Coordinate frames created in Patran/MSC.AFEA will place the Marc TRANSFORMATION and CYLINDRICAL keywords for nodes that are assigned analysis coordinate frames into the Marc input file. Analysis coordinate frames are specified when nodes or meshes are created or modified, and when assigning a displacement boundary condition with an analysis coordinate frame. All Marc nodes will be defined in the global analysis coordinate frame unless the analysis coordinate frame references a cylindrical system in which case all nodal input and output will be relative to the specified
cylindrical system.

Rectangular coordinate frames are used to create the TRANSFORMATION keyword and cylindrical coordinate frames are used to create the CYLINDRICAL keyword. Local rectangular coordinate frames are created by first calculating the nodes distance from the global coordinate frame. Then, the distance is used to locate points one and two along the axes of the node’s local coordinate frame.