You can export a mesh to a COMSOL Multiphysics file (.mphbin for a binary file format or
.mphtxt for a text file format) or to a NASTRAN file (
.nas,
.bdf,
.nastran, or
.dat).
To open the Export window for exporting meshes, from the
Mesh toolbar, click
Export (
), or right-click the
Mesh node and select
Export (
) from the menu.
Select a file type among the available formats in the File type list and enter a filename including the path in the
Filename field (or click
Browse to specify the filename).
Click Export to export a mesh to the specified file. A confirmation message appears in the
Messages window.
If you export a mesh to a COMSOL Multiphysics binary (.mphbin) or text (.mphtxt) file, you specify the type of elements to export using the Domain elements,
Boundary elements,
Edge elements (available in 3D), and
Vertex elements (available in 2D and 3D) check boxes under
Data to export. By selecting the
Geometric entity information check box, the export operation also writes information on the corresponding geometric entity index for each element to the file.
If you export a 2D or 3D mesh to a NASTRAN file, you specify the type of elements to export using the Domain elements and
Boundary elements (available in 3D) check boxes. By selecting the
Geometric entity information check box, the export operation also writes information on each element’s corresponding geometric entity index to the corresponding property identification field of the resulting NASTRAN file.
Under Output settings, use the
Field format list to specify if the output NASTRAN file should be stored in the small field format (single precision), large field format (double precision), or free field format (comma separated). Select the
Export as linear elements check box to export the linear element information only. By default, second-order elements are exported if second-order elements are available. Second-order elements are available for meshes generated in COMSOL Multiphysics and for imported meshes already containing second-order elements.