Translating an Abaqus substructure to a SIMPACK flexible body

The abaqus tosimpack translator converts an Abaqus substructure to a flexible body in a format that can be used by the SIMPACK multibody dynamics code.

The translator reads Abaqus data from a substructure SIM file and writes data to a SIMPACK flexible body interface (.fbi) file.

The following topics are discussed:

Using the translator
Command summary
Command line options

Using the translator

The following procedure summarizes the typical usage of the abaqus tosimpack translator:

Create an Abaqus substructure. (General guidelines for building Abaqus models with substructures are described in Using substructures.)

The substructure generation step must include the following options:
```
*SUBSTRUCTURE GENERATE, MASS MATRIX=YES, RECOVERY MATRIX=YES
*FLEXIBLE BODY, TYPE=SIMPACK
```
Run the Abaqus analysis.
Run the abaqus tosimpack translator to read the substructure SIM database produced by the analysis and to create the flexible body interface file.

Command summary

abaqus tosimpackjobjob-namesubstructure_simfilenameunits{mmksmkscgsips}lengthlength-units-namemassmass-units-nametimetime-units-namefbi_elsetelset-name

Command line options

job

This option specifies the input and output file names to use during results translation. The job-name value is used to construct the default substructure SIM database file name, job-name.sim. The output flexible body interface file is given the name job-name.fbi.

If this option is omitted from the command line, you will be prompted for this value.

substructure_sim

This option specifies the name of the substructure SIM database (.sim) file if it is different from job-name.sim. The file will usually be named job-name_Znn.sim.

units

This option specifies the units system for the Abaqus model. The possible values are mmks (millimeters-kilograms-seconds), mks (meters-kilograms-seconds), cgs (centimeters-grams-seconds), and ips (inches-pounds-seconds). The default value is mks.

length

This option specifies the length units for the model. The valid options are meters, m, millimeters, mm, centimeters, cm, kilometers, km, inches, inch, in, feet, foot, ft, and mile. If this option is specified, it overrides the length units of the specified units system.

mass

This option specifies the mass units for the model. The valid options are kilograms, kg, megagram, tonne, gram, g, pound_mass, lbm, pound, slug, kpound_mass, and ounce_mass. If this option is specified, it overrides the mass units of the specified units system.

time

This option specifies the time units for the model. The valid options are seconds, sec, milliseconds, ms, minutes, min, and hours. If this option is specified, it overrides the time units of the specified units system.

fbi_elset

This option defines a set of elements whose facets will be exported to the flexible body interface file and, therefore, will be available for viewing in SIMPACK. This option does not affect the mechanics of the solution.