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

Deleus
Deleus Altair Community Member
in Community Q&A

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!

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Answers

  • Michael Herve_21439
    Michael Herve_21439
    Altair Employee

    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
    Deleus Altair Community Member

    Hello Michael,

    I'm using Optistruct at the moment.

  • Michael Herve_21439
    Michael Herve_21439
    Altair Employee

    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
    Deleus Altair Community Member

    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_21439
    Michael Herve_21439
    Altair Employee

    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
    Deleus Altair Community Member
    edited November 28

    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_21439
    Michael Herve_21439
    Altair Employee

    Hello @Deleus ,

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

    Best Regards,

    Michael

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