Do I need an extra license to use ERF-HDF5?
Is there any library or tool to read ERF files (similiar to DSYLib)?
Which HDF version should I use to read ERF files?
ERF stands for ESI Result Database Format. ERF is an open format standard. The binary files are based on the open HDF5 format. In the first phase ERF is going to replace the old PAM-CRASH Daisy formats (DSY/THP). In the future ERF will become the standard output format for all ESI solvers. The purpose of the ERF format is to store simulation results for post-processing and to exchange results between solvers (result mapping, simulation chaining). top
You do not need an extra license to use the ERF format. The specification is open and the binary format is based on the open HDF5 standard. top
No, up to now we do not provide any tool or library yet. However, you can easily create your own application based on the open ERF specification. We provide a prototype API (C source code) to get started. top
You can use any HDF5 version from 1.8.3 on. HDF4 is not supported. Note that the ESI solvers are delivered together with the HDF5 library as a shared object. So to run the solver you do not need to install any extra software. top
Yes, it is possible. The same part may contain all types of solid elements, for instance. However, elements of different dimensions will never be mixed. So you will definitely not find any 2D-shell element together with 1D-beams or 3D-solids sharing the same part ID. top
The ERF index is similiar to a mp3 tag. Each ERF index is assigned to a simulation state and consists of a pair of int value (indexident) and float value (indexval). The index of a classical pamcrash/explicit simulation is one-dimensional with indexval[0]=time and indexident[0]=increment. The multi-dimensional indeces are used for multi-loadcase or multi-stage simulations. For a multi-loadcase analysis the index is indexval[0]=time and indexval[1]=LoadCase. The indexident and indexval values correspond to eachother. The indexident value has been introduced to facilitate the sorting of animated states. top
A collector is a group of entities of different type. Collectors are used to visualize the relationships between the entities of structural components, e.g. of airbags, rigid bodies, links or muscle elements. The collector may consist of nodes, elements or other collectors (recursivity). top