problem import.inp file from abaqus in elmer

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gix
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problem import.inp file from abaqus in elmer

Post by gix »

Hi team,
I'm really new to elmer and with it to elmergrid.
I'm using an abaqus file.inp
I tried everything (I think) to get this mesh in Elmer
As I understood the command line parameters of elmergrid- I have to type

elmergrid 5 2 test.inp -autoclean

to translate my .inp-file to .mesh.* so I can use my mesh with elmer.
But the only output I get from elmergrid is a distorced mesh.....
I've tried everything but I always get distorted meshes.
I don't send the zip file because it's 2.28 mb
raback
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Re: problem import.inp file from abaqus in elmer

Post by raback »

Hi

The problem with Abaqus format is that the scripting language is versatile and not at least freely documented as a mesh standard. Therefore the parser has been written in reverse engineering by looking at a number of mesh files and ensuring that they are read ok. Now the problem is that different preprocessors/setups write different style of inp files so having the code bullet proof is problematic.

So this probably requires some coding. It would help if you could squeeze your problem to be somewhat smaller. Then we could hopefully try to enhance the code in the near future.

-Peter
Iutech
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Re: problem import.inp file from abaqus in elmer

Post by Iutech »

I want to advise someone in my faculty (who couldn't access her Abaqus work due to a failure of the License Server) to try Elmer instead.
Obviously it will be easier if she person will not lose her Abaqus work entirely.

I've looked at the file format used by Elmer and the file formats to which Abaqus can export and I don't see a correspondence between the two that would allow for easy transfer of the Abaqus work ?

Is there a solution ? Especially since the message that said that there is not dates from 2018...

Caveat : I'm not knowledgeable at all in structural mechanics, I'm just the IT guy trying to advance Free Software here...
kevinarden
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Re: problem import.inp file from abaqus in elmer

Post by kevinarden »

At the geometry modeling and mesh level, Salome is the most powerful, different input and output formats in the geometry model and the mesh model.
https://salome-platform.org/

gmsh is also popular, reads and writes many formats.
https://gmsh.info/

For the post-processing, viewing results, Paraview is widely used
https://www.paraview.org/

Calculix is a popular solid mechanics solver, that uses an Abaqus like input deck
http://www.calculix.de/

However going from an Abaqus model to one of these tools is going to depend on the complexity of the model, version of Abaqus, and what format is used to create the inp file. Recent Abaqus versions went to creating meshes of parts (instances), then assembling parts into assemblies. Most other fea tools write the mesh as one file. The use of instances and assemblies can be turned off in Abaqus in the preferences, so that it will write a previous style input deck.

Typical workflow is create geometry in Salome, mesh in salome, export to unv file. Open unv file, or translate unv file using elmer, solve in elmer, post process in paraview.

If you can share a typical abaqus input deck, then it can be reviewed to see how complex and realistic the above is.
raback
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Re: problem import.inp file from abaqus in elmer

Post by raback »

Hi

I happen to be working with .inp import today. If you have minimal samples I could test them too. The person who initially asked about this did not follow up. We can only improve the parser if we have samples.

-Peter
Iutech
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Re: problem import.inp file from abaqus in elmer

Post by Iutech »

Thanks for the answers.

Seems a bit complicated for my taste (and for the task of advising someone foreign to FOSS to switch to it) but I guess that can't be avoided.

If she shows interest in moving to Elmer (at least for her future works) I'll see if she'll give me samples that I can share with you (or if she wants to do that directly herself, with or without my help).
raback
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Re: problem import.inp file from abaqus in elmer

Post by raback »

Hi

Yes, I agree too complicated for this type of use case.

Structural mechanics is challenging field because the commercial software are so capable and mature. The main reason for using open source software is then to save money in licenses - and these people are not the first one in line to support open source software development ;-) Some other fields have more bleeding edge users generating useful development projects.

-Peter
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