MSC Nastran Submittals

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Any standard MSC Nastran (up to version 2006) problem can be submitted using Patran’s
Analysis Manager. This is accomplished from the Analysis form with the Analysis Preference set to MSC Nastran.

The following rules apply to MSC Nastran run-ready input files for submittal:

The BEGIN BULK and ENDDATA statements must be in the main input file; the one that is specified when submitting, not in INCLUDE files.

The filename may not have any '.' characters except for the extension. The filename must also begin with a letter (not a number).

Run-ready input files prepared by Patran follow these rules. Correct and proper analysis files are created by following the instructions and guidelines as outlined in the Patran Interface to MD Nastran Preference Guide,.

To submit, monitor, and manage MSC Nastran jobs from Patran using the Analysis Manager, make sure the Analysis Preference is set to MSC Nastran. This is done from the Preferences menu on the main Patran form. The Analysis form appears when the Analysis toggle, located on the main Patran application switch, is chosen. Pressing the Apply button on the Analysis application form with the Action set to Analyze, Monitor, or Abort will cause the Analysis Manager to perform the desired action. A chapter is dedicated to each of these actions in the manual as well as one for custom configuration of MSC Nastran submittals.

The Analysis Manager generates the MSC Nastran File Management Section (FMS) of the input file automatically, unless the input file already contains the following advanced FMS statements:

INIT
DBLOCATE
ACQUIRE
DBCLEAN
DBFIX
DBLOAD
DBSETDEL
DBUNLOAD
EXPAND
RFINCLUDE
ENDJOB
ASSIGN USRSOU
ASSIGN USROBJ
ASSIGN OBJSCR
ASSIGN INPUTT2
ASSIGN INPUTT4

in which case the user is prompted whether or not to use the existing FMS as-is, or to have the Analysis Manager auto-generate the FMS, using what FMS is already present, with certain exceptions.

The question asked is:

Answer NO to auto-generate FMS; answer YES to use existing FMS. Typically you would answer YES to this question unless you are fully aware of the FMS in the file.

With FMS automatically generated, each logical database is made up of multiple physical files, each with a maximum size of 231 bytes (the typical maximum file size), up to the disk space currently free, or until the size limit requested in the Analysis Manager is met. Large problems requiring databases and scratch files larger than 231 bytes can, therefore, be run without the user having to add ANY FMS statements. But this requires that you do not bypass the auto-FMS capability.

If multiple file systems have been defined, the Analysis Manager will generate FMS (provided the input file does not contain advanced FMS or the user wishes to use the Analysis Manager’s automatic FMS capability along with his advanced file) so that the scratch and database files are split onto each file system defined, according to the free space available at run time. See Disk Space for more information.

Restarts are handled by the Analysis Manager in the following manner: the needed FMS is generated so that the restart run will succeed. If database files exist on the local machine, they are copied to the analysis machine prior to execution; otherwise, they are expected to exist already in the scratch areas. Any ASSIGN, MASTER statements are changed/generated to ensure MSC Nastran will locate pre-existing databases correctly. See Restart for more information.