I am still getting familiar with Grasshopper, so please excuse me if this is a basic question.
For large models, the FEM solver generates the mesh automatically when one has not been defined beforehand. This automatic meshing process takes considerable time and system resources. I would like to know whether it is possible to create the mesh in advance within Grasshopper or Rhino and then pass that predefined mesh directly to FEM-Design.
Specifically, is there a way to define the mesh explicitly using one common module which will do all Finite element .FemBar, .FemNode, and .FemShell (Modules in Grasshopper) elements so that the solver does not re-mesh the model automatically? In other words, can we generate the full finite element model in Rhino, including quad and triangular mesh elements (FEM only do the Quad meshing, how to do Triangular mesh?), and then send this existing mesh directly to FEM-Design for analysis?
Additionally, after running the analysis and generating results via the StruXML file, can those results be reused when reopening the Grasshopper file, or does the analysis need to be executed again each time or the only option is to load the .str file with results to skip other steps?
However, if you have the .csv files generated using the ListTables option of FEM-Design, you can read them using the ParseCSVLink
FEM-Design does not provide a way to create the finite element mesh through the API, and it is not possible to use a mesh model as input. The software automatically decides whether the mesh needs to be generated or regenerated, depending on whether the model has been updated since the last mesh generation.
