Is there a Tcl command in Hypermesh to query the material orientation vector of an element?

Deleus

I was wondering if there's a simple Tcl command to get the coordinates of the material orientation vector of an element, just like hm_getelementnormal

*reviewmaterialorientation actually reads this vector before plotting it but I'm struggling to access its coordinates.

Thanks in advance!

Michael Herve

Hello @Deleus ,

this might not be as straightforward to query it, and as a starter that will depend on the solver interface you are working with. May I ask you which solver you are using?

Best Regards,

Michael

Deleus

Hello Michael,

I'm using Optistruct at the moment.

Michael Herve

Hello @Deleus ,

the material orientation for OptiStruct should be accessed from the elements directly, as you should define the orientation in CTETRA element, through the CID parameter.

Best Regards,

Michael

Deleus

I know exactly how to access this info from the HM interface; what I'm looking for is a .tcl command similar to hm_getelementnormal and use it in a script…

Michael Herve

Hello again,

as the material orientation is based on element, you need to query the orientation for each element. I assume that for elements beloging to the same part, you should get the same orientation.

So that should lead you to a code such as below:

*createmark elems 1 "by aterial" $MatId

set CID [lsort -unique [hm_getvalue elems mark=1 dataname=system]]

set orientation [hm_getvalue system id=CID dataname=xaxis]

Also, may I ask you for a larger picture of what you try to achieve? Meaning, what do you do with this material orientation once you get it? This may help me to propose you a better strategy

Best Regards,

Michael

Deleus

In Optistruct, I solved the issue by querying the attribute THETA.
From what I understand, there is no native Material Orientation Vector, instead Optistruct operates a rotation of THETA degrees of the vector G1-G2 around the element normal.

For example, to query the attribute THETA for all displayed elements and store it in a list:

*createmark elems 1 "displayed"

set list [hm_getvalue elems mark=1 dataname=THETA]

Michael Herve

Hello @Deleus ,

you are right, Theta is another way to query element orientation, depending about how the orientation was defined.

Best Regards,

Michael