A Modal FE body is created by importing an FE data file and modal data in a mesh. The FE data file can be generated from a Motion Beam FE Body or other mesh generation software. NASTRAN and Workbench 11.0 mesh file formats are supported. The modal data file can be generated from Body Eigenvalue Analysis Properties in Motion or from modal analysis in the other FEA software. The sections above introduce how to create a modal data file for a Motion modal FE body. The FE Data feature can be accessed from the FE Body category on the ribbon menu for a mesh. FE and modal data can be imported by selecting each corresponding file as shown in the figure below and in the following table.
Figure 3.186: Description of parameters in the FE and modal data file import dialog
| Parameter | Description |
| 1. FE Data | Use to set the FE data file which contains finite element, material, property and node information. DAT and BDF NASTRAN file formats are available as well as INP and CDB Ansys file formats. |
| 2. Color | Use to set the color of the FE body. |
| 3. Modal Data | Use to set the modal information which contains the eigenvalue and mode shapes. This must be a result file from eigenvalue analysis in FEA software. For NASTRAN, the OUT file format is supported and the generation method is introduced in Generating Modal Data in MSC.NASTRAN. For Ansys and Workbench, the RST file format is supported and the generation methods are introduced in Generating Modal Data in Ansys and Generating Modal Data in Workbench, respectively. For Motion, the DFMF file format is available and is introduced in Body Eigenvalue Analysis Operation. |
| 4. Unit | Use to set the unit system for the FE and modal data files. |
| 5. Control buttons | If all necessary parameters are set, these buttons are enabled. For more information about the control buttons, refer to Entity Creation. |