Group Display Control Using the Status Bar Tray


In addition to the Model Info pane’s Group tree, you can activate a group using the
Status Bar Tray
• Click “Grp: (#)” on the Status Bar Tray and select the group you want to activate.
• The number (#) indicates the active group number

• Options to control display of groups with:


• Show Full Model
• Show Active
• Show Multiple

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9 - 17


Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

View Options
In many cases, you may want to display specific entity indicators such as surface
normal, curve direction or element normal's. The View Options dialog box offers options
to display these indicators.

Example – Turn on display of rigid elements degree of freedom indicators and


master/slave nodes:

An unfilled box
indicates the Slave
Node on the rigid
element

A filled box
indicates the
Master Node on the
rigid element

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9 - 18


Lesson 9 Model Display and Visualization

View Options (continued)


Example– Turn on display of surface normal's:

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 9 - 19


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Purpose:

The Meshing Toolbox is used for accessing FEMAP’s interactive geometry cleanup
and idealization tools and interactive mesh editing tools. This lesson is an overview
of the tools available in the Meshing Toolbox.

Topics:
• Entity Locator Tools
• Feature Suppression Tools
• Feature Removal Tools
• Feature Editing Tools
• Geometry Editing Tools
• Combined / Composite Curves Tools
• Combined / Boundary Surfaces Tools
• Mesh Sizing Tools
• Mesh Surface Tools
• Mesh Locate Tools
• Mesh Quality Tools

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 1


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Meshing Toolbox - Controls


Similar to other FEMAP Panes, the Meshing Toolbox can be turned on and off from the
Tools menu.

The Meshing Toolbox has several controls for:


• Toolbox Visibility – toggle Meshing Toolbox controls
• Toggle Entity Locator – toggle the feature Locator controls
• Mesh Quality Toggle – toggle display of mesh quality
• Automesh / Remesh Control – select either automatic remeshing or manual
meshing after making an update in one of the Meshing Toolbox controls
• Select / Dialog Select icons – select a single entity or multiple entities using a
Select dialog box

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Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Entity Locator for Curves

The Locator makes it possible to quickly search for features in a model that could
result in poor mesh quality.

Locator controls are activated by toggling the Toggle Entity Locator icon.

The Locator has an option to Search for:


• Curves
• Surfaces
• Elements

When Curves are


selected the Search
Method can be set to
search for:
• Short Edges
• Based On
• Global Mesh
Size
• Curve Length
• Shortest
Curves
• Free Edges
• NonManifold Edges
• From Group
• You can also select
whether to locate the
curve in the:
• Entire Model
• Only in Group(s)
• Not in Group(s)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 3


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Entity Locator for Surfaces


When Surfaces are selected the Search Method can be set to search for:
• Small Surfaces
• Fit in Radius
• Slivers
• Sliver Tolerance
• Spikes
• Spike Width
• By Area
• Area Less Than
• You can also select
whether to locate
surfaces in the:
• Entire Model
• Only in Group(s)
• Not in Group(s)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 4


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Entity Locator for Elements


When Elements are selected
the Search Method can be set
to search for:
• Free Edges
• Quality
• Specify the Max
Allowable Value for the
selected Quality Type
• Edge Length
• Specify the Edge Length.
Femap searches for
elements with edge
length(s) less than or equal
to the specified value.
• You can also select whether
to locate surfaces in the:
• Entire Model
• Only in Group(s)
• Not in Group(s)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 5


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Entity Locator - Toggle Entity Locator Menu


The Toggle Entity Locator icon is
used to cycle through objects located
through the Locator control.

Show Options can be used to rotate


and/or zoom closer to the objects
found using one of these operations:
• Next – find the next object located
• Previous – find the previous object
located
• Current – find the next object
located
• First – find the first object located
by the Locator tool.
• Last – find the last object located
by the Locator tool.

These operations will remove or clear objects found by the Locator:


• Do Not Locate - deletes the current entity from the list of located entities and keeps
the entity from being located again during the current model editing session.
• Remove - deletes the current entity from the list of located entities
• Clear Locator – clears the list of entities found by the Locator

Entities located can also be used to:


• Create Group – creates a new group of entities found by the locator
• Add to Data Table – if the

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Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Feature Suppression
Feature Suppression controls allow you to interactively suppress or remove
suppression of:
• Loops – select one edge on an feature to automatically suppress the entire set of
curves and surfaces comprising the feature
• Curves – select curve(s) to be suppressed. Should not be used on solids.
• Surfaces – select surface(s) to be suppressed. Should not be used on sheet bodies.

• The Action menu toggles the action to :


• Toggle Suppression – if a entity is unsuppressed, suppress it. If it is
suppressed, restore it.
• Suppress or Restore
• Limit Size prevents selection of entities that have their length less than the specified
Smaller Than value.
• Update Colors - set options to toggle and colors for suppressed entities.
• Show Suppressed - allows you to highlight suppressed Curves or Surfaces
• Restore All features in either selected solid(s) (In Solids button) or in the entire
Model

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Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Feature Removal
Feature Removal differs from Feature Suppression in that the underlying solid or
surface geometry is modified.

• Loops – includes an option to set the Limit Size for selecting loops.
• Add Surface Mesh Point - adds a Mesh Point on Surface at the center of the
loop.
• Curves – includes an option to set the Limit Size for selecting loops. Also includes
an option for Aggressive Removal
• Surfaces - when a single surface on a solid is selected, Femap will attempt to clean
up the solid to result in a “clean” solid. In some cases, no operation will be performed
and in others, other adjacent surfaces will be removed. There is also an option for
Aggressive Removal

Note: There is no option to restore removed features beyond what is supported


with the Undo command.

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Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Feature Editing Tool


Feature Editing allows the relocation of Feature Edges and Surfaces.

• With Feature Edges, you can:


• Translate Surfaces – specify the Vector to Move Along and a translation
Distance
• Rotate Surfaces - specify the Vector to Rotate About and a rotation Angle
• Resize Hole – specify the Hole Diameter
• For a Surface, you can:
• Translate Surfaces – specify the Vector to Move Along and a translation
Distance
• Rotate Surfaces - specify the Vector to Rotate About and a rotation Angle

Note: Feature editing does not allow the modification of topology.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 9


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Geometry Editing Tool


Geometry Editing includes many of the surface curve commands available with the
Geometry, Curves on Surface command set. Meshed surfaces will be updated and any
new surfaces created with this tool set will also be meshed using the current assigned
mesh sizes on curves and default mesh size.

With this toolset you can:


• You can split a curve at
the Location to Break
at with the Curve Break
operation
• Split or imprint a surface
with the Point to Point,
Point to Edge or
Edge to Edge operation
• Generate Pads or
Washers
• Extend surfaces

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Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Combined / Composite Curves


Combined / Composite Curves combines two or contiguous curves into a single
curve for meshing. The can be created by:

• Add By Point – create the


composite curve by
selecting a vertex point on
two or more curves
• Add Curves
• The Combine Surfaces
option creates Combined
Surfaces for surfaces using
the curves that are
combined.
• Split At – splits a composite
curve at the selected point
 Remove – converts the
composite curve at the
selected position back to it’s
the original curve definition.
The remainder of the
composite curve is retained.
 Delete – converts all curves on the composite curve back to their original curve
definitions

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 11


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Combined / Boundary Surfaces


Combined / Boundary Surfaces combines two or contiguous surfaces into a single
surface for meshing. The can be created by:
• Add By Curve– create the composite surface by selecting a common edge on the
two original surfaces
• Add Surfaces – converts the selected surface to a composite surface. If multiple
surfaces are selected using the Dialog Select tool, the selected surfaces are
combined into a single surface provided they are connected by a common edge.
• Merge To Existing – merges existing adjacent Combined Surfaces to the
selected surfaces when Dialog Select and two or more surfaces are selected to
be combined.
• Split Along– splits a composite surface by the selected curve(s)
• Remove – converts the selected composite surface(s) their original surface
definitions
• Delete – converts the selected composite surface(s) to their original surface
definitions

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Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Mesh Sizing Toolbox


Mesh Sizing controls
provides interactive
modification of mesh sizes on
curves.

Set the mesh size on selected


curve(s) with the Size Curves
option.
• Add – add the Number of
Nodes to the current mesh
size
• Subtract – subtract the
Number of Nodes from
the current mesh size
• Set To – in this case, the
number of elements on the
curve will equal the
Number of Nodes.
• Specify the Spacing as
either:
• Equal
• Biased – when
this option is enable, you
specify the Bias Factor

Enable Length Based Sizing


When the Sizing Option is set to Match Curves, the curve(s) selected will match the
mesh sizing settings of the Master Curve
Enabling the Show Free Edges option highlights the nodes on the mesh’s free edges

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 13


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Mesh Surface Toolbox


Mesh Surface has controls
to:
• Set surface mesh
attributes
• Set mesh size on
surfaces
• Mesh surfaces

• Advanced Options
gives you access to
most of the options in
the Mesh Surface dialog box

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 14


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Mesh Locate Toolbox


With the Mesh Locate
controls, you can interactively
move nodes to improve the
quality of a mesh.
• Specify the attached mesh
with the Select Mesh to
Edit option:
• Attached To Surface
• Attached To Solid
 Standalone Mesh –
ignore attached geometry
and modify the node
locations freely

With the Locate Multiple option you can select multiple nodes and move them
simultaneously
The Locate Method specifies whether to move the node:
• Dynamic – drag the position of the selected node(s) using the cursor
• Manual, Vector – specify the direction and distance to move the selected node(s)
Smooth will move the adjust the other nodes of the attached elements to smooth the
mesh quality
Enabling the Project option constrains the node’s movement so that it remains attached
to its surface
Constrain to Curve constrains the node’s movement to remain attached to its curve
Once a node or nodes have been moved, you have the option to Save or Discard the
edit(s)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 15


Lesson 10 The Meshing Toolbox

Meshing Toolbox –Mesh Quality


Mesh Quality displays a
contour display of the quality
of the free faces of a model’s
mesh.
• Quality Type specifies
whether to display the
mesh quality by:
• Aspect Ratio
• Taper
• Alternate Taper
• Internal Angles
• Warping
• Nastran Warping
• Jacobian
• Combined Quality
• Set the Number of Distortion Levels to:
• 2 or 4
• Toggle Smooth Contours
• Minimum Distortion displays the minimum element distortion value in the Meshing
Toolbox pane
• Max Distortion displays the maximum element distortion value in the Meshing
Toolbox pane

Note: To display the quality of internal elements, you must use the Meshing
Toolbox’s Entity Locator – Elements – Quality tool

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 10 - 16


Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

Purpose

This lesson provides an introduction to the setup of analyses using Femap’s Analysis
Set Manager.

Topics

 The Analysis Set Manager


 Analysis Set Manager Dialog Box
 NX Nastran Supported Solution Sequences
 NX Nastran Input File Setup
 Preview/Edit Input
 Bulk Data Entries
 Analyze Process
 NX Nastran Analysis Procedure and Files

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Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

The Analysis Set Manager


Femap’s Analysis Set Manager manages the options necessary to:
• Create a ready to run input file.
• Launch the NX Nastran solver or to launch another locally installed solver.
• Start VisQ to send the input file to a solver on another machine.

Analysis Sets are stored along with the Femap model file or can be stored in a Femap
library that is available across different model files.

To enter the analysis Manager select the Model, Analysis command.


• Click the New button to create a new Analysis Set.
• Specify a Title, Analysis Program, and the Analysis Type

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 11 - 2


Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

NX Nastran Supported Solution Sequences


Linear statics

Normal modes

Buckling

Dynamics
• Modal or direct transient
• Modal or direct frequency
• Response Spectrum
• Random Response

Design optimization

Nonlinear
• Nonlinear statics
• Nonlinear transient response

Heat Transfer
• Steady-state heat transfer
• Transient heat transfer

Advanced Nonlinear
• Nonlinear Statics (SOL601,106)
• Nonlinear Transient (SOL601,129)
• Nonlinear Explicit (SOL701)

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Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

Analysis Set Manager Dialog Box


The Analysis Set Manager dialog box shows all analysis sets defined in the model
• Expand the tree view with +,-
• Edit sets by double click on tree item or highlight and select Edit button
• Export: writes input file to disk
• Delete
• Copy
• Load and Save to the Analysis Set library

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Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

NX Nastran Input File Setup


Select Solver and Analysis Type

Set Executive, Bulk Data, GEOMCHECK, MODELCHECK options


• Can add additional NX Nastran cards and/or Include Files with Start/End Text
options

Case Control
• Master Requests and Conditions
• Subcases
• Select Master Requests and Conditions then click the New button

Multi set:
• Select constraint and loads sets and Femap will create a subcase for each
combination of selected constraint and load set(s)
• Not available for all analysis types

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 11 - 5


Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

Analysis Set – Nastran Bulk Data Options Dialog Box


When using one of the Nastran solvers, the Nastran Bulk Data Options dialog box has
multiple options. Two of the many options are described below. See section 8.7.1.3 of
the Femap Commands Manual for more details.
• If you want to analyze only a portion of the model, you can specify a single group to
write out only with the Portion of Model to Write option.
• Some models may have specified the mass properties entry for materials as weight
density rather then mass density. In this case, enable the WTMASS option and
specify the value of the gravitational constant.

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Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

NX Nastran Advanced Dynamics Options


NX Nastran Advanced Dynamics has additional options for the selected analysis Type in
the Analysis Set

These options can


also be defined in a
Load Set.

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Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

NX Nastran Nonlinear Options


When NX Nastran Nonlinear is the analysis Type, Nonlinear options can be set as part
of the Master Request and Conditions or as an option when subcases are used.
• Just like in NX Nastran Advanced Dynamics, these can also be set as options in a
load set.

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Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

Preview/Edit Input
Preview
• Generates the input deck
• Check for errors

Edit Preview – edits performed using this option will be a “one time” only edit and will
only be applied when applying the Export or Analyze button
• Modify, add, remove entries
• Standard field spacing displayed as header
• Add comments

Analyze or Export

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Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

Analyze Process
Analyze operation
• Exports input deck and
starts in a NX Nastran job
as a separate process
• The Analysis Monitor
displays the NX Nastran
.log, .f04, or .f06 files
• Results automatically
loaded into Femap
(Femap Preferences
default).

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Lesson 11 Analysis Set Manager

NX Nastran Analysis Procedure and Files


NX Nastran Output files – these files are retained :
• .f06 (Print File) – Contains results data, as well as, warning and error messages.
Also, XY Plot data, diagnostic information (Geomcheck, Weight Check, Ground
Check), Grid point force data, and Failure indices for Composite (Laminate) Elements
prior to Femap 8.3
• .op2 (Binary Output File) – Contains results data in binary format, but results data
can be imported into Femap much faster using the .op2
• .f04 (Text File) – Contains a summary of file and database usage information,
memory and disk usage sizes, and module execution and statistical information.
• .log (Text File) – License usage, summary of solution times, and other general
information about the execution of NX Nastran.

Results data:
• Components of displacements at grid points
• Element Recovery data (stresses, strains, strain energy, and internal forces and
moments
• Grid point data recovery (applied loads, constraint forces, and element forces)

Note: Several temporary files are generated during an NX Nastran analysis


execution. By default, these files are placed in the scratch file location
designated during the installation of NX Nastran. These files are
automatically deleted after the successful execution of NX Nastran. Femap
allows you to override the default scratch file through a preference setting,
or you can specify the file location in an Analysis Set option.
The scratch file folder should be checked frequently and files deleted as
needed.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 11 - 11


Lesson 12 Post Processing - Visualizing and
Documenting Results

Purpose:

This lesson provides an detailed overview of post-processing results in Femap.

Topics:
 Results Display and Reporting
 The PostProcessing Toolbox
 Beam Cross Section Results Display
 View Select Dialog Box
 Deformed and Contour Data
 Post Data dialog box
 Contour Options
 Animation Commands and Options
 XY Plots
 Freebody Display
 Vector Plots
 Additional Output Processing
 Detailed Post Processing Options
 Post Processing Toolbar

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Lesson 12 Post Processing - Visualizing and Documenting Results

Results Display and Reporting


Femap display results in the graphics pane as one of two two styles:
• XY – results plotted as graphs
• Model – results graphically displayed on the mesh

The default display for any new Femap view is the Model style. Both styles have
multiple types of displays that can be selected in the View Select dialog box. Graphical
display of deformed and/or contour results can be also be set in the PostProcessing
toolbox.

Results can also be listed in the Messages pane and/or to a text file and can also be
displayed in the Data Table

Note: For versions of Femap prior to v10.2, selection of results type, output sets,
and output vectors is controlled through the View, Select command and the
Post toolbar and display settings for results is controlled through the View,
Options command.

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Lesson 12 Post Processing - Visualizing and Documenting Results

The PostProcessing Toolbox


The PostProcessing Toolbox is used
quickly display deformed and/or contoured
results. The most commonly used options
for displaying results in the View Select,
Deformed and Contour Data, Contour
Options and View Options dialog boxes
are readily accessible with this toolbox.

There are three (3) tools within this


toolbox:
• Deform
• Contour
• Freebody

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PostProcessing Toolbox Toolbar


The PostProcessing Toolbox has several icons on it’s toolbar:

• Turn Tools On and Off – toggles the


Deform and Contour tools on and off.

• Reload from Model – syncs the options displayed in the PostProcessing


Toolbox’s tools with the display in the active graphics pane. Generally used if
Auto Redraw is disabled and you want to reset the values in the PostProcessing
Toolbox to the values displayed in the active Graphics pane.

• Set to Undeformed, No Contour

• Set the Deformed Style – select one


of the deformed styles using the
Transformation Output Vector set in
the Select PostProcessing Data
dialog box or in the Deform tool

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PostProcessing Toolbox Toolbar (continued)

• Set the Contour Style – select one of


the deformed styles using the
Transformation Output Vector set in the
Select PostProcessing Data dialog box
or in the Deform tool

Auto Redraw – Automatically refreshes the active graphics pane when any
changes are made to the Deform Style or the Contour Style. On by default for
any new model, turn this off for large models for better performance when
multiple changes are going to be made to the results display.

Manual Redraw– Refreshes the active graphics pane when any changes are
made to the Deform Style or the Contour Style

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Deform Tool


When you desire to create a
deformed shape, the Deform Tool
controls the deformed style, the
Output Set and Transformation
Vector and several commonly used
options for displaying deformed
shapes.

The Deform tool offers seven (7)


styles of deformed shapes:
• Undeformed
• Deformed
• Animate
• Animate – MultiSet
• Vector
• Trace
• Streamline

For all styles, the Output Set and


the Output Vector can be
selected using the Select Output
Set and Select Output Vector
icons.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Deform Tool


Common Style Options
When any of the Deform styles are selected, except for Streamlines, the following
options are available:
• Transform – select the transformation coordinate system and it’s component(s)

• Scale – Select the type of scale for the deformed shape: % of Model or Actual
Deformations.
• For % of Model, you can set the display scale of the Max % Model equal to
the highest value of the deformed vector selected times the value of the largest
extent of the undeformed model.

• You can also enable the Scale Based on Group where the largest
deformation displayed is based on the maximum value of the deformed
vector in the displayed groups
• For Actual Deformations, you directly set the scale of the deformed values.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool


Common Style Options (continued)
Again, for all the Deform styles except for Streamlines, you have the Deform Relative
to option. This can be left at the default of the Model Origin or to a selected Fixed
Node.

For Deformed, Animate, Animate – MultiSet and Trace styles, you have the option to
display the Undeformed Model. The undeformed model can be displayed using the
view’s element color display settings or by enabling the Use View Color option.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Deform Tool – Animate


When the Animate style is selected, the following Animation options are available in
the Deform tool in addition to the common options described on the previous two slides:
• Shape – select from a Linear or Sine (sinusoidal) distribution of the frames. For
both types, you can select between Full, Full-Abs(olute), Half, or Half-Abs(olute).
• Full displays the loading and unloading of the model while Half displays only
the loading of the model

• Frames – specify the number of animation frames

• Delay - specify the time delay between frames in milliseconds

• Animation Control – opens the Animation Control dialog box where the animation
can be paused, stepped from frame to frame, frame delay and full or half shapes
can be toggled on and off.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Deform Tool – Animate - MultiSet


When the Animate – MultiSet style is selected, the options are the same as for the
Animate style with the addition of:
• Final Output Set – select the Final Output Set for animation
• Specify the Increment between the Output Set and the Final Output Set

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Deform Tool – Vector


When the Vector style is selected, the following options are available as well as the
common options described earlier:
• Label – display vector with either No Labels, Output Value or labels on only those
vectors within the Top Percent specified
• Color - set the display color of the vectors
• Arrowheads – toggle the display of the vector arrowheads on and off
• Component Vectors - turn on display of component vectors. Default is to display
the resultant vector
• Show As Solid – display the vector as a solid

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Deform Tool – Trace


The Trace style is similar to a Animate – Multi-Set display with the addition of the
display of the path of the output vector at the output steps selected.

When the Trace style is selected, the options available are the same as for the Animate
– MultiSet style with the addition of the following:
• At Locations – display on the entire model or only a selected group
• Length – Display the trace of the deformation as the Full Length path or to
animate the path with the Animate Growth setting
• Label – display either No Labels, the Output Set ID or the Output Set Value
• Color – set the color of the trace path
• Show Locations – show a symbol at the location along the trace path for each
output set selected

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Deform Tool – Streamline


When the Streamline style is selected, the following options are available in the Deform
tool:
• Transform – select the transformation coordinate system’s component(s)
• Locations – select a Specified Location, At Point for an existing point in the
model or a Group of points to define the start point(s) of the streamline(s)
• Location - displays the coordinate of the streamline start point. This option
also allows you to specify the location by a selected Coordinate System.
• Dynamic Location – when a Specified Location or At Point is selected for the
location of the start of the streamline, dynamically transform the location of the
streamline’s start point. When a Group is used to define the location(s) of the
streamline points, you can dynamically define a single streamline using this tool.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Deform Tool – Streamline


(continued)
When the Streamline style is selected, the following additional options are available in
the Deform tool:
• Streamline – display the Draw Start or indicators of the start point(s) of the
streamline(s) and display the color of the streamline(s) by either a contoured color
line or by Use View Color
• Parameters – set the parameters for the streamline.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool


When you desire to create a
contour plot, the Contour tool
controls the contour style, the
Output Set and Transformation
Vector and several commonly used
options for displaying contour
plots.

The Contour tool offers six (6)


styles of contour displays as well
as No Contours:
• Contour
• Criteria
• Beam Diagram
• IsoSurface
• Section Cut
• Contour Vector

For all styles, the Output Set and


the Output Vector can be
selected using the Select Output
Set and Select Output Vector
icons.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool


Common Style Options
When any of the Contour styles are selected, the following options are available:
• Transform – select the transformation coordinate system’s component(s) for Nodel
Vector Output, Plate Force/Stress/Strain and/or Solid Stress/Strain

• Show On – display contours on the Full Model, Active Group, or from the list of
groups in the model
• Levels - Specify the Level Mode, Contour Palette and # of Levels. Enable
Continuous Colors and Animate the contour colors when the Deform Animate
style is enabled.
• Clicking the Levels/Palette icon allows the selection of one
of several Standard Colors contour color settings in the
Contour/Criteria Levels dialog box.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool


Common Style Options (continued)
For the Contour style, the following display options are available in addition to those on
the previous page:
• Legend - Enable display of the legend as well as specify the Position of the
legend. Specify the Label Color mode and the View Color. In addition, you can
enable both Exponential Labels and Label Erase Background. Set the Label
Frequency, Label Digits and label Shrink to %.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool - Contour Style


In addition to the options for all of the Contour styles listed on the previous page, for the
Contour style, you have the option to set:
• Data Conversion – select from the options for Average, Maximum or Minimum
values using the corner nodes or Centroid
• Type – select Elemental or Nodal.
• When Elemental is selected, you have the option to enable Double-Sided Planar
contours when a planar Output Vector is selected and in addition, you can
simultaneously display an Additional Vector

• Show As – display the contour as Filled or Line

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool – Criteria


When the Criteria style is selected, in addition to the options available of all contour
styles, the following options are available in the Criteria tool:
• Limits Mode – Select from No Limits, Above Maximum, Below Minimum,
Between or Outside
• Elements that Pass / Elements that Fail – Enable none, one, or both of these
options and set the Color options for the displayed elements.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool – Beam Diagram


When the Beam Diagram style is selected, the following additional display control
options are available in the Contour tool:
• Show As – select the results display as a either a:
• Beam Diagram - select a Labels option, Direction, and enable/disable Show
Reversed. Set the Scale of the largest value relative to the model size and the
Border Color of the delineator between the ends of adjacent beams.
• Beam Contour - specify the Direction of the beam results

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool – IsoSurface


When the IsoSurface style is selected, the following additional options are available in
the Contour tool:
• Show As – select the results display as a either a:
• IsoSurface, IsoLine or Contour on Deform IsoSurface . Contour on Deform
IsoSurface uses the Deformed Output Vector for its values.
• Number – display a Single IsoSurface or IsoLine at the specified At Value or
Use Contour Colors
• IsoSurf/Line Color – toggle between contour colors or a single color.
• Dynamic Control – activates the Dynamic IsoSurface Control dialog box

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool – Section Cut


When the Section Cut style is selected, the following additional options are available in
the Contour tool:
• Show As – select the results display as either Filled or Line
• Cut Options – select from either: Cut Model – specify a single cutting plane;
Parallel Sections – specify the number of parallel sections and the distance
between sections; or Multiple Sections - specify up to three (3) user-defined
section planes
• Dynamic Control - activate the Dynamic Section Cut Control dialog box. For
Parallel Sections, this will dynamically move all the section cuts. For Multiple
Sections, you select which section cut you want to dynamically move.

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PostProcessing Toolbox – Contour Tool – Contour Vector


When the Contour Vector style is selected, the following additional options are
available in the Contour tool:
• Contour Vectors – opens the Contour Vector Options dialog box to specify the
Vector Type, Elemental Vectors and output data orientation
• Vector Options – specify the Vector Style and set the color of the vectors and Use
View Color to those set in the Contour Vector Options dialog box or display by
contour color
• Length – enable Adjust Length to Value to display the vectors relative to the
highest value specified by value of the Arrow Length

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Freebody Display
Freebody diagrams are created in Femap with the Freebody tool. To create a new
freebody, click the Add Freebody icon under the Freebody Properties tool.

This activates the Freebody Manager dialog box. Click the New Freebody button.

Note: When freebody displays are needed, you will need to specify the output of
Grid Point Forces or equivalent for non-Nastran solvers. This is the Force
Balance option in the Analysis Set Manager, Nastran Output Requests
dialog box.

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Freebody Diagram Types


In the New Freebody dialog box, you specify the:
• Display Mode – Freebody or Interface Load display
• Vector Display – Nodal Forces and/or Nodal Moments
• When a Interface Load display is selected, select the specify Total Force and
Total Moment options
• Freebody Contributions
• And, when a Interface Load display is selected, select the Load Components in
Total Summation

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Freebody Entity Selection


When a Freebody display is selected, you must select the Elements to be included in
the freebody display. Nodes attached to the selected elements are automatically
included in the freebody display.

To select elements, you first specify whether to select the elements by the elements in a
selected Group or by Entity Select.

When the Entity Selection Mode is set to Entity Select, click the Select
Freebody Elements icon to active the Select Entity – Select Freebody Elements
dialog box.

The Show Freebody Elements icon can be used to display the freebody
elements selected using the highlighting option set for the model.
The Reset Freebody Elements icon can be used to clear the freebody element
selection.

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Freebody Entity Selection


When a Interface Load display is selected, you must select both the Elements and
Nodes to be included in the interface load display.

Just like for a Freebody display, you can specify either selection by Group or by Entity
Selection.

• When the Entity Selection Mode is set to Entity Select, the Select freebody
elements, Show freebody elements, and Reset freebody elements icons are
available.
Additionally, when Entity Selection Mode is set to Entity Select, click the Select
freebody nodes icon to active the Select Entity – Select Freebody Nodes dialog
box. When the nodes are selected, you will be prompted in a dialog box to create
and automatically locate a total summation vector at the center of the selected
nodes.
The Show freebody nodes icon is used to display the freebody elements
selected using the highlighting option set for the model.
The Reset freebody nodes icon is used to clear the freebody node selection.

The Place summation vector at the center of selected nodes icon is used to
generate the force and/or moment summation vector at the center of selected
nodes.
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Freebody Vector Display Options


For both types of freebody displays, you have the option to toggle force and moment
vectors by either components or resultant vectors.

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Freebody Vector Display Options


View Properties are used to specify the style and color of force and moment vectors.

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Beam Cross Section Results Display


The View, Advanced Post, Beam Cross Section command generates a display of the
beam or bar results on a plane normal to a beam/bar element’s local x-axis. Since
Femap calculates the stresses, the solver chosen for the solution is not critical as long
as the results include beam/bar axial forces, shear forces, moments and torques. The
shape of the cross section is not limited to standard shapes.

• In most cases, you should turn off display of cross sections or change your view
rendering type to wireframe before selecting the View, Advanced Post, Beam Cross
Section command

Note: In order for this command to be available, you must first activate a results set
that includes beam or bar force and stress output vectors.

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Beam Cross Section Stress Control Dialog Box


Activating the View, Advanced Post, Beam Cross Section command opens the
Beam Cross Section Stress Control dialog box.

• By default, the active Output Set is selected and can be changed when multiple
output sets exist in the Femap model.
• Elements allow you to either select a Single beam or bar element or Multiple
elements with the entity selection dialog box.
• Dynamically change the Location of the cross section based upon the length of the
beam.
• The Multiple option will generate the number of cross sections equally distributed
along the length of the element(s) selected. This will disable dynamic location of
the cross section
• Show Stress allows the selection of one of the following:
• 0..von Mises Stress
• 1..Maxium Shear Stress
• 2..Maximum Principal Stress
• 3..Minimum Principal Stress
• 4..Axial Stress
• 5..Y Shear Stress
• 6..Z Shear Stress
• 7..Combined Shear Stress - has an option to display a Vector Plot

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Beam Cross Section Stress Control Dialog Box (continued)


Another Location option is the ability to change the view orientation normal to the beam
or bar X-axis by selecting the Screen Space option.
• This option is only available when a Single element is selected.

Clicking the Advanced button opens the Advanced


Options dialog box
• Scaled By will scale the size of the cross
section by the value entered
• Quality changes the internal mesh used to
calculate the stress value requested. Input a
value from 1 to 5, where 5 represents the finest
mesh
• Turn on Element Shrink and/or Section
Outlines
• Override auto max min display of the results by
specify the Minimum and Maximum stress
values
• Set the Vector Length, enable Solid Vector
and enable More Arrows for display of the
Combined Shear Stress Vector Plot

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View Select Command


The View, Select command is used to specify the XY Style (XY plot) or geometry Model
Style displayed in the active model view. The F5 hotkey is also used to activate this
command.

When the command is activated, the View Select dialog box controls:
• XY Style for XY plots – see page 12-43 for a detailed explanation of options
• Model Style for model entity display. See Chapter 6.1.5.2 of the Femap Commands
manual, Choosing a Model Style for more details.
• Draw Model
• Features
• Quick Hidden Line
• Full Hidden Line
• Free Edge – limits the display of the model to only free element edges
• Free Face – limits the display of the model to only those elements with free faces
 Deformed style
 Contour style

Note: Using the PostProcessing Toolbox is a more efficient method for displaying
deformed plots, contour plots or freebody diagrams.

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Deformed and Contour Data


To select the results data to display, activate the Select PostProcessing Data dialog box
with the View, Select command and then click the Deformed and Contour Data
button. You can also right-click in the graphics window and select the Post Data
command.

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Select PostProcessing Data Dialog Box


The Select PostProcessing Data Dialog is used to specify:
• Output Set
• Deformation Output Vectors
• Contour Output Vectors
• Contour Options

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Contour Options
The contour algorithm in Femap will use either nodal or elemental data to perform the
contouring. Depending on the selected options and the available data, Femap will use
several different approaches to calculate the contours.
• Contour Type – Using the default option of Match Output will automatically set the
contour data to the either Nodal for nodal results such as displacement or
Elemental for elemental results such as.
• Contour Group – allows the display of results of the Active or Selected group
without activating the group.
• Data Conversion options – see following 3 pages for a more detailed description
• Average, Use Corner Data (default)
• Average, without Corner Data
• Maximum Value – with or w/o Corner Data
• Minimum Value– with or w/o Corner Data
• Element options
• Provides the capability to “Smart Average” results. Thus accounting for
discontinuities in material or geometry and providing a more accurate
representation of the results.
• Double-sided Planar Contours will display the reverse side of a selected
planar element Contour Vector, e.g. when Plate Top Max Prin Stress is selected
as the Contour Vector, the Plate Bot Max Prin Stress is also displayed. When
this option is selected, the element thickness should also be enabled.

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Nodal vs. Centroid Stresses

Output data from analysis programs varies in the position that it is calculated
• Nodes or the centroid of the element

If you select nodal data, e.g., translations, Femap uses it directly

For results with element centroid data, but no corner data, you can either:
• Average the centroidal values for the all the elements connected to each node
(default); or
• Use the maximum of the centroidal values of the connected elements.

For results with element centroid data and element corner data you can either:
• Average the values at each node (element corner data) to determine the data
(default),
• Use the maximum of the values at each node (element corner data)
• Average the centroidal values for the all the elements connected to each node
(ignores the corner data you have); or
• Use the maximum of the centroidal values of the connected elements.

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Example – Nodal Data Conversion

Example:
• Four elements sharing node “N”, with corner data
• Stress at node N can be calculated
Average with and without Corner Data
• with: σN = (σW+ σX+ σY+ σZ)/4
• without: σN = (σA+ σB+ σC+ σD)/4
Maximum Value with and without Corner Data
• with: max (σW, σX, σY, σZ)
• without: max (σA, σB, σC, σD)
Minimum Value with and without Corner Data
• with: min (σW, σX, σY, σZ)
• without: min (σA, σB, σC, σD) Node “N”

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Example – Nodal Data Conversion

Averaged – With Corner Data

Minimum– With Corner Data

Maximum– With Corner Data

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Output Transformations
By default, Femap displays NX Nastran results in the global or “basic” rectangular
coordinate system. The Select PostProcessing Data dialog box has options to
transform output vectors to user-selected directions. This option also exists in the
PostProcessing toolbox.

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Output Transformations (continued)


In this example, we want to display the radial stress around the large hole. A radial
coordinate system is centered at the large hole.

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Animation Commands
Create the animation in the View Select dialog box and select Animate as the Deformed
Style
This will create an animation of the active Deformation Output Vector in the Deformed
and Contour Data Dialog Box
• By selecting the View, Advanced Post, Animation command, you can control the
speed of the animation.

• Once the plot is Animating it can be saved as an AVI file or Animated Gif file (*.GIF)
using the File, Picture, Save command and selecting the “Video for Windows (*.
AVI)”or “Animated GIF (*.GIF)” format.

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XY Plots
Use View, Select (F5) command to generate XY plots – also accessible from the
Graphics Window’s context-sensitive menu.

XY vs ID - plots XY data as a function of the element or node ID

XY vs Set - plots XY data versus the Output Set ID for an Output Vector across several
Output Sets

XY vs Set Value - similar to “vs Set”, except uses Output Set value for X

XY vs Position - plots XY data vs the position of nodes or element in an axis direction


for an output Vector in on Output Set

XY vs Function - (not a post-processing option) plots XY data for a function

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XY Plots of Functions
Functions can be displayed quickly by selecting the function to be displayed in the
Model Info window and selecting Show from the context-sensitive menu.
• Opens a new graphics view titled “XY Show”

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Loads from a Free body Diagram


Generate a Freebody diagram

Select the Model, Loads, Loads from Freebody command

Creates nodal loads from the free body diagram as displayed on the screen in the Active
Load Set.

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Vector Plots

Multiple types of Vector plots can be generated using results data.


• Select Vector as the Contour Style in the View Select dialog box, then the Deformed
and Contour button.

• Once an Output Set is selected, click the Contour Vectors button to specify the
options for the plot. This opens the Contour Options dialog box.

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Contour Vector Options


With the Contour Vector Options dialog box, you can set the:
• Vector Type
• Standard Vectors – tensors such as Total Displacement, Principal Stresses and
Strains
• Single Value, 2D and 3D Components – specify any of the output vectors
• 2D Tensor Plot

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2D Tensor Plot Example


A “Crows Foot” plot generated by setting the Vector Type to 2D Tensor Plot in the
Contour Vector Options dialog box.
• Example : Display Laminate Ply 1 X and Y normal stresses with results displayed in
the element material direction:

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View Options and 2D Tensor Plot Preferences


You can automatically set the View Options settings for a 2D Tensor Plot in Femap’s
Preferences dialog box under the View tab by clicking the option for 2D Tensor Plot
View Options Override.

CT 1775
1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 12 - 49
Lesson 12 Post Processing - Visualizing and Documenting Results

Additional Output Processing – Model, Output Commands


In addition to creating and managing output sets, the Model, Output command set has
the ability to:

• Vector - create or modify an


output vector’s Category, Type, ID,
Title and/or Description.
• Define – assign an output
vector’s value to a selected node
or element ID.
• Fill – using a constant or an
equation, value of the active
output set’s active output vector.
• Process – create new output sets
through a set of operations.
• Calculate – create a new output
set vector (to an automatically
assigned output vector ID) and
assign the value of the new output
set vectors through an equation
based on the selected element
and node IDs.
• From Load – assign the value of
the output set vectors based upon
the selected load set and type.
• Transform – create new output
set vectors by transforming the
selected output set vectors into a
selected coordinate system and
direction.
• Extrapolate – allows you to linearly extrapolate output from the center of planar or
solid elements to the element corners. Primarily used for analysis programs that do
not generate corner results.
• Global Ply – creates new output vectors in selected output sets for "Top Ply",
"Bottom Ply", and every "Global Ply" currently in the model.
• Convert Complex – create real/imaginary pairs from magnitude/phase data read
from frequency response results, and vice versa.
• Expand Complex – creates new output at specified phase intervals based upon
selected magnitude/phase data.
• Forced Response – calculates results corresponding to a Frequency Response
analysis using the results of a modal analysis as its basis.
CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 12 - 50
Lesson 12 Post Processing - Visualizing and Documenting Results

Detailed Post Processing Options


Accessed via the View, Options command (F6 and Ctrl+O hotkeys)
• Located in the Category, PostProcessing

Long list of options, key ones include


• Post Titles
• On/off, Location…
• Deformed Plots
• Deformed Style
• Scale, Automatic scaling
options
• Contour Plots
• Contour/Criteria Style
• Contour Levels
• Contour Legend
• Criteria Plots
• Criteria Limits
• Criteria - Elements that Pass
• Criteria - Elements that Fail
• XY Plots
• XY Titles
• XY Legend
• XY Axes Styles
• XY X - and
XY - Y Range/Grid
• Freebody Diagrams
• Freebody
• Freebody Node Markers
• Freebody Node Vectors
• Freeboy Total Force and Moment
• Freebody Nodal Force and Moment

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Lesson 12 Post Processing - Visualizing and Documenting Results

Post Toolbar
Allows quick display of Deformed and Contour plots

Detailed Postprocessing settings accessible from the Post Options pull down icon

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 12 - 52


Lesson 13 Midsurfacing

Purpose:

Midsurfacing is a technique that is used to build idealized models of thin bodies. This
lesson is an overview of the tools available Femap to create midsurface models.

Topics:

• Midsurfacing
• The Midsurface Commands

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Lesson 13 Midsurfacing

Midsurfacing
Midsurfacing is the process of extracting the midplane between parallel surfaces in
order to reduce the complexity and increase the accuracy of the Finite Element Model.
• For the part shown:
• Solid: 113,512 nodes and 63,875 elements. ( > 3 minutes solve time).
• Shell: 1725 nodes and 1576 elements. (< 10 seconds solve time).

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 13 - 2


Lesson 13 Midsurfacing

The Geometry, Midsurface Commands

Geometry, Midsurface, Single in Solid


• Creates a single trimmed midsurface between two surfaces of a solid.

Geometry, Midsurface, Single


• Creates a single sheet surface between two surfaces that extends beyond the extent of both
surfaces.

Geometry, Midsurface, Trim to Solid


• Trims a surface with a solid and deletes any part(s) of the surface which lie outside the
volume of the solid.

Geometry, Midsurface, Trim with Curve


• Trims or breaks a surface with a curve

Geometry, Midsurface, Extend


• Extends a surface by using one of a surface's edge curves and "extending“ the surface using
a specified "Extend Shape“ method. This command is also available in the Meshing Toolbox,
Geometry Editing, Extend tool.

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Lesson 13 Midsurfacing

Geometry, Midsurface, Automatic Command


Automatically generates the midplanes between the selected surfaces, trims them to the
solid, and cleans up any surfaces that are determined not to be part of the model.
• Midsurfaces are extracted from parallel faces.
• Automatically creates a group called “Midsurface”
• Use where the part has multiple wall thicknesses or has features that are
“branching” or non-tangent.

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Lesson 13 Midsurfacing

Geometry, Midsurface, Offset Tangent Surfaces Command


The Geometry, Midsurface, Offset Tangent Surfaces command is used to generate a
Sheet solid from a constant thickness solid where the topology consists of continuous
tangent surfaces.
• Specify a surface on the solid body to be midsurfaced. Femap will automatically
select the chain of connected tangent surfaces.
• Specify a Offset Distance. This is by default one-half of the solid’s thickness.
• You have the option to delete the original solid automatically.

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Lesson 13 Midsurfacing

Geometry, Midsurface Commands (continued)


The following three commands are the steps in order that the Geometry, Midsurface,
Automatic command follows.
• Geometry, Midsurface, Generate
• Creates midsurfaces
• Geometry, Midsurface, Intersect
• Splits the selected surfaces at their intersections
• Geometry, Midsurface, Cleanup
• Automatically determines which surfaces that can be deleted as a result of the
Midsurface, Cleanup command. Does NOT delete the surfaces, but places
them on a separate layer for inspection and user controlled deletion.

Geometry, Midsurface, Assign Meshing Attributes


• Prompt’s you for the material for the selected surface(s) and then automatically
creates the properties with the wall thickness(es)of the original solid.

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Lesson 13 Midsurfacing

Using NonManifold Add for Midsurface Models


Using Geometry, Surface, NonManifold Add on a midsurface model that is “ready for
meshing” is often a great way to assure mesh continuity in the model, especially if “T-
Junctions” exist.

Original Solid Geometry

Midsurfaced Geometry
2 Sheet Solids and 2 curves at T-
junction between Sheet Solids, both of
which needs to be sized the same for
mesh continuity

After NonManifold Add


1 “General Body” and 1
shared curve at T-junction
allows for easier mesh
sizing and assures mesh
continuity

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 13 - 7


Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Purpose:

In the context of FEA, modeling assemblies may use multiple techniques to connect the
components of a FEA assembly. This lesson is an overview of the tools available in
Femap to model FEA assemblies.

Topics:

 Finite Element Model Connection Types


 Mesh, Connect Menu
 Connecting FEA Components with Connectors
 Bolted Connections with Bolt Regions
 Fluid and Rotor Regions

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Finite Element Model Connection Types


Coincident Node

Rigid Element Connections

Welded Connections

Mesh “Connections” and Properties

Fluid and Rotor Regions

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Coincident Nodes
Connecting Similar Element Types can be accomplished with “Coincident Nodes”. To
check and merge coincident nodes, use the Tools, Check, Coincident Nodes
command.

• Set a Tolerance for merging nodes. Pairs of nodes whose distance is less than or
equal to the Tolerance will be used in merging or listing nodes.
• The Action setting is used to specify the option to merge and/or list the coincident
nodes detected among the nodes selected for checking.
• The Keep ID setting is used to have Femap automatically select the node to keep,
or to keep the lowest ID, highest ID or to interactively select the nodes to keep.
• Move To specifies that the coincident node remains at the current location, at the
location of the lower or higher ID, or move the node to midpoint of the location of the
pair of coincident nodes.
• The Preview Coincident option is used to display coincident nodes before merging
• Enable the option for Safe Merge to prevent distorted elements when nodes are
merged
• Make Groups can be used to create group(s) of nodes merged or detected using
this tool. The resulting group(s) are created depending on the Action selected.
• When Connection Regions are detected among the nodes selected to be checked
for coincidence, you have the option to Merge Across Connections.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Rigid Element Connections


With most solvers, including NX Nastran, Shell and Beam Elements have 6 D.O.F. per
node, while Solids Elements have 3 D.O.F. per node.
• Solid/Shell and Beam/Solid connections cannot be satisfied with use of coincident
nodes only.
• If Solid/Shell, Solid/Beam, and Beam/Shell connections are not defined correctly,
you will get a FATAL MESSAGE 9137 – SEKKRS (under-constrained model).

Rigid Elements can be used to transmit rotations between Solids and Shells and Solids
and Beams by transferring the translation on the nodes on the plate elements to the
nodes on the solid elements.
• Use a minimum of two “dependent” nodes on the solid for every independent node
on the shell or beam.

Note: Do not use mid-side nodes on elements as either Independent or Dependent


nodes.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Define Rigid Element Dialog Box


The Define Rigid Element dialog box is used when creating or editing Rigid elements
This dialog box allows you to create a RBE1, RBE2 or RBE3 rigid element by clicking on
the corresponding tab for the rigid element type in the dialog box.

RBE1 element definitions are described on page 14-9.

For RBE2 elements, there is one Independent node and one or more Dependent nodes.
RBE3 elements have on Dependent node and one or more Independent nodes.

You can automatically generate the Independent node for a RBE2 elements or the
Dependent node for a RBE3 element by selecting the option for New Node at Center.
This option generates a new node by placing the node at the centroid of the Dependent
nodes for RBE2 and RBE3 rigid elements.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

RBE3 Rigid Elements


Use the RBE3 Rigid Element to transmit masses, loads, and rigid body motion (velocity,
acceleration).
• To create a RBE3 rigid element, click the RBE3 (Interpolation) tab in the Define
RIGID ELEMENT dialog box
• Generally, you should only specify the use of translational DOFs for the
Independent nodes on RBE3 elements

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Converting Rigid Element Types


RBE2 elements can be converted to RBE3 elements by editing the rigid element(s) and
clicking the Convert button in the Define Rigid Element dialog box

When an RBE2 element is converted, you are prompted for Ok to Convert only
Translation Degrees of Freedom. As a general practice, you should click OK.

RBE3 elements can also be converted to RBE2 elements.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

RBE3 Rigid Elements (continued)


You can adjust the Interpolation factor for RBE3 elements using the following steps;

1) In the Define RIGID Element dialog box, select the Independent node(s) for which
you are modifying the interpolation factor

2) Click the Update button

3) Modify the Factor in the Update Interpolation Element dialog box.


You can either change the value of the Factor, or you can select the Distance
Weighting option that causes Femap to calculate a weighted interpolation factor
based on that nodes distance from the Reference Node relative to all the other
nodes selected in Step 1.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

RBE1 Rigid Elements


The RBE1 rigid element can be modeled in Femap with the restriction that the total
number of Independent DOFs must equal six (6)
• RBE1 rigid elements may also have more than one Independent node

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Welded Connections
Femap supports Weld Properties and Elements
• Creates CWELD elements for NX Nastran and MSC.Nastran only
• Spot Weld uses an “effective length” calculation based on the thickness of the two
shell elements connected.
• Fastener allows direct input of stiffness matrix for weld properties
• Multiple options for generating Weld Elements
• Orientation of Weld is defined by either “Projection” method or “Axis” method
and may be limited by the type of Weld selected

Note: Welded elements can only be created between plate elements.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Mesh, Connect Menu


Allows rapid generation of MPC’s, Rigid, and Line Element connections between
meshes

Also allows “unzipping” of coincident nodes with option to automatically create


connection types:
• None – leave nodes “unzipped”
• Rigid Elements
• DOF Spring Elements
• Spring Elements (including CBUSH)
• Gap Elements

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Surface to Surface and Edge to Surface Assembly


Connections

In many cases, you can use define assembly connections with a “connection” that
defines surface to surface or edge to surface contact. These connections are defined
differently from traditional connection elements like rigid, gap or springs.

A Connector is comprised of three (2) components:


• Connection Property
• A pair of Connection Regions

The Connect, Automatic command finds the closest surfaces between solids and
automatically generates “Connectors” (also known as “Contact Elements”) between
adjacent “Connection Regions”. This command is also found in the Model Info pane by
right-clicking on the Connections object and selecting the Automatic menu item.

After the solids are selected, you are presented


with the Auto Detection Options for
Connections dialog box that is described in
detail on the following page.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Auto Detection Options for Connections Dialog Box


The Auto Detection Option for Connections dialog box has entries for:
• Coincident Surface Detection:
• Distance Tolerance
• Angular Tolerance
• Type of connection as specified under the Look For option:
• 0..All Connections
• 1..Face-Face Only
• 2..Edge-Face Only

• You can select between Minimal and Aggressive Detection Strategies


• Check for Connections in Same Solid – generally not used unless you are
checking for contact within a single part such as a flexible seal
• Combine all Connection between Solids - combines all detected connection
regions between a pair of solids and combines them into one region for each
solid

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Auto Detection Options for Connections Dialog Box


(continued)
Select the Connection Property:
• Contact (linear contact)
• Glued
• An already defined Property

Descriptions of the these type of connection properties will be detailed in the next few
pages.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Connection (Contact) Properties


In the Define Connection Property dialog box, first select the tab for the solver used to
solve a contact problem.

For NX (Nastran) Linear Contact, the Contact Type pull down selects Linear or Glued
contact.
• Glued contact can be used in ALL NX Nastran solutions.
• Linear contact can be used only in NX Nastran Linear Statics and Basic Nonlinear
solutions.
• Always click the Defaults button when switching Contact Type or manually
creating a new Connection Property.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 14 - 15


Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

NX Linear
Glued Contact Property Options
Glued Contact has the following property options. In most cases, selecting the
Defaults button will result in the proper settings.

• Glue Type – specifies the glue formulation.


• 1..Spring – when this is selected, you can change the Normal Factor and
Tangential (Penalty) Factors
• 2..Weld (default) – should be used for most cases as this prevents the
introduction of artificial rotational energy into the connection.
• When selected, you can change the Glue Factor, but this is not
recommended.
• Eval Order - determines the number of "Linear Contact or Glue Points" for a single
element on the source region.
• Refine Source - determines if the source region is refined for the "Linear" or
"Glued" Contact solution.
• Penalty Factor Units - specifies how contact element stiffness is calculated.
• Search Distance – if the two contact segments lie within this distance, NX Nastran
activates glued contact between the pairs.

Note: For more details on Glued Contact, see the NX Nastran User’s Guide,
Section 9.7.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

NX Nastran Linear Contact Property Options


Linear Contact multiple. In most cases, selecting the Defaults button will result in
the proper settings.

• Friction – specifies the static coefficient of friction.


• Min(imum) and Max(imum) Contact Search Distance – if the element faces of the
contact segments are within these values, NX Nastran activates the linear contact
algorithm for these contact faces.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

NX Nastran Linear Contact Property Options (continued)


• Initial (Penetration) - Controls how NX Nastran handles initial gap or penetration of
the generated contact elements.

• 0..Calculated (default) - Use the initial position of the nodes in the contact
pairs. In the case of penetrations, a model may experience "press fit" behavior
when using this option.
• 2..Calculated/Zero Penetration - Same as 0..Calculated, but if penetration is
detected, set the initial contact force to zero (0).
• 3..Zero Gap/Penetration - Sets the penetration/gap to zero for all contact
elements. Very useful when the contact surfaces are physically in contact, but
due to mesh irregularities, penetration occurs.
• Shell Offset – use the default (0..Include shell thickness) unless the contact
segments are defined at the top of the shell mesh, not the mid plane of the shells.

Note: For more details on Linear Contact, see the Femap Commands manual,
Section 4.4.3.1. You can also refer to the NX Nastran Users Guide,
Chapter 19 for additional details on gluded and linear contact.

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Selection of Master and Slave Contact Segments


When using either NX Nastran (Linear) Contact for NX Nastran Advanced Nonlinear
Contact, the correct specification of which of the two contact segments used as the
Source is important with respect to both the accuracy of the results and solution time. It
is also critical when contact between two segments is unconstrained in shear contact
except for friction.

Femap uses the terms:


• Master to refer to the Target element face(s)
• Slave to refer to the Source element face(s)

NX Nastran checks for contact between element faces from the Slave’s element faces
to the Master’s element faces and internally builds contact element pairs between the
two element faces. Therefore, as a rule, you should model with the following in mind:
Slave Mesh Density ≥ Master Mesh Density

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Manually Creating Connections and Regions


You can create a Connector by using the Connect, Connector command. This
command is also accessed by right-clicking the Connections Connector object in the
Model Info pane and selecting New from the menu.

This activates the Define Contact Connector - Select Connection Regions dialog box.
You can select or define the Master and Slave regions as well as select or define the
Connection Property for the connector.

A Connection Region is created by clicking the Define Region button in the Define
Contact Connector dialog box, by selecting the Connect, Region command or by right-
clicking the Connections Region object in the Model Info pane.
• NX Nastran surface regions are defined by Elements
• NX Nastran edge regions are defined by Nodes

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Modeling Bolted Connections


Model bolted connections with:
• Bar and/or Beam elements that comprise a Bolt Region

• Bolt Preload – an axial force load applied to the bar or beam elements or Bolt
Region
• When Elements are selected to define the preload, a Bolt Region is
automatically created for the selected elements

• Two elements that connect the ends of the bolt to the rest of the mesh – usually
Rigid elements

API script automates generation of bolt mesh – Custom Tools, Meshing, Hole to Hole
Fastener
• Does NOT create the Bolt Region or the Bolt Preload

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Bolted Connection Example


Two Aluminum Lugs with a Stainless Steel Pin
• Contact between lugs is modeled with Linear Contact
• Pin is modeled as a two Beams with a 10 lb Preload – connected to lugs at ends
with rigid elements
• Preloaded bolt is assigned as the preload in the Analysis Set

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Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Fluid Connection Regions


The Connect, Fluid Region command creates segments representing incompressible
fluid volume regions used for the purpose of generating a virtual mass matrix (MFLUID
entry in Nastran input files).

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 14 - 23


Lesson 14 FEA Assembly Modeling

Rotor Connection Regions


Used to model Rotors for Rotor Dynamic analysis
• Use when more than one Rotor exists in a model
and/or
• A Rotor’s axis of revolution is not coincident with the Global-Z axis

Valid only for SOL110 – Complex Modal Analysis (Normal Modes with Rotor Dynamics
option) and SOL111 (Modal Frequency Analysis with Rotordynamics option)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 14 - 24


Lesson 15 Finite Modeling Debugging

Purpose:

This lesson is an overview of methods to check and debug Finite Element Models.

Topics:

 Finite Element Modeling Mesh Sizing


 Results Checking
 Model Debugging
 Common Errors
 Recommended Model Checks

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 15 - 1


Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Finite Element Mesh Sizing


Depending on the desired accuracy of the model, a course mesh (low number of larger
elements) or a fine mesh (high number of smaller elements) must be created. For
instance, a more complicated structure requires a finer mesh in order to produce
accurate answers.

Pros Cons

Lower number of Less accuracy for


Elements complicated geometry
Coarse
Less Degrees of Distorted elements can be
Model
Freedom too stiff and misrepresent
Reduced Solve Time response

Accuracy for Higher number of


complicated geometry is Elements
Fine improved
Model More Degrees of Freedom
Less distorted elements Increased Solve Time
improves results

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Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Checking Results
It is always a good idea to do a “reality check” with the results of any Finite Element
Analysis. Using engineering knowledge and common sense will allow a user to
determine if the results make sense for the applied boundary conditions. For instance,
an under-constrained or “unconnected” (nodes not merged where they should be) model
may exhibit much larger displacements than expected a displacement in the opposite
direction of the applied load during a linear cantilever beam analysis.

Some Good Practices:


• Always visually plot the models elements if possible for verification
• Make sure responses correspond with applied boundary conditions
• Check input loads with reaction forces: ΣF = 0
• Hand calculations are always a great idea whenever possible

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 15 - 3


Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Model Debugging
Recommended minimum checks on input
• Stiffness matrix checks
• At the G-size
• After MPC Processing
• After All Processing

Mass Checks
• Grid point weight generator output
• Rigid-body mass checks
• Assembly mass checks

Loading checks

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 15 - 4


Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Model Debugging (continued)


Structural plots are useful primarily to visually verify model geometry. Other tools must
be used to assess the numerical accuracy of a finite element model. These tools
include many automatic error checks performed by NX Nastran and user-supplied
diagnostic requests in the form of DIAG, PARAM, DMAP Alters, and Case Control
requests.

NX Nastran performs many error checks during an analysis to ensure that all input data
is in the proper format and usable. If an error is detected during data processing, an
error message is generated. If the error is fatal, the analysis terminates.

Many times NX Nastran errors have a number and a short description of the error which
shows up in the .f06 file. Many times the same error number can represent a variety of
different issues. In cases where the error is not obvious, consult the Help->Analysis
menu and choose the error message segment where the Error Message number
appears. Go to the error number for a broader description.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 15 - 5


Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Model Debugging (continued)


Perform independent hand checks to verify the accuracy of the results

Other potential pitfalls for new users include:


• First time use of a new capability. It is always a great idea to make a small test
model in order to see how NX Nastran functionality works as it will take less time to
debug and give insight into the usage of the feature
• Reference the Femap Examples document as this has examples of nearly all
types of analyses that can be performed with Femap and NX Nastran.
• Refer to NX Nastran documentation as these document details on many
advanced solutions . Some of the documents included with Femap are:
• Basic Dynamic Analysis User’s Guide
• Advanced Dynamic Analysis User’s Guide
• Design Sensitivity and Optimization User’s Guide
• Basic Nonlinear Analysis Users’ Guide
• Advanced Nonlinear Theory and Modeling Guide
• Thermal Analysis User’s Guide
• Use of consistent units is of utmost importance!!!
• Always use unique IDs – NX Nastran sometimes allows for duplicate element IDs,
but not always. Duplicates can and do lead to problems, especially during data
recovery

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Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Common Types of Errors


Mistakes in engineering judgment

Approximations to physical behavior

Engineering Theory

Finite Element Theory

Finite Element Implementation

Modeling
• Bolted connection
• Welded connection
• Corners
• Transitions

Connections
• Beam to Plate
• Beam to solid
• Plate to solid

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Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Common Types of Errors (continued)


Beam Orientation
Beam Releases
Loading (Make sure that the model is loaded accurately)
Finite Element Error
Round-off Error (Can cause serious, serious problems)
Program Bugs (Please Report them to UGS Solutions via GTAC)
• A list of known errors is maintained and distributed
Plates not lining up (zipper effect)

Any connections depending on in-plane rotational stiffness of plates, or any rotational


stiffness on solids
Instabilities – example: releasing both ends of a beam in torsion
Offsets of elements in wrong coordinate system (should be in the output coordinate
systems of the grid points for Bars and Beams)
Member Properties wrong (Beam orientation) or in plates Membrane only (left out
bending)
Beam end releases – local or global (in beam coordinates)?
Element force output is normally in element coordinate system

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Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Minimum Recommended Model Checks


Pre-Analysis

Understand the structure and the elements


• Make Small Models in order to understand the problem
• Make pilot models in areas of uncertainty
• If unfamiliar with an element type that needs to be used, make simple models and
compare the answers to theory

Model checks before analysis


• Geometry
• Undeformed plots
• Look at connections between different element types
• Based on knowledge of elements
• Based on Loads
• Look at corners (QUAD plates)
• Shrink plots

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Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Recommended Model Checks - Elements


Beam and bar
• Check that both ends of the beam have correct orientation (I1 and I2)
• Check end releases (in element coordinates)
• Offsets (in output coordinate system of GRIDs)
Plates and Shells
• Check aspect ratios, taper, and warpage
• Check orientation (element normals), surfaces consistent
• Check attachments (in-plane rotational stiffness, corners, etc)
• Offsets (in element coordinate system)
• Material need E, ν (or G), and ρ
• Property entry – be sure to get the correct properties (One of the most common
errors is not specifying MID2 for “bending” plates)
Solids
• Check aspect ratios
• Check taper
• Check attachments (Any attachments depending on rotational stiffness, require a
special modeling effort)
• Material need E, ν (or G), and ρ

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 15 - 10


Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Recommended Model Checks


Mass properties
• Check ρ on MATx entries
• Check NSM on property entries
• Bars, beams = mass/unit length
• Plates = mass/unit area
• Submit with PARAM, GRDPNT,xxxx
where xxxx = ID of GRID point to calculate mass properties about
• Check center of gravity and total weight (mass) versus known values

Loads
• Verify they are correct (OLOAD RESULTANT)
• Run the Femap command, Tools, Check, Sum Forces

Constraints
• Verify that they exist (often forgotten and overlooked)
• Verify they are correct (location and orientation – in output coordinate system of the
GRID points)
• Verify they are applied (SPC CASE CONTROL command)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 15 - 11


Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Recommended Model Checks - Continued


Static Checks
• Apply 1-G in X,Y, and Z directions independently
• Check load paths (GPFORCE)
• Check Reactions (SPCFORCE)
• Does total = applied load?
• Are the reactions at the correct locations and do they have the correct orientation?

Equilibrium check – verify model is not over-constrained


• Run free-free normal modes analysis.
• Remove known constraints and check for unconstrained motion under applied loads
or imposed displacements

Thermal equilibrium check (if Thermal loads are being considered)


• Check α on MATx entries
• Check for unconstrained set of constraints
• Apply a determinate set of constraints
• Use the same α for all materials
• Apply a uniform ∆T to the structure. It should expand “freely”, meaning that it will
create no reactions, element forces, or stresses

Statics
• Check EPSILON and MAXRATIO
• EPSILON > 10-9and/or MAXRATIO > 105 may indicate trouble
• Check reactions
• Do they equal the applied loads?
• Check load paths – use grid point force balance to “trace” loads
• Check stress contours for “consistency”
• “Sharp” corners indicate bad modeling
• Use different options (i.e., topological and geometric) and compare results
• Compare values to “hand calc” or small model results

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 15 - 12


Lesson 15 FEA Modeling Debugging

Recommended Model Checks - Dynamics


Dynamics – normal modes
• Check frequencies. Are they in the expected range?
• If free-free, are there six “rigid-body” (f = 0.0) modes?
• Are there any mechanisms (f = 0.0)?
• More than six “rigid-body” modes in free-free?
• Any “rigid-body” modes in constrained modes?
• Check Mode Shapes. Identify Modes.
• Plots

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 15 - 13


Appendix A

Femap Preferences

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-1
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences
Preferences are used to configure Femap for optimum performance and the way you
prefer to work
• Preferences are stored in the femap.ini file under the main Femap installation folder
• If you specify a different Start In location for your Femap startup shortcut, Femap
will first look in that location for a femap.ini file and use the preferences set in that
file. In addition, any changes to preferences will automatically be stored in the
femap.ini file in that folder.
Set preferences with the File, Preferences command
• Messages – set font and
font sizes
• Views
• Render
• User Interface
• Database – set
performance options
• Geometry/Model
• Interfaces – select
default
Analysis Interface
• Library/Startup
• Color
• Spaceball

Many Femap
preferences
will take effect
immediately
after they have been
set, but in some cases
you will need to close and re-open Femap for the changes to take effect. Examples are:
• Advanced/Debug Options for Render graphics
• Database
• Fonts changed in the Messages Window, etc.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-2
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Messages and Views Tabs


The Messages tab (see previous page for snapshot of dialog box) sets the fonts and
colors displayed in the Messages window.

The Views tab allows you to:


• Specify a Startup View (from the View Library) used when creating a new Femap
model
• Specify the Background Bitmap or Logo for Render Views
• Set Picture Copy, Picture Save Defaults including resolution
• Set view options such as turning the Workplane Never Visible in New View
• Contour Palette sets the default post processing contour palette for any new view
• Specify View and Dynamic Rotation options
• Try changing the Dynamic Speed option if flickering is encountered during
dynamic rotation

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-3
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Render Tab


The Render dialog box lets you control the level of functionality that you have while in
Render mode.
• Hardware Acceleration can be toggled off if the graphics card, or it's drivers, are
causing instability in Femap.
• Including less entities with the Include In Dynamic Rotation option will speed up
dynamic rotation of large models.
• Advanced/Debug messages can be turned on to help the Development team
diagnose complex geometry issues if they arise.
• Setting the BitBlt Delay can be used to help with performance on consumer or
game-oriented graphics cards.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-4
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Graphics Card Performance Considerations


Desktop area resolution should be taken into consideration when using Femap. Having
a very fine screen resolution can increase the time animations need to generate and the
time individual windows need to refresh.
If Femap appears to be having graphics errors, it could be the driver for your graphics
card. Update the drivers for your graphics card often!
• Drivers from the manufacturers of the graphics card chipset tend to be more stable
then the drivers from the maker of the graphics card. (e.g. use an ATI or nVidia
driver vs. an ASUS driver)

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-5
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – User Interface Tab


The User Interface tab sets preferences for
• Menus and Dialog Boxes
• Graphical Selection
• Mouse Interface
• Meshing Toolbox
• Dockable Panes
• Model Info
• Show Entities Defaults
• Toolbars

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-6
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Database Tab


The Database tab defines various performance settings:
• Database Options
• Database Performance
• Timed Save
• Scratch Directory

Click the Database Options Help button for detailed information on settings in this tab.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-7
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Database – Scratch Directory


This option specifies the location of Femap’s Scratch Directory folder where
temporary, scratch, and recovery files are written during a Femap session
• If this option is left blank, Femap will write its temporary files to the Windows TEMP
folder location
• When a Windows TEMP variable is not defined, the location of the Femap
scratch files defaults to your Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local
Settings\Temp folder. In many cases, this is a location on the network other
than your local PC.
• Setting the Femap Scratch folder or setting the TEMP variable to a network file
location may seriously degrade Femap’s performance and dramatically increase file
save times. In addition, if your network fails for any reason, any opened files in a
Femap session have the potential to be corrupted.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-8
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Geometry/Model

Select between the Parasolid or Standard geometry engines to start with. The
Parasolid engine is recommended.
• Selecting the Standard engine will only allow the construction and editing of
wireframe curves and boundary surfaces.

Femap stores geometry in meters. The Solid Geometry Scale Factor is used to
internally store your geometry units as meters in Parasolid.
• For example, if you select Inches, the Scale Factor is 39.37 (inches/meter). Femap
uses the inverse of this number to store the geometry in its model database (1 inch
= .0254 meters).
• This scaling will allow you to import and model parts that are outside of the
Parasolid modeling limits ( +/-500 x 500 x 500).
Note: If you import geometry with a different scale other than the file’s original scale,
new or modified geometry will be out of scale with the imported geometry.

FEMAP can be set to Delete Construction Geometry, Move it to the “NoPick Layer”, or
simply do nothing when used.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A-9
Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Geometry/Model (continued)

Load Expansion on Midside Nodes sets the defaults for modification of the distribution of
Geometry-based loads (such as Forces on Surfaces and Moments on Curves) when
these loads are expanded to the nodes on Parabolic elements at the time of analysis.
To obtain an even distribution of force across a parabolic element, most programs
require a larger portion of the force be assigned to the midside nodes.
• You can set the factors Along Edges, On Tri-Face, or On Quad-Face to represent
the amount of the total load on the element which will be applied to the midside
node.
• You will typically want to use the default values as shown above, as well as use the
Midside Node Adjustment Default. If you have further questions on the
distribution required for your solver program, please consult the reference
documentation for your analysis program.

Element Quality checks can be turned on or off permanently and default values set for
each quality check via the Element Distortion button.

Default output orientations for various element shapes can be permanently set for use
when transforming results from the Output Orientation button.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A - 10


Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Geometry/Model (continued)


The Alternate Section Property Calculator can be turned on in this dialog box. By
choosing this option, values generated by the Femap beam section property calculator
will be attained using an alternate method which in certain cases will be more accurate
than the standard method.

Pre-V10 Tet Meshing and Surface Meshing can be set as the defaults. This will allow
FEMAP 10 to use the “older” meshers instead of the “new” meshers, should any issues
arise.

Select between the following for Mesh Sizing:


• 0..Parametric
• 1..Equal Length
• 2..Parametric/Equal Length (default)
• First set the mesh size on curves using parametric spacing, then determines an
average distance between each of the mesh locations on each curve. If the
distance between any of the mesh locations is more than 1% different than the
average distance, then that curve is resized using equal length sizing.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A - 11


Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Interfaces


The Interfaces tab sets the default analysis interface. The defaults can be defined for
each interface (e.g. NASTRAN, ABAQUS, etc.)
• The Enable Old Analysis Interfaces option allows the import of models and results
from older, unsupported solvers.

Setting the File Reference Options allows FEMAP to check if imported Geometry,
Analysis Input decks, and/or Analysis Results have been modified when a FEMAP
model is opened.
• Use the File, References command to check references during a FEMAP session.

Increase the value of Max Lines to Monitor from the default value of 5000 if you like to
view the .f06 file during analysis execution.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A - 12


Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences –Library/Startup, and Color Tabs


The Library/Startup preferences allow you to specify default FEMAP library files
• Objects saved such as Materials, Functions, etc. are saved into the preferred library
• Specify the location of your Custom Tools Path and an optional Program File or
API Script to run at the beginning of every new Femap session and opening of a
new model file

Color preferences allow you to select the default colors for entities

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A - 13


Appendix A Femap Preferences

Femap Preferences – Spaceball Tab


When you have a Spaceball available on your PC, you can set options for use of a
Spaceball device in Femap.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 A - 14


Appendix B Composite Layups

Purpose

This lesson provides an overview of creating and editing properties with Femap.

Topics
• Defining Properties
• Editing Properties

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 B-1
Appendix B Composite Layups

Composite Layups
Layups are a Femap object that designates multiple composite plies
• Practical limit of 5000 plies per Layup

A Ply has the following attributes:


• Ply ID (number)
• Material
• Thickness
• Angle
• Global Ply ID – Used to
designate a common ply ID
for use in other layups.
e.g. The OML or Outer Skin
Ply for all layups.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 B-2
Appendix B Composite Layups

Creating and Updating an Individual Ply


New Ply - Once you have a Material, Thickness, and Angle specified, click this button to
add the ply to the layup.

Update buttons - Once a ply has been added to the list, the definition of that ply can be
updated using:
• Update Global Ply
• Update Material
• Update Thickness
• Update Angle

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 B-3
Appendix B Composite Layups

Duplicating and Modifying Ply Sequences


Duplicate
• The selected ply or plies will be copied to the top of the Layup.

Delete
• Delete the selected ply or plies from the Layup.

Symmetric
• The “mirrored” plies will be added to the top of the Layup in reverse order of
selection.

Reverse
• Reverse the order of the selected plies based on the original position (i.e., the
selected ply which was closest to the “Bottom of Layup” will now be closest to the
“Top of Layup” in the list).

Move Up and Move Down


• The selected ply or plies will be moved closer to the “Top of Layup” (Move Up) or
“Bottom of Layup” (Move Down) in the order selected.

Rotate
• The selected ply or plies are rotated by the angle input in the Rotate Ply By dialog
box. The order of the plies in the Layup is not effected.

Copy and Paste


• Copy and paste the selected ply or plies to the top of the current or another Layup.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 B-4
Appendix B Composite Layups

Layup Editor – Layup Viewer


The Layup Editor dialog box has the Layup Viewer icon that launches the Layup
Viewer.

Options to control display of:


• Thickness
• Ply Angles
• Titles
• Color
• Scale

The Copy icon pastes picture of the layup to Windows clipboard.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 B-5
Appendix B Composite Layups

Composite Layup Mechanical Properties


When the Entity Info window is active,
the Laminate Equivalent Properties are
automatically calculated and displayed
when a Layup is created or edited.
These properties are updated
continuously along with modifications to
the Layup.

When the Entity Info window is not


activated, selecting the Compute button
will display the calculated Laminate
Equivalent Properties in the Messages
window. These properties are NOT
updated until the Compute button is
reselected.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 B-6
Appendix B Composite Layups

Composite Laminate Materials and Properties


Composite Laminate Materials are generally designated as 2D Orthotropic
materials.
• A Bond Shear Allowance should be specified for the Laminate element
property. This value represents the bond strength between the bonded laminate
sheets and is used to calculate a factor of safety against shear failure between
laminate panels.
• A Failure Theory must also be specified for the Laminate element property.

CT 1900 – Student Guide for Femap 101 - v10.3 – Rev 010612 B-7

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