TRI6 elements written with midside node in N4 slot, causing VABS Jacobian error

PreVABS 1.6.0 · .sg output

Description

For meshes containing higher-order triangles (TRI6), PreVABS writes the first midside node into the N4 column instead of N5. Per VABS manual, N4 must be zero for triangles. VABS interprets the misplaced node as a degenerate quad corner and aborts:

Something wrong with the mesh. The Jacobian of element 1 is less than zero.

Expected vs actual

Expected:  ElemID  N1     N2     N3     0   N5mid  N6mid  N7mid  0  0
Actual:    ElemID  N1     N2     N3     N4mid  0   N5mid  N6mid  0  0

Workaround

Swap N4 and N5 for all triangular elements in the generated .sg file. Confirmed to resolve the Jacobian error.


Environment