An Object-Oriented Parser-based Finite Element Analysis Tool Interface Reference Koo, D.; Peak, R.S.; Fulton, R.E.(1999), SPIE Intl. Symposium on Intelligent Systems and Advanced Mfg., Photonics East '99, Boston. Keywords CAE-CAD Integration, Object-Oriented, FEA, ANSYS, STEP, EXPRESS-G, MRA(multi-representation architecture), SMM (solution method model Abstract To better integrate engineering design and analysis, the multi-representation architecture (MRA) and related methodology have been developed to represent the information transformations between CAD and CAE models [1, 2]. The MRA consists of four representations for increased modularity and flexibility. As one of the representations, solution method models (SMMs) are object-oriented wrappings of tool-specific inputs and outputs that enable highly automated operation of general purpose analysis tools. Outer contexts in the MRA create SMMs from product data and map SMM results back into product-specific terms. This paper discusses the post-processing aspects of SMMs for finite element analysis (FEA) tools. In this scenario, an SMM dispatches a job to an FEA tool, runs the tool, retrieves results, and stores them in the SMM internal database, which is based on a STEP EXPRESS-G schema. Higher-level context objects in the MRA can then query SMM objects to extract summary results such as stress extrema. These concepts were implemented in an analysis integration toolkit, DaiTools™, for two FEA tools (ANSYS and CADAS) with the object-oriented T-gen translator generator tool. This automation process is illustrated with circuit board solder joint analysis and warpage analysis examples. Results show this approach provides effective manipulation and query capabilities that enable enhanced analysis tool integration. Documents Manuscript: pdf Slides: html