Deleting internal sets

[vrappe]

Hello,

I have a simulation which has a lot of internal sets (>1500), which explode the size of the input file (>300MB) but are not necessary for the simulation. However, I cannot find any way to delete these sets via scripting (or otherwise). The only reference I found was this unresolved thread from 2007.

I can get access to some of these internal sets via myRootAssembly.allInternalSets, however this only returns a fraction of the internal sets and I am unable to delete these sets.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[FEA way]

What is the source of those sets ? Were they created as a result of your selections done on the geometry ?

 

[vrappe]

I suppose so. The modelled (shell element) structure consists out of a lot different faces, due to the inclusion of stiffeners. So I had to make quite a few selections to assign the different plate thicknesses.

The strange thing is that there are a lot of these internal sets that are exact copies of eachother and that although a lot of these internal are created only a few of them are used (as far as I have seen).

 

[FEA way]

I guess you would have to delete them directly from the input file. You could try automating that and deleting all sets whose names appear only once (so they are only defined and not referenced anywhere).

 

[vrappe]

Thanks, that would indeed work.

But do you think it is possible to not create these internal sets in the first place? For example by remaking the model, but only using predefined sets instead of making selections.
Because I have to run the simulation for a lot of different load cases, so it would be better for them to not be there in the first place.

 

[FEA way]

Yes, you can try working directly with named sets. Just keep in mind that most geometrical sets end up as both nset and elset in the input file (even if not used).