Reading unknown data from odb? 1

[rmettier]

I'm currently using a script derived from the one in
"8.5.10 An example of reading field data from an output database"
to extract the nodal coordinates for the deformed parts in an odb, in order to process them further in Matlab.
It's working fairly well, but it's annoying that you can only read out objects of which you know the names (materials, instances, etc.). Is there a way, using 'abaqus python ...', to return a list of what an odb contains? For instance, how many parts are there, how many materials are defined, how many steps, which field outputs were requested etc.?
I'd like to create a small set of Matlab tools for interacting with Abaqus, and the ability to extract data from 'unknown' odb files would be quite useful.

 

[brep]

There's nothing to stop you from writing a simple iterator over the contents of a container. Is could return the outputs that are available. This is a common methodology used in nearly every python script (whether for preprocessing on the mdb, or postprocessing on the odb)

Consider the following simple script:

###

from abaqusConstants import *
from odbAccess import *

odb=session.openOdb(name="myOdb.odb",readOnly=TRUE)
step=odb.steps["Step-1"]
frame=step.frames[-1]
container = frame.fieldOutputs.keys()

for fieldName in container:
print fieldName

odb.close()

###

You can do this for the particular containers you are interested in (materials, sections, sets, etc etc)

 

[rmettier]

Thanks for that example script. That was what I needed to make sense of the scripting manual entries.

 

[ljlucas]

rmettier,
I am trying to do exactly what you've attempted - to extract nodal coordinates in the deformed configuration. Is it possible you have this script available in the public domain?

I am trying to calculate the footprint of the hole left after a steel-on-steel projectile-on-plate impact where the hole size changes based on initial velocity, perturbations to material properties, etc. I figure I can calculate this hole size once I have all of the nodal coordinates in the deformed configuration.

Thanks in advance!
Lenny