History Block Definition

  During the dialog session (see section 1.3) which occurs when the interface is run it is possible to define the frequency at which history states are written to file. This is typically done at a much higher frequency than for the plot states for the whole model, and should thus be restricted to small areas of the model in order to minimise file sizes.

FEMGEN sets are used to define the parts of the model for which history data is to be output. Node history blocks are defined by placing the desired parts into one or more sets named 'NHIS***'. Any number of such sets can be defined and the interface will translate these into the relevant history block cards in the DYNA3D input file. The interface will run much more quickly if only one node history block is defined

Similarly, element history blocks can be defined by placing all desired parts into a set named 'EHIS***'. Any number of such sets can be defined and the interface will translate these into the relevant history block cards in the DYNA3D input file. It is not necessary to specify a separate history block set for each element type in the model (solid, beam etc); the interface sorts all of this out automatically.

An environment variable FG_PRE_BLK (see section 1.4) can be used to configure the maximum size of history blocks in the input file. By default this is set to 3000 but can be reset to any integer. If a user places more than 3000 nodes or elements into a history block set, the interface simply splits the list up into chunks of 3000 (or whatever the limit has been reset to). The interface will process any number of history blocks.