Welcome to pyNastran’s documentation for v0.7!¶
The pyNastran software interfaces to Nastran’s complicated input and output files and provides a simplified interface to read/edit/write the various files. The software is compatible currently being used on Windows, Linux, and Mac.
The BDF reader/editor/writer supports about 230 cards including coordinate systems. Card objects have methods to access data such as Mass, Area, etc. The BDF writer writes a small field formatted file, but makes full use of the 8-character Nastran field. The OpenMDAO BDF parametrization syntax is also supported.
The OP2 reader supports static/transient results, which unless you analyzing frequency response data should be good enough. It also supports F06 Writing for most of the objects. Results include: displacement, velocity, acceleration, temperature, eigenvectors, eigenvalues, SPC forces, MPC forces, grid point forces, load vectors, applied loads, strain energy, as well as stress and strain.
The F06 reader/writer works for simple problems, but it’s still preliminary. At this point, you should just use the OP2 reader. It’s faster, more robust, and supports more results. The F06 reader is more used as a verification tool for the OP2 reader.
The Python OP4 reader/writer supports reading ASCII/binary sparse and dense matrices, and writing ASCII matrices..
A simple GUI has been developed that can view BDF models and display static/dynamic stress/strain/displacement/eignevectors (they must be real!) results from the OP2. Additionally, Cart3d, Usm3d, Tetgen, STL, and Panair are somewhat supported and included for use.