I’m currently working on a simulation that includes two steps — one static and one dynamic — and I’m having trouble accessing the output data in PrePoMax.
I’ve already enabled “Save Results in pmx File”, and the simulation runs without errors. However, I can’t find the results I’m looking for in the Results tab.
Specifically:
For Step 1 (static), I need the History Output and Contact Output data (contact forces).
For Step 2 (dynamic), I’m looking for History Output from specific nodes (to evaluate force-displacement behavior).
Despite enabling the output settings, these results don’t show up in the GUI. Am I missing a step or setting? Do I need to extract this data manually from the .dat or .frd file?
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Was the analysis successfully completed ? Any warning/error messages ? Sometimes history output is not read correctly when final increments are not in true equilibrium. But you can look for the .dat file in your work directory - that’s where history output is written by CalculiX.
Yes, it was completed successfully. Thanks for the tip with the dat. file!
At the beginning, I thought that I could run all the analyses and then summarise them all at the end. However, when I now go to the temp files, I can’t seem to find a corresponding .dat file for each analysis that has been run so far. Are the files overwritten? Can I extract them from the pmx file?
If you use the same work directory and analysis name (Analysis-1 by default) then yes.
If you have the option to save the results in pmx file enabled then it should be possible.
If in doubt about a particular analysis, you can export the .inp file, submit it using standalone CalculiX and open the .frd file with results in PrePoMax. Then you will also see if the .dat file has the history outputs you need. Sometimes PrePoMax fails to read them but most issues of this kind are already fixed in the recent versions.