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Importing beam cross section
- Thread starter sylwcios
- Start date
The following works:
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
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
or you could generate the section properties from the CAD program you're using to plot the 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 ?
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 ?
- Thread starter
- #4
Worldtraveller
Aerospace
I want to bump this to ask if what I need is possible within FEMAP, or if I need to figure out how to write code to do it in the API.
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?
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?
I'm not certain, but:
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
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
Worldtraveller
Aerospace
Thanks. That's more or less the process as I envisioned it too. That would be very time consuming and tedious. (Although I could at least write a code to extract the cross sections at set lengths from SW.
I guess it's either do all the work in SW, or do even more work in Femap.
I guess it's either do all the work in SW, or do even more work in Femap.
Worldtraveller
Aerospace
"Make more sense"....
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.
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.
BlasMolero
Mechanical
Dear Trainguy,
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blas Molero Hidalgo
Ingeniero Industrial
Director
IBERISA
48004 BILBAO (SPAIN)
WEB: Blog de FEMAP & NX Nastran:
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blas Molero Hidalgo
Ingeniero Industrial
Director
IBERISA
48004 BILBAO (SPAIN)
WEB: Blog de FEMAP & NX Nastran:
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