The module defines the “extract” function that is used to extract values on selections of elements and nodes explicitly defined in the post-processing worksheet. This function is matricial as the different functions defined in “ExtractionCriteria” VBA module. The arguments of this function are:
A String corresponding to the type of entities on which the values are extracted. Possible values are “E” for elements, “N” for nodes or “EN” for pairs of elements and nodes.
A selection defining the list of entities on which the values are extracted. The values in the selection must be of integer type. The selection must have two columns if the first parameter is “EN”, one column otherwise.
The number of lines or the matrix returned by the function matches the number of lines of this selection.
A String corresponding to the name of the current load case.
A String corresponding to the type of Result that is requested.
A String or Integer corresponding to the layer on which values are extracted.
A String or Integer corresponding to the coordinate system in which the components are given.
A String corresponding to the name of the component that is requested. If this argument is “NONE”, all the components are returned.
The use of this function is illustrated in “post_extract” worksheet. So far the example worksheet only performs extraction operations without using the extracted values in post-processing.
The actual exploitation of extracted Results could be done directly by calculations in the excel worksheet. ‘ResultsExtraction” VBA module corresponds to a type of operation that is very often done in aeronautics. For example, when wings or fuselages are stressed, one often works with finite element models characterized by a structured numbering of elements and nodes that allow to easily extract shell forces or stresses for panels, beam forces for elements representing stringers or frames... This allows to estimate loads on rows of connections, assess the risk for a panel to buckle...