Alex,
Thanks. I ran into some indexing problems but now think I have a handle on it. It's a bit more complicated than yours but it does what I want it to do. Again, what I’d like to do is enter either force loads or displacements explicitly at nodal points. What I was able to do was set up a table with LOADS=f(X,Z,Y) where X is the length (along a 48”long x 12” wide x 6” thick plain concrete beam), Z is the width and Y the thickness (the plane variable). Load values are then enter for the X,Z location at either the bottom Y=0 or top Y=6 (plane) location.
Here are the lines that create the entire table:
!* Create Table
*DIM,LOADS,TABLE,1,4,2,X,Z,Y
!*
*SET,LOADS(0,0,1) , 0 ! Y = 0, BOTTOM OF BEAM
*SET,LOADS(0,1,1) , 0 ! Z = 0, ALONG BEAM WIDTH - TYP
*SET,LOADS(0,2,1) , 4 ! Z = 4
*SET,LOADS(0,3,1) , 8 ! Z = 8
*SET,LOADS(0,4,1) , 12 ! Z = 12
*SET,LOADS(1,0,1) , 24 ! X = 24, ALONG LENGTH OF BEAM
*SET,LOADS(1,1,1) , 0 ! LOAD
*SET,LOADS(1,2,1) , 0 ! LOAD
*SET,LOADS(1,3,1) , 0 ! LOAD
*SET,LOADS(1,4,1) , 0 ! LOAD
*SET,LOADS(0,0,2) , 6 ! Y = 6, TOP OF BEAM
*SET,LOADS(0,1,2) , 0 ! Z = 0, ALONG BEAM WIDTH - TYP
*SET,LOADS(0,2,2) , 4 ! Z = 4
*SET,LOADS(0,3,2) , 8 ! Z = 8
*SET,LOADS(0,4,2) , 12 ! Z = 12
*SET,LOADS(1,0,2) , 24 ! X = 24, ALONG LENGTH OF BEAM
*SET,LOADS(1,1,2) , -10 ! LOAD @ Z=0
*SET,LOADS(1,2,2) , -20 ! LOAD @ Z=4
*SET,LOADS(1,3,2) , -30 ! LOAD @ Z=8
*SET,LOADS(1,4,2) , -40 ! LOAD @ Z=12
Once the table is created one could also use TREAD to input load and coordinate table values. Here are those lines:
0
0,4,8,12,24
0,0,0,0
6
0,4,8,12,24
-10,-20,-30,-40
The only caution is when applying the loads. You have to graphically select the individual nodes. If you select all the nodes or plot nodes at any thickness level you’ll get the loads applied to all of them. If you have the full load at the top level it proportions for nodes selected at a lower level. A way I believe to avoid this problem would to create an input table that has all the coordinate locations defined at the desired level and zero loads where none is desired. Then you could select and apply the loads all the nodes at the desired level. In this case the top of the beam.
Bob