Hello everybody,
I’ve created an input file. I built the mesh - that is, the nodes and element definitions - myself. So there might be some errors in it (most likely node numbering for element definition). Is there a way to visually inspect the model without having to solve it?
My input actually consists of just one *NODE block and two *ELEMENT blocks. Here are the first few lines of each block:
*NODE, NSET=NALL
1,-5.0,-8.881784197001252e-16,15.0
2,-5.0,5.740251485476346,13.858192987669302
3,-5.0,10.606601717798213,10.606601717798213
4,-5.0,13.858192987669302,5.740251485476348
[....]
*ELEMENT, TYPE=C3D20, ELSET=RING
1,1,929,2529,881,16,1034,2724,926,932,2532,1037,883,928,2209,2727,
2728,4193,4305,2533,4929
2,881,2529,771,145,926,2724,876,160,2533,2534,2728,882,927,4305,2729,
880,4929,2257,775,4259
3,929,930,2530,2529,1034,1035,2725,2724,933,2535,1038,2532,2727,4193,2730,
2731,4194,4929,2536,4930
In any case: To get a visual representation of the model, I tried to solve it by applying a simple boundary condition to the first and last nodes, with displacement set to 0 in all directions.
*MATERIAL, name=steel
*ELASTIC
210000, 0.333
*SOLID SECTION, ELSET=RING, MATERIAL=steel
*STEP
*STATIC
*BOUNDARY
1, 1,3
5312, 1,3
*EL FILE
S
*NODE FILE
U
*END STEP
However, this output in a very strange error, claiming that my Node 1 is undefined (please compare the error below with the excerpt from the node 1 definition above).
You are using an executable made on Sa 28. Mär 15:07:44 CET 2026
The numbers below are estimated upper bounds
number of:
nodes: 5312
elements: 1104
one-dimensional elements: 0
two-dimensional elements: 0
integration points per element: 27
degrees of freedom per node: 3
layers per element: 1
distributed facial loads: 0
distributed volumetric loads: 0
concentrated loads: 0
single point constraints: 6
multiple point constraints: 1
terms in all multiple point constraints: 1
tie constraints: 0
dependent nodes tied by cyclic constraints: 0
dependent nodes in pre-tension constraints: 0
sets: 3
terms in all sets: 11728
materials: 1
constants per material and temperature: 2
temperature points per material: 1
plastic data points per material: 0
orientations: 0
amplitudes: 1
data points in all amplitudes: 1
print requests: 0
transformations: 0
property cards: 0
*ERROR reading *NODE. Card image:
1,-5.0,-8.881784197001252E-16,15.0
STEP 1
*ERROR reading *BOUNDARY:
node 1 is not defined
*ERROR in calinput: at least one fatal
error message while reading the
input deck: CalculiX stops.
Which I find strange, because at the beginning, in the “number of” section, it lists that it found 5,312 nodes and 1,104 elements—exactly the same number I defined. And a little further down, it seems to have an issue with something in the node definition.
Could it be that I typed an incorrect end-of-line character, or some extra spaces, or something like that?