Error in changing element type

- January 27, 2019 at 12:33 pm
  
  rrathishubham
  Subscriber
  
  Hello everyone,
  
  I have modelled cooling tower with surface element. For analysis, it takes default element type as SHELL181 but now when I'm trying to change the element type using command "et,matid,281", it gives error, "Element 144 has an undefined node number 0." How do I correct this?
- January 27, 2019 at 3:43 pm
  
  peteroznewman
  Subscriber
  
  Click on Mesh and in the Details window is: Element Order which can be set to Linear, Quadratic or Program Controlled.
  
  You need to select Quadratic so that you get 8-node elements in the mesh because a SHELL281 is an 8-node element.
  
  If you mesh with Linear elements, you get 4-node elements in the mesh, which would be SHELL181, a 4-node element.
  
  You can't overwrite a SHELL181 with a SHELL281 because there aren't enough nodes on the element.
  
  Set the Element Order to Quadratic and Generate Mesh. That will allow the command to force a SHELL281 element type.