Abaqus : Access to Refpoint data

[Jachidos]

Hello,

I'm currently working on improving a plug-in for Abaqus. When using the plug-in, we need to select some reference points in the Interaction section of Abaqus. Then we chose to use them in the plug-in.

I then need to have access to the coordinates of the ref points but I can't find them. Do you have any idea how to do that ? the only methods I found needed the Reference points to be defined in the code.

Here's the part of the code I have :
self.label1=FXLabel(hf, 'Select the first RefPoint (E11,E22)', opts=JUSTIFY_LEFT|LAYOUT_FILL_X|LAYOUT_FILL_COLUMN)
FXButton(hf, 'Edit...',None,self,self.ID_M1,opts=LAYOUT_RIGHT|BUTTON_NORMAL)

Thanks for your help !

 

[Mustaine3]

I assume you get something like that from the GUI:
refpoint_x = mdb.models['Model-1'].rootAssembly.referencePoints[4]


Then you could use:
mdb.models['Model-1'].rootAssembly.getCoordinates(refpoint_x)

 

[Jachidos]

The problem is that I don't know the keyword used to save the refpoints. Is 'Model-1' the name you choose to give it ?

 

[Mustaine3]

??? Your answer makes no sense.

Model-1 is the model name that the user is using in A/CAE. Model-1 is the default name, but it also could be something else.
refpoint_x is the variable name that might be defined as the variable that passes the information to the kernel script.

Both information can then be used in the kernel script to do the work.

 

[Jachidos]

Ok ! I think I understand. I'll try this as soon as possible.

One last question though: Can I just add the line refpoint_x = mdb.models['Model-1'].rootAssembly.referencePoints[4] right under the FXButton ? Will the program understand which refpoint I'm talking about ?

 

[Mustaine3]

No you can't, since you don't know the ID of the refpoint in advance. The model name and the 4 was just my example. These kind of informations are queried when the user selects the entities and passed to your kernel script.

 

[Jachidos]

Thanks but that's precisely my problem : the ref points are selected with the Iteration section of Abaqus, not in the GUI. Is there a way to access these information in the script ?

I know I wasn't clear enough in my post so I'll try to give a better explanation :
The plug-in uses Abaqus to create the system and create the reference points. It then asks you to select the ref points and sections you want to use for your simulation and proceeds with the calculs.
My problem is that I want to have access to the data after the ref points are created through a normal use of abaqus.

 

[Mustaine3]

Little trick: you can use a variable to store some data while using the constructor to create the refpoint.

a = mdb.models['Model-1'].rootAssembly
data_refpoint = a.ReferencePoint(point=(0.0, 0.0, 0.0))

Behind the variable data_refpoint you have now a couple of information, which includes also the feature ID.

Try it on an simple example and use 'print' to see what data you can access.