Optimising Morphing in LS-OPT

Optimising Morphing in LS-OPT

• The flowchart above shows a possible layout of stages in LS-OPT.
• There should be two stages PRIMER and Ansys LS-DYNA after each other. When the pre-processor stage PRIMER is defined, Ansys LS-DYNA can be added as a new stage in PRIMER, and the stage dependency arrow can then be dragged.
• Below we will see the setup of the individual stages in more detail.

Edit dv.txt in your working directory such that the "value" properties are <<variable_name>>, i.e. the LS-OPT variable name in <<>> brackets. This variable name can be identical to the morph flow name. Make sure that the line in the JSON file is still terminated by a comma, but there are no quotes except for those around "value".

• For Windows, create a text file run.bat containing the following:

  @"executable_path\primer16_x64.exe" %*

• For Command in the LS-OPT pre-processor stage definition on Windows fill in:

  working_directory\run.bat -noconsole -exec your_input_file.key -ls_opt=PrimerOpt.inp -exit

• When running on Linux, specify the PRIMER executable path directly instead of run.bat and without -noconsole or -exec:

  executable_path\primer16_x64.exe your_input_file.key -ls_opt=PrimerOpt.inp -exit

• Optionally use -batch instead of -exit for the PRIMER command if you wish to avoid PRIMER windows appearing on the screen.
• Tick "Do not add input file argument".
• As Input File specify dv.txt.
• As target on the line "copies dv.txt ...", which by default says UserOpt.inp, specify the file name PrimerOpt.inp.
• Tick "Extra input files" and add your_input_file.key.
• Tick the box to parse that extra input file.

In the file transfer between the PRIMER and Ansys LS-DYNA stages add a file copy action. Fill in the original .key file for Source File. Specify the file name DynaOpt.inp for Destination File. Make sure that the "On Error" action is set to "fail".

In the Ansys LS-DYNA stage fill in the Ansys LS-DYNA executable path. As input file specify your .key file without directory path. Set the text box to copy the .key file to DynaOpt.inp in each run directory.

In future LS-OPT versions the setup might become easier:

• It will be possible to specify PRIMER directly in LS-OPT in the pre-processor stage definition. This will make the setup of the PRIMER command easier, and on Windows the run.bat files will no longer need to be created manually.
• The variable range information might be picked up automatically by the LS-OPT Setup stage from the JSON files as shown below.