ANSYS requires all material property definitions to have a material reference number assigned to it. This number is used to associate a particular material with the finite elements representing that material. A material reference number must be a positive integer (non-zero). The Helius PFA GUI can be used to view each material and its corresponding material reference number (MATID).
When Helius PFA is installed for ANSYS, an HPFAMatDB.xml file is created in two locations: the %APPDATA%\Autodesk\Helius PFA 20XX.X\Materials folder and the AUTODESK_DIR\Materials folder (C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Helius PFA 20XX.X\Materials for example). The purpose of this file is to link the material reference number (MATID) with the name of a material stored in the Helius PFA Materials Database (this is the %APPDATA%\Autodesk\Helius PFA 20XX.X\Materials directory).
The material reference numbers for the composite materials that come with the product install are already included in this file. If a new material file is created using Composite Material Manager, the HPFAMatDB.xml file is automatically updated to include the new material and is assigned a material ID number. However, if the material files are manually copied and edited, the HPFAMatDB.xml file must be updated to include the new link between the material reference number (MATID) and the name of the newly created composite material. If the HPFAMatDB.xml file is opened using a text editor or internet browser, the contents will look similar to the following (if opened with a text editor):
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<HPFAMatDB>
<Material id="9001" name="AS4-3501-6"/>
<Material id="9002" name="AS4_3502"/>
<Material id="9003" name="AS4_8552"/>
<Material id="9004" name="AS_Epoxy1"/>
<Material id="9005" name="Eglass21xK43Gevetex-LY556"/>
<Material id="9006" name="HTS150_TC250"/>
<Material id="9007" name="IM7-977-2"/>
<Material id="9008" name="IM7_5250-4"/>
<Material id="9009" name="IM7_8551"/>
<Material id="9010" name="IM7_8552"/>
<Material id="9011" name="IM7_977-3"/>
<Material id="9012" name="S2\_Glass\_Epoxy2"/>
<Material id="9013" name="SilEglass1200tex-MY750"/>
<Material id="9014" name="T300-BSL914C"/>
<Material id="9015" name="T300_976"/>
<Material id="9016" name="T300_PR319"/>
<Material id="9017" name="T800H_3900-2"/>
</HPFAMatDB>To add a link between a newly created material file and an ANSYS material reference number (MATID), copy the format of the existing file to add an additional line that links the two items. For example, if the newly created material file was saved as example_composite_material, the file would be modified as:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<HPFAMatDB>
<Material id="9001" name="AS4-3501-6"/>
<Material id="9002" name="AS4_3502"/>
<Material id="9003" name="AS4_8552"/>
<Material id="9004" name="AS_Epoxy1"/>
<Material id="9005" name="Eglass21xK43Gevetex-LY556"/>
<Material id="9006" name="HTS150_TC250"/>
<Material id="9007" name="IM7-977-2"/>
<Material id="9008" name="IM7_5250-4"/>
<Material id="9009" name="IM7_8551"/>
<Material id="9010" name="IM7_8552"/>
<Material id="9011" name="IM7_977-3"/>
<Material id="9012" name="S2\_Glass\_Epoxy2"/>
<Material id="9013" name="SilEglass1200tex-MY750"/>
<Material id="9014" name="T300-BSL914C"/>
<Material id="9015" name="T300_976"/>
<Material id="9016" name="T300_PR319"/>
<Material id="9017" name="T800H_3900-2"/>
<Material id="9018" name="example\_composite\_material"/>
</HPFAMatDB>The value 9018 would be used as the first argument in the HELIUS command telling Helius PFA to use the material "example_composite_material".