BDF Headers

Headers are flagged with the $pyNastran: tag and must be at the top of the file. Even a blank line or comment line will stop the parsing.

Version

You’ve probably seen the following in your BDF: ` $ pyNastran: version: msc `

That’s a shorthand for: ` model = BDF(mode='msc') `

What’s neat the flag in the deck takes priority, so the user can set their version without modifying the code and it will work properly.

Allowable versions include:

• msc (default)

• nx

• optistruct

• mystran

• zona

Punch

Like version: ` $ pyNastran: punch=True ` overwrites the flag specified in the BDF() tag (or more likely adds it because it was left empty).

Encoding

Encoding is an flag that’s useful for decoding difficult characters. latin1, cp1252, and utf8 are very common encodings. ` $ pyNastran: encoding=cp1252 `

Skip Cards

skip_cards is incredibly powerful when you have duplicate ids or just want to limit cards in the GUI. ` $ pyNastran: skip_cards = CBUSH, PBUSH ` This will delete the elements in the group from the file. This is a general method, so: ` $ pyNastran: skip elements=1:10 15 16 $ pyNastran: skip properties=1:10 15 16 $ pyNastran: skip materials=1:10 15 16 ... ` work too.

Skip

Skip is more intended for use in the GUI, but is also nice as a way to simplify the model. ` $ pyNastran: skip elements=1:10 15 16 ` This will delete the elements in the group from the file. This is a general method, so: ` $ pyNastran: skip elements=1:10 15 16 $ pyNastran: skip properties=1:10 15 16 $ pyNastran: skip materials=1:10 15 16 ... ` work too.

Sorry, dictionaries only, so no deleting individual lodas/spcs.