How to define path with commands?

[shimo1989]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to define a path along a curved line in a 2D model in ANSYS. This would normally be easy with the GUI, except I have hundreds of nodes on the curved line that are randomly numbered.

I checked the commands log that's produced by GUI operations, and the program used a number of FLST and FITEM commands to manually select every single node along the line.

I know that you can select nodes along a line using the NSLL command. Would it be possible to define a path using the selected nodes after selecting all the nodes I want to be in the path?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jiheme]

Hi shimo,

I have the same problem, except that there are only 14 nodes on the curved line. So it's possible to define a path manually in my case but I'm still interested to know if there is a more clever way to define a path on a curved line.
If your curved line is an arc of a circle, you can use a cylindrical coordinate system (CSYS command) and define the path just with the first and the last nodes of the line. But if the line is more "exotic" (as mine is) then the only way I know is to define the path node by node.
Let me know if you find something interesting!

Thanks

 

[shimo1989]

For anyone still interested, I've semi-solved the problem!

0. Use the GUI to manually make a path first, just as an example. SAVE THE LOG FILE.

1. Select the line on which the nodes sit.

2. Use NSLL to select the nodes on said line.

3. Use the GUI to list the nodes you selected according to whatever order you need. In my case, it was left->right, so in increasing order of x coordinates.

4. Save the output as a .txt file.

5. Open the file in Excel as either a tab- or a space-delimited text file.

6. Delete all columns except the node number column.

7. Add new column to the left, fill all cells in the entire column with FITEM.

8. Save as comma-delimited text file.

9. Open in Notepad, add the FLST command.

10. Done!

 

[jiheme]

That does the trick, thank you!