From this form, select the design study of interest. Design studies can contain multiple design objectives, responses, constraints, and variables. Any particular job can only have one design objective. The specific objective and constraints to be used in an optimization job are selected in the Global Objective / Constraint Select form or they are associated to a solution specific subcase. Design Studies are setup under the Design Study tool under the Tools pull down menu. A Default design study is present if none are previously created, however a design study without any design variable defined will not run through Nastran properly.

Once a design study has been selected, you may select from this form the specific global design objective and constraints to be active for this job. You can only have one objective in an optimization job. A global objective will override any other objective associated to a solution specific subcase that may be associated to this job, therefore it is not necessary to select a global objective or constraints when defined at the subcase level.

These parameters are described in Translation Parameters, 255 and are not specific to optimization.

This form is used to define optimization parameter for the job. Parameters set in this form and its subordinate form define some of the values on the DOPTPRM entry. These are explained in the MD Nastran Quick Reference Guide under this entry and the user is referred there for details. Note that no DOPTPRM entry is written if all values are default values. Valid values, such as which optimizer is available, depends on the setting of the Nastran version in the Translation Parameters form described above. Results file formats can also be set in this form as described in Results Output Format, 340.

Use of this form is described in Direct Text Input, 266.

Use of this form is described in Select Superelements, 344.

Use of this form is described in Subcases, 346. There are two differences that are significant to this form, however. For optimization, subcases are created based on solution sequence, e.g. Statics 101, Normal Modes 103, etc. You must set the solution sequence on this form before creating the subcase, otherwise the default 101 will be used. Secondly, an additional subordinate form allows you to select existing constraint sets and an objective for the particular subcase being created if necessary. Objectives and constraints are created using the Design Study tool under the Tools pull down menu. Note that not all subcase parameters are identical between a normal analysis and an optmization analysis. Also see the note on Contact below: page 454.

Use of this form is described in Subcase Select, 444. One difference is that for optimization you must set the solution type to see the subcases defined for a particular solution sequence. Otherwise by default only SOL 101 subcases are displayed. A selected subcase will display the associated solution sequence number in front of its label.

This gives access to the Analysis Manager for submitting, monitoring, aborting and generally managing a Nastran job. This button will not appear if the Analysis Manager is not installed or licensed.