Range ID Convertor

RangeIDConvertor is a solution for converting identifier ranges from FEA softwares.

Basically, it converts a range of identifiers [1] (ex: node, element, material, .. property ID) from various formats used by Patran, Femap, Abaqus, HyperMesh, Ansys, Calc and Excel.

[1] See Glossary at the end of this document

Description

The current FEA pre/post-processing tools and analysis tools in the market are known to use different formats for storing range of IDs. Moreover, these ID ranges are often packed. This makes unpacking quite unfriendly and error-prone.

RangeIDConvertor makes conversions of range between these tools easier, and simplifies the ranges unpacking.

What's the problem?

1. Copy a list of identifiers, let's say, from Patran:

    Elm 31276964 31276974 31276989:31277019:10 31277028 31277075 31280111:31280129:6 31292327
   

2. Paste it to Excel, as a column (replacing all 'spaces' by 'end-of-line' characters):

    1: 31276964
    2: 31276974
    3: 31276989:31277019:10
    4: 31277028
    5: 31277075
    6: 31280111:31280129:6
    7: 31292327
   

As you see here, some identifiers are packed (here, lines 3 and 6).

D'oh!

How to expand them quickly?

The solution is to paste the identifiers in RangeIDConvertor.

• RangeIDConvertor expands all the ID ranges.
• RangeIDConvertor converts them to the format of a specific tool.

Installation

Download the most recent package from the download page, unzip it and run it.

Usage

Just copy-n-paste.

Quick tutorial

1. Add the IDs

2. Paste the IDs from your favorite pre/post-processing tool

3. Click Pack or Unpack to choose the output format

4. Select and copy the IDs (with Copy or Ctrl+C)

6. Paste them to another pre/post-processing tool (with Ctrl+V)

Format diversity

This section presents different formats, often encountered by stress analysts.

Remark: In the following examples, we consider the same list of identifiers: 100, 101, 102, 109, 110, 115, 123, 131 and demonstrate how the FEM softwares read them and the format diversity.

Nastran Bulk File Format

• from the Nastran file (comma-separated format):

   100,THRU,102,109,110,115,THRU,131,BY,8
  

• from the Nastran file (small field format with continuation):

                                        100    THRU     102     109+
   +            110     115    THRU     131    STEP       8  EXCEPT+
   +            130
  

Patran Format

• from the GUI:

   Node 100:102 Elm 109 110 MPC 115:131:8
  

• from the GUI (another format):

   n 100:102 e 109 110 MPC 115:131:8
  

Patran Session File Format

• from the *.ses group file :

   ga_group_create( "My group" )
   ga_group_entity_add( "My group", " Node 100:102 " // @
   "109 110 115 123 " // @
   "131") // @
  

Femap Format

• from the GUI:

   100,101,102,109,110,115,123,131
  

• from the GUI (another format):

   100:102,109,110,115:131:8
  

• from the GUI (another format):

   102:100:-1,109,110,131:115:-8
  

HyperMesh Format

• from the GUI:

   "el 100,101,102,109,110,115,123,131"
  

• from the GUI (another format):

   "el 100-102,109-110,115,123,131"
  

Abaqus Format

• from the *.inp file:

   **
   *ELEMENT,TYPE=S4,ELSET=MY_ELEMENTS_PROP
       100,       101,       102,       109,       110
       110,       115,       123,       131**NAME MY_ELEMENTS_PROP
   *
   **
  

Calc / Excel Format

• by row:

    "100";"101";"102";"109";"110";"115";"123";"131";
  

• by column:

    "100"
    "101"
    "102"
    "109"
    "110"
    "115"
    "123"
    "131"
  

Build

1. Download rangeidconvertor-src.tar.gz.

2. Unzip:

    $ tar zxvf rangeidconvertor-src.tar.gz
    $ cd rangeidconvertor-src/
   

3. Build with QtCreator.

   Compile and run RangeIDConvertor.pro.

Deployment

Windows

To deploy the application on Windows, we must make sure that the relevant DLLs and the executable are in the same directory.

1. Go to the Release build directory.

    $ mkdir RangeIDConvertor-v1.0-win32-release
    $ cd .\RangeIDConvertor-v1.0-win32-release
    $ cp D:\path\to\RangeIDConvertor.exe .\
   

2. Use the Qt's Windows Deployment Tool.

    $ windeployqt .\
   

3. Zip and publish.

    $ tar RangeIDConvertor-v1.0-win32-release/
   

Glossary

• identifier or ID: numerical value representing a unique entity (ex: a node, an element, a property, -etc.-). Ex : "5001987".

• range: sequence of identifiers. A range can be packed (ex: "5:9") or unpacked (ex: "5 6 7 8 9").

• unpacking: conversion of a packed range (ex: "5:9") to an unpacked range (ex: "5 6 7 8 9"), and vice versa.

• interval: range with a step (ex: "200:300:15").

License

The code is released under the MIT License.