Hello,
I generally extract output by creating an xy data set from field or history output. Why does A2M use this fin/fil file to extract data? What is contained inside it that is not in the field output?
Thank you.
If using this toolbox for research or industrial purposes, please cite:
Advances in Engineering Software. Vol 105. March 2017. Pages 9-16. (2017)
In order to process an odb file, Python needs to be run in the background which stores the extracted data in an ASCII file (and takes an additional amount of computational resources for this job) Subsequently, this ASCII file is read by Abaqus2Matlab and the results are made available to the user.
However, when fil or fin files are processed, the results are taken directly from an ASCII file that is generated by Abaqus after the analysis terminates, without the need for execution of Python. This is computationally more efficient.
It would be interesting to make some comparisons between these two approaches and see which is more efficient, especially for repeated submission of Abaqus analyses...
So to conclude, one should be able to extract data from either.fil or .odb files, but .fil files are smaller?
yes
But then, if I am already generating an .odb, what's the point in generating a .fil as well?
You can post-process it in Matlab without opening Abaqus.. if you are submitting several cases, the time work is notably reduced.
So to conclude, one should be able to extract data from either.fil or .odb files, but .fil files are smaller?
But then, if I am already generating an .odb, what's the point in generating a .fil as well?
The Abaqus results (. fil) file is written using internal data management routines to minimize I/O cost. A postprocessing program must use these same Abaqus data management routines to read the results file.
As it is commented above, it is the same, but, with this file you can post-process directly instead of checking your .odb.
In a not very technical way, let's say, It has the data, but no the images.