This Chapter concerns itself with creating a model in Patran (or MSC.AFEA) for submission to an Marc analysis. It is meant to be used more as a reference than anything else. In general the operation of creating a model follows a left to right access of the main Patran applications as shown above: Geometry, Finite Elements, Loads and Boundary Conditions, Materials, Properties, Load Cases, Fields.

Each application allows you to define certain aspects of your model starting with the geometric definition including coordinate frames. The geometry is then meshed including the definition of rigid (MPC) elements and other 0D/1D elements such as springs, dampers, and gaps. Loads and boundary conditions are applied and contact bodies defined if required. Materials and properties are then assigned, which define the types of elements to be used by Marc. If more than one load case is required, they can be defined in the Load Cases application. And if any input requires tabular data to define time, temperature, or other spatially or otherwise varying properties, this is done under the Fields application.

Once the model is created, the analysis may be set up and submitted. This is the subject of
Running an Analysis.

This Chapter details which Marc keywords are written to the Marc input file as defined in each Patran application. A list of all Marc supported keywords are listed in Supported Keywords. Only aspects relating to the creation of these keyword via Patran’s graphical user interface are explained in this chapter. The user is referred to the Patran User’s Guides for general pre-processing details on
model creation.