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Hello, I am trying to use the utility "Align solid element" determine the material orientation for solid shell composite elements but I can't align properly all the elements of my model.

vincent.dor
1.      Created dummy property with user made coord for elements that need to be oriented
2.      Looked at material orientation (mat_orient_before.png)
3.      Used “Align solid elements” in utilities. Align type: coordinate systems. Z normal to chosen surface and x along chosen vector
4.      After having applied, displayed material orientations seem good (xy_after.png), x in red, z in yellow
5.      Still in “align solid elements", when clicking on “display Material / Element Coord.”, orientations are wrong, it seems they represent the element coord (xy_after_re-display.png)
6.      When displaying material orientation, most elements are well oriented along chosen x direction but some are not (material_orient_after).
 
I suspect this happens because the elements coordinates are not very well ordered and sometimes the x axis (of the created coordinate) used to determine element orientation will coincide with the element z- axis used to determine the thickness direction. Is this it or could there be another explanation?
 
Thank you for your help!
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    It was difficult for me to follow the details of all 6 steps. For solid-shell composites (ASTN), Nastran will use the projection method as described in the CPROJ option on NLMOPTS. For regular solid composites (L) I highly recommend setting CPROJ to ON.
     
    image
     
    then you only need to worry about the z-direction (thickness direction) of your element coordinate system. You can directly view that in Patran using Meshing->Show->Element->Coord. Sys
     
    image.png
    If you need to change any elements you can use the Align Solid Elements utility with Align Type set to "Element IJK"
     
    Then the thickness direction of the elements coordinate system is fixed.
     
    image
     
    NOTE: There is a current bug in Nastran (NAS-42052) that prevents the basic coordinate system (COORD 0) from being projected to define the material coordinate system when using PCOMPLS & ASTN. As a workaround, please always either use -1 (element coordinate system) or ≥1 (user-defined).
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  • 0
    It was difficult for me to follow the details of all 6 steps. For solid-shell composites (ASTN), Nastran will use the projection method as described in the CPROJ option on NLMOPTS. For regular solid composites (L) I highly recommend setting CPROJ to ON.
     
    image
     
    then you only need to worry about the z-direction (thickness direction) of your element coordinate system. You can directly view that in Patran using Meshing->Show->Element->Coord. Sys
     
    image.png
    If you need to change any elements you can use the Align Solid Elements utility with Align Type set to "Element IJK"
     
    Then the thickness direction of the elements coordinate system is fixed.
     
    image
     
    NOTE: There is a current bug in Nastran (NAS-42052) that prevents the basic coordinate system (COORD 0) from being projected to define the material coordinate system when using PCOMPLS & ASTN. As a workaround, please always either use -1 (element coordinate system) or ≥1 (user-defined).
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