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<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">hello</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">i have to model a structure made of beams and
sustaining rods or cables,</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">think of a suspension brigdge</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">rods have no flexural rigidity and must be
modelled as a single element along their length</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">otherwise the matrix will be singular</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">here is a small example model, 4 nodes and 3
lines</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><BR></P>
<P
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">P1
P2</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">+--------------------L1--------------------+</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">
|</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">
|</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">
L3</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">
|</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">
||</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">+--------------------L2--------------------+</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">P3
P4</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">i want Line L1 and L2 to be meshed as beams with
(ideally) equally spaced nodes along them</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">but</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">i want Line L3 to be meshed as a ROD i e one
single finite element along its length -NO INTERMEDIATE NODES-</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">how to apply « Charcateristic Length »
at the Points to do that</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">or any other clever way to it</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">I mean more clever than altering *.msh file by
hand the saving it as *.med or *.unv and repeating that process every time a
change is made</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">anybody has a good idea</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">thanks</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0cm">jean pierre</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>