Maximum distance MPC.

This MPC is used to specify that the (Euclidean) distance between two nodes a and b must not exceed a given distance d. A fictitious node c must be defined using the *NODE card. The distance d should be assigned to the first coordinate of c, the other coordinates are arbitrary. The first DOF of c should be assigned a value of zero by means of a *BOUNDARY card. Since all DOFs of nodes a and b are used in the MPC, these nodes must be listed three times. Notice that due to this MPC discontinuities can arise.

Example:

*NODE
262,7.200000,0.,0.
*MPC
DIST,129,129,129,10,10,10,262
..
*STEP
*STATIC
*BOUNDARY
262,1,1,0.
..
*END STEP

specifies a maximum distance MPC. The distance between nodes 129 and 10 is not allowed to exceed 7.2 units.

Example file: dist.