Working with SIMULIA Tosca Structure in the Command Shell

For remote calculations or work with queuing systems it may become necessary to call SIMULIA Tosca Structure modules in batch mode from a command shell.

Related Topics
SIMULIA Tosca Structure Control

Please ensure that the SIMULIA Tosca Structure variable is known (e.g. by using a SIMULIA Tosca Structure command shell on Windows) when working without a graphical user interface. This chapter gives only a brief overview of the basic process and the individual commands. More detailed information regarding the optimization process can be found in (SIMULIA Tosca Structure Control). A quick and very short help is printed using the command: 

tosca2017 --help

About Logging in Command Shell

Logging is always done to <jobname>/TOSCA.OUT-file. The following levels can be used.

  • WARNING (not recommended) Only WARNINGs and ERRORs are printed.
  • NOTICE Default output to STDOUT. Only the most important logging.
  • INFO Default output to log file TOSCA.OUT.
  • DEBUG Very verbose output, mostly for support.
  • TRACE (not recommended) Extremely verbose, major performance los, only for developers

To change log level to log file TOSCA.OUT use the command line parameter:

tosca2017  --loglevel <new_level> ...

To increase the amount of output to the command shell set the parameter:

tosca2017 --loglevel_stdout <new_loglevel>

Note that --loglevel must be equal or more verbose than 

--loglevel_stdout
.

As example the following command line shows how to increase log level to INFO on the command shell and DEBUG output into the log file TOSCA.OUT 

tosca2017 --loglevel_stdout INFO --loglevel DEBUG ...

More information about logging see Logging

About Preprocessing

Once the FE model has been completed and checked, the optimization task must be defined. The parameter files containing these definitions can be created with an editor. This is only recommended when single commands in an existing parameter file need to be modified. Groups and coordinate systems can be defined in the FE-model to simplify the creation of the optimization task.

A more detailed description of the command syntax for parameter files can be found in Commands Guide Overview.

Tosca ANSA® environment can be started with the command tosca_ansa_env, Tosca Structure.gui can be started with the command tosca_gui in a SIMULIA Tosca Structure command shell. Tosca Extension for ANSYS® Workbench can be started from within ANSYS® Workbench.

The start script can be found in <install_dir>\bin\tosca_ansa_env or in <install_dir>\bin\tosca_gui.

Check Run

Before starting the optimization, the FE model (<jobname>.ext) and the parameter file (<jobname>.par) must already exist in the work directory. As part of a routine check, the FE model should be analyzed and evaluated. Consequently, a test run has to be completed and checked with respect to the optimization task before beginning the optimization.

tosca2017 <jobname>  --solver <solvername> --type test1

(see Testing the Optimization Process). It is worthwhile to make different test runs depending on the optimization task. Once the test run is completed, a visual check of the definition of the optimization task can follow.

Start Optimization

Starting the optimization with the standard settings is done with the command

tosca2017 <jobname> --solver <solvername>

Further command line options are described in Starting SIMULIA Tosca Structure.

About Postprocessing

Tosca Structure.report allows the preparation of optimization results for postprocessing using Tosca Structure.view.

The optimization results are written by SIMULIA Tosca Structure in a neutral format (ONF). A converting module allows the creation of a report file containing visualization sequences and graphs for specific results. Automatic generation of a visual post processing file can be done with the command line option -report, e.g.:

tosca2017 <jobname> --report

The above automatically call Tosca Structure.report which generates a vtfx-file in the directory TOSCA_POST after a successful optimization.

More details regarding postprocessing can be found in Generation of Postprocessing Data. The vtfx-file can be viewed in Tosca Structure.view which allows visualization of the optimization results by an animation over the iterations of the optimization. The sequences can be created with Tosca Structure.smooth or Tosca Structure.report. Call Tosca Structure.view with the command line:

tosca2017 --view <jobname>/TOSCA_POST/<vtfx-file>

Result Transfer

Tosca Structure.smooth allows the preparation for the transfer of the optimization results into the design process (for more details see Tosca Structure.smooth).

Tosca Structure.smooth is called up in a command shell with the command

tosca2017 <jobname> --smooth

More details regarding postprocessing can be found in Result Transfer and Validation Run. The vtfx-file can be viewed in Tosca Structure.view which allows visualization of the optimization results by an animation over the iterations of the optimization. 

tosca2017 --view <jobname>/TOSCA_POST/<vtfx-file>