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Engineering Tools — Config From Layers Manager (00179)
Availability: this tool ships in customer and super-user packages
of Engineering Tools, not in the standard download.
Contact the admins
if it would help your workflow.
What this tool does
Treats FEMAP layers as building blocks and lets you save named
configurations — a configuration is simply a list of layers.
Put each variant of a structure on its own layer (stowed vs deployed, with or without
a payload, test fixture vs flight interface, one supplier's sub-model vs another) and a
configuration says which of those layers make up one analysis case.
Configurations are stored inside the model file itself, so they travel with the
model and survive save and reopen. From a configuration the tool can build a group,
write Nastran include files, or move the definition to another model.
When you want it
- One model, many configurations. Several structural states
share most of the mesh and differ in a few components. Keep one model, put the
differences on layers, and switch configurations instead of maintaining copies.
- Configuration-controlled deliveries. Each configuration
written as a set of include files is easy to version, compare and hand off.
- Group-limited runs. "Config to Group" builds the group you
point an analysis set at, with the boundary conditions and loads that belong to it.
The buttons
| Create Config | Name the configuration and pick its
layers. |
| Modify Config | Change the layer list of an existing
configuration. |
| Delete Config | Remove a configuration definition
(the layers and their contents are not touched). |
| List Available Configs / List Config
Details | Print every configuration, or the layers of one, to the
Messages window. |
| Config to Group | Builds a group of everything on
the configuration's layers, then completes it so it can drive a group-limited
Nastran deck (details below). |
| Config Layers to Includes | Writes one Nastran bulk
include file per layer of the configuration, in the field format you choose, with
the option to add related entities and to put the layer ID in each file name. |
| Export Config / Import Config | Save
a configuration definition to a small .config file and load it into
another model. |
What "Config to Group" puts in the group
- The elements and nodes on the configuration's layers.
- Related entities of those elements (properties, materials,
coordinate systems, and connection regions such as NSM regions that reference them
from any layer). Anything this pulls in from outside the configuration is removed
again, with a warning in the Messages window.
- Parent coordinate systems of every coordinate system used, and laminate
layups with their materials.
- Constraints, constraint equations and loads on the group's
nodes and elements, so a group-limited deck keeps its SPC, MPC and LOAD cards
rather than writing the case-control reference with no cards behind it.
- The scalar points (SPOINT / EPOINT) of any DMIG attached to the configuration
— they sit on no element, so a layer-based selection would otherwise miss them.
"Config Layers to Includes" details
- One file per layer. Nodes, properties, materials and coordinate systems that
are shared between layers are written once, so the includes can be read together
without duplicate cards.
- Field format choices match the bulk-deck export tools: Small, or one of the
Large variants.
- Temporary groups and analysis sets used for the export are removed afterwards,
including when a write fails.
Tips
- Give layers short, descriptive titles: they appear in the configuration listings
and in the include file names.
- Keep shared structure on its own layer and include that layer in every
configuration.
- Configurations refer to layers by ID. If you renumber layers, re-check your
configurations with List Config Details.
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