Retrieve the volume array of mesh elements

[derne058]

Hi all,
I am working on a project and I am interested in retrieving an array that contains all the element volumes of my mesh model (starting from the first element to the last one defined).
So far I used the following:

v0 = 0    # initialize total volume 
v = np.zeros((elem_tot,1))    # array of element volumes 
for i in range(elem_tot):
    v[i] = mapdl.get("vol", "ELEM", i+1, "VOLU")
v0 = sum(v)    # initial total volume

The code works fine, but for larger meshes it suffers greatly, so I am looking for a more efficient way to create an array to store the volumes of the elements.

[mikerife]

Hi @derne058
See the MAPDL help on the *VGET command; it can retrieve the element volume for all elements at once. Then see the *VSCFUN command which can be used to find the properties of a MAPDL array parameter. One property is the sum of the values. Should be much faster than looping a *GET.
Mike

[derne058]

Hi @mikerife,
Thanks a lot for your suggestion!
I'll leave what I found (which is working well in my case):

APDL code:
*vget,volu,elem,,geom

Pymapdl code:
v = mapdl.get_array("ELEM", item1="GEOM")