Edit Databases to Perform General Functions

Some of the following general functions can be made easy by editing the database. These methods are effective when you have many items that take a lot of time to define individually through the interface.

To have a magnitude of a load vary with position, you can find the nodes that you want to apply the force to and copy the orientation of the force and change the magnitude.

Each model has five database files that are created when a Check Model or analysis is performed (Analysis Analysis Check Model and Analysis Analysis Run Simulation). If you translated the .dbf format into a Microsoft Access database format, these files will appear as five tables in the filename.mdb file. If you translated the .dbf format into text files, these files will appear as five .csv files in the .mod folder. The names and information contained in these files is described in the following table.

Table or File	Information
ElemCond	Elements that have element based loading (pressure, heat generation, current source, and so on) Orientation of element based load. Note: There will be no information in this table unless you performed a Check on your model before translating the database
Elements	The Material, Prop, and Surface IDs of every element The nodes that define each element. Note: There will be no information in this table unless you performed a Check on your model before translating the database.
Model	Material properties for all parts Element definition options for all parts Global options Units Meshing options specified
NodeCond	Nodes that have a nodal load applied Orientation of the loads Note: There will be no information in this table unless you performed a Check on your model before translating the database.
Nodes	Coordinates of each node The degrees of freedom at each node Note: There will be no information in this table unless you performed a Check on your model before translating the database.

Note: If you change any model geometry or loading parameters, the geometry and graphics do not reflect the changes. For the changes to take effect, you must run the program asd2fem.exe from the DOS prompt. This creates an FEA Model file (.fem) with the changes. See Generate an Autodesk Simulation File from a Database for more details.