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  3. Importing bdf file

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Importing bdf file

shaheer.iqbal
shaheer.iqbal over 7 years ago
Hello,
 
I creating an excel file with some grid points spacing (0.05" interval). I saved the file as csv and converted into dat. Now when I am trying to import it into Patran it is not reading the grid points and given me error.
 
Here is my file for reference.
GRID   101            0.55   0      0
GRID   101            0.55   0      0
​
 
Here is the error
$REJECT (SEMTRN) IGNORE INPUT CARD(S) BEFORE BEGIN BULK
$REJECT (SEMTRN) CASE CONTROL CARD(S) AFTER CEND
 
 
The .dat file does not have any begin bulk or CEND command.
 
Any idea what is going wrong with this? or a way out of this
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  • Darrel Sinclair
    0 Darrel Sinclair over 7 years ago
    From what you've posted it looks like your spacings are wrong (although it's possible that's just something that's happened with pasting into the message here.)
     
    In the GRID entries above it looks like you've only got 7 characters per field instead of 8. So the first field is ending up as "GRID 1", etc.
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  • Arthur Hickson
    0 Arthur Hickson over 7 years ago
    You may find it easier to write the file out of Excel with "," comma separators rather than trying to do fixed width format. This will correspond to Nastran free format input, though it does not make an easily readable file (I was going to use the phrase deck, but few people these days understand the reference to a deck of cards :-) ). It also enables you to handle real numbers in exponential format better.
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  • karlR
    0 karlR over 7 years ago
    An alternative approach in Excel: Set column width to 8 and save the file as *.prn. This writes a formatted small field Nastran file. Ensure that the last column does not contain more than 8 characters.
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  • shaheer.iqbal
    0 shaheer.iqbal over 7 years ago
    so I did use CSV to save my files, so the tabs were separated as commas. (Spacing is correct)
    The issue I found is that rather than inputting 0.55,0,0
    it should be 0.55,0.0,0.0
     
    it was needing a decimal after the numbers        ​
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