MPCO Recorder

Chooses which results Run Analysis writes to the results file, in place of the set it picks for the analysis type. Untick what you do not need, and a big analysis runs faster and writes a smaller file.

The file is an MPCO (HDF5) file. The Results components and Model View read it back, and STKO opens it too.

🔧 Grasshopper component

MPCO RecorderAlpaca4d ▸ 06_Assemble

Inputs

FileNameTextrecorder.mpcoName of the results file, written beside the Grasshopper document.

Letters, digits, _, - and . only, with no folders. A name without an extension gets .mpco.

Outputs

RecorderRecorderThe recorder, for the Recorders input of Assemble.

Options

Two menus live on the component body, Nodes and Elements, with one tick box per result. There is a box for every result a result component can read, and all of them start ticked, so adding the component changes nothing until you untick something.

Box	Read by
displacement, rotation	Nodal Displacements, Model View, Principal Stress Lines
velocity, angularVelocity, acceleration, angularAcceleration	Nodal Displacements, after a transient analysis
reactionForce, reactionMoment	Reaction Forces, Model View
stresses	Brick Stresses, Model View
section.force	Beam Forces, Shell Forces, Model View, for every beam with or without hinges and every shell
section.fiber.stress	Shell Stresses, Model View, for plate fibre and layered shell sections
axialForce	Beam Forces of trusses. Nothing else answers to it, so it costs nothing in a model without them.

The first eight are in Nodes, the last four in Elements.

📈 When to use it

Use it when

• A large model or a long transient analysis records results you will never read. Untick them and the run gets faster and the file smaller.
• One Grasshopper document holds two analyses. Give each its own FileName, or the second run overwrites the first one's results.

Do not use it when

• The default suits you. Leave the Recorders input of Assemble empty and Run Analysis picks the set itself (see below).
• You are running Natural Vibration. It always records the mode shapes to recorder_eigen.mpco itself, and ignores the recorders on Assemble.

💡 Notes

• What Run Analysis records without one. A static analysis records displacement, rotation, reactionForce and reactionMoment, plus the three element results. A transient analysis adds velocity, angularVelocity, acceleration and angularAcceleration. Connect an MPCO Recorder and exactly what it ticks is recorded instead.
• Asking for something that was not recorded. The result component says which box to tick. Nodal Displacements leaves that output empty with a note, and still fills the others.
• Only results Alpaca4d can read have a box. MPCO records much more, but no component would read it back yet.
• Every converged step is recorded. There is no option to record every n-th step yet.
• Two recorders cannot share a file. Run Analysis stops with an error if two write to the same FileName.
• Run Analysis with "Do not use settings" ticked runs the deck as it stands, and writes no recorder into it. It warns when Assemble was given one.

🔗 Relation to OpenSees

recorder mpco $fileName -N $nodalResult1 $nodalResult2 ... -E $elementResult1 $elementResult2 ...

What a static analysis records when nothing is connected:

recorder mpco recorder.mpco -N displacement rotation reactionForce reactionMoment -E stresses section.force section.fiber.stress axialForce

The MPCO recorder was written by M. Petracca and G. Camata at ASDEA Software Technology.