Patran provides three kinds of fields or functions: spatial, temperature-dependent and time-dependent. MSC Sinda for Patran can support all kinds of spatial fields, including equation fields, as long as they are valid in Patran. Patran evaluates spatial fields internally, so the translator does not ever “see” these features. For temperature and time dependent fields, MSC Sinda for Patran currently only supports tabular input fields.

In MSC Sinda for Patran, one load variable can reference either a temperature-dependent field or a time-dependent field, but not both at the same time.

Most loads supported by MSC Sinda for Patran also support spatial fields. In this case, one load will be divided into many “single” loads, like temperature, normal flux, enclosure radiation/small facets option, etc. Patran internally computes spatially dependent load values for each single load separately. Other loads, in particular the contact loads, total heat loads, and primitive radiation loads, cannot support spatial fields. The application region of these loads must be considered as a whole, and therefore they cannot be divided into single loads.