×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Automatic definition of beam element cross-section orientation and normal?

Automatic definition of beam element cross-section orientation and normal?

Automatic definition of beam element cross-section orientation and normal?

(OP)
When I allocate beam elements in a 3D model, Abaqus asks me to define the cross-section orientation (and normal?). I have a lot of elements, so I'm looking for an efficient way to define the direction. My beam cross-section is circular, so the direction doesn't really matter. Is there a way to automatically set the direction, for example based on the start/end points of the struts? I also want to avoid looping through every element and calculating it, as it takes a lot of time. If I don't assign it, I get the error

CODE -->

Error in job job-manual_block: Error in defining or computing beam section normal in XXX elements. The elements have been identified in element set ErrElemBeamSecNormal.
Error in job job-manual_block: The beam cross-section direction vectors coincide at a node in YYY elements. The elements have been identified in element set ErrElemBeamSecDirVect. 

The number of elements (XXX and YYY) is smaller than the total number of elements, so it seems to work for some. Also, I'm using Python.

Thanks a lot for your help!

RE: Automatic definition of beam element cross-section orientation and normal?

Is your definition on geometry or orphan mesh?

RE: Automatic definition of beam element cross-section orientation and normal?

(OP)
I have a wire (or a set of wires) created through ".WirePolyLine", which I'm trying to mesh with the beam elements.

RE: Automatic definition of beam element cross-section orientation and normal?

The beam orientation has to be defined in the Property-module. Use that command on an example and then take the python command out the .rpy.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources