Automating Constraint Equations Between Node Sets in Femap

[Danny123]

I'm working with a square model in Femap and need to link nodes on the upper horizontal edge to corresponding nodes on the lower edge using constraint equations. Each edge has 86 nodes, and currently I'm creating the equations manually, one by one for each node pair.

Is there a way to automate this process in Femap—perhaps using a script or a built-in tool—to generate constraint equations between matching node sets?

Any guidance or examples would be greatly appreciated!

 

[SWComposites]

there might be an automated way to do it (haven't used FEMAP for a long time), but in the past I have done similar things by outputting node sets, reading them into Excel, use character string functions to create the constrain equations / Nastran cards, and then read those back into FEMAP.

 

[karachun]

You can automate this operations using Femap Macro Recorder.

You write one block with complete operation and than in excel using concatenate function you create multiple repeated commands for each pair of of nodes. It may be easier if you renumber your nodes so you have something like 1001, 1002, 1003 nodes on top and 2001, 2002, 2003 nodes on bottom.
In addition macro recorder may not work if you have setup a lot of custom key bindings, I usually reset my key bindings before i use macro recorder.