[Gmsh] Gmsh Abaqus Export -- Node Sets

[Omid Mahabadi]

Dear Gmsh development team,
I have recently switched to Gmsh for generating my meshes for hybrid 
finite element-discrete element analyses. I was using Cubit (Sandia 
Labs) in the past, but I have been impressed by how easily graded 
meshing can be achieved in Gmsh, hence the switch.

I need to export the meshes generated in Gmsh to the Abaqus .inp format. 
Everything works fine for exporting the finite elements and I can easily 
group them by assigning "Physical Entities" ("Element Set" in Abaqus 
lingo). However, grouping the mesh nodes into "Node Sets" seems a bit 
tricky since apparently all Gmsh Physical Entities are exported as 
different types of Elements in the inp file. I've attached a standard 
Abaqus inp file to this email, which contains 2 Element sets (ELSET=EB1, 
EB2) and 3 Node Sets (NSET = NS1, 2, 3). I am wondering, is it possible 
to change the code for the Abaqus export to follow the above syntax, 
which more clearly separates elements and nodes? If you can also direct 
me to the right place in the Gmsh source code, I can perhaps do it 
myself and contribute the code. (I've seen writeabaqus.cpp but I don't 
know how to start.)

I would appreciate your prompt help and guidance in this matter.

Best regards,
Omid Mahabadi

-- 
Omid Mahabadi
Geomechanica, Inc.
Tel: (647) 478-9767 x824

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