HM Basic Tutorials PDF

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HyperMesh
6.0 Basic Tutorials

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hm-tutorials-basic.doc Created on 6/27/03 3:11 PM

Altair Engineering HyperMesh Basic Tutorials i
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. i
Preface to the HyperMesh Basic Tutorials .......................................................1
Organization of the HyperMesh Tutorials .................................................................. 1
Location of files used in the tutorials ......................................................................... 1
Tutorials.................................................................................................................... 1
Introductory Tutorials...........................................................................................................1
Working with Geometry.......................................................................................................1
Meshing...............................................................................................................................1
Working with solvers ...........................................................................................................2
Post-processing...................................................................................................................3
Customizing.........................................................................................................................3
Introductory Tutorials.........................................................................................5
Introduction to HyperMesh - HM-110 ........................................................................ 5
Getting started with HyperMesh..........................................................................................5
Launching HyperMesh ........................................................................................................5
Working with an FE model ..................................................................................................9
Model viewing options using the permanent menu...........................................................12
Database relationships: nodes / elements / components / props / mats ..........................17
Creating solver specific materials / components...............................................................21
Preparing for the solver and post-processing your results................................................23
Working with Geometry - Basic.......................................................................25
Geometry Creating and Editing - HM-120 ............................................................... 25
Geometry Clean Up - HyperMesh-130.................................................................... 39
HyperMesh 6.0 Terminology .............................................................................................39
Geom Cleanup Panel Features.........................................................................................40
Surface Edit/Filler Surface Sub-panel ...............................................................................42
Using the Geom Cleanup and Surface Edit Panels ..........................................................43
Going from FE to surfaces - HM-160....................................................................... 49
Meshing - Basic ................................................................................................53
Automesh Module - HM-135L ................................................................................. 53
Layout of Automesh Panel ................................................................................................53
The Use of Automeshing Modules and Remesh Function................................................55
Cleanup Surfaces and Add Fixed Points ..........................................................................62
Refine Element Quality by Remeshing Elements .............................................................67
Connecting Components - HM - 200....................................................................... 73
Using Rigids and Rigidlinks...............................................................................................73
Using Welds ......................................................................................................................76
Using RBE3s .....................................................................................................................77
Using Springs ....................................................................................................................79
Using Equations ................................................................................................................80
Building 1-D Elements - HM-210............................................................................. 83
Creating a Bar Element .....................................................................................................83
Creating 1-D Elements Using the Line Mesh Panel..........................................................85
Creating 1-D Elements Using the Features Panel ............................................................85
Building Surfaces and Shell Meshes - HM-300L ..................................................... 89
Creating Surfaces and Meshes using the ruled panel ......................................................90
Creating Surfaces and Meshes using the spline panel .....................................................92
Creating Surfaces and Meshes using the skin panel ........................................................94
Table of Contents
HyperMesh Basic Tutorials Altair Engineering ii
Dragging Lines to Create Surfaces and Shell Meshes .....................................................95
Dragging Nodes to Create Surfaces and Shell Meshes....................................................97
Creating Surfaces and Shell Meshes with Lines...............................................................98
Creating Surfaces and Shell Meshes with Nodes ...........................................................100
Using the Automatic Tetramesher - HM-450..........................................................103
The Tetramesh Panel ......................................................................................................104
The Tetra Remesh Panel ................................................................................................105
CFD Mesh .......................................................................................................................108
Splitting and Combining Shell Elements - HM-500L...............................................113
Splitting Shell Elements using the edit element panel ....................................................113
Splitting Shell Elements using the split panel..................................................................115
Combining Shell Elements using the edit element panel ................................................117
Model Checking - HM-520.....................................................................................121
Testing Elements for Warpage........................................................................................121
Testing Elements for Aspect Ratio..................................................................................123
Finding Duplicate Nodes and Free Edges in the Model ..................................................125
Working With Solvers .................................................................................... 129
Using OptiStruct in HyperMesh - HM - 550............................................................129
NASTRAN Static Analysis Using HyperMesh - HM-1010-L ...................................131
Defining the Model in HyperMesh ...................................................................................131
Writing the NASTRAN Input Deck...................................................................................137
Viewing the Results.........................................................................................................138
ABAQUS Analysis Using HyperMesh - HM-1020-L ...............................................141
Loading ABAQUS User Profile........................................................................................141
Defining Material Properties............................................................................................141
Defining *Solid Section for Solid Elements .....................................................................143
Defining Spring Elements and Properties .......................................................................143
Defining Contact Surfaces and Interactions....................................................................145
Defining Loads and Boundary Conditions.......................................................................148
Defining Output Requests ...............................................................................................150
Defining *STEP card........................................................................................................151
Exporting the File to ABAQUS ........................................................................................152
Running hmabaqus and Post-Processing.......................................................................153
Using ABAQUS Contact Manager for 2D Models - HM-1021.................................157
Loading ABAQUS User Profile and Model ......................................................................157
Starting ABAQUS Contact Manager ...............................................................................157
Defining Surfaces for 2D Solid Elements ........................................................................158
Defining Surfaces by Set .................................................................................................159
Defining Surface Interaction Property .............................................................................160
Defining Contact Pair.......................................................................................................162
Using ABAQUS Contact Manager for 3D Models - HM-1022.................................165
Loading ABAQUS User Profile and Model ......................................................................165
Starting Abaqus Contact Manager ..................................................................................165
Defining Surfaces for Solid Elements..............................................................................166
Defining Surfaces for Shell Elements..............................................................................170
Defining Surfaces by Set .................................................................................................171
Defining Surface Interaction Property .............................................................................174
Defining Contact Pair.......................................................................................................176
Stress Analysis using ANSYS - HM-1030..............................................................179
A Description of the Model ..............................................................................................179
Updating Elements ..........................................................................................................179
Defining Element Properties............................................................................................181
Updating Load Types ......................................................................................................185
Exporting a HyperMesh Database File to ANSYS..........................................................185
Altair Engineering HyperMesh Basic Tutorials iii
Translating Results in ANSYS.........................................................................................185
HM-ANSYS Contact Wizard 2-D HM-1031......................................................... 187
HM-ANSYS Contact Wizard 3-D - HM-1032 ......................................................... 199
General Interfacing with Crash Analysis Solvers - HM-1100 ................................. 213
Checking for Penetration.................................................................................................213
Fixing Penetrations..........................................................................................................217
Creating Joints.................................................................................................................220
Checking the Minimum Time Step ..................................................................................223
Dummy Positioning, Seatbelt Routing, and Control Volumes - HM-1101L............. 225
Dummy positioning..........................................................................................................225
Position and rotate the H-point ........................................................................................225
Adjusting Limb Positions .................................................................................................226
Seatbelt Routing..............................................................................................................227
Reviewing airbag design state ........................................................................................231
LS-DYNA Interface - HM-1110-L........................................................................... 233
Load a Pre-defined HyperMesh File................................................................................233
Select the LS-DYNA Template........................................................................................234
Create Control Cards for LS-DYNA.................................................................................234
Define Materials...............................................................................................................235
Definition of Cross Section Properties for LS-DYNA.......................................................238
Define a HyperMesh Group: Sliding Interface for LS-DYNA...........................................240
Define a Rigid Wall for LS-DYNA....................................................................................240
Creating Boundary Conditions for LS-DYNA ..................................................................242
Create Time Histories for LS-DYNA................................................................................243
Cross-Section Definition for LS-DYNA............................................................................244
Exporting an LS-DYNA Data Deck from HyperMesh......................................................245
PAM-CRASH Interface - HM-1120L...................................................................... 247
Load a Prepared HyperMesh File ...................................................................................247
Select the PAM-CRASH Template..................................................................................248
Create Control Cards for PAM-CRASH ..........................................................................248
Assign Element Types for PAM-CRASH.........................................................................249
Define Materials with Component Dictionaries for PAM-CRASH ...................................250
Define HyperMesh Groups: Sliding Interface for PAM-CRASH......................................252
Define a Rigid Wall for PAM-CRASH..............................................................................255
Creating Boundary Conditions for PAM-CRASH ............................................................258
Create Time Histories for PAM-CRASH..........................................................................259
Create a Function............................................................................................................261
Create a Sensor Card .....................................................................................................261
Exporting a PAM-CRASH Data Deck from HyperMesh..................................................262
RADIOSS Interface - HM-1130-L.......................................................................... 263
Creating and Defining Components, Materials, and Properties......................................263
Creating and Defining Interface Elements for RADIOSS................................................266
Create and Define a Rigid Wall Entity.............................................................................268
Creating Boundary Conditions for RADIOSS..................................................................271
Create Time Histories for RADIOSS...............................................................................272
Creating and Editing Control Cards for RADIOSS..........................................................274
Exporting a RADIOSS Data Deck from HyperMesh .......................................................275
Modeling Contact for MARC - HM-1050................................................................ 277
Defining Geometry Properties for 2-D Solid Elements....................................................279
Defining Contact Bodies and Contact Properties............................................................280
Creating Loads and Boundary Conditions ......................................................................283
Defining Control Cards ....................................................................................................287
Exporting the File to MARC.............................................................................................288
Modeling a 3-D Example for MARC - HM-1051..................................................... 289
Table of Contents
HyperMesh Basic Tutorials Altair Engineering iv
Defining Geometry Properties for 3-D Solid Elements....................................................290
Creating Loads and Boundary Conditions ......................................................................291
Defining Control Cards ....................................................................................................298
Exporting the File to MARC.............................................................................................299
Post-processing ............................................................................................. 301
Fatigue Panel - HM-630L.......................................................................................301
Using the Fatigue Panel to Export Data and Write an nSOFT Input Deck .....................301
Customizing.................................................................................................... 305
Creating Macro Menus - HM-115...........................................................................305
What is a HyperMesh macro...........................................................................................305
Creating a control for a macro.........................................................................................307
Creating your own macro ................................................................................................308
A Macro to create constraints around the edges of selected elements ..........................309

Altair Engineering HyperMesh Basic Tutorials 1
Preface to the HyperMesh Basic Tutorials
Organization of the HyperMesh Tutorials
HyperMesh tutorials are categorized by function. Within each function the tutorials are separated
into Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced topics where applicable. This volume contains all tutorials
except the Advanced. The Advanced tutorials are in the volume HyperMesh Advanced Tutorials.
Location of files used in the tutorials
All files referenced in the HyperMesh tutorials are located in the HyperWorks installation directory
under <altair install>/tutorials/hm/tutorials.
If you do not know the location of the HyperWorks installation directory, contact your systems
administrator.
Tutorials
Introductory Tutorials
Introduction to HyperMesh - HM-110
Working with Geometry
Basic
Geometry Creating and Editing - HM-120
Geometry Clean Up - HM-130
Going from FE to surfaces - HM-160
Advanced
Defeature Panel - HM-131
Using the midsurface generator - HM-320
Creating Loads on Geometry - HM-330
Meshing
Basic
Automeshing Module- HM-135L
Connecting Components - HM-200
Building 1-D Elements - HM-210
Building Surfaces and Shell Meshes - HM-300L
Using the Automatic Tetramesher - HM-450
Preface to HyperMesh Tutorials
HyperMesh Basic Tutorials Altair Engineering 2
Element Editing: Splitting and Combining Shell Elements - HM-500L
Model Checking - HM-520
Advanced
Automesh/Remesh - HM-136
Automesh/Proj to Edge-HM-137
Automeshing Tria Transition Features - HM-140
Chordal Deviation Meshing - HM-141
Spotweld - Hm-215
Building Solid Elements - HM-400
Quality Index Mesh Optimization Features - HM-460
Creating Connectors - HM-470
Creating Connectors by Importing a Master Connections File - HM-475
Composite Panel - HM-1300
Using HyperMorph to modify a finite element model - HM - 1400
Working with solvers
OptiStruct
Using OptiStruct in HyperMesh - HM-550
NASTRAN
NASTRAN Static Analysis Using HyperMesh - HM-1010-L
ABAQUS
ABAQUS Analysis Using HyperMesh - HM-1020-L
Using ABAQUS Contact Manager for 2D Models - HM-1021
ANSYS
Stress Analysis using ANSYS - HM-1030
HM-ANSYS Contact Wizard 2-D - HM-1031
Crash solvers
General Interfacing with Crash Analysis Solvers - HM-1100
Dummy Positioning, Seatbelt Routing, and Control Volumes - HM-1101
LS-DYNA
LS-DYNA3D Interface - HM-1110-L
PAM-CRASH
PAM-CRASH Interface - HM-1120-L
RADIOSS
RADIOSS Interface - HM-1130-L
MARC
Modeling Contact for MARC - HM-1050
Modeling a 3-D Example for MARC - HM-1051
Post-processing
Fatigue Panel - HM-630-L
Customizing
Creating a Macro Menu - HM-115


Introduction to HyperMesh - HM-110
This tutorial introduces HyperMesh to new users. The following sections are included:
Getting Started with HyperMesh
Working with an FE model
Model viewing options
Database relationships: nodes/elements/components/props/mats
Preparing for the solver and post-processing your results
All files referenced in this tutorial are located in the HyperWorks installation directory under <altair
home>/demos/hm.
administrator.
Continue this tutorial by clicking Getting started with HyperMesh.
Getting started with HyperMesh
This section discusses how to launch HyperMesh, the location of the working files, and briefly
describes areas in the interface.
Launching HyperMesh
1. Launch HyperMesh.
If you do not know how to launch HyperMesh and you are:
On UNIX
The most common method is to add the <installation path>/altair/scripts
directory for the HyperWorks installation to the search path for a user, then start
HyperMesh by simply typing hm at the command line. Some system administrators,
however, incorporate site-specific scripts to carry out some additional tasks or enable
configuration specific options. Please ask your systems administrator if this is the case at
your location and for the procedure to start HyperMesh.
On Windows
HyperMesh can be started from a command line by pointing to hmopengl.exe in the
<installation drive and folder>/altair/hm/<version>/bin/ folder. A more convenient method
is to create a shortcut to hmopengl.exe, and use that shortcut to start the software. If you
use the Windows start menu to start HyperMesh, it will use the installation bin directory
as the working directory. This is not recommended.
You should get the HyperMesh interface.
Introduction to HyperMesh HM-110

Figure 1. The HyperMesh interface with model
2. Locate on the interface the various areas described in Figure 1.
3. You need to know how HyperMesh defines its working directory.
HyperMesh working directory
HyperMesh runs in a working directory. This directory is used as the starting point for the file
browser, and the default directory to which message and session command files are written.
For UNIX systems, the working directory is the directory from which the HyperMesh starting script
command was issued.
On Windows, the working directory is associated with a shortcut to the HyperMesh executable.
Otherwise, the working directory is by default, the HyperMesh bin directory in the installation. The
working directory can be set on the shortcuts properties / shortcut tab in the Start in: field. The
bin directory is not the recommended working directory.
4. You need to know how the HyperMesh interface is laid out.
The Interface
The HyperMesh Interface contains several areas. Each is described below.
Title bar
The bar across the top of the interface is the Title Bar. It contains the version of HyperMesh that
you are running and the name of the file you are working on.
Graphics area
The graphics area under the Title Bar is the display area for your model. You can interact with
the model in three-dimensional space, in real time. In addition to viewing the model, entities can
be selected interactively from the graphics area.
Macro Menu
This area contains five pages of macros that perform various functions. The Disp macro is active
and is shaded to show this. The Disp macros control how a model displays in the Graphics area.
The other macro pages available are QA (contains element checking macros), Mesh (contains
macros associated with creating and editing meshes), User1 (macros you can create), and
Geom (contains macros related to working with a models geometry).
Header bar
The Header bar separates the Graphics area from the Panel area. The left end of the header
bar displays your current location. At this time, you will see Geometry displayed. The three fields
on the right side of the header bar display the active user profile (currently set to HyperMesh),
current component collector and current load collector. The latter two fields are blank.
The Header bar also displays any warning or error messages. Warning messages appear in
green and error messages appear in red.
The Quit button on the rightmost end of the Header bar ends the HyperMesh session. When you
select Quit, a save file information confirmation message appears if changes have not been
saved before quitting.
Permanent menu
The permanent menu (see Figure 1) is available from all pages. The upper portion contains
model and view manipulation tools. The lower portion provides access to the following sub-
panels.
The options button takes you to the options panel allowing you to modify many of
the default settings in the HyperMesh work environment.
The card button takes you to the editor sub-panel where you can select the
entities that are viewed in the card image panel. The card
images are defined in the template file associated with the
model.
The global button takes you to the panel where you can control global model
parameters accessed by several different panels. These
parameters remain constant until changed. Use this panel to
specify which template file you want to use. The panel controls
which components or collectors (a collection of data pertinent to
a given entity and handled as a group) are active. Any entities
you create are stored in the active collectors. Elements are
designated as first order elements by default. If you want to
create second order elements, click the toggle after element
order: to second.
The help button allows you to access the on-line help. On panels, you obtain
context sensitive help describing the functions of the panel with
links to various terms described on the panel.
The disp button allows you to access the display panel where you can select
which collectors are displayed on the screen.
The model browser allows you to view the HyperMesh model structure by organizing
assemblies, components, multibodies, properties, materials, and
beamsectcols into a tree-like display.
The vis button is available when you use the performance graphics engine. It
allows you to assign a set of display attributes to each
component of your model.
Page menu
The Page menu allows you to access different sets of functions. Each page contains related
functions. The Geom page contains functions having to do with the creation and editing of
geometry. The 1D, 2D, and 3D pages contain element creation and editing tools grouped
according to element type. The BCs page (boundary conditions) contains functions to set up the
analysis problem and define the boundary conditions. The Tool page contains miscellaneous
tools and model checking functions. The Post page contains post-processing functions.
Panel menu
The panel menu allows you to access all of the functions within HyperMesh. The functions are
organized into seven pages, with each page having a common theme.
Some functions are located on several pages. For example most of the functions in the leftmost
column can be accessed from each of the seven pages.
Exploring the pages
In this exercise, you will explore several pages and panels, and access the on-line help.
1. From the Page menu, select Geom.
2. From the Panel menu, select Files.
From this panel you can input and output model files, solver templates, and results files.
A later exercise will use this panel.
3. From the Permanent menu, click Help.
A help panel describing the basics of the files panel displays.
The HyperMesh online help system is context sensitive. If you press the help button
(located in the permanent menu) while you are in a function panel, you will be taken
directly to the help page for that function. Once the help browser is launched, the entire
help system is available using the help topics, index and find tabs of the help browser.
If the help button is clicked from a main menu page, the help system will start at the
topmost book level of HyperWorks help, and you can navigate your way through the help
system using the help browser.
The help system can be started outside of HyperMesh from the start menu in Windows,
or by typing winhlp ../help/hw.hlp from the UNIX command line from within the
altair/scripts directory.
4. Close the help window.
5. Click return.
6. Notice the panels displayed on the left side of the panels menu.
Files and collectors are available from every page. The remaining panels are available
from every page except Tools.
7. For each page (1D, 2D, 3D, BCs, Tool, Post), review the panel options available.
8. Return to the Geom page.
Working with an FE model
In this section, you will bring in a finite element model, learn how to add a solver template, learn
how to manipulate the view.
Opening a file
1. From any page, select the files panel.

Figure 2. Selecting the files panel
You should obtain this panel.

Figure 3. Files panel showing a file name of a selected file
HyperMesh can load model data from several different formats. The following sections briefly
describe what each option can do.
2. Click hm file.
HyperMesh binary files contain all of the information in the HyperMesh database,
including geometry and finite element model data. While HyperMesh has no specific file
extension requirements, the typical extension is .hm. Only one HyperMesh binary
database can be open per session.
The four green buttons on the right side of the panel are used to save or retrieve the
HyperMesh database. The save as and retrieve launch a windows style file browser
to allow you to locate the desired file on your system. The save and retrieve buttons
(without the ) simply read or write to the filename listed in the file: field.
3. Click retrieve.
Youll get this dialog.

Figure 4: Open files dialog
4. Change directories to <altair home>\tutorials\hm\tutorials.

Figure 5: The tutorials directory
5. Open the tutorials directory and select the file bumper.hm and click Open.
The bumper model displays in the graphics area. Notice the file: field contains the path
and file name just loaded into HyperMesh. The complete path also displays in the Title
bar at the top of the HyperMesh window.
If at any time you would like to revert to the original model (discarding any changes you
may have made), simply click the retrieve button (the file browser wont open). To save
any changes you have made, (overwriting the original file) simply click the save button. If
you would like to save your changes with a different filename, use the save as button
to open the file browser where you can specify a new name.
You can also double-click the file name to close the file dialog and read the file into
HyperMesh.
6. Lets look at the remaining options in the files panel.
import HyperMesh can import geometry, finite element information,
weld location and connection data, and other HyperMesh
binary files. When data is imported into HyperMesh, it is
appended to the current session database. Imported data is
read by an import translator that converts the native file
format into one that HyperMesh understands. Import
translators are included for many finite element solver input
formats, as well as many common geometry formats,
including UG .prt and assembly files, CATIA model files,
PRO-E (PC only), and IGES data.
export The export functionality is used to convert information in a
HyperMesh database into a solver formatted input deck, or
to export geometry as IGES data. In order to write data as a
solver input deck, HyperMesh uses feoutput templates to
define the output format. The feoutput templates also define
the card editor images of the different entities. (See
template.)
Tip: Load the feoutput template prior to creating any finite
element entities, like materials, elements or loads. In this
way, the solver specific entity type and required properties
can be defined most efficiently as the model is created.
command The command sub-panel allows you to execute a
HyperMesh command file (a file containing commands
allowing you to automate or re-create HyperMesh sessions).
template The template sub-panel allows you to specify which solver
template file you want to load.
results From results, you can load the results file from a solver and
perform several post-processing functions against that file.
Using HyperMesh with an FEA solver
The HyperMesh database is solver neutral. In order to define any solver specific information,
such as material or element properties, a solver template must be loaded.
7. Go to the template sub-panel.
8. Click load to launch a file browser.
The file browser shows the contents of the <altair home>/altair/templates/feoutput
directory.

Figure 6: feoutput directory showing available solver templates
9. Open the OptiStruct directory and select optistruct and click Open.
10. Click the red return button on the lower right side of the files panel to go back to the page
you were on when you accessed the files panel.
Model viewing options using the permanent menu
The top half of the permanent menu contains view manipulation tools. The functions can be
activated either by clicking the button on the permanent menu, or by pressing the corresponding
key on the keyboard (for functions with a single letter on the button), or the four arrow keys.

Figure 7: zoom and rotate controls on the permanent menu
Zoom functions (highlighted in red)
The zoom functions allow you to scale the size of the model display in the graphics area.
11. Try each of the five zoom functions on the bumper.hm model you just loaded.
z Circle zoom function. When activated, move the mouse into the graphics area, then
click and hold the left mouse button. Circle the part of the model you want to zoom
in to, and upon releasing the mouse button, the view will be adjusted.
f Fit function, Fits the entire model to the graphics area.
+, - Incremental zoom functions. Zoom the view in or out by a zoom factor specified in
the options panel.
s Slide zoom function. Click and hold the mouse in the graphics area, then move it
vertically to smoothly zoom in or out.
Rotation functions (highlighted in yellow in Figure 7)
The six arrow buttons (up, down, left, right, clockwise and counter clockwise) will incrementally
rotate the model in the direction of the arrow. The rotation increment is set to 15 degrees by
default, and can be changed in the options panel.
12. Try the rotation functions.
a Arc rotate. Rotate the model is if grabbing and dragging it with the mouse.
r Dynamic rotate. Rotate the model in the direction of the vector created from the
rotation center to the mouse position. Rotation speed is proportional to the
distance from the rotation center to the mouse.
Miscellaneous functions
13. Try these functions.
p Repaint the screen. Often, after deleting elements or lines, the entities adjacent
to those deleted are not drawn correctly. Clicking the p button will re-draw the model.
c Center the model. Use this function to reposition the model by selecting a new
screen center. The point selected will be centered on the screen and the model
repositioned accordingly.
b Back to the previous view. Allows you to toggle between two views.
View View pop-up menu. Set basic views, such as front, back, right, left, top, bottom,
and access five view memories that can be used to save and restore specific view
settings for the model.
14. Click view and change the model view to iso 1.
15. To close the menu, move your mouse off it.
Model viewing options using the mouse
In addition to the view controls using the permanent menu or keyboard shortcuts, the three
mouse buttons, when used in conjunction with the control key (CTRL) on the keyboard, allow you
to quickly and conveniently access common view controls.
CTRL + Left mouse button activates the arc rotate function. Hold down the Ctrl key, then
click and hold the left mouse button in the graphics area. While
holding boh the Ctrl key and the left mouse button, you can drag
the mouse to rotate the model in the direction of the mouse
movement.
CTRL + Middle mouse button activates the circle zoom and fit functions. While holding down
the CTRL key, click and hold the middle mouse button, then draw
a zoom circle around a part of your model. When you release the
middle mouse button, the view will be adjusted to fit the circled
area to the graphics screen. If you hold down the CTRL button
and quickly click the middle mouse button, the model will fit to
the screen. Note: this function also applies to mice equipped
with scroll wheels. Press down on the wheel as if it were a
mouse button.
CTRL + Right mouse button activates a drag pan mode. When holding down the Ctrl key, you
can click and grab the model with the right mouse button, then
translate it in the plane of the screen by dragging it with the
mouse.
Controlling the display: Using the disp and vis controls
16. Click disp on the permanent menu to obtain the display panel. (See Figure 8.)

Figure 8: Display panel
Turning on / off elements and geometry
On the left side of the panel is a list of collectors. A collector gathers related data and allows you
to handle the data as one unit. All entities within HyperMesh must belong to a collector.
HyperMesh uses several types of collectors, depending on the entity type. Model structure
information, such as geometry, nodes and elements, are gathered into component collectors.
Boundary condition information (loads and constraints) are gathered into load collectors. Other
collector types in HyperMesh are more analysis specific, and include such things as systems,
vectors, multibodies, contacts, and others.
The collector type selector allows you to choose the type of entity whose display you will be
controlling.
Component collectors can contain elements and/or geometry. The display of elements and
geometry within the component collectors is controlled independently. The geom / elem toggle
allows you to choose whether you are controlling the display of geometry or elements within the
component collectors. The default setting is elems to control elements.
Each collector has a color and contains a check mark in the box to the left of the name to indicate
the collectors contents are displayed.
17. Use a right mouse click on the name of a collector to de-select it.
Notice that collectors elements no longer display.
18. Use a left mouse click to select that collector and re-display its elements.
An alternate method of choosing a collector is to click on something in that collector in the
graphics area. This method will work for any component or collector selector.
19. Pick any element displayed in the model using the right mouse button.
This has the same effect as de-selecting the component from the component name list.
Changing visual modes for components
The visual (vis) panel controls how your components look. The vis panel is available when you
use the performance graphics engine.
20. Turn on performance graphics from the macro menu Disp page: on the Gfx: line, click
per.
Activating the performance graphics mode with the macro button sets the visability mode
for all elements to hidden line (shaded) with mesh lines.
21. From the permanent menu, click vis to go to the visual panel.
The components appear on the left side of the panel and each contains an icon showing
the display type. On the right side of the panel is a list of choices. Each component can
be displayed differently.

Wireframe Element edges are displayed with lines.

Hidden Line The element is displayed as a filled polygon.

Hidden Line with Mesh
Lines
The element is displayed as a filled polygon
with the edges drawn in mesh line color.

Hidden Line with
Feature Lines
The element is displayed as a filled polygon
with the feature edges drawn in mesh line
color.

Transparent The element is displayed as a filled
transparent polygon.
For post processing, you have two options.

Element Color The elements are displayed in element color
even in post-processing panels that use
results contouring.

Contours The elements are contoured with the
selected results.
22. Select a new choice.
23. Click all.
Notice the icons for all the components change, as does the display.
24. Select the icon for Hidden line with Mesh Lines.
25. Click all.
26. Click return.
Using the model browser
27. On the permanent menu, click the model browser .
28. Look in the Macro Menu area for the browser display. Youll see something similar to
Figure 9.

Figure 9. Model browser
The model browser allows you to view the HyperMesh model structure by organizing
assemblies, components, multibodies, properties, materials, and beamsectcols into a
tree-like display.
Components and assemblies have two display states: one for its elements and another
for its geometry. You can switch the display mode by clicking the Elems or Geoms radio
button on the bottom right of the browser window.
You can also determine which components are displayed by removing the checkmark
from the box infront of the component. To remove the check mark, click the check mark
in front of the components name.
29. Click the check mark in front of end1 and end2 and notice the display.
30. Click the tab at the bottom of the browser labeled Reverse.
31. Click All.
32. Close the model browser, by clicking the x in the upper right-hand corner of the browser
window.
Database relationships: nodes / elements / components / props / mats
Collectors
Collectors gather related data about an entity. Entities in Hypermesh can be xy-plots, nodes,
loads, elements, lines, surfaces, etc. There are several types of collectors available in
HyperMesh. These are some of the entity information collectors:
Property Property collectors contain property information about 1-D elements and are required
only when a model contains one or more of the following elements:
bar2
bar3
gap
joint
masses
rod
spring
After you create a property collector, you can assign the specified properties to new 1-D elements by
entering the collector name after property = when you create or update the elements. Properties for all
other element types, 2-D or 3-D, are assigned by the component to which the elements belong.
Material Material collectors contain information about the materials in a HyperMesh model. If
a model contains any non-rigid elements, then the model should have at least one
material collector. You can set a component or property to the correct material
collector by entering the collector name after material =.
Plot A plot collector contains information associated with an xy plot. One plot collector is
created for each plot in the database. Plot collectors contain pointers to curve
collectors.
Some additional collectors are component, load, and vector.
Reviewing element properties and material information
The card panel in the permanent menu is used to view and edit database information in the
solver format defined by the output template.
1. Click card on the permanent menu to go to the card editor panel.
The default setting of the entity selector in this panel is nodes.
2. If it is not currently set to nodes, click the switch on the left side of the selector, and
choose nodes from the pop up menu.
3. Pick any node in the model by clicking it in the graphics area.
4. Click the green edit button to bring up the card image for the node you selected.

Figure 1: OptiStruct grid card defining node coordinates
On the card image for the node youve selected, you should see the word GRID, followed
by the node id number, then the global coordinate points of the node. This is the format
that the information will be written to when the model is exported as an OptiStruct input
deck.
5. Click the red return button to close the card editor.
6. Click the switch on the entity selector and choose elems from the pop up menu.
This changes the entity type that will be selected.
7. Click any of the elements displayed in the graphics area to select it.
Note the element remains highlighted.
8. Click edit to review the information specific to the element youve selected.

Figure 2: OptiStruct card image for a 4-node plate element
The information on this card indicates thet the element type is a CQUAD4 or 4 noded
shell element, with a specific element id (in the EID field), with a pointer to the property
listed in the PID field. The four nodes listed as G1 through G4 define the connectivity of
this element.
9. Click return to close the card editor for the element.
In the OptiStruct and NASTRAN formats, the property card for shell and solid elements
(PSHELL or PSOLID cards) are assigned to the component. To review the PSHELL card
for the element selected, we must card edit the component that the element belongs to.
10. Change the entity type for the selector from elems to comps by clicking the switch and
choosing comps from the pop-up menu.
11. Click the yellow comps button to bring up a list of the components in the model.
On the CQUAD4 card, the PID field refers to the property by number only. In HyperMesh,
the components can be refered to by name or id. To display the id number of the
component, along with the name, click the switch next to name on the lower right corner
of the panel and choose name(id) for the display format in the component list. This will
add the component id number to the listed components in the model.
12. Select the component with the id number of the element you reviewed in the previous
step.
13. Click edit to bring up the card image.

Figure 3: OptiStruct PSHELL card image
Note the information on the PSHELL card includes a reference to a material (MID1) and
an editable number field to specify the thickness of the shell element.
14. Click the return button to exit the card editor.
15. Change the entity type selector from comps to mats (materials).
16. Click the yellow mats button to bring up a list of materials in the model. In this case, there
is only one.
17. Select the steel material by clicking in the checkbox, and then click the green select
button.
18. Click edit to bring up the card image for the material card.

Figure 4. MAT1 card image
The MAT1 card image defines properties for linear elastic materials. In this case, the
fields for E (Youngs modulus) and NU (Poissons ratio) are activated. Change any of the
numbers in the active fields by clicking in the field and then typing in the new value.
If a field is blank and no number field appears, it is inactive. To activate a field, click the
field heading.
19. Click field heading RHO to activate the density field.
The default value 7.9x10
-9
appears.
20. Click return to close the card editor.
21. Click return to exit the card panel and return to the main menu.
Collectors panel
The collectors panel allows you to create, review, and edit collectors. A collector is a database
entity that collects other entities, grouping together all the data pertaining to that entity and
allowing you to handle the data as a group. Before you create an entity in HyperMesh, you must
first create a collector in which to store the data.

Figure : Collectors panel
1. To the right of the label collector type: is the collector type switch. Click it.
A pop-up menu appears with all the available collector types.
2. Select comps from the pop-up menu.
comps represenents component collectors.
Component collectors contain element, line, and surface data. This allows you to organize
geometry data into units that can be translated, rotated, assigned colors, or deleted. Operations
performed on a component affect all the elements, lines, and surfaces belonging to the
component. Lines, elements, and surfaces cannot exist unless a component collector exists. If
you try to create any of these without having created a component first, HyperMesh automatically
creates a component, auto1, for those entities.
Component collectors also reference material and property collectors.
The collectors panel displays fields for card images or dictionaries depending on the type of
solver template that is referenced. If a card image template is loaded, or no template is loaded,
the panel displays card image related fields. If a dictionary template is loaded, the panel displays
dictionary related fields. Card image and dictionary entry fields are used in the same way except
that when a card image solver is being used and edit is selected, the card image is displayed in a
new area of the screen. For dictionary solvers, the data is shown in the existing menu area.
3. Select the update sub-panel by clicking update.
4. Click review.
This lists all the current component collectors.
5. Select one of the components.
Once a component is selected, the collectors panel appears again and the material and
color of the selected component displays in the panel.
6. Click return.
7. You can find what other collectors are present in this model by changing the collector
type to a different collector and clicking review.
Creating solver specific materials / components
You can use the collectors panel to create material and component collectors. If you have a
specific solver template attached to the model, you can also set specific values on the cards. In
each of the following examples, you will create the collector and provide values for some of the
entries on the card.
In the next steps, you will create a new material and compent collector for the bumper model,
then organize the existing elements into the new component.
To create a material collector:
1. Select the collectors panel.
2. Select the create sub-panel.
3. Click the switch after collector type and select mats.
4. Click text box after name = and enter 6061_T6_ALUMINUM.
5. Click the switch under creation method and select card image.
6. Click card image = and select MAT1.
7. Click create/edit.
A pop-up card displays.
By default, most of the number fields are not active. To activate a number field, click the
field heading (in brackets). A text box with a default value opens. Modify the value by
over-writing it or if no value has been set, enter a value in the text box.
8. Click E, type 70000, and press ENTER.
9. Click NU, type .33, and press ENTER.
10. Click return to accept the values.
A material collector named 6061_T6_ALUMINUM is created.
To create a component collector:
1. Click the switch after collector type and select comps.
2. Click name = and enter Bumper.
4. Click card image = and select PSHELL.
5. Click material = and select 6061_T6_ALUMINUM.
6. Click color and select color 8.
A pop-up card displays.
8. Click T, and enter 3.0.
9. Click return to accept the value.
A component collector named Bumper is created.
10. Click return to go back to the main menu.
To organize the elements into the new component:
1. Go to the organize panel.
2. Set the entity type selector to elems.
3. Click elems and select all from the pop-up menu.
4. If the destination = field does not list the last component created (Bumper), click the
component name, then select Bumper from the component list.
5. Click move to move all the elements into the new component and assign the new
material properties to them.
6. Click return.
To clean up the model:
At this point, the model contains unneeded geometry, several empty component collectors, and
an unused material collector.
1. Go to the Tool page and select the delete panel.
2. Set the entity type selector to lines.
3. Click lines and select all from the pop-up menu.
4. Click delete entity.
A message confirms the lines were deleted.
5. To identify and delete empty components, set the entity type to comps.
6. Click preview empty.
A message confirms there are five empty components. If you wish, click comps to
display the list of components in the model. Those with checks are empty.
7. Click select.
9. To check for unused materials, set the entity type switch to mats.
10. Click preview unused.
11. Click mats to bring up the list of materials not referenced by a component.
The material steel appears with a check mark indicating it is unused.
12. Click select.
14. Click return to go back to the main menu.
Note: Notice the order in which these steps wer performed. One of the components,
mid1_and_lines, contained geometry. Until the lines were deleted this component would
not have shown up in the list of empty components. This would be true for the
components that referenced the material steel. Once the components had been deleted
steel would be considered unused.
Preparing for the solver and post-processing your results
In general, you will follow these steps.
1. Add any boundary conditions (force loads and constraints) and a solver load step.
The boundary conditions (force loads and constraints) have been set up in this model
previously, as well as a solver load step. The model is ready to submit to the OptiStruct
solver for analysis.
2. You may wish to save the model. That can be done from the files panel.
3. Run the model file through the solver and post-process the results.
If you are using OptiStruct, as this model does, go to the BCs page, select the
OptiStruct panel. There you can export the model as an OptiStruct input deck and
launch the analysis. When the analysis is complete, you will obtain a results file (.res for
OptiStruct) from the solver. This is the file you will read into HyperMesh so you can do
any post-processing. Alternately, you can load the results into HyperView to do your post-
processing.
See the tutorial Using OptiStruct in HyperMesh HM-550 for several examples. See
also the HyperView tutorials for examples of post-processing.
For other solvers, follow the procedures used for that solver. See the various solver-
specific HyperMesh tutorials for the solver you will use for assistance in preparing your
model. Also check on-line help for additional information regarding the solver youll be
using.


Working with Geometry - Basic
Geometry Creating and Editing - HM-120
This tutorial explains how to create lines and surfaces with the geometry creation panels found on
the Geom page. The lines, line edit, circles, fillet, delete, reflect, section cut, tangent and
translate panels are included. There are also instructions about using the plane panel to create
a surface. The completed geometry of this exercise is illustrated below

under /tutorials/hm/tutorials.
administrator.
Note: Before using HyperMesh, make sure you delete the hmmenu.set file from your current
working directory.
To create a component collector for geometry:
3. Click the selection switch and choose comp.
4. Click name = and enter geometry.
5. Click the switch under creation method and select no card image.
Working with Geometry Basic
Geometry Creating and Editing HM-120
7. Click create.
8. Click return to exit the collectors panel.
To create nodes:
1. Select the view panel on the permanent menu.
2. Click Iso1.
3. Select the Geom page.
4. Select the create nodes panel.
5. Select the type in sub-panel.
6. To create the nodes, enter the X, Y, and Z coordinates in the table below and click create
node for each of the nodes.
Node X Y Z
1 0 0 0
2 0 0 25
3 0 0 37
4 0 5 25
5 0 5 -2
7. Click return to exit the create nodes panel
To display the node IDs:
1. Select the tools page.
2. Select the numbers panel.
3. Click the input selection switch and select nodes.
4. Click node to display the extended entity selection menu.
5. Click all.
6. Click on to display all the node IDs.
7. Click return to exit the numbers panel.
To create a circle:
2. Select the circles panel.
3. Select the center and radius sub-panel.
4. Pick the node with ID number 2 as the node list at which the circle is to be created.
5. Click the plane and vector collector switch and select X-axis.
6. Pick the node with ID number 2 again as the base for the axis of rotation.
7. Click on the toggle switch and select circle
8. Click radius and enter 5.
9. Click create.
To create an arc:
1. Click the toggle to change from circle to arc.
2. Pick the node with ID number 2 as the node list at which the circle is to be created.
3. Click the plane and vector collector switch and select X-axis.
4. Pick the node with ID number 2 again as the base for the axis of rotation.
5. Input 180 for angle =.
6. Enter 2.5 for radius =.
7. Enter 90 for offset =.
8. Click create to create an arc.
9. Click return to exit the circles panel.
11. Click rear to change the view.

To create a line:
2. Select the lines panel.
3. Select create line sub-panel.
4. Pick the nodes with ID number 4 and node 5 in node list.
5. Click create to create a line between nodes 4 and 5.
6. Click return to exit the lines panel.
To duplicate and translate lines:
1. Select the Tool page.
2. Select the translate panel.
3. Click the input selection switch and select lines.
4. Pick the line that was created between nodes 4 and 5.
5. Click lines again to display the extended entity selection menu.
6. Click duplicate.
7. Click current comp to copy the new line into the current component (Geometry).
8. Click the plane and vector collector switch and select y-axis.
9. Click magnitude = and enter 10.0.
10. Click translate -.
11. Click p on the permanent menu to refresh the screen.
12. Click return to exit the translate panel.

To edit lines by splitting at a line:
2. Select the line edit panel.
3. Select the split at line sub-panel.
4. Click lines and pick the circle.
5. Click cut line and pick the line between node 4 and node 5.
6. Click split.
7. Repeat this procedure on the other line that was just translated.
8. Click return to exit the line edit panel.
To display the line IDs:
1. Select the Tools page.
4. Click lines to display the extended entity selection menu.
5. Click all.
6. Click on to display all the line IDs.
To delete a redundant arc:
2. Select the delete panel.
4. Select the lower semi-circle (line id 10) on the screen.
5. Click on delete entity to delete the redundant arc.
6. Click return to exit the delete panel.
To duplicate and reflect an arc:
2. Select the reflect panel.
4. Choose the arc on screen (line id 2).
5. Click the plane and vector collector switch and select z-axis.
6. Pick node 2 as the base node.
7. Click lines again to display the extended entity selection menu.
8. Click duplicate.
9. Click original comp to copy the new line into the current component (Geometry).
original comp allows you to place all duplicated entities into the component collector
where duplication occurred. current comp allows you to place all duplicated entities into
the current working component defined in global panel.
10. Click reflect to create the lower arc.
11. Click return to exit the reflect panel.
12. Click p on the permanent menu to refresh the screen.

To create two tangent lines
1. Select the Geom page
2. Select the tangents panel.
3. Select the node with ID number 3 as the node list.
4. Select the line panel.
5. Select the line with ID number 7. Comment: Node 7 is not clearly illustrated in the
diagram above.
6. Click find tangent.
HyperMesh finds a tangent line for the selected curve.
7. Repeat step 3-5, but pick line 8 instead of line 7
There are two tangent lines on screen.
8. Click return to exit the tangent panel
To redisplay the line IDs:
3. Click the input collector switch and select lines.
4. Click lines to display the extended entity selection menu.
5. Click all.
6. Click on to display all the line IDs.
To split curves by tangent lines, and delete redundant line:
3. Select split at line sub-panel.
4. Pick line 7 for lines and tangent line 12 for cut line.
5. Click split to split line 7 by line 12.
6. Repeat step 3-5 in order to cut curve line 8 by tangent line 13 in line edit panel.
7. Press the F2 key to jump into delete panel from line edit panel.
8. Select the two curve lines between tangent lines 12 and 13.
9. Click delete entity to delete the two curves.
10. Click return twice to go back to main menu

To create a component collector for surfaces:
3. Click the selection switch and choose comp.
4. Click name = and enter surfaces.
7. Click create.
8. Click return to exit the collectors panel
To create a square surface on X-Y plane:
1. Select the 2D page.
2. Select the planes panel.
3. Select the square sub-panel.
4. Click the input collector switch and select z-axis.
5. For base node, choose the node with ID number 1 to be the base reference node.
6. Choose surface only from the triangle entity switch.
7. Enter 30 in the size = input field.
8. Click on create to create a square surface.
9. Click return to exit the planes panel.
To create a line which connects two parallel lines on an X-Y plane:
1. Select the Geom page
2. Select the section cut panel.
3. Click the input selection switch and select z-axis.
The reason to choose z-axis is because we want to create the line on the X-Y plane.
4. For base, choose the node with ID number 1 to be the base node.
5. For line list, choose the 2 straight lines that are perpendicular to the X-Y plane.
A line on the screen shows the result.
6. Click create to finish creating the line.
To switch the current working component from surfaces to geometry:
1. Select the global panel on the permanent menu.
2. By default, component = should be set to surfaces component collector.
3. Click surfaces, and change to geometry from the collector name list.
From this point, any element or geometry, such as a line or surface that is created, will be
placed in this geometry component collector.
To extend line to surface edge:
2. Click Iso1.
5. Select the extend line sub-panel.
6. Click on the toggle and change sub-panel from distance = to to : line.
7. Choose the purple straight line for the upper line panel, then choose 1 surface edge
(see figure below) in the lower line panel.
Now you see a red V which marks the beginning to extend the purple line.
8. Click on extend + .
You can see that line 11 is extended to reach one surface edge.
Note: If the extended line does not stop and extend over the surface edge, try extend
and review the result.
9. Click return to exit the line edit panel.
The result should resemble the figure below.

To create a fillet between two lines:
1. Select the geom page.
2. Select the fillets panel.
4. Switch the toggle from no trim to trim.
5. For radius, enter 5.
6. For the 1st line panel, pick line 3.
7. For the 2nd line panel, pick the purple straight line which is perpendicular to line 3.
Please select fillet quadrant is displayed in the message bar. HyperMesh is asking you
to select a reference location for fillet.

8. Pick the x above X-Y plane and closed to node 1.
You can see a fillet on screen created by HyperMesh
9. Repeat steps 5-7 to create another fillet for line 3.
10. Click return to exit the fillets panel.

To trim a line by plane and delete a redundant line segment:

3. Select split at plane sub-panel.
4. Select line 4 in the lines panel.
5. Choose z-axis from the input collector switch.
6. Choose node 1 as the base node.
7. Click split to split line 2 by the X-Y plane.
8. Press the F2 key to jump into the delete panel.
10. Choose the small line segment under the X-Y plane, and click on delete entity to remove
the line segment.
11. Click return twice to return to the main menu.
To remove all temp nodes:
2. Select the temp nodes panel.
3. Click clear all to remove all temp nodes.
4. Click return to return to the main menu.
To change to performance graphics:
1. From the Macro menu, select the Disp panel.
2. Select the per panel for performance panel.

To export all geometry as an IGES file:
1. From any page, select the files panel.
2. Select the IGES sub-panel.
3. Click write as.
4. Input a name for filename =.
5. Click save to save the model as an IGES file.
The IGES file you generate can be shared with other CAD packages such as UG, Catia,
and ProE.


Geometry Clean Up - HyperMesh-130
This lesson introduces the geom cleanup panel. This panel is used to prepare surface geometry
for meshing. The gaps, overlaps and misalignments that can occur when surfaces are imported
into HyperMesh can prevent the automesher from creating quality meshes. By eliminating
misalignments and holes and by suppressing the boundaries between adjacent surfaces, you can
automesh across larger, more logical regions of the model and improve overall meshing speed
and quality.
The following topics are included:
HyperMesh 6.0 Terminology
Geom cleanup panel features
Surface edit/filler surface sub-panel
Using the geom cleanup and surface edit panels
administrator.
See Also
The HyperMesh Panels On-line Help for more information on the geom cleanup panel features.
HyperMesh 6.0 Terminology
This image identifies various geometric features found on models labeled with the terminology
used in HyperMesh for faces, edges, and points. Refer to the definitions below for each feature
identified on this image.

New HyperMesh terminology
Geometry Cleanup - HyperMesh HM-130
face A single NURB; the smallest area entity.
surface A collection of one or more adjacent faces whose common edges are
suppressed. HyperMesh meshes on surfaces.
free edge The edge is owned by one surface. In the geom cleanup panel, the
default color is red.
shared edge The edge is owned by two adjacent surfaces. In the geom cleanup
panel, the default color is green.
suppressed edge The edge is owned, or shared, by two adjacent surfaces. Suppressed
edges are ignored by the meshing routines in HyperMesh. In the
geom cleanup panel, the default color is blue.
non-manifold edge The edge is owned by three or more surfaces. In the geom cleanup
panel, the default color is yellow.
fixed point A point associated with a surface. A fixed point is displayed as a small
circle (o) and is the same color as the surface to which it is associated.
The automesher places a finite element node at each fixed point on
the surfaces being meshed.
free point A point in space not associated with a surface. A free point is
displayed as a small x, (x), and is the same color as the geometry
collector to which it belongs.
The next section covers the geometry cleanup panel (geom cleanup) and its three sub-panels:
edges, surfaces, and fixed points.
Geom Cleanup Panel Features
The geom cleanup panel contains tools to help you prepare surface geometry for meshing. The
overlaps and misalignments that usually occur between imported surfaces can prevent the
automesher from creating the best meshes. By eliminating misalignments and by suppressing
the boundaries between adjacent surfaces, you can automesh across larger, more logical regions
of your model and improve overall meshing speed and quality.
The following provides an orientation to each sub-panel on the geom cleanup panel.
Edges sub-panel

Geom cleanup, edges sub-panel menu

cleanup tol = The tolerance used to determine if two surface edges or two surface vertices
should be considered as one.
NOTE:
Values for cleanup tol= can be specified in two locations. The global value
for cleanup tol= is in the options/modeling sub-panel. The local value for
cleanup tol =, which is used for a specific cleanup operation, is in the geom
cleanup panel. Sometimes, operations performed by the local cleanup
tolerance can be lost by a global cleanup tolerance overriding it.
An example of this is splitting a surface which was created by utilizing a local
cleanup tolerance. Since the surface edit panel uses the global cleanup
tolerance, all of the edges of the new surfaces will be reevaluated by
HyperMesh to determine their cleaned up status.
It is recommended that a large value (reasonable with respect to the element
size) be used for the cleanup tol= in the options/modeling sub-panel. For
example, for an element edge length of 10, a cleanup tol of 0.1 (10/100) or
.05 (10/500) should be used.
visual options Enables user to control display mode of surfaces and edges. View surfaces
in wire frame or shaded mode. Display on/off surface edge types.
edges sub-panel Used to remove gaps and overlaps between surfaces and to merge surfaces
together by modifying the edges of the surfaces.
toggle Convert individual surface edges from one edge type to another with single
mouse clicks. Left click: free edge shared edge suppressed edge
(red green dotted blue). Right click: suppressed edge shared
edge free edge (dotted blue green red).
replace Combine two free edges into a shared edge. Free edge shared edge
(red green).
(un)suppress Suppress or unsuppress a number of edges simultaneously. Shared edge
suppressed edge (green dotted blue).
equivalence Convert free edges between adjacent surfaces to shared edges. Free edge
shared edge. (red green).
Surfaces sub-panel

Geom cleanup, surfaces sub-panel
surfaces sub-panel Used to delete duplicate surfaces and organize faces and surfaces into
simpler and more logical regions.
find duplicates Find and delete duplicate surfaces. Non-manifold edge shared or
free edge (yellow green or red).
organize by feature Combine surfaces based on several parameters. Shared edge
suppressed edge (green dotted blue).
move faces Stitch faces to an existing surface or stitch faces to create a new
surface. Shared edge suppressed edge (green dotted blue).
Fixed points sub-panel

Geom cleanup, fixed points sub-panel
fixed points sub-panel Used to add, replace, and suppress fixed points.
add Create fixed points from existing free points or nodes.
replace Delete point to be moved and relocate associated geometry to
retained point.
suppress Delete unnecessary fixed points or convert fixed points to free points.
Surface Edit/Filler Surface Sub-panel
The surface edit panel allows you to perform a variety of surface editing, trimming, and creation
functions. This panel also allows you to offset surfaces in their normal direction.
In particular, the filler surface sub-panel allows you to easily fill in gaps, holes, or slivers in a
model with surfaces to form a continuous part. This function is a customized subset of the spline
function. You select an internal free edge (or group of free edges with extended entity selection).
HyperMesh will complete the selection by selecting additional free edges to form a closed loop of
internal free edges.

Filler surface sub-panel of the surface edit panel
filler surface Fill in a hole in CAD data (a missing surface) by selecting lines, nodes, or
points. Similar to the spline panel, with this exception: points cannot be
selected in the spline panel.
NOTE: In the surface edit panel, the lines from surface edge sub-panel no longer exists. In
most panels, surface edges can be selected as though they were lines.
Using the Geom Cleanup and Surface Edit Panels
In this exercise, you use the geom cleanup panel and the filler surface sub-panel of the
surface edit panel to import surface geometry and prepare it for meshing.
To import surface geometry data file:
1. Go to the files panel, select the import sub-panel and import the file named
raw_iges_data.iges using the IGES translator.
2. Click return.
In this tutorial the surfaces you will select are referred to by their ID numbers. Therefore,
you will need to have the ID numbers of the surfaces displayed so that you know which
ones to select.
To display surface IDs:
1. Select the Tool page.
3. Click the input collector switch and select surfs.
4. Click surfs and select all on the extended entity selection pop-up window.
5. Click on.
The IDs for the displayed surfaces are displayed.
6. Click return.

Displayed surface IDs
To change surface edges from free to shared using edges/equivalence sub-panel:
2. Select the geom cleanup panel.
3. Select the edges sub-panel.
4. Click the equivalence radio button.
5. Click surfs and select displayed.
6. Click equivalence.
Some of the free surface edges (red) became shared edges (green).
To identify and delete duplicate surfaces:
1. Select the surfaces sub-panel.
2. Click the find duplicates radio button.
3. Click faces and select displayed from the extended entity selection pop-up window.
4. Click find.
The message, One face is duplicated, is displayed in the header bar.
5. Click delete.
The message, One face was deleted, is displayed in the header bar.
To replace a fixed point:
1. Select the fixed points sub-panel.
2. Click the replace radio button.
3. Zoom into the corner of surface 9 which borders surface 1 and is on the perimeter of
model.
4. Pick the surface 1 corner node.
5. Pick the surface 9 corner node.
6. Click replace.
The surface 9 corner node is replaced with the surface 1 corner node.
To combine free edges to create shared edges using the edges/toggle sub-panel:
1. Select the edges sub-panel.
2. Select the toggle radio button.
3. Click f on the permanent menu to fit displayed components to the graphics area.
4. Pick surface 3 free edge adjacent to surface 1.
The surface edge becomes green. The surface edge selected in the edges/toggle sub-
panel is the retained edge. The other edge, which is found automatically, is the edge
which is moved.
5. Pick the surface 9 free edge adjacent to surface 1.
8. Pick any other interior free edges.
At this point, there are still a number of problems with the geometry. There are a number
of free (red) edges, the corner where surfaces 1, 3, 5, and 7 meet has some misaligned
fixed points causing a gap in the surfaces, and there is a missing surface between
surfaces 10 and 11.
To locate problem areas in the geometry:
1. Click vis opts.
2. Deactivate the shared edges check box to turn the display of these edges off.
3. Deactivate the fixed points to turn the display of these points off.
4. Click r on the permanent menu to rotate and view model.
Only the free edges that define the model perimeter and the interior holes should remain.
However, there are also some very short free edges where surfaces 1, 3, 5, and 7 meet.
This indicates that there is a gap in the geometry. Also, there some edges defining the
slot which appears between surfaces 10 and 11. These features are not something we
want, so we need to fix them.
5. Click vis opts.
6. Activate the shared edges check box to turn display of the edges on.
7. Activate the fixed points check box to turn display of the points on.
8. Click the toggle to change from wireframe to shaded.
9. Click r on the permanent menu to rotate and view model.
Using the shaded mode for surfaces is another method to help identify whether any
surfaces are missing in the part. This method can be particularly helpful if the surfaces
are supposed to fully enclose a volume.
10. Click vis opts.
11. Click the toggle to change from shaded to wireframe.
12. Click return.
To fill in missing surfaces using the surface edit / filler surface sub-panel:
1. Select surface edit panel.
2. Click the filler surface radio button.
3. Zoom into the corner in which surfaces 1, 3, 5, and 7 meet where we found the small gap
in the geometry in the last section.
4. On the Disp page of the macro menu, click the button labeled 2 next to Vis opts:.
This turns on the topology colors for geometry cleanup. The three edges surrounding the
gap in the geometry should now be colored red.
5. Make sure that the auto create and keep tangency check boxes are checked on.
6. Select one of the three red (free) edges in the graphics area.
The filler surface function will automatically select the other two free edges because they
are connected to the one you selected. Auto create was checked on, and so filler surface
goes ahead and automatically creates the surface once it has found a closed loop.
7. Click return.
8. On the Disp page of the macro menu, click the button labeld 0 next to Vis opts:.
This turns on the standard display of geometry colors.
9. Click geom cleanup.
10. Click edges.
11. Click toggle.
12. Of the three lines selected in surface edit / filler surface sub-panel, pick the line closest
to the center of the model. The shared (green) edges are suppressed (blue).
To combine two free edges into a shared edge using surfaces / replace sub-panel:
1. Select the edges radio button.
2. Click replace on left side of menu panel.
3. Pick the surface 10 edge that is parallel and closest to a surface 11 edge.
4. Pick the surface 11 edge that is parallel and closest to the surface 10 edge just selected.
5. Click replace on the right side of the menu panel.
You get a pop-up window which displays the message, Gap = (0.603626). Do you still
wish to replace?".
6. Click Yes.
You get this message if the distance of the gap is less than 10 times your cleanup
tolerance. Otherwise, you will have to enter a larger value for the tolerance and try the
replace function again.

NOTE Do not set the cleanup tolerance to unreasonably high values. New edges are
generated based on the cleanup tolerance. The cleanup tolerance not only
affects the selected entities, but it affects the edges that touch the selected
entities at vertices. The generated edges are accurate only to within the set
cleanup tolerance. As a result, if unreasonably high tolerances are used, small
gaps can increase in distance up to the set tolerance.
The geom cleanup edges / toggle sub-panel can also be used to combine
the surface 10 and 11 edges.
If the shortest distance between two surface edges is greater than the
intended element size, do not use this function. Instead, use the surface filler
sub-panel on the surface edit panel. Create a filler surface and toggle surface
edges to suppressed edges accordingly. Another panel that can be used is
the drag geoms sub-panel in the drag panel.
To stitch surfaces together:
1. Click (un)suppress.
2. Pick the line between surfaces 4 and 6.
3. Pick the line between surfaces 3 and 5.
4. Pick the two linear lines between surfaces 3 and 9.
5. Click suppress.
The selected lines change from shared (green) to suppressed (blue) edges.
6. Click return.
The suppressed surface edges are not displayed in the graphics area. They still exist in
the model and can be toggled back to shared edges in the geom cleanup panel.

NOTE The resulting stitched surface is located in the component collector of the
stitched surface having the lowest id. As a result of surfaces 4 and 6 being
stitched together, the stitched surface is located in middle2 component
collector where surface 4 was originally located. As a result of surfaces 3, 5,
and 9 being stitched together, the stitched surface is located in middle1
component collector where surface 3 was originally located.
In the geom cleanup panel, HyperMesh treats lines and surface edges the
same. To select surface edges more easily, display off or mask lines.


Going from FE to surfaces - HM-160
The goal of this tutorial is to demonstrate how to use the FE surf panel to create surfaces from
shell elements. The FE surf panel allows you to create surfaces that closely fit a user-defined
set of elements. The surfaces created can be used to perform geometry and meshing operations
just as you would with any other surface in HyperMesh.
In this tutorial, we will use the FE surf panel to create a detachable surface from a bumper
model that is meshed with shell elements.
To retrieve the file for this tutorial:
1. Select the files panel from any main menu page.
2. Select the hm file sub-panel.
3. Click the retrieve button to bring up a file browser.
4. Browse and select the bumper.hm file, located in the installation directory under
altair/tutorials/hm/tutorials/.
5. Hit Open to open the file.
6. Click return to exit the panel.
To create new component collectors:
For database organization purposes, we will create two component collectors called SURF and
PLOT_ELEM to store two different types of HyperMesh entities. As the names dictate, SURF and
PLOT_ELEM will store surfaces and plot element information respectively.
1. Select the collectors panel from any main menu page.
2. Click on the entity selector switch next to collector type:.
3. Select comps.
4. Type in SURF in the field following Name =.
5. Pick a color. Click on the color button to see the colors available for collectors.
6. Click create.
This creates a component collector named SURF.
7. Type in PLOT_ELEM in the field following Name =.
8. Pick a different color.
9. Click create.
This creates a component collector named PLOT_ELEM.
To create plot elements defining surfaces edges:
Plot elements are used along with shell elements to create surfaces from elements. Plot elements
can be placed at locations where surface edges are desired. In this section, we will create plot
Going from FE to Surfaces HM-160
elements at the internal component boundaries as shown in the diagram below. This forces
HyperMesh to place surface edges at these boundaries. These edges can be unsuppressed once
the surface is generated in order to obtain four smaller surfaces.
1. Select the 1D page.
2. Select the edit element panel.
4. Select the plot option.
5. Select the nodes along the internal component boundaries to create plot elements. Refer
to the diagram below for locations of the plot elements. Hit reject to undo the plot
element that you last created.
Note:
Plot elements can also be created using the edges and features panels.

To set the current component collector to SURF:
Before we create a surface from this bumper model, we need to ensure the current component
collector is switched from PLOT_ELEM to SURF. This is because we want to have the surface
information stored in the SURF component collector instead of the PLOT_ELEM component
collector.
2. Click on the component = button next to current collectors:.
3. Select SURF.
4. Hit return to exit the global panel.
To create surfaces from the shell and plot elements:
Finally, we will create a surface from the shell and plot elements.
1. Select the geom page.
2. Select the FE surf panel.
The panel is also available on the post page.
3. Click on the yellow elems button under shell elements defining surface:.
The blue halo around the yellow elems button indicates that the box is active.
4. Select by collector from the extended entity selection menu.
5. Select end1, end2, mid2, and rigid collectors.
6. Hit select to return to the FE surf panel.
7. Click on the yellow elems button under plot elements defining edges:.
Note that the blue halo shifted to the elems button under this option, indicating that this is
the active box.
8. Select by collector from the extended entity selection menu.
9. Select PLOT_ELEM.
10. Hit select to return to the FE surf panel.
11. Click create to start creating surfaces from the elements selected.
13. Click disp.
14. Turn off the display of all collectors except surf.
15. In vis opts, click 3.
The diagram below shows the surface generated from the shell and plot elements. The
surface contains three suppressed edges along the boundaries where plot elements were
created on.

Conclusion
The diagram above shows the surface generated from the shell and plot elements. The surface
contains three suppressed edges along the boundaries where plot elements were created. These
edges can be unsuppressed to obtain four separate surfaces.

Meshing - Basic
Automesh Module - HM-135L
The automesh module has the ability to automatically mesh specified surfaces given an element
edge length. The module also has the ability to interactively select and mesh multiple surfaces. It
can increase biasing, density, change mesh parameters, and element types all before accepting
the mesh. Once the mesh is created, the remesh button can be used to re-mesh the surfaces.
The following exercises are included:
Layout of Automesh panel
The Use of Automeshing Modules and Remesh Function
Cleanup Surface and Add Fixed Points
Refine Element Quality by Remeshing Elements
File Needed:
Cleaned_Up-Geom.hm
Layout of Automesh Panel
The automesh panel includes four sub-panels: create mesh, mesh params, cleanup, and proj
to edge.

create mesh sub-panel
There are three options in the create mesh sub-panel. The switch allows you to choose from the
interactive, automatic, and QI optimized selections. The default is interactive. The interactive
option is used to automesh multiple surfaces or elements with user-controlled parameters. Once
a surface or a group of elements have been selected for the automeshing module, the information
is retained and updated with any changes to meshing parameters while in the automeshing
module. The next time the selected entity, either surfaces or a group of elements, is brought into
the automeshing module, the saved data is used unless the reset mesh parameters to: button is
selected, in which case the old information is discarded and new values are computed.
The meshing parameters can be set to either element size with element shape or use mesh
params. When the mesh params option is used, the mesh is created by using the parameters
chosen in the mesh params sub-panel, such as use chordal deviation mesh or use size and
biasing. This tutorial uses the element size option. The options when using use mesh params
are illustrated in tutorials HM-140 and HM-141.
The toggle between elements to current comp and elements to surfaces comp tells
HyperMesh where these newly created elements should be located. You can put created
elements in the associated surface components or the global current working component where
you define them. After clicking the green mesh button, the automeshing module will be displayed
allowing you to adjust element density and biasing of all the shared and free edges belonging to
the selected surfaces, change element type, and perform quality checks. Once the elements are
Meshing - Basic
Automeshing Modeule HM-135L
created, you may select surfaces that contain bad elements or a group of elements, and you can
refine them by clicking the remesh button. HyperMesh will first delete the existing elements and
then re-mesh the selected entity.
The failed surfs button, below identify and select:, directs HyperMesh to scan through all the
selected surfaces for mesh and highlight those failed in creating meshes in your last attempt. The
unmeshed surfs button allows you to find all the surfaces in the displayed model that do not
have any mesh associated to them.
The Automatic panel has the same features as the interactive panel. The only difference is it
creates elements on surfaces without bringing up the interactive automeshing modules.
The QI optimized panel behaves differently from interactive and automatic. It allows you to
specify the target element quality you would like to achieve. Set the toggle to use criteria from
QI panel or specify a criteria file. You can establish the quality criteria in the qualityindex panel
(2D page) as well as create a criteria file. Please review the qualityindex panel documentation
for details on setting the required quality parameters and working with criteria files.
Once target criteria are chosen, the QI optimized panel creates meshes on the selected surfaces
to best meet the criteria. An additional option, allowing the meshing module to move nodes
across green, shared edges of the surfaces, can be turned on.
The Mesh params sub-panel is divided into two parts. The left part contains options and settings
for use chordal deviation meshing algorithm described in HM-141. The right part contains
options for the use size and biasing meshing algorithm described in tutorial HM-140.

mesh params sub-panel, use size and biasing.

mesh params sub-panel, use chordal deviation.
The cleanup sub-panel consists of seven features: split surf, unsplit surf, toggle, trim-
intersect, add points, remove points, and replace points.
Split surf has the same function as trim with two nodes located at the surface edit panel.
After choosing two nodes on a selected surface, HyperMesh creates a line between these two
nodes, and uses this line to trim the selected surface at the normal direction.
Unsplit surf has the same function as remove interior trim lines in the surface edit panel.
This feature not only removes trim lines from associated surfaces, but also deletes them from the
model. A useful example of this feature is to remove pinholes.
Toggle has the same function as edge/toggle in the geom cleanup panel. The detail of using
this function is also described in the tutorial HM-130-Geometry Clean Up.
Trim-intersect allows you to remove any edge fillets and has the same functional as the trim-
intersect feature in the defeature panel. This allows you to remove rounded corners along an
edge.
Meshing - Basic
Add points allows you to interactively add fixed points on surface edges or interior to the surface.
This tool exists only in this panel and has two separate functions. The first function allows you to
click on a surface edge or interior to a surface to create a fixed point at that location. Access this
function by selecting the point option next to add points. The second function allows you to click
on a surface edge and create a fixed point in the middle of that edge. Activate this function by
selecting the line option next to add points.
Remove points has the same function as fixed points/suppress in the geom cleanup panel.
This allows you to remove/suppress any fixed points that are not surface vertices.
Replace points has the same function as fixed points/replace in the geom cleanup panel. The
details of using this function are described in tutorial HM-130-Geometry Clean Up.

cleanup sub-panel
The Proj to edge sub-panel will locate all interior fixed points on a set of surfaces, then project
each of these points to the nearest (perpendicular) edge location on its own surface only. This
produces mesh patterns that are more regular in appearance.
The distance tolerance and angle tolerance are parameters used to control creation of fixed
points. If the shortest distance between an edge and an interior fixed point is less than or equal
to the distance tolerance, a fixed point will be created on the edge. If the angle ABC, formed by
an existing fixed point on an edge (A), the fixed point to-be-created (B) and the interior fixed point
(C), is less than the angle tolerance, a fixed point will not be created.

project to edge sub-panel
The Use of Automeshing Modules and Remesh Function
In this exercise you will first interactively mesh selected surfaces, then apply various automeshing
modules, remesh selected surfaces, and finally delete all the elements using remesh button.
To retrieve the Cleaned_Up_Geom.hm file and display surf ids:
1. Retrieve the Clean_Up_Geom.hm file.
Enter the files panel on any page of the main menu.
Click hm file and file = cleaned_up_geom.hm.
Click retrieve to clear current session and pull up the file.
Click return to exit the panel and return to main menu.
2. Display all the surface IDs.
Enter the numbers panel under Tool page.
Change selection to surfs.
Meshing - Basic
Click surfs to bring up the extended entity selection window.
Select all surfaces in figure.
Click the on button.
Click return.

To interactively automesh and use the automeshing module:
1. Go to the global panel, click component =, click bottom, click element size text box
and enter 2.0 and press ENTER.
2. Enter the automesh panel through 2D page and go to the create mesh sub-panel. Make
sure the toggle remains in interactive.
3. Click toggle to switch from elements to current comp to elements to surfaces comp.
4. Verify surfs is active (outlined in blue) and select surface id 6, and 7 (see figure above).
5. Click mesh. The automesh modules including density, algorithm, type, biasing,
details, and checks will be displayed in the main menu area.
6. Click mesh button and review the temporary mesh.
Note: Select the checks panel, and then click on warpage button to check warpage
value. Elements having a higher warpage than the set value are highlighted. The
maximum warpage displays on the header bar.
7. Click the radio button in front of algorithm module to activate the function.
Note: The small square icons on the center of surface id 6 and 7 indicate that
HyperMesh will use mapped as rectangle meshing algorithm to create the mesh.
Meshing - Basic
8. Change the meshing algorithm:
Click mesh button and review the temporary mesh setting.
Click the switch below the meshing algorithm and choose free (unmapped).
Note: The free (unmapped) option allows HyperMesh to mesh freely.
Move the mouse and click the square icon located at the center of surface id 6. The icon
will show the new meshing algorithm.
Click on mesh again and examine how the mesh changes.
Note: Select the checks panel, and then click on warpage button to check warpage
value. Notice that now the maximum warpage found is lower. This is a significant
improvement when compared to the previous value obtained by using mapped as
rectangle meshing algorithm.
Click the switch below the meshing algorithm and choose mapped as triangle.
Move the mouse and click the square icon located at the center of surface id 6. The icon
will change to a triangle shape.
Click on mesh and note the triangular icon automatically changes to the free
(unmapped) icon..
Note: The mapped as triangle algorithm should be applied to a surface with three sides
only. When you apply the triangle algorithm to other types of surfaces HyperMesh
automatically switches to the free (unmapped) algorithm. The mapped as pentagon
algorithm should be applied to a surface with five sides only.
Repeat the same steps to change the meshing algorithm back to autodecide.
Click set all button on the right side of meshing algorithm. This step is to apply
autodecide option on all the selected surfaces.
Click mesh button.
9. Change the smoothing algorithm:
Click the switch below the smoothing algorithm and choose shape corrected.
Click set all button to apply the algorithm to all the selected surfaces.
Click smooth button and examine the change of the mesh.
Note: Select the checks panel, check warpage and note the new Max warpage.
Click the switch below the smoothing algorithm and choose no smoothing.
Click set all button to apply the algorithm to all the selected surfaces.
Click smooth button and examine the change of the mesh.
10. Change the smoothing algorithm back to autodecide.
11. Change the meshing algorithm back to autodecide.
12. Click mesh.
13. Activate the type module to check the element type that will be used to generate the
mesh. Three element types, quad, tria and mixed are available.
14. Change the meshing element type to mixed:
Click on the switch below the element type: and choose mixed.
Meshing - Basic
Click on set all button.
Click on mesh and examine the change of mesh on those selected surfaces.
15. Change the meshing element type to quads:
Click on the switch below the element type: and choose quads.
Click on set all button.
Click on mesh and examine the change of mesh on those selected surfaces
Note: The mixed element type is only applied to four side surfaces meshed using the
mapped as rectangular algorithm.
Note: The toggle surf panel allows users manually change element type.
16. Click the radio button in front of details module to activate the function.
17. Change the mapping parameters:
Click on a small diamond shape icon located at the center of surface id 6.
Click the check box in front of size control to activate this function. A check will appear
in the box.
Click mesh button and examine the change of mesh.
Click the check box in front of size control again to disable this function.
Click the check box in front of skew control to activate this function. A check will appear
in the box.
Click mesh button and examine the change of mesh.
Click the check box in front of size control to activate this function. A check will
reappear in the box. Now both skew control and size control are activated.
Click mesh button and examine the change of mesh
Click the check boxes for size control and skew control. Both functions are now
disabled.
Note: The mesh generated by either type of element shape will be influenced by the size
control and the skew control.
18. Click the radio button in front of the density module to activate the function.
19. Change the element density on selected edges:
Click the number field next to the element density= and enter 10.
Click set edge to button.
Move cursor to graphic area and click on density numbers located at top two long edges
and bottom two long edges (see figure below)
Click the number field next to the element density= and enter 3.
Click set edge to button.
Move cursor to graphic area and click on density numbers located at three short edges
(see figure below).
Meshing - Basic

20. Click the radio button in front of biasing module to active this function.
21. Change the element biasing on selected edges:
Click on the switch under bias style:, select bellcurve biasing style.
Click green set all panel on the left side of bellcurve in order to activate this style.
Click the number field next to bias intensity = and enter -0.500
Click the set edge box
Click the shared edges between surface id 4 and surface id 6, and do the same step at
one free edge of surface id 7 (see figure below).
Click the mesh button.
Meshing - Basic

22. Click the radio button in front of checks module to activate this function.
23. Check the element quality:
Click the number field next to jacobian and enter 0.92
Click the jacobian button and examine the graphic area. Any element fails to meet the
specified jacobian value will be highlighted. The minimum jacobian value will be
indicated in the menu bar.
Click skew button to check the skew quality.
24. Click the return to accept the mesh.
25. Mesh surface id 4.
In the interactive sub-panel, select surface id 4.
Click mesh. Review the temporary node and element placements.
Note: Make sure not to check the box in front of the reset the mesh parameters to. The
densities will automatically match the previously meshed bottom surfaces and have
coincident nodes. The default node densities set in the global are assigned elsewhere
around the surfaces. The use of reset meshing parameters to: will override the
automatic coincident matching feature.
Click adjust edge in order to activate this function.
Click on each edge number on screen. Each element density corresponds to the figure
below.
Click mesh button again to accept this mesh.
Click return button.
Meshing - Basic
Note: The mesh on surface id 6 and 7 is assigned to component bottom, and the
elements on surface id 4 are assigned to component middle, the same as components
of their associate surfaces.

To remesh the meshed surfaces:
1. Remesh the meshed surfaces with new parameters.
Toggle the interactive sub-panel.
Click on surfs box, and select surface id 4,6, and 7.
Click on remesh button.
Change the node density as shown in the figure below.
Click on biasing button.
Enter 0.00 in the number field next to the biasing intensity = .
Click set all button.
Click on mesh.
Click on return to accept the new mesh.
2. Delete elements using the remesh button.
Select the interactive sub-panel.
Click on surfs box, and select surface id 4,6, and 7.
Click on remesh button.
Meshing - Basic
Click on return button. Now the elements on these three surfaces will all be deleted.
This is an alternative way to delete elements without leaving the automesh panel.

Cleanup Surfaces and Add Fixed Points
This exercise demonstrates the usage of the cleanup, add points, and remove points sub-
panels while automeshing a model. The addition of these functions in automesh panel allows
you to clean up surfaces without leaving the automesh panel. The mesh is done by setting the
reset meshing prarmeters to: to element size with specified element type.
To remove pinholes on selected surfaces:
1. Retrieve the Cleaned_Up-Geom.hm file.
Click hm file and file = Cleaned_Up-Geom.hm.
Click retrieve to clear current session and pull up the file.
Enter the numbers panel in page Tool.
Select all surfaces.
Meshing - Basic
3. Enter options panel located in the permanent menu.
Go to modeling sub-panel.
Click on cleanup tol = button and type 0.2 in the number field.
Click return to exit the panel.
4. Enter in the global panel located in the permanent menu.
Click on element size button, and enter 2.0 in the number field.
Click return to exit the panel.
5. Go to automesh/cleanup sub-panel in page 2D.
6. Select the line button next to the unsplit surf: function.
7. Select the edges of pinholes located on surface id 1 and in the middle of surface id 3.
The selected pinhole and the trim lines will be removed (see figure below).
8. Click P to refresh the screen.

To suppress/unsuppress a surface edge:
1. While still in the automesh/cleanup sub-panel, select the line button to the right of the
label toggle:. The cleanup tolerance of 0.2 should be automatically displayed in the field
next to cleanup tol =.
2. Click on the green shared edge between surface id 6 and 7.
3. Click P (keyboard) to refresh the screen.
Meshing - Basic
To set up meshing environment:
1. Click on create mesh sub-panel
2. Enter the interactive sub-panel and select the surfs.
3. Switch elements to current comp to elements to surfaces comp.
Note: The element size should already be set to 2.0 due to the change of the global
element size setting in the previous step.
To add fixed points and mesh surface id 5 and 8:
1. Remain in the cleanup sub-panel.
2. To add points to surfaces 5 and 8.
Click the point button following the label add point:.
Click on the surface with ID 5.
The points are automatically added to the surface at the cursor location.
If you want to add points on the line of a surface, select button line next to point and
click on the surface line.
The point is added to the line at the mid-point.
Note: Fixed points are now associated with the middle component.
3. Select the create mesh sub-panel.
4. Enter the interactive sub-panel and select the surface id 5 and 8.
5. Click mesh button.
6. Click mesh button again to create elements.
Note: Observe the mesh on surfaces id 5 and how the fixed points affect the
placement of the nodes. When you import this model, you have some free points in the
points collector. Free points (with graphical symbol Xs ) dont affect your meshing. After
you change those points from free points to fixed points, HyperMesh will be forced to put
nodes on those fixed points later when you mesh your model.
7. Click on abort to abort the mesh.
To trim the selected surfaces:
1. Enter the cleanup sub-panel and click on the top node box next to split surf option.
2. To choose the first node, move the cursor to the shared edge between surface id 3 and
2 and click on the middle of the edge. A node will be created at that location.
Note: A node can be created simply by clicking anywhere along the edge. You dont
have to highlight the edge or wait until the cursor becoming a box.
3. Once the first node is selected, the second node box is highlighted automatically. Click
on the vertex on the opposite side of the surface id 3. As shown in the figure below, a
line connecting these two nodes is used to trim the surface id 3 at the normal direction.
4. Repeat step 1 3 to trim surface id 2 and surface id 1 as shown in the figure below.
Meshing - Basic
Note: Trimming surfaces allow you to split surfaces and generate shared edges in
between. Later while meshing surfaces, you will have more nodes on shared edges.
Which gives you more control over your mesh.

5. To display all the surface Ids again:
Enter the numbers panel in page Tool.
Select all.
To add fixed points to a selected edge:
1. Select the cleanup sub-panel in the automesh panel.
2. Click the point button next to add points:.
3. Click on the edge to add fixed points along the edge between surface id 2 and 3.
4. Repeat step 1-3 to add fixed points along the edge between surface id 9 and 10.
Note: These two nodes should be placed so they break the edge into sections similar to
the nearby edges (see figure below).
Meshing - Basic

To mesh the remaining surfaces:
1. Enter the create mesh sub-panel,
2. Highlight surface , choose all from the sub window.
3. Using the densities indicated in the figure below, click mesh to review and return to
accept. The complete model is displayed in the figure below.
4. Click Return to exit the automesh panel.
To use the element quality checks available in HM:
1. On the Tool page, select the check elements panel.
2. Left click the 2-d radio button to make it the active sub-panel.
3. Click on the switch above visual options.
4. Select assign plot and then jacobian to graphically review the element quality.
5. Repeat for any other element quality check desired.
6. Select return to enter the main menu.
Meshing - Basic

Refine Element Quality by Remeshing Elements
This exercise tells you how to refine your mesh by remeshing elements using the automesh
panel. You can select a group of existing elements with poor quality and remesh them.
HyperMesh automatically chooses a different meshing algorithm to perform meshing.
To initialize and cleanup working environment:
1. Close any current working HyperMesh sessions by clicking red quit panel
2. Start a new HyperMesh session
To retrieve the Cleaned_Up_Geom.hm file and display surf ids:
1. Retrieve the Clean_Up_Geom.hm file.
Click hm file and observe file = cleaned_up_geom.hm
Click retrieve to clear current session and bring in the file.
From the Tool page select the numbers panel.
Select all.
Click On.
Click Return.
Meshing - Basic
To delete unnecessary holes:
1. From the 2D page, select automesh/cleanup.
2. Following the unsplit surf: label select the line button.
3. In surface ids 3 and 1, click the edges of the 4 red circles to delete these pin holes.
4. Click P (keyboard) to refresh the screen.
To trim the selected surfaces:
1. Next to the split surf option click the node box.
2. To choose the first node, move the cursor to the shared edge between surface ids 3 and
2 and click the mid-point of the edge.
A node is created at that location.
Note: A node can be created simply by clicking anywhere along the edge. You dont
have to highlight the edge or wait until the cursor becomes a box.
3. Once the first node is selected, the next node box is highlighted automatically. Click the
vertex on the opposite side of the surface id 3.
As shown in the figure below, the line connecting these two nodes is used to trim the
surface id 3 at the normal direction.
4. Repeat step 1 3 to trim surface id 2 and surface id 1 as shown in the figure below.
Note: Trimming surfaces allows you to split surfaces and generate shared edges in
between. Later, while meshing surfaces, you will have more nodes on shared edges,
which gives you more control over your mesh.

Meshing - Basic
To start meshing the model:
1. Select the create mesh sub-panel.
2. Make sure the toggle remains set to interactive.
3. Activate the small check in front of reset meshing parameters to:
4. Enter element size= 2.0.
This allows HyperMesh to overwrite global element size setting and use local meshing
element size 2.0.
5. Set the element type to quads.
6. Toggle elements to current comp to elements to surfaces comp.
7. Click surfs.
8. Select all in pop-up window.
All surfaces on the screen are highlighted.
9. Click mesh and go into the meshing module.
10. Change the meshing seeds and choose densities as in the figure below.
11. Click mesh again to create the mesh.
12. Select the checks sub-panel in the meshing module.
13. Review the quality of the mesh.
14. Click return to accept mesh and return to automesh panel.

15. To refine meshing quality by remeshing elements:
From the automesh panel go to the create mesh sub-panel.
Meshing - Basic
Make sure the toggle remains in interactive.
Change the yellow surfs panel to elems.
Toggle to elements to sources comps.
Select elements with poor quality on surface 8 (refer to figure below). Selected elements
are highlighted white.
Click remesh. Notice that you enter the meshing module and selected elements are
ready to remesh. To remesh them, you would click mesh.
Click abort to abort this remesh.

Note: In the meshing module, HyperMesh puts element density in the middle of the
meshed area. This restricts the nodal location of the remeshed area (refer to figure
below).
Meshing - Basic

16. To improve the feature angle of the meshed feature recognition:
From the permanent menu, click options.
Choose modeling sub-selection in options panel.
Click feature angle, and change feature angle from default (30 ) to 50 .
Click return and go back to automesh panel.
17. To refine meshing quality by remeshing elements:
Remain in create mesh sub-panel. Make sure the toggle remains in interactive.
Verify elems is active.
Select elements with poor quality on surface 8. Selected elements are highlighted white.
Click remesh. Notice you entered the meshing module and selected elements to be
remeshed.
Note: Compare the difference since changing the feature angle in the options panel.
Notice that after increasing the feature angle, Hypermesh no longer puts element density
in the middle of the meshed area.
Click adjust edge, and move the cursor to the bottom edge of surface 8.
Change element density to 8, which is the same as the upper edge between surface 8
and surface 5.
Click mesh to generate elements.
Click return to go back to the automesh panel.
Click return again to accept this mesh.
Meshing - Basic
Note: Practice remeshing elements to refine other elements that you are not satisfied
with.

Connecting Components - HM - 200
This tutorial demonstrates how to connect components using the following panels:
rigids panel Create single and multi-node MPCs
welds panel Create weld elements
rbe3 panel Create RBE3s
springs panel Define and create springs
equations panel Constrain a model using equations
Using rigids and rigidlinks to join elements and components
Using welds to join element and components
Using RBE3s and spring elements to model a rubber grommet
Using equations to simulate a basic contact constraint between components
under /tutorials/hm/tutorials/.
administrator.
Using Rigids and Rigidlinks
In this tutorial, use rigids and rigidlinks to join elements and components.
The rigids menu panel allows you to create rigid or rigid link elements. A rigid element is an
element created in a space between two nodes of a model where a rigid connection is desired.
Rigid elements are displayed as a line between two nodes with the letter R written at the centroid
of the element.
Rigid link elements are displayed as lines between the independent node and the dependent
node(s) with RL displayed at the independent node of the element.
Rigids can translate to RBE2 in NASTRAN or *MPC in ABAQUS.
1. Retrieve the file connect1.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory
2. Click return to access the main menu.
To create nodes at the center of the holes in parts 1 and 2:
1. Select distance panel on the Geom page.
2. Select the three nodes sub-panel.
Meshing - Basic
Connecting Components HM200
3. Select any three nodes (N1/N2/N3) on the perimeter of the large hole in part 1.
4. Click circle center.
A circle is created in the center of the three nodes you selected on part 1.
5. Select any three nodes (N1/N2/N3) on the perimeter of the large hole in part 2.
6. Click circle center.
A circle is created in the center of the three nodes you selected on part 2.
7. Select any three nodes (N1/N2/N3) on the perimeter of the small hole in component A.
8. Click circle center
A circle is created in the center of the three nodes you selected on component A.
9. Select any three nodes (N1/N2/N3) on the perimeter of the small hole in component B.
10. Click circle center
A circle is created in the center of the three nodes you selected on component B.
To change the current component to rigids:
2. Click component = and select rigids.
3. Click return.
To create rigidlinks at the large holes:
1. Select the rigids panel on the 1-D page.
3. Click the switch next to dependent: and select multiple nodes.
4. Pick a node at the center of the large hole on part 1 to be the independent node:.
5. Pick nodes on the perimeter of the hole on part 1 to be the dependent node.
6. Click create
7. Pick a node at the center of the large hole on part 2 to be the independent node:.
8. Pick nodes on the perimeter of the hole on part 2 to be the dependent node.
9. Click create
You model should look like the figure below.
Meshing - Basic

To create a node at the mid-point between the two rigidlinks:
1. Select the distance panel on the Geom page.
2. Select the two nodes sub-panel.
3. Select two nodes (N1/N2) at the center of each rigid link.
4. Click nodes between = and enter 1.
5. Click nodes between to create the mid-point node.
6. Click return.
To join the rigidlinks with two rigid elements:
1. Select the rigids panel on the1-D page.
3. Click the switch next to dependent: and select single node.
4. Pick the mid-point node created in the previous exercise to be the independent: node:.
5. Pick a node at the center of one of the rigid links on part 1 to be the dependent node.
6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for the mid-point node and the other rigid link.
Meshing - Basic

Using Welds
In this tutorial, use welds to join elements and components.
The welds panel allows you to create normally aligned rigid elements between two plate
elements. Place weld elements between the sections of your model that are to be welded.
Weld elements are displayed as a line between two nodes with the letter W written at the centroid
of the element.
Welds can translate to RBAR in NASTRAN or *mpc in ABAQUS.
To change the current component to welds:
2. Click component = and select welds.
3. Click return.
Meshing - Basic
To create spot welds joining part1 and part2:
1. Select the spotwelds panel on the 1-D page.
2. Select the using nodes sub-panel.
3. Click the toggle and select without systems.
4. Pick the node on component A and the adjacent node on part 1.
5. Pick the node on component B and the adjacent node on part 2.
6. Click return.

Using RBE3s
In this tutorial, use RBE3s to join elements and components.
The rbe3 panel allows you to create, review, and update RBE3 elements. The update sub-panel
allows you to edit the connectivity, dofs, and weight for each node of the element.
RBE3 elements are displayed as lines between the dependent node and the independent node(s)
with RBE3 displayed at the dependent node of the element.
RBE3s define the motion at a reference grid point -the dependent node- as the weighted average
of the motions at a set of other grid points -the independent nodes. RBE3 is used in NASTRAN.
Meshing - Basic
To change the current component to rigids:
2. Click component = and select rigids.
3. Click return.
To create RBE3s at the small holes:
1. Select the rbe3 panel on the 1-D page.
3. Pick a node at the center of the small hole on component A to be the dependent node.
4. Pick nodes on the perimeter of component A to be the independent nodes.
5. Click create.
6. Pick a node at the center of the small hole on component B to be the dependent node.
7. Pick nodes on the perimeter of component B to be the independent nodes.
8. Click create.
9. Click return.

Meshing - Basic
Using Springs
In this tutorial, use springs to join elements and components.
The springs panel allows you to create spring elements. A spring element is an element created
in a space between two nodes of a model where a spring connection is desired. Spring elements
store a property and a degree of freedom (dof).
Spring elements are displayed as a line between two nodes with the letter K written at the
centroid of the element.
Springs can translate to CELAS2 in NASTRAN or *spring in ABAQUS. Springs require a property
definition.
To select the NASTRAN analysis template:
2. Click template file = twice.
3. Select the nastran/ directory.
4. Select general.
5. Click return.
To change the current component to springs:
2. Click component = and select springs.
3. Click return.
To create a spring property definition:
1. Select the collectors panel on any main menu page.
3. Click the switch after collector type: and select props.
4. Click name = and enter k1.
5. Click card image = and select PELAS.
Meshing - Basic
HyperMesh goes to the card image sub-panel.
This allows you to enter the NASTRAN card data.
7. Click the data entry field under K1 and enter 1.0 as the spring constant.
8. Click return twice to access to the main menu.
To create a spring element joining the RBE3s:
1. Select the springs panel on the 1-D page.
2. Click property = and select k1.
3. Select dof2.
4. Click the toggle and select no vector.
The other options are off by default.
5. Pick a node at the center of one of the RBE3 elements.
6. Pick a node at the center of the other RBE3 element.
The spring element is created and represented by a CELAS1.
7. Click return.

Using Equations
In this tutorial, use equations to simulate a basic contact constraint between components.
The equations panel allows you to create, review, and update equations.
Meshing - Basic
Equations are displayed as lines between the dependent node and the independent node(s) with
the letters EQ displayed at the dependent node of the equation.
Equations are used in NASTRAN as MPC or in ABAQUS as *equation.
Place an equation in a load collector.
To create a load collector:
3. Click the switch after collector type: and select loadcols.
4. Click name = and enter the name equations.
6. Click create.
The collector was created.
To set up the constraint equations:
1. Select the equations panel on the BCs page.
3. Click the switch and select dof2 as the dependent node degree of freedom.
4. Activate dof2 as the independent node degree of freedom. Deactivate any other degree
of freedom options selected.
5. Ensure w has a value of 1.0.
6. Click constant and enter 0.
To create the constraint equations:
1. Pick a node on the edge of part 1 as the dependent node.
2. Pick the corresponding node on part 2 as the independent node.
3. Click create.
4. Repeat this for all nodes along the edge.
Meshing - Basic

Building 1-D Elements - HM-210
This tutorial demonstrates how to use the Bar, Line mesh and Features functions available on
the 1-D and Tool pages of HyperMesh. These functions allow you to build 1-D elements.
Since each procedure builds on the preceding section, you should start with
the first exercise and continue doing the exercises in the following order:
Creating a Bar Element
Creating 1-D Elements Using the Line Mesh Panel
Creating 1-D Elements Using the Features Panel
administrator.
Creating a Bar Element
This tutorial explains how to create 1-D bar elements using the bars panel. The bars panel
allows you to create, review or update 2-noded and 3-noded bar elements.
1. Retrieve the file 1D_elements.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory

The 1D_elements.hm file
Meshing - Basic
Building 1-D Elements HM210
To create a bar element:
1. Select the bars panel on the 1-D page.
2. Select the bar2 sub-panel.
3. Click ax = and enter the value 0.
4. Click ay = and enter the value 0.
5. Click az = and enter the value 0.
These are the values for the bar offset.
6. Click property = and select property1.
A property is now assigned to the element.
7. Click pins a = and enter the value 0.
8. Click pins b = and enter the value 0.
These are the values for the degrees of freedom.
9. Click the switch below update and select components from the pop-up menu.
10. After x comp =, enter the value 1.
11. After y comp =, enter the value 1.
12. After z comp =, enter the value 1.
The local y axis is now specified.
13. Click node A and select the lower node in the graphics area.
14. Click node B and select the upper node in the graphics area.
The 2 noded bar element is created.

Bar 2 element created
Meshing - Basic
Creating 1-D Elements Using the Line Mesh Panel
This tutorial explains how to create 1-D elements along a line.
To create 1-D elements along a line:
1. Select the line mesh panel on the 1-D page.
2. Click the upper left switch and select lines from the pop-up menu.
3. Select a line on the model.
4. Click the toggle and select segment is whole line.
5. Click the switch after element config: and select rigid from the pop-up menu.
6. Click mesh.
The secondary panel now appears.
7. Click set segment to highlight the box with the blue input cursor.
8. After elem density =, enter the value 20.
9. Click set all.
10. Click return twice to access the main menu.

Rigids created in the line mesh panel.
Creating 1-D Elements Using the Features Panel
This tutorial explains how to create a 1-D element from the features in the model.
Meshing - Basic
To create a 1-D element from the features in the model:
1. Select the display panel on the permanent menu.
2. Click the toggle and select elems.
3. Click none.
4. Select feature_elements.
Only the elements needed for this exercise are displayed.
6. Select the features panel on the Tool page.
7. Click Comps.
8. Select feature_elements.
9. Click select.
10. After feature angle =, enter the value 30.
11. Select ignore normals.
12. Click the toggle after create: and select plot elements.
13. Click features.
The plot elements are created.

Meshing - Basic
14. Click return.
16. Click the right toggle and select elems.
17. Click none.
18. Select ^feature.
The plot elements in the green ^feature component are displayed.

Meshing - Basic

Building Surfaces and Shell Meshes - HM-300L
This tutorial demonstrates how to build surfaces and shell meshes using the panels listed below.
These panels are located on the 2-D page.
ruled panel Allows you to create a surface and/or mesh from nodes or lines
that are unconnected.
spline panel Allows you to create a 3-D mesh and/or surface with lines.
skin panel Allows you to create a surface and/or mesh skin across a set of
lines.
drag panel Allows you to create a surface and/or mesh by dragging nodes,
lines, or elements.
line drag panel Allows you to create a surface and/or mesh by dragging nodes,
lines, or elements along a line.
Creating Surfaces and Meshes Using the ruled panel.
Creating Surfaces and Meshes Using the spline panel
Creating Surfaces and Meshes Using the skin panel.
Dragging Lines to Create Surfaces and/or Shell Meshes
Dragging Nodes to Create Surfaces and/or Shell Meshes
Creating Surfaces and/or Shell Meshes with Lines
Creating Surfaces and/or Shell Meshes with Nodes
administrator.
See Also
See the following panels in the HyperMesh Panels On-line Help for more information:
ruled
spline
skin
drag
line drag
automesh
create nodes
lines
line edit
reparam (line parameters)
Meshing - Basic
Building Surfaces and Shell Meshes HM-300L
Creating Surfaces and Meshes using the ruled panel
In this tutorial, use the ruled panel to create surfaces and shell meshes from a combination of
nodes, lines, and/or line segments.
1. Retrieve the file simple300.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory

The simple300.hm file
To build a ruled surface using lines:
1. Select the ruled panel on the 2-D page.
2. Click the upper input collector switch and select lines.

3. Pick line L1 from the graphics area.
4. Click the lower input collector switch and select lines.
5. Pick line L2 from the graphics area.
6. Click the rightmost switch and select mesh, keep surf.
7. Click create.
Meshing - Basic
8. HyperMesh goes to the automesh module panel. Nodal densities are displayed on
each edge of the new surface.
- To change the density, click the number in the graphics area with the mouse
button. The left mouse button increases the density; the right mouse button decreases it.
9. Click mesh to create a shell mesh of elements on the new surface.
- To undo, click reject immediately after you create the mesh.
- If the surface is unacceptable, click abort to exit immediately the automeshing
module panel without saving the surface that you created.
- If the surface and mesh are acceptable, click return. HyperMesh returns to the
ruled panel.
10. To create other types of surfaces and meshes, repeat these steps and select one of the
following mesh and surface options in step 6:
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only
To build a ruled surface using nodes:
1. Select the ruled panel on the 2-D page.
2. Click the upper input collector switch and select nodes.
3. Pick nodes 1 and 4 in the graphics area.
4. Click the lower input collector switch and select nodes.
5. Pick nodes 17 and 19 in the graphics area.
6. Click the rightmost collector switch and select mesh, keep surf.
7. Click create.
button. The left mouse button increases the density; the right mouse button
decreases it.
ruled panel.
Meshing - Basic
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only
11. For practice, select a combination of node list and line list entity selection methods to
create surfaces or meshes.
Creating Surfaces and Meshes using the spline panel
In this tutorial, use the spline panel to create 3-D surfaces and meshes from a combination of
nodes and lines.

To build a spline surface using lines:
1. Select the spline panel on the 2-D page.
2. Click the leftmost switch and select lines.

Meshing - Basic
3. Pick lines L1 and L2.
5. Click create.
decreases it.
ruled panel.
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only
To build a spline surface using nodes:
1. Select the spline panel on the 2-D page.
2. Click the leftmost switch and select nodes.
3. Pick nodes 19, 2, 25, and 27 on the model, in that order.
5. Click create.
decreases it.
ruled panel.
Meshing - Basic
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only
Creating Surfaces and Meshes using the skin panel
In this tutorial, use the skin panel to create a skin surface and mesh from a set of lines.
1. Retrieve the file skin.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
/tutorials/hm/tutorials/.

The skin.hm file
To create a skin surface with lines:
1. Select the skin panel on the 2-D page.
2. Click line list.
3. Pick lines L1, L2, L3, and L4 in that order.
4. Select the rightmost switch and select mesh, keep surf.
5. Click create.
Meshing - Basic
decreases it.
ruled panel.
following and surface options in step 4:
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only
Dragging Lines to Create Surfaces and Shell Meshes
The drag panel allows you to take selected entities, either lines or nodes, and drag them along a
specified vector to create a shell mesh and/or a surface along that vector direction.
1. Retrieve the file dragdemo.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory

The dragdemo.hm file
Meshing - Basic
To create a surface by dragging lines:
1. Select the drag panel on the 2-D page.
2. Select the drag geoms sub-panel.

3. Click the upper input collector switch and select lines.
4. Pick line L1.
5. Click the lower right switch and select mesh, keep surf.
6. To specify the direction along which to drag the line, use the plane and vector collector
switch, or select three nodes. The three nodes specify a plane, and the drag direction is
assumed perpendicular to this plane.
7. Click the plane and vector collector switch and select z-axis as the direction along which
to drag the nodes.
8. Click the distance toggle switch and select distance =.
9. Click distance = and enter 50.0.
10. Click drag+.
The line is dragged 50 positive units in the z-axis direction and the new surface is
displayed.
decreases it.
ruled panel.
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only
Meshing - Basic
Dragging Nodes to Create Surfaces and Shell Meshes
The drag panel allows you to take selected entities, either lines or nodes, and drag them along a
specified vector to create a shell mesh and/or a surface along that vector direction.

To build a surface using node selections:
1. Select the drag panel on the 2-D page.
3. Click the upper input collector switch and select nodes.

4. Pick nodes 9, 10, and 11 in the graphics area.
Meshing - Basic
6. Click the plane and vector collector switch and select y-axis as the direction along which
to drag the nodes.
7. Click the distance toggle switch and select distance =.
8. Click distance = and enter 50.0.
9. Click drag-.
The new surface is displayed.
ruled panel.
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only
Creating Surfaces and Shell Meshes with Lines
In this tutorial, use the line drag panel to create surfaces and shell meshes by dragging a line,
line segments, or nodes along a selected curve path.
1. Retrieve the file dragdemo.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory
Meshing - Basic

The dragdemo.hm file
To create a surface by dragging lines:
1. Select the line drag panel on the 2-D page.

3. Click the input collector switch after drag: and select lines.
4. Pick line L1.
6. Click the toggle and select use default vector.
7. Click line list to the right of along: and pick line L2 in the graphics area as the guide line
along which to drag the entities.
8. Click drag.
The new surface is displayed.
decreases it.
Meshing - Basic
- f the surface and mesh are acceptable, click return. HyperMesh returns to the
ruled panel.
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only
Creating Surfaces and Shell Meshes with Nodes
In this tutorial, use the line drag panel to create surfaces and shell meshes from a combination of
node picks and a 3-D line, which serves as the path curve along which the nodes are dragged.
1. Retrieve the file skin.hm file located in the HyperWorks installation directory under

The skin.hm file
To create temporary nodes:
1. Select the create nodes panel on the Geom page.
2. Select the on line sub-panel.

Meshing - Basic
3. Pick line L1 in the graphics area.
4. Click the data entry field after number of nodes = and enter 6.
5. Click the switch after bias style: and select linear.
6. Click the data entry field after bias intensity = and enter 0.
7. Click create.
Six evenly spaced nodes are displayed in the graphics area.
8. Click return.
To create a mesh of shell elements using the line drag panel:
1. Select the line drag panel on the 2-D page.

3. Click the input collector switch after drag: and select nodes.
4. Select the six nodes (in order from 16) created previously along line L1.
5. Click line list to the right of along: and pick line L2 in the graphics area as the guide line
along which to drag the entities.
7. Click the toggle and select use default vector.
8. Click drag.
The new surface is displayed in the graphics area.
ruled panel.
Meshing - Basic
- mesh, dele surf
- mesh, w/o surf
- surface only

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the tetra mesh, tetra remesh and CFD mesh sub-panels
available in the tetramesh panel.
The following functions allow you create a solid model of tetrahedral elements from an enclosed
volume tria surface mesh:
floatable Matches the node locations of the tetras with the trias, but the
connectivity of those tetras may be modified to produce a better mesh.
Normally, this results in some tetra faces going across tria diagonals.
fixed Matches the node locations of the tetras with the trias. It guarantees
the connectivity of the tetras with the trias. Use this option whenever
you need to match other components to the resulting tetra mesh.
prism trias Selects the tria elements that define the surface from which the layers
of high aspect ratio are used when creating a CFD mesh.
normal trias Selects the tria elements that do not need high aspect ratio tetra
layers. This performs the same function as the normal trias option in
the standard tetramesh panel.
boundary layer prisms Specifies the layer thickness parameters as appropriate for the
Reynolds number for the fluid being studied.
init thickness: thickness of first layer of high aspect ratio tetras
init growth rate: growth rate for high aspect ratio tetra layers
acceleration: growth acceleration for high aspect ratio tetra layer
NOTE
Prism growth parameters: If d is the initial thickness, r is the initial growth rate,
and a is the growth acceleration, then the thicknesses of the successive prism
layers is d, d*r, d*r2*a, d*r3*a2, d*r4*a3,...
structured isotropic prisms Uses the local element size for the initial thickness and a value
of 1.0 for the growth rate and acceleration. You can use
structured isotropic prism layers in any situation where ordered
layers of tetras are required near the surface. The mesher uses
as many layers as possible of isotropic elements until the
elements in the next layer are of unacceptable quality, and then
it switches to the normal meshing algorithm.
generate mesh normally Applies in most applications, and uses the standard tetra-
meshing algorithm as in previous versions of HyperMesh. This
option is available in each tetramesh sub-panel.
optimize meshing speed Uses an algorithm which optimizes meshing speed. Use this
option if element quality considerations are less important than
mesh generation time. This option is available in each
tetramesh sub-panel.
optimize meshing quality Directs the tetramesher to spend more time trying to generate
the best shaped elements. It employs the volumetric ratio, or
CFD skew, measurement for rating potential tetras. Use this
option if your solver is sensitive to element quality. This option is
available in each tetramesh sub-panel.
Meshing Basic
growth rate The growth rate for normal trias and after prism elements are
complete.
initial layers The number of initial layers for normal trias after prism elements are
complete.
growth options Various growth options can be specified in order to control the tradeoff
between the number of tetras generated and the element quality.
Options that can be selected are standard, aggressive, gradual,
interpolate and user controlled. The standard option is suggested for
most conditions. For a detailed explanation of these parameters,
please consult the HyperMesh on-line Help.
The following tutorials are included:
Tetramesh a Volume
Tetra Remesh a Selected Group of Elements
Tetramesh Using the CFD Algorithm
administrator.
The Tetramesh Panel
The tetramesh panel allows you to fill an enclosed volume with first or second order tetrahedral
elements. A region is considered enclosed if it is entirely bounded by a mesh of tria elements
where each tria has material on one side and open space on the other.
You can specify trias as fixed and floatable. Under most circumstances, select only those trias
that must match up to another pre-existing mesh as fixed. You can also specify various growth
options in order to control the tradeoff between the number of tetras generated and the average
and minimum element qualities. Higher, more aggressive growth rates produce fewer elements,
but they may be of poor quality.
1. Retrieve the file tetmesh.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
Meshing - Basic

tetmesh.hm model file
To tetra mesh the enclosed volume:
1. Select the tetramesh panel on the 3-D page.
2. Select the tetra mesh sub-panel.
3. Click the switch below floatable trias: and select comps from the pop-up menu.
4. Pick an element that belongs to the component.
or
Click the upper comps and select trias, then click select.
5. Click the upper right switch and select generate mesh normally from the pop-up menu.
6. Click the lower right switch and select the growth option standard from the pop-up menu.
7. Click tetmesh.
Note: The header bar displays status messages as the elements are created.
Clicking and holding the right mouse button while in the graphics display area,
allows you to cancel the tetramesh operation.

Note: If the tetramesher fails, the last plate elements to be worked on are highlighted
and placed into a buffer for later retrieval.
The Tetra Remesh Panel
The tetra remesh sub-panel allows you to regenerate the mesh for a single volume of tetras.
The tetras you select form a single connected region. This command allows you to locally
remesh an area where poor quality tetras may exist. Look for a concentration of bad elements
and use a combination of the mask and find panels to locate a collection of neighboring tetras to
remesh.
Meshing Basic
1. Retrieve the file tetremesh.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory
To identify tetra elements with poor quality:
1. Select the check elems panel on the Tool page.
2. Select the 3-D sub-panel.
3. After tetra collapse, enter the value 0.10.
4. Click tetra collapse.
5. Once elements are highlighted, click save failed.
NOTE The header bar relays the message that the minimum tetra collapse is 0.00, a
tetra element that does not occupy a volume. The save failed operation places
the bad elements that show a tetra collapse value less than what is specified in
a buffer, allowing the elements to be retrieved later.

tetremesh.hm model file
To isolate the save failed elements:
1. Select the mask panel on the Tool page.
2. Select the mask sub-panel.
3. Click the switch and select elems from the pop-up menu.
Meshing - Basic
4. Click elems and select retrieve from the extended entity selection menu.
The save failed elements become highlighted.
5. Click elems and select reverse from the extended entity selection window.
All the elements excluding the save failed become highlighted.
6. Click mask.
Only the save failed elements should remain.
To find elements attached to the displayed element:
1. Select the find panel on the Tool page.
2. Select the find attached sub-panel.
3. Click the upper switch and select elems from the pop-up menu.
4. Click the lower switch and select elems from the pop-up menu.
5. Select the displayed element.
6. Click find.
To tetra remesh the selected group of elements:
2. Select the tetra remesh sub-panel.
3. Click elems and select by window from the extended entity selection menu.
4. Draw a window around one of the three groups of elements, and click the select entities
button.
The elements to be remeshed become highlighted.
5. Click remesh.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for the two remaining element groups.
To unmask previously masked elements:
3. Click unmask all.
Meshing Basic
To review the newly created elements:
2. Select the 3-D sub-panel.
3. Click tetra collapse.
The minimum tetra collapse is now 0.20.
4. Continue to tetra remesh until element quality is satisfactory.
5. Click return to access the main menu
CFD Mesh
The accuracy with which a solution is resolved is directly related to the number of elements in
regions of high solution gradient. In most CFD applications, this is near the surface of the flow
and is called boundary layer behavior. Consequently, the mesh is generated so that it clusters
many elements near the surface. The CFD mesh sub-panel utilizes floatable trias which allow
you to pack many layers of high aspect ratio tetras against a surface in order to resolve boundary
layer behavior in the solution.
Using the normal algorithm, if you pack many elements against the surface, many of the elements
will have some very obtuse face angles, which often cause problems for solvers. For the prism
layer algorithm, the tetra elements are generated in prism-shaped groups of three or more in such
a way to prevent large angles from appearing. Arbitrarily, many of these high aspect ratio tetras
can be layered against the surface as needed in order to resolve the boundary layer behavior.
They are generated with very thin initial layers, growing in thickness with an accelerating growth
rate until the layer thickness is the same as the width of the prism, at which point the tetramesher
switches to its normal algorithm to efficiently fill the remaining volume.
1. Retrieve the file sphere.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
To switch to performance graphics and display a model in hidden line mode:
1. Select the options panel on the permanent menu.
2. Select the graphics sub-panel.
3. Click the toggle after engine: and select performance.
5. Select the vis panel on the permanent menu.
6. Click the hidden line with mesh lines icon, , the third icon from the left below the all
button.
7. Click all.
Meshing - Basic
8. Click mesh color and select Black from the pop-up menu.
To create a new component for the tetra elements:
3. Click name = and enter tetras.
4. Click color and select a color for the new collector from the pop-up window.
5. Click create.
6. Select return to access the main menu.
NOTE
For this exercise we have created a component collector that does not
reference a solver template. For more information on how to associate a
solver to a collector, see the HyperMesh on-line Help.
To tetramesh using the CFD meshing sub-panel:
2. Select the CFD mesh sub-panel.
3. Click the switch below prism trias: and select comps from the pop-up menu.
4. Pick an element that belongs to the component.
or
Click the upper comps and select trias.
5. Click the toggle and select boundary layer prisms.
6. Click the lower right switch and select generate mesh normally from the pop-up menu.
7. Click init thickness = and enter the value 0.5.
8. Scroll through the other options using the TAB key and assign the following values:
init growth rate = 1.100
acceleration = 1.100
growth rate = 1.250
initial layers = 0.750
9. Click tetmesh.
10. Select return to access the main menu.
Meshing Basic

Volume enclosed tria mesh
To use the mask panel to view the interior of the tetramesh model:
2. Select top.
7. Click interior.
8. Using the left mouse button to define the corners of your window, select elements from
the right half of the model.
9. Click select entities.
10. Click mask.
12. Click the hidden line with mesh lines icon, , the third icon from the left below the all
button.
13. Click all.
15. Select rear.
Meshing - Basic

Section cut of tetra mesh volume using CFD mesh

Meshing Basic

Splitting and Combining Shell Elements - HM-500L
This tutorial demonstrates how to split and combine shell elements using the split and edit
element panels. Splitting and combining elements allows you to refine or coarsen meshes and
correct element-to-element connectivity.
Splitting shell elements using the edit element panel
Splitting shell elements using the split panel
Combining shell elements using the edit element panel
administrator.
See Also
See the following panels in the HyperMesh Panels On-line Help for more information:
edges
check elements
split-hexa elements sub-panel
solid elements sub-panel
Splitting Shell Elements using the edit element panel
In this tutorial, use the edit element panel to split shell elements.
The split sub-panel allows you to split an arbitrary number of shell elements by drawing a split
line over them. The splitting algorithm used depends on how the split line crosses the element.
1. Retrieve the file el_edit_split.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation
directory under /tutorials/hm/tutorials/.
2. Click return to exit the files panel.
Meshing - Basic
Splitting and Combining Shell Elements HM-500

To split shell elements using the edit element panel:
1. Select the edit element panel on the 2-D page.
2. Select the split sub-panel.
3. Click the switch and select elems.
4. Click split.
5. Use the mouse to build a line in the graphics area that intersects the elements A - E.
To draw the line:
- Position the cursor on element A, pressing the left mouse button.
- Draw the line from element A to element B and release the left mouse button.
- Repeat these steps to draw a line from elements B to C, C to D, and D to E.
This specifies the elements you want to split.

Meshing - Basic
6. Click split elements.

7. You can use the split panel to split elements in the following ways:
- Across opposite edges, creating 2 quads
- Along adjacent edges, creating 3 quads
- From an edge to a vertex , creating one tria and one quad
- From one vertex to its diagonally opposite vertex, creating 2 trias.
NOTE
Tria elements can be split in a similar manner.
In this tutorial, an element is split when the split line crosses two of its edges. This
feature is useful if you have several layers of duplicated shell elements that need to
be split.
If you select elements before drawing the split line, only the selected elements are
split. If you do not select elements before drawing the split line, the splitting
algorithm operates on all elements displayed.
If you split elements on a surface that has been automeshed, new nodes created by
the split are automatically projected to the surface.
Maintain proper connectivity (without internal free edges) after splitting the
elements.
Splitting Shell Elements using the split panel
In this tutorial, use the split panel to split shell elements. The split panel allows you to split
elements simultaneously using one of four algorithms.
1. Retrieve the file split.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
Meshing - Basic

To split shell elements using the split panel:
1. Select the split panel on the 2-D page.
2. Select the plate elements sub-panel.
3. Pick elements A - E.

4. Click the switch and select divide quads.
5. Click split.
The selected quads are split into trias.
Meshing - Basic

NOTE
The methods available for splitting plate elements include:
split all sides - splits an element at the midpoint of its sides
divide quads - divides all the quad element s into trias and allows you to fix quads
with severe warpage
midpoint - to trias - partitions an element by creating a node at its centroid and
forms trias using the elements vertices
midpoint - to quads partitions an element by creating a node at its centroid and
forms quads using the midpoints of each of its sides
When you split elements whose nodes are associated to a surface, the new nodes
created are also on the surface. To associate a node to a surface, use the node
edit panel.
Maintain proper connectivity (without any internal free edges) after combining
elements.
Combining Shell Elements using the edit element panel
In this tutorial, combine shell elements using the edit element panel.
The combine sub-panel on the edit element panel allows you to combine an arbitrary number of
shell elements simultaneously or a set number of shell elements automatically. Both methods are
controlled by the tolerance = and angle = functions. When elements are being combined,
HyperMesh requires the nodes attached to the elements to be planar within a user-specified
tolerance. The tolerance may be changed with the menu item tolerance =.
When elements are being combined, HyperMesh performs node condensation on mid-side
nodes. Nodes are considered to be mid-side nodes if the angle between any three nodes in the
set of nodes being condensed is greater than a user-specified angle. The angle may be changed
with the menu item angle =.
1. Retrieve the file el_edit_comb.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory
Meshing - Basic

To combine an arbitrary number of elements:
1. Select the edit element panel on the 2-D page.
2. Select the combine sub-panel.
3. Click tolerance = and enter 0.010.
4. Click auto comb = and enter 4.
5. Pick elements A, B, C, and D.
6. HyperMesh displays the following error message: There is a node out-of-plane by
0.0888896.
8. Click combine.
The selected elements become one element.

To automatically combine a set number of elements:
The auto comb = function allows you to combine elements automatically.
1. Click auto comb = and enter 2.
2. Pick elements E and F.
HyperMesh combines the elements automatically.
Meshing - Basic

NOTE
Setting tolerance = too high may create warped elements, and/or the deviation from
the geometry may increase.
Maintain proper connectivity (without any internal free edges) after combining
elements.

Meshing - Basic

Model Checking - HM-520
This tutorial demonstrates how to use the check elements and edges panels. The check
elements panel verifies the quality of elements. The edges panel allows you to find free edges
(or unconnected elements) and equivalences nodes on edges.
Some of the terms used when checking element quality include:
Warpage The amount by which an element or element face (in the case of solid
elements) deviates from being planar. Warpage of up to five degrees is
generally acceptable.
Aspect Ratio The ratio of the longest edge of an element to its shortest edge. Aspect ratio
should be less than 5:1 in most cases.
Skew Skew in trias is calculated by finding the minimum angle between the vector
from each node to the opposing mid-side and the vector between the two
adjacent mid-sides at each node of the element. Ninety degrees minus the
minimum angle found is reported as the skew.
Skew in quads is calculated by finding the minimum angle between two lines
joining opposite mid-sides of the element. Ninety degrees minus the
minimum angle found is reported.
Jacobian A measure of the deviation of an element from an ideally shaped element.
The Jacobian value ranges from 0.0 to 1.0, where 1.0 represents a perfectly
shaped element. However, Jacobian values of 0.7 and above are generally
acceptable. The determinant of the Jacobian relates the local stretching of the
parametric space required to fit it onto global coordinate space. HyperMesh
evaluates the determinant of the Jacobian matrix at each of the elements
integration points (also called Gauss points), and reports the ratio between
the smallest and the largest.
Testing Elements for Warpage
Testing Elements for Aspect Ratio
Finding Duplicate Nodes and Free Edges in the Model
under /tutorials/hm/.
administrator.
Testing Elements for Warpage
In this exercise, we try to identify those elements with excessive warpage and view the failed
elements by using the Save Failed option.
1. Select the files panel on any main menu page.
Meshing - Basic
Model Checking - HM - 520
3. Retrieve the modelchk_final.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory

To change the performance graphics mode and view the model in hidden line mode:
1. Select the options panel on the permanent menu.
2. Select the graphics sub-panel.
3. Click the toggle and select performance.
5. Click the Hidden Line with Mesh Lines icon,
6. Click all.
7. Click return twice to access the files panel.
To test elements for warpage:
2. Select the 3-D sub-panel to indicate the type of element you want to check.
3. Click the data entry field after warpage > and enter 5.0 to specify the maximum
allowable warpage.
4. Click warpage.
The elements that have a warpage value higher than the value specified are highlighted.
These elements are also defined as failed elements.
Meshing - Basic
The number of failed elements and the maximum warpage value are displayed in the
header bar.
5. Pick any of the highlighted elements from the graphics area to check the warpage of the
individual elements
To save failed elements:
Isolate the failed elements with the save failed option. The save failed option allows you to
place entities that are not written to the deck on the user mark. This situation occurs if there is no
definition for the entitys configuration and type in the specified template.
1. Click save failed.
2. Click return.
To view the saved failed elements only:
3. Click the input collector switch and select elems.
The failed elements are highlighted.
5. Click elems and select reverse from the extended entity selection menu.
6. Click mask.
Only the failed elements are displayed. This function may be necessary when you are
working with a large number of elements.
7. Click return.

Testing Elements for Aspect Ratio
In this exercise, we try to identify those elements with high aspect ratios and view the failed
Meshing - Basic
elements using the Save Failed option..

To check elements for aspect ratio:
2. Select the 3-D sub-panel to indicate the type of element you want to check.
3. Click the data entry field after aspect > and enter 5.0 to specify the maximum allowable
aspect ratio.
4. Click aspect.
The elements that have an aspect ratio value higher than the value specified are
highlighted. These elements are defined as failed elements.
5. The number of elements failed and the maximum aspect ratio are displayed in the header
bar.
6. Pick any of the highlighted elements from the graphics area to check the aspect ratio of
the elements individually.
To save failed elements:
Isolate the failed elements with the save failed option. The save failed option allows you to
Meshing - Basic
place entities that are not written to the deck on the user mark. This situation occurs if there is no
definition for the entitys configuration and type in the specified template.
1. Click save failed.
2. Click return.
To view the saved failed elements only:
1. Select the mask panel from the Tool page.
The failed elements are highlighted.
5. Click elems and select reverse from the extended entity selection menu.
6. Click mask.
Only the failed elements are displayed. This function may be necessary when you are
working with a large number of elements.
7. Click return.
Finding Duplicate Nodes and Free Edges in the Model
In this exercise, we try and find the duplicate nodes and free edges and equivalence these nodes.
Meshing - Basic

To find and equivalence the duplicate nodes:
1. Select the faces panel on the Tool page.
Note: Faces are used only when 3-D elements are present in the model. For 2-D
elements only Edges are used to find the unconnected elements.
2. Click the input collector switch and select the 3-D elems.
3. Click elems and select displayed on the extended entity selection menu.
5. Select preview equivalence.
Temporary nodes are created on all the duplicate nodes.
6. Select equivalence.
All duplicate nodes are equivalenced.
7. Click return.
NOTE: Duplicate nodes are within the specified tolerance and have the same location as
the other nodes; however, they have not been equivalenced.
To find free edges:
1. Select the edges panel on the Tool page.
2. Click the input collector switch and select all the 2-D elems.
4. Click find edges.
5. Click return.
Meshing - Basic
To view the edges only:
The edges created are 1-D elements. To view them alone, turn off the display of the other
elements.
2. Click the upper input collector switch and select comps.
3. Click the toggle and select elems.
4. Click none.
5. Click êdges.
6. Click return.
To validate the free edges, analyze them with respect to the geometry of the model. If
there are invalid free edges, it means there are duplicate nodes that need to be
equivalenced. The model in the graphics area contains an invalid free edge:

8. Click all.
The other elements are displayed.
9. Click return.
To equivalence the remaining duplicate nodes:
2. Click delete edges to delete the edge elements.
Meshing - Basic
6. Click preview equivalence.
Four nodes were found that have not been equivalenced.
7. Click equivalence.
8. Click return.
To recheck for free edges:
4. Click find edges.
5. Click return.
To review the edges:
2. Click none.
3. Click êdges.
4. Click return.
There are no free edges other than the valid ones.

Working With Solvers
Using OptiStruct in HyperMesh - HM - 550
This collection of OptiStruct tutorials demonstrate how to retrieve a HyperMesh database
containing a fully defined OptiStruct database, export the input deck, and run an OptiStruct job
from the solver panel in HyperMesh. You can access these tutorials from the OptiStruct tutorials.
Since each tutorial builds on the preceding section, you should start with the first tutorial and
continue doing the tutorials in the following order:
Running OptiStruct from HyperMesh - OS0001
Running OptiStruct at the Command Line - OS0002
Analysis of a Plate with a Hole - OS0003
Analysis of a Coffee Pot Lid with Thermal Loads - OS0004
Normal Modes Analysis of a Splash Shield - OS0005
3D Inertia Relief Analysis using OptiStruct - OS0006
3D Buckling Analysis using OptiStruct - OS0007
Direct response analysis of a flat plate - OS0008
Modal response analysis of a flat plate
Using OptiStruct in HyperMesh HM-550

In this tutorial, use the HyperMesh NASTRAN interface to create finite elements on the geometry
of a plate with a hole, apply boundary conditions, and perform finite element analysis.
Since each procedure builds on the preceding section, you should start with the first exercise and
continue doing the exercises in the following order.
Defining the Model in HyperMesh
Writing the NASTRAN Input Deck
Viewing the Results
administrator.
Defining the Model in HyperMesh
3. Click retrieve.
HyperMesh displays an Open file dialog.
4. Select the plate_hole.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
5. Click Open.
Note file: displays the location of the plate_hole.hm file.
To retrieve the NASTRAN template for this tutorial:
2. Select the template sub-panel.
3. Click load.
4. Select the nastran directory.
5. Select the general template file.
6. Click Open.
Note template: displays the location of the general template.
The NASTRAN general template allows you to define NASTRAN-specific attributes in
HyperMesh.
To create material collectors and components:
Create your material collectors before creating your component collectors; components must
reference a material collector.
3. Select the switch after collector type: and select mats.
4. Click name = and enter steel.
5. Click card image = and select MAT1.
The MAT1 card image is loaded for the material steel.
7. Click E to make the status title active.
8. Click the data entry field under E and enter 2E5.
9. Click NU, click the data entry field under NU, and enter 0.30.
10. Click return.
11. Click the switch after collector type : and select comps.
12. Click name = and enter shells.
13. Click card image = and select PSHELL.
14. Click material = and select steel.
HyperMesh goes to the card image panel for the new component, shells. HyperMesh
assigns color 8 to the elements that are organized into this component, and assigns the
material steel to this component.
17. Click T, click the data entry field under T, and enter 10.0.
A component is created named shells. Any elements created and organized into this
component have the thickness attributes defined by the PSHELL card. The elements
have material attributes defined on the MAT1 card by the material collector steel, since
the shells component references this material collector.
Use the card image sub-panel to modify the card images for these collectors.
Use the update sub-panel to define a different material for the components.
To mesh the geometry:
The automeshing module allows you to mesh interactively on surfaces. It also includes tools for
manipulating surface edges and meshing fixed points (locations where the mesher is required to
place a node). The elements generated are organized into the current component, shells.
1. Select the automesh panel on the 2-D page.
2. Select the surface displayed in the graphics area and click mesh.
3. Click using size and biasing = and enter 40.
4. Click recalc all.
5. Click mesh.
The automesher creates about 400 elements on the surface.

Plate mesh using element size of 40mm
6. Click return to save the mesh in the shells component.
Applying boundary conditions to the model
In this section, the model is constrained such that two of the four edges cannot move. A total
lateral load of 1000N is applied at the edge of the hole so that all forces point in the positive z-
direction.
To create collectors:
4. Click name = and enter spcs.
6. Click create.
The collector is created.
7. Click name = again and enter forces.
9. Click create.
The collector is created.
To create constraints:
2. Click loadcol = and select spcs.
3. Click return.
4. Select the constraints panel on the BCs page.
6. Click nodes and select by window from the extended entity selection menu.
HyperMesh goes to the Build Window panel.
7. Click interior, if not already selected.
8. Create a window around the left and right edges of the model. Do this by picking points
on the screen with your mouse.
The nodes along the left and right edges of the model are selected (see the figure below).
HyperMesh returns to the constraints panel.

Select these nodes to apply single point constraints
10. Click dof1-dof6, if not already selected.
NOTE
Dofs that are checked are constrained.
Dofs 1, 2, and 3 are x, y, and z translation degrees of freedom
Dofs 4, 5, and 6 are x, y, and z rotational degrees of freedom
11. Click create to apply these constraints to the selected nodes.
To create forces on the nodes around the hole:
2. Click loadcol = and select forces.
3. Click return.
4. Click return again to access the main menu.
5. Select the forces panel on the BCs page.
HyperMesh goes to the Build Window panel.
7. Click interior.
8. Create a window around the hole of the model. Do this by picking points on the screen
with your mouse.
The nodes around the hole of the model are selected (see the figure below).
HyperMesh returns to the constraints panel.

Select these nodes to create loading around hole
10. Click nodes and select save from the extended entity selection menu.
11. Click return.
12. Select the count panel on the Tool page.
The nodes are counted automatically so that a calculation can be made to create a total
force of 1000N.
13. Click the upper left switch and select nodes.
14. Click nodes and select retrieve from the extended entity select menu.
The nodes saved in the forces panel are retrieved.
15. Click selected to count the number of nodes around the hole.
16. Click return.
18. Click nodes and select retrieve from the extended entity selection menu.
19. Click magnitude = and enter 1000/47 or /number of nodes found in the count panel.
The total load on the nodes around the hole is 1000N.
20. Click the plane and vector definition switch below magnitude = and select z-axis.
21. Click create.
22. Click return.
The last step in setting up the boundary conditions is to create a NASTRAN subcase (a
load step in HyperMesh).
1. Select the load steps panel on the BCs page.
2. Click name = and enter lateral force.
3. Click loadcols and select spcs and forces.
4. Click select.
5. Click create.
The load step is created.
6. Click return.
To create control cards:
1. Select the cntl cards panel on the BCs page.
2. Click SOL.
3. Click the switch and select either Statics (SOL 101) or Statics & Lin. Heat Transfer
(SOL 24) from the pop-up menu.
4. Click return.
5. Click PARAM.
6. Click AUTOSPC.
7. Click return.
8. Click return again to access the main menu.
Writing the NASTRAN Input Deck
In this tutorial, write the NASTRAN input deck file, specified with the .dat extension, before
running NASTRAN.
To write your file:
2. Select the export sub-panel.
3. If the nastran/general template is not specified in the template: field, click load
and select the general template file from the nastran directory.
4. Click Open.
5. Click write as and enter plate_hole.dat in the file name field.
6. Click Save.
This writes your HyperMesh database as a NASTRAN ASCII input deck.
To save your .hm file and exit HyperMesh:
3. Click save as and enter plate_hole_new.hm in the File name field.
4. Click save.
6. Click quit to exit HyperMesh.
To add output requests to your deck:
1. Open the plate_hole.dat file in a text editor, such as WordPad.
2. After the SUBCASE 1 card, insert the following cards:
DISPLACEMENT(PUNCH)=ALL
STRESS(PUNCH)=ALL
3. Save the changes to your file.
4. Exit the text editor and submit the job to NASTRAN for analysis.
Viewing the Results
After running NASTRAN, the punch file plate_hole.pch is created. This file contains
displacement and stress results for your linear static analysis. This section describes how to view
those results in HyperMesh. Use the utility program hmnast to translate the .pch file into a
HyperMesh results file.
To run hmnast, attach the results file and set visual options:
1. From a UNIX or MS-DOS prompt, type the following:
hmnast d von_max plate_hole.pch plate_hole.hmres
2. Start HyperMesh and remove any model that is currently loaded:
- Select the delete panel on the Tool page.
- Click delete model.
- Select Yes from the pop-up window.
3. Retrieve the input deck that was used to run the NASTRAN job:
- Select the files panel.
- Select the import sub-panel.
- Click FE.
- Click triangle and from the pop-up menu select nastran.
- Click the upper toggle to no FE overwrite.
- Click import.
- Choose plate_hole.dat.
- Click Open.
4. Set the visual options:
- Select the command sub-panel.
- Click browse and choose nastut1.cmf, located in the HyperMesh
installation directory under /tutorials/hm/tutorials.
- Click Open.
- Click execute.
5. Attach the results file for post-processing:
- Select the results sub-panel.
- Click browse and select plate_hole.hmres, located in the directory from
which NASTRAN is run.
- Click Open.
To view a deformed shape:
1. Select the deformed panel on the Post page.
2. Click simulation =.
SUBCASE-1 is the only simulation. If you had created two load steps, two simulations
would exist: SUBCASE-1 and SUBCASE-2. The subcase IDs reflect your HyperMesh
load step IDs.
3. Click Subcase-1.
4. Click model units = and enter 250.
5. Click deform to view a deformed plot of your model overlaid on the original, undeformed
mesh (refer to the figure below).

Isometric view of deformed plot overlaid on original undeformed mesh. Model units are set to 250
To view a contour plot of stresses and displacements:
1. Select the contour panel on the Post page.
2. Click simulation = and select Subcase-1.
3. Click data type = and select Displacements.
5. Select top from the pop-up menu.
6. Click contour.
7. Click data type = and select von Mises Stress(max,all).
8. Click assign.
9. Click contour and compare your model to the picture below.

von Mises stress plot using discrete contours (in performance graphics mode)

This tutorial explains how to use the interface between HyperMesh and ABAQUS. The following
exercises are included:
Loading ABAQUS user profile
Defining material properties.
Defining *SOLID SECTION for solid elements.
Defining contact surfaces and interactions.
Defining spring elements and properties
Defining loads and boundary conditions.
Defining output requests.
Defining *STEP card
Exporting the file to ABAQUS.
Running hmabaqus and post processing.
administrator for assistance.
Loading ABAQUS User Profile
A set of standard user profiles is included in the HyperMesh installation. They include lsdyna,
nastran, abaqus, ansys, optistruct, moldflow, madymo, and HyperMesh. The user profiles change
the appearance of a panel - they do not affect the internal behavior of each function.
To load the ABAQUS user profile:
1. Click the user prof. button from the Geom page.
2. Select Abaqus as profile name and click OK.
3. Select Standard3D as template name and click OK.
Defining Material Properties
HyperMesh supports many different material models for ABAQUS. In this example, you will
create the basic *ELASTIC material model with no temperature variation. The material properties
will then be assigned to the elements through the component collector.
To read in the initial model file:
1. Select the files panel.
3. Click retrieve and select abaqus3_0tutorial.hm.
4. Click Open.
To set the pre-prepared visual options:
2. Select the command sub-panel.
3. Click browse and choose abtut1.cmf.
4. Click execute.
To create the *ELASTIC material model card:
2. Create the material collector with the appropriate card image:
- Select the create sub-panel.
- Click the switch after collector type and select mats.
- Click the switch under creation method: and select card image.
- Click name = and enter STEEL
- Click card image = and choose ABAQUS_MATERIAL
- Click create/edit.
3. Edit the card image to add the appropriate material model cards:
- Select Elastic in the option list.
- By default, the selected type is ISOTROPIC. If it is not, click the switch and
select ISOTROPIC.
- By default, the ELASTICDATACARDS= field value is 1. If it is not, input 1 to set
the number of datalines.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath E(1) and enter
2.1E5.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath NU(1) and enter
0.3
- Click return to accept the changes to the card image.
To tie the material card to the component collectors:
2. Select the update sub-panel.
3. Click the upper switch and select comps.
4. Click material = and select STEEL.
5. Double-click comps and select INDENTOR and BEAM from the list.
6. Click select to finish the selection process.
7. Click update.
8. Select material id from the list.
9. Click update.
Defining *Solid Section for Solid Elements
HyperMesh supports sectional properties for all elements from the component collector. In this
example, you will create the *SOLID SECTION card and tie it to an existing component collector.
To create the *SOLID SECTION card for an existing component:
2. Select the card image sub-panel.
3. Click the collector type: switch and select comps.
4. Click card image = and select SOLIDSECTION.
5. Click load.
6. Select INDENTOR and BEAM from the list of components.
To view the *SOLID SECTION cards:
1. Select the card panel from the permanent menu.
2. Click the switch and select comps.
3. Click comps and select INDENTOR from the list of component collectors.
5. Click edit to view the *SOLID SECTION property card image.
6. Click return to finish the viewing process.
Defining Spring Elements and Properties
In ABAQUS contact problems, it is common to use weakly grounded springs to provide stability to
the solution in the first loading step. This section explains how to create these springs and how to
create the *SPRING card.
To reset the view for further processing:
1. Select the display panel from the permanent menu.
3. Click the toggle to elems.
4. Click the all button on the right side of the panel.
6. Select the view panel from the permanent menu and select iso 1 from the pop-up menu.
To create the *SPRING card:
2. Create a component collector with the appropriate card image:
- Click the switch after collector type and select comps.
- Click name = and enter GROUNDED.
- Click card image = and choose SPRING.
- Click color and select Color10.
3. Edit the card image to add the appropriate options:
- Click the field beneath dof1 in the card image and enter 3.
- The dof2 field in the *SPRING card is ignored by ABAQUS for SPRING1
elements.
- Click the field beneath Stiffness in the card image and enter 1.0E-5
To create the spring elements:
1. Select the elem types panel on the 1D page.
2. Click mass = and select SPRING1.
In HyperMesh, grounded elements are created and stored as mass elements since they
only have one node in the element connectivity.
5. Click component = and select GROUNDED from the list of component collectors.
As the spring elements are created, they will be placed in this component.
7. Create the spring elements:
- Select the masses panel on the 1D page.
- Click nodes and select by id from the pop-up menu.
- Type the following in the id = selection window: 451t460b3
- This shorthand selects all of the nodes from 451 to 460 in increments of 3.
- Click create.
Defining Contact Surfaces and Interactions
HyperMesh supports defining the *SURFACE card by using sets, components, or individual
element IDs with faces. In this example, you will use "individual element faces" to define the
slave contact surface and "sets" to define the master contact surface.
To create the *CONTACT PAIR card:
1. Select the interfaces panel from the BCs page.
3. Click name = and enter the name: CONTACT1
4. Click type = and select CONTACT_PAIR.
5. Click create.
To create the *SURFACE, TYPE=ELEMENT cards:
3. Click name = and enter the name, SLAVE
4. Click type = and select SURFACE_ELEMENT.
5. Click interface color and select a color.
6. Click create.
7. Follow steps 1 through 8 to create another *SURFACE named MASTER.
To define a *SURFACE by selecting element faces:
1. Select the interfaces panel on the BCs page.
2. Select the add sub-panel.
3. Double-click name = and select SLAVE.
4. Click the entity selector switch and select face.
8. Use the right mouse button to deselect BEAM.
10. Select the view panel from the permanent menu and select top from the pop-up menu.
11. Double-click the solid elems button and select displayed from the extended entity
selection menu.
12. Click nodes to the right of face nodes and pick two nodes (or three nodes) as shown
below.

13. Click add to the right of slave: to add these faces to the *SURFACE .
No modification of the *SURFACE card is necessary for surfaces defined using element
faces. When you export the deck to ABAQUS, a list of element faces is written after the
*SURFACE card.
To define a *SURFACE using sets:
3. Double-click name = and select MASTER.
4. Click the entity selector switch and select sets.
5. Click sets and choose BEAMSURF from the list of sets.
7. Click update to add the set to the *SURFACE.
To define the face identifiers of a set in *SURFACE card:
3. Double-click name = and select MASTER.
4. Click edit.
5. Click the selection box under Label and choose S1 from the pop-up menu.
6. Note: HyperMesh does not display a *SURFACE that is defined using sets.
There are two ways to define the surface using a set:
To define the surface by explicitly specifying a face (as in this tutorial):
Click the selection box under Label and choose the correct face from the pop-up
menu.

For this method, all elements in the set must be properly aligned and you must know
which face is involved in the contact.
To define the surface using the ABAQUS TRIM functionality:
Click Trim on the menu list.
Click the switch under TRIM and select YES from the list.

This method allows ABAQUS to automatically define the master surface based on
rules in the ABAQUS Users Manual.
To create the * SURFACE INTERACTION card:
4. Click name = and enter CONTACT1.
5. Click card image = and choose SURFACE_INTERACTION.
7. Select the Friction option.
8. Click the field beneath Fric_Coef(1) in the card image and enter 0.05.
9. Click return to accept the changes to the card image.
To add *SURFACE and *SURFACE INTERACTION cards to the *CONTACT PAIR card:
3. Double-click name = and select CONTACT1.
4. Click edit.
5. Click Property and select CONTACT1 from the list of properties.
6. Click Slave_Surface and select SLAVE from the list of groups.
7. Click Master_Surface and select MASTER from the list of groups.
8. Select SmallSliding from the option list.
Notice that the parameter SMALL SLIDING now appears in the card image.
Defining Loads and Boundary Conditions
A load collector in HyperMesh is a repository for loads and constraints. Each load or constraint
must belong to a load collector. There are two load collector card images: HISTORY and
INITIAL_CONDITION. Loads or constraints that are to be used as history data (under *STEP)
should be collected into load collectors with HISTORY card image. These load collectors also
need to be added to the corresponding load steps (*STEP) from the Load steps panel. In
contrast, loads or constraints for model data should be collected into load collectors with
INITIAL_CONDITION card image. They will automatically be written out in the model portion of
the Abaqus input deck
To create the HISTORY type load collector:
3. Click the switch after collector type and select loadcols.
4. Click name = and enter the name: HISTORY1.
5. Click the switch under creation method: and select card image.
6. Click card image = and choose HISTORY.
7. Click color and choose Color 5 from the pop-up menu.
8. Click create.
To create an entity set for loading:
1. Select the entity sets panel on the BCs page.
2. Click name = and enter LOADED.
3. Click the input collector switch and select nodes.
4. Select the view panel from the permanent menu and select left from the pop-up menu.
5. Click nodes and select by window from the pop-up menu.
6. Click points on the screen to create the pick window shown in the picture below.

8. Click create.
To create constraints on the BEAM component:
2. Click loadcol = and select HISTORY1 from the list of load collectors.
As the constraints are created, they will be placed in this load collector.
4. Select the load types panel on the BCs page.
5. Click constraint= and select BOUNDARY.
8. Activate the check boxes next to dof1, dof2, and dof3.
9. Deactivate the check boxes next to dof4, dof5, and dof6.
10. Click nodes and select by sets from the extended entity selection menu.
11. Select ENDS from the list of entity sets.
12. Click select.
13. Click create.
To create constraints on the INDENTOR component:
2. Click loadcol = and select HISTORY1 from the list of load collectors.
As the constraints are created, they will be placed in this load collector.
6. Activate the check boxes next to dof1, and dof2.
7. Deactivate the check boxes next to dof3, dof4, dof5, and dof6.
9. Select LOADED.
10. Click select.
11. Click create.
To create forces on the INDENTOR component:
4. Select LOADED.
5. Click select.
6. Click the upper switch and select vectors.
7. Click magnitude = and enter 10.0
8. Click the lower switch and select z-axis.
9. Click the toggle to global system.
10. Click create.
Defining Output Requests
An output block in HyperMesh is a repository for output requests. Output blocks have to be added
to load steps (*STEP) from the Load steps panel.
To create a output block:
1. Select the output block panel from the BCs page.
2. Click name = and enter OUTPUT1.
3. Click create.
4. Click return.
To edit the output block:
2. Double-click name = and select OUTPUT1.
3. Click edit.
4. Select NodeFile in the options list.
5. Select U from the sub-options list of NodeFile.
6. Select ElFile in the options list.
7. Select S and SINV from the sub-options list of ElFile.
8. Select ContactFile in the options list.
9. Select CSTRESS from the sub-options list of ContactFile.
Defining *STEP card
A load step in HyperMesh corresponds to a *STEP definition in ABAQUS model history. Load
collectors, output blocks and groups (for explicit template) organized into a load step are output
within the corresponding step definition in the ABAQUS input deck.
The card previewer of the loadstep should be edited to define other history related keywords and
parameters including the analysis type, OP options (for various loads and constraints) and so on.
To create a load step (*STEP card):
1. Select the load steps panel from the BCs page.
2. Click name = and enter STEP1.
3. Click the loadcols button and select HISTORY1 from the list of loadcols.
4. Click the outputblocks button and select OUTPUT1 from the list of output blocks.
5. Click Create.
6. Click return.
To edit the load step:
1. Select the load steps panel from the BCs page.
2. Double-click name = and select STEP1 from the list of load steps.
3. Click edit.
4. Define parameters to the *STEP key word:
- Select StepParameters in the options list.
- Select Increment and Nlgeom from below StepParameters in the options list.
- Click the field after INC= in the card image and enter 100.
5. Define the analysis type:
- Click the AnalysisProcedure switch and select Static from the analysis types
list.
- You may have to use the vertical scroll bar on the left side of the card image to
find the AnalysisProcedure option.
- Select the Dataline option from the option lists for Static analysis
- Click the [ Init_Inc ] field in the card image.
- Click the field beneath Init_Inc in the card image and enter 0.05 as initial
increment.
6. Define the *FILE FORMAT card for the step:
- Select FileFormat in the options list.
- Click the switch under Options and select Ascii from the list.
Exporting the File to ABAQUS
The data currently stored in the database must be output to an ABAQUS .inp file for use with the
ABAQUS solver. The .inp file can then be used to perform the analysis using the ABAQUS
outside of HyperMesh.
To export the .inp file:
3. Select the TEMPLATE option
4. Click the toggle to all.
5. Click write as and type in a name for the input deck: job1.inp
6. Click Save.
To save the .hm file and quit from HyperMesh:
3. Click save as and type job1.hm.
4. Click save.
After you quit HyperMesh you can run the ABAQUS solver using the job1.inp file that
was written from HyperMesh.
Running hmabaqus and Post-Processing
After you have run the job using ABAQUS, the .fil file is available. In order to read the results into
HyperMesh, you must use the hmabaqus external results translator to convert the ABAQUS .fil
file to a HyperMesh formatted results file. Once this is done, you can attach the results file and
perform post-processing procedures.
If you ran ABAQUS and created your own .fil file, run the hmabaqus results translator to create
the results file. If you did not run the solver, you can use the abaqus3_0tutorial.hmres file
supplied in the Tutorial directory.
To run hmabaqus:
1. Select the solver panel from the BCs page.
2. Click the switch at the top left corner and select hmabaqus.
3. Click the browse.. button at the input file: line and select job1.fil and click Open.
4. Click the browse.. button at the output file: line and select job1.hmres and click
Open.
5. Click solve.
6. Click return.
To import the hm file, attach the results file, and set visual options:
1. If you have a model loaded into HyperMesh, follow these procedures:
- Select the delete panel from the Tool page.
- Click delete model.
- Answer Yes in the pop-up window.
3. Read the input deck that was used to run the ABAQUS job or the input deck supplied in
the tutorials directory:
- Select the import sub-panel.
- Click FE.
- Click left toggle switch and choose ABAQUS from the pop-up menu.
- Click the upper toggle to no FE overwrite.
- Click the import.. button and select job1.inp, if you ran your own solver
program (or abaqus3_0tutorial.inp, if you want to use the supplied file).
- Click Open.
4. Set the pre-prepared visual options:
- Select the command sub-panel.
- Click browse and choose abtut2.cmf from the tutorials directory.
- Click execute.
- If you are using the x version of HyperMesh, an error message may be
displayed. Select continue in the pop-up menu.
5. Assign the results file for post-processing:
- Select the results sub-panel.
- Click the browse = and choose job1.hmres (or abaqus3_0tutorial.res
if you want to use the supplied file).
To post-process displacement and stress results:
2. Click simulation = and select: step 1 inc 7, t=1.00e+00
Notice that each increment in the ABAQUS analysis is a new simulation.
3. Click data type = and select Displacements.
4. Click the lower leftmost switch and select model units from the pop-up menu.
5. Click model units = and enter 10.0
6. Click contour.
7. Click data type = and select Von Mises.
8. Select the view panel from the permanent menu and select restore 1 from the pop-up
menu.
9. Click assign.
The default location for ABAQUS to output stress values is at the Integration Points. The
hmabaqus program takes these values and averages them to the centroid of each
element. Therefore, the most accurate representation of the stress values as they were
reported from ABAQUS can be found with an assigned plot.
To post-process incremental results:
1. Select the transient panel on the Post page.
2. Click start with = and select step 1 inc 1, t=5.00e-02.
3. Click end with = and select step 1 inc 7, t=1.00e+00.
4. Click data type = and select Von Mises.
5. Click scale factor = and enter 100.0.
If you are using the x-version, skip to Step 12.
6. Click transient.
HyperMesh calculates seven frames of animation showing the displacement and von
Mises stress for each increment. In a non-linear analysis, this type of animation is
necessary to view the history of the stress development.
7. Once the animation begins, click the leftmost toggle to visual options.
8. Click the toggle next to mode and select hidden line.
9. Click the toggle next to color and select contour.
10. Click return to exit the animation.
11. Activate the hidden line option.
12. Click transient.
HyperMesh calculates seven frames of animation showing the displacement and von
Mises stress for each increment. In a non-linear analysis, this type of animation is
necessary to view the history of the stress development.
13. Click return to exit the animation.
To set up the display for post-processing contact results:
2. Click the input collector switch and select comps.
4. Click none.
6. Select the view panel from the permanent menu and select iso 1 from the pop-up menu.
The elements displayed on the screen are the slave elements that are involved in the
contact. To view the contact results, the underlying element faces must be visible. The
following steps show all of the elements connected to these slave element faces.
7. Select the find panel on the Tool page.
8. Select the find attached sub-panel.
9. Click the upper switch and select elems.
10. Click the switch under attached to: and select elems.
11. Click elems under attached to: and select displayed from the extended entity selection
menu.
12. Click find.
To post-process contact results:
2. Click simulation = and select: step 1 inc 7, t=1.00e+00
Notice that each increment in the ABAQUS analysis is a new simulation.
3. Click data type = and select Contact Pressure.
4. Click the second switch down, which should be set to model units, and choose
undeformed from the pop-up menu.
5. Click contour.
At this point, an error message is displayed in the message bar that states:
Some node results were not found (ignored).
When ABAQUS reports contact results, it only reports values for the nodes directly on the
slave surface. Therefore, the nodes on the other end of the displayed solid elements
dont have any contact results reported from ABAQUS. HyperMesh recognizes that there
are no values at those nodes and reports an error message to warn you that they may be
missing results. Also notice that the contact pressure is high on the corners of the slave
surface, but is zero in the middle where no contact is occurring.

This tutorial explains how to use the ABAQUS Contact Manager for 2D models. The following
Loading ABAQUS user profile and model
Starting Abaqus Contact Manager
Defining surfaces for 2D solid elements
Defining surfaces by set
Defining surface interaction property
Defining contact pair
Loading ABAQUS User Profile and Model
A set of standard user profiles is included in the HyperMesh installation. They include LSDYNA,
NASTRAN, ABAQUS, ANSYS, OptiStruct, moldflow, MADYMO, and HyperMesh. While the user
profiles change the appearance of some panels, they do not affect the internal behavior of each
function.
1. Click the user prof. button from the Geom page.
2. From the profile name dialog select Abaqus and click OK.
3. From the template name dialog select Standard2D and click OK.
6. Click retrieve and select abaqus_contactManager_2D_tutorial.hm file.
7. Click Open
Starting ABAQUS Contact Manager
To start Contact Manager:
1. Load the ABAQUS user profile.
2. Click the Contact Manager button in the Abaqus Macro menu.
This opens the "Abaqus Contact Manager" window.
3. Move the window to the bottom-left corner of the HyperMesh interface and resize it to
your liking.
Defining Surfaces for 2D Solid Elements
In HyperMesh, you can define the *SURFACE, TYPE=ELEMENT card by using individual
element IDs or sets with corresponding face identifiers. In this exercise, you will create surfaces
by defining individual 2D solid element IDs and corresponding faces.
To create the "frame-top" surface:
1. Select the Surface tab in the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
2. Click the New button.
This opens the Create New Surface dialog.
3. Type frame-top in the Name: entry box.
4. Select Element based as the type of surface.
5. Click Color: button and select color 5.
6. Click Create.
This opens the Element Based Surface window for defining elements and
corresponding faces for the surface.
7. Select the Define tab in the Element Based Surface dialog.
8. Select 2D solid, axisymmetric, gasket option from the Define surface for: radio
buttons.
9. Click the Elements button.
This opens the HyperMesh element selector panel.
10. Click the elems button.
11. Select by collector.
12. Check frame component and hit SELECT.
You will see the elements in the frame component highlighted.
13. Click proceed to return to the Element Based Surface dialog.
14. From the Select faces by: radio buttons select the Nodes on edge option.
15. Click the Nodes button.
This opens the HyperMesh node selector panel.
16. Select two nodes from the top of a selected solid element as shown below.

18. Type 30.00 at the Break Angle entry box.
19. Click the Add button to find all edges of the selected solids that fall within the break
angle of the edge defined by the two nodes.
This adds these edges to the current surface and creates special contactsurface
elements for display.
To delete edges you do not want use the Delete Face page.
20. When satisfied with the surface definition, click Close to return to the Abaqus Contact
Manager window
Defining Surfaces by Set
by defining a set and corresponding face identifiers. HyperMesh allows only one set in a surface.
It also does not support a combination of sets and individual elements in the same *SURFACE
data line.
To create the "slider-bot" surface:
1. Select the Surface tab at the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog and click the Display
None button to undisplay all surfaces.
It will open the Create New Surface dialog.
3. Type slider-bot in the Name: entry box.
6. Click Create.
This opens the Element Based Surface dialog for defining elements and corresponding
faces for the surface.
7. Select the Define tab at the Element Based Surface dialog.
8. From the Define surface for: radio buttons select the Element set option.
9. Click the Element set: entry box and select slider-bot from the list of existing sets.
10. Click the Review Set button to highlight all the elements in the selected set.
Right mouse click the Review Set button to reset the highlighting.
11. Click the Face: button and select S2 from the pull down menu.
12. Check the Display option and click the Update button.
This adds the selected set and face identifier to the current surface. In addition, it creates
a special display for the surface.
13. Notice the S2 face actually does not define a valid surface for elements in slider-bot set.
14. Click the Face: button and select None from the pull down menu.
15. Uncheck the Display option and click the Update button.
This adds the selected set to the current surface. Abaqus will generate a free surface the
set.
NOTE: HyperMesh, by default, does not create any display for surfaces defined with sets.
16. Select the Optional parameter tab in the Element Based Surface window.
17. Select the Trimming of open free surface option and select YES from the toggle.
18. Click Close to return to the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
You'll notice in the Surface: table that the Display options for the slider-bot surface is
disabled.
At this point, you have created all the surfaces required.
19. Click the Display All button to display all surfaces.
You can review any surface by selecting from the table and clicking the Review button.
The selected surface will be highlighted with white and show up through the solid mesh
when using performance graphics. If the surface is defined with sets (display option
disabled), the underlying elements are highlighted. A right mouse click on all Review
buttons will clear the highlighting.
Defining Surface Interaction Property
In this exercise, you will define the *SURFACE INTERACTION card with corresponding
*FRICTION card..
To create the "friction1" surface interaction:
1. Select the Surface Interaction tab at the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
This opens the Create New Surface Interaction dialog.
3. Type friction1 in the Name: entry box.
4. Click Create button.
This opens the Surface Interaction dialog.
5. Select the Define tab in the Surface Interaction dialog.
6. Select the Friction option as the surface interaction property.
This makes the Friction page active.
7. Go to the Friction page.
8. Select Default as the Friction type: and Direct option as the friction co-efficient
definition method.
Selecting this option means that the Exponential decay and Anisotropic parameters will
not be written to the input file.
9. Enter 1 in the No of data lines entry box and click set.
A single row will show up in the Direct table.
10. Click the first cell in the Friction Coeff column and enter 0.05.
NOTE for Direct and Anisotropic tables:
The column numbers in the table will change with the No of Dependencies selected.
The row numbers can be defined in the No of data lines entry box. Clicking the
corresponding Set button will update the table to have the specified number of rows.
For inputting values in the table, click on a cell to make it active and enter the values
from the keyboard. The table works like a regular spread sheet.
You can also read comma-delimited data from a text file by clicking the Read From a
File button. This button opens up a file browser window. Select the file and click
Open to export the comma-delimited data. The row number will be set to the number
of data lines found in the file.
Clicking the Right mouse button in the table displays a pull down menu with copy,
cut and paste options. Comma-separated data can be copied/cut into, or pasted
from the clipboard with these options. Relevant hot keys (for example, Ctrl-c, Ctrl-x
and Ctrl-v in Windows) will also work.
Clicking the left mouse button in a cell activates that cell. Clicking into an already
active cell moves the insertion cursor to the character nearest the mouse.
Moving the mouse while the left mouse button is pressed strokes out a selection
area.
The left, right, up and down arrows move the active cell.
SHIFT-<arrow> extends the selection in that direction.
CTRL-leftarrow and CTRL -rightarrow moves the insertion cursor within the cell.
CTRL -slash selects all the cells.
BACK SPACE deletes the character before the insertion cursor in the active cell. If
multiple cells are selected, BACK SPACE deletes all selected cells.
DELETE deletes the character after the insertion cursor in the active cell. If multiple
cells are selected, DELETE deletes all selected cells.
CTRL -A moves the insertion cursor to the beginning of the active cell. CTRL -E moves
the insertion cursor to the end of the active cell.
CTRL minus (-) and CTRL equals (=) decrease and increase the width of the column
with the active cell in it.
While you are over a border, pressing Button-1 (Left button) or Button-3 (the right
button in Windows) and moving the mouse causes interactive resizing of that row
and/or column to occur.
11. Click OK to go back to the Abaqus Contact Manager window.
Defining Contact Pair
In this exercise, you will define the *CONTACT PAIR card with corresponding surfaces and
surface interaction.
To create the "slider-frame" contact pair:
1. Select the Interface tab in the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
This opens the Create New Interface dialog.
3. Type slider-frame in the Name: entry box.
4. Select Contact pair as the type of interface.
This opens the Contact Pair dialog.
6. Select the Define tab in the "Contact Pair" window.
7. Click the Select slave surface: entry box to show a list of the existing surfaces.
8. Select slider-bot from the list as the slave surface.
9. Click the corresponding Review button.
The selected surface is highlighted with white and shows up through the solid mesh when
in performance graphics. If the surface is defined with sets (display option disabled), the
underlying elements are highlighted. Right mouse click on all Review buttons will clear
the highlighting.
NOTE: The corresponding Create New button opens the Create New Surface window
for creating a new surface. When you are done creating and defining the surface, the
Contact Pair window will return with the new surface selected as the slave surface.
10. Repeat steps 7 and 8 using the Select master surface: entry box and selecting the
frame-top as the master surface.
11. Click the Select surface interaction: entry box to show a list of the existing surface
interactions.
12. Select friction1 from the list as the interaction property for the current contact pair.
13. Go to the Parameter page at the Contact Pair window.
14. Select SmallSliding from the available options.
15. Click OK to go back to the Abaqus Contact Manager window.
At this point, you have created the contact pairs required. You can review any contact
pair by selecting it from the table and clicking the Review button. Both the master and
slave surface will be highlighted highlighted with white and show up through solid mesh
when in performance graphics. If a surface is defined with sets (display option disabled),
the underlying elements are highlighted. A right mouse click on all Review buttons will
clear the highlighting.
16. Click the Close button to close the Abaqus Contact Manager window.
General comments:
The Edit ... button opens the corresponding window for editing the selected interface, surface
or surface interaction.
The Review button reviews the selected interface, surface and surface interaction as follows:
For surface, it highlights the selected surface in the HyperMesh window. The surfaces
are highlighted with white and show up through solid mesh when in performance
graphics. If the surface is defined with sets (display option disabled), the underlying
elements are highlighted in the HyperMesh window.
For interface, it highlights corresponding slave and master surfaces together in
HyperMesh window. The surfaces are highlighted in the same fashion as mentioned
above.
For surface interaction, it highlights the names of all interfaces using the selected
surface interaction in the Interface table. There is no graphical review for surface
interaction.
The Delete button deletes the selected interfaces, surfaces or surface interactions. This
button accepts multiple selections from the Interface table.
The Sync button updates the Contact Manager with the current HyperMesh database. If you
create, update or delete any components, groups, properties or entity sets from HyperMesh
panels while the Contact Manager is open, click the Sync button to update the Contact
Manager with the changes.
If you minimize the Contact Manager window or it goes behind the HyperMesh window,
clicking the Contact Manager button in the Abaqus Macro menu restores it.
There is bubble help for important buttons. Place the mouse on the buttons for a few
moments to view it.
A double click on the interface, surface or surface interaction names in the table opens the
corresponding edit windows. A right mouse click on these names displays pull down menu
with options.
Clicking on the border with the left or right mouse button pressed down and moving the
mouse can resize columns in a table.
SHIFT and CTRL keys can be used with left mouse clicks to select multiple items in a table
(useful for deleting multiple items).


This tutorial explains how to use the ABAQUS Contact Manager for 3D models. The following
Loading ABAQUS user profile and model
Defining surfaces for solid elements
Defining surfaces for shell elements
Defining surfaces by set
Defining surface interaction property
Defining contact pair
Loading ABAQUS User Profile and Model
A set of standard user profiles is included in the HyperMesh installation. They include LSDYNA,
NASTRAN, ABAQUS, ANSYS, OptiStruct, moldflow, MADYMO, and HyperMesh. While the user
profiles change the appearance of some panels, they do not affect the internal behavior of each
function.
1. From the Geom page click the user prof. button.
2. Select Abaqus as the profile name and click OK.
3. Select Standard3D as template name and click OK.
6. Click retrieve and select abaqus_contactManager_3D_tutorial.hm file.
7. Click Open.
To start Contact Manager:
1. Load the ABAQUS user profile.
2. Click the Contact Manager button in the Abaqus Macro menu.
This opens the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
3. Move the dialog window to the bottom-left corner of HyperMesh window and resize it to
your liking.
Using ABAQUS Contact Manager for 3D Models HM-1022
Defining Surfaces for Solid Elements
by defining individual element IDs and corresponding faces.
To create the "box1-top" surface:
1. Select the Surface tab in the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
3. Type box1-top in the Name: entry box.
10. Use the right mouse button to deselect all components except BOX_1.
13. Restore the Element Based Surface dialog (click the Contact Manager button or the
icon in the task bar).
15. Select 3D solid, gasket option from the Define surface for: radio buttons.
17. Click the elems button.
18. Select by collector.
19. Check the BOX_1 component and click select.
You will see the elements in BOX_1 component highlighted.
21. Select Solid skin option from the Select faces by: radio buttons.
22. Select a color from the Solid skin color: button.
23. Click the Faces button.
This creates a temporary skin of the selected elements and opens the HyperMesh
element selector panel.
24. Select an element from the top of the solid skin.
25. Click the elems button and select by face.
You will see all faces at the top of the solid skin are highlighted.
26. Rotate the model in HyperMesh interface to verify all desired faces are selected.
You can deselect any element (by right clicking) or add more if you like.
27. When you are satisfied with the element faces selected, click proceed to return to the
Element Based Surface dialog.
28. Click the Add button to add these faces to the current surface.
This creates special "face" elements (rectangles with dot in the middle) for display.
You can reject the recently added "faces" by clicking the Reject button. You can also
delete "faces" from the Delete Face page.
Manager dialog.
To create the "box2-top" surface:
1. Select the Surface tab in the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog and click the Display
3. Type box2-top in the Name: entry box.
13. Restore the Element Based Surface dialog (by clicking the Contact Manager button or
the icon on the task bar).
14. Select the Define tab on the Element Based Surface dialog.
17. Click the elems button, select by collector, check the BOX_2 component and click
select.
You will see the elements in BOX_2 component highlighted.
19. Select Nodes on face option from the Select faces by: radio buttons.
20. Click the Nodes button to open the HyperMesh node selector panel.
21. Select two corner nodes (or three nodes) from the top of the selected solids as shown
below.

23. Write down 30.00 at the Break Angle entry box.
24. Click the Add button to find all faces of the selected solids that fall within the break angle
of the face defined by nodes.
It adds these faces to the current surface and creates special "face" elements (rectangles
with dot at the middle) for display.
Manager dialog.
To create the "cylinder-top" surface:
3. Type cylinder-top in the Name: entry box.
10. Use the right mouse button to deselect all components TOP_CYLINDER.
12. Click the f button on the permanent menu.
the icon in the task bar.)
17. Click the elems button, select by collector, check TOP_CYLINDER component and
click select.
This highlights the elements in TOP_CYLINDER component.
19. Select Solid skin option from the Select faces by: radio buttons.
20. Select a color from the Solid skin color: button
21. Click the Faces button.
This creates a temporary skin of the selected elements and open the HyperMesh
22. Select an element from the solid skin, click the elems button, select by face.
You will see faces all around the solid skin are highlighted.
23. Rotate the model in the HyperMesh interface to verify all desired faces are selected.
You can deselect any element (by right clicking) or add more if you like.
24. When you are satisfied with the element faces selected, click proceed to come back to
the Element Based Surface dialog.
This creates special "face" elements (rectangles with dot at the middle) for display.
Manager dialog.
Defining Surfaces for Shell Elements
In HyperMesh, you can define the *SURFACE, TYPE=ELEMENT card by using individual shell
element IDs or sets with corresponding SPOS/SNEG face identifiers. In this exercise, you will
create surfaces by defining individual element IDs and corresponding normals to define the
SPOS/SNEG faces.
To create the "cylinder-bot" surface:
3. Type cylinder-bot in the Name: entry box.
8. Select 3D shell, membrane, rigid option from the Define surface for: radio buttons.
12. Use the right mouse button to deselect all components except BOT_CYLINDER.
14. Click the f button on the permanent menu.
the icon in the task bar).
17. Click the elems button, select by collector, check BOT_CYLINDER component and
click select.
You will see the elements in BOT_CYLINDER component highlighted.
18. Click proceed to return to the Element Based Surface window.
19. The normals of the selected elements will be displayed at this point. If the normals are
too big, click Reset, go to the view panel from the permanent menu and select front from
the pop-up menu. Restore the Element Based Surface dialog and repeat steps 15 -17.
You'll notice that all normals are pointing inwards.
20. Check the Reverse option.
It will create special "face" elements (rectangles with dot at the middle) for display.
delete "faces" from the Delete Face page
22. Go to the Adjust Normal page and select Display normals option.
The normals of all the "faces" in the current surface will be displayed. You'll notice that all
normals are pointing outwards.
23. When satisfied with the surface definition, click Close to go back to the Abaqus Contact
Manager dialog.
Defining Surfaces by Set
by defining a set and corresponding face identifiers. HyperMesh allows only one set in a surface.
It also does not support combination of sets and individual elements in the same *SURFACE data
line.
To create the "box1-bot" surface:
3. Type box1-bot in the Name: entry box.
8. Select Element set option from the Define surface for: radio buttons.
14. Go to the view panel from the permanent menu and select bottom from the pop-up
menu.
the icon in the task bar).
16. Click the Element set: entry box and select box1-bot from the list of existing sets.
17. Click the Review Set button to highlight all the elements in the selected set.
18. Right click the Review Set button to reset the highlighting.
19. Click the Show Faces button.
This creates a temporary skin of the selected element set and open the HyperMesh
20. Select an element from the bottom of the solid skin, click the elems button, select by
face.
You will see all faces at the bottom of the solid skin are highlighted. You can deselect any
element (by right clicking) or add more if you like.
21. When you are satisfied with the element faces selected, click proceed to return to the
Element Based Surface dialog.
The face identifier tags (color coded) of the selected faces are displayed at this point. In
performance graphics, the solid mesh sometimes blocks these tags. You might have to
rotate the model a little to make these tags visible or switch to Standard graphics.
Since all face identifiers tags for the bottom side of the box1-bot set are S3, you can use
the S3 identifier for this set.
23. Check the Display option and click the Update button.
This adds the selected set and face identifier to the current surface. In addition, it creates
a special display for the surface.
However, if you check the Display option before clicking Update, it will create a special
display using contactsurface elements. The special display does not have any link to the
set in HyperMesh database. Therefore, if you edit the set later on, the display would not
reflect them automatically. In this case, you need to come to this page, check the Display
option and click Update button again.
To create the "box2-bot" surface:
This opens the "Create New Surface" window.
3. Type box2-bot in the Name: entry box.
8. Select Element set option from the Define surface for: radio buttons.
14. Go to the view panel from the permanent menu and select bottom from the pop-up
menu.
the icon at the task bar).
16. Click the Create/Edit Sets button to opens the entity sets panel in HyperMesh.
17. Type box2-bot in the name = entry box, select elems option from upper switch, select
all elements from the bottom of BOX_2 component and click create.
18. When you are done creating/editing the set, click return.
The Element Based Surface dialog returns with the new set appearing in element set
list.
19. Click the Element set: entry box and select box2-bot from the list of existing sets.
20. Click on the Review Set button to highlight all the elements in the selected set.
21. Right mouse click the Review Set button to reset the highlighting.
22. Click the Show Faces button.
This creates a temporary skin of the selected element set and opens the HyperMesh
23. Select an element from the bottom of the solid skin, click the elems button, select "by
face".
You will see all faces at the bottom of the solid skin are highlighted. You can deselect any
element (by right clicking) or add more if you like.
24. When you are satisfied with the element faces selected, click proceed to come back to
the Element Based Surface dialog.
The face identifier tags (color coded) of the selected faces display at this point. In
performance graphics, the solid mesh sometimes blocks these tags. You might have to
rotate the model a little to make these tags visible or switch to Standard graphics.
Since all face identifiers tags for the bottom side of the box1-bot set are S3, you can use
the S3 identifier for this set.
26. Uncheck the Display option, if checked and click the Update button to add the selected
set and face identifier to the current surface.
You'll notice in the Surface: table that the Display options for the box2-bot surface is
disabled.
At this point, you have created all the surfaces required.
28. Click the Display All button to display all surfaces.
Select the display panel from the permanent menu, select comps and click all. Go to the
new panel from the permanent menu and select iso1 from the pop-up menu.
You can review any surface by selecting from the table and clicking Review button. The
selected surface will be highlighted with white and show up through solid mesh in
performance graphics. If the surface is defined with sets (display option disabled), the
underlying elements are highlighted. Right mouse click on all Review buttons to clear the
highlighting.
Defining Surface Interaction Property
In this exercise, you will define the *SURFACE INTERACTION card with corresponding
*FRICTION card..
To create the "friction1" surface interaction:
1. Select the Surface Interaction tab at the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
This opens the Create New Surface Interaction dialog.
3. Type friction1 in the Name: entry box.
This opens the Surface Interaction dialog.
5. Select the Define page in the Surface Interaction dialog.
6. Select Friction option as surface interaction property.
That makes the Friction tab active.
7. Select the Friction tab.
8. Select Default as the Friction type: and Direct option as friction co-efficient definition
method.
Selecting this option means that the Exponential decay and Anisotropic parameters
will not be written to the input file.
9. Enter 1 at the No of data lines entry box and click set.
A single row appears in the Direct table.
10. Click the first cell on the Friction Coeff column and enter 0.05.
NOTE for Direct and Anisotropic tables:
The column numbers in the table will change with the No of Dependencies
selected. The row numbers can be defined at the No of data lines entry box.
Clicking the corresponding Set button will update the table to have the specified
number of rows
For placing values in the table, click a cell to make it active and type in the
values. The table works like a regular spreadsheet
You can also read comma-delimited data from a text file by clicking the Read
From a File button. This button opens up a file browser window. Select the file and
click Open to export the comma- delimited data. The row number will be set to the
number of data lines found in the file
Clicking the right mouse button (Button-3) in the table shows a pull down menu
with copy, cut and paste options. Comma-separated data can be copied/cut into or
pasted from clipboard with these options. Relevant hot keys (for example, CTRL-C,
CTRL-X and CTRL-V in Windows) will also work.
Clicking the left mouse button (Button-1) in a cell activates that cell. Clicking into
an already active cell moves the insertion cursor to the character nearest the mouse.
Moving the mouse while the left mouse button (Button-1) is pressed strokes out
a selection area.
The left, right, up and down arrows move the active cell
SHIFT-<arrow> extends the selection in that direction.
CTRL-left arrow and CTRL right arrow move the insertion cursor within the cell.
CTRL -slash selects all the cells.
BACK SPACE deletes the character before the insertion cursor in the active cell. If
multiple cells are selected, BACK SPACE deletes all selected cells.
DELETE deletes the character after the insertion cursor in the active cell. If
multiple cells are selected, DELETE deletes all selected cells.
CTRL -A moves the insertion cursor to the beginning of the active cell. CTRL-E
moves the insertion cursor to the end of the active cell.
CTRL minus (-) and CTRL equal (=) decrease and increase the width of the
column with the active cell in it.
To interactively resize a row or column, move the mouse over the border while
Button-1 or Button-3 (the right button on Windows) is pressed.
11. Click OK to go back to the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
Defining Contact Pair
In this exercise, you will define the *CONTACT PAIR card with corresponding surfaces and
To create the "top-cylinder-box1" contact pair:
1. Go to the Interface page at the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
This opens the Create New Interface dialog.
3. Type top-cylinder-box1 in the Name: entry box.
4. Select Contact pair as the type of interface.
This opens the Contact Pair dialog.
6. Select the Define tab in the Contact Pair dialog.
7. Click the Select slave surface: entry box to show a list of the existing surfaces.
8. Select box1-top from the list as the slave surface.
9. Click the corresponding Review button.
The selected surface is highlighted with white and shows up through solid mesh in
performance graphics. If the surface is defined with sets (display option disabled), the
underlying elements are highlighted. Right mouse click on all Review buttons to clear the
highlighting.
NOTE: The corresponding Create New button opens the Create New Surface dialog for
creating a new surface. When you are done creating and defining the surface, the
Contact Pair window returns with the new surface selected as the slave surface.
10. Follow step 7 and 8 using the Select master surface: to select the cylinder-top as the
master surface.
11. Click the Select surface interaction: entry box to show a list of the existing surface
interactions.
12. Select friction1 from the list as the interaction property for the current contact pair.
13. Select the Parameter tab in the Contact Pair dialog.
14. Select SmallSliding from the available options.
15. Click OK to return to the Abaqus Contact Manager dialog.
To create the "top-cylinder-box2" contact pair:
Follow step 1 through 15 above to define the top-cylinder-box2 contact pair with box2-top
as slave surface, cylinder-top as master and friction1 as the surface interaction.
To create the "bot-cylinder-box1" contact pair:
Follow step 1 through 15 above to define the bot-cylinder-box1 contact pair with box1-bot
as slave surface, cylinder-bot as master and friction1 as the surface interaction.
To create the "bot-cylinder-box2" contact pair:
Follow steps 1 through 15 above to define the bot-cylinder-box2 contact pair with box2-bot
as slave surface, cylinder-bot as master and friction1 as the surface interaction.
At this point, you have created all the contact pairs required. You can review any contact pair by
selecting from the table and clicking Review button. Both the master and slave surface will be
highlighted highlighted with white color and show up through solid mesh in performance graphics.
If a surface is defined with sets (display option disabled), the underlying elements are highlighted.
Right mouse click on all Review button will clear the highlighting.
16. Click the Close button to close the Abaqus Contact Manager window.
General comments:
The Edit ... button opens the corresponding window for editing the selected
interface, surface or surface interaction
The Review button reviews the selected interface, surface and surface
interaction as follows:
For surface, it highlights the selected surface in HyperMesh window. The
surfaces are highlighted with white and show up through solid mesh in performance
graphics. If the surface is defined with sets (display option disabled), the underlying
elements are highlighted in HyperMesh window.
For interface, it highlights corresponding slave and master surfaces together in
HyperMesh window. The surfaces are highlighted in the same fashion as mentioned
above.
For surface interaction, it highlights the names of all interfaces using the
selected surface interaction in the Interface table. There is no graphical review for
The Delete button deletes the selected interfaces, surfaces or surface
interactions. This button accepts multiple selections from the Interface table.
The Sync button updates the Contact Manager with the current HyperMesh
database. If you create, update or delete any components, groups, properties or
entity sets from HyperMesh panels while the Contact Manager is open, click the
Sync button to update the Contact Manager with the changes
If you minimize the Contact Manager dialog or it goes behind the HyperMesh
window, clicking the Contact Manager button in the Abaqus Macro menu restores it.
Bubble help exists for important buttons. Place the mouse on the buttons for a
few moments to view it.
Double clicking the interface, surface and surface interaction names in the
table will open the corresponding edit windows. A Right mouse click on these names
displays a pull down menu with options.
Clicking a table border, pressing and holding the left or right mouse button and
moving the mouse can resize columns in a table.
Shift and Ctrl keys can be used with a left mouse click to select multiple items
in a table (useful for deleting multiple items).

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the HyperMesh ANSYS interface for stress analysis.
continue doing the exercises in the following order:
Updating Elements
Defining Element Properties
Updating Load Types
Exporting a HyperMesh Database File to ANSYS
Translating Results in ANSYS
administrator.
A Description of the Model
A compressor wheel with blades is modeled as a plane stress problem with two planes of
symmetry. The blades are connected to the wheel using dovetail joints. The wheel and dovetail
joints are modeled using plane42 elements. The region of contact between the dovetail and the
wheel slot is modeled using point-to-point gap elements. The blades are modeled using lumped
mass elements connected to the dovetail joint with link elements. The loading is centrifugal
(angular velocity of 3600 rpm). The gap elements make this a non-linear analysis.

Updating Elements
In this tutorial, make the existing element types ANSYS-compatible elements.
1. Launch HyperMesh or clear the current model.
4. Click retrieve.
HyperMesh displays the Open files dialog.
5. Select the hm-ansys.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
6. Double-click file name or click Open.
HyperMesh returns to the files panel. Note that file = now displays the location of the
hm-ansys.hm file.
To select the ANSYS template:
1. Select the user prof panel from the Geom page.
The User Profile dialog displays.
2. Select ansys from the list of user profiles.
3. Click OK.
The defaults for ansys are set and the macro menu for ansys appears.
To update elements:
1. Click the macro, Update Elem Type.
2. Click comps.
3. Select WHEEL and DOVETAIL and click select.
4. Click proceed.
A list of element types appears in the macro menu area.
5. From this list select plane42 or type 42 in the elem type = text box.
6. Click update.
7. Click comps.
8. Select GAP and click select.
9. Click proceed.
10. From this list select contac12 or type 12 in the elem type = text box.
11. Click update.
12. Click comps.
13. Select LINK and click select.
14. Click proceed.
15. From this list select link1 or type 1 in the elem type = text box.
16. Click update.
17. Click comps.
18. Select MASS and click select.
19. Click proceed.
20. From this list select mass21 or type 21 in the elem type = text box.
21. Click update.
22. Click return.
Defining Element Properties
In this tutorial, define element properties based on the ANSYS template.
To define plane element properties:
1. Select the card panel on the permanent menu.
3. Click comps again and select WHEEL and DOVETAIL.
4. Click select.
5. Click card image =.
6. From the pop-up menu select plane42.
7. Click edit.
HyperMesh goes to the card image panel.
8. Select kopt3_FLAG.
9. Click return.
HyperMesh returns to the card panel.
To define options for mass, gap, and link elements:
3. Click comps and select GAP.
4. Click select.
5. Verify card image = is set to plane42.
6. Click edit.
7. Select kopt1_FLAG, kopt2_FLAG, and kopt4_FLAG.
8. Click the data entry field under kopt2 and enter 1.
9. Click return.
HyperMesh returns to the collectors panel.
10. Click comps.
11. De-select GAP.
12. Select MASS.
13. Click select.
14. Verify card image = is set to plane42.
15. Click edit.
16. Click kopt3 list box.
17. Select the last item: 2-D mass without rotory inertia.
18. Click return twice.
To create a property collector for mass elements:
4. Click name = and enter MASS.
5. Click card image = and select MASS21p from the pop-up menu.
6. Click material = and select mat.
8. Click kopt3 list box.
9. Select the last item: 2-D mass without rotary inertia.
10. Click the data entry field under MASS(1) and enter 100 for the mass of the MASS
elements.
11. Click return.
To create a property collector for gap elements:
3. Click name = and enter GAP.
4. Click card image = and select CONTAC12p.
7. Click the data entry field under KN(2) and enter 2 E 05.
8. Click return.
To create a property collector for link elements:
3. Click name = and enter LINK.
4. Click card image = and select LINK1p.
7. Click the data entry field under AREA(1) and enter 10 for the cross sectional area of the
link elements.
8. Click return.
After creating property collectors, assign them to their respective element types.
To update mass element properties:
1. Select the masses panel on the 1-D page.
3. Click elems and select by config from the extended entity selection menu.
4. Click config = and select mass from the extended entity selection menu.
Type = automatically sets to mass21.
6. Click property = and select MASS.
7. Click update.
8. Select property.
9. Click update.
To update the gap element properties:
1. Select the gaps panel on the 1-D page.
4. Click config = and select gap from the extended entity selection menu.
Type = automatically sets to contac12.
6. Click property = and select GAP.
7. Click update.
8. Select property.
9. Click update.
To update the rod elements:
1. Select the rods panel on the 1-D page.
4. Click config = and select rod from the extended entity selection menu.
Type = automatically sets to link1.
6. Click property = and select LINK.
7. Click update.
8. Click return.
Updating Load Types
In this tutorial, make the existing load types ANSYS compatible.
2. Click constraint = and select D_CONSTRNT.
3. Click loads and select all from the extended entity selection menu.
4. Click update.
5. Click return.
Exporting a HyperMesh Database File to ANSYS
In this tutorial, edit your HyperMesh database file and export it to ANSYS.
To write the ANSYS .prp file:
3. Click write as and enter hm-ansys.prp.
4. Click save.
5. Click return.
6. Click quit to end the HyperMesh session.
You do not need to save the HyperMesh file.
To edit the ANSYS file:
You must edit the hm-ansys.prp file since HyperMesh does not translate the application of
angular velocity to ANSYS.
1. Open the hm-ansys.prp file in a text editor.
2. Before the /SOLU command, insert the following command:
OMEGA,,,377
(3600 rpm ~ 377 rad/s)
3. Save the file and exit.
You can now submit the hm-ansys.prp file to ANSYS for analysis.
Translating Results in ANSYS
The ANSYS analysis performed on the hm-ansys.prp file generated a file named hm-
ansys.rst. hmansys translates this ANSYS binary file into a HyperMesh binary results file
using the command line utility hmansys.exe. You can then use the HyperMesh binary results
file, hm-ansys.hmres, for post-processing.
To generate the file hm-ansys.hmres:
1. Launch HyperMesh.
2. Select the solver panel on the BCs page.
3. Click the switch and select hmansys.
4. After input file : click browse and select hm-ansys.rst.
5. After output file : click browseand enter hm-ansys.hmres.
6. Click options : and enter the platform on which the ANSYS analysis was performed and
enter other options as needed. For more information, see Results Translation in the
External Interfacing on-line help.
7. Click solve.
8. To specify the HyperMesh results file, on the global panel after results file: click browse
and select hm-ansys.hmres.

HM-ANSYS Contact Wizard 2-D HM-1031
The HM-ANSYS Contact Wizard allows the user to automate the procedure to create surface-to-
surface target/contact element-pairs.
For more information, see Creating Target/Contact Element Pairs in the External Interfacing
section of the HyperMesh on-line help.
This tutorial demonstrates how to use the Contact Wizard to create ANSYS 2-D surface-to-
To load the ANSYS User Profile:
1. Launch HyperMesh or clear current model.
2. Select the user prof panel from the GEOM page.
3. Select Ansys from the list of user profiles.
4. Click OK.
This sets the defaults for ansys and loads the the ansys macro menu.
To retrieve the HM model file for this tutorial:
3. Click retrieve.
HyperMesh displays the open files dialog.
4. Select the HM-ANSYS_Contact_Wizard_2-d_Tutorial.hm file, located in the
HyperWorks installation directory under /tutorials/hm/tutorials/.
5. Click open or double-click the file name.
HM-ANSYS_Contact_Wizard_2-D_Tutorial.hm.
HyperMesh displays the model as shown in the figure below.

To launch the HM-ANSYS Contact Wizard:
1. Click the contact wizard macro button.
The Selecting Target Body window (shown below) is displayed in the top-left corner of
the screen. The HyperMesh window can be resized to better match with the Selecting
Target Body window size and location.

Step 1: Selecting Target Body
2. Click the Select Target Body button in the dialog shown above. The HyperMesh panel
shown below is displayed.

3. Click comps.
4. Select the component named DISC_42.
5. Click select.
6. Click return.
The Next button in the Selecting Target Body dialog will be activated.
7. Click the Next button. The edges of the selected target body will be extracted and
displayed as shown in the figure below. The Selecting Target Elements dialog will be
displayed.

Step 2: Selecting Target Elements
8. Click the Select Target Elements button in the dialog box shown below.

The following HyperMesh panel will be displayed.

9. Click elems.
The HyperMesh extended entity selector will be displayed.
10. Select by window as the element selection method.
11. Select the contact surface elements as shown in the figure below.

12. Click return.
The Next button in the Selecting Target Elements dialog will be activated.
13. Click the Next button, and the Defining Target Element Component dialog will be
displayed.
Step 3: Defining Target Element Component

This dialog displays the default target component ID and default target component
type which cannot be modified.
The target component name can be changed, but the name should not be used by other
components in the model.
Click the target contact component color button to change the default target/contact
component colors. Select the new color from the pop-up menu.
The KEYOPT values will be assigned to the target component by default. Click on the
radio button Do not apply KEYOPTs, if you do not want to assign any KEYOPTs to the
target components.
Optionally, click on a KEYOPT menu button to select the appropriate KEYOPT value
from the pop-up menu. To see all options for a specific KEYOPT, move the mouse over
a KEYOPT button, and a yellow cursor-help box pops up with detailed description of all
available options.
Click the Next button in the Defining Target Element Component dialog. A full model
displays as shown in the following figure. The Selecting Contact Body dialog then
displays.

Step 4: Selecting Contact Body
14. Click the Select Contact Body button.

The HyperMesh Panel shown below will be displayed.

15. Click comps.
16. Select the component named BOX_42.
17. Click select.
18. Click return.
19. Click the Next button in the Selecting Contact Body dialog.
The edges of the selected contact body will be extracted and displayed as shown in the
following figure.

The Selecting Contact Elements dialog displays.
Step 5: Selecting Contact Elements

20. Click the Select Contact Elements button, and the following HyperMesh panel will be
displayed.

21. Click elems.
The HyperMesh extended entity selector displays.
23. Select the contact surface elements as shown in the following figure.

24. Click return.
25. Click Next in the Selecting Contact Elements dialog.
The Defining Contact Element Component dialog will be displayed.
Step 6: Defining Contact Element Component

This dialog displays the default contact component ID: and contact component type
which cannot be modified.
The contact component name can be modified, but this name should not be used by
other components in the model.
The previously selected (in step 3, the Defining Target Element Component dialog)
target/contact component color will be displayed. The color can be modified again. The
new color will be applied to both target and contact components.
The KEYOPT values are assigned to the contact component by default. Click on the
contact component.
Optionally, click on a KEYOPT menu button to select the appropriate KEYOPT value
from the pop-up menu. To see all of the options for a specific KEYOPT, move the mouse
over a KEYOPT button, and a yellow cursor-help box pops up with detailed description of
the available options.
Click the Next button in the Defining Contact Element Component dialog. The full
model will be displayed as shown in the figure below.

The Defining Properties dialog then displays.
Step7: Defining Properties

The target and associated contact elements are identified by a shared real constant set.
This real constant set includes all real constants for both the target and contact elements.
A new property with the real constant values will be created by default. Both target and
contact components will be pointed to this new property. Click the radio button Do not
apply real constants if you do not want to assign any real constants to the target/contact
elements.
Optionally, modify or enter the target/contact elements real constant values. Click the
Reset Default button to reset the default values at any time.
Click the Next button in the Defining Properties dialog. The Defining Material
Properties dialog displays.
Step 8: Defining Material Properties

It is optional to define a new material for the target/contact elements or to select an
existing material.
If do not want to assign any material properties:
26. Click the Next button in the Defining Material Properties dialog to create target/contact
elements.
27. Go to Step 10 (below).
To define a new material:
28. Click the Define New button in the Defining Material Properties dialog, and the
Defining New Material dialog will be displayed.

A new material will be created in the HyperMesh database. The default material ID will
be displayed which cannot be modified.
The default material name can be modified.
The default coefficient of friction (MU) value can also be modified.
29. Click Next in the Defining New Material dialog to create the target/contact elements.
The Exiting dialog will be displayed.
To select an existing material:
31. Click the Existing button in the Defining Material Properties dialog. The Selecting
Existing Material dialog will be displayed.

32. Click on the Select Existing Material button.

33. Click mats.
34. Select a material. Only one material should be selected.
35. Click select.
36. Click return.
37. Click on Next in the Select Existing Material dialog to create the target/contact
elements. The Exiting dialog will be displayed.
Step 10: Exit or Restart

A summary of target/contact elements created by the contact wizard is displayed in the
Exiting dialog.
To exit the Contact Wizard:
38. Click the Exit button.
To restart the Contact Wizard:
39. Click the Restart button.
This will take you back to step 1 and allow you to create another pair of target/contact
elements.

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the Contact Wizard to create ANSYS 3-D surface-to-
For more information, see Creating Target/Contact Element Pairs in the External Interfacing
section of the HyperMesh on-line help.
To load the ANSYS User Profile:
1. Launch HyperMesh or clear current model.
2. Select the user profile panel from the GEOM page.
3. Select Ansys from the list of user profiles.
4. Click OK.
This sets the defaults for ansys and displays the ansys macro menu.
To retrieve the HyperMesh model file for this tutorial:
3. Click retrieve.
HyperMesh displays the Open file dialog.
4. Select the HM-ANSYS_Contact_Wizard_3-D_Tutorial.hm file, located in the
HyperWorks installation directory under /tutorials/hm/tutorials/.
5. Click Open or double-click the file name.
HM-ANSYS_Contact_Wizard_3-D_Tutorial.hm file.
HyperMesh displays the model as shown below.

To launch the HM-ANSYS Contact Wizard:
1. Click the contact wizard macro button.
The Select Target Body dialog is displayed at the top-left corner of the screen. At this
point, you may want to adjust the size of the HyperMesh window.

Step 1: Selecting Target Body
2. Click the Select Target Body button in the Contact Wizard dialog.
The following panel is displayed.

3. Click comps.
4. Select the component named CYLINDER_SOLID45.
5. Click select.
6. Click return.
The Next button in the Select Target Body dialog is activated.
7. Click Next.
The faces of the selected target body are extracted and displayed as shown below.

The Selecting Target Elements dialog is displayed.

Step 2: Selecting Target Elements
8. Click Select Target Elements.
The following panel is displayed.

9. Click elems.
The HyperMesh extended entity selector is displayed.
11. Select the contact surface elements as shown below.

12. Click return.
The Next button is activated.
13. Click Next.
The Defining Target Elements Component dialog is displayed.

Step 3: Defining Target Element Component
The Defining Target Elements Component dialog displays the default target component ID and
type. You cannot modify these.
14. The target component name can be modified. This name should not be used by other
15. Click the color button to change the default target/contact component colors. Select the
new color from the pop-up menu.
16. By default, the KEYOPT values will be assigned to the target component. Click the radio
button Do not apply KEYOPTs, if you do not want to assign any KEYOPTs to the target
components.
17. Optionally, click on a KEYOPT menu button to select the appropriate KEYOPT value
from the pop-up menu. To see all the options for a specific KEYOPT, move the mouse
over a KEYOPT button. A yellow cursor-help box pops up with detailed description of all
the options.
18. Click the Next button in the Defining Target Element Component dialog.
A full model displays as shown in the figure below.

The Selecting Contact Body dialog displays.
Step 4: Selecting Contact Body

19. Click the Select Contact Body button.
The following HyperMesh Panel will be displayed.

20. Click comps.
21. Select the component named BOX_SOLID45.
22. Click select.
23. Click return.
24. Click the Next button in the Selecting Contact Body dialog. The faces of the selected
contact body will be extracted and displayed as shown in the figure below.

The Selecting Contact Elements dialog will be displayed.
Step 5: Selecting Contact Elements

25. Click the Select Contact Elements button.

26. Pick one element on top of the upper face of the box.
27. Click elems.
28. The HyperMesh extended entity selector will be displayed. Select the by face selection
method. The contact surface elements are selected as shown in the figure below.

29. Click return.
30. Click Next in the Selecting Contact Elements dialog. The Defining Contact Element
Component dialog will be displayed.
Step 6: Defining Contact Elements Component

31. This dialog will display the default contact component ID and type which cannot be
modified.
32. The contact component name can be modified, but should not be used by other
33. The previously selected target/contact component color will be displayed, but can be
changed again. The new color will be applied to both target and contact components.
34. By default, the KEYOPT values will be assigned to the contact component. Click the
contact component.
35. Optionally, click on a KEYOPT menu button to select the appropriate KEYOPT value
from the pop-up menu. To see all of the options for a specific KEYOPT, move the mouse
over a KEYOPT button, and a yellow cursor-help box pops up with detailed description of
all the available options.
36. Click the Next button in the Defining Contact Element Component dialog.
37. A full model displays as shown in the figure below.

The Defining Properties dialog will be displayed.
Step 7: Defining Properties

The target and associated contact elements are identified by a shared real constant set.
This real constant set includes all real constants for both the target and contact elements.
By default, the real constants values will be assigned to the target/contact components.
Click on the radio button Do not apply real constants if you do not want to assign any
real constants to the target/contact elements.
Optionally, modify or enter the target/contact elements real constant values. You can
click on the Reset Default button to reset the default values at any time.
Click the Next button in the Defining Properties dialog. The Defining Material
Property dialog will be displayed.
Step 8: Defining Material Properties

It is optional to define a new material for the target/contact elements or to select an existing
material.
If do not want to assign any material properties:
38. Click the Next button in the Defining Material Property dialog to create target/contact
elements.
To define a new material:
40. Click the Define New button in the Defining Material Property dialog. The Defining
New Material dialog will be displayed.

A new material will be created in the HM database. The default material ID will be
displayed, and cannot be modified.
The default material name can be modified. The default coefficient of friction (MU) value
can also be changed.
41. Click Next in the Defining New Material dialog to create the target/contact elements.
The dialog Reviewing Normals will be displayed. The model will be displayed as shown
in the figure below.

To select an existing material:
43. Click on the Select Existing button in the Defining Material Properties dialog. The
Selecting Existing Material dialog will be displayed.

44. Click the Select Existing Material button.

45. Click mats.
46. Select a material. Only one material should be selected.
47. Click select.
48. Click return.
49. Click Next in the Selecting Existing Material dialog to create the target/contact
elements. The Reviewing Normals dialog will be displayed.
The model will be displayed as shown in the following figure.

Step 9: Reivew Normals

The target and contact elements normal should point towards each other. If they do not, the
solution will not be performed correctly in ANSYS. Please review the normal vector direction and
reverse them if needed.
50. Select the target and/or contact components.
51. Define a vector size (default size is 0.000).
52. Click on Display Normals to see the normal vector directions.
53. Select the target/contact components again for which the normal vector direction needs
to be reversed.
54. Click on Reverse Normals to reverse the normal vector directions.
55. Click Next after reviewing the normals. The Exiting dialog will be displayed.
Step 10: Exit or Restart

A summary of target/contact elements created by the Contact Wizard is displayed.
To exit the Contact Wizard:
Click the Exit button.
To restart the Contact Wizard:
Click the Restart button.
This will take you back to the first step and allow you to create another pair of
target/contact elements.
You are encouraged to create another pair of target/contact elements by selecting the
CYLINDER_SOLID45 as the target body and BOX_SOLID95 as the contact body. If you elect to
do so, we would suggest using the display panel to display only the couple of contact
components. The number panel might then be used to display the node numbers of these
elements. Please note the BOX_SOLID45 elements are first order elements, whereas the
BOX_SOLID95 elements are second order.


This tutorial explains techniques commonly used in different crash analysis codes.
Checking for penetration
Fixing penetrations
Creating joints.
Checking the minimum time step.
administrator.
Checking for Penetration
It is not uncommon that during the setup of a FEA model errors may occur while positioning the
components, extracting the middle surface from the geometry of a parts or assigning the
thickness to them; this will probably cause that an existing penetration exists.
All the crash codes have now internal routines able to automatically adjust the initial penetration;
unfortunately the adjustment is not user controlled and this can hide severe errors in the modeling
and distort the analysis results.
In HyperMesh the user can perform a penetration check before the actual run to visualize the
location and detect the magnitude of the interference.
The area where the penetration check is performed can be defined using a contact interface or a
selection of elements and/or nodes. In both these cases the element thickness need to be
defined; in addition when the check is performed on portion of model defined by a contact the
definition a contact interface is also required; the contact types supported are surface to surface,
nodes to surface and single surface.
For more information on defining thickness on collector cards, refer to the collectors panel in the
Panels section of the on-line help. For more information about creating contact interfaces, see
the interfaces panel in the on-line help.

Detect and fix the penetration between the elements defining a contact Surface to Surface.
The penetration panel calculates penetration based on the following formula:
Ta/2 + Tb/2 - d = P
Where Ta and Tb represent element and/or nodal thickness, d is the distance between the
element midplanes, and P is the amount of penetration. HyperMesh computes the penetration
and checks on a node by node basis, which allows the penetration, P, to vary throughout the
model. Nodes with negative penetration values are marked as non-penetrating nodes.

Segment or Element normals are not considered when determining if nodes are penetrating the
opposing face. Nodes are marked as failed regardless of the normals. The normals direction is
taken into account in the phase of Fixing Penetrations, as we will discuss in more detail next.
There are some limitations for penetration checking:

Two known penetration checking limitations
Nodes that penetrate far enough through the thickness of the opposing surface so that
the thickness does not overlap at the nodal location (left diagram in above figure).
Nodes that lie exactly normal to nodes on the opposing contact surface (right diagram in
above figure). Some of the nodes in the right diagram will be detected, however some of
the nodes will not be detected.
Moreover HyperMesh does not currently detect penetration in solid elements.
Retrieve the model file:
3. Click retrieve.
A file browser displays.
4. Using the browser, select the pene_dyna.hm file.
5. Click Open.
This file consists of independent models we will use for the different examples in the
penetration tutorial.
6. Click return.
To specify the dyna.key template:
1. Select the global panel from the permanent menu.
2. Click load.
3. Use the file browser to select the ls-dyna/dyna.key file.
4. Click Open.
5. Click return.
To change the display:
1. Select the disp panel from the permanent menu.
2. Verify the collectors shell1 and shell2 are the only active collectors; deactivate any other
collectors.
3. Click return.
To check for penetrations:
The model consists of two components of shell elements with thickness 9.0; the flanges are too
close causing a penetration to exist. This section discusses the procedure to follow to check the
penetration occurring in the elements defining an LS-DYNA contact. The contact is type
surface_to_surface and both master and slave are defined using *set_segment .
1. Select the penetration panel on the Tool page.
2. Select the groups sub-panel.
3. Click group and select S2S_regular (the slave and master of this interface are both
defined using a *set_segment).
4. Select the check box of the segment orientation option.
5. Click check.
Fixing Penetrations
All of the nodes that fail the Penetration check are marked as temporary nodes, and the
Penetration Fix panel displays.
The header bar reports the total number of penetrating nodes and the Max/Min penetration
occurred.

NOTE
The Penetration Fix panel can only be accessed after completing a penetration check
in the penetration panel.
6. Under interface thickness calculator select the option part thickness using a scale =
1.0.
7. Set the display mode to nodes.
With nodes mode on HyperMesh displays yellow temporary nodes at all node locations
failing the penetration check. The vectors mode displays vectors in the direction and
magnitude required to fix each penetrating node. You can alternate the vector display
between uniform size or magnitude %. The contour mode displays a contour plot from
zero to the maximum penetration.
8. Click adjust to fix the penetration.
The adjust function allows you to quickly fix penetrations by moving the nodes that failed
the penetration check. When you click adjust, the penetrated nodes move in the
direction and magnitude of the vectors in the vectors display mode.
Additional use of the adjust function continues to translate the nodes in the same
direction and magnitude. You must use this function with discretion because the adjust
function deforms the original model at the points of penetration (shown in the next
exercise).
After the adjust function has been applied, you can:
Use reject to undo the last modifications and remain in the penetration check
adjustment panel
Use abort to undo the last modifications and return to the penetration panel
9. Use return to accept the modifications and return to the penetration panel
Once the amount of penetration is determined, the value is used to calculate the vector
directions and magnitudes required to fix the penetrating nodes. Surface to Surface and
Single Surface contacts create vector magnitudes equal to P/2 (the total penetration
divided by 2). Node to Surface contacts define vector magnitudes equal to P because
only slave nodes are adjusted.
NOTE:
The interface thickness calculator has two criteria available to fix penetrations:
When the part thickness scale is selected HyperMesh obtains the thickness of the
elements from the current template, applies the scale factor, and uses that thickness to
determine the penetration.
When the contact thickness is selected HyperMesh uses the value entered as the
thickness of the elements to determine the adjustment for the penetration. Entering a
value 0 tells HyperMesh to use the original thickness.
The save penetrated option allows you to save the location of the penetration areas.
Those data can then be used in other HyperMesh panels to fix the penetration.
In the Penetration Checking, HyperMesh does not take into account the direction of the
element or segment normals. Nodes are marked as failed regardless of the direction the
normals are pointing. However, during the Penetration Fix the computed direction and
magnitude of the penetration does take into account the direction of the normals.
When the segment orientation option is off (second figure below), the penetration check
does not take into account the directions of normals. Instead, the check calculates the
amount of penetration as the shortest distance required to move nodes so they do not lie
within the region defined as the element thickness. The returned values are the
mathematical absolute amount of nodal penetration. It is recommended that you leave
the segment orientation option active unless all the vectors in the vector display mode
are pointing in the opposite direction needed to fix the penetration. The segment
orientation can be used to check penetration for contact defined by contact surf
(*set_segment) as well as for other contacts or when the area of the penetration check is
defined by just nodes/elements.
In the first case the algorithm takes into consideration the orientation of the
*set_segment. In all other cases, the algorithm considers the element normal.
Note:
The element normal is defined using the right hand rule according to the elements
nodes.
Segment normal is associated to the direction of the *set_segment used to define
contacts. The LS-DYNA entities *set_segment are created in HyperMesh using the
contactsurf panel in the BCs page.
The following picture illustrates the exercise we will do next where the use of the segment
orientation option is necessary to avoid erroneous penetration adjustment.
The first image shows the nodes where the two parts are penetrating and the second one
shows the direction of the element normals.

Where penetration exists

Direction of the element normals
1. Select the disp panel from the permanent menu.
2. Verify collectors shell9 and shell10 are the only active collectors
3. Deactivate any other collectors.
4. Click return.
To check for penetrations:
The model consists of two components of shell elements with thickness of 5.0; the flanges are
intersecting causing a severe penetration to exist. This section discusses the procedure to check
the penetration between two selections of elements.
1. Select the penetration panel from the Tool page.
2. Select the elems2elems sub-panel.
3. Click the elems selector at the top of the panel and select all the elements in the
component shell9 (red color).
4. Click the elems selector at the bottom of the panel and select all the elements in the
component shell10 (blue color).
5. If active unselect the check box of the segment orientation option.
6. Click check to activate it.
The area failing the Penetration check is marked and the Penetration Fix panel is
displayed.
7. Click adjust.
Few nodes are moved in order to eliminate the penetration but the parts intersect each
other to a greater degree.
8. Click reject to restore the original position for the shell.
9. Select the check box of the segment orientation option.
10. Click Adjust.
The nodes are moved in the correct direction and no penetration exists.
NOTE:
The pene-dyna.hm file contains other model components that may be useful for trying
the penetration checking/adjusting functions. These examples are not included in the
tutorial but are available for more practice. Use the display panel to view the other
collectors in the model.
Creating Joints
Joint definitions are created in the fe joints panel on the 1D page. HyperMesh supports the
following standard joint types: Spherical, Revolute, Cylindrical, Planar, Universal, Translational,
and Locking. HyperMesh also supports LS-DYNAs
*CONSTRAINED_JOINT_STIFFNESS_OPTION property to define friction, damping, stop angles,
etc. The LS-DYNA solver interface supports the creation of joints in the fe joints panel. The
PAMCRASH solver interface currently supports the creation of joints as rod elements (see the
PAMCRASH tutorial).
NOTE
A spherical joint consists of two coincident nodes. During analysis, the two
coincident nodes are forced to remain coincident but the bodies attached to
each coincident node are allowed to rotate freely about the joint location.
To retrieve the joints.hm file:
3. Click retrieve.
4. Select the joints.hm file.
5. Click Open.
6. Click return.
To load the dyna.key template:
2. Click load.
3. Select the ls-dyna/dyna.key file.
4. Click Open.
5. Click return.
To activate coincident node picking:
According to the LS-DYNA specification a joint needs to reference a pair of coincident nodes.
The creation of this element requires the selection of coincident nodes. Do this by activating the
coincident node picking option in HyperMesh. When activated any attempt to select a coincident
node will present you with a selection circle identifying the coincident node id.
1. Select the options panel in the permanent menu.
2. Select the modeling sub-panel.
3. Activate the coincident node picking check box.
4. Click return.
1. Select the display panel in the permanent menu.
2. Select the blue torus, orange torus, and New Joint collectors for the current
component.
3. Deactivate any other collectors.
4. Click return.
To create a spherical joint:
1. Select the fe joints panel on the 1D page.
3. Click the switch under joint type and select spherical.
4. Left click once on a node in the center of both tori to bring up the coincident node picking
window (see figure below).
There are two nodes in the window, node 598 and node 1.
5. While holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor over the node labeled 598.
The blue rigid body attached to this node is highlighted.
6. Release the left mouse button to select node 598.

7. Repeat the last three steps, but select node 1 from the coincident node picking window
instead of node 598.
8. Click create to generate the spherical joint element.
NOTE
A revolute joint consists of four nodes, two sets of two coincident nodes.
During analysis, all four of the revolute joints nodes remain at the same
location with respect to each other. The bodies attached to the nodes are free
to rotate about the axis that lies along the length of the revolute joint.
1. Select the display panel in the permanent menu.
2. Select the bearing, shaft, bearing rigids, shaft rigids, and New Joint collectors.
3. Deactivate the other collectors.
4. Click return.
To create a revolute joint:
1. Zoom in on one end of the shaft assembly (see figure below).
2. Click the switch under joint type and select revolute.
3. Left click once on a node at the center of one of the rigid link elements to bring up the
coincident node picking window (see figure below).
4. Select a node attached to a blue rigid link element.
If you depress the left mouse button while your cursor is over a node in the coincident
node picking window, the element attached to that node is highlighted.
5. Click at the same node location again and select the node attached to the orange rigid
link element.
6. Repeat the previous three steps on the opposing pair of blue and orange rigid link
elements (see figure below).
7. Click create.
8. Click return.

See Also
fe Joints panel in the HyperMesh Panels On-line Help
Checking the Minimum Time Step
The time sub-panel in the check elems panel calculates element time steps, based on the FEA
solver, and allows you to check for time steps that fall below a specified value. In explicit codes
such as LS-DYNA it is sufficient that a single element would have a small time step to drastically
reduce the total CPU time of the entire job. For this reason the check is used to identify those
elements.
To retrieve the pene_dyna.hm file:
3. Click retrieve.
4. Select the pene_dyna.hm file.
5. Click Open.
6. Click return.
To specify the dyna.key template:
The time step associated to an element is related to its geometric characteristic and to its material
properties such as density and young modulus. For this reason a material and a valid template
need to be associated to the elements.
2. Click load.
4. Click Open.
5. Click return.
To check the time steps:
2. Select the time sub-panel.
3. Click check elems.
HyperMesh lists the total number of elements failing the check.

Dummy Positioning, Seatbelt Routing, and Control Volumes - HM-1101L
This lesson continues with several exercises demonstrating general interfacing with crash
analysis codes.
Dummy positioning
Seatbelt routing
Reviewing airbag design state
Dummy positioning
The dummy panel is located under the safety panel module. The dummy panel is used to position any
dummy model that contains a component hierarchy (a.k.a. tree structure) defined in HyperMesh . The
dynakey and pamcrash import translators can build the tree structure automatically when importing
supported dummy model files.

H-Point sub-panel
Position and rotate the H-point
1. Select files on any of the main menu pages.
2. Activate the hm file radio button.
3. Click file = twice.
4. Select the dummy_position.hm file from/altair/tutorials directory.
5. Click retrieve.
Load the dyna.key template in the files panel:
1. Select files on any of the main menu pages.
2. Activate the template radio button.
5. Click return to leave the files panel.
Turn off all entities except components and set the component display to shaded only:
1. Click on the only comps macro button found in the Display: group to turn off all entities
except for components.
2. Under the Display: macro button group, click on the per button next to gfx to turn on
performance graphics.
3. Under the vis panel, click on the shaded only icon, then the all button.
Dummy Positioning, Seatbelt Routing, and Control Volumes - HM-1101-L
4. Click return to leave the vis panel.
5. Enter the dummy panel from the safety panel on the tool page.
6. Activate the H-point radio button to enter the H-point sub-panel.
7. Select any element on the dummy to select the entire dummy.
8. Under position: type 1.280, 0.350, and 0.284 in the x=, y=, and z= number fields
respectivly. The tab key can be used to cycle through the number fields.
9. Click position to move the H-point to the specified coordinates.
10. Under rotate: set the N1, N2, N3 vector selection to y-axis and set increment =
24.00.
11. Click rotate+to see the rotation angle about the y-axis.
12. Click rotate- to see the negative rotation about the y-axis.

Incremental sub-panel
Adjusting Limb Positions
Adjusting limbs utilizes the incremental sub-panel under the dummy panel. Internally,
incremental rotations are based on successive rotations about X, Y, then Z. These successive
rotation values are reflected in the current number fields. It is not required to rotate joints in
order about their local X, then Y, and then Z axis when using the interface in the dummy panel.
There is no limitation on the number of rotations nor the order of rotations. However, rotating out
of sequence will modify all rotation values reported in the X, Y, and Z current number fields to
reflect successive rotations.
To adjust the limb positions:
1. Activate the incremental radio button to enter the incremental sub-panel.
2. Enter 5.00 in the increment number field.
3. Select any element in the lower left leg. HyperMesh follows the model hierarchy up to
the previous joint in the knee and down to the end of the hierarchy through the foot.
4. Click the <, decrement, next to yrot row five times to change the rotation of the left knee
to 25.0 degrees.
5. Select any element in the lower right leg and click the <, decrement, next to yrot row five
times to change the rotation of the right knee to 25.0 degrees.
6. Repeat this exercise to set the shoulders yrot to 40.0, elbows yrot to 65.0, and
wrists xrot to +/-10.0.
7. Click return.
Seatbelt Routing
The seatbelt panel is located under the safety panel module. The seatbelt panel can be used to create
straight seatbelt segments as well as seatbelt segments that wrap around a dummys torso or lap.

Seatbelts panel
To create straight belt segments:

Seatbelt 1
1. Retrieve the seatbelt.hm file from the
/altair/tutorials/hm/tutorials/tutorials/ directory (or skip this step and
continue with the Dummy Positioning tutorial).
- Select files on any of the main menu pages.
- Activate the hm file radio button.
- Click retrieve.
- Select the /altair/tutorials/seatbelt.hm file.
- Click open.
2. Shade the elements.
Turn on performance graphics from the Display macro button group, by clicking on the
per button next to gfx.
3. From the tool page, select the safety panel, then the seatbelt sub-panel.
4. Activate the yellow from node entity selection box and select the yellow retractor
element (see figure, Seatbelt 1, below).
5. Select the upper, red slipring for the to node selection box (see figure).
6. Click mesh. When components for the wrap around: selection have not been specified,
HyperMesh creates straight belt segments between the from node and two node nodes.
7. Click return.
To create shoulder belt segments that wrap around the torso:

Seatbelt 2
1. Activate the yellow from node entity selection box and select the upper, red slipring
element (see figure).
2. Select the lower, red slipring element for the to node selection box (see figure).
3. Activate the comps selection box and select the components that compose the torso
area.
- Click the comps entity selection box twice to bring up the component list panel.
- Click the comps entity selection box in the component list panel to bring up the
entity selection window.
- Select by assems to bring up the assembly list panel.
- Select the upper torso and lower torso assembly.
- Click select in the assembly list panel.
- Click return.
4. Click the toggle next to 1D to set it to 2D/1D to create a combination of linear and plate
belt elements.
5. Enter 0.03, 0.10, 0.01, and 0.005 in the belt width =, from side endlength =, to
side endlength =, and gap = fields, respectively.
6. Click place 1D elements in twice and select the seatbelts_linear collector containing
linear element properties.
7. Click place 2D elements in twice and select the seatbelts_shell collector containing
shell element properties.

Panel settings
8. Click orient to create the belt line and enter belt orientation mode. Two red and one
green belt segments are displayed. The red segments represent the belt line between
the connection points and the first point of contact on the dummy. The green segment is
in contact with the dummy.
9. Adjust the segments by clicking on a segment to activate it, then while holding in the left
mouse button, drag the mouse up and down to adjust the segments orientation about its
endpoints. The easiest way to adjust the belt line is to adjust the two end segments
rather than the center green segment.
10. When the belt is properly oriented, click mesh to enter the mesh model.
11. Adjust the belt densities in the mesh module as needed then click return to leave the
mesh module.
Note: Click the toggle in the panel area of the mesh module to switch between a tria and
rigid element transition between the shell and linear elements.
To create belt segments that wrap around the lap:
The steps for creating belt segments that wrap around the lap are the same as the steps for
wrapping belts around the torso. The only difference is to select new end points as well as the
lap components instead of torso components.

1. Activate the yellow from node entity selection box and select the top of the constraint on
the floor (see figure).
2. Keep the lower, red element at the buckle as the to node (see figure).
3. Click reset under the comps selection box.
4. Select the components that compose the lap.
Click the comps entity selection box to bring up the component list panel.
Click the comps entity selection box in the component list panel to bring up the
entity selection window.
Select by assems to bring up the assembly list panel.
Activate the checkboxes next to the lower torso, upper left leg, and upper right leg
assemblies.
Click select to leave the assembly list panel.
Click return to leave the component list panel.
5. Click orient to create the belt line and enter belt orientation mode. Two red and one
green belt segments are displayed. The red segments represent the belt line between
the connection points and the first point of contact on the dummy. The green segment is
in contact with the dummy.
6. Adjust the segments by clicking on a segment to activate it, then while holding in the left
mouse button, drag the mouse up and down to adjust the segments orientation about its
endpoints. The easiest way to adjust the belt line is to adjust the two end segments
rather than the center green segment.
7. When the belt is properly oriented, click mesh to enter the mesh model.
8. Adjust the belt densities in the mesh module as needed, and then click return to leave
the mesh module.

Seatbelt 3
Reviewing airbag design state
The control volumes panel is located under the safety panel module. The control volumes
panel can be used to create control volumes as well as review their design state.
To review the design state:
1. Retrieve the seatbelt.hm file from the /altair/tutorials/hm/tutorials/ directory (or skip
this step and continue with the Seatbelt Routing tutorial):
Select files on any of the main menu pages.
Activate the hm file radio button.
Click file = twice.
Select the /altair/tutorials/seatbelt.hm file.
Click retrieve.
2. Set the component display to shaded only:
Under the Display: macro button group, click on the per button next to gfx to
turn on performance graphics
Under the vis panel, click on the shaded only icon, then the all button.
Click return to leave the vis panel.
3. Enter the control vol panel from the safety panel on the tool page.
4. Select the view button on the blue permanent menu on the right side of the menu panels
and select the restore2 button.
5. Select reference geometry sub-menu.
6. Click review.
7. Select cv1 from the control volume list to display this control volumes design state in the
HyperMesh GUI window.
8. Click return to leave the control vol panel. The display of the control volume will be set
back to its initial state.

LS-DYNA Interface - HM-1110-L
This tutorial explains how to use the HyperMesh interface with LS-DYNA.
continue doing the exercises in the following order:
Load a pre-defined HyperMesh file
Select the dyna.key template
Create Control Cards for LS-DYNA
Define materials
Define Cross Section Properties for LS-DYNA
Define a HyperMesh Group: Sliding Interface for LS-DYNA
Define a Rigid Wall for LS-DYNA
Creating Boundary Conditions for LS-DYNA
Create Time Histories for LS-DYNA
Create a Cross Section for LS-DYNA
Exporting an LS-DYNA data deck from HM
administrator.
Load a Pre-defined HyperMesh File
In this section, retrieve the model, rail-dyna.hm.
To retrieve a HyperMesh binary database:
3. Click retrieve to open the file browser.
4. Select the file rail-dyna.hm.
5. Click open.
6. Click return.
LS-DYNA 3D Interface HM-1110-L

Select the LS-DYNA Template
To use HyperMesh with a special solver, the template of this solver has to be loaded. This
template "knows" how to transform the binary HyperMesh database into a solver input deck. LS-
DYNA has three templates. The dyna.key supports the Keyword input format, the template
dyna.seq supports the sequential input format of LS-DYNA, and dyna.lrg supports the large
format which is also a sequential input format.
To load the dyna.key template:
1. Select the files panel and select template sub-panel.
2. Click load to display the file browser.
3. Select from dyna the template ls-dyna/dyna.key.
4. Click open.
5. Click return.
Create Control Cards for LS-DYNA
This section explains how to setup the analysis run. The control cards panel allows you to set
solver specific data such as defining the termination time output frequencies for results.
To define the Title and termination Cards:
1. Select the control cards panel on the BCs page.
2. Click Title Card and enter the title string: LS-DYNA tutorial
3. Click return.
4. Click the next button to see the second page of LsDyna control cards.
5. Click Termination.
6. Click the data entry field under ENDTIM and enter 1.0 as the termination time.
7. Click return.
To define the output frequencies control cards:
1. Click DB Bin PLOT.
2. Click the data entry field under DT, and enter 0.1 as the output frequency for the d3plot.
3. Click return.
4. Click Dbase Opts.
5. Enter the value 0.1 for SECFORC, RWFORC, NODOUT, ELOUT, GLSTAT and
MATSUM :
Click the correspondent text to open the entry field and enter the numeric value.
This sets the output interval for cross-section, rigid-wall, nodal time history, global statistic
and material output.
Define Materials
In contrast to PamCrash, in the Ls-Dyna interface, use the material collector. Ls-Dyna has
separate material and cross section definitions. The property collector stores the cross section
information for shell, beam, solid and spring elements. In the material collector you define the
material properties.
To define a Material Type 24 (Piecewise Linear Plasticity):
4. Click name = and enter steel.
6. Click card image = and choose MATL24.
8. Click the data entry field under RHO and enter 7.85e-6 for Density.
9. Click the data entry field under E and enter 210 (in kN/mm
2
) for Young Modulus.
10. Click the data entry field under NU and enter 0.3 for Poisson s Ratio.
11. Click SIGY, click the data entry field, and enter 0.37 to define the yield stress.
12. Click the button under array count and select 3.
This means we are defining a stress-strain curve with 3 points (yield stress values -
corresponding effective plastic strain value).
13. Type the following pairs for strain (in EPS(i)) and stress (in ES(i)) :
(0.0; 0.37), (0.02; 0.39), (0.04; 0.45).
To define a second steel Material Type 24 using loadcurve for the nonlinear behavior:
The material Mat24 (piecewise linear plasticity) offers different possibilities to define effective
stress versus effective plastic strain. HyperMesh fully supports all these approaches. The creation
of the material requires a curve containing the stress versus plastic strain information. We now
describe the way to create a curve internally in HyperMesh and point to it using the Dyna entry
LCSS in the material definition.
In HyperMesh, curves are stored and organized in plots. If no plots exist when a curve is created,
a plot will be created automatically.
1. Select the Post page.
2. Select the xy plots panel.
3. Select the plots panel.
4. Click plot = and enter Materialdata.
5. Select the Standard option.
6. Click create plot.
7. Click return.
To create a curve:
1. Select the edit curves panel.
2. Click plot = and select Materialdata.
3. Select the math option instead of file.
4. Click x= and enter {0.0,0.02,0.04} (including the brackets) as the value for the
plastic strain.
5. Click y= and enter {0.37,0.39,0.45} (including the brackets) as the value for the
effective stress.
6. Click create.
7. Click return.
8. Click exit.
NOTE
Once a loadcurve is defined, it can be used for the stress-strain behavior of a material, as
a load vs. time function, force-deflection function, or others.
Instead of creating a curve in HyperMesh you can also import an existing curve using the
panel xyplot/read curves in the post page.
HyperMesh is able to import curve data in a comma-delimited ASCII format. Multiple
curves can be defined in the same file, with each curve defined in its own block. Each
block starts with an XYDATA statement and ends with the ENDDATA statement. Within
the curve block, each data point has its own line consisting of the x value, a comma
separator, and the y value, as shown in the example below.
XYDATA,
2.000e-02,2.300e-01

3.500e-01,2.800e-01
ENDATA
XYDATA,
3.000e-02,7.300e-01

5.500e-01,9.800e-01
ENDATA
To create and edit a material collector:
5. Click name = and enter steel-2.
6. Click card image = and select MATL24.
8. Click Rho, click the data entry field, and enter 7.85e-6.
9. Click the data entry field under E and enter 210 (in kN/mm
2
).
10. Click the data entry field under NU and enter 0.3.
11. Double-click LCSS and pick curve1.
12. Click return.

13. Click return again.
Definition of Cross Section Properties for LS-DYNA
HyperMesh can create different types of cross sections for LsDyna, for example, shell section
beam section solid section. .
The model in this tutorial consists of shell elements; for simplicity all of the elements will be
specified as being 1.2 mm thick.
To define the cross section property:
3. Click the switch after collector type and select props.
4. Click name = and enter rail_prop.
6. Click card image and select SectShll.
8. Select NIP, click the data entry field, and enter 4. (This is the number of integration
points through the thickness.)
9. Click T1 and in the data entry field under T1 enter 1.2 (shell thickness).
10. Repeat similar procedure to create a 2.5 mm *section_shell with name top_prop.
In the next steps, combine the elements with material and cross section data.
To add a material and a ShellSection property to the side component:
4. Click the yellow entry comps, select side and click select.
5. Click material = and select steel.
6. Click the update button, click material id, click update.
8. Double-click name = and select side.
9. Click card image and select Part.
10. Click load/edit.
11. Double-click SID and select rail_prop.
Note the value below ELFORM is the same as the value for ELFORM in the Shell section
property.
12. Click return.
To add a material and a ShellSection property to the tmp component:
At this point you should be in the collectors panel.
2. Click the yellow entry comps, select tmp and click select.
3. Click material = and select steel-2.
4. Click the update button, click material id, click update.
6. Double-click name = and select tmp.
7. Click card image and select Part.
8. Click load/edit.
9. Double-click SID and select rail_prop.
10. Click return.
Define a HyperMesh Group: Sliding Interface for LS-DYNA
This section describes how to define an autocontact type single surface for the rail. There are
several methods you may use to select the contact elements. You can define a box that encloses
all the elements you want included in the contact definition or select the elements by component,
set, contactsurf (equivalent to the *set_segment LsDyna card) or entity.
To define the group:
3. Click name = and enter impact.
4. Click type = and select SingleSurface.
6. Click card image = and select SingleSurface.
Optionally, click interface color and select a color.
8. Click the switch below options and select Automatic.
9. Click return.
To add the slave components:
2. Click the switch under slave and select comps.
3. Click comps and select the components side and tmp.
4. Click select.
5. Click update.
6. Click return.
Define a Rigid Wall for LS-DYNA
In this section, create an infinite rigid wall planar (*rigidwall_planar_moving) normal to the Z axis
that will impact the rail at a user-defined initial velocity.
To create a node as base node for the rigid wall:
To locate the rigid wall in space a base node is needed in the proper location.
3. Set x =-1, y = 0.0, and z = 0.0.
4. Click create node.
5. Click return.
To create and define a rigid wall card:
1. Select the rigid walls panel on the BCs page.
3. Click name = and enter rwall1.
4. Click type = and select RWPlanar.
6. Click card image = and select RWPlanar.
7. Click rgdwall color and select a color.
8. Click size = and enter 100.
This controls only the size of the displayed Rigid Wall on the screen.
To define the rigid wall type:
1. Click in the data entry field under FRIC and enter 0.3 for the friction coefficient.
2. Click return.
To define rigid wall geometry:
1. Select the geom sub-panel.
2. Click name = and select rwall1.
3. Select the switch after shape and select plane.
4. Click the toggle to infinite.
5. Click the switch under normal vector and choose x-axis.
6. Click base node, and then pick the node you just created in the graphics area.
You may need to click f in the permanent menu to see the node.
7. Click update to create the rigid wall geometry.
To add slave nodes for rigid wall:
2. Click the switch under slaves and select all.
3. Click update.
To add a motion to the rigid wall:
1. Select the motion sub-panel.
2. Click the switch and select components.
3. Click x comp = and give 20.0 as the value.
4. Click the switch under type of motion and select velocity.
5. Click update.
To define attributes in the card previewer:
1. Select the card sub-panel.
2. Click edit.
3. Click the data field under mass and enter 0.1.
4. Click return.
5. Click return.
Creating Boundary Conditions for LS-DYNA
This exercise shows how to create boundary conditions to the model; one of the end of the rail is
constrained with *Boundary_Spc_Node
To specify the load type:
Entities created in HyperMesh can often be used to define more than one type of Dyna entity.
The constraints panel in HyperMesh, for example, can create both *BOUNDARY_SPC_NODE
and *BOUNDARY_PRESCRIBED_MOTION_NODE cards. To ensure the correct information for
the specific Dyna entity is defined for the model, the entity type should be specified before
creating the entity.
For entities created using panels on the BCs page, use the load types panel to specify the correct type; for
entities created using panels in 1D, 2D, or 3D use the elem types panel.
2. Click constraint = and choose BoundSPC.
3. Click return.
4. Click name = and enter SPC.
7. Click create.
8. Click return.
To create constraints on nodes:
3. Double-click nodes and select by id.
4. Enter 990 through 1011 as the node numbers.
5. Press ENTER on the keyboard.
6. Activate dof1 dof2 dof3 dof4 dof5 and dof6.
7. Click create.
The constraints are now added to all nodes.
8. Click return.
Create Time Histories for LS-DYNA
For LS-DYNA, time histories for nodes and elements are available
(*Database_History_Nodes\Elements). In this exercise you create time histories for both using
the output block panel.
To create a node time history card:
2. Click name = and enter nodeth.
3. Make sure that nodes is the entity type, if not, use the toggle button to switch.
4. With your mouse, select a few nodes in the graphics area.
5. Click create.
The Time History for nodes is now created.
To create an element time history card:
1. Click name = and enter elemth.
3. Pick a few elements in the graphics area.
4. Click create.
To review time histories entities:
1. Click review.
2. Select elemth.
The entities associated with this time history are now highlighted, similarly to review the
history for nodes.
Cross-Section Definition for LS-DYNA
To create a set of elements and nodes which belong to the cross section:
1. Select entity sets menu on page BCs
2. Make sure that elems is depicted in the yellow area, if not use the toggle button to
switch.
3. Click name= and enter cross_elem.
4. Select the elements describing the cross section.
5. Click create.
6. Always in the entities set panel use the toggle button to switch the entity selector to
nodes.
7. Click name= and enter cross_nod.
8. Select the nodes that describe the cross section.
9. Click create.
10. Click return.
NOTE:
The selection of the nodes and elements describing the cross section must be done in
accordance to the LsDyna specific; refer to the LsDyna manual for details.
To create the cross section:
1. Select the interfaces on page BCs.
2. Select the create menu.
3. Click name = and enter cross-sect1.
4. Click type = and select XSectionSet.
5. Click card image and select XSectionSet also.
6. Click create.
7. Select the add menu.
8. Use the toggle button below master: to select the selection type sets.
9. Click sets in the yellow area and select cross_ele.
10. Click select.
11. Click update.
12. Make sure that the selection type for the slaves is sets.
13. Click sets in the yellow area and select cross_nod.
14. Click select.
15. Click update.
16. Click return.
Exporting an LS-DYNA Data Deck from HyperMesh
The exercise explains how to generate an LS-DYNA input deck from HyperMesh.
To export a LS-DYNA file:
1. Select files from the main menu.
3. Make sure that the template = field still shows the dyna.key file.
4. Click filename = once, and enter the name of the LS-DYNA file you will create:
rail.bdf for example.
5. Click write.
HyperMesh writes the deck, and it displays a message once it is complete.


PAM-CRASH Interface - HM-1120L
This tutorial introduces the HyperMesh interface to PAM-CRASH. The HyperMesh PAM-CRASH
input translator supports the PAM-CRASH 97 cards and most PAM-CRASH 98 cards.
Load a Prepared HyperMesh File
Select the PAM-CRASH Template
Create Control Cards
Assign Element Types
Define Materials with Component Dictionaries
Define HyperMesh Groups: Sliding Interface
Define a Rigid Wall
Creating Boundary Conditions
Create Time Histories
Creating a Function
Creating a Sensor Card
Exporting a PAM-CRASH Data Deck from HyperMesh
under /tutorials/hm/tutorials/tutorials/.
administrator.
Load a Prepared HyperMesh File
A prepared model with elements and nodes is included in the /tutorials/hm/tutorials/
directory. The file name of the example is rail-dyna.hm. This is the basic example on which
the tutorial is based.
HyperMesh displays a list of the files and subdirectories in the current directory.
Directory names are followed by a slash.
4. Select the rail-dyna.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
rail-dyna.hm file.
5. Click retrieve.
PAM-CRASH Interface HM-1120-L

Select the PAM-CRASH Template
To use HyperMesh with a specific solver, the solver template must be loaded. This template
specifies how HyperMesh writes a solver input deck. PAM-CRASH has only one template.
To load the PAM-CRASH general template:
3. Select the general template, located in the HyperMesh installation directory under
/pamcrash/general/.
HyperMesh returns to the global panel. Note that template file = now displays the
location of the general template.
Create Control Cards for PAM-CRASH
This tutorial explains how to create the control card for the CONTROL SECTION of the PAM-
CRASH input deck.
NOTE
The settings of the control cards influence the default values for defining
materials. No PAM-CRASH deck can be executed without error if the control
card CTRL is undefined.
To define the title card:
2. Click Title and enter This is my first PAM-CRASH example.
3. Click return.
To define the control card:
1. Click Control.
2. Below TIME, enter the value 0.06.
3. Below TIOD, enter the value 0.005.
4. Below PIOD, enter the value 0.005.
5. Click the box below MORE and select 1 from the pop-up menu.
6. Click return.
To define the file optional keyword:
1. Click File Name.
2. Below FILENAME, enter rail-dyna.hm.
3. Click return.
To define the time step optional keyword:
1. Click next.
2. Click Time Step.
3. Click the switch below Shell Criteria and set LARGE (default) from the pop-up menu.
4. Click the switch below Thickness Term and set BEND (default) from the pop-up menu.
Assign Element Types for PAM-CRASH
Depending on the analysis requirement, the HM basic element type can be changed. For
example, a quad4 can be a SHELL or a MEMBR element. The tria3 element can be a TRIA_C,
SHELL, or MEMBR element. The tetra4, the penta6, and the hexa8 elements define the SOLID
elements of PAM-CRASH. Properties can be added for the selected element type by using the
control cards.
To assign the element type:
1. Select the elem types panel on the 1-D page.
2. Click quad4 = and select SHELL from the pop-up menu.
3. Click elems and select all from the extended entity selection menu.
4. Click update.
To edit the SHELL card properties in the card previewer:
2. Click the upper left switch and select elems from the extended entity selection menu.
3. Click config = and select quad4 from the pop-up menu.
4. Click type = and select SHELL from the pop-up menu.
5. Select any displayed element and click edit.
The SHELL card now appears in the card previewer. The number of integration points
through the thickness NINT and the optional thickness T are defined here. If no
thickness is entered, the thickness of the material defined in the component is used.

Define Materials with Component Dictionaries for PAM-CRASH
Each PAM-CRASH material card MAT or MATER requires one component.
NOTE
The material collector is not used in the PAM-CRASH interface. PAM-CRASH
does not differentiate between material data and cross section data as other
solvers do. Consequently, elements have no reference to materials, which
only belong to a component. The material definition for the elements is
included with this component.
Elements are located in a component (beam, bar, joint, shell). The template takes the component
ID as material ID. The card image type of the collector defines the material as 1-D material, 2-D
material, or 3-D material.
To define a Material Type 102 for collector side:
2. Toggle the card image option.
3. To set the collector type, click the switch and select comps from the pop-up window.
4. Click name = twice and select side.
5. Click card image = and select MAT_2D from the pop-up menu.
NOTE
The template provides MAT_1D, MAT_2D, and MAT_3D dictionaries. Material
types from 200 to 230 are defined with MAT_1D. Materials types from 100 to
151 are defined with MAT_2D. Material types from 1 to 41 are defined with
MAT_3D. To switch the material type, use the card previewer.
6. Click load/edit.
7. Click the switch below Material Type and select Type 102 from the pop-up menu.
NOTE
Only the materials of the current dictionary (1-D, 2-D, 3-D) can be selected.
The ID of the material is given by HyperMesh with the component ID.
8. Below density, enter the value 7.85e-9.
NOTE
You can use the TAB or SHIFT TAB key on the keyboard to go to the next or
previous edit field.
9. Below TITLE, enter This is the side material.
10. Below E, enter the value 20000.
11. Below Yield, enter the value 250.
12. Below v, enter the value 0.3.
13. Below t, enter the value 2.
14. Click return.
To define a Material Type 102 for collector topbottom:
2. Click name = and enter topbottom.
3. Click the switch below creation method: and select same as from the pop-up menu.
4. Click same as = and select side.
5. Click color and select Color 10 from the pop-up menu.
All attributes of the card image from the side material are automatically copied into the
current component.

7. Below t, enter the value 2.5.
8. Below Title, enter This is the topbottom material.
9. Select LARGE_FMT.
NOTE
The card previewer of the components allows you to change between the MAT
and the large material format MATER.
NOTE
The created component topbottom now is empty. We will now move the
elements of the component tmp into the component topbottom.
To reorganize the elements:
1. Select the organize panel on any main menu page.
3. Click elems and select by collector from the extended entity selection menu.
4. Select tmp.
5. Click select.
6. Click destination = and select topbottom.
7. Click move.
All elements of the component tmp are moved to the component topbottom. Note that
the color of the elements has changed from orange to green.
8. Click return.
To delete the component tmp:
1. Select the delete panel on the Tool page.
2. Click the switch and select comps from the extended entity selection menu.
3. Click comps and select tmp.
4. Click return.
The component tmp is now deleted.
Define HyperMesh Groups: Sliding Interface for PAM-CRASH
This tutorial describes how to define a self contacting sliding interface (type 26). A second
interface is defined only for tutorial purposes.
The procedure below explains how to define a type 26 self contacting sliding interface.
3. Click name = and enter self_impact.
4. Click type = and select SLINT26 from the pop-up menu.
Note that the card image is updated simultaneously.
NOTE
It is possible to define various types of sliding interfaces. All of them, except the
SLINT42, are written as a SLINT / card. The SLINT42 type is written as the PAM
98 SLINT2/ card.
5. Click interface color and select Color 6.
7. Below SLFACM, enter the value 1.0.
8. Select Comment.
9. Below Comment, enter This is the selfimpact interface.
10. Click return.
To add the slave components:
2. Click name = twice and select self_impact.
3. Click the switch below slave: and select comps from the pop-up menu.
4. Click comps twice and select side and topbottom.
5. Click return.
6. Click update.
If update is not clicked, no changes to the previous definition are made. No changes are
made to the graphics window, because the master and slave component list is not
displayed.
NOTE
If you edit this interface with the card previewer, the master and slave set and
component definition are not shown; however, they are still defined in the add
sub-panel.
The procedure below explains how to define a type 34 master slave (element - node) contact.
3. Click name = and enter masterslave.
4. Click type = and select SLINT34 from the pop-up menu.
Note that the card image is updated simultaneously.
5. Click interface color and select Color 13.
7. Below SLFACM, enter the value 1.0.
8. Click return.
To add the master elements and slave nodes:
NOTE
The add sub-panel now appears with different options. The template specifies
what group type is available with the different interfaces, such as SLINT26 or
with SLINT34. Possibilities are: (1) master and slave elements, (2) master
elements and slave nodes, (3) slave elements, and (4) slave nodes.
2. Click the switch below master: and select entity from the pop-up menu.
3. Click the switch below slave: and select entity from the pop-up menu.
4. After master:, click elems to highlight the box with the blue input cursor.
5. Select two elements on the model.
6. Click the upper right add.
7. After slave:, click nodes to highlight the box with the blue input cursor.
8. Select two nodes on the model.

9. Click the lower right add.
You should now see the master elements (elements with x) and the slave nodes (S)
displayed on the model.
Define a Rigid Wall for PAM-CRASH
This tutorial explains how to define a type 4 infinite rigid wall with a base node at -1.00, 0.0,
0.00116.
To create a base node for the rigid wall:
3. After X =, enter the value 1.0.
4. After Y =, enter the value 0.0.
5. After Z =, enter the value 0.00116.
6. Click create node.
To create and define the rigid wall card:
4. Click type = and select RIGWA from the pop-up menu.
NOTE
You can switch between the PAM 97 RIGWA and the PAM 98 RWALL card by
choosing different types: RIGWA or RWALL.
5. Click rgdwall color and select Color 12.
6. Click size = and enter the value 100.
This specifies the display size of the rigid wall.
7. Click create.
To define rigid wall geometry:
2. Click name = twice and select rwall1.
3. Click the switch after shape: and select plane from the pop-up menu.
4. Click the toggle after shape: and select infinite.
5. Click the switch below normal vector: and select x-axis from the pop-up menu.
6. Click base node to highlight the box with the blue input cursor.
7. Select the created node in the graphics area.
You may need to click f on the permanent menu to see the node.
8. Click update.
The rigid wall is now shown in the graphics area.
To add slave nodes for the rigid wall:
2. Click the switch below slaves: and choose nodes from the pop-up menu.
3. Click nodes twice and select by id from the extended entity selection menu.
4. Enter the value 1-21 and press ENTER.
Note that 21 nodes at the interface of the rail and the rigid wall are highlighted. Also note
that one of the nodes was not selected.
5. Click the node that was not highlighted.
or
Enter the value 1012 in the by id field.
6. Click add.
The selected nodes are now set as slaves.

To add motion to the rigid wall:
1. Select the motion sub-panel.
2. Click the switch below name = and select components from the pop-up menu.
3. Click x comp = and enter the value 1.0.
4. Click the switch below type of motion: and select velocity from the pop-up menu.
5. Click update.

To define attributes in the card previewer:
2. Click the switch and select groups from the extended entity selection menu.
3. Click groups and select rwall1.
4. Click return.
5. Click edit.
6. Click the switch below Friction type flag and select no sliding from the pop-up menu.
7. Click the switch below Rigid Wall Descriptor Plane Type and select Type 4 from the
pop-up menu.
NOTE
The card previewer of the rigid wall changed according to the definitions made.
Now it is possible to define the mass and the initial velocity for moving rigid
wall with finite mass.

8. Below mRW, enter the value 1.
9. Below Vinit, enter the value 2000.0.
Creating Boundary Conditions for PAM-CRASH
This tutorial explains how to create model boundary conditions.
3. Click the switch after collector type: and select loadcols from the pop-up menu.
4. Click name = and enter bounc.
5. Click the switch below creation method: and select card image from the pop-up menu.
The card image field should be blank.
6. Click color and select Color 15 from the pop-up menu.
7. Click create.
The header bar now displays bounc as the current loadcol.

1. Select the load types panel from the BCs page.
2. Click constraint = and choose BOUNC from the pop-up menu.
All constraints that are now created will be displacement boundary conditions.
To create constraints on nodes:
1. Select the display panel on the permanent menu
2. Click the upper right switch and select groups from the pop-up menu.
3. Click none.
The display of groups is now off.
5. Select the constraints panel from the BCs page.
7. Click nodes and select by id from the pop-up menu.
8. Enter the value 990-1011.
10. Click create.
The constraints are now added to the nodes.

Create Time Histories for PAM-CRASH
For PAM-CRASH, time histories may be defined for nodes, elements, and local coordinate
systems. For this exercise, you will only create time histories for some nodes and elements. The
operation is the same for any type of time history that is created.
2. Click the upper right switch and select loadcols from the pop-up menu.
3. Click none.
The display of loads is now off.
4. Click return.
6. Click name = and enter node_thp.
7. Click the switch and select nodes from the pop-up menu.
8. Use the mouse to select a few nodes in the graphics area.
9. Click create.
The time history for nodes is now created.
1. Click name = and enter elem_thp.
3. Use the mouse to select a few elements in the graphics area.
4. Click create.
1. Click review.
2. Select elem_thp.
The entities associated with this time history are highlighted.
To view the time history card image:
2. Click the switch and select outputblocks from the pop-up menu.
3. Click outputblocks.
4. Select elem_thp.
5. Click return.
6. Click edit.
The time history card is displayed as it will look in the output.
Create a Function
This section describes how to generate curves, which corresponds to the function cards FUNCT
and LOCUR in PAM-CRASH. This curve should serve as a function for a logical sensor switching
on and off. At time=0, the sensor is on, at time=0.01 the sensor is switched off.
To create a curve:
1. Select the xy plots panel from the Post page.
2. Click plots.
3. Click plot = and enter sensor.
4. Click create plot.
5. Click return.
6. Click edit curves.
8. Click plot = and select sensor.
9. Select math.
10. After x = type {0, 0.01, 0.1}.
11. After y = type {1, 0, 0}.
12. Click create.

13. Click return.
14. Click exit to access the main menu.
Create a Sensor Card
Sensors are implemented as properties in HyperMesh. In this example we refer to the curve
defined in the preceding Help topic.
To define a PAM-CRASH sensor:
1. Select the safety panel from the 2-D page.
2. Select the sensors sub-panel.
3. Click name = and enter sensor.
4. Click card image = and select SENSOR from the pop-up menu.
6. Select COMMENT.
7. Below Comment, enter This is a logical function sensor.
8. Click the switch below Sensor type and select logical function switch from the pop-up
menu.
9. Click LCS twice and select curve1.

Exporting a PAM-CRASH Data Deck from HyperMesh
This tutorial explains how to generate a PAM-CRASH input deck from HyperMesh.
To export a PAM-CRASH file:
The template = field must show the pamcrash/general file.
3. Click filename = and enter rail.pc.
rail.pc is the PAM-CRASH file you will create.
4. Click write.
HM writes the deck. A message in the header bar will indicate when the process is
completed.

RADIOSS Interface - HM-1130-L
This tutorial introduces the use of the RADIOSS 3.1 template when creating models for crash
analyses.
Creating and Defining Components, Materials and Properties
Creating and Defining Interface Elements for RADIOSS
Create and Define a Rigid Wall Entity
Creating Boundary Conditions for RADIOSS
Creating Time Histories for RADIOSS
Creating and Editing Control Cards for RADIOSS
Exporting a RADIOSS Data Deck from HM
under /tutorials/hm/tutorials/tutorials/.
administrator.
See Also
The HyperMesh - PAM-CRASH Interface - HM-1120
Creating and Defining Components, Materials, and Properties
When starting a new model, typically you need to organize a model by components, material, and
property data. This tutorial demonstrates how to organize a model by defining RADIOSS material
and property cards and also shows how those can be associated with components.
A prepared model with elements and nodes is included in the /tutorials/hm/tutorials/
directory. The file name of the example is rail_crash.hm. This is the basic example on which
the tutorial is based.
4. Select the rail_crash.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
rail_crash.hm file.
5. Click retrieve.
RADIOSS Interface HM-1130-L

rail_crash.hm.
To load the RADIOSS template:
3. Select the radioss31.fix template, located in the HyperMesh installation directory
under /radioss/radioss31.fix/.
HyperMesh returns to the global panel. Note that template file = now displays the
location of the radioss31.fix template.
To define material data:
3. Click the switch after collector type: and select mats from the pop-up menu.
4. Click name = twice and select steel.
5. Click card image = and select MLAW2 from the pop-up menu.
This is the RADIOSS material.
6. Click load/edit.
7. Below Title, enter steel.
8. Below RHO_1, enter the value 7.8e-06.
This is the density.
9. Below E, enter the value 2e5.
This is the Youngs modulus.
10. Below nu, enter the value .3.
This is the Poissons ratio.
The material properties are now edited.
11. Click return to access the collectors panel.
The material data is now defined.

Material card RADIOSS MLAW2.
To create and define property data:
2. Click the switch after collector type: and select props from the pop-up menu.
3. Click name = and enter rail_prop.
4. Click the switch below creation method: and select card image from the pop-up menu.
5. Click card image = and select SectSHEL from the pop-up menu.
The RADIOSS property is now selected.
NOTE
It is not necessary to specify material in this panel when using the RADIOSS
template.
7. Below Title, enter rail property.
8. Below Thick, enter the value 1.0.
The property data is now defined.
9. Click return to access the collectors panel.

Property card RADIOSS SectSHEL
To define components:
2. Click the switch after collector type: and select comps from the pop-up menu.
3. Click name = twice and select rail.
4. Click card image = and select Part from the pop-up menu.
5. Click load/edit.
NOTE
Although not a RADIOSS card, this allows you to control which property is
associated with a component. RADIOSS does not have a component concept such
as HyperMesh, so this card was created to bridge the gap. This card will not be
output, but element data associated with this component will reflect the MATNUM
(material ID) and IPID (property ID) shown here.
6. Click IPID twice and select rail_prop.
This selects the property that was created and defined earlier.
The component data is now defined.

Component card for RADIOSS
Creating and Defining Interface Elements for RADIOSS
This tutorial shows how to create interface elements that define the RADIOSS interface cards.
Interface elements are for defining where contact or possible contact can occur on a model.
To create and define interface entities:
3. Click name = and enter int1.
This is a name for the interface.
4. Click type = and select ELEMtoELEM from the pop-up menu.
5. Click interface color and select Color 9 from the pop-up menu.
7. Click the box below Itype and select 7 from the pop-up menu.
This defines RADIOSS interface type 7. You may also enter in other values pertaining to
this interface, but this example uses the default values.
NOTE HyperMesh currently only allows surface input types 1 or 5 for RADIOSS.

Interface card RADIOSS ELEMtoELEM
8. Click return to access the interfaces panel.
We will now add master elements to the model.
10. Click name = twice and select int1.
11. Click the switch below master and select entity from the pop-up menu.
NOTE For the RADIOSS template, only entity, sets, or all are valid for element definitions.
12. Click the upper elems box and select all from the extended entity selection menu.
You can also select elements individually or with any other option on the extended entity
selection menu.
13. Click the upper right add.
Master interface elements are created on each structure element.
We will now add slave elements to the model.
14. Click the switch below slave and select entity from the pop-up menu.
15. Click the lower elems box twice and select all from the extended entity selection menu.
16. Click the lower right add.
Slave interface elements are created on each structure element.
NOTE
Slave and master elements are added to all structure elements in order to define
the model for self contact.

Slave and master interface elements
Create and Define a Rigid Wall Entity
This tutorial demonstrates how to create and define a rigid wall entity for RADIOSS.
To create and define a rigid wall:
We will now create and define the rigid wall card.
4. Click type = and select RigidWall from the pop-up menu.
5. Click rgdwall color and select Color 13 from the pop-up menu.
This controls the size of the displayed rigid wall on the screen when it is created.
7. Click create.
The rigid wall group is now created.
We will now define the rigid wall geometry.
9. Ensure that rwall1 is displayed after name =.
10. Click the upper right switch and select plane from the pop-up menu.
11. Click the toggle and select infinite.
12. Click the switch below normal vector: and select x-axis from the pop-up menu.
13. Press F8 on the keyboard to select the create nodes panel.
14. Create a node at (900,0,0).
15. Click return to access the rigid walls panel.
16. Click base node to highlight the box with the blue input cursor.
17. Select the created node in the graphics area.
You may need to click f on the permanent menu to see the node.
18. Click update.
The rigid wall geometry is now created.
We will now add slave nodes for the rigid wall.
20. Click the switch below slaves and select nodes from the pop-up menu.
NOTE Only nodes, sets, or all are supported for the RADIOSS template.
21. Click the yellow nodes box twice and select all from the extended entity selection menu.
22. Click add.
We will now edit the RADIOSS rigid wall card.

Rigid wall
23. Select the card sub-panel.
24. Ensure rwall1 is displayed after name =.
25. Ensure that RigidWall is displayed after card image =.
26. Click edit.
27. Below Xm, enter the value 900.
28. Below Ym, enter the value 0.0.
29. Below Zm, enter the value 0.0.
These are the coordinates of the base point that was used to create the rigid wall.
30. Below Xm1, enter the value 901.
31. Below Ym1, enter the value 0.0.
32. Below Zm1, enter the value 0.0.
The above values are the direction of the normal.

RADIOSS rigid wall card.
Creating Boundary Conditions for RADIOSS
This tutorial shows how to create boundary conditions on the model.
3. Click the switch after collector type: and select loadcols from the pop-up menu.
4. Click name = and enter load1.
5. Click color and select Color5 from the pop-up menu.
6. Click create.
NOTE There are no card images associated with loadcols for the RADIOSS template.
2. Click velocity = and select PrcrcbVel from the pop-up menu.
All velocities now created are initial velocities.

Load types panel
NOTE PrcrcbVel is prescribed velocity.
To create velocities on nodes:
2. Click the upper right switch and select groups from the pop-up menu.
3. Click none.
The display of groups is now turned off.
5. Select the velocities panel on the BCs page.
7. Click view on the permanent menu and select left.
The left side of the model is displayed.
9. Use the mouse to draw a window around the nodes on the far left end of the rail.
11. Click magnitude = and enter the value 1000.
12. Click the lower left switch and select x-axis from the pop-up menu.
13. Click create.
The velocity is now added to all nodes.

Velocities on end of rail
Create Time Histories for RADIOSS
For RADIOSS, time histories for nodes, elements, skew frames, interfaces, and materials are
supported. For this tutorial, you will only create time histories for some nodes and elements.
Operation is the same for any type of time history that is created.
2. Click the upper right switch and select loadcols from the pop-up menu.
3. Click none.
The display of loads is now off.
5. Select the output block panel on the BCs page.
6. Click name = and enter nodeth.
7. Use the mouse to select a few nodes in the graphics area.
8. Click create.
The time history for nodes is now created.
1. Click name = and enter elemth.
3. Use the mouse to select a few elements in the graphics area.
4. Click create.
1. Click review.
2. Select elemth.
The entities associated with this time history are now highlighted.
To view a time history card image:
2. Click the switch and select outputblocks from the pop-up menu.
3. Click outputblocks.
4. Select elemth.
5. Click select.
6. Click edit.
The time history card is now displayed as it will look in the output.

RADIOSS element time history card
Creating and Editing Control Cards for RADIOSS
For RADIOSS, some control cards are generated automatically, such as CARD 2.7 NUMBER
OF ELEMENTS, so it may not be necessary for you to view every control card. This tutorial only
shows a couple of control cards in order to describe the procedure.
To view and edit a control card:

RADIOSS control cards
2. Click HeaderCard.
3. Below RUNAME, enter a name for the file.
4. Click return.
Repeat this procedure for any other cards you wish to update.

RADIOSS header card
To reset a control card:
1. Click delete.
2. Select the control card you want to reset.
The card changes colors from green to grey.
To suppress control card data from being written:
1. Click disable.
2. Select the control card you wish to suppress.
The color changes from green to red.
To reactivate the control card:
1. Click enable.
2. Select the card you want to restore.
The color changes from red back to green.
To define a control card in order to export a RADIOSS file:
1. Click TimeHistory_1.
Exporting a RADIOSS Data Deck from HyperMesh
This tutorial explains how to generate a RADIOSS input deck from HyperMesh.
To export a RADIOSS file:
3. Ensure that template = shows radioss31.fix.
4. Click filename = and enter the name of the RADIOSS file you want to create.
5. Click write.
HyperMesh writes the deck, and displays a message when it is complete.

File export

Modeling Contact for MARC - HM-1050
This tutorial explains how to use the 2-D interface between HyperMesh and MARC. The
following exercises are included:
Defining Material Properties.
Defining Geometry Properties for 2-D Solid Elements.
Defining Contact Bodies and Contact Properties.
Creating Loads and Boundary Conditions.
Defining Control Cards.
HyperMesh supports many different material models for MARC. In this example, you create two
different material models with no temperature variation. The component collector then assigns
the material properties to the elements.
3. Click retrieve and select marc2d_tutorial.hm.
4. Click Open.
To select the MARC template for a 2-D mechanical analysis:
2. Click load and choose marc/stress2d.tpl from the templates directory.
3. Click Open.
4. Click return.
To create the ISOTROPIC material model card:
- Click name = and enter STEEL.
Modeling Contact for MARC HM-1050
- Click card image = and choose ISOTROPIC.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath Youngs and enter
2.1E5.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath Poissons and
enter 0.3.
To create the MOONEY material model card:
- Click name = and enter RUBBER.
- Click card image = and select MOONEY.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath C10 and enter 0.8.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath C01 and enter 0.2.
To tie the ISOTROPIC material card to the component collector:
4. Click comps and select steel from the list.
6. Click material = and select STEEL.
7. Click update.
9. Click update.
To tie the MOONEY material card to the component collector:
1. Click comps and select rubber from the list.
3. Click material = and select RUBBER.
4. Click update.
6. Click update.
Defining Geometry Properties for 2-D Solid Elements
HyperMesh supports geometry properties for shells, solids and beams from the component
collector. In this example, create the GEOMETRY model definition cards and tie them to the
existing component collectors.
To create GEOMETRY model definition cards for already existing components:
4. Click name = and select steel.
5. Click card image = and select GEOMETRY.
6. Click load/edit.
7. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath EGEOM(1) and enter 1.0.
9. Click name = and select rubber.
11. Click load/edit.
To view or change the entries in a geometry model definition card:
3. Click comps and select rubber from the list of component collectors.
5. Click edit to view or edit the GEOMETRY model definition card image.
6. Click return to finish the viewing process or change an entry.
Note: You can also define a GEOMETRY model definition card during the creation of a
component collector.
Defining Contact Bodies and Contact Properties
HyperMesh supports the definition of deformable and rigid contact bodies for stress analysis. A
deformable contact body can be defined using sets, components, or individual element IDs. In
this example, you use individual element IDs to define the deformable contact body. This has
the advantage of a graphical visualization of the defined deformable body. The present version of
the interface cannot handle a rigid body definition based on more than one curve segment.
Therefore all curves which describe the rigid body have to be combined into a single curve. In
this example, define the rigid body in the most common manner as line segments. Notice that
HyperMesh creates an interface group for each contact body (also for the contact header block).
To create line segments of the plot element type on curves:
2. Select the component = sub-panel and select rigid.
3. Click the element order: toggle and select first.
4. Click the element size = button and enter 0.5.
6. Select the elem types panel from the 1-D page.
7. Click the plot sub-panel and select FACET_2.
9. Select the line mesh panel from the 1-D page.
10. Click the input collector switch and select lines.
11. Pick the line where you want to create elements.
12. Click the toggle to select segment is whole line.
13. Click the element config: switch and select plot.
14. Click mesh.
15. Click return to exit the sub-panel.
16. Click return to exit the line mesh panel.
To define the header for the contact model definition card:
1. Select the BCs page.
2. Select the interfaces sub-panel.
5. Click name = and enter header.
6. Click type = and enter CONTACT_HEADER.
Notice that the parameter CONTACT_HEADER now appears in the card image.
Edit the card image:
1. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath MaxEnt and enter 500.
2. Click the field beneath MxNod and enter 500.
3. Click the field beneath FricTy and select 5.
4. Click the field beneath CoulFr and select 1.
5. Click the field beneath BIAS and enter 0.9.
6. Click return to exit the card image panel.
7. Click return to exit the interfaces panel.
To define the deformable contact body:
2. Select the interfaces panel.
5. Click name = and enter defbody1.
6. Click type = and enter BODY_2D_DEFORMABLE.
7. Notice that the parameter BODY_2D_DEFORMABLE now appears in the card image.
8. Select the interface color sub-panel and select Color 12.
2. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath BodyID and enter 1.
5. Click the switch under slave: and select entity.
6. Click elems to the right of slave: and select by collector.
7. Select component rubber.
8. Click select.
9. Click add to the right of slave: to add these elements to the deformable body defbody1.
When elements are added to a group, HyperMesh creates ghost element images that are
placed into the group. The original element that was selected is not modified.
To define the rigid contact body:
2. Select the interfaces panel.
5. Click name = and enter rigbody2.
6. Click type = and enter BODY_2D_RIGID.
Notice that the parameter BODY_2D_RIGID now appears in the card image.
1. Click the ITYPE switch and select LINE SEGMENT.
2. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath BodyID and enter 2.
3. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath VelX and enter 8.5.
6. Click the switch under slave: and select comps.
7. Double-click comps to the right of slave:.
8. Select component rigid.
9. Click select.
10. Click update to the right of slave: to add these plot elements to the rigid body rigbody2.
Notice that for the definition of a rigid body as line segments, you have to add the plot
elements to the interface group by components.
To view the normal direction of the line elements:
2. Select the summary panel.
3. Click load and select summary/marc/show_normals2d.sum .
4. Click the toggle under browse and switch to displayed.
5. Click summary.
Notice that three vectors appear on the rigid body, which define the normal vector
direction of the rigid body following a right handed rule. For the correct contact definition
in MARC, these vectors have to point into the rigid body.
6. Click return.
To change the normal direction of the line elements:
2. Select the summary panel.
3. Click load and select summary/marc/reverse_normals2d.sum .
4. Click the toggle below browse and switch to displayed
5. Click summary.
Notice that the reverse_normals.sum template only works correct for a single
displayed rigid body. If there is more than one rigid body in your model, mask the others
and execute the template only for the displayed rigid body. You have to repeat the steps
above for all desired rigid bodies.
6. Click return.
Creating Loads and Boundary Conditions
In HyperMesh, every load collector can be used to define a set of loads and boundary conditions.
The load collectors can be added to a loadstep, which defines either a model definition data card
block (before END OPTION card), or a history definition data card block (between two
CONTINUE cards) in the MARC input deck.
To create the MODEL DEFINITION DATA load collector:
4. Click name = and enter the name model_def_loads.
6. Click create.
Notice that in the main menu header bar next to the quit button, the active load collector
model_def_loads appears. All loads and boundary conditions are now added to this
load collector.
To create constraints on the steel component:
2. Select the constraints panel.
4. Click size and enter 1.
5. Activate the check boxes next to dof1, and dof2.
6. Deactivate the check boxes next to dof3, dof4, dof5 and dof6.

10. Click create.
To assign the load collector model_def_loads to a loadstep:
2. Select the load steps panel.
3. Click name = and enter model_definition_block.
4. Click loadcols and select the load collector model_def_loads.
5. Click select.
6. Click create.
To edit the loadstep card image and define a MODEL DEFINITION DATA load and
constraint block (ZERO INCREMENT):
2. Click the upper switch and select loadsteps.
3. Click loadsteps and select model_definition_block.
4. Click select.
5. Click edit.
Edit the card image to add the appropriate MODEL DEFINITION CARDS:
1. Select Initial from the option list.
2. Select CONTROL from the option list.
3. Select NOPRINT from the option list.
4. Select CONTACT TABLE from the option list.
5. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath NrSets and enter 2.
Notice that two SETS of contact table entries appear.
6. Click the field beneath TBo(1) and enter 1.
7. Click the field beneath FricC(1) and enter 0.5.
8. Click the field beneath Bo(0,0) and enter 1.
9. Click the field beneath TBo(2) and enter 1.
10. Click the field beneath FricC(2) and enter 0.3.
11. Click the field beneath Bo(1,0) and enter 2.
To create the HISTORY DEFINITION DATA load collector:
4. Click name = and enter the name: history1_def_loads.
6. Click create.
Notice that in the main menu header bar next to the quit button, the active load collector
history1_def_loads is displayed. All loads and boundary conditions are now added to
this load collector.
To assign the load collector history1_def_loads to a new loadstep:
2. Select the loadsteps panel.
3. Click name = and enter history1_definition_block.
4. Click loadcols and select the load collector history1_def_loads.
5. Click select.
6. Click create.
To edit the loadstep card image and define a HISTORY DEFINITION DATA load and
constraint block (LOADCASE):
3. Click loadsteps and select the loadstep history1_definition_block.
4. Click select.
5. Click edit.
Edit the card image to add the appropriate HISTORY DEFINITION CARDS:
1. Select CONTROL from the option list.
2. Select AUTOLOAD_TIMESTEP from the option list.
3. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath nitems and enter 60.
4. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath timeinc and enter 0.017.
5. Select MOTION_CHANGE from the option list.
6. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath NrSets2 and enter 1.
7. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath ID(1) and enter 2.
8. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath Velx(1) and enter -8.5.
Defining Control Cards
The definition of the MARC PARAMETER DEFINITION DATA cards in HyperMesh is available on
the control cards panel.
To define the appropriate MARC PARAMETER DEFINITION DATA cards:
2. Select the control cards sub-panel.
Select the appropriate PARAMETER DEFINITION DATA cards:
1. Click title.
2. Edit the card image section and enter 2d contact example next to the title field.
4. Click sizing and click return (there is nothing to edit).
5. Click $no list and click return.
6. Click large disp and click return.
7. Click print.
8. Edit the card image section and enter 5 in the print field.
10. Click setname.
11. Edit the card image section and enter 50 in the UpBound field.
13. Click post.
14. Edit the card image section and enter 1 in the nrvar field.
15. Edit the card image section and enter 6 in the style field.
16. Edit the card image section and enter 47 in the code field.
17. Edit the card image section and enter equiv. Cauchy Stress in the label field.
Exporting the File to MARC
The data currently stored in the database must be output to a MARC .dat file for use with the
MARC solver. The .dat file can then be used to perform the analysis using the MARC solver
outside of HyperMesh.
To export the .dat file:
3. Click load and choose MARC/stress2d.tpl from the templates directory.
4. Click Open.
5. Select the TEMPLATE option on the export sub-panel.
7. Click write as and type in demo_2d.dat for the input deck.
8. Click Save.
To save the .hm file and quit HyperMesh:
3. Click save as and type in the file name demo_2d.hm.
4. Click save.
After you quit HyperMesh you can run the MARC solver using the demo_2d.dat file written from
HyperMesh.

Modeling a 3-D Example for MARC - HM-1051
This tutorial explains how to use the 3-D interface between HyperMesh and MARC. The
following exercises are included:
Defining Material Properties.
Defining Geometry Properties for 3-D Solid Elements.
Creating Loads and Boundary Conditions.
Defining Control Cards.
Exporting the File to MARC.
HyperMesh supports many different material models for MARC. In this example, you create a
material with elastic-plastic mechanical behavior. The component collector then assigns the
material properties to the elements.
3. Click retrieve and select marc3d_tutorial.hm.
4. Click Open.
To select the MARC template for a 3-D mechanical stress analysis:
2. Click load and choose marc/stress3d.tpl from the templates directory.
To create the ISOTROPIC material model card:
- Click name = and enter ALU.
- Click card image = and choose ISOTROPIC.
Modeling a 3D Example for MARC HM-1051
- Select WorkHardData in the option list.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath Youngs and enter
7.0E4.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath Poissons and
enter 0.33.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath EqTYS and enter
200.0.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath nrEq and enter 5.
- In the card image section of the menu, click the table entries beneath EqStress
and EqPlStrain and enter the following values:
EqStress EqPlStrain
200 0.00
210 0.15
240 0.70
245 1.25
248 2.00
To tie the material cards to the component collectors:
4. Click comps and select test_specimen from the list.
6. Click material = and select ALU.
7. Click update.
9. Click update.
Defining Geometry Properties for 3-D Solid Elements
HyperMesh supports geometry properties for shells, solids and beams from the component
collector. In this example, create the GEOMETRY model definition card and tie them to the
already existing component collectors.
To create GEOMETRY model definition cards for already existing components:
4. Double-click name = and select test_specimen.
6. Click load/edit.
To view or change the entries in a geometry model definition card:
3. Click comps and select test_specimen from the list of component collectors.
5. Click edit to view or edit the GEOMETRY model definition card image.
6. Click return to finish the viewing process or change an entry.
Note: You can also define a GEOMETRY model definition card during the creation of a
component collector.
Creating Loads and Boundary Conditions
In HyperMesh, every load collector can be used to define a set of loads and boundary conditions.
The load collectors can be added to a loadstep, which defines either a model definition data card
block (before END OPTION card), or a history definition data card block (between two
CONTINUE cards) in the MARC input deck. In this example, define three HISTORY blocks with
different load magnitudes.
To create the symmetry load collector:
4. Click name = and enter the name symmetry.
6. Click create.
Notice that in the header bar left of the quit button, the active load collector symmetry
appears. All loads and boundary conditions are now added to this load collector.
To create the constraints on the symmetry plane component:
5. Activate the check boxes next to dof1.
6. Deactivate the check boxes next to dof2, dof3, dof4, dof5, and dof6.

10. Click create.
To create all other load collectors:
4. Click name = and enter the name move_zero.
6. Click create.
7. Click name = and enter the name move_history1.
9. Click create.
12. Click create.
15. Click create.
Notice that in the header bar left of the quit button, the active load collector
move_history3 appears. All loads and boundary conditions are now added to this load
collector.
To create the MODEL DEFINITION Block constraints on the load plane and assign them to
the move_zero load collector:
1. Select the global menu panel.
2. Select the loadcol = sub-panel.
3. Select the move_zero loadcollector.
Notice that in the header bar left of the quit button, the active load collector move_zero
appears. All loads and boundary conditions are now added to this load collector.
9. Activate the check boxes next to dof1, dof2, and dof3.
10. Deactivate the check boxes next to dof4, dof5 and dof6.

14. Click create.
To create the 1 HISTORY block constraints on the load plane and assign them to the
move_history1 load collector:
3. Select the move_history1 loadcollector.
collector.
5. In the field next to dof1 = enter -0.024.
8. Click create.
3. Select the move_history2 loadcollector.
collector.
5. In the field beneath dof1 = enter -0.001.
8. Click create.
3. Select the move_history3 load collector.
collector.
5. In the field beneath dof1 = enter -0.024.
8. Click create.
To assign the appropriate load collectors to the loadstep defining the MARC MODEL
DEFINITION DATA block:
2. Select the load steps panel.
3. Click name = and enter zero_inc.
4. Click loadcols and select the load collectors symmetry and move_zero.
5. Click select.
6. Click create.
To edit the loadstep card image and define a MODEL DEFINITION DATA load and
constraint block (ZERO INCREMENT):
3. Click loadsteps and select the loadstep zero_inc.
4. Click select.
5. Click edit.
6. Edit the card image to add the appropriate MODEL DEFINITION CARDS:
7. Select Initial from the option list.
8. Select NOPRINT from the option list.
To assign the appropriate load collectors to the loadsteps defining the MARC HISTORY
Definition DATA blocks:
2. Select the load steps sub-panel.
3. Click name = and enter history1.
4. Click loadcols and select the load collector symmetry and move_history1.
5. Click select.
6. Click create.
9. Click select.
10. Click create.
13. Click select.
14. Click create.
To edit the history1 loadstep card image and define a load and constraint block
(LOADCASE_1):
3. Click loadsteps and select the loadstep history1.
4. Click select.
5. Click edit.
1. Select CONTROL in the option list.
2. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath chk1 and enter 0.05.
3. Select NOPRINT in the option list.
4. Select AUTOLOAD_TIMESTEP in the option list.
6. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath timeinc and enter 2.
(LOADCASE_2):
4. Click select.
5. Click edit.
6. Edit the card image to add the appropriate HISTORY DEFINITION CARDS:
7. Select AUTOLOAD_TIMESTEP in the option list.
9. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath timeinc and enter 0.1.
(LOADCASE_3):
4. Click select.
5. Click edit.
1. Select AUTOLOAD_TIMESTEP from the option list.
3. In the card image section of the menu, click the field beneath timeinc and enter 2.
Defining Control Cards
The definition of the MARC PARAMETER DEFINITION DATA cards in HyperMesh is available on
the control cards panel.
To define the appropriate MARC PARAMETER DEFINITION DATA cards:
2. Select the control cards panel.
3. Select the appropriate PARAMETER DEFINITION DATA cards:
4. Click title.
5. Edit the card image section and enter 3d contact example in the title field.
7. Click sizing and click return (there is nothing to edit).
8. Click $no list and click return.
9. Click large disp and click return.
10. Click plasticity.
11. Edit the card image section and select 3 in the form field.
13. Click solver.
14. Edit the card image section and select 4 in the typ field.
16. Click optimize.
17. Edit the card image section and select 10 in the typ field.
19. Click post.
20. Edit the card image section and enter 2 in the nrvar field.
21. Edit the card image section and enter 6 in the style field.
22. Edit the card image section and enter 17 in the first code field.
23. Edit the card image section and enter v. Mises Stress in the label field.
24. Edit the card image section and enter 7 in the second code field.
25. Edit the card image section and enter Total equiv. pl. Strain in the label field.
Exporting the File to MARC
The data currently stored in the database must be output to a MARC .dat file for use with the
MARC solver. The .dat file can then be used to perform the analysis using the MARC outside of
HyperMesh.
To export the .dat file:
3. Click load and choose MARC/stress3d.tpl from the templates directory.
4. Select the TEMPLATE option on the export sub-panel.
6. Click write as and enter the name demo_3d.dat for the input deck.
7. Click save.
To save the .hm file and quit HyperMesh:
3. Click save as and type demo_3d.hm.
4. Click save.
After you quit HyperMesh you can run the MARC solver using the demo_3d.dat file that was
written from HyperMesh.


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Fatigue Panel - HM-630L
This tutorial demonstrates how to write an input file for a given fatigue solver using the options
available on the fatigue panel.
The following exercise is included:
Using the fatigue panel to export data and write an nSOFT input deck
See Also
fatigue panel
Interfacing with nSOFT
Using the Fatigue Panel to Export Data and Write an nSOFT Input Deck
In this tutorial, retrieve the file keyhole.hm. This file contains a finite element (FE) model -for
which an analysis has already been conducted- to obtain the stress/strain information for
durability loads of interest.
3. Retrieve the keyhole.hm file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
4. Note file = now displays the location of the keyhole.hm file.
To load the results file:
1. Select the results sub-panel.
2. Browse for the keyhole.res file, located in the HyperWorks installation directory under
To export data and write a fatigue solver input deck:
1. On the Post page select the fatigue panel.

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Fatigue Panel HM-630-L
2. Click the FE Analysis Type toggle and select static/modal.
Results contained in keyhole.res were obtained from linear statics analysis.
Note:
Select the transient dynamic option if a dynamic finite element analysis was
used to obtain the stress/strain results for the model.
3. Click the Output File Format toggle and select ascii.
Note:
Select the binary option if the fatigue solver allows a binary input file.
For more information on fatigue solvers and acceptable input file formats,
please see the fatigue panel in the Panels On-line Help.
4. Click browse and locate the file folder you want store the file in, then enter a name for
the output file.
This output file is the input file for the fatigue solver.
5. Click data group = and select any of the data groups that you want to write to the output
file.
The data groups are organized based on whether nodal or elemental results are available
in the results file.
NOTE
For more information on how HyperMesh organizes the analysis results available
in the results file, please see the fatigue panel in the Panels On-line Help.
6. Click the switch under select simulation: and select all.
This specifies the data in the results file that is written to the output file. In this case,
selecting all writes the stress/strain data for the selected nodes or elements for all
loadcases represented in keyhole.res.
NOTE
You can write out stress/strain information for all of the time steps, or you can
choose a range from a starting time step to an ending time step, or you can
choose a selection of time steps manually from the available list.
For more information, see the fatigue panel in the Panels On-line Help.
The next step is to select the entities for which the finite element analysis results file is written.
NOTE
The type of entity you select is based upon the data group you selected. Select
nodes if the data group you selected refers to nodal results. Similarly, select
elements if the data group you selected refers to elemental results. Select sets
to choose a predefined entity set comprised of nodes or elements
corresponding to a data group with nodal/elemental results, respectively. If the
data group results and the entity type are not the same, HyperMesh displays an
error message, Results file doesnt contain nodal values.
7. Click the entity input collector switch and select elems.
9. Draw the window as shown in the figure below.
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10. Click interior.
12. Click write.
An ascii file is written to the selected directory.
You can read this file into the appropriate fatigue solver to complete the fatigue analysis.

Post-processing

Customizing
Creating Macro Menus - HM-115
A macro is similar to a user-defined script, or executable. You can write a macro specifically for
yourself that will execute a series of steps semi-automatically. The macro language uses the
same commands found in the command files generated by HyperMesh.
HyperMesh macros allow you to combine several steps into a single mouse click. Routines you
use often, such as saving the model file, or repetitive tasks you apply to your models, can be
converted into macros.
The macro menu appears on the right side of the HyperMesh interface. It contains page selection
buttons, shortcut buttons, and tools, organized into macro pages. It may be turned on or off from
the options panel menu config sub-panel. If you prefer to create your own version of the Macro
Menu, it may be loaded from the same panel.
The standard pages available are: QA, Mesh, User1, Disp, Geom. Each page contains
functionally related macros. User1 is a page devoted to macros you would create. You can create
macros to be added to existing pages, such as Geom, if you choose. The process to create them
is the same as for macros going on the User1 macro page.
This tutorial covers the following topics:
What is a HyperMesh macro
Creating a control for a macro
Creating your own macro
What is a HyperMesh macro
A HyperMesh macro automates a HyperMesh process or executes a series of steps semi-
automatically, thereby functioning like a user-defined script or command file. It uses the
HyperMesh macro language, an extension of the HyperMesh command language. The types of
macros you can write vary. They can be simple macros that run from a HyperMesh command file,
or contain additional embed logic using Tcl/Tk scripting commands, or incorporate user
interaction.
The macro command language is an interpreted language. This means each command executes
in the order in which it appears in the macro file. While macros offer a great deal of flexibility,
remember once a macro executes, there is no way to cancel the execution or reject the results.
Macros have two parts: the definition of the button (control) that activates the macro and the
instructions the macro performs.
Controls come in the form of buttons and button groups. For each control you specify its
characteristics:
the macro page it displays on
its label
its location and size
its help message
the macro it calls, and any optional arguments
Following the definition of the control is the set of commands you wish to execute.
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HyperMesh macro commands reside in macro page files. Each page of the macro menu is
defined in its own file. These files are located in the HyperMesh bin directory. All the
modifications we will make in the tutorial will be done to the file userpage.mac and will appear on
the user1 page of the macro menu.
Below is a sample macro file. It contains documentation (follows the // at the beginning of the
line), creates three buttons and a macro for each of the three buttons.
Sample macro
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Filename: userpage.mac
// Purpose: Macro menu 'User' page definitions.
// Version: HyperWorks 6.0
// Copyright: 2002 Altair Engineering Inc., All rights reserved.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// User Page Widget Definitions
//
// Note: Since relative row locations are used, the menu page is built from
// the bottom up.
//
// The following templex test is used to see if the Tcl support buttons
// should be added.
{ if ( getenv("HM_DEBUG") == "ON" ) }
*createbutton(5, "TkCon ...", -1, 0, 10, BUTTON, "Launch the Tk
Console.", EvalTcl, "tkcon.tcl")
*createbutton(5, "WidgetTour ...", -1, 0, 10, BUTTON, "Launch the Tk
Console.", LaunchWidgetTour)
*createbutton(5, "ProDebug", 0, 0, 10, BUTTON, "Connect to the TclPro
debugger.", ConnectToDebugger)
{ endif }
// User Page Macro Definitions
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
*beginmacro("ConnectToDebugger")
// Purpose: To connect to a remotely running ProDebug session.
//
// Note: The pathname to the 'prodebug.tcl' script may need to
be
// modified to reflect your installation of
TclPro.
*evaltclstring("source /Program\ Files/tclPro1.4/win32-
ix86/bin/prodebug.tcl; debugger_init;",0)
*endmacro()
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
*beginmacro("LaunchWidgetTour")
// Purpose: Launch the HyperWorks Widget Tour dialog.
*evaltclstring("::hwt::WidgetTour",0)
*endmacro()
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Attributes you can change on a macro page include:
buttons to display on that macro page
the location and size of the buttons appearing on a macro page
the label for each button
the help string displayed on the menu bar
the macro called by each button, with optional arguments to pass
HyperMesh macros consist of valid command file or templex commands, and are enclosed by the
*beginmacro(macroname) and *endmacro() commands. Macros may accept data passed to them
using the arguments $1, $2, etc. Each argument specifies where the values should be
substituted.
The following skeleton shows the format of a macro.
*beginmacro(macroname)
macro command statements go here
*endmacro()
Creating a control for a macro
To activate a macro from HyperMesh, you must create a button on the Macro Menu to invoke the
macro. Use the *createbutton()command to define the button and its characteristics. The
syntax for this command is:
*createbutton(page, name, row, column, width, COLOR, helpString, macroName [ , arg1
])
Where:
page Indicates the page number on which the button is to appear (values 1 through n;
initially there are 5).
name The text to display on the button. Enclose the text with quotes ().
row The row in which to place the button (values 1 - n). The number of rows visible
depends upon the graphics resolution setting of your hardware.
column The column where the button starts (values 0 - 10 ).
width The width of the button ( max 10).
COLOR The color of the button. The available button colors are: RED, BLUE, GREEN,
CYAN, BUTTON, and MAGENTA. The color name must appear in capital letters.
helpString The string to be displayed in the menu bar when the button is selected. Enclose
text of string in quotes ().
macroName The name of the macro to call when the button is selected. Enclose text of string
in quotes ().
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arg1 A list of one or more optional arguments passed to the macro. You may have as
many arguments as your computers memory will allow.

Figure 1. How rows and columns are laid out
The following activities create a control on the User1 page of the macro menu.
To create a button
In this exercise, create and position the button used to activate a macro. This example creates
everything to appear on the User1 page.
1. Copy the userpage.mac file from the ../hm/bin directory into the working directory,
the directory from where HyperMesh starts. Next change the permissions of the local
userpage.mac file to writeable.
2. Open the userpage.mac file from the working directory in a text editor and scroll to the
end of the file.
3. Add the command:
*createbutton(5,Test,20,4,6,MAGENTA,This is a test button for
experience,macroSample)<cr>
Note The end of a command is a hard return (press the ENTER key). In your text editor,
type each command until you get to the end of it, then press ENTER. The entry <cr>
represents the hard return.
4. Save the modified userpage.mac file.
5. Start HyperMesh from the working directory. This allows the new session to use the
modified userpage.mac file.
6. Press the User1 button on the Macro Menu. You will see Test, the button we defined in
Step 3. Compare this button to our definition. It is magenta in color, begins in the middle
of the row, and only goes half way across the Macro Menu.
Note: There is no functionality behind the button at this time because all we did was
create the button now appearing on the User1 page. Next we will add something for it to
do.
Creating your own macro
Use the following process to assist you in creating HyperMesh macros.
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Process To Create HyperMesh Macros
1. Define the task you want the macro to perform.
2. Execute the process in HyperMesh.
3. Add macro button commands and label.
4. Extract the commands from the command.cmf file.
5. Add them to the macro file.
6. Modify as necessary and add macro wrapper commands.
7. Load the modified macro file into HyperMesh using options panel.
8. Test/Apply macro.
A Macro to create constraints around the edges of selected elements
Step 1: Define the task
The task is to design a macro to automatically create constraints around the edges of selected
elements. With only a few mouse clicks, we will be able to do the following.
Enter the collectors panel.
Create a load collector for the constraints.
Enter the edges panel.
Find the edges around the selected elements.
Enter the constraints panel.
Apply constraints to the nodes of the edge elements
Enter the edges panel.
Delete the edges and the edges collector.
Step 2: Execute the process in HyperMesh
1. Delete the command.cmf file from your working directory.
2. Load the file bumper.hm from the altair\demos\ directory.
3. Go to the collectors panel on any page.
4. In the create sub-panel change the collector type to loadcols.
5. In the name= field enter the name constraints.
6. Select create.
7. From the tool page enter the edges panel.
8. Change the entity selection option to elems,
9. Select a group of elements by window.
10. Press the find edges button.
11. Enter the constraints panel in the BCs page.
12. Click nodes and select by collector then select the êdges collector.
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The created edges are plotel elements with two nodes. These elements are on the
outside perimeter of the elements that were selected. Therefore only the nodes on the
perimeter of the elements selected will be constrained.
13. Press create.
14. From the tool page enter the edges panel.
15. Select delete edges.
There are now constraints in the model and commands in the command.cmf file. These
commands will now be extracted and used to create a macro.
Step 3: Add macro button commands
1. Open the userpage.mac file.
2. Go to the bottom of the file and add the commands to create a button for the macro.
*createbutton(5,Edge_Const,18,0,10,GREEN,Add constraints to outer edge
of elements , macroEdge_Const) <cr>
Step 4 and 5: Extract commands from the command file and add them to the
userpage.mac file
1. Open the command.cmf file.
2. Copy the last lines from the command file.
3. Paste these commands into the userpage.mac file below the statement for the new
button. They should read:
*collectorcreate(loadcols,"constraints","",7)
*createmark(elements,1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 etc..
*findedges(elements,1,0)
*createmark(nodes,1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 etc .
*loadcreate(1,3,1,0,0,0,0,0,0)
*deleteedges()
Observe the *createmark commands and the list of entity id numbers. A mark is a
storage buffer in HyperMesh. For some actions performed on entities, the entity id is first
entered into the designated mark.
There are two marks available to you (1 and 2) for each entity type (elements, nodes,
lines, surfaces, points, etc). At the execution of the command using the mark, the
changes apply to all entities identified in the mark.
Step 6: Modify as necessary and add macro wrapper commands
1. Embed these commands between a *beginmacro(macroEdge_Const) and a
*endmacro().
Notice after the *createmark() commands there are a series of numbers. These numbers are
the element ids, or node ids for the selected nodes. These ids will not be consistent from model to
model. To make the macro useful for multiple models, change the selection method.
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Several options exist to make the *createmark commands general enough to work with any
model. For example, to select all the currently displayed elements in the model use the command
*createmark(elements,1)"by displayed".
Another option is to replace the *createmark command with *createmarkpanel. When
executed, this command presents you with an element selection panel in which any of the
HyperMesh element selection methods can be used. This is the method employed in this macro.
2. Change the *createmark(elements,1) command to *createmarkpanel(elements,1,Select
the elements).

Figure 1-11: Element selection options using the *createmarkpanel command
The *createmarkpanel command brings up a selection window in the main menu area
of HyperMesh. This allows you to interactively select entities with the same selection
methods as in all other panels. For further information and arguments for this and other
command file commands, see the on-line help using the index (commands entry) or
navigating the contents tab from HyperWorks, to HyperMesh, to Commands.
3. Change the *createmark(nodes,1) command to *createmark(nodes,1) by
comp êdges.
by comp is one of many selection methods available. Most of the extended entity
selection methods are available. See on-line help for further details.
The final macro is:
*beginmacro(macroEdge_Const) <cr>
*collectorcreate(loadcols,"constraints","",7) <cr>
*createmarkpanel(elements,1,Select the elements to apply
constraints to) <cr>
*findedges(elements,1,0) <cr>
*createmark(nodes,1) by comp êdges <cr>
*loadcreate(1,3,1,0,0,0,0,0,0) <cr>
*deleteedges()<cr>
*endmacro()<cr>
4. Save the userpage.mac file.
Step 7: Load the new userpage.mac file into HyperMesh
1. Enter the HM session and retrieve the hm.mac macro file through the options/menu
config panel.
When you click Options from the permanent menu then select the menu config sub-
panel, you will see the macro file listed is hm.mac. This file, also known as a wrapper file,
contains an include statement calling the userpage.mac file. When you reload the
hm.mac file, the updated userpage.mac file is loaded also.
2. Reload the bumper.hm file.
Post-processing
Step 8: Test/Apply macro
1. Click return and select the user1 macro page.
Note the new button Edge_Const.
2. Select the new button, Edge_Const. An element selection panel displays prompting
you for the elements to select.
The message placed in the macro now displays in the header bar and the macro waits for
you to select elements.
3. Select elements by displayed.
4. To accept the selection, either click the middle mouse button or click return.
Elements are selected with the usual methods. Once the elements are chosen, you can
either press return or hit the middle mouse key to accept them. Once the elements are
accepted the macro continues with the remaining commands. Constraints now exist
around the edges of the elements.

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6.0 Basic Tutorials

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