Plate and Beam assy

[eleblanc]

Anyone as done plate and beam assembly such as plate formes etc, I'd be curious to see how you went to do this. Did you use beam elements? If you wish to share it would be much appreciated.

eric.leblanc

at

aspectair.ca

EL

[S.LI]

Not clear on your issue.

Do you mean how to connect plate part and beam part together?

[eleblanc]

Yes,

Let say a rectangular beam assy (4x beams) and a plate on top.

[S.LI]

A simple example is attached.

No sure if it's what you expect.

[eleblanc]

what you are showing is 4 legs, the beam should be around the perimeter of the plate.

Can i email you something?

[S.LI]

I'm not sure the background of your problem.

Please share it here if possible.

Thanks.

[eleblanc]

Well i'm trying to archive and i'm getting

"The license key required to use the control was not found or is invalid, Make sure that you have called the license method with a valid license kay as described in the documentation"

Will try to figure this one first

[eleblanc]

Anyhow here is the fem zipped. In this the plate is not shown but it should lay on top of the structure.

[John_Holtz]

Hello,

You probably have the solution to the archive license issue by now. If not, the problem you encountered is related to a registration problem. If you have administrator privileges, or can get an administrator, these are the steps you need.

1. Use Windows Explorer/My Computer to navigate to the installation folder for the software. (Typically "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\something" depending on which version you are using.)
2. Locate the file "regall.bat".
3. If using Vista or Win 7, right-click on the file and choose "Run as administrator". If using a different operating system, just double-click the file.
4. A command window will appear while it registers the files.
5. After the command window disappears, the archive utility should work.

[S.LI]

Did you use "edit attributes" to generate new parts?

In your example, select all lines ( from all three parts), and "edit attributes":

1.) use 4 as the part number;

2.) check box "duplicate".

Then you should see totally 4 parts in your model. You can assign "plate" to the element type of Part 4.

The constrain relation between between part 4 and others relies on your default contact setting (bonded or free?).

[John_Holtz]

Hi,

First, you will want to select the lines on part 3 and divide them into smaller segment. In other words, you need to create a mesh for the part 3 beam elements. (Probably 10 divisions minimum.) Parts 1 and 2 may need to be divided (2 or 4 divisions) depending on whether the results in the plates indicate that it needs a finer mesh.

Second, you can create a 4 point mesh to generate the plate elements: "Mesh > Structured Mesh > 4 Point". You can do this because the size of the beam elements is uniform in the X direction and Y directions. To have the plates connect to the beam, the mesh of the plates needs to match the mesh of the beams. Let the side with part 1 be the A-B side and specify the number of divisions to be equal to the number of beam elements in the X direction. The B-C side is in the Y direction, and the number of divisions would be equal to the number of divisions in the beams on part 3. Then click the 4 corners of the rectangle, and you are done. Easy as pie.

Last, you do not need to define all of the orientation points for the beam elements. In fact, you do not need to define any! If you select the lines and change the surface number to 2, this will orient the axis 2 parallel to the Z axis -- which is what it looks like you were doing with all of the auxiliary orientation points.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

[eleblanc]

Something like that

[S.LI]

This looks like what I have here.

Is this what you expect?

[eleblanc]

Yes, that should be fine, i'm trying to minimize displacement in Z. So by changing beam member i'll figure out something

[eleblanc]

when trying to run the regall.bat as a administrator i always get "microsoft Register server has stopped Working"

[eleblanc]

I've attached a new simulation, results seems wrong, can anyone tell me what's up?

[John_Holtz]

Hi,

Unfortunately, the .FEM file that you sent does not contain all of the input. Please zip the .FEM file and the complete frame_struc.ds_data folder.

Regarding the problem with the Microsoft Register Server, you probably should get someone from your IT department involved. The only thing the regall.bat batch file does is run REGSVR32 on some of the files under the installation folder. So if REGSVR32 is failing, that sounds like a serious problem with the computer.

[John_Holtz]

Sorry, I pressed the "Post" button too fast.

In addition to the new .zip file, please indicate what you see as being wrong with the results. Perhaps it is "obvious", but it is a good habit for all of the readers to indicate what's wrong with their models. After all, what's obvious to you may not be so obvious to others, especially as models get more complex, and we are not familiar with the model, goals of the analysis, why the loads are what they are, and so on.

Thanks.