asdeasoft.net

Hello,

I was analysing the reason for the error message saying that a node does not exist while defining ZeroLengthImpact3D Element. The process to define such element is basically the same of other ZeroLength elements or even simpler as it is not necessary to define zerolength material.
After carefully reading the .tcl file I actually realized that the nodes numbers (digits) are written mirrored. (such as 154 in place of 451). I think it is just a simple strange bug of the software.

Moreover, it would be nice to add information and to make clear something about master and slave planes for the definition of the impact elements.

Attached the example

element zeroLengthImpact3D 14410 471 645 3 0.0 0.6 1.62e+7 1.62e+7 1.39e+7 0.002 0.2e6
in place of
element zeroLengthImpact3D 14410 174 546 3 0.0 0.6 1.62e+7 1.62e+7 1.39e+7 0.002 0.2e6

so far I solved manually defining the elements using custom script.

thanks for the support,
regards,
Fabio

Great job, you spot a bug we had in STKO. It will be fixed in the next release.
In the meantime here is the corrected python file.
Unzip it and copy the zeroLengthImpact3D.py in your STKO installation folder:
C:\Program Files\STKO\external_solvers\opensees\element_properties\zero_length_elements