Guidelines for Bulk Data Entries
The following guidelines apply to all entries in the bulk
data section:
· Data
may contain 80 characters per line at most. All characters after the 80th
are ignored.
· Each
line of data contains up to nine fields in one of the three accepted formats:
Fixed Format
Each field consists of eight characters (shown below).
Free Format
Fields are separated by commas; blank characters surrounding
commas are not significant. Two consecutive commas define empty (blank)
fields. If a comma is present in a line of data, it is assumed to be free
format data.
Large Field Format
Each field consists of 16 characters; two consecutive lines
form nine fields, similar to other formats (shown below). Large field
format is recognized by the first character after the keyword, or by the
first character in each continuation line, which must be *. The second
line (half line), if present, must also contain * in the first column.
The first and last field in each half line is eight characters long.
The following examples show the same card in fixed and large
field formats:
|
· Dollar
signs, $, in any column denote comments. All characters after the dollar
sign until the end of the line are ignored.
· Lines
which begin with two slashes, //, or a pound symbol, #, are read as comment
lines. Blank lines are also assumed to be comment lines.
· The
full keyword of each bulk data entry must be given starting from the first
column. Abbreviated keywords are not allowed.
· The
format of most bulk data entries is similar to that for Nastran. Not all
entry options are supported in OptiStruct. Consult the list of fields
and options supported.
· Continuation
entries must follow the parent entries. If the first character of any
entry is either a blank, a +, or an *, it is treated as a continuation
of the previous entry. If the entire line is blank, it is treated as a
comment line.
· An
ENDDATA entry must be present. Entries after the ENDDATA entry are ignored.
· All
Bulk Data entries must appear
after the BEGIN BULK statement in the input data.
· The
content of the tenth field in each card, and that of the first field in
each continuation card, is disregarded (with the exception of DTPG
data, which uses the tenth field).
· Each
entry can be placed anywhere within the field. For example, blanks preceding
and following an entry are ignored, except the keyword entry, which must
be left justified in its field.
· No
entry (including character data) can contain blanks within the data (Note: this is different than in previous
versions of OptiStruct).
· Character
entries (labels) must start with a letter.
· Numeric
entries must start with a digit, + or -.
· Integer
entries may not contain a decimal point or an exponent part, and must
fit in the range of values allowed for INTEGER*4 (usually 2**31<x<2**31).
·
Integer data placed in the field reserved for real valued data
is accepted and converted to a double precision.
· Character
entries longer than eight characters are silently truncated in large field
and free field formats, except file names on the INCLUDE card. All character
strings, except user-provided labels, are case insensitive (can be typed
in either lower or upper case).
· Continuation
lines do not have to be in the same format as the parent entries. It is
allowed to mix lines in different formats within a single bulk data card.
· Invisible
tab characters are equivalent to the number of spaces needed to advance
to the nearest tab stop. Tab stops are placed at the beginning of each
eight-character field.
Go To
The Input File
List of Bulk Data Entries
(by Function)
List
of Bulk Data Entries (Alphabetical)
Return to Altair HyperWorks Index