07 Femapapigeomprepmeshing Harris Ata
07 Femapapigeomprepmeshing Harris Ata
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com 3
Efficiency Improvements in Modeling
Result in Large Time Savings
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com 4
Typical Shipbuilding Workflow
Analyst Unneeded
receives CAD features are
geometry from removed from 3D
designer CAD (fillets, etc.)
Program
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com 6
Use the API Within Femap or
Through Visual Studio
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com 9
Shipbuilders Like Mold-Line
Surfaces
• Using a mid-surfacing tool on these panels creates sheet bodies that are
no longer coplanar.
Mold-line
Mid-surface
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com 10
“Moldline” Combines Mid-surfacing
Benefits with Mold-line Concept
• Shipbuilding analysts wanted a tool that uses
the mold-line instead of the mid-surface for
some solids while still mid-surfacing other
solids
• It was also desired that the mold-line
surfaces would have a thickness property
assigned to them (much like a mid-surface
would)
• The Moldline tool uses:
– Copy Surface command to grab mold-line
surfaces
– some vector math to get the solid thickness
– the built-in Mid-Surface command for mid-
surfaceable solids
– Group tools to collect everything in one place
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11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com 11
“Problem” Surfaces Needed to Be
Identified Before Meshing
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com 13
Element Warnings in NEI Nastran Can
Be Imported Directly
• The API can be used to
interact with files outside of
Femap, too
• Analysts wanted to quickly
parse the element errors
and warnings that are listed
in an NEI Nastran log file
• The API was used to read
the entire log file into a
Visual Basic program, hunt
for keywords related to
element issues, and put
element IDs into a Femap
group
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com 14
“Snipe” Is An Example of Automated
Geometry Editing
• It can be useful to write a program “from scratch” to address a repetitive task
specific to your needs
• Shipbuilding analysts frequently cut “snipe” corners into their geometry; the
existing methodology involved either drawing a line on the geometry or
orienting a plane to make the cut
• The “Snipe” program automates the process by asking the user to define the
snipe dimensions
• The GUI options available in Visual Studio allow for an instructional pop-up
that appears when the program runs
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com
“BeamsNormaltoShells” Builds From the “Beams
Normal to Surface” Example Program
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com
Final Thoughts About the API
• Enjoy!
11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200 | San Diego, CA 92130 | T 858.480.2000 | F 858.792.8932 | www.ata-e.com