hm_getsurfacethicknessvalues

Returns the midsurface thickness and offset values for nodes, points, or elements.

Syntax

hm_getsurfacethicknessvalues entity_type entity_id

or

hm_getsurfacethicknessvalues entity_type mark_id element_method ?ambiguous_values?

Type

HyperMesh Tcl Query Command

Description

This command returns the midsurface thickness and offset values for nodes, points, or elements.

An error is returned if a non-topological point or node or an element not associated to any surface, is given as input.

Inputs

entity_type
The type of entity to query. Valid values are nodes, points and elems.
entity_id
The ID of the entity to query.
For nodes and points, the return result is a list with the number of list values equal to the number of surfaces connected to the entity. Each value is a list itself with three sub-values. The first value is the ID of associated surface, the second value is the thickness of the surface at the node or point location (-1 if not defined), and the third value is the thickness offset.
For elements, only a single list value is returned, also with three sub-values indicating the surface ID, the thickness at the element centroid, and the offset at the element centroid.
mark_id
The ID of the mark containing the entities to query. Valid values are 1 and 2.
For nodes and points, the return result is a list with the number of list values equal to the total number of surfaces connected to each entity. Each value is a list itself with four sub-values. The first value is the ID of the or node, the second value is the ID of the associated surface, the third value is the thickness of the surface at the node or point location (-1 if not defined), and the fourth value is the thickness offset.
For elements, the return result is a list with the number of list values equal to the total number of elements. For element_method 0-3, four sub-values indicating the element ID, the surface ID, the thickness of the element (-1 if not defined), and the offset of the element are returned. For element_method 4, the element ID is returned as the first sub-value. For each node of the element, a sub-list is returned containing the node ID, the thickness at the node and the offset at the node for the element. For example:
{elem_id1 {node_id1 thickness_1 offset_1} {node_id2 thickness_2 offset_2} … {node_n thickness_n offset_n}} {elem_id2 {node_id1 thickness_1 offset_1} {node_id2 thickness_2 offset_2} … {node_n thickness_n offset_n}} … {elem_idn {node_id1 thickness_1 offset_1} {node_id2 thickness_2 offset_2} … {node_n thickness_n offset_n}}.
element_method
Only allowed for element mark_id based usage. This determines how the thickness and offset values are measured for elements (ignored when the mark only contains nodes or points). Valid values are:
0 - Thickness and offset are measured at the element centroid.
1 - Thickness and offset are measured as a weighted average of the element’s nodes. If an element spans multiple surfaces, -1 is returned for the surface ID, thickness and offset.
2 - Thickness is measured at the element's nodes and the minimum value is used. The offset value from this node is also reported. If an element spans multiple surfaces, -1 is returned for the surface ID, thickness and offset.
3 - Thickness is measured at the element's nodes and the maximum value is used. The offset value from this node is also reported. If an element spans multiple surfaces, -1 is returned for the surface ID, thickness and offset.
4 - The thickness of each element node is returned. For elements that don't span surfaces but have nodes on shared/non-manifold edges or shared vertices, the reported values should all come from the same "common surface" of the element. For elements that do span surfaces, values for nodes on an edge/vertex between the shared surfaces, the ambiguous_values argument is used. For surfaces that don't have thickness, -1 is returned for the thickness and offset of any nodes associated with that surface.
ambiguous_values
Defines what to do when an element that spans multiple surfaces and a node of that element is on an edge/vertex between the shared surfaces. This option is only used for element_method=4 when a "common surface" or a "most common surface" cannot be determined. Surfaces that don't have a thickness are ignored and not considered in the calculations. If all surfaces have no thickness, -1 is returned for all nodes.
1 - Report the average value at nodes from spanned surfaces.
2 - Report the minimum value at nodes from spanned surfaces.
3 - Report the maximum of value at nodes from spanned surfaces.

Examples

Suppose that the node with ID 100 is located on a shared edge between surfaces having IDs 10 and 11. To retrieve the list of surfaces, thicknesses and offsets:
set node_thick [ hm_getsurfacethicknessvalues nodes 100 ]
To get the surface, thickness and offset at the centroid for element 50:
set elem_thick [ hm_getsurfacethicknessvalues elems 50 ]
To get the surface, thickness and offset as the weighted node average for element 50:
*createmark elems 1 50
set elem_thick [ hm_getsurfacethicknessvalues elems 1 1 ]
To get the surface, thickness and offset for all displayed nodes:
*createmark nodes 1 displayed
set node_thick [ hm_getsurfacethicknessvalues nodes 1 0 ]

Errors

Incorrect usage results in a Tcl error. To detect errors, you can use the catch command:
if { [ catch {command_name...} ] } {
   # Handle error
}