{"id":430086,"date":"2025-04-25T19:24:55","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T19:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/forum\/forums\/topic\/external-model-error-mesh-file-does-not-contain-any-elements\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T07:02:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T07:02:04","slug":"external-model-error-mesh-file-does-not-contain-any-elements","status":"closed","type":"topic","link":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/forum\/forums\/topic\/external-model-error-mesh-file-does-not-contain-any-elements\/","title":{"rendered":"External Model error “mesh file does not contain any elements”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<p>I have an APDL input file that has SHELL209 elements that I can see in the Mechanical APDL classic GUI.<\/p><p><\/p><p>This is an axisymmetric model with a pressure load and a Y constraint at the bottom.<\/p><p><\/p><p>I can solve it and plot deformation results.<\/p><p><\/p><p>I want to import this model into Workbench and view it in Mechanical. In APDL, I used CDWRITE,DB to create a .cdb file.<\/p><p>In Workbench I added an External Model and pointed to the .cdb file. I dropped a Mechanical model on that and got this error.<\/p><p><\/p><p>I noticed is that the Properties for the Model cell had Analysis Type set to 3D but I get the same error after setting it to Analysis Type 2D. Is there something I can change to make this work?<\/p><p>Here is the APDL input file:<\/p><\/p>\n

<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">\/PREP7<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">\/COM Units are mm, N, MPa<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">ANTYPE,STATIC<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">ET,1,SHELL209<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">SECTYPE,1,SHELL<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">SECDATA,0.8<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">SECNUM,1<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">MP,EX,1,71000<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">MP,NUXY,1,.33<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,1,10,0<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,2,10,3<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,3,12,5<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,4,15,5<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,5,15,10<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,6,12,10<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,7,10,12<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,8,10,14<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">K,9,17.5,7.5<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">L,1,2<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">LARC,2,3,4,2.0<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">L,3,4<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">LARC,4,9,5,2.5<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">LARC,9,5,4,2.5<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">L,5,6<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">LARC,6,7,5,2.0<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">L,7,8<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">LESIZE,ALL,1.0<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">LMESH,ALL<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">D,1,UY,,,,,ROTZ<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">F,52,FY,314.159<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">SFE,ALL,1,PRES,,1.0<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">FINISH<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">\/SOLU    <\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">OUTPR,ALL,1<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">SOLVE<\/span><br><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">FINISH<\/span><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-430086","topic","type-topic","status-closed","hentry","topic-tag-2d-axisymmetric","topic-tag-apdl","topic-tag-workbench"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"custom_fields":[{"0":{"_bbp_forum_id":["27791"],"_bbp_topic_id":["430086"],"_bbp_subscription":["240","58821"],"_bbp_author_ip":["8.9.83.120"],"_bbp_last_reply_id":["430292"],"_bbp_last_active_id":["430292"],"_bbp_last_active_time":["2025-04-29 07:01:56"],"_bbp_reply_count":["3"],"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":["0"],"_bbp_voice_count":["2"],"_bbp_engagement":["240","58821"],"_btv_view_count":["317"],"_bbp_topic_status":["answered"],"_edit_last":["240"],"_bbp_revision_log":["a:4:{i:430088;a:2:{s:6:\"author\";i:240;s:6:\"reason\";s:0:\"\";}i:430089;a:2:{s:6:\"author\";i:240;s:6:\"reason\";s:0:\"\";}i:430090;a:2:{s:6:\"author\";i:240;s:6:\"reason\";s:0:\"\";}i:430091;a:2:{s:6:\"author\";i:240;s:6:\"reason\";s:0:\"\";}}"],"_bbp_status":["answered"]},"test":"peteroznewman"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics\/430086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/topic"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics\/430086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430091,"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics\/430086\/revisions\/430091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationspace.ansys.com\/forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}