[Abaqus] job options

A list of possible options and their values may be found in the .com file:

options = {
    'ams':OFF,
    'analysisType':STANDARD,
    'applicationName':'analysis',
    'aqua':OFF,
    'ask_delete':OFF,
    'background':None,
    'beamSectGen':OFF,
    'biorid':OFF,
    'complexFrequency':OFF,
    'contact':OFF,
    'cosimulation':OFF,
    'coupledProcedure':OFF,
    'cpus':6,
    'cse':OFF,
    'cyclicSymmetryModel':OFF,
    'directCyclic':OFF,
    'direct_port':'XXX',
    'direct_solver':DMP,
    'domains':'6',
    'dsa':OFF,
    'dynamic':OFF,
    'filPrt':[],
    'fils':[],
    'finitesliding':OFF,
    'foundation':ON,
    'geostatic':OFF,
    'heatTransfer':OFF,
    'importer':OFF,
    'importerParts':OFF,
    'includes':[],
    'initialConditionsFile':OFF,
    'input':'D:\\TEMP\\Abaqus\\XXX',
    'job':'XXX',
    'lanczos':OFF,
    'libs':[],
    'listener_name':'XXX',
    'listener_resource':'XXX',
    'massDiffusion':OFF,
    'memory':'13GB',
    'message':None,
    'messaging_mechanism':'DIRECT',
    'moldflowFiles':[],
    'moldflowMaterial':OFF,
    'mp_file_system':(DETECT, DETECT),
    'mp_head_node':('XXX',),
    'mp_host_list':(('XXX', 6),),
    'mp_mode':MPI,
    'mp_mode_requested':MPI,
    'mp_mpi_validate':OFF,
    'mp_mpirun_path':'C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft HPC Pack 2008\\Bin\\mpiexec.EXE',
    'mp_rsh_command':'dummy %H -l user1 -n %C',
    'multiphysics':OFF,
    'noDmpDirect':[],
    'noMultiHost':[],
    'no_domain_check':ON,
    'outputKeywords':ON,
    'parameterized':OFF,
    'partsAndAssemblies':ON,
    'parval':OFF,
    'postOutput':OFF,
    'publicSim':OFF,
    'restart':OFF,
    'restartEndStep':OFF,
    'restartIncrement':0,
    'restartStep':0,
    'restartWrite':OFF,
    'rezone':OFF,
    'runCalculator':OFF,
    'soils':OFF,
    'soliter':OFF,
    'solverTypes':['DIRECT'],
    'standard_parallel':ALL,
    'staticNonlinear':OFF,
    'steadyStateTransport':OFF,
    'step':ON,
    'subGen':OFF,
    'subGenLibs':[],
    'subGenTypes':[],
    'submodel':OFF,
    'substrLibDefs':OFF,
    'substructure':OFF,
    'symmetricModelGeneration':OFF,
    'tmpdir':'C:\\Users\\user1\\AppData\\Local\\Temp',
    'tracer':OFF,
    'visco':OFF,
}

[abaqus] automatically overwrite existing files

When a job is launched, Abaqus checks if there are pre-existing files with the same names as those it wants to write. If it's the case, the user is asked whether he wants to overwrite them or not. To overwrite without questions, just have to add "ask_delete=OFF" in the command line.

For instance:
abq6101 job=myJob cpus=8 memory=14GB interactive ask_delete=OFF

[windows] Retrieving the IP address of a web server with windows

just have to launch the command window:
cmd /k

and then ping the server:
ping the_server_name.net

[Matlab] Dealing with apostrophe ' in strings

Defining a figure title as E' (E prime), the apostrophe ' has to be enterred twice :
title('E''');

[.eps] bitmap -> .eps for several files at once

The automatic conversion of several bitmap files (.png for instance) to their .eps counterparts may be performed very efficiently using a linux OS. Just have to type in a terminal the command "mogrify -format eps *.png" !

[PDF] Modification of a .pdf file

The direct edition of the text included in a .pdf file does appear to be straightforward. If the modification only concerns a few words (misprints,...), Inkscape may be used efficiently for that purpose.

Just open the .pdf file and modify the text where you want. This strategy generally works well but somefimes fails for a .pdf generated with MS Word.

[Matlab] fast reading of huge ASCII input files

The following code provides a rather fast way to deal with large ASCII data files containing groups of sub-data with different numbers of columns. For N=1E6 (leading to a ~2 M lines input file), the reading takes ~5 sec while the data reconstruction in matrix form lasts ~55 sec (on a 2012 laptop PC).

% Cleansing
clear all;
clc;

% Input Data
N=1E6;
x = 0:pi/N:pi;
y = [x; cos(x)];            %2 columns
xx= pi:pi/N:2*pi;
yy = [xx;cos(xx);sin(xx)];  %3 columns

% ASCII file writing
fprintf('* writing\n');
tic;
pfile = fopen('data.txt', 'w');
fprintf(pfile, '%12.8f %12.8f\n', y);
fprintf(pfile, '%12.8f %12.8f %12.8f\n', yy);
fclose(pfile);
toc;

% ASCII file reading
fprintf('\n* reading\n');
tic;
pfile=fopen('data.txt');
InputText=textscan(pfile,'%s','delimiter','\n');
fclose(pfile);
NN=length(InputText{1,1});
toc;

% Data matrix creation
fprintf('\n* matrix creation\n');
tic;
A=zeros(NN,3);
for i=1:NN
    line=InputText{1,1}{i,1};
    [str,count] = sscanf(line, '%s');
    if count == 2
        A(i,1:2)= sscanf(line, '%f %f');
    elseif count == 3
        A(i,1:3)= sscanf(line, '%f %f %f');
    end
end
toc;