**add_element

Description

This command is used to enter elements into a mesh “by hand.” It is useful normally to utilize element numbers which are “far away” from those generated by other meshing commands. Normally Zmaster and batch mesher commands all presume a sequentially numbered mesh, starting with one. So if you know there will be less than 10000 elements, you could start your hand-created element numbers there.

It is normally very useful to write shell scripts (or command batch files) to generate the records for this type of command.

Syntax

The **add_element command takes a list of element definitions, much as they are given in the .geof file. There are no checks if an equivalent element already exists. The element id must be unique, and the nodes with the given ids must exist before this command runs.

**add_element \(~\,~\,\) ele-id ele-type \(n_1\)  \(n_2\)  …  \(n_N\)  \(r_1\)  … \(r_m\) \(~\,~\,\) ...

Any number of elements can be added. The entries must however start with an acceptable element number and element type. In the above, \(n_1\) means node number 1 id, and \(r_1\) means real constant 1 for the element (e.g. thickness). The number and type of real constant possible depends on the element type, as does the appropriate number of nodes.

A duplication of this command exists which automatically creates an element set made up of the new elements. That command has the syntax:

**add_element_elset elset-name \(~\,~\,\) ele-id ele-type \(n_1\)  \(n_2\)  …  \(n_N\)  \(r_1\)  … \(r_m\) \(~\,~\,\) ...

Example

Some example uses follow.

**add_element
 6000 c2d4  1 2 3 4
 6001 c2d4  2 5 6 7
**elset new_elem
 *elements 6000 6001

A shorter version would use the **add_element_elset variant:

**add_element_elset new_elem
 6000 c2d4  1 2 3 4
 6001 c2d4  2 5 6 7