Importing BDF files

[KChaili]

Hello. I've been using Patran/Nastran for the past month or two and am relatively new to all things FEA.

One of the members of industry I was corresponding with sent me a .dbf file that had a fix for my model constraint/geometry/meshes that I opened up in notepad. Everything looked normal so I imported the file into my Patran database file not realizing the updated mpc's on his dbf file would overlap the old mpc's (he had changed how they were connecting RBE3 elements together) on mine.

I opened up a new database file and deleted the old one hoping to import his updated geometry on a fresh database. However, now I can't open up any of the .dbf files (my old one or his new one) and everytime I try, I receive an error message:

"The MscNastranDbServer has Crashed while reading C:\blah\blah\blah\thrust_cylinder_4C.bdf. Additional server messages can be found in ./thrust_cylinder_4C.log."

Any suggestions as to why it won't let me load the file? Does it have anything to do with the path name length for the created database or imported dbf file?

 

[JeffPW]

What does the log file say?

Jeff W

http://www.p-over-a.co.uk

 

[KChaili]

After some testing I realized that the error was associated with loading a bdf file off of a network drive.

Apparently, every time you want to import a bdf file into the Patran interface, the bdf file must be located locally on the C:\ drive.

If not, you will crash Patran with an error and need to restart the program for any future successful imports, regardless of whether they are on the C:\ or network drive.

Completely exiting the program, restarting it and then loading a bdf file from the local drive should fix this issue.