
New - Starts a new model
Open - Opens a saved model
(.impact) or imports .nas (nastran), .stl or .in files
Save - Saves the model (.impact
for complete model or .in for solver model)
Zoom out - zooms out. This
can also be done by pressing mouse button and CTRL and move the mouse up
Zoom in - zooms in. This can
also be done by pressing moue button and CTRL and move the mouse down
Top View
Bottom View
Left View
Right View
Front View
Back View
SW Isometric View
SE Isometric View
NE Isometric View
NW Isometric View
Properties - This button
allows the user to select run parameters for the .in solution file as
well as what should be visible on the screen. Examples include loads,
nodes, elements etc. To speed up the screen, deselect the ones you
don't need to see.
Material - Defines the
different material properties that are selectable
Constraints - Defines
the different constraints that are selectable
Loads - Defines the different
loads that are selectable
Point - Creates a point at
a given location and optionally a complementing direction vector.
Nurb Curve - This creates
any curve from a line to a complex 3 degree curve with any number
control points.
Arc - Creates an arc based on a
starting point, center point and a point to define the plane. Any angle
can be specificed including a negative. This makes the arc move in
opposite direction.
Tabulated surface - This
surface is created by dragging a profile curve along a spine curve. The
resulting surface will contain a rectangular mesh with the number of
elements per side defined through the profile and spine curve meshes.
Surface of revolving - Any
curve can be rotated about an axis defined by two points. The angle of
the rotation is defined in degrees (0-360). The mesh of the surface
will be defined by the mesh on the rotated curve and the specified mesh
size.
Ruled surface between curves
-
This creates a ruled surface between two edge curves of any shape. The
mesh size will set the size on the undefined edges. A switch is
available to revese the direction of curve 2 in the cases when the
surface becomes twisted.
Nurb Surface - Will create
a surface between four curves. The curves must be connected to form a
closed loop. One curve can have zero length in order to define a
3-sided surface.
Boundary generation -
Extracts
border points of a curve or boundary curves of a surface.
Intersection - Creates an
object at the intersection of two objects. For example, a point is
created at the intersection of two curves or at the intersection of a
curve through a surface. A curve is created as an intersection of
two surfaces.
Project -
Projects an object onto another object. A point can be projected onto a
curve or a surface. A curve can be projected onto a surface. In all
cases, a vector can be used to project in a certain direction. If no
vector is available, the projection will be orthagonal to the curve or
surface.
Node - Defines a node at a
given coordinate.
Elements with 2 nodes - Defines
a rod, spring or beam element between two nodes.
Elements with 3 nodes -
Defines a Contact_Triangle or Shell_CO_3 element between three nodes.
Elements with 4 nodes - Defines
a quad element between four nodes
Elements with 8 nodes -
Defines a solid element between eight nodes
Erase - Deletes an object. Can
also be done by pressing the delete key on the keyboard.
Move - Will move selected
objects a given distance. If only a point is to be moved it is easier
to double click on the point instead.
Rotate - Will rotate selected
objects around a point and axis.
Scale - Scales selected
objects from a point with a given factor.
Transform 4X4 - Transform
geometrically with a free 4x4 matrix for rotation and translation.
Materil for... - Will set
the material for selected objects. Can also be done by double clicking
on a surface or curve.
Constraints for... -
Will set the constraints for selected nodes.
Loads for... - Will set the
load condition for selected nodes or elements.
Grid - Will redefine the
support grid position and orientation
Open model *.in - Opens a .in
file into the editor and prepares for solving.
Save - Saves the text in the
editor.
,
Start
/ Stop - Starts or stops a solution. The text in the editor is
automatically saved before the solution starts!
Find / Replace - Finds and / or
replaces the text in the editor. The user can also use CTRL+C, CTRL + X
or CTRL + V
Reload view - Will generate a
three dimensional view of the model
Zoom out
Zoom in
Top View
Bottom View
Left View
Right View
Front View
Back View
SW Isometric View
SE Isometric View
NE Isometric View
NW Isometric View
Configure - This configures
what should be shown in the viewer.
Open *.res - loads the result
file into the postprocessor for viewing
Save image - Saves a screen
dump of the current view as a .PNG file
Save images - Saves all time
steps as .PNG files
Show/Hide - Select the elements
to be hidden and press this button. Pressing with no selection will
shift view to hide mode.
Zoom out
Zoom in
Top View
Bottom View
Left View
Right View
Front View
Back View
SW Isometric View
SE Isometric View
NE Isometric View
NW Isometric View
New - Will create a new curve by
extracting results directly from the solution. By selecting
displacements, the node displacements as a function of time is plotted.
Strains and stresses are extracted from element as a function of time.
Note that the results must have been loaded into the postprocessor
module first for this command to work.
Open - Will create a curve based
on results written in a tracker file (.trk). For how to create tracker
files, read the solver command reference.
Remove - deletes a curve. Select
the curve in the top left table before pressing this button.
Union - объединяет выбранные
графыки.
Save image - Saves a screen
dump of the current view.
Save All - Will save
pictures of all curves including data values and construct a .html page
for explanation.The solution process is made in three stages:
It is simplest to run Impact and the built in Pre/Post Processors from the GUI. To do that, just run the ImpactGUI.bat file in this directory if you are a Windows user or make the ImpactGUI.sh runnable (chmod 777 ImpactGUI.sh) and run that with ./ImpactGUI if you are a Linux/Unix/Mac user. Alternatively, just write bash ImpactGUI.sh to start.
Preparation of modelImpact supports a range of Pre/Post Processors. The GUI actually contains a fully functional Post Processors with a Pre Processor under construction. To design models, you have two additional choises. Gmsh, which is completely free and unlimited; GID which is commersial but can be run for free under a limited academic license.
Should you want to try GID, you will need to download a version later than 6.2 since Impact uses features that are currently being implemented. You can download GID from http://gid.cimne.upc.es
This is how you should set up and use GID for Pre Processing:
This is how you should set up and use Gmsh for Preprocessing:
The solution of the problem is initiated from the GUI by loading the file into the editor and pressing the play button. You can also write java -Xmx500m run.Impact file at the command prompt, where file is the name of the indata file and 500m represents allocation of 500 Megabytes of memory. If you have less you can reduce this amount with the risk of getting out of memory errors for large models. In the case of loading a Fembic file, make sure it ends with .in because otherwise Impact will not recognise the format. It is also important that you are placed in the impact directory at the time of execution.
If you are running some of the example problems supplied, you need to add the path to the examples directory. The syntax then becomes: java run.Impact -Xmx500m examples/file where file applies as above.
If all goes well, you should now see the indata file being parsed by impact and the solution process initiated. Each time results are written, a notice will be written to the screen and you will see that execution is in progress. A solution can take considerable time, so be patient.
The results are printed to the flavia.res and flavia.msh files. They will end up in the same directory as your sourcefile. These are tailor made for the internal Post Processor, but are also readable from the GID Post Processor
If you want to view the results with the internal Post Processor, just swith to the Post Processor tab and load the .flavia.res file. The model should now show up on the screen. Rotation, moving and zooming is done by holding down any of the mouse buttons while moving the mouse.
If you want to use GiD as a viewer, start by firing up GID and switch to Post Processing mode. Next read in the result file flavia.res. The mesh (flavia.msh) file will be read automatically. You should now see the model on the screen.
Press ctrl-d to set the timestep for deformation. Go from the top of the menu, starting by selecting deformation and then time analysis. Select timestep 0, magnification factor 1.0 and then press apply.
Next press ctrl-v and select the results , time analysis and contour fill. Finally, select gausspointstress and apply.
Finally, press ctrl-m. You should now see the results as an animation. There are plenty of ways to view your results, but I refer to the GID users manual for that.
Summary of how you should use GiD for Post Processing (looking at the results)
As of version 0.5.3, Impact supports calculations performed across a networked set of clients often referred to as a cluster. This allows Impact to split up a model into smaller parts and distribute them over the network, letting a client calculate only a unique section of the model and thereby speeding up the calculation. There is no need to have a special type of network although a capacity of 100Mbit or greater is preferrable. This is standard today on most PC:s.
The network communication and synchronisation is a complex topic. Therefore, Impact uses a special software to handle all this, called JavaParty. Developed by the University of Karlsruhe this software is 100%PC% java in itself which means no further dependencies. Furthermore, JavaParty assumes there is a way to connect from one client to another without a password. Default setup uses ssh (secure shell) login and how to set this up correctly is explained at the JavaParty webpage. A link to JavaParty as well as downloads is avalilable on the Impact webpage
Impact assumes that your directory is shared across the clients in the network. This is the most common setup on a LAN and is accomplished by NFS or similar. If this is not the case, you have to arrange this with the system administrator. Reason for this assumption is that the printout of the results become significantly simpler to implement since all the clients can access the same file.
For more details on the cluster implementation, see the programmers manual
The CT is used to sense contact between nodes and surfaces and the CL senses contact against other CL elements. Together, these two elements can be used to enable contact detection for most cases and models. Both of them are classified as elements which means that they can directly be part of a model mesh as all elements. The user can for example model a wall or a complex rigid contact surface with them.
Since they only have the sole purpose of sensing contact, the have no stiffness at all. This means that if they are used on their own in the model, the nodes connecting them should be fixed by constraints to prevent them from drifting when in contact. It also means that the user can use them in combination with ordinary elements to provide contact sensing where this is not default.
One example where this is useful is when a body has been meshed using solid elements, for example an engine block in a car. This body can then be "dressed" on the outside with a second mesh of contact elements to provide the contact sensitivity against other elements in the car. Any contact sensing inside the engine block is not needed and valuable calculation time can then be saved with this approach.
Some elements have contact sensing as default. Examples of these are:
When any of these elements is created, one or several contact elements are created by default. These are embedded inside the element and share the element nodes. The rod and beam elements use the Contact_Line element to sense contact. The Shell elements use the Contact_Triangle element to sense contact against the surface and optionally Contact_Line elements at the edges to sense contact against other edges.
The contact elements drain quite a bit of computing resources and as the number of elements increase, so does the amount of computing power since the increase is more than linear. Therefore, some of the elements have options to reduce the contact resolution. This means that the contact sensing will be less accurate during large deformation of the elements, but the solution will run faster. For this reason, contact sensing has also not been implemented in the solid elements since the user can best minimise the amount of calculations needed, by distributing the contact element where they are needed.
The details of how contact sensing is implemented is explained in the programming manual.