Query: extending range of solid elements found adjacent to source shell elements

BDS_User_JCW

Description: Product/Topic Name : Hypermesh 2022.1 

Hello, I'm currently working on developing a script for finding solid elements associated (or rather attached) to solid elements that were originally associated/attached to a predetermined set of shell elements. My initial thoughts were to either make use of the commands:

1. *findattachedelementfaces
2. hm_getattachedsolidelemfaces

where both commands will return solid element data for those that share nodes with the referenced shell elements.

My desire is to reference elements beyond those initial adjacent solid elements, and also return additional solid element data for all elements that are external to those solid elements; basically if the shell elements were layer 0, and the solid elements adjacent to them were layer 1, then I would want to be able to also find any additional elements layered on top of layer 1 (i.e layer 2 - layer n).

I'm not aware of any Hypermesh functions that would enable me to do so for this extended case, so my current thought is to use the *findmark command for elements, using the output element from *findattachedelementfaces as input for the *findmark function.

Is there any known way to provide an orientation or direction to the *findmark command in order to control propagation? If so, then I would make use of iteration to get elements from additional solid layers on top of the initial ones.

Please let me know if any additional information or images are needed to clarify any questions. Thank You

Adriano_Koga

although you could perform this 'find' progressively, i can't think on any way of identifying automatically the direction.

You can use commands such as *marksdifference in order to identify the difference between the new elements found and the others already found, but again, not easy to define the direction.

Maybe someone else has some insights in here.