Control Output Results

The information on this page applies to the following analysis types except where otherwise indicated:

• Mechanical Event Simulation (MES)
• Static Stress with Nonlinear Material Models
• Riks Buckling Analysis

Basic Output Options

Basic output options for all nonlinear analysis types are found under the Output tab of the Analysis Parameters dialog box.

• Output results of all time steps: By default, only the results at the specified time steps will be available in the Results environment. For example, if an event is analyzed for 1 second with a capture rate of 100 steps/second, there will be 100 sets of results available in the Results environment. If during the analysis, the time step has to be reduced for convergence, the results of the intermediate steps will not be available in the Results environment. Activating this check box makes the results from these intermediate converged steps available within the Results environment. This also produces larger results files.
• Output reaction forces: The reaction forces at boundary conditions and prescribed displacements can be calculated and output. Activate this checkbox to enable the optional output. These additional results will be available within the Results environment. You can also enable either or both of the following two related options:
  • Nodal reaction forces due to contact: To view, in the Results environment, the contact force generated by surface-to-surface or impact plane contact, activate the checkbox.
  • Equivalent actuator induced forces: If there are actuator elements present in the model, the forces in these elements required to produce the specified displacement can be calculated and output. Activate this checkbox to output the actuator forces.
    Note: The actuator force output option is not applicable to Riks Buckling analyses.
• Output Strain: If you are not interested in strain results, omitting them can save a significant amount of solution time for large models. By default, Output Strain is enabled. Deactivate this checkbox to omit strain results from the solution output.
  Note: The strain output option is also available for Natural Frequency with Nonlinear Material Models. Therefore, this setting is applicable to all four nonlinear analysis types.

Advanced Output Controls

Additional output controls appear on the Output tab of the Analysis Parameters: Advanced dialog box (Setup Model Setup Parameters Advanced Output). These other output options control what results are written to text files. See the Control Output Files page for details.