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Little

Useful

Things

with

Femap

and

NX

Nastran

These

are

my

pick

of

the

pack: CtrlZtobringuptheLocateDialogBoxwhileyouareinanotherDialogBox

ThePCGLSSIterativeSolver

e astran t parse atr x o ver qu te ast

UsingtheSaveandLoadViewOptiontocustomizeyourViewWindow

Femaps

API

Language NXNastran aram,bailout,1

FemapsandNXNastanHelpDocumentation

February

2010

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Ctrl

Z

to

bring

up

the

Locate

Dialog

Box

while

you

areinanotherDialogBox

ThisisquitethelittleFemapsecret,butitisinthemanual. SeetheFemapUserManualSection4.2.4:

YoumaybeaskingyourselfhowIwoulduse

,timesyouhaveusedtheGeometry/Solid/Slicetoolandneededtolocatedadimension! Or

February

2010

wantedtosnaptoapoint(Ctrl+P)withinanotherbox

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The

PCGLSS

Iterative

Solver

Ifyouarerunninga10nodetetrahedralmodelwithalimitednumberofrigidlinksandbeamelements(it

hatesplateelements),thisisthesolverforyou. WhenyousetupyouranalysisjobwithintheAnalysis

ManagerjustsetthesolvertheElementalIter:

February

2010

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The

NX

Nastran

64

Bit

Sparse

Matrix

Solver

(quitefastforlargemodels)

Forsolvingwhatwasconsideredoften

theimpossible,usethenewNXNastran

atleast8GBytesofRAM(thelimitis20

millionterabytes). Thissolveristurned

onwithin

the

Femap

preferences.

It

is

nowmydailysolver.

February

2010

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Using

the

Save

and

Load

View

Option

to

customizeyourViewWindow(PartIofII)

FemapsView

Window

is

actuallyaminidatabase.

Inthedefaultmode,it

comesupwiththelabel

Untitled. ThisView

Windowsactuallystores

allyourViewOptions

andyourViewSelect

options. Itwillalso

rememberyour

backgroundcolorand

February

2010 orientation

of

the

model.

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Using

the

Save

and

Load

View

Option

to

customizeyourViewWindow(PartIIofII)

nceyou aveevery ngcon gure ewayyouwan e emen co ors,con our ype, ransparen

background,etc),

you

can

give

your

View

Window

a

name

and

save

it

using

the

Visibility

tab.

Once

saved,

youcanreloaditintoadifferentmodelbyusingLoadView:

February

2010

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Fema sAPI

Lan ua e

FemapsAPI

is

powerful.

Ifyouwanttocustomize

theinterfaceandavoid

repetitivetasks itcan

doitall. ThePredictive

Engineeringwebsitehas

examplesandtutorials.TheUsernameand

Passwordaregivenin

ouremailsignature

blocks.

February

2010

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NXNastran

aram,bailout,

1

Iknow

you

are

probably

wonderingwhattheheckthisis

about..

Whenyouhaveamodelthatis

spinningoffintospace(a

constraintproblem)andyouare

strugglingto

figure

out

what

part

ofyourmodelisnotsufficiently

constrained,youcanalwaysjust

forceNXNastrantosolveand

thendebugthefinalsolution.

February

2010 Just

go

to

the

Nastran

Bulk

Data

Optionspageandhitthebutton

StartTextandinthedialogbox

typeinparam,bailout,1

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Fema sand

NX

Nastan

Hel

Documentation

WhenIdo

my

Femap

and

NX

Nastrancourse,Ialwaysspenda

fewminutestalkingaboutthe

documentationthatcomeswith

FemapandNXNastran. Itis

impressive. Itisextremely

valuableand

will

save

you

days

of

analysistimeifyouspendafew

hoursreadingthroughwhatis

available. Allofthisisinstalledin

yourcurrentseatofFemap. Just

February

2010 open

Femap

and

go

to

Help.