mata

   'mata' <Material-Nr> <set>

This keyword is used to assign a material-number to a set of elements. Currently, this feature is only useful if the NASTRAN format is used. The material-number is a numeric attribute assigned to each element of the mesh and will be stored with the mesh in the frd-format or nastran-format (see send). For example,

mata 7 part

assigns the material-number 7 to all elements in the set part. Elements can have just one material-number. The default number is 1. These numbers will be saved with the mesh if the database is written to the file-system with the command:

send all frd or send all nas

If the frd-file is used later, the material-number(s) are available immediately.