D3PLOT 22.1

Element Types

Element Types

The following entity types in Ansys LS-DYNA can be processed in D3PLOT:
Solid Elements 8 noded "bricks" (hexahedra), and the elements they degenerate to: "wedges" and tetrahedra.
Thin Shells 4 noded quadrilaterals and 3 noded triangles.
Thick Shells 8 noded shells.
Beams 2 noded beams.
Discrete elements Springs, dampers, lumped masses.
Seat-belt elements Belts themselves, slip-rings and retractors.
SPH elements Smooth Particle Hydrodynamic "sphere" elements (V9.3 onwards)
Airbag Particles The particles used in the Airbag Particle inflator method (V9.3 onwards)
DES elements Discrete Element Spheres (D3PLOT 12.0 onwards)
Contact surfaces Ansys LS-DYNA models impact, friction, sliding, etc by the use of contact surfaces that can be thought of as two-dimensional elements overlaying the surfaces of solid and/or shell models.
These are not true elements, but rather sub-areas, so to prevent confusion they will be referred to as interface "segments" from now on.
Spotwelds *CONSTRAINED weld types, and also spotweld beams, solids and solid hex clusters
SPCs The SPCs themselves and their reaction forces
Using the .XTF file from Ansys LS-DYNA In Ansys LS-DYNA joint, lumped-mass and stonewall geometries are sent to the .XTF file and so may be recovered for plotting in D3PLOT. However results from these are not available for plotting in D3PLOT: they may be viewed in XY plot form in T/HIS.
Alternatives to the .XTF file when using MPP Ansys LS-DYNA MPP Ansys LS-DYNA, and also SMP versions from ls970 onwards can also generate a "binout" (or LSDA) file; and the MPP version cannot generate a .XTF file. D3PLOT does not read this file directly, but from V90 onwards the information previously extracted from the .XTF file is now available from the .ZTF file - see below.

Using the .ZTF file

PRIMER can generate a pseudo-database .ZTF file directly from the input deck. This is intended to contain extra information not in the normal Ansys LS-DYNA database files, and also to replace the .ZTF file.

In D3PLOT 8.3 the ZTF file allows you to visualise:

  • Nodes on "nodes_to_..." contacts.
  • Nodal constraints and restraints
  • Spotweld beams.

From D3PLOT 9.0 onwards you may also visualise the following even when the .XTF file is missing:

  • Stonewalls (rigid walls)
  • Springs and dampers
  • Seatbelt elements, retractors, slip-rings and pre-tensioners
  • Joints
  • Lumped masses

In addition the names of parts and contacts, previously stored in the .XTF file, are also available.

From D3PLOT 9.2 onwards you may also visualise:

  • Beam "true" sections
  • Part tree: organised by include files, assemblies and sub-assemblies (as in PRIMER)

From D3PLOT 9.3 onwards:

  • Discrete and Seatbelt elements can be processed by PART
  • Part, Part_composite and Section data are available

In addition ls-dyna cut-section definitions (*DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION) may be used to defined D3PLOT cut sections

From D3PLOT 9.4 onwards:

  • Spotwelds (Constrained, beam, solid, solid cluster)
  • SPCs

    The results for spotwelds, discrete elements, seatbelt and SPCs may also be displayed if a "binout" (LSDA) file is present.

From D3PLOT 10.0 onwards you may also visualise:

  • PRIMER Rigid and Deformable connections using a new "Bolt" symbol.
  • MIG lines created in PRIMER.
  • *DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION definitions and locations.

    The results for *DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION may also be displayed if a "binout" (LSDA) file is present.

From D3PLOT 16.0 onwards you may also visualise:

  • *LOAD_NODE_POINT, *LOAD_NODE_SET, *LOAD_BEAM, *LOAD_BEAM_SET, *LOAD_SHELL, *LOAD_SHELL_SET, *LOAD_SEGMENT and *LOAD_SEGMENT_SET definitions. Visualisation is currently restricted to the direction and location of loads and does not include the magnitude of the loads.
  • Composite data for shells, including layer and ply information if present
  • Shells and thick shells will also "know" how many integration points they have through their thickness
If the T/HIS link is invoked then elements and nodes in time-history blocks can be displayed, and screen picked for time-history plotting.

Data for other entities are not sent to any database files, so they are not displayed.

D3PLOT is primarily for post-processing results from Ansys LS-DYNA, but results from TOPAZ3D (thermal analysis) and NIKE3D (implicit structural analysis) may also be processed. Both codes write a subset of the entity types listed above.


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