report on gui development in python

A REPORT

ON

DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS FOR AUTOMATING FLOW & QUALITY CHECK PROCESS

BY

HARISYAM.MNV 2010B2A4232H

AT

MERCEDES BENZ RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT INDIA,

BANGALORE

A Practice School-II Station of

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE, PILANI

August, 2014

A REPORT

ON

DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS FOR AUTOMATING

FLOW & QUALITY CHECK PROCESS

BY

HARISYAM.MNV 2010B2A4232H

Prepared in partial fulfillment of the

PRACTICE SCHOOL-II

BITS C412

AT

MERCEDES BENZ RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT INDIA,

BANGALORE

A Practice School-II Station of


August, 2014

ii | P a g e

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Dr. Jens Cattarius, CEO, Mercedes Benz Research and Development

India Pvt. Ltd. for giving me this opportunity to work at MBRDI. I would also

like to thank Miss Deborah DeSouza, Human Resources and Facilities, for

permitting me to pursue the Practice School II program at this Centre.

I specially thank Dr. Anshuman Awasthi for assigning me this project and Mr.

Prashant Kulkarni, Head of TPE-PCD Team, for giving me the opportunity to

work on this project. Last but not the least; I would like to express my gratitude

to my mentor Mr. Vinod Nandakumar for sharing his knowledge and giving me

valuable inputs from time to time. This report is a result of the efforts and time

he invested in me.

I thank my institute BITS Pilani and the Practice School Division for designing

the Practice School program which trains students to match up to the

expectations of the Corporate world.

I am grateful to my Practice School instructor Mr. P.B.Venkatraman for sharing

their vast industrial experience and guiding us right throughout the internship.

Lastly, I extend my gratitude to all my team members from the TPE Team for

their priceless inputs and support during my stay at MBRDI.

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Practice School Division

ABSTRACT

Station: Mercedes Benz Research & Development India Centre: Bangalore

Duration: July 3rd to Dec 14th 2014 Date of start: July 3rd 2014

Date of submission: December 14th 2014

Title of the project: Development of tools for automating Flow & quality check process

Name: HARISYAM.MNV I.D. No: 2010B2A4232H

Discipline: B.E. (Hons.) Mechanical & M.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry

Name of the expert: Vinod Nandakumar Designation: Technical Lead

Name of the PS faculty: Mr. P.B.Venkatraman

Key words:

Project Area: CAE Simulation

Abstract:

The quality check process is a very essential process which is to be done to keep

the FE model up to the quality standards of the DAIMLER group. The process

is to be done with the set of commands in a checklist given by the DAIMLER

group; this has to be repeated for each model at the end of its Pre-Processing.

The commands have to be executed in MEDINA pre-processor and this has

become very tedious job because we have to enter the commands manually. So

in order to automate this process we have decided to make a Python GUI

interface which will perform the necessary checks and gives us a result of the

checks done. In this report I will be emphasizing on how the tool has been

developed and what is the basis and algorithm for designing the GUI and the

functions it can do. After that Ill be throwing some light on the other tools

developed which will help the flow process followed in MBRDI.

Signature of student Signature of faculty

Date: Date:

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Practice School Division

Response Option Sheet

Station: Mercedes Benz Research & Development India Centre: Bangalore

I.D. No: 2010B2A4232H Name: Harisyam.MNV

Title of the project: Development of a tool for automating quality check process

Usefulness of the project to the on-campus courses of study in various disciplines. Project should be scrutinized keeping in view the following response options. Write Course No. and Course Name against the option under which the project comes. Refer Bulletin for Course No. and Course Name

Code

No.

Response options Course No. (s) &

Name

1. A new course can be designed out of this project NO

2. The project can help modifications of the course

content of some of the existing Courses.

NO

3.

The project can be used directly in some of the

existing Compulsory Discipline Courses (CDC)/

Discipline Courses Other than compulsory (DCOC)/

Emerging Area (EA) etc. Courses.

NO

4.

The project can be used in preparatory courses like

Analysis and Application oriented Courses (AAOC)/

Engineering Science (ES)/ technical Art (TA) and

Core Courses.

NO

5.

This project cannot come under any of the above-

mentioned options as it relates to the professional

work of the host organization.

YES

________________ __________________

Signature of Student Signature of Faculty

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... ii

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE, PILANI .................................... iii

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iii

STATION: MERCEDES BENZ RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT INDIA CENTRE:

BANGALORE ............................................................................................................. iii

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE, PILANI .................................... iv

RESPONSE OPTION SHEET .................................................................................... iv

RESPONSE OPTIONS .............................................................................................. iv

COURSE NO. (S) & NAME ........................................................................................ iv

1. ABOUT MERCEDES BENZ RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INDIA ............ 1

2. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 2

1.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND ............................................................................. 2

1.2 PROJECT METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 5

3. ALGORITHM FOR THE QUALITY CHECK GUI ................................................. 6

4. GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE ....................................................................... 7

5. BUGS IN QC_TOOL V1.0 ................................................................................. 11

6. DEVELOPING THE QC_TOOLV2.0 ................................................................. 13

7. CONCLUSION TO THE QC_TOOL DEVELOPMENT ...................................... 19

8. INTRODUCTION TO MASS - INERTIA COMPENSATION .............................. 20

9. INERTIA COMPENSATION TOOL USING VBA ............................................... 27

10. IMAGE INSERT TOOL USING VBA IN POWERPOINT ................................... 32

11. SOFTWARE SELECTOR TOOL IN PYTHON .................................................. 37

12. MAT10 CARD GENERATOR TOOL USING VBA ............................................ 41

13. FOLDER LIST TOOL FOR ENGINES (INCORPORATED IN SAM) ................. 44

14. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 45

15. REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 46

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List of Figures

1. Existing buttons in the MEDINA GUI

2. Schematic of existing process

3. QC_toolv1.0 main window

4. QC_toolv1.0 extra functions window

5. Qt4 designer showing drag and drop action

6. QC_toolv2.0 layout (developed in Qt4designer)

7. Custom quality check section

8. Check BIF/Check BDF section

9. Extra functions tab with search options

10. Quality check tab with messages printed in the status/message box

11. Custom quality check section displaying the checked commands in msg box

12. Extra functions tab (showing the Eigen frequency table for *.fo6 file)

13. Normal mode analysis of an engine block

14. RESULT of using Inertia-Compensation

15. Mass-Inertia Compensation Tool

16. Image Insert Tool

17. Usage of Image Insert tool

18. Software Selector tool (CAE tool selector)

19. MAT10 card generator tool

20. Folder list tool For Engines

ABOUT MERCEDES BENZ RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INDIA

1 | P a g e

1. ABOUT MERCEDES BENZ RESEARCH AND

DEVELOPMENT INDIA

Mercedes-Benz as a company needs no introduction. It is synonymous with quality

and excellence. It is a name that always reminds people of exquisite high-

performance luxury vehicles. Mercedes-Benz is the multinational division of the

German manufacturer Daimler AG. Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler are the

founders of Mercedes-Benz. The company is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.

The main focus of Mercedes-Benz is the production of high-performance cars. It

aims at providing a comfortable yet powerful driving experience. The company

also has a special focus on Research and Development to provide a safe and

thrilling driving experience and to be the best they can be. This is evident in the

ground breaking innovations they have installed in their cars. The most recent

example is the Distrionic Plus crash detection system, which was famously praised

by Vic Gundotra as having saved his life.

CAE SIMULATION

The structural mechanics CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) activities comprise

of crash, occupant safety, pedestrian protection, NVH and durability. There is also

a team which specializes in carrying out manufacturing simulation work. The CAE

team also comprises of engineers working on multi body simulation and also on

ride and handling of vehicles. The engineers at MBRDI build finite element

models of automotive subsystems and full vehicles using Ansa, Medina, and

Hypermesh. Different disciplinary analysis like NVH, Non-linear and Crash

analysis are carried out as a part of virtual validation. These analyses are

performed using tools like Nastran, Abaqus, LS-Dyna, Permas, Femfat, and

Autoform. The teams are also capable of interfacing with design teams and look at

methods for improvement of design for various subsystems. The CAE team thus

INTRODUCTION

2 | P a g e

contributes significantly to the improvement of design, cost and weight of the

automotive product as a whole.

2. INTRODUCTION

Quality Check is the most important step in the process of FE Modeling. A FE

model is checked for all the quality parameters before it is sent to Germany.

Conventional way is to check the models using commands in chekkai sheet and

once a check is done a tick mark is put against each check.

This method has two demerits:

The first one is, it is time consuming and second it should be done manually by

entering the commands in the MEDINA GUI. So there is a chance of human error

in this process which may hinder the subsequent processes that is to be followed

unless the model is fully qualified.

So the following method is developed to eliminate the above demerits and there by

achieving automation of quality checks and automated quality report generation.

1.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND

The existing method for quality check process is as follows:

1. Two buttons were created in Medina GUI out of which, one does all the checks in

chekkai and the other generates output quality report.

INTRODUCTION

3 | P a g e

Figure 1: Existing buttons in the MEDINA GUI

2. A shell script runs which reads the prot file & log file generated by the medina and

condition file created by the user.

3. Based on the presence /absence of commands in prot file and log file, it writes an output

report.

4. The Report tells user, whether all checks have done or missed any checks. It also tells

user what corrections to be done further if any.

The process described above follows the steps as shown here:

Figure 2: Schematic of existing process

INTRODUCTION

4 | P a g e

The above process has many shortcomings:

1. First and foremost is that the process was run by a shell script which is not encrypted and

can be easily changed.

2. It can be run as a local script and cannot be distributed as a package.

3. It doesnt do any fatal error checks and no post processing checks can be done.

So in order to overcome this shortcomings and for a better user interaction we have

come with a solution that it is better to design and program a graphic user interface

for the quality check automation. To achieve this we chose python as our

programming language because the MEDINA preprocessor has been developed

using Tcl/tk scripting language and python has many modules which are basically

written in Tcl/Tk so python was chosen.

INTRODUCTION

5 | P a g e

1.2 PROJECT METHODOLOGY

As we have seen the shortcomings of the existing process, now we have thought of

a new way to do this process. The new methodology was to have a GUI which was

built in Python so that the script is encrypted.

Project Plan and Definition

Study of project background

Challenges in the quality check process

Development of an algorithm

Development of a Graphical User Interface for the quality

check process

Development of GUI for errors and fatal error checks

Algorithm for creating the report and sending a copy as

an email

implementation

results

ALGORITHM FOR THE QUALITY CHECK GUI

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3. ALGORITHM FOR THE QUALITY CHECK GUI

At first Ill discuss the tasks which are to be achieved by the GUI, they are as

follows:

1. The first and foremost import is the script should be encrypted and it shouldnt be

accessed by all the users.

2. It should run the quality check process in the background in Medina.

3. The tool should take the *.prot and *.log files and analyze them for creating the report.

4. It should display information of the Inertia, Summary and Mesh Summary.

5. The tool should be able to do check bif command.

6. The tool should also check the errors in various result files and it should give the

messages.

The tool should be able to do the above tasks, so now for creating the GUIs main

window the following algorithm is designed:

The first step is to create the buttons in Medina GUI. It can be done by using the Usr

confg button in the Medina GUI. It is shown in the following picture

Figure2a: Using usr confg button to create buttons on the MEDINA GUI

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

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Now after creating the required buttons on the medina GUI we need to start building the

code to design the layout and the methods behind the buttons

I used the Tkinter module of the Python2.7 version to design the GUI

The first step is to create the Main window of the qc_tool GUI. It has the quality check

automation button which when pressed should run the checks automatically in the

MEDINA GUI in the background

Then we should import the *.prot and*.log files to the tool and then with the check status

function the GUI compares and lists out what checks are done and what checks are not

done in the process and their respective remarks as a table

After importing the required files using Inertia and Summary, Mesh summary

method buttons to display respective tables in the message box.

Using Extra function button to create a second dialog box which will do the fatal error

checks is developed using the Tkinter module.

As the algorithm has been developed we need to start designing and program the

GUI, the detailed process is given in the following section.

4. GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

The GUI which will do the quality checks process is made by the help of Tkinter

module which is in Python v.2.7. The GUI was built with the help of Tkinter

because its been made of Tcl/Tk which is the common GU interface builder and

the Medina pre-processor supports the Tcl/Tk scripting.

Basically the GUI main window has 6 frames totally; the first frame which is at top

left has two buttons which will give the Help file for the tool both in English and

German. Then at the top middle region it has importing buttons which will import

different files which are used for the quality check process like the *.prot and *.log

files. After this section to the right you can see a green button which will start the

quality check process when we click it.

The region below the importing files section is the status box which will display

the status at different steps when different functions are executed. Now right to the


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status box you can find a stack of buttons like Check, Check bif, Inertia,

Summary, Mesh Summary. These buttons will do the desired functions which are

discussed in the section 3. Below this there are buttons like report which will

create a report and will send a copy to the Daimler mail and extra functions will

display one more window which will deal with errors in the result files. Below the

status box you can see a message box which will display all the messages and

results of different functions performed.

The picture of the main window is shown in the following figure: This is qc_tool

v1.0

The main window has the following buttons:

1. Importing section where we can import *.prot, *.log file and *.bif file

2. The help buttons shows the help file in English and German

3. The status box shows the messages whether the file has been imported or not

4. The message box displays the results.

5. The extra functions button displays another dialog box which have the fatal error

checks and msg error checks.


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Figure 3: QC_toolv1.0 main window

Help file

Message box

Status box

For the INERTIA, Mesh Summary and Summary

buttons to work first we should do the check and the outputs

of these functions are displayed in message box

This displays the checks which are not done

Check button display the checks which are done as a table in the

message

This REPROT button creates a report and sends a copy to mail

Button which initiates quality checks


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The figure6 shows us the extra function window where we have 3 frames in total. The top frame

is the importing region where we can import different result files like *.f06,*.msg,*.res from

their particular location. Now at the bottom right we can find a stack of buttons which will

perform the error checks associated with respective files. Left to the stack of buttons you can see

a message box which displays the outputs of different functions. The picture of this window is

shown below in figure 7.

Figure 4: QC_toolv1.0 extra functions window

Check button displays fatal errors in an *.f06 file

Check button displays errors in an *.msg file

Check button displays errors in an *.res file

This button creates a report as a

text file

Message box

Bugs in QC_tool v1.0

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5. Bugs in QC_tool v1.0

The QC_ tool v1.0 has many bugs in it which are listed below:

The first major bug in the tool is the report is not getting updated when the changes are

made in the medina preprocessor

The layout is very vaguely constructed and cannot resize with the change in the screen

size

There are no search options for the error checks in the extra functions window

The checks which are done are reported as in a plain text format not as a table

Its not having custom quality checks option

The user is bit confused with many buttons available at one place

So when the testing of QC_tool v1.0 was done these are the major bug issues

reported by the users. So in order to address all these issues I started designing the

QC_tool v2.0 using qt4 designer instead of using the basic Tkinter module of

python. Now to design the GUI we need the Qt4 designer and PyQt4 bindings to

be installed in our workstation. With the help of Qt4 designer we can design the

layout with the help of drag and drop options. The picture of Qt4 designer is shown

below:

Figure 5: Qt4 designer showing drag and drop action

Bugs in QC_tool v1.0

12 | P a g e

So now using the Qt4 designer we can design any tool with ease. Now after

creating the layout in the Qt4 designer itll be .ui format, to convert this we need

PyQt4 bindings. The Pyqt4 bindings have a wrapper function called pyuic4 which

will convert the existing .ui design file to a .py file where we can edit the code and

convert the layout into an app by incorporating the functions and also the signals

and slots.The command which is used in converting the .ui file to .py file is to be

typed in linux shell as follows:

Pyuic4 x Qc_toolv2.0 o qc_toolv2.0.py

The above command will create the py file in the current working directory. The

flags which are in the command are very important because they are responsible

for creating the .py file. The x flag which will make .py file that can be run using

python2.7 command and the o flag will give the output file as

desired.Now when the .py file is ready we need to connect the buttons in the GUI

using the signal slot connection methods. This can be done by first developing the

methods necessary and then connecting by the following command in the .py file.

Using the below command we can connect any button to any method. The first

argument is the object name of the button, second argument is the signal whether

pressed or clicked based on the input and the the third argument is the function

name, which defines what function the button has to do.

QtCore.QObject.connect

(self.pushButton_12,QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"),self.checkBox_13.click)

Using this command we can connect all the buttons to respective functions and then we

can see the output in the message boxes or linux console.

With the help of these software we can make any kind of GUI we want. In the next

section Ill discuss the steps and process developed in designing the Qc_toolv2.0.

Developing the QC_toolv2.0

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6. Developing the QC_toolv2.0

The layout of the QC_tool v2.0 is developed in the Qt4 designer and the layout is

as follows:

Figure 6: QC_toolv2.0 layout (developed in Qt4designer)

This layout has many advantages:

Has separate section tabs for each of the functions

The layout is more elegant and the look of the tool is attractive

The user has lot of clarity when using it because the functions are segregated into tabs

and can be easily accessed.

The report generated will be in tabular format.

This layout can handle material database as well.

Has the check bif and check bdf functions incorporated as a separate tab.

It has custom quality check as a separate section

The pictures of the other tabs are given below:


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Figure 7: Custom quality check section

Figure 8: Check BIF/Check BDF section


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Figure 9: Extra functions tab with search options

Now as the layout is ready we can use the pyuic4 command to convert into the .py

file and then use the signal slot mechanism to connect the buttons to the functions.

Now Ill discuss the functions of each tab briefly:

TAB 1: this is the main tab of the GUI where the quality check process is done.

The button start medina process will start the medina gui in the background and

then we can import the bif file, once the bif file is imported the automated process

will start and all the checks done will be written in the protocol file and in the log

file.

Now we need to import using the import button and then hit the check_status

button in the gui then the status box and message box will be populated like the

one in the figure below:


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Figure 10: Quality check tab with messages printed in the status/message box

In the status box we can see the status of various checks that are done in a tabular

view. In the message box we can see the model info and if use the other buttons

then the related tables will be printed in the message box.

Now using the report button we can create a report in desired format and send a

copy to the DAIMLER mail.

TAB 2: This has custom quality check section where the user can select a

command by selecting the check box in the selector window. This section also has

the list of unchecked commands below; these are the commands which cannot be

checked using the GUI. The user can use the command prompt of the medina gui

to do the unchecked commands.

The user after using this selections if he wanted to create a report he can use the

create report button which will append the contents of the message box to the

already created report file.

The picture of the custom quality check section is shown as follows:


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Figure 11: custom quality check section displaying the checked commands in

message box

TAB 3: this tab has the check bif and check bdf functionalities which is used

before and after preprocessor to check the quality of mesh and the FE model.

TAB 4: this is the extra functionalities tab which has search options as well. After

finishing the analysis we get *.f06 file for NASTRAN and *.msg file for ABAQUS

and *.res for PERMAS. These result files are needed to be analyzed, basically to

know whether the file has any FATAL errors or not. If there are no fatal errors then

we should look at the Eigen frequency table for structure and fluid and fluid-

structure coupled interaction.

To do this we have to import the *.fo6 file an then hit the check_fatal button

which will display the messages in the message box whether the file has any fatal

errors or not, if there arent any fatal errors then itll display the eigen value table

as shown in the picture:


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Figure 12: Extra functions tab (showing the Eigen frequency table for *.fo6 file)

In this tab the user has many choices to perform basically on the analysis of result

files which should be done manually by opening the files and browsing them

throughout for FATAL errors, this is eliminated because the code does the

browsing and also displays the result table. The result table is the Eigen frequency

table

Similarly the msg section and res section also have the same capabilities. Another

important function is this check_fatal does is it can identify the FLUID modes

and STRUCURE modes and also the coupled modes. It can also identify whether

RESVEC is done or not mainly in the structure Eigen modes.

Conclusion to the QC_tool development

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7. Conclusion to the QC_tool development

This report basically deals with the development of GUI using the python

programming language. It also describes the steps to develop the QC_tool using

the Tkinter module and then it basically discusses about the bugs when the GUI is

developed by hard coding. Then it discusses about the new version of QC_tool

v2.0 which was developed using the qt4 designer and then with pyqt4 bindings.

Thereby I suggest that using the qt4 designer for making the layouts of the

necessary GUIs and then using the signal and slot mechanism of the pyqt4

bindings to develop the functionalities is the better approach to design and work

with the GUIs.

The QC_tool v2.0 has been tested within the team and has got good feedbacks

because it has got many functions under one hood and also back-ups the report

which the user does by sending a copy to the DAIMLER mail account.

So finally the QC_toolv2.0 has finished its testing phase and is ready to be

distributed as a python package to all the users in the DAIMLER group.

Introduction to Mass - Inertia Compensation

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8. Introduction to Mass - Inertia Compensation

The process designed to develop the inertia-compensation tool is as follows.



learning the fundamentals of VBA programming


Development of a Graphical User Interface for the mass-inertia compensation method

implementation

results into excel worksheet


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Introduction to Mass Inertia Compensation method:

Quantities to be calculated in the Inertia compensation method are:

To find compensation CG for the FE Model

To find compensation inertia for the FE Model

Process for finding the compensation CG for the FE model:

Let , & be the centre of gravity for the given CAD model and , , be

the centre of gravity for the FE Model.

- Mass of the CAD model

- Mass of the FE model

$ - Compensation mass, So that

$

Let , & be the Compensation CG (CG of the compensation mass)

After the addition of mass $ to the FE model mass would be equal to and

new CG (for X) would be equal to

=

+

= (($ )+( ))

, , = , &


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Equating the expression to CG coordinates i.e.

= (($ ) + ( ))

= (($ ) + ( ))

= (($ ) + ( ))

Now cross multiplying and rearranging we get the following equations:

=(( ))

$

=(( ))

$

=(( ))

$

By using the above equations we get the compensated mass center of gravity

coordinates.

, ,

, &

, &


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Procedure for finding Inertia compensation is as following

First steps are to get the following properties:

To find compensation for moment of inertia

To find compensation for product of inertia

It is the inertia defined for the compensation mass so that target inertia values can

be obtained for the FE model. Now we will find the compensation of moment of

inertia:

Let current inertia be

Here is the mass moment of inertia with respect to CG of the FE model and let

be the mass moment of inertia with respect to CG of the entire model (FE +

compensated mass)

= + (( )

2 + ( )

2)

The above expression obtained from Parallel axis theorem which says the moment

of inertia of a rigid body about any arbitrary axis is equal to the sum of moment of

inertia about its CG and product of the mass and square of the distance between the

CG and arbitrary axis.

Inertia of the entire model = Inertia of the FE Model + Inertia defined for

compensated mass

So Inertia defined for compensated mass ($I) = Inertia of the entire model - Inertia

of the FE Model

i.e., $I = Target Inertia

= I

So now we can get the following equations:


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$ = ( + (( )

2 + ( )

2))

$ = ( + (( )

2 + ( )

2))

$ = ( + (( )

2 + ( )

2))

By using the above equations we get the compensated moment of inertia.

Applying parallel axis theorem to product of inertia, Let is product of inertia

with respect to CG of the entire model and with respect to its own CG.

= (

+ ( ) ( ))

= (

+ ( ) ( ))

= (

+ ( ) ( ))

And

$ =

$ =

$ =

By using the above equations we can get the compensated product moment of

inertia.

A case study has been taken in order to illustrate the effect of compensated mass in

FE analysis


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Figure 13: Normal mode analysis of an engine block

To find the effect of compensation inertia on dynamic cases, a problem has been

considered which normal mode analysis of an engine block is done.

Two cases considered for analysis

Engine block with inertia compensation

Engine block without inertia compensation

Figure 14: RESULT of using Inertia-Compensation


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So from the results we can say that there is significant change in the frequencies of

the normal modes of the engine so it is very important to consider the compensated

mass and its moment of inertia to achieve correct results.

Therefore the process has to be performed for every FE model before analysis. So

calculating every equation and finding the values is a tedious and time consuming

task. So a decision has been taken to develop a GUI tool in excel where the user

can enter the values and get the results as a table. The development of inertia

compensation tool has been discussed in the next section. In the next section the

total process for the development of the VBA tool is described.

Inertia Compensation tool using VBA

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9. Inertia Compensation tool using VBA

The inertia compensation tool has been developed in excel visual basic

programming. The main software we need is the Microsoft excel 2010. To develop

the tool the code has to be written in the vba editor of Excel.

To open the VBA editor the following steps have to be performed:

Open MS-excel 2010 and then go to FILE tab Options then you get the following

window.

Now select the Developer option in the customize ribbon section as shown above.

Now we will get the Developer tab in the main EXCEL gui.


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There we can see the Visual Basic button if you click that the visual basic editor opens.

Now the VB editor looks like the picture below.

Then click on INSERT tab and insert a USER form because we are developing a GUI

form.

Then the user form looks like the figure below

Then using the toolbox we can drag and drop widgets into the user form white space

After dragging and dropping the necessary widgets we can see the GUI user form as

below

The main widgets used are Label, textbox, command button and frame

The label is used to setup text on the GUI form, the textbox is used for entering the input

and the command buttons help in taking the user inserted values and processing the

values and returning the output


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The frame is used for arranging and differentiating the sections and aligning the widgets

in a proper format

After inserting the widgets and aligning the widgets and when we run the user form the

user form looks like the one in the figure.

Figure 15: Mass-Inertia Compensation Tool

In the top section of the GUI the user has to enter the appropriate values and then when

he hits the Calculated compensated properties button then the result comes in the output.

Now for inserting the functions for various buttons vba code has been written and has

been embedded to the button call.

An example has been taken to show the working of the tool.

Following is the DATA for an engine block:


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Target mass ( in Tonnes) 3.65E-01

Current mass ( in Tonnes) 3.13E-01

Centre of gravity

Target CG

-671.582

-11.681

150.106

Current CG

-6.66E+02

-1.07E+01

1.66E+02

Inertia

Target Inertia (diagonal)

I

x

y

z

x

1.32E+06

7.99E+04

-8.36E+04

y

7.99E+04

4.52E+06

-8.79E+00

z

-8.36E+04

-8.79E+00

4.22E+06

Current Inertia

I'

x

y

z

x

1.08E+04

6.92E+02

-5.92E+02

y

6.92E+02

3.85E+04

-1.32E+02

z

-5.92E+02

-1.32E+02

3.56E+04

This is the data we need in beforehand to calculate the compensated properties.

Now Ill enter these values in the tool and then press calculate compensated

properties button then we get the result values as shown below.


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Then when we hit tabulate the excel sheet will show a table with the calculated

values as below:

Result Values

Compensation mass ( in Tonnes) 0.052

Xm Ym Zm

Compensation Center of Gravity -705.1813462

-17.58586538

54.43634615

Compensated Moment of Inertia Ixx Iyy Izz

1309120.629 4481411.177 4184389.946

Ixy Iyz Ixz

79206.28603 118.3296996 -83035.76946

So this tool will help in calculating the compensated mass-inertia properties easily.

Image insert tool using VBA in PowerPoint

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10. Image insert tool using VBA in PowerPoint

The image insert tool is the tool developed by me in power point vba to basically

insert number of images from a folder into a particular slide based on the users

input.

This tool has been developed in the power point vba using macros and the user

form option in the vb editor.

The main reason to develop this tool is to basically enhance the post-processing

analysis speed and to eliminate the manual insertion and cropping of pictures

which takes lot of time. This tool basically automates the image inserting process

and there by reduces time for spending on such a tedious task.

The process designed to develop the image insert tool is as follows:

This tool is developed by using the user form in the vba editor as shown in the

previous section during the development of inertia compensation tool. To get the

learning the fundamentals of VBA

programming in power point


Development of a Graphical User Interface

for the image_insert implementation

inserting images into the current working

presentation slide


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layout desired drag and drop the needed widgets in to the user form and then align

them. The tool is shown in the figure below.

]

Figure 16: Image Insert Tool

The GUI widgets used here are frame, command button , list box and labels

The working of the tool is as follows:

o When we invoke the tool through the button in the power point GUI the above

tool window pops up.

o Now in the text box beside the label folder path is the place where we need to

enter the path to the folder where images are located. It can be done even by

browsing using the button browse and show list.

o Then the list of images which are in the folder appears in the list box.

o Now the user can select the images and use the >>>> button to push them into

another list box.

o Then the user can enter the number of images to be inserted in the text box beside

the label No of images to be inserted.


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o Then the user can hit the insert into slide button to insert the images in to the

slide.

An example is illustrated below which follows the above steps.

Open the image insert tool in the power point GUI using the image insert button

Then select the folder where the images are located.

After doing the above steps the tool looks like the one in the figure below.

Figure 17: Usage of Image Insert tool

Then select the images you want in the slide and then hit >>>>.

The button


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Then enter the number of images to be inserted in the text box then hit insert into slide

button.

Then the GUI appears like the one in the figure below and a new slide is created with

four images aligned and ordered.

The slide appears to be the one in the figure below. This is for four images in the slide

similarly the same process can be followed to insert 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 images.

Sample Output after using the tool

Software selector tool in python

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11. Software selector tool in python

The Software selector is a tool basically developed in python which gives a user

interface to select and open various CAE tools available in MBRDI. This tool will

eliminate the task of opening the terminal and then entering the software name and

then opening the version the user want which will speed up the process. One more

advantage is if the user wants to open other softwares he can just click the button

on the user interface button and then the software will open. This is lot better than

the user opening multiple consoles and then typing the software arguments in the

command line.

The process adopted to design this tool is as follows:




Development of a Graphical User using the qt designer

binding the buttons with the functions

creating a distribution using pytinstaller

distributing it as software selector


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The software selector user interface has been developed in qt4 designer and the

layout of the software selector is shown in the figure below.

Figure 18: Software Selector tool (CAE tool selector)

This is the software selector GUI and the qt4 widgets which it contains are

Qbuttons, Qgroupbox, Qtextbox, and Qcombobox. The layout was first created in

the qt4 designer

The code written to bind the buttons was done by using pyqt4 bindings for python.

At first the layout developed in qt4 designer needs to be converted into .py script

that can be done by pyuic4 command as I mentioned earlier in the report in the

section of developing the Qc_tool. This command will convert the

software_selector.ui to Software_selector.py then we can include the methods

needed to be called from the buttons.


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The Software_selector.py contains a main class Ui_Dialog which will have all

functions and has main function named Setupui which will initialize the GUI

when the program is run from the shell. The function retaranslateui will help in

automatic changing the layout corresponding to the operating system used.

The working of the GUI is explained in the following steps:

The Software_selector.py icon is available as a desktop icon to every person in the CAE

department.

Double click the icon which is on the desktop and then the GUI gets invoked and then

use the help for first time users. The help will be displayed in the text box in the GUI.

The help file is as follows:

o Use the customize button during the first time opening of the tool

o All the softwares installed in your system will be visible in drop down menus

o Then after selecting the versions you need then hit save to save the selections you

made and close the tool.

o Reopen the tool and directly use it without using the customizing option.

Another advantage of this tool is that even if the tool crashes the softwares doesnt close

which is not the case of the terminal if it crashes the software working in the present

terminal closes

Illustration of the above steps is shown in the figure below.

Here in the software selector if anyone software is not installed in a user system

then itll show NONE in the dropdown list .When we hit the button help itll

display message in the text box. And after selecting the user defined softwares the

user should save and close the GUI and the reopen it to use it directly. If any

software gets installed or is removed or updated the GUI gets automatically

updated when the user closes it and reopens it again.


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Text box which will display help and

also error messages if any error occurs.

If this button is clicked then the version list frame

gets highlighted and the user can chose the

software from the drop down list

This save button will create the

session saved by the user in a

secure location and invokes that

session when the user invokes the

GUI next time. This session is

preserved until the user makes

some changes in the version list.

MAT10 Card generator tool using VBA

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12. MAT10 Card generator tool using VBA

The MAT10 card generator tool has been coded in excel VBA which basically

takes in the input properties like the Average Density and Average Temperature at

various section of the intake and exhaust systems and calculates properties like

Bulk Modulus and Speed of Sound. This tool helps in saving time to generate

MAT10 cards by doing it automatically when the user enters the input properties.

The process developed to design this tool is:

The MAT10 generator tool has been developed using vba macros which will be

discussed in the following sections.

The following pictures will show the layout of the tool in excel worksheet:




Development of a Form controls which will intiate

Macros

binding the buttons with the Macro functions

creating a distributable Vba excel sheet

distributing it as MAT10 card generator tool


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Figure 19: MAT10 card generator tool

This is the main layout of the tool. The user should enter the properties in the Enter

Material Values column where he can add rows and values depending on the data

the user has. Now after entering the data the user has to click the Calculate

Properties button where the intermediate properties gets calculated and then a

table is generated given on the worksheet under the column calculated properties.

The table is as follows:

Now the properties which are calculated are to be added to a material ID based on

the system in which it is present. For that the user has to select from the options

which are available next to the calculated properties table. The following picture

shows the available system to which the MAT10 cards can be created.


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After selecting the type of system the Material Id list appears in the column right

next to the select system option. After that the user should hit the Process to

card table button which will fill the processed table below the processed final

table column and then the user should select the Material Id and assign it to the

respective property. Now the user can export the card table to a text file. The

following picture shows the processed final table:

Now the user should use the button Export to a file then the table gets saved to

*.txt file. A sample *.txt (MAT10) card file is shown below:

In this way the tool generates MAT10 cards which can be used as input for

NASTRAN solver.

Folder List Tool for Engines (Incorporated In SAM)

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13. Folder List Tool for Engines (Incorporated In SAM)

This tool is basically developed in python which is incorporated in software called

SAM. This tool basically lists the Engines based on the maturity level and lists

based on the date modified. The development of this tool cannot be discussed

further because of the confidentiality clause. The layout of this tool is as follows:

Figure 20: Folder list tool For Engines

Conclusion

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14. Conclusion The tools which I have developed have been submitted to the DAIMLER AG in

Germany and also have been used in the MBRDI office. The tools which I developed

have enhanced the pre-processing procedures. To summarize in total where the tools I

developed are used is described in the following flow chart.

Use CAE Tool Selector to open various softwares

Helps in Reducing time for opening the softwares 1. Starting tool

Use Hypermesh or ANSA to develop FE Model

If we are doing Vibration Analysis then use Mass Inertia Compensation tool for Inertia Compensation

2. Modelling

Use QC Tool (Tab-1) to do the Quality Check for a FE Model

Use QC Tool(Tab-2) to do a custom Quality check

3. Quality Check

Use QC Tool (Tab-3) to do a FMDB Quality Check 4. ChBif/ChBdf

Use Card Generator tool for generating input deck for inlet, exhaust and Vehicle cavity systems

5. Input Deck Preparation

Submit Jobs and for tailing jobs Use CAE Tool SelectorAQS JOB and Scjobsubmit

6. Abaqus/Nastran Solver

Use Q C Tool (Tab-4) for fatal error check

Use Fatal tool from terminal ( used for looking at the Eigen frequencies also)

7. Result File

Image Insert tool for rapid Insertion of images into the PowerPoint 8. Post Processing

References

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In the above described stages the tools which I developed significantly reduced time

involved in manual tasks by automating them. Thereby the total time for result file

generation has reduced a lot.

15. References

https://www.udacity.com/

http://stackoverflow.com/

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/

https://www.edx.org/

Python Google classes

report on gui development in python

Documents