XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX''"> Fields Form
The Fields form will appear when the Fields toggle, located on the Patran application switch, is chosen. The selections made on the Materials menu will determine which material form appears.
The following pages give an introduction to the Fields form, and details of all the fields definitions supported by the Patran Thermal Application Preference.
The functions on the Fields menu are listed and described below in the order in which they appear on the menu.
Action | Object | Options |
Create... | | PCL Function Tabular Input General FEM |
| General |
| General |
Note: | Non -Spatial/Tabular Input Fields are not supported by Patran Thermal. |
Fields Create
The Fields form is used to create Spatial, Non Spatial and Material Property fields.
Caution: | The field is not created until Apply is selected. Wait for the new field name to appear in the Existing Fields databox after selecting Apply. |
Material Property/General Fields
This form is used to compose the function defining a General Field. The only Function Term Type for Patran Thermal is Patran Functions.
Caution: | This button works only for terms which are functions (terms preceded by an integer prefix). Attempting to modify terms which are functions in the text box via the keyboard will result in an error. |
Note: | Although Material Property/Tabular Input is supported by Patran Thermal for defining Materials, the General Method provides more flexibility such as temperature units conversions and is the recommended approach. |
Define Material Property
This form is used to enter all the appropriate data to define the material property. The form header displays what kind of function was selected. At the top of the form the mathematical expression (if appropriate) and a description of the function is displayed. Material Property Fields show up as selectable fields in the listbox in the Materials Input Data form. They can also be referenced in external files such as template.dat or in user-routines by the MPID number given on this form. When a Patran Thermal job is submitted, the data entered on this form is written to the mat.dat file in the <jobname> sub-directory.
Non Spatial/General Fields
This form is used to compose the function defining a General field. The only Function Term Type for Patran Thermal is Patran Functions. Non-Spatial/General Fields are referenced by MACRO templates
(p. 695) in the external file
template.dat (currently they cannot be assigned from the Patran session). When a Patran Thermal job is submitted, the data entered on this form is written to the
micro.dat file in the
<jobname> sub-directory.
Caution: | This button works only for terms which are functions (terms preceded by an integer prefix). Attempting to modify terms which are functions in the text box via the keyboard will result in an error. |
Note: | Patran Thermal does not support Non-Spatial/Tabular Fields. Use only Non-Spatial/General Fields. |
Define Non Spatial
This form is used to enter all the microfunction data to define a Non Spatial field. The form, header displays what kind of microfunction was selected. At the top of the form the function is displayed graphically or in a mathematical expression (if appropriate), and a description of the microfunction is given.
