How do I read the property names from MSC Nastran input file?

I have large input file that was exported from Femap. It has hundreds of properties and it has comments for each property. These comments include the name for each property. I want to get patran to recognize these property names so I don't have to spend hours naming all the properties using the wonderful patran GUI or trying to keep track of all those properties by number instead of name.

Please provide the syntax that Patran uses to import the property names from the nastran input file. Then I can just change the format so that Patran will accept the property and material names instead of only the numbers.

Or better yet please provide the ability in the future to read Femap formatted files with the comments.

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0 edwin.goei over 6 years ago

Hi Toby,

Per the e-mail l sent you on the Hotline cases you logged:

The issue here is that your materials (and properties) are in an include file. Currently there is a limitation where Patran does not retrieve the names from the comments if it is in an include file. If the materials (and properties) are in the main BDF file it will work. So the workaround is to cut and paste the material data (and property data) into the main BDF file.

I've cross-referenced your two Hotline cases to an already existing bug report for this issue.

Also, per my other e-mail, if you are interested in a better workaround than cutting and pasting the include into the main file, there is something that can do it for you. It's called "expjid=yes". This will make a single input deck or single file out of a deck with INCLUDE statements. The new deck will be in the same folder and file name but extension is *.EXP.

The example below will create an expanded input deck named example.exp:

Nastran.exe example.dat expjid=yes

Also, one more thing I noticed in your files: Patran won't retrieve anything after a space, so use "_" instead.

For example, you have a material called "STEEL 21-6-9.1"

This will import only as "STEEL".

But if you used "STEEL_21-6-9.1", it will import as such.
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0 edwin.goei over 6 years ago

Hi Toby,

Per the e-mail l sent you on the Hotline cases you logged:

The issue here is that your materials (and properties) are in an include file. Currently there is a limitation where Patran does not retrieve the names from the comments if it is in an include file. If the materials (and properties) are in the main BDF file it will work. So the workaround is to cut and paste the material data (and property data) into the main BDF file.

I've cross-referenced your two Hotline cases to an already existing bug report for this issue.

Also, per my other e-mail, if you are interested in a better workaround than cutting and pasting the include into the main file, there is something that can do it for you. It's called "expjid=yes". This will make a single input deck or single file out of a deck with INCLUDE statements. The new deck will be in the same folder and file name but extension is *.EXP.

The example below will create an expanded input deck named example.exp:

Nastran.exe example.dat expjid=yes

Also, one more thing I noticed in your files: Patran won't retrieve anything after a space, so use "_" instead.

For example, you have a material called "STEEL 21-6-9.1"

This will import only as "STEEL".

But if you used "STEEL_21-6-9.1", it will import as such.
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