PSI - Issue 78

Pasquale Guarino et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 78 (2026) 1561–1568

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Fig. 1. FEMUP tabs: (1) Import mesh, (2) FEMUP tools, (3) assign boundary conditions and (4) assign parameters for modal updating.

object-oriented data, its native environment does not directly support the display of mesh-based geometries, such as those commonly generated by finite element analysis (FEA) software such as Abaqus. To overcome this limitation and facilitate the integration of mesh data within the Revit interface, a methodology has been developed that uses custom tools to represent discretized elements. This approach leverages Revit’s capability to host custom graphical elements, e ff ectively translating mesh data into a displayable format within the BIM environment. The code reads an OBJ file exported from Abaqus. This tool parses the nodal coordinate data within the OBJ file and translates each node into a corresponding spherical representation within the Revit environment. This allows for a visual representation of the mesh’s vertices. Following the same principle, a subsequent function in the code processes the edge information from the OBJ file. Lines are generated within Revit to visually connect these spherical nodes, thereby representing the edges of the mesh. To ensure consistency in spatial orientation between the FEA model in Abaqus and its representation in Revit, a crucial step involves establishing a shared reference system. Four specific nodes from the Abaqus-generated OBJ file are identified and utilized to derive and display reference axes within the Revit interface. This alignment of coordinate systems is critical for accurate interpretation and correlation of data between the two software platforms. The second button opens a window with various functionalities. One of them allows the selection of the .inp file from Abaqus to import all the necessary information about materials, parts, and instances. Through this window, the selection of the experimental data from an ambient vibration test (i.e. resonant frequencies and mode shapes) can be selected for later use. The sensor assignment is one of the key features of this button, selecting one or more nodes the position and the direction of the sensors can be assigned. After this procedure, an arrow will display the direction of the sensor upon the node selected. The last feature of this button is the possibility to choose the material properties to be updated. The window has a box containing material names imported from the .inp file and blank boxes in which the minimum, nominal, and maximum values of Young’s modulus and mass density can be chosen for modal updating. Since changes in boundary conditions must be considered when model calibration is performed, the third button, which assigns the boundary conditions, is useful to take this aspect into account. This functionality replicates what the function ’Assign Sensors Position’ performs. The last button opens a window to set the variables for the modal updating code, save a copy of the main Python file, and can be run through the command line thanks to the ’run’ button in the window.