Convert .inp to .xml mesh

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8 months ago by
Hi all,
I have a 2D Abaqus '.inp' file. I wish to convert it to fenics readable '.xml' format. I tried the command "dolfin-convert abaqus.inp fenics.xml". But it showed the error "element type not supported". In the inp file, it contains only CPS6 (Quadratic triangular elements). Please can anybody help me with this? Can it be converted into fenics readable format? Or are there any ways? If yes please can you suggest?
Thanks.
Community: FEniCS Project
CPS6 seems to be a plane stress element where the basic cell is a prism (6 nodes). FEniCS only supports tetrahedral cells. You could remesh into a tetrahedral mesh (maybe in Abaqus) and feed that into dolfin-convert.
written 8 months ago by klunkean
Hi klunkean,

But I have to perform only 2D analysis. So I need only 2D mesh. So I can not use the tetrahedral mesh. Is there any way?
written 8 months ago by Peter James
Oh, then I was wrong in guessing what CPS6 means. I dug a little deeper and it seems, only 'c3d4' (Tetrahedron, four nodes) elements are available for direct conversion into dolfin xml.

See the source:
def check_element_support(element_type):
supported_elements = ('c3d4',)
if element_type.lower() not in supported_elements:
raise Exception("Element type not supported.")​

I suggest that, if possible, you use some other mesh generator like netgen on your geometry to create a triangular mesh.

In FEniCS you can access quadratic triangle elements via
element = FiniteElement("Lagrange",triangle,2)​
written 8 months ago by klunkean