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Can't select a surface when defining a pressure load in HyperMesh OptiStruct 2025

I'm trying to apply a single pressure load to the face of an orphan mesh.

When I try to create a pressure load applied to a surface, I am unable to as elements are the default entity type and the box is greyed out:

When I select an entity face set, as it's the only option I have, it creates a load for every entity in the set. This ends up being thousands of individually applied loads instead of one pressure load applied to a surface:

Help is much appreciated,
Thank you

Software version:

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OptiStruct

Accepted answers

Lochlan_DG

Hey all,

Thank you for the replies!

This was a misunderstanding on my part. The instances per element is normal.

I had another separate but related issue: The pressure load initially could not be edited due to the instance count being too high for display in the browser. Increasing the browser window limit in preferences solved my problem.

All comments

Ovando_RBB

Hi there,

As part of your FEA pre-processing, have you considered using your CAD software (e.g., SolidWorks) to create intersection or guide lines on the surface where you intend to apply the load?

This approach allows you to explicitly define the region of interest before meshing, giving you finer control over the application area, beyond just relying on mesh edges or node distributions. By embedding these lines into the geometry, you'll be able to target load application more precisely during the setup phase in your FEA tool.

Hope this comments helps!

solon

Hello,

You can use a PLOAD2 card and reference the set of elements

https://2025.help.altair.com/2025.1/hwsolvers/os/topics/solvers/os/pload2_bulk_r.htm

Lochlan_DG