Run OptiStruct from HyperMesh

This tutorial demonstrates how to launch an OptiStruct job from within HyperMesh. A HyperMesh database containing a fully defined OptiStruct finite element model is retrieved and an OptiStruct job is launched from the OptiStruct panel in HyperMesh.

Launch HyperMesh and Set the OptiStruct User Profile

  1. Launch HyperMesh.
    The User Profile dialog opens.
  2. Select OptiStruct and click OK.
    This loads the user profile. It includes the appropriate template, macro menu, and import reader, paring down the functionality of HyperMesh to what is relevant for generating models for OptiStruct.

Open the Model

  1. Click File > Open > Model.
  2. Select the plate.hm file you saved to your working directory from the optistruct.zip file. Refer to Access the Model Files.
  3. Click Open.
    The plate.hm database is loaded into the current HyperMesh session, replacing any existing data.

Submit the Job

  1. From the Analysis page, click the OptiStruct panel.

    OS_1000_13_17
    Figure 1. Accessing the OptiStruct Panel
  2. Click save as.
  3. In the Save As dialog, specify location to write the OptiStruct model file and enter plate for filename.
    For OptiStruct input decks, .fem is the recommended extension.
  4. Click Save.
    The input file field displays the filename and location specified in the Save As dialog.
  5. Set the export options toggle to all.
  6. Set the run options toggle to analysis.
  7. Set the memory options toggle to memory default.
  8. Click OptiStruct to launch the OptiStruct job.
If the job is successful, new results files should be in the directory where the plate.fem was written. The plate.out file is a good place to look for error messages that could help debug the input deck if any errors are present.
The default files written to the directory are:
plate.html
HTML report of the analysis, providing a summary of the problem formulation and the analysis results.
plate.out
OptiStruct output file containing specific information on the file setup, the setup of your optimization problem, estimates for the amount of RAM and disk space required for the run, information for each of the optimization iterations, and compute time information. Review this file for warnings and errors.
plate.h3d
HyperView binary results file.
plate.res
HyperMesh binary results file.
plate.stat
Summary, providing CPU information for each step during analysis process.

Post-process the Results

While still in HyperMesh, launch HyperView after the job has finished from the OptiStruct panel.

Click HyperView.
HyperView opens and automatically loads the H3D file from the OptiStruct job for post-processing.