Patran Documentation
Candi Ruman
The steps to run MSC Nastran and Patran on Strauss are presented below. This is not a tutorial on Nastran or Patran and is only meant to supply the minimum number of steps to initiate their execution. Please consult the online Nastran documentation and Patran documentation for complete information.
The output files will be created in the directory where you started Nastran, not necessarily the directory where the data file resides. Therefore, it is a good idea to create a separate directory for each run, and cd to that directory before running Nastran. If the output files already exist when Nastran tries to create them, it will name the new output files by appending a number to the filenames (e.g. ex1.f01.1, ex1.f04.2).
The steps described here invoke the "interactive" (graphical) mode of Nastran. You must be at a Sun Ray terminal or running an X server package (such as XMING or Cygwin) order to run Nastran interactively. This interactive version of Nastran may not be available in future releases. Alternatively, you can run Nastran in non-interactive mode.
Patran is a graphical-only program - there is no "non-interactive" mode as there is in Nastran. You must be at a Sun Ray terminal or running an X server package (such as XMING or Cygwin) order to run Patran.
Online help is available from within Patran by clicking the Help menu item at the top of the main window. Choosing most Help menu items will open a Firefox browser on Strauss if you haven't already opened one.
If you do not have a Firefox browser open on Strauss, the following error message will be displayed in the X term window in which you started Patran. This is a warning and the Firefox browser should open a few seconds later.
Converts a PLOT3D file to a structured CGNS file. No attemptis made to determine the type of PLOT3D file, you must tell theimport routine what type of PLOT3D file to expect through thecommand line argument list. The default is a multi-block, binaryfile with no iblank array, written as whole format.
This allows interactive selection of the input and outputfiles and options. The Accept button will then constructthe command line and run plot3d_to_cgns. If theimport is successfull, CGNSview will read and display the CGNSfile.
This allows interactive selection of the input and outputfiles and options. The Accept button will then constructthe command line and run tecplot_to_cgns. If theimport is successfull, CGNSview will read and display the CGNSfile.
Converts a PATRAN Neutral file to an unstructured CGNS file.Reads packet 01 (nodes) as nodes, packet 02 (elements) aselements, and nodes (type 5) from packet 21 (named groups) aselement sets. A command line option is available to read packet06 (loads) also. All other packets are read, but not processed.
This allows interactive selection of the input and outputfiles and options. The Accept button will then constructthe command line and run patran_to_cgns. If theimport is successfull, CGNSview will read and display the CGNSfile.
Converts VGRID .cogsg, .mapbc, and .bc files to an unstructured CGNS file.An option, -c, is provided to combine patchs with the same nameand boundary condition.Command LineThe program is executed from the command line as:
where VGRIDfile may be any of the VGRID input files(.cogsg, .mapbc, or .bc).The base file name is constructed from VGRIDfile and used toload the additional files. If CGNSfile is given, then theoutput will be written to that file, otherwise the CGNS file nameis constructed from the VGRID file name by replacing the file extensionwith .cgns.
This allows interactive selection of the input and outputfiles and options. The Accept button will then constructthe command line and run vgrid_to_cgns. If theimport is successfull, CGNSview will read and display the CGNSfile.
This allows interactive selection of the input and outputfiles and options. The Accept button will then constructthe command line and run aflr3_to_cgns. If theimport is successfull, CGNSview will read and display the CGNSfile.
Converts a FAST file to an unstructured CGNS file.Will read a corresponding .fastbc or .mapbc file (if available)to define the boundary conditions. If CGNSfile is given, then theoutput will be written to that file, otherwise the CGNS file nameis constructed from the FAST file name by replacing the file extensionwith .cgns. The default file formatis assumed to be double-precision, big-endian, Fortran stream (binary).Command LineThe program is executed from the command line as:
This allows interactive selection of the input and outputfiles and options. The Accept button will then constructthe command line and run fast_to_cgns. If theimport is successfull, CGNSview will read and display the CGNSfile.
where TetGenfile is the TetGen file. If the file extensionis .node, .face, or .ele, the additional files to be read will beconstructed from the base file name and appropiate extensions.If CGNSfile is given, then theoutput will be written to that file, otherwise the CGNS file nameis constructed from the TetGen file name by replacing the file extensionwith .cgns.CGNSview InterfaceThe following panel is created when launched from theCGNSview GUI:
This allows interactive selection of the input and outputfiles. The Accept button will then constructthe command line and run tetgen_to_cgns. If theimport is successfull, CGNSview will read and display the CGNSfile.
pyNastran is an interface library to the various Nastran file formats (BDF, OP2, OP4).Using the BDF interface, you can read/edit/write Nastran geometry without worrying aboutfield formatting. Many checks are also performed to verify that your model is correct.Using the OP2 interface, you can read large result files quickly and efficiently.Additionally, you can also extract a subset of the result data and write OP2/F06 resultfiles. For a more detailed list of features, see:
I keep saying to myself there's not much to add, but Nastran is huge. Beyond HDF5support in the BDF, I'm a huge fan of the new ability to keep track of which include file acard came from and write it as a separate file. It's limited in usefulness, but very handyin certain cases. There's a new (still preliminary) superelement capability. I'm farfrom a superelement expert, but it's probably useful.
The OP2 reader now supports SORT2 along with much improved random results reading.If you're using 60+ GB OP2s, you probably have had issues with RAM usage in the past.With the new ability to dump the OP2 directly to HDF5, this should not be an as much ofan issue. It's not 100% implemented, so let me know if you need it for another result.
Regarding the GUI, there are also some new features. Groups work a bit better, but aren'tquite perfect. Logging has been dramatically sped up, so the GUI loads faster, and you canload Nastran models even faster if you disable additional results (e.g., element quality).
Version 0.6 improves BDF reading. The reader is more robust and also requires proper BDF field formatting (e.g. an integer field can't be a float). Additionally, cards also have a comment() method.
Marcin Gąsiorek participated in the latest pyNastran under the European Space Agency's (ESA) "Summer of Code In Space" SOCIS program. The program provides a stipend to students to work on open-source projects.He did a great job of simplifying code and creating nicer documentation.