There is a script in the MoI resources page under petr's MoI page, under custom commands called CopyToPoints...

This achieves the first part of what you need.

Lacking is the ability to use a "magnitude" with the points... I can do it randomly with the randomize script, but to "control the value specifically", Needs that method added somehow....

Thank you guys. Great community here!
@Karsten
I read interesting things concerning the node editor. I will check it out.

@Stefan
To be more concrete according my project.
I have a file from a finite element mesh incl. outer and inner nodes with specific outer loadings for each node stored in the file.
As mentioned above, I want to place a sphere in each node paramterized with the outer loading (stress value).
After that I want join all neighbouring spheres with cylinders and perform a boolean operation.
At the and I'm going to perform a retopo operation to gain somekind of a metaball like structure (can be done in Cinema4D too via workarounds).
The aim is to generate a lightweight structure for solid real world workpieces made of selective laser melting/sintering.

You will hear from me.
:)

Thanks for the explanation Martin, sounds interesting!

Regards
Stefan

Thanks Karsten
Now it is clear to the use of your new Node ....
have a nice day
al

Yep!
... and an individual scaling is also possible now:-)

Have a nice evening
Karsten

Hi Martin,

As Karsten stated, this is easily achieved in node editor.
Select your net, then "ShowPts" Copy/Paste points.
In Node editor place Object/Selected to capture point array.

To adjust scaling alter num string in "Const" node.

This is the perfect exercise to start exploring parametric design in MOI.

-James



P.S. Of course all the numerical inputs could be dial widgets
for total parametric control. See attached screen grab below.

Hi James
By placing in a timely manner
points and working with ranges and interpolated
you get something near Metaballs (GH)
very interesting
best
al

Hello Martin,

can you post an example of the fea file-format?

Have a nice day
Karsten

Hi Karsten.
Yes I can do it.
Unfortunatelly at the earliest on Friday, have a lot of other stuff to do.

I'm going to use this tool for meshing.
Non commercial version allows only 1000 nodes, however for a proof of concept this is satisfactory.
http://www.visualfea.com/download.htm

Best regards,
Martin

Hello Martin,
I've made a short test with the 3dSolid example and exported the result to txt. Unfortunaly the output seems not to give loads (x,y,z-forces) for all fea-nodes. Afer an reorder in libre office I saw some gaps?! That makes parsing more difficult. Is it a uniquely job?

Have a nice day
Karsten

Hi Karsten,
nope the routine has to be performed for different geometries/models after the proof of concept was successful.
I will check (FEA node export) this during the next days.
I performed a similar operation last year while using an export from ANSYS result txt-file (x-y-z & forces) and used this input in Cinema 4D for meatball modelling.
It worked very well for each node.

Best regards,
Martin

Hello Martin,

sounds interesting:-)
I've written a node to import text/csv-files. And a first test looks good! Read back the xyz coords works good (pointarray), if you have the sequence separated in a csv-file. The node supports also numarrays but it can't parse for fea-node numbers and fill missing infos.








Have a nice day
Karsten

p.s.: It sounds like a structural optimization algorythm for light weight structures!?!

Absolutely! That is the plan.
It goes in similar direction like Altair OptiStruct, however with improved surface quality and total control concerning the primatives (spheres, cylinders etc.) that are used as base bodies.
I suppose that Moi3d can do that with a good performance. :)

Best regards,
Martin

Hello Martin,

I'm also using fea for the job. I think it is a good choice to use the nodeeditor as a tool for that. Support of different geometries and different fea output formats are easy to handle, if some missing nodes are made. The mesh and output of calculix (.dat), openFOAM via ParaVIEW would be possible to support also. I don't have a look to ANSYS in the past, because I use the WB, but now I'm curious:-) I think it's also possible to select only the biggest joined object with a filter node. If you think a special script would do the job in a better way - the nodeditor can help to design the workflow and logic - the code can give you the examples.

Have a nice day
Karsten

p.s.: I've used in the past: CALCULIX/NETGEN, CATIA GPS/GAS/ANL, OpenFOAM (flow), COMSOL (magnetics/heat transfer/flow), ANSYS(mechanical/thermal/CFX) (it seems that i'm an old man) - but I've never heard VisualFEA before? What is the reason/advantage to choose this tool?

Hello Martin,
I've made 2 additional nodes (some bugs at the moment) CSV-File reader that evaluates points. You can select the columns individually in the node. The node can also read only numbers -> output a numarray. A second node idxReplace replaces values in a numarray by the index.

Here is a first result:



I will try to find the bugs in the next days and post an update of the node editor.

Have a nice day
Karsten

Hello Martin,

I've posted a modified version of the nodeeditor here http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=7777.131 that maybe help you for a first step.

Have a nice weekend
Karsten

Hi Karsten and good morning.

Thanks a lot or your update! Now "Project Elephant" is going in a very promising direction.

Could you please post a practical example with a nod file and some csv files, in order to show us how to use the new CSV node ?

I post here an updated version of your "Project Elephant", the version v.0.85mod5

It's almost identical to your version but it has includes the "objectsExt.js" with the "SelectedObjExt" node that I wrote some times ago.

This node is an updated version of "Selected" node, that allows to specify the order of selected objects : "By Selection" or "By Creation".

It's very useful in order to obtain different elaborations of the same data.

Here's the archive : http://take.ms/Pxp6A

Have a nice day,

You will can re-introduce all that in the future update of Max
or it will be 2 different elephants ?