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Output Data

Output data control is consistent with commercial Nastran. The user controls the forms of output, the output response types, and the sets of elements or nodes for which data are provided. The response types and entity sets can be subcase-specific.

Response type and response set control

Response type and response set control are consistent with commercial Nastran. Case control inputs are used to specify the response types and response sets to be output. Node response types are DISPLACEMENT and SPCFORCES. Element response types are FORCE, STRESS, STRAIN, ESE, and EKE.

Only requested response types are recovered. For example, specifying

DISPLACEMENT = ALL

Will result in the output of displacement results for all nodes. Subcase-specific control is allowed. The SET case control input can be used to specify the nodes or elements for which output data will be provided. For example, specifying

SET 101 = 4,6,8
DISPLACEMENT = 101

Will result in the output of displacement results for nodes 4, 6, and 8 only.

Abbreviated case control entries will be unrecognized and ignored. For example, entering DISP rather than DISPLACEMENT, or SPCFORCE rather than SPCFORCES will result in the request being ignored. Left-hand-side describers provide further control on the form of the output, which will be discussed in the following subsections.

Output data forms

Three forms of output data are available:

  • Native output -> to the MATLAB workspace
  • Text output
  • HDF5 output (MSC format)

Native output is the best form if the data are to be processed using MATLAB (e.g., optimization). Text output is designed for human readability (similar to commercial Nastran .f06). HDF5 output can be read by MSC Patran for postprocessing (and potentially other commercial postprocessors); it can also be easily read with the help of publicly available libraries.

Native output

Native output is stored in a workspace variable that is first output argument from Cofe.m. 

out = Cofe(‘example.dat’)

Here out is an object that contains both the model and solution data:

out =  Cofe with properties:
       model: [1×1 Model]
    solution: [2×1 StaticsSolution]

Native output is always provided when the first output argument is specified. Response types and response sets will be consistent with case control inputs.

Text output

Text output is written by default. Response type and response sets will be consistent with case control inputs. Text output can be suppressed by setting the Cofe.m parameter writeOutput2Disk to false.

out = Cofe(‘example.dat’,'writeOutput2Disk',false)

The writeOutput2Disk parameter is forced to false anytime the first Cofe.m input parameter is not type char. For example, in optimization cases the user may provide a BdfEntries object rather than specify an input file.

HDF5 output

HDF5 output is written when the Cofe.m parameter writeOutput2Disk is true (default) and when the bulk data ‘PARAM,POST’ value is set to <1 (the default value is 1). For example, set

PARAM,POST,-1

Response type and response sets will be consistent with case control inputs.

Left-hand-side describers

Case control left-hand-side describers (LHSD) control if response types will be written text output or not. Native output and HDF5 output are not impacted by LHSD. LHSD options are blank, PRINT, and PLOT. Other LHSD will be ignored. Specifying PLOT will result in text output suppression for that response type. For example, with writeOutput2Disk set to true, PARAM,POST set to <1, and

FORCE = ALL
STRESS(PRINT) = ALL
STRAIN(PLOT) = ALL

force and stress results will be output to native, text, and HDF5. Strain results will be output to native and HDF5 only.