[Gmsh] Importing Nastran BDF

[Todd Martin]

Hi Chris

The more I use gmsh, the more I like it.

I have two questions.
a) when importing a BDF file, gmesh currently creates "elementary 
entities" for each element according to its Nastran property id. 
Shouldn't these be "physical groups" instead? These physical groups 
could then be used to assign properties in Code-Aster.
(it would be even better if load and constraint points were 
automatically converted to physical groups as well.)

b) Since "physical groups" can be named in gmesh, can these names be 
used in Code-Aster to identify mesh groups, instead of "GM100" etc. 
Perhaps this is a question for the Code-Aster people, but I thought you 
might know.

I am very familiar with the Nastran solver, so I'd be happy to supply 
any details about the bulk data format. In fact, soon I will be 
comparing the results of some simply loaded composite plates in 
Code-Aster and Calculix with those of NE Nastran. I'm pretty sure the 
Calculix post-processor can export gmesh files, so I just need to get 
the Nastran results out of FEMAP to view all the results in gmesh.

I'm using gmesh version 2.1.0-nightly-20071025

Thanks,
Todd.
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, B.E. (1st Class Honours)