PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-1 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation SECTION 33 MSC.PATRAN UTILITIES AND OTHER GOODIES

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-2 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-3 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation FAMILIES OF UTILITIES l Patran shareware (aka PCL) utilities l Accessed from Patran main menu Utilities pulldown l Related to Patran operations l QTRAN utilities l Run from command prompt l Related mostly to MSC.Thermal run-time operations l PatQ utilities l Run from command prompt l Type patq and select the patq utilities menu l Related to thermal run-time operations l File conversions l Other Thermal post-processing tasks

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-4 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation MSC.PATRAN SHAREWARE UTILITIES

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-5 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation SHAREWARE UTILITIES l Shareware Utilities l A set of tools to facilitate the use of MSC.Patran l Written and supplied by MSC.Software personnel l Applications Engineers l Software Developers l Support Engineers l Written in Patran Control Language (PCL) l Officially unsupported by MSC.Software l Utilities receive no formal QA l Users may report problems to the MSC.Patran support line l No obligation incurred by MSC.Software to maintain utilities l If available in the description, contact responsible author l Generally useful and reliable l Most intermediate and advanced users implement and use them

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-6 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation SHAREWARE UTILITIES l Installing Shareware utilities l Install using standard installation procedure l Included on the installation CD l Automatically loaded with full install l Selectable with custom install l Implementing Shareware utilities l Copy p3epilog.pcl file up to Patran home directory l \shareware\msc\unsupported\utilities\p3epilog.pcl l Copy to directory for availability to all users l e.g. copy: D:\MSC.Software\MSC.Patran\2006\shareware\msc\unsupported\utilities to D:\MSC.Software\MSC.Patran\2006\

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-7 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation MSC.THERMAL UTILITY COMMANDS (qtran) eqtran get_qtran plink qlink qtranb upatqb get_view qcompile qstat thelp vf patq qhelp qsubmit tjobs vsubmit patqb qkill qtran ulib l Qhelp or thelp l A utility which lists syntax and options for commands l Invoke by typing qhelp or thelp at a command prompt l List of commands:

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-8 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation qstat l Qstat is a utility for monitoring a thermal analysis l qstat l Reports the full contents of stat.bin once l qstat b l Reports partial contents of stat.bin once l Header data, first 5 iterations and last 10 iterations l qstat c l Reports partial contents of stat.bin approximately at 15 sec intervals l 10 reports if stat.bin remains empty l 20 reports if stat.bin is being updated with contents l Must be invoked in job name sub-directory l One level below database location l Invoke by typing qstat or it variants at a command prompt l stat.bin is available after qtran.exe (the iterative process) is executing

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-9 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation TYPICAL OUTPUT OF qstat b d:\pat_312\v2006_work\highlight>qstat executing d:\MSC.Software\MSC.patran\2006\p3thermal_files\lib\qstat.exe... ***>>> Status File Number 1 QTRAN STOP >>> QSTAT Script Completed

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-10 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation get_qtran l get_qtran is a copy utility which will quickly locate some useful files in P3_HOME/p3thermal_files l A shortcut copy command to get: l Sample problem databases l Sample template.dat.apnd from sample problems l Copies of common.blk l Example mat.dat.apnd with convection fluid properties l Copies of ulib.f l Template for writing user developed subroutines l Invoke from the subdirectory where you want the file l Invoke by typing get_qtran at a command prompt l Prompts the user thereafter

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-11 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation PATQ UTILITIES l In a command prompt, change directory to your job subdirectory l Type patq at the command prompt for the patq main menu:

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-12 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation PATQ UTILITIES l Selection 6 yields the patq utilities menu PATQ Utilities Menu Please Enter the Desired Option: 1 --> Return to Main Menu. 2 --> Access the Material Property Database Utilities. 3 --> Convert a QTRAN Output File to PATRAN Nodal Results File(s). 4 --> Convert a QTRAN Output File to PATRAN Neutral File(s). 5 --> Generate Temperature vs. Time Plot File(s). 6 --> Convert CONDUCDAT, VFRESDAT, CAPDAT or QPLOTDAT Files from Binary to Text. 7 --> Map Temperatures from one Neutral File to Another. 8 --> Convert a Nodal Results File to a Neutral File. 9 --> Lump QINDAT with the $INSERT Files to Create a Single Bulk Data File > Report Times of the Nodal Results Files > Create LCI Material Properties from other Material Types > Specify Memory Buffer Array Size for the Direct Solver > Convert Binary Nodal Results files to ASCII Nodal Results files 14 --> Redefine the Boundary Conditions > Create SINDA Input File from QTRAN Input Files > Create TRASYS Input File from vfin.dat File > Create P/Thermal Input from TRASYS output > Create NEVADA Input File from vfin.dat File > Create P/Thermal Input from NEVADA output.

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-13 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation PATQ UTILITY MENU PICKS l Return to Main Menu l Access the Material Property Database Utilities l Can convert template in text form to binary form, can load your own templates into template.bin l Can update binary direct access materials database l Qout.dat conversion to Nodal Results Files. With this Menu Pick you can convert QTRAN Output File Qout.dat to MSC.Patran Nodal Results file l Convert a qout.data file into a MSC.Patran Neutral file l Create X-Y Plot files for Temperature vs. Time l Convert binary files such as conduc.dat, vfres.dat, cap.dat into text files l Interpolation of temperatures to a dissimilar structural mesh. This Menu Pick takes a MSC.Patran Thermal Neutral file and accompanying QTRAN Nodal Results files and map temperatures onto the nodes of MSC.Patran Structural Neutral file

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-14 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation PATQ UTILITY MENU PICKS... (Cont.) l Convert Thermal Nodal Results files to Neutral Files l Create a Single Bulk Data file l Report times of Nodal Results file l Create Linear Computed Interval (LCI) type material properties from a given mat.dat file l Specify direct solver memory size l Convert Binary Nodal Results files to ASCII Nodal Results files l Redefine Boundary Conditions. This Menu Pick will create the boundary condition network without retranslating the node and element definitions. l Create a SINDA input deck from MSC.Thermal (QTRAN) input files (now inside MSC.Patran) l Creates a TRASYS deck (now inside MSC.Patran) l Convert TRASYS output to MSC.Thermal radiation resistors and Q microfunctions l Same as 16 for NEVADA output l Same as 17 for NEVADA

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-15 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation

PAT312, Section 33, December 2006 S33-16 Copyright 2007 MSC.Software Corporation