Tosca ANSA® environment Specific Tips

This chapter gives you Tosca ANSA® environment specific tips.

  1. In case that the settings entered in sub items of PRE_PROCESSING item in Task Manager are incorrect, this is first revealed when SIMULIA Tosca Structure is started using START_OPTIMIZATION | RUN item. If this is the case, or if the optimization does not succeed because of another reason, the subdirectory DB_ERROR is created in the job directory and the log file DB_ERROR/TOSCA.OUT is opened in a new window in Tosca ANSA® environment (see the following figure). Please refer to SIMULIA Tosca Structure for the explanations of error messages. In ANSA Info window, the message "SIMULIA Tosca Structure Run, exit with errors!" is written.


    Tosca ANSA® environment: TOSCA.OUT file opened in a window.
  2. If Tosca Structure.smooth that was started using SMOOTH | SMOOTH_INSTANCE | RUN_SMOOTH item fails, the message "cannot open '.../TOSCA_POST/SMOOTH_INSTANCE.onf': Invalid argument" is written in ANSA Info window. The error messages produced by SIMULIA Tosca Structure.control (the component that starts Tosca Structure.smooth) are written to the console where Tosca ANSA® environment has been started; the error messages of Tosca Structure.smooth itself are written to the console as well as saved in TOSCA_POST/TOSCA.OUT file.
  3. When starting Tosca Structure.smooth from Tosca ANSA® environment, please make sure that TASK parameter of SMOOTH RUN PARAMETERS window (opened by Edit command applied on RUN_SMOOTH item) is assigned to the correct value: TASK = ISO for topology optimization or TASK = SURFACE for shape and bead optimization.
  4. When selecting groups in Tosca ANSA® environment, make sure that the objects you select (nodes or elements) match the type of the group. If the caption of the field where the group name is to be selected says ND_GROUP (as in DESIGN_AREA command for shape or bead optimization), set the selection mode to node selection by highlighting the line in Database corresponding to nodes; if it says EL_GROUP (as in DESIGN_AREA command for topology optimization), the elements should be selected and thus the line Elements of Database should be highlighted. To highlight a line in Database, simply click it once; in case of selecting elements, make sure that the check box in the line is checked, otherwise the elements are hidden. If a group of inappropriate type is selected, an empty group will appear in SIMULIA Tosca Structure parameter file, and SIMULIA Tosca Structure run will fail.
  5. Once SIMULIA Tosca Structure started from within Tosca ANSA® environment finishes successfully, be careful not to modify any parameters of SIMULIA Tosca Structure task unless you wish to repeat the optimization. When a new optimization starts, in case that the job name (the name of the item created by New | Output command applied to PRE-PROCESSING item; default value is Output) remains unchanged, the job directory is overwritten and all results from the previous optimization run are lost. A new optimization is started automatically when Update command is applied to any item situated below START_OPTIMIZATION in Task Manager (such as RUN_SMOOTH or SOLID_MESH) in case that the item RUN under START_OPTIMIZATION is unchecked. In case that this item is unchecked but the optimization results are present, it is still possible to run further actions without repeating the optimization; it suffices to apply Disable command to START_OPTIMIZATION item (or to delete it completely).
  6. When starting the validation run using SMOOTH | VALIDATE | VALIDATION_RUN item, make sure that the paths to the solver executables are correctly written in the configuration file. See for details. Note that you may start the validation run manually outside of Tosca ANSA® environment since the validation run does not affect any further actions in Tosca ANSA® environment.
  7. Although it is possible to delete certain elements or merge different models in Tosca ANSA® environment, the optimization with SIMULIA Tosca Structure only takes into account the geometry from the input file mentioned under MODEL_LINK item. However, you may modify the result of Tosca Structure.smooth prior to RECONSTRUCT and SOLID_MESH (or in between these actions) in any way, and the changes will be reflected on the model for the validation run.
  8. The options of Tosca ANSA® environment are edited in the dialog opened by Windows | Options... menu command (see the following figure). The buttons "Save" and "Save as" in Settings panel allow to save the configuration of Tosca ANSA® environment, including the paths to SIMULIA Tosca Structure and the solvers. Saving the settings in a temporary file is a quick way to check the current configuration.


    Tosca ANSA® environment: Options dialog.