Extracting Information from ANSYS, *GET command

Programming with the ANSYS Parametric Design Language often requires
the extraction of data such as entity numbers and locations, geometric information,
results, etc. Considering the fact that a typical FEA mesh consists of
thousands of nodes and elements, the user does not usually have control
over the entity numbering. Thus, the information that nodes exist at a specific
location may be known without knowledge of their numbers. So, if the
user is interested in extracting the variation of a certain solution item along a
specific path, the aforementioned data extraction tasks must be performed.
These tasks are achieved using the *GET command. The syntax of the
*GET command is as follows:

*GET,Par,Entity,ENTNUM,Iteml,ITINUM,Item2,IT2NUM

The *GET command retrieves and subsequently stores data into parameters.
The first argument, Par, is the parameter name given by the user. The
help page for the *GET command provides a complete list of possible
argument combinations, and it is highly recommended that the user refer to
it. In order to explain the use of the *GET command, we consider the
examples given below.

• Store the maximum and minimum node numbers in the currently selected
node set in parameters maxnod and minnod:

*GET,maxnod,NODE,0,NUM,MAX
*GET,minnod,NODE,0,NUM,MIN

• Store the maximum and minimum element numbers in the currently
selected element set in parameters maxel and mineh

*GET,maxel,ELEM,0,NUM,MAX
*GET,minel,ELEM,0,NUM,MIN

• Store the number of nodes and elements in the currently selected node and
element sets in parameters numnod and numel:

*GET,numnod,NODE,0,COUNT
*GET,numel,ELEM,0,COUNT

• Store the x-, y-, and z-coordinates of the node numbered maxnod in
parameters xl, yl, and z7:

*GET,xl,NODE,maxnod,LOC,X
*GET,y1,NODE,maxnod,LOC,Y
*GET,z1,NODE,maxnod,LOC,Z

• Store the x-, y-, and z-displacements of the node numbered minnod in
parameters w2, v2, and w2:

*GET,u2,NODE,minnod,U,X
*GET,v2,NODE,minnod,U,Y
*GET,w2,NODE,minnod,U,Z

• Store the rotations of the node numbered minnod about the x-, y-, and zaxes
in parameters r_jc, r_y, and rji:

*GET,r_x,NODE,minnod,ROT,X
*GET,r_y,NODE,minnod,ROT,Y
*GET,r_z,NODE,minnod,ROT,Z

• Store the shear stresses a^, o*^^, and cr^^ and von Mises stress a^^^ at
the node numbered maxnod in parameters s_xy, s_yz, s_xz, and s_eqv:

*GET,s_xy,NODE,maxnod,S,XY
*GET, s__yz, NODE, maxnod, S, YZ

*GET,s_xz,NODE,maxnod,S,XZ
*GET,s_eqv,NODE,maxnod,S,EQV

• Store the normal strains 6:^, Syy, and e^^ at the node numbered minnod
in parameters eps_xx, eps_yy, and eps_zz:

*GET,eps_xx,NODE,minnod,EPEL,X
*GET,eps_yy,NODE,minnod,EPEL,Y
*GET,eps_zz,NODE,minnod,EPEL,Z

• Store the x-, y-, and z-coordinates of the centroid of the element numbered
maxel in parameters ce_jc, ce_y, and ce_z:

*GET,ce_x,ELEM,maxel,CENT,X
*GET,ce_y,ELEM,maxel,CENT,Y
*GET,ce_z,ELEM,maxel,CENT,Z

• Store the area of the element numbered minel in parameters e_area:

*GET,e_area,ELEM,minel,AREA

As an alternative to the syntax given above, one can use readily available
*GET functions that are predefined in compact form. A few of these
functions are listed in Table 7.10. For example, the x-, y-, and zdisplacements
of the node numbered minnod can be stored in parameters w2,
v2, and w2 by using the following:

u2=UX(minnod)
v2=UY(minnod)
w2=UZ(minnod)