how to export several nastral files automatically

Amal

Hello,

My client has several static structural boxes (around 15), and each analysis involves time-varying applied loads. Exporting a Nastran file manually for each load case and each box is quite tedious.

Is there a way to automate this process in version 2023r2?

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Amal

M

@Amal

It isn't quick, but you can do it with script from Workbench.

The only difficulty is correctly formatting the mechanical ACT commands to be sent from Workbench to Mechanical.

I used the wbjn module to get the directory and used the NastranExportOptiones in from Ansys.ACT.Automation.Mechanical import NastranExportOptions to set the options. You can set each/any since they are just python dictionaries.

The script below walks through all WB systems, if they contain 'static' in the name, then the nastran_write_cmd is sent to Mechanical with the name of the project.

The nastran_write_cmd then walks through every time step and sets the time and values in the NastranExportOptions for the Time (!) and NastranFileName.

Note: there are two time (Time & time) keys in the NastranExportOptions, I just set the first one. But any of the key pairs can be set for the export (neo parameter below - dir(neo) to see or use neo.keys() ).

systems = GetAllSystems()

nastran_write_cmd = """
from Ansys.ACT.Automation.Mechanical import NastranExportOptions
import wbjn
import os
	
project_files_dir = wbjn.ExecuteCommand(ExtAPI, "returnValue(GetProjectDirectory())")
project_wbjn_path = wbjn.ExecuteCommand(ExtAPI, "returnValue(GetProjectFile())")
project_name = os.path.relpath(project_wbjn_path, project_files_dir)
ud = wbjn.ExecuteCommand(ExtAPI, "returnValue(GetUserFilesDirectory())")
system_name = '{name}'
neo = NastranExportOptions()
ctr=0
analyses = ExtAPI.DataModel.Project.Model.Analyses
for analysis in analyses:
    time_steps = analysis.AnalysisSettings.NumberOfSteps
    for time_step in range(time_steps):
        neo['time'] = time_step
        export_file = project_name.split('.')[0] + '_' + system_name + '_analysis_' + str(ctr) + '_time_' + str(time_step) + '.nas'
        exportPath = os.path.join(ud,export_file)
        ExtAPI.Log.WriteMessage(exportPath)
        neo['NastranFilename'] = exportPath
        analysis.ExportNastranFile(neo)
    ctr+=1
"""

for system in systems:
    print(system.DisplayText)
    try:
	    setup=system.GetContainer(ComponentName="Setup")
	    system_type = setup.GetMechanicalSystemType()
	    if 'static' in system_type.ToString().lower():
	        cmd = nastran_write_cmd.format(name=system.DisplayText)
	        setup.Edit(Interactive=False)
            setup.SendCommand(Language="Python", Command=cmd)
    except:
	    pass

Thanks to @Erik Kostson for

https://discuss.ansys.com/discussion/2245/how-to-export-nastran-file-to-a-specific-folder