Importing beam cross section
Importing beam cross section
(OP)
Hi Guys,
Can you give me some guidance of how to import my own cross section to build a beam model.
Thanks
Can you give me some guidance of how to import my own cross section to build a beam model.
Thanks





RE: Importing beam cross section
You need a drawing (in dxf or similar format) of your section, or create it within femap. Import it and create a boundary of the section. Then, create property, choose beam type. In the beam menu, choose "shape" and the last option is "general section". It then prompts you to choose a surface which should be your section. There's your beam with its properties.
greetings
rob
RE: Importing beam cross section
or create a surface in Femap, from the Xsection, and link to this as above (beam,shape,general,...)
another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?
RE: Importing beam cross section
RE: Importing beam cross section
I have figured out the above, but I have a tapering section (spar) that I would like to model, of possible, with tapered beam elements. Is there a way to put in a few sections and have FEMAP do a linear interpolation between those shapes?
RE: Importing beam cross section
You could import solid geometry into FEMAP, as a step or parasolid file. Then, Geometry/Solid/Slice at the various cross-section locations. Then, generate a beam property for each portion and select the beginning and end surfaces using rob768's method.
The key tip here is the importing of a tapered solid, the ability to "slice" at various locations, and select those surfaces as needed.
tg
RE: Importing beam cross section
I guess it's either do all the work in SW, or do even more work in Femap.
RE: Importing beam cross section
tg
RE: Importing beam cross section
Depends. Usually beam elements will give more accurate results than plate elements when modeling a beam, and those are usually more accurate than using solids.
As a general rule, the lower dimension element, the better. ;)
RE: Importing beam cross section
CBEAM/CBAR elements runs OK with solid cross sections, but with hollow sections (and of course with open & thin walled cross sections!!) the use of Shell elements is a must, you don't want to have surprises!!. You MUST create a 1-D beam model, of course, and use results as a reference, but Shell models give fully accurate results, not doubt at all. You can run linear & nonlinear analysis, as well as modal & dynamic frequency response analysis with a reasonable model size and not so long solution times, Shell CQUAD4 elements are the best!!.
Best regards,
Blas.
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Blas Molero Hidalgo
Ingeniero Industrial
Director
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