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Welcome to FEMAP README for Previous Versions

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This file contains information about enhancements and corrections that have been made in FEMAP Versions up to 8.3. Much of the information contained in this file can also be found in your printed manual. It is retained here merely for historical purposes.

FEMAP v8.3 Updates and Corrections

Analysis Set Manager
Updated the File->Translate command to make it easier to use and select analysis sets. Added the capability to preview and edit the NASTRAN input file before it is created.

ABAQUS
Corrected a problem that could cause the interface to simply end without writing a file when you were trying to export certain models. (8.3a)

ANSYS
For contact, changed method for writing Friction data from MPDATA to MP to avoid warning messages in ANSYS. Also updated TSHAP to be written for each face, and corrected the numbering of triangular (degenerate) parabolic faces. Corrected a problem writing the TSHAP command for the TARGEXXX contact elements. Corrected a problem writing the CONTA17X element that caused the quads not to be degenerated correctly. Corrected problem with PLANE82 that wrote an extra keyopt if the Analysis Manager was not used.

MARC
Corrected writing of options on BUCKLE for Linear buckling analysis. Corrected a problem creating the Contact Table when contact segments are deleted from the model. Corrected problems writing the CONTACT option. The entry for Coulomb Friction based on Force was written incorrectly. Also corrected the calculation of the maximum number of nodes on the periphery of any surface. Corrected problems writing the DEFINE, NODE option for contact segments where the node numbers were written incorrectly.

NASTRAN
Added interfaces to NX Nastran. Corrected GROUNDCHECK and WEIGHTCHECK options including support for defaults.

Added support for the Direct Enforced Motion loading for Frequency Response, Random Response and Response Spectrum. Added support for PBEAML and PBARL. Numerous customizations to remove features not supported in NE/Nastran and support of Tension-Only Shell elements. Added support for RSPLINE element. Added support for CBUSH element, PBUSH and PBUSHT properties. Added support for nonlinear and frequency dependent springs. Added option to skip writing PARAM,RESVEC. Added support for reading DLOAD, RLOAD2, TLOAD1. Added support for specifying multiple FREQi commands. Fixed a problem reading LOAD commands where origin of angular velocity (RFORCE) loads were lost in certain circumstances. Corrected a problem writing MEFFMASS when requesting plotted output. Added the ability to write the COUPMASS PARAM for Random and Frequency response. Corrected an error writing the 456 dof's on the DPHASE card. Corrected a problem writing large field format for CQUAD8 and CTRIA6 elements. Added the ability to define warping Node or SPOINT using Modify-Update Elements-Beam Warping. Added support for prestiffened modal analysis. Corrected a problem reading Composite Failure Indices from the op2 file that caused FEMAP to crash. Now skips restart commands when the standard Executive Control is skipped (8.3a) Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to launch the Nastran solver even when the export process was canceled. (8.3a)

Geometry Interfaces
Updated to ACIS Release 10. Updated to Parasolid 15.0. Updated Advanced IGES interface, supporting IGES 4.0, 5.2 & 5.3 (read), IGES 4.2, 5.2, 5.3 (write). Updated STEP interface, supporting STEP AP203 and AP214. Update Pro/E interface, supporting v17, and encrypted or decrypted files from 2000i and 2000i2. Updated CATIA interface, supporting v4.1.x and v4.2.x. Updated Unigraphics interface, supporting v11 to v18. Updated VDA interface, supporting VDA-FS 1.0 and 2.0. Added optional interface to CATIA v5. Increased maximum number of solid bodies that can be read from one file to 100000 from 25000 (8.3a) Added support for reading data blocks 2467 and 2452 for reading I-Deas groups from a Universal file. (8.3a)

FEMAP Structural
Corrected a problem with the format of writing temperature data.

DYNA
Added support for postprocessing of double-precision results files. Increased precision of xy pairs written to *DEFINE_CURVE. Corrected numbering of the wedge element so that the first face normal now points inward.

ABAQUS
Changed contact definition from the usage of *SURFACE DEFINITION to the *SURFACE command for ABAQUS 6.2 and greater. Corrected a problem that caused Plane Stress elements to be written as the wrong type.

File Management / Database

Corrected a problem that prevented automatic backup of the model database before save from working properly.

Preferences
Added preference to allow element symbols to disappear during rotation. Added preference to allow fast-picking of most entities, but retain the slower but more accurate picking of curves.

Added capability to fully customize the FEMAP menu.

Stress Wizard
Corrected a problem that allowed you to exit the Stress Wizard while in another command. The subsequent retiling would send the current command window to the background making FEMAP appear to be locked up.

Geometry
Corrected several problems in the conversion of solid engine curves to FEMAP curves (8.3a) Added mesh information to the dynamic query tooltips for geometry to show nodes, elements and/or element faces which were associated with the geometry (8.3a) Fixed a problem creating Parametric Curves on certain surfaces (8.3a)

Properties
Added shapes for NASTRAN beam cross-section library. Added support for nonlinear and frequency dependent springs. Added support for Tension-Only Shell elements for NE/Nastran. Added support for CBUSH elements in Nastran.

Loads
Added support for pressures in a specified vector direction. Added support for specifying multiple, simultaneous methods of selecting solution frequencies for frequency response solutions.

Constraints
Added ability to confirm deletion of individual constraint equations when multiple equations are connected to the same nodes.

Meshing
Added capability to create custom mesh sizes along a curve that match a group of selected nodes on another mesh. Improved meshing on solids which had one or more surfaces that failed to mesh using the fast-tri mesher. Improved meshing of very small boundary surfaces with holes. Improved the method used for determining the plane used in the planar meshing approaches. Added switch to the Mesh->Connection commands to allow creation of rigid elements with the master and slave nodes reversed. Corrected an crash of the tet mesher during midside node addition that occurred if the edge of a triangular face was on the edge of a surface and the edge had the highest node numbers on that face. (8.3a) Added capability to associate hex elements that were generated from the HexMesh from Elements command, when the surface elements are all from the same solid and completely enclose the volume (8.3a) Corrected a problem in hex meshing that caused the mesh to fail if there were very thin elements along the length of the mesh, and a very slight curvature in the geometry being meshed. (8.3a)

Modify
Added ability to create new layers while in the Modify->Layer commands. Added ability to reverse the normal directions of surfaces that are not part of solids. Added ability to update the layer used by a complete mesh. By selecting elements also updates layers of associated nodes, properties, loads, ... Updated Modify->Layer->Solid to update the layer of the solid in addition to the other geometry. Added ability to remove definition of beam cross-sections from selected properties. Added ability to automatically generate offsets for line elements that move the shape reference point to the nodes. Corrected a problem in renumber of groups, load sets and constraint sets that caused references to those items in Analysis Sets to be incorrect. Also added support for renumbering of mesh approaches and element associativity data when geometry was renumbered. Added the ability to specify Nodes or SPOINTS to define warping for beam elements using Modify-Update Elements-Beam Warping.

API
Added new functions: feAppEmbedGraphics, feAppEmbedMessages, feAppVisible, feAppRegisterMessageHandler, feAppLockExit, feAppUnlockExit, feAppLockModel, feAppUnlockModel, feModifyOffsetsToRefPt, feModifyBeamWarping, feGroupEvaluate. Added ability to run FEMAP without having it displayed on the screen. Added ability to embed the FEMAP Graphics windows into another application. Added ability to embed the FEMAP Messages window into another application, or to send the messages directly to another application for processing. Added ability to customize the FEMAP menu to include both standard and user defined commands. Added ability to lock the session so that user can not exit or change models. Made corrections to feFileWriteNeutral, feOutputFromLoad, feSurfaceCorners, feMeshEdgeMembers and feMeshSizeCurve. Added new functions to Expand and Compress geometric constraints, loads and contact in their respective objects. Added new functions to obtain the nodes and elements attached to various geometric objects (points, curves, surfaces and solids), also obtains element faces on surfaces. Added function to delete all available Set objects. Added function to do standard initialization of View Objects without having to manually set all of the values. Updated handling of application locking so that sessions started with CreateObject did not prematurely terminate if all other objects were destroyed. Added support for Set data in the Neutral file so that it can persist through a version upgrade. Added new events for Program File Start/Stop, and Draw Start/End (8.3a) Added new functions: feLoadCombine, feBCCombine, feAppMenu and properties: hProgFile and PickQueryMode. (8.3a) Added function ElementsWithFace to the Surface and Curve objects (8.3a) Added support for access to the API from .NET Basic. This supports the Object data type which replaces the Variant data type. (8.3a)

Graphics
Added support for Isoline displays. Added support for Streamline displays. Corrected a problem that prevented modifying of colors in the Palette using the available color sliders. Added option to suppress drawing of elements that are displayed as symbols. Added support to display up to 9 simultaneous functions in an XY display. Added labeling option for XY plots to label the XY pairs, instead of a single value. Added ability to create and query a display deformed relative to a selected node. Added ability to force contour legend and criteria plot labels into exponential format. Fixed a problem with boundaries in the View Show command (8.3a) Added support for drawing nodal permanent constraints, even if no constraint set is active (8.3a) Corrected the display of loads on points/curves/surfaces when the direction was specified in a local coordinate system (8.3a) Fixed a problem that sometimes caused mesh sizes along curves to be missing when the model was dynamically rotated (8.3a)

Groups and Selection

Added support for selecting nodes and elements based on associated output values. Corrected a problem that caused a crash if you used the Pick, By Face method while defining a nodal load.

System and License Information

Updated the Help About command to provide more detailed system information. Updated the Help About command to provide better information about network licenses including the number and owner of individual features that are being used.

On-Line Help System and Customer Support

Updated the Help system to automatically detect the browser being used and customize its support based on the capabilities of that browser. Updated Help system user interface and performance. The help system now loads significantly faster than before. Added NX Nastran documentation to the Help system

Added support for Netscape 7 (8.3a) Added new Help menu items to provide direct access to FEMAP Web sites and Customer Support (8.3a)

Release Notes for FEMAP Version 8.2.1

1985-2003 Unigraphics Solutions Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Data Systems Corporation This document includes the most current information for FEMAP Version 8.2.1, and updates for Version 8.2. The information in this document and in the Help system is more up-to-date than in the printed manuals. For additional information, check our web site: http://www.femap.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NASTRAN Interface
-Corrected writing of thermal body loads for dynamic analysis. -Added support for reading the GEOM options 1 and 2 for the CBEND element. -Corrected a bug writing radiation boundary conditions. The view factor written on RADBC was also bieng used for the TEMP value on the referenced TEMPBC. This caused the view factor to be squared when using a CNTRLND on RADBC. -Added control of adaptive or constant interval time stepping for nonlinear analysis. -Corrected default density and heat generation values when reading materials. -Corrected handling of table parameters (phase shift) when reading TABLEM2, TABLEM3, TABLED2 and TABLED3 commands. -Corrected writing of CONTACT in the Model definition. FEMAP was not writing CONTACT when it was defined in the MARC Model Definition dialog box. -Corrected a problem writing the Write Groups As Sets and Extended options in the MARC Write Parameters dialog box. -Corrected problem writing the Plasticity option in the MARC Write Parameters dialog box. -Added support for postprocessing of results files up to Version 11 (MARC 2003) -Added support for reading Plastic Strain, Creep Strain, Cauchy Stress, Thermal Strain, Cracking Strain, Elastic Strain, Elastic Strain in Global Coordinates, Plastic Strain in Global Coordinates and Creep Strain in Global Coordinates. -Corrected a bug writing *RADIATE. FEMAP was writing an option that was not available. -Corrected a bug writing *PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. The Physical Conditions were only written when a temperature body load was defined and used as an initial condition. *PHYSICAL CONDITIONS will now automatically be written when required for load type. -Corrected a bug that improperly defined the element face for heat flux, convection and radiation loads on axisymmetric shells and plane stress elements. -Corrected a problem writing *INITIAL CONDITIONS for body loads. The referenced NSET was improperly defined. -Added support for reading and writing heat transfer shells DS3 and DS6. -Corrected a problem writing *ORIENTATON for shells with normals that did not match. FEMAP now checks for and creates a *ORIENTATION for matching element normals as well as material direction. -Added support for reading output for up to two integration points and up to 25 section points for beams.

MARC Interface

ABAQUS Interface

ANSYS Interface
-Corrected a bug reading SHELL91 plys with KEYOPT(11) set to 1 (top) or 2 (bottom). This caused FEMAP to read the plys incorrectly. -Added support for reading SHELL91, SHELL99 KEYOPT(11) bottom offset.

File Naming Graphics and Selection

-Modified usage of standard File Open dialog box to support filenames with multiple filename extensions (multiple "." in filename). -Added a feature to prevent accidental dynamic rotation during the File->Picture->Save command. This prevents capture of the file dialog in the saved picture. -Corrected direction of beam diagrams in enhanced render mode to make them consistent with non-render graphics, and implemented the beam diagram reverse switch in render mode. -Corrected drawing of heat fluxes in enhanced render mode.

-Corrected free edge display of elements with missing midside nodes in enhanced render mode. -Added query/front picking, non-render graphics support and dynamic rotation support of 3-noded beam elements. -Corrected drawing of beam cross section orientation when two sequential beam elements share the same property but are in a different layer or have a different color. -Corrected display of quad element direction when using the right hand rule option for linear quad elements.

Properties
-Updated section property calculation to allow computation of properties for very thin circular tubes.

Model Checking
-Updated the method of computing element normal directions for warped quadrilateral elements. This greatly improves the accuracy of the Tools->Check->Sum Forces command if there are a large proportion of pressure-loaded, warped elements. -Corrected a problem with feSolidSlice and feSolidSliceMatch so that they no longer require unit vectors for the normal of the slicing plane. -Updated interface to feSurfaceEdgeCurves to accept four curves instead of a set of curves to allow control of selection order. -Corrected potential problem with leftover selection sets in: feProjectOntoCurve, feProjectOntoSurface, feMoveTo, feMoveBy, feRotateTo, feRotateBy, feAlignTo, and feScale -Documented the ReadString method of the UserData object

API

Meshing
-Corrected a problem with Mesh Editing that caused FEMAP to hang when editing an element that had loads defined on it.

Release Notes for FEMAP Version 8.2

1985-2002 Unigraphics Solutions Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Data Systems Corporation This document includes the most current information for FEMAP Version 8.2. The information in this document and in the Help system is more up-to-date than in the printed manuals. For additional information, check our web site: http://www.femap.com. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NASTRAN Interface - Added support for WEIGHTCHECK, GEOMCHECK, GROUNDCHECK commands to the Analysis Case Manager. - Added support for output requests for GPKE, ESE, EDE, EKE output to the Analysis Case Manager. - Added the OMODES output request in the Analysis Case Manager. - Corrected a bug that caused FEMAP to write the wrong POST codes when requesting XY PRINT output for PSD analysis. This error requested the wrong output. - Corrected a bug that caused STRAIN data not to be read from the output2 file for NASTRAN 2001. - Corrected a bug when reading the bulk data file. This bug caused FEMAP to read the modal damping table (TABDMP1) and incorrectly store it as a Structural Damping vs Freq table. - Added Job Monitor for launching and monitoring MSC/Nastran analyses. Monitor shows progress of log, f04 or f06 file as it is being written. - Added support for nonlinear and frequency dependent springs via the PELAST entry. - Result titles can now be read directly from text defined as a TITLE, SUBTITLE or LABEL in the OP2 file. This is controlled by a new option in File Preferences - Added support for automatically truncating extra long lines, without an error message, when reading a model file, if those lines only contain spaces. Corrected a bug when reading the bulk data file. This bug caused FEMAP to read the modal damping table (TABDMP1) and incorrectly store it as a Structural Damping vs Freq table. Added support for the pipe option on tube elements, including control of internal pressure and closed ends.

NE/Nastran Interface

ANSYS Interface

Corrected a bug that caused FEMAP to incorrectly write the properties for 2nd order shell elements. FEMAP

MARC Interface
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would incorrectly assign one thickness for all the shell properties that were being written. Added support for reading models in blocked formats from DesignSpace v5 & v6

DYNA Interface

Added MSC.Marc to the Analysis Case Manager. Added support for buckling in MSC.Marc. Added support for the CONTACT TABLE. Corrected a bug that caused the TSHEAR parameter not to be written. Added support for reading results files from newer versions of Marc thru Marc 2001 Added Job Monitor for launching and monitoring MARC analyses. Monitor shows progress of printed status file as it is being written, as well as displaying various convergence and progress indicators. Corrected a problem writing the *MAT_SOIL_AND_FOAM card. FEMAP was writing a period instead of a comma for the field separator. Added missing * when writing MAT_THERMAL_ORTHOTROPIC_TD and MAT_ANISOTROPIC_ELASTIC. Corrected a problem writing beam releases for the rotational dof on the *ELEMENT_BEAM card. Added Support for SAX1, SAX2, B32, B22, B22H and B32H element types and also contact supported. Corrected a bug that caused FEMAP to incorrectly define contact surfaces for beams in space. Corrected a bug that caused FEMAP to incorrectly write *CONTACT NODE SET when the GENERATE option was used. Included updated versions of translators for CATIA V4, Pro/E, Unigraphics, I-Deas, STEP, VDA and IGES. Included latest releases of ACIS (8.0) and Parasolid (14.0) Geometric entities can now be renumbered Added many new options for the control of render graphics. Added option to control reading output set titles from the NASTRAN results file and options to initialize the new analysis monitor Added ability to browse for new library files rather than simply typing the filenames Corrected a bug that caused FEMAP to print garbage for the aspect ratio for wedge elements. Added the ability to correct invalid elements in Check Distortion

ABAQUS Interface

Geometry Interfaces

File Preferences

Tools, Check Tools, Stress Wizard

A wizard has been added that leads you through a four-step process from loading solid geometry through analysis and postprocessing. The wizard is setup to handle single part, single constraint set, single load set, static analyses. It can be used as very simple, complete tool to do many of these types of analyses, or in combination with the other FEMAP capabilities to handle more advanced situations. Corrected a bug that caused the Case Manager to incorrectly create subcases when using the NEW button in Abaqus and Ansys. Added the linear and parabolic Axisymmetric shell element Added parabolic beams. Added capability to extrude, revolve and sweep the faces of elements into other elements. For example, faces of solid elements can be extruded into other solids without first skinning with plates. During Copy, Rotate, Scale, Reflect and Radial Copy of meshes an option has been added to match the loads and constraints that were on the original mesh. Two options have been added to mesh sizing of solids. The first permits length-based sizing, eliminating problems that sometimes occur when sizing unstitched geometry, and geometry with curves that have nonstandard parameterization. The second option allows automatic feature suppression of short edges. Length-based sizing has also been added as an option for mesh sizing on surfaces. Surface meshing has been enhanced to handle suppressed edges in a more reliable manner. This allows much more reliable meshing of geometry with sliver surfaces and surfaces with small edges formed where there are slight mismatches surface corners. Surface meshing will now automatically attempt to use the Planar Projection approach if meshing in parametric space fails for any reason. This increases the number of parts that can be automatically

Analysis Case Manager

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Elements Meshing

meshed without user intervention. The surface mesher has been improved to handle cases with embedded curves. Curves can be "floating" in the middle of the surface, or attached to an inner or outer loop. Added the ability to define pressure loads on the TOP and BOTTOM surface for Axisymmetric shells. Added an option to the "adjacent face" selection method to only consider faces that have consistent normal directions. Added advanced geometric constraints which give full control over the degrees of freedom being constrained. Also added geometric constraints that can be applied using terminology like sliding, symmetry, Completed the implementation of the "new" render (OpenGL) graphics mode. This mode is now used as the default for all graphics. On-screen graphics now automatically update in many more cases than before, including when entities are deleted (this can be controlled with a new option in the deletion confirmation dialog). Also added the "Auto Regenerate" render graphics preference which will force a redraw after every command that changes model content. Added support for multiple (3) independent section cutting planes in rendered graphics Added support for drawing constraints as vectors to show directions. The display of curve mesh size is now controlled by View Option, Symbols, Show Dots in rendered graphics mode. Corrected two problems in the conversion of Elemental to Nodal data that is used for Nodal Contours. The first problem caused incorrect averaging of elements that had missing corner data if other elements in the same output vector had corner data (This occurs for stresses in mixed CTRIA3/CQUAD4 models in Nastran). The second problem caused the elemental center value to be used, instead of the average of the adjacent corner values at midside nodes of parabolic plate elements. The Group Operations Generate command has been enhanced with an option to only consider planar elements which have consistent normal directions. Options have been added to the Group Operations Generate Solids command to build separate groups for each solid and whether or not to include the associated model entities in the groups with the geometry. Many new material libraries have been added to this release. They include various Aluminum, Copper, Nickel, and Steel alloys, as well as Mil5 and MDLA materials. Over 6000 different materials and alloys are represented The Library selection dialog box can now be resized by dragging the corners. This helps to read the longer titles in the new libraries. Added File New and File Open commands to the toolbar containing the File Save command. Converted the FEMAP model file format to no longer use the Microsoft Compound document format. This was done to eliminate file size limitations that caused model corruption when files exceeded certain sizes (typically 2 Gbyte, although this could vary depending on the OS and file systems being used). It also eliminates excessive file fragmentation which can occur in compound document files, and which also causes file corruption. With the new model file approach, you will see that when you open a model file, it is expanded into a scratch subdirectory instead of a single scratch file. Added functions to the FEMAP Object including: feCheckElemFixup, feGetReal, feGetInt, feDeleteOutput, feDeleteLoads, feDeleteConstraints, and feOutputCalculate. Modified the following methods: feGenerateCopy, feGenerateScale, feGenerateRadialCopy, feGenerateRotate, and feGenerateReflect. Corrected problem in GetVectorAtNode in Output object and a problem in the Get method for Beam/Bar results. Corrected the Get method in the Element object for element types with lists of nodes (Rigids, Slide Lines). Also corrected interface to feOutputProcess in FEMAP Object and the GetSearch method of the entity objects. Added access to all new model data as properties - especially in additions to the Analysis Set Manager, advanced geometric constraints, control of the multiple view cutting planes and new preferences. Provided access to the serial number of the running FEMAP session for security checking.

Loads
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Constraints

Graphics
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Postprocessing - Contours

Groups
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Libraries
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Toolbars

Database

API
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Added support for the new Contact Table in the AnalysisSet and AnalysisCase objects. Added support for the advanced geometric boundary conditions in BCGeom object Added capability to load arrays of node and element data. Fixed problems in Function and Contact objects that caused crashes when calling Get method of these objects.

Release Notes for FEMAP Version 8.1

1985-2001 Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Data Systems Corporation This document includes the most current information for FEMAP Version 8.1. The information in this document and in the Help system is more up-to-date than in the printed manuals. For additional information, check our web site: http://www.femap.com.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------User Interface
Standard Entity Selection - Added support for Copy and Paste to the list box. Added Copy and Paste to the Pick^ menu, and added support for Ctrl+V and Ctrl+C. Focus must be in the list box. - Added a By Face option to the Pick menu that allows you to pick nodes and elements by element faces. 3-Button Mouse Support - Added support for the middle mouse button. When you are in a command and in Render mode, the middle mouse button can be used to dynamically rotate/pan/zoom your model. Display - Added a new, more reliable, enhanced Render mode. - Added support for displaying nodal fluid loads in groups. - Corrected a problem with double-sided contours and max/min data conversion when plate thickness is also displayed. - Eliminated a crash that occurred if you were in Render mode, in a model with no solid elements, and tried to modify the plane location in Dynamic Cutting Plane command. - Moved the Beam Diagrams options to a new location under the View Options command. Added labeling and reverse options. - Added the ability to color points, curves, and surfaces by property or material colors. - Corrected a crash that occurred if you set the curve accuracy to 1.0E-6 and tried to draw a circle or spline in non-Render mode. - Corrected labels on convections, radiations, heat flux, heat generation, loads on curves, transient loads, and fluid loads. Previously, all load values were written as the absolute value, not the actual value. Picking - Added support for picking in polar coordinates. Previously, if you used the Locate in Workplane coordinate method and chose polar coordinates, picking still worked in rectangular coordinates. - Added support for box-picking boundaries created from solid surfaces. - Corrected a problem that caused the wrong group to be used for picking if you had multiple graphics windows displayed and each window showed a different group.

Interfaces
NASTRAN Interface - Added the capability to read model files that reference INCLUDE files. The new capability supports files that are nested up to 10 levels. - Added support for writing an analysis model file that only contains the contents of a selected group. - Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to crash when reading an OUTPUT2 file containing beam elements, on a system that has 64 MBytes of memory, runs Windows 95 or 98, and uses the HP LaserJet 4 printer driver. - Corrected a problem that could result in an invalid ID statement if your model was in a directory with a long name.

Added the ability to request force balance and strain energy for Nonlinear analysis. Added direct enforced motion in Dynamic Analysis for NASTRAN 2001. Enforced motion types LOAD, DISP, VELO, and ACCE are supported. Removed automatic writing of PARAM,DDRM,-1 and MODACC. These controls can be written by selecting the respective parameter in the Bulk Data options when exporting the analysis. Added support for writing the parameter PARAM,RESVEC,YES. Corrected a problem reading output from the NASTRAN 2001 OUTPUT2 file, caused by changes made to the OUTPUT2 format. Added the capability to read NASTRAN 2001 MEFFMASS output from the PRINT file into FEMAP XY functions. Corrected a problem with the transient heat transfer Estimate button that caused it not to work for models with axisymmetric elements. Corrected a problem that caused TSTEP to be incorrectly written in Large Field Format.

NE/Nastran Interface - Added support for surface-to-surface contact elements and cable elements. - Changed the dynamic loads section to eliminate unnecessary writing of LSEQ cards. - Added the ability to request GRID POINT FORCE output for Nonlinear Static analysis. - Added support for reading and writing contact segments BSEG and contact pair BSCONP. - Changed the default output request for Nonlinear analysis to STRESS=ALL. ANSYS Interface - Added support for post-processing results that have been combined using the ANSYS Append command. - Corrected KEYOPTS written for SHELL91 elements. Added support for writing SHELL91 and 99 KEYOPT 11. - Added options for 2D or 3D mass elements with or without rotation DOF. - Added support for reading and writing anisotropic materials for element types SHELL181, 182, and 183, and SOLID 185 and 186. Also added support for TB data cards for anisotropic (ANEL) materials. - Added support for reading or writing the LINK10 element for tension only or compression only. - Added the Transient Heat Transfer analysis type. - Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to not read the element description table from certain results files. MARC Interface - Corrected problems that caused some elemental output to be skipped for large models. - Updated the MARC interface to read and write for version 2000 or K7. DYNA Interface - Changed the *SET_SOLID_LIST to *SET_SOLID to define lists of solid elements. ABAQUS Interface - Corrected a problem with reading the definition of arcs in analytical rigid surfaces. - Added read and write support for generalized plane strain elements. - Added APPROACH to the contact pair property to allow for individual step definition. - Changed *RADIATE to account for version 61 field 5 changes from Radiation constant to emissivity. - Added support for writing of I12 I13 I23 for *ROTARY INERTIA in ABAQUS version 61. - Corrected a bug that caused FEMAP to write out an incorrect value for *SURFACE INTERACTION data line 1. - Added support for slide line elements ISL21, 21A, 31 for ABAQUS 5.8. - Added ANALYTICAL RIGID surfaces to the standard contact segment definition in FEMAP. Corrected a problem reading nodal connectivity for line elements that caused FEMAP to incorrectly assign the beam orientation node. Also corrected a problem reading default orientation indicated by a blank line. VRML Interface - Added support for VRML 2.0 and VRML 97. - Added support for contour and post-processing legends, and element edges. - Added support for modifying contour levels and colors, elemental contours, and averaging schemes. - Added support for internal texture maps you no longer need to use an external jpg file. FEMAP Neutral Files

Corrected a problem transferring nonlinear transient loads through the neutral file.

File Menu
Notes - The length of notes that can be defined is now virtually unlimited. Previously, notes were limited to 30,000 characters. Preferences - Added the capability to remember dialog box locations and place future dialog boxes at the same location on subsequent commands. - Added the capability to open an existing model without opening any of the stored views. - Added the ability to easily create your own menus of commands, program files, or other applications.

Tools Menu
Workplane - Added expansion factor in Snap Options that allows you to expand or shrink the size from its automatically scaled sizes. - Updated the checking of the visibility preference to make sure that it always applies. Toolbox - Corrected problems with the several of the icons that didnt access the proper commands. Tools Commands - Updated the Tools->Section Properties->Surface Properties, Tools->Section Properties->Mesh Properties, and Tools->Check->Coincident Loads commands to support the List->Destination settings.

Geometry Menu
Boundary Surfaces - Added the capability to automatically remove zero-length curves from the curves selected to define a boundary.

Model Menu
Loads - Added support for varying the function ID reference on nodal/elemental loads by using "!i" in an equationbased load. - Added a Copy button to the Model->Load->Heat Transfer command that allows you to copy settings from another case. - Significantly improved performance when expanding nodal loads defined on multi-surface boundaries. - Corrected a problem that caused pressure loads on surfaces to expand in the wrong normal direction if you manually reversed the element normal directions of planar elements on the surface. - Added support for properly expanding surface loads on multi-surface boundaries. Constraint Equations - Corrected graying of the OK button after you select and delete an item in the constraint equation. Analysis Set Manager - Added support for ANSYS and ABAQUS. Output - Implemented the Output->Process command to replace the Copy, Linear, Envelope, Error and Convert commands. Output Process has a new user interface and new capabilities.

Mesh Menu
Surface Meshing - Improved meshing of surfaces with feature suppressed edges. Suppressed edges can now be treated as a single centralized node, which greatly improves meshes of surfaces with small edges. - Corrected a problem that could cause FEMAP to crash if you tried to mesh a surface with all of its edges suppressed. Hex Meshing - Corrected a problem that prevented further hex meshing of a solid if you: had multiple adjoining, slaved solids; meshed all of them; merged coincident nodes; deleted the mesh on just one solid; and tried to remesh it. Mesh Editing - Added interactive mesh editing and splitting capabilities. Mesh Sweep - Added a Sweep command that sweeps elements along one or more curves to create other elements.

Modify Menu
Project Onto->Solid - Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to crash if you picked less than 10 nodes. Update Element->Order - Corrected a problem that caused midside nodes to be located improperly if they were projected onto tolerant Parasolid edges. Update Other->Scale Load - Corrected a problem with modifying pressure loads where varying pressure was applied to each corner. Now the command properly scales pressure at all corners.

List Menu
Output->Unformatted - Added support for listing vector statistics on a subset of nodes/elements, even if the individual node/element data is not listed.

Group Menu
Operations - Added the Group->Operations->Select Mesh command, which creates a group that contains all of the items related to selected elements. Node - Added the Group->Node->Element Orientation option, which allows you to select nodes that are referenced as third/orientation nodes.

API
Old Basic API - Corrected the esp_SolidStitch command if you pass in a list of surfaces to stitch. OLE/COM API - Added a new, much broader API that supports an OLE/COM interface. This new API can be called from Visual C++, Visual Basic or other OLE applications like Microsoft Word and Excel.

Licensing
Network Licensing - Added support for license files that contain several different simultaneous FEMAP configurations. - Added support for obtaining a license from the first available server from a list of specified servers. - Added a Browse capability to look for the network license file.

Release Notes for FEMAP Version 8.0

1985-2000 Structural Dynamics Research Corp. This document includes updated information for the documentation provided with FEMAP Version 8.0. The information in this document and in the Help system is more up-to-date than that in the manuals. Also check our web site http:/ /www.femap.com for additional information.

Contents
Additions and Corrections to FEMAP v8.0 General Modeling, Meshing, Postprocessing Interfaces Model Migration BASIC Scripting

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------General
Additions and Corrections - FEMAP Structural The new FEMAP Structural product is a general finite element analysis solver for linear structural and thermal analysis that is integrated with FEMAP. FEMAP Structural currently supports: Static analysis solves for linear, static stress, and deflection results when thermo-mechanical loads are present. Dynamic (normal modes) analysis solves for natural frequencies and mode shapes of either restrained or free-free structures. Heat transfer analysis solves for steady-state temperatures due to convection, conduction, and heat generation. Material properties can be temperature-dependent. Linear buckling analysis. A full element library, including shell, solid, beam, rod, spring, and constraint elements. Additions and Corrections - FEMAP Thermal The new FEMAP Thermal product is a comprehensive heat transfer simulation module. You can use FEMAP Thermal to model heat transfer by conduction, convection, radiation, fluid flow, and phase change. Thermal models are solved using advanced finite control volume technology, under steady-state or transient loading conditions. Additions and Corrections - On-Line Documentation The primary FEMAP on-line documentation has been converted to HTML format from the previous Windows Help format. This improved system will allow easy access to the help information from Internet Explorer (v5 and higher) or Netscape Navigator (v4 and higher).

Modeling, Meshing, Postprocessing

Additions and Corrections - Model Analysis Command The Model Analysis command allows easy definition of all of the data necessary to run a NASTRAN or FEMAP Structural solve. Additions and Corrections - List Output Unformatted Added support for only listing results for selected nodes and elements. This allows you to get summaries on partial output data. Additions and Corrections - Contour Vectors Added Max Shear Contour vectors as a standard type. Additions and Corrections - Element Selection Corrected a problem that prevented selecting parabolic solid elements using the Brick20 shape. Additions and Corrections - Check Sum Forces Corrected a problem that gave incorrect results if you summed forces that included pressures with corner values. Previously just used the first corner value, now uses the average. Additions and Corrections - Solid Extrude Removed the explicit selection of boundary surfaces during extrude. Boundary surfaces can be selected under "Surfaces", just like any other surface type. Additions and Corrections - Meshing Corrected a problem with free meshing a revolved planar surface that included the pole at the axis of revolution when you did not specify a meshing approach. Corrected a problem that gave bad meshes on FEMAP basic surfaces if you meshed more than one surface in the same command that mesh points on the surface. Additions and Corrections - Midsurface Assign Mesh Attributes Fixed a problem that prevented assignment of mesh attributes to midsurfaces generated by the ACIS geometry kernel. Additions and Corrections - Delete Mesh Corrected a problem that resulted in nodal results being deleted from the wrong nodes if you deleted part of a mesh that contained analysis results using the Delete Model Mesh command. Additions and Corrections - XY Plotting Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to crash when you switched xy plot vectors, if you had specified a manual max/min data range that was completely outside of the range of data for the new results vector, and you were displaying max/min data labels. No longer misses the first or last label on the Y axis if the values are large.

Interfaces
Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS Interface Added support for reading nested node and element sets. Corrected a problem that wrote the name of rigid contact surfaces incorrectly. Also corrected a problem that wrote entity names incorrectly when the option for Titles as Set Names was turned on. Additions and Corrections - I-DEAS Interface Added support for numerous new entities in the I-DEAS universal file interface, and corrected problems. Added support for reading nodes and elements in I-DEAS groups from the current dataset 2435 and previous datasets 2417, 2429, 2430 and 2432. Fixed reading of I-DEAS universal files so laminates do not cause the read to abort. The laminate data is not read but a placeholder material is created in FEMAP with the same name. Fixed read of I-DEAS NULL physical properties. These are written by I-DEAS as 1.0E-35. These are now converted to 0.0 when read by FEMAP. Fixed problem when reading I-DEAS dataset 2437 (new physical properties). Membrane/Bending coupling material is now defaulted to "None" instead of "Plate Material".

Fixed problem when FEMAP writes rigid elements. I-DEAS could not read FEMAP generated universal files with rigid elements. A null I-DEAS physical property table is now written to the universal file for all FEMAP rigid elements. Fixed problem when writing lumped mass coordinate system. Fixed problem when writing FEMAP interpolated rigid elements (I-DEAS constraint elements). File format used was incorrect. FEMAP membrane elements are now written as I-DEAS plane stress elements. Although these element types do not correspond directly, this allows the element connectivity to be transferred to I-DEAS. Fixed a problem when reading or writing anisotropic materials. The xz and yz terms in the material stiffness matrix, thermal expansion vector, and thermal conductivity vector were incorrect. Fixed a problem reading or writing tapered beams with cross section shapes that caused beam properties to be incorrect at one beam end. Properties are now correct but shape type had to be set to none to achieve this. I-DEAS IDI Import - Fixed a problem with I-DEAS swept surfaces that were not being trimmed when imported into FEMAP. Additions and Corrections - LS-DYNA Interface Corrected a problem with the DATABASE_HISTORY_NODE_SET command that occurred when writing a model to LS-DYNA and you requested a Time History output interval, but you did not choose a group for the output. Also properly honors the request for plane stress element formulations from the plane strain element. Corrected a problem reading nodal results from the time history file. Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Interface Added support for reading plate offsets from CQUADR and CTRIAR elements from UAI/NASTRAN files. Additions and Corrections - Neutral File Interface Corrected a problem that prevented the flag for convections and radiations on plate element backfaces, available in the Advanced Thermal interface, from being transferred in a Neutral file. Also corrected a problem that resulted in a wrong version of ACIS geometry being written to a neutral file that was being migrated backward to FEMAP v7.0. Additions and Corrections - StereoLithography Interface Added support for reading STL files from PATRAN, where the vertex coordinates can run together if you have negative coordinate values.

Model Migration
Additions and Corrections - Model Migration Provided corrected versions of the conversion/migration programs neu_44.exe and neu_45.exe. These allow you to migrate FEMAP v4.4 and v4.5 models to the current version. In FEMAP v7.1, incorrect versions of these programs were delivered.

BASIC Scripting
Additions and Corrections - BASIC Scripting Corrected the following functions: esp_MiscGetNotes, esp_OutpSetVectorMaxMinData, esp_FileAnsysRead, esp_FileMarcRead

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Additions and Corrections (Versions 6.0 thru 7.1)

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Additions and Corrections - Geometry Interfaces (FEMAP Enterprise) (v7.1)

The new FEMAP Enterprise product contains a broad range of new geometry interfaces, including: CATIA Import - Provides the ability to read CATIA model files, and Express files from CATEXP. Catia model files must be from CATIA v4.1.x or v4.2 IGES Import - in addition to the basic IGES interface that is included in FEMAP and FEMAP Professional, an advanced IGES interface that supports many additional entity types is included in FEMAP Enterprise. This supports IGES Standards 4.0 to 5.3. VDA Import - this interface provides direct access to VDA files up to v2.0 IDEAS Import - Provides access to IDI files generated by I-DEAS MS8. Currently only part (not assembly) geometry is supported, but this provides a very fast, very robust link between FEMAP and I-DEAS PRO/E Import - Provides direct access to model files from PRO/ENGINEER v16 to v20. From other versions of PRO/E, the IGES interfaces will continue to provide very robust geometry transfer. Solid Edge Import - Direct access to Parasolid geometry in Solid and Sheet Metal part files. Unigraphics Import - Direct access to Parasolid geometry from Unigraphics v11 thru v15 ACIS and Parasolid Import - Both of these interfaces provide the ability to convert the imported geometry to the other solid modeling engine. If you normally, work with Parasolid, but you have some ACIS geometry that you need to use, this lets you convert it to Parasolid so that it can fully interact with your other geometry. IGES Export - in addition to advanced IGES import, it is now possible to export Parasolid geometry to IGES format.

Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS Interfaces (v7.1)

An option has been added to use the entity titles as the titles for SET commands. Added support for the *INCLUDE command and INPUT= options on various commands for the model read interface.

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Interfaces (v7.1)

Corrected a problem with the TSHAP command when writing triangular contact elements. Corrected a problem with the TBPT command for stress-strain curves on nonlinear plastic materials.

Additions and Corrections - I-DEAS Interfaces (v7.1)

Added an interface to read I-DEAS part geometry from the IDI (Interoperability Data Interface). Significantly improved and updated the I-DEAS Universal File interfaces to include more model data, including some basic capabilities to read nodal results and solid element stresses.

Additions and Corrections - LS/DYNA Interfaces (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that caused the Springback and Implicit solver options to be reversed. Also improved support for postprocessing of some older versions of DYNA by providing an option that allows you to force each new step to start in a new file.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Interfaces (v7.1)

Significantly improved the performance of writing NASTRAN model files that have both a large number of enforced displacements and a large number of constraints (25000 or more each). Added warnings if you

attempt to write laminates without a material orientation, or if you specify plate offsets but then translate to a plate type that does not support them.

Additions and Corrections - UAI/NASTRAN Interface (v7.1)

Stopped writing MAT4 and MAT5 cards which were written incorrectly for UAI/NASTRAN and were not required for the structural analysis types that the UAI interface supports.

Additions and Corrections - Standard Coordinate Dialogs (v7.1)

The "In Workplane" coordinate definition dialog now properly switches labels as you toggle between polar and rectangular coordinates.

Additions and Corrections - Entity Selection (v7.1)

If you press the Alt-key while picking, and you are in either normal selection mode, or "Front" selection mode, you will switch to Query Selection for that pick. This eliminates the need to manually change your selection when you have a few picks where query is needed. Added a Preview command to the Pick menu that shows the entities that have been selected.

Additions and Corrections - Printing (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that occurred when you tried to print headers or footers, or a multiple window layout on certain DeskJet printers. These printers do not properly reset the clipping region during printing resulting in certain portions of the print being lost. An option has been added to File->Page Setup to manually reset the Clipping Region that will overcome this problem. Added an option to print directly to a file instead of your printer.

Additions and Corrections - File Preferences (v7.1)

Added a View Preference to use (or not use) Vertex Arrays in Render Mode. Vertex arrays are a feature of OpenGL that, if properly supported by your graphics card and drivers, allows improved graphics performance. Unfortunately, we have found cards that claim to support this feature that do not work properly when it is enabled.

Additions and Corrections - Sketching (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to crash if you attempted to do a File Exit while you were still in Sketch Mode.

Additions and Corrections - Surface Creation (v7.1)

Changed the way that surface are created by the Surface->Corners and Surface->Ruled commands when using the ACIS geometry engine. These surfaces now have their parametric directions created consistently with the other geometry engines. Also updated the height and width specifications for the Geometry->Surface->Planar command for the ACIS engine, so that it was consistent with the other engines.

Additions and Corrections - Model Material (v7.1)

User defined materials can not have text fields with no input field. Simply define the field as Axxx (xxx is any number) in the material definition file to create the text without an input field. Added a Fluid Material Type, additional phase change properties and support for ThermoOptical properties on some other standard material types.

Additions and Corrections - Model Function (v7.1)

Added the capability to automatically create periodic functions by duplicating a range of values.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Extrude Element (v7.1)

Improved the "Normals with Thickness Correction" method to better account for situations with multiple elements coming together at a node - for example at the corner of a box.

Additions and Corrections - Meshing Surfaces (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that caused a mesh on a Boundary that was mapped to a surface to come out at the origin, rather than on the surface, if you smoothed the mesh.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Points on Surface (v7.1)

The Mesh Points on Surface command has been updated so that you can easily create new mesh points, use existing points, connect to existing nodes in another mesh, or delete the points that you have already assigned.

Additions and Corrections - Multi-Surface Meshing (v7.1)

Whether it is called Multi-Surface Meshing, Compound Surface Meshing, Section Meshing, or some other name, this tool provides the ability to consider multiple surfaces as one and mesh across the combined group of surfaces as if they were a single surface. Interior boundaries are simply ignored. Several new commands have been added to facilitate this operation. Geometry->Boundary Surface->From Surfaces on Solid lets you quickly create a boundary surface by picking multiple adjacent surfaces from a stitched solid. Geometry->Boundary Surface->Update Surfaces provides automatic updating of boundary surfaces that were created with the "From Surfaces on Solid" command, if the underlying solid geometry has changed. Geometry>Boundary Surface->Edit Surfaces allows you to edit the definition of one of these Boundary Surfaces if you want to add or remove surfaces.

Additions and Corrections - Meshing Solids (v7.1)

The solid meshing commands will search for a solid property and select it as the default if the active property is not a solid property.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Project Mesh Onto Solid (v7.1)

Allows you to take a mesh and project it onto an entire solid or onto a group of surfaces from a solid. This can be used to mesh a planar outline of a region and then move the mesh onto the solid.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Move By Offset Element (v7.1)

This command provides the capability to move elements along a vector, or along their element normals. Moving planar elements along their normals can be a simple way to create a midplane mesh of constant thickness parts - simply mesh either the inner or outer surfaces, and move the elements along their normals by one half of the thickness.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Renumber Materials (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that caused function references on materials to be lost if you renumbered the material.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Color (v7.1)

Added the ability to randomize surface colors. Changed the default color of a boundary surface to be different than the normal surface color - this is intended to make the boundaries created by the new multi-surface meshing commands visible when displayed on top of the underlying surfaces.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Update Elements Reverse (v7.1)

Previously when you reversed element directions, loads applied to the element faces would flip direction. This could also happen for axisymmetric elements that were built in an incorrect modeling plane and flipped

automatically as you translated your model. Now the loads are properly adjusted to maintain their direction when the elements flip.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Update Elements Split Quads (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that left the midside nodes of parabolic quads as nondeletable after you split them into triangles. Previously you had to run File Rebuild before you could delete these nodes.

Additions and Corrections - List Loads (v7.1)

Significantly improved the speed of listing loads from sets that have a very large number of nodal or elemental loads. This is most evident in load sets with 20,000 loads or more.

Additions and Corrections - View Rotate and Align (v7.1)

The View Rotate command has been changed to a submenu. The old View Rotate command can now be accessed via the View->Rotate->Model command. The same shortcut keys Ctrl+R or F8 still work as before. View->Align By->Dynamic has been moved to the new View Rotate menu, and new commands have been added to allow you to pick the dynamic rotation center and axis.

Additions and Corrections - Free Face and Hidden Line (v7.1)

Significantly improved the performance of the computation of free faces in large solid models. This greatly improves the display speed on View Regeneration for Free Face and all Hidden Line displays outside of Render mode. It also improves performance of other commands that require free face information - like picking free faces. Also corrected a problem in the usage of the "Free Edge and Face" View Option. Previously the Use Midnodes and Skip Midnodes options worked backwards for Free Face and Hidden displays.

Additions and Corrections - Graphics (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that caused all graphics to disappear except the axes, origin and workplane. The problem was created if you closed a view within a couple of seconds from the time when you resized it. Previously the only ways out of this problem were to exit and restart FEMAP, or create a new view and resize it.

Additions and Corrections - Render Mode (v7.1)

Corrected problems that occurred on several graphics boards/drivers. This includes problems with the GeForce cards (requires disabling Vertex Arrays in File Preferences).

Additions and Corrections - Contour Postprocessing (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that gave invalid contours if you used elemental contouring on a plate model, and you chose either Max or Min data conversion (not averaging), and you turned on the display of plate thicknesses.

Additions and Corrections - Beam Diagram Postprocessing (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that occurred if you set the beam diagram direction to Elemental Y or Z, and you displayed the diagram on a deformed model, with a deformation scale that was large enough to cause the deformed beam X axis to pass through the element orientation vector. In this case the direction of the diagram was previously reversed - it is now drawn properly. Added support for beam diagrams of Beam Equivalent Stress, Beam Plastic Strain, Beam Total Strain and Beam Creep Strain when these values are recovered from your analysis.

Additions and Corrections - Contour Vector Postprocessing (v7.1)

Corrected a problem that occurred on uniaxial solid models with solid elements that had 2 zero shear stresses. If you plotted a standard Max Principal Stress contour vector, the vectors on those elements was zero. It is now computed properly.

Additions and Corrections - Section Cut Postprocessing (v7.1)

Added support for elemental contouring in a section cut display. Previously if you selected elemental contours with section cuts, all contour values were displayed as zero.

Additions and Corrections - Freebody Postprocessing (v7.1)

If you have multiple output sets, some with Freebody output, and others without, when you went into the Freebody dialog box, the graying was not handled properly unless you had selected the output set in a previous command. This problem has been corrected.

Additions and Corrections - Dynamic Rotation (v7.1)

The dynamic rotation command has been improved to allow dynamic rotation about a location other than the center of the screen, and about any vector/axis that you choose. New commands have been added to the View Rotate submenu to allow you to define these options, or you can define them from a new Options menu in the dynamic rotation dialog box. Dynamic rotation can now be done even if you have both curves and elements turned off for normal displays, as long as you have one or both of them in your model.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Additions and Corrections - Model File Naming (v7.01)

Model files can now be properly saved to directories, and with names, that contain multibyte characters. Previously model files could only be saved to a path that contained characters from the singlebyte character sets.

Additions and Corrections - File Open (v7.01)

Added checking to insure that the directory that you specify for scratch files actually exists. If it does not, the TEMP directory is used, and a message is displayed advising you to change your preferences. Added support to allow opening of model files that are "read-only".

Additions and Corrections - File Exit and Save (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that could cause you to lose your model if you ran out of disk space while copying the scratch file to a saved model file. Previously, in this case, you were simply returned to the model without a warning. At that point the model was still correct, but if you then immediately chose File Exit, you could exit without saving and lose your model. Proper messages have been added, and you are now prevented from exiting inadvertently. In addition, the automatic save that occurs if FEMAP ever crashes, has been improved to still work, even if there is not additional disk space beyond what the scratch file already occupies. Removed a message that was displayed if you tried to exit a model that contained solids, and if the model needed to be saved. The message stated that an error occurred saving the solids. In fact, there was no error saving, the model was always properly saved. The only error was that the message was displayed. Corrected a problem that could cause FEMAP to crash if you had solids in a previously unsaved model, and you answered that you wanted to save during the File Exit command. If you then changed your mind and pressed Cancel when specifying a filename, you would be back in FEMAP, but FEMAP would crash if you

tried to do anything with the solids. This now works properly.

Additions and Corrections - File Preferences (v7.01)

NE/Nastran can now be properly selected as a default interface. Previously, it could be selected, but if you later went back into File Preferences, it was reset. Added a preference for specifying the default number of significant digits when writing neutral files. This preference is now used whenever neutral files are automatically written to convert models between FEMAP versions. Previously, those neutral files always used the default 8 significant digits. In some models however, this can result in very small changes to nodal coordinates and other values. By increasing this number, greater precision is maintained at the expense of a somewhat larger file.

Additions and Corrections - Picking (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that prevented drill picking from working properly if "Snap To Point" or "Snap To Node" were turned on. In the standard vector and standard plane dialog boxes, the cursor is often drawn as a vector or plane as you move it for selection. When these are being displayed, and the snap mode was set to point or node, previously the closest point/node was not highlighted, as it would have been in other cases. Both the vector/plane and the highlighting are now displayed. Corrected picking of nodes and elements in a deformed plot. Previously used the undeformed location.

Additions and Corrections - Cursor Position (v7.01)

Added a command to the system menu of the Cursor Position dialog that allows you to pick a single coordinate per click. Normally, if you turn off some coordinates, then when you click the coordinates toggle to pick all of the other coordinates. This allows you to pick coordinates one at a time.

Additions and Corrections - Dynamic Query (v7.01)

Corrected dynamic query of elements in a deformed plot. Previously highlighted the undeformed location.

Additions and Corrections - Workplane Coordinates (v7.01)

Added the ability to enter workplane coordinates as Polar coordinates.

Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS Interface (v7.01)

Now properly writes all pressures. Previously did not write pressures with negative values.

Additions and Corrections - ALGOR Interface (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that prevented rigid elements from being read properly.

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Interface (v7.01)

Eliminated additional, duplicated real constants that could be written for plate elements with no material orientation defined as you switched between properties. This also corrected a problem that could result in incorrect real constants being written for certain groups of elements. Added support for reading STIF41 - linear membrane elements. Corrected a problem reading pressures on the 4th face of certain tetrahedral elements.

Additions and Corrections - COSMOS Interface (v7.01)

Added support for reading and writing parabolic triangular plates as degenerated quads.

Additions and Corrections - FEMAP Neutral Interface (v7.01)

Added a "Status Messages" option when reading neutral files. Turning on this option gives detailed information about which solid, or which load or constraint set are being read. Normally, this option should be off, but it can be helpful if there is any problem reading a particular neutral file.

Additions and Corrections - MARC Interface (v7.01)

Added support for reading results that were generated in MARC v6.2. Previously only MARC v7 was supported. Also corrected a problem that prevented reading MARC files that were generated on UNIX systems. Also corrected a problem that prevented reading results from large (> ~35000 nodes or elements, exact numbers depend on the data requested and element types) models. Corrected problems writing degenerated triangle and parabolic wedge elements. Previously incorrect nodes were duplicated.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Interface (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that caused the max/min stress values for models that contained both CTRIA3 and CQUAD4 elements to be reported incorrectly if the max and min were not both from the same shape element, and you read results from the OUTPUT2 file. This error only changed the max/min value, not the individual element data. Added a message informing you that GRAV entries that were specified in a local coordinate system are being transformed into global coordinates when reading a NASTRAN file. Corrected a problem in the MSC/NASTRAN F06 post reader that caused compression margins of safety on Beam Stresses to be read as tension margins of safety if the element was in pure compression (no tension margin was written). This problem also occurred in UAI/NASTRAN for bar and beam elements. It did not occur if you read results from the OUTPUT2 file.

Additions and Corrections - STARDYNE Interface (v7.01)

Added support for reading NEWSYS (coordinate system) entries that have no data fields. This resets the coordinate system back to global rectangular. Also corrected a problem that occurred when renumbering beam element properties that referenced multiple materials.

Additions and Corrections - CATIA Interface (v7.01)

This release contains an updated version of the Direct CATIA interface that supports more CATIA geometry, and more file formats including Export files.

Additions and Corrections - Coincident Node Merge (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that caused nodal temperatures, on nodes that were merged, to lose their color, layer and any function reference information.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Solid Primitives and Extrude (v7.01)

Previously, if you used a radial pattern, the center of the pattern would not be located properly if you were using a modeling scale other than 1.0 and the workplane origin was not at the global origin. The center is

now properly located in all cases.

Additions and Corrections - Automatic Midsurfaces (v7.01)

Geometry (surfaces, curves and points) that is generated by the Midsurface -> Automatic command is now placed into a group. The display can be switched to this group, eliminating the need to hide or delete the original solid before you can see the midsurfaces.

Additions and Corrections - Loads from Freebody (v7.01)

Added ability to automatically create a load set if none exist when you try to create a load from a freebody display.

Additions and Corrections - Create Elemental Loads (v7.01)

If you select a mixture of line elements and other elements, and you choose the "Near Surface" or "Near Coordinate" methods for picking a face when creating elemental loads, you no longer get extraneous loads on the line elements.

Additions and Corrections - Section Property Calculator (v7.01)

Added the ability to backup to previous stress recovery and reference locations. This caused the "Next" buttons to change to two buttons labeled, "<" and ">".

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Sizing (v7.01)

Improved the mesh sizing for surfaces that used the "Mapped Tri" approach. Previously the mesh sizing did not work properly if the sum of the initially computed mesh divisions on the shorter two edges exactly matched the mesh divisions on the longest edge. Now properly adjusts this case to be compatible with the mapped approach. Improved the hex mesh sizing routines to handle the case where two faces that are linked between solids are joined by "compound" edges - that is edges that contain multiple curves on the lateral faces of the solids.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Approach (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that occurred if you tried to slave a surface to another surface that was already slaved to a third surface that no longer existed.

Additions and Corrections - Meshing (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that caused a crash during meshing if you had a boundary surface that had standard geometry engine B-Spline curves, and you set a mapped meshing approach on that surface. Corrected a problem that prevented recognizing hard points on boundary surfaces when meshing. Corrected a problem with the tetrahedral mesher that caused reported node numbers on invalid surface meshes to be incorrect. Also improved the error messages to make them more descriptive of the actual problem in the surface mesh. Corrected a problem with some hex meshes that prevented a solid from being meshed even though a valid surface mesh was defined. This primarily happened in split cylinders.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Remesh (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that caused remeshing of regions to fail if you used the Ctrl-D shortcut key to measure the distance for the mesh size. This problem only occurred if you were running on Windows 95 or 98. It did

not occur on Windows NT.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Break (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that caused BSplines to be improperly defined after a break operation. The splines were still able to be meshed, but some operations, such as having them interact with solids would fail.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Colors (v7.01)

When you randomize colors on properties or materials, you now get colors that are further away from the current background color. Previously, some of the random colors could have very little contrast with the background, making them difficult to see.

Additions and Corrections - Listing Sets (v7.01)

You can now use the % character in the title of Load Sets, Constraint Sets, Groups, etc. Previously, if you used %, you would get incorrect results, and possibly a crash when you listed those sets.

Additions and Corrections - List Output (v7.01)

Corrected a problem in the List Output Standard command that on certain machines, with certain output formats, could cause the program to crash when you listed results.

Additions and Corrections - View Autoscale Visible (v7.01)

Corrected a problem that caused loads and constraints to be turned off (the View Select -> Model Data >Loads or Constraints was changed to None) if you used the autoscale command when you did not have loads or constraints in your model. If you did this, then when loads or constraints were created, it appeared as if they did not exist, when in fact, the display was simply turned off.

Additions and Corrections - View Contour (v7.01)

Corrected a problem in Elemental Contours of plate elements, when the double-sided option was turned off, the "use corner data" option was on, and some data averaging was used, that caused the contour legend values to be set to the unaveraged corner max/min. This only occurred if automatic legend ranges were on, and did not cause an incorrect display. The range was simply set larger than it should have been.

Additions and Corrections - Delete Model Mesh (v7.01)

Added a question to ask whether you want to delete unused properties and materials. Previously these were just deleted.

Additions and Corrections - Plotting (v7.01)

When drawing Advection Link elements an arrow is drawn on the element to show flow direction. Previously this arrow was black. It is now drawn in the element color. Corrected a problem that caused a crash if you have solid geometry that contains curves other than straight lines, and you adjusted the Surface Accuracy in View Options to a very small number (1.0E-8). Added plotting of Coordinate Systems to hidden line and solid views in both standard and render mode. Coordinate system axes are shown in color, rather than being labeled in render mode. Corrected a problem in render mode when you choose to display plate thicknesses, and you have zero thickness plates in your model. Previously these were displayed with a random thickness.

Additions and Corrections - DDE (v7.01)

Added the capability of sending a Basic Script to FEMAP via DDE.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Additions and Corrections - Performance (v7.0)

One of the primary goals of this version of FEMAP was to better support the much larger models that our customers are now using on a routine basis. To accomplish this we completely rewrote the FEMAP database and memory management functions. This has resulted in some dramatic speed improvements, especially on larger models. If you have used earlier versions of FEMAP, you will want to check your Database Preferences ( in File Preferences ) to make sure that the settings are still optimum for the new version. Refer to the documentation for more info.

Additions and Corrections - Analysis Results Storage (v7.0)

All analysis results are now stored in the FEMAP database in single precision. Previously we stored them in double precision. This change can result in nearly a 50% saving in model size with no real loss of precision since analysis programs only report results in single precision.

Additions and Corrections - File Access (v7.0)

Added support for directly opening ANSYS, ABAQUS, MSC/NASTRAN and FEMAP Neutral files via the command line, drag-and-drop, or from the File Open command. Now properly handles very long filenames (>128 characters). When opening models, temporary solids scratch files are now written to the model scratch directory instead of TEMP. All directory setup can now be done through File Preferences without external definitions. Eliminated the "Save File" question if you just opened a new, empty database and want to open another model or exit. Eliminated the ability to "Restart from Scratch Files". This capability has been dropped because of the overhead and performance penalties that it caused, and because it was not possible to recover Solid Geometry using this technique. Instead of this approach, new capabilities have been added to Timed Save, and new capability has been added to capture your in-memory data (including Solid Geometry) if FEMAP crashes.

Additions and Corrections - Internationalization (v7.0)

Added support for entry and display of double-byte character set fonts. Updated View Options Label Parameter and Text fonts to incorporate the system font as well as a number of other double-byte fonts.

Additions and Corrections - Spaceball Support (v7.0)

Added support for the Spaceball 3D Motion Control devices from Labtec, Inc. If you have one of these devices, it can be used to dynamically rotate, pan, zoom and autoscale your model.

Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS Interfaces (v7.0)

Added a new interface which allows you to import existing ABAQUS input files. This interface supports not only nodes and elements, but also most of the remaining model definition including materials, properties, loads, constraints and contact.

Updated the methods used for material orientation in the export interface. Also added support for DOF_SPRING element, nodal thicknesses on plates, phase change information, rotational body loads, several new rigid formulations and many other small changes.

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Interfaces (v7.0)

Added support for nonlinear and contact analyses. Added support for new ANSYS Element types: VISCO106, VISCO107, VISCO108, HYPER158, SHELL181, PLANE182, PLANE183, SOLID185, SOLID186 and SOLID187. Added support for reading the CMBLOCK command for defining groups/components of Nodes and Elements. Supported reading convection and heat flux loads. Corrected reading of heat generation loads on elements from an ANSYS input file. Corrected postprocessing of results files that contain gaps in the ETYPE table numbering. Previously these files could not be read.

Additions and Corrections - FEMAP Neutral Interface (v7.0)

Added support to reading Neutral files that do not have Data Block 100 which specifies the version. Data Block 100 is now only needed if you have an old format file. Corrected a problem that occurred if you read Parasolid Geometry in a Neutral File and specified an ID offset. The geometry was still usable/meshable, but the display could be incorrect if the geometry was later moved from its original location. Corrected a problem with writing Contact Segments from models that had been previously translated through one of the other interfaces.

Additions and Corrections - LS/DYNA Interface (v7.0)

Added support for writing groups as Node Sets, and for specifying the number of plate integration points. Also added support for requesting and postprocessing strain information.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Interfaces (v7.0)

Added support for temperature dependent heat generation, and phase change material properties. Added support for including NASTRAN for Windows version number in header of files. Now properly sets the default values for shear areas when you read a PBEAM card that does not have the K1,K2 continuation line. Automatically checked the "Run Analysis" button if you choose the File Analyze command. Added an error message if you try to write Strain Limits for 2D Orthotropic Materials for UAI/NASTRAN since they are not available. Corrected the format of the PGAP, PSOLID and PLSOLID commands in wide field format. If you needed the penetration continuation line, then you must write an extra blank continuation in wide field format, even

though no data can be specified on that line. Also corrected the CONM2 in wide field, which was too wide if you specified inertia values. Changed the interface to Nonlinear Static to include a NLSTRESS(PLOT) command whenever you request STRESS(PLOT). This prevents nonlinear stress data from going to the F06 so FEMAP can properly recognize the data in the OUTPUT2 file. Corrected a problem that caused a function reference to still be written to a MATS1 nonlinear material if you selected a function, then later changed the material definition to Elasto-Plastic, where the function was no longer required. Added support for the PARAM,LGDISP and RFORCE commands in CSA/NASTRAN Interface. Corrected a problem for Optimization analyses that used stresses from linear plates as design constraints. Previously the wrong stress values were selected if you also requested corner stresses on those elements. Corrected a problem with exporting for transient heat transfer analyses if you did not specify any time-varying loads, and used Load Set 1 for your constant loading. Previously the set chosen for the default TLOAD1 time-dependence matched the DLOAD setID. Corrected a problem that caused computed Von Mises Strain values to be incorrect if there was a 3D state of strain present. This did not apply to Von Mises Strains that were read (Solid Elements), or to ones that were computed in a 2D strain field (Plates), just ones that were computed in a 3D field (Laminates). This problem was also limited to strains, not stresses. Modified the creation of LSEQ commands for dynamic loads. The DAREA and LID fields no longer references the same ID. This corrects a problem that occurs in certain versions of NASTRAN that causes the loads to be doubled if these IDs matched. Corrected a problem with LSEQ commands for random response analysis with multiple load cases. All LSEQ commands now reference the same set ID, and the LOADSET command has been moved above the SUBCASE level in case control.

Additions and Corrections - NE/NASTRAN Interface (v7.0)

Added access to Frequency Response, Random Response, Response Spectrum, and Steady State Heat Transfer Analyses. Also added the ability to automatically launch (Analyze) NE/NASTRAN.

Additions and Corrections - PATRAN Interface (v7.0)

Modified the element/property configuration values to correspond to those used by current versions of PATRAN. Also corrected a problem that caused an invalid Neutral file to be written if you had beams with offsets followed by other elements.

Additions and Corrections - STAAD Interface (v7.0)

Corrected a problem with the format of the BETA command which specifies the Material Angle for plate elements.

Additions and Corrections - DXF Interface (v7.0)

Added support for reading layer names and colors. Also added support for the AutoCAD R14 change to LWPOLYLINE entries instead of POLYLINE for 2D polyline geometry.

Additions and Corrections - Neutral File Converters (v7.0)

Corrected a problem in the v4.4, v4.5 and v5.0 Neutral file converters that could cause them to hang when converting models that had multiple lines of Model Notes.

Additions and Corrections - File Timed Save (v7.0)

Added the ability to save every N commands, in addition to a timed basis.

Additions and Corrections - File Rebuild (v7.0)

Added capability to cleanup unreferenced or corrupted Solid Geometry information. In the rare cases when FEMAP does abort, a new capability has been added to try to save as much of your model as possible from memory to disk, including solid geometry. This model data is saved in a new model file in your scratch directory, where you can recover it. To make this process effective however, you must always make sure that you have sufficient free disk space on your scratch disk.

Additions and Corrections - File Program Files (v7.0)

Increased the size of program files that can be run from 64 Kbyte to 10Mbyte.

Additions and Corrections - Basic Scripting (v7.0)

Added support for the following functions: esp_FileAbaqusWrite esp_FileMarcWrite esp_FileExit esp_LayerCreate esp_ViewLayerShow esp_ViewLayerHide esp_PropGetLamina esp_BCCreateSet esp_BCNode esp_BCPoint esp_BCCurve esp_BCSurface esp_MeshEdgeMembers esp_VarCreate esp_VarGet Also added support for calling OLE, Windows and any other function that you create and export from a DLL from Basic Scripts.

Additions and Corrections - File Preferences (v7.0)

Increased the default number of lines of text that are saved in the Messages and Lists window from 300 to 2000. Also added preferences to select an alternate contour palette, selection of the new fast triangle mesher, skipping comments written to translator files, and counted save intervals. Also updated the database preferences to support the new database/memory management capabilities.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Mass Properties (v7.0)

Corrected the computation of mesh inertias in nonrectangular coordinate systems. Also corrected the center of gravity computation for tapered beams.

Additions and Corrections - Coordinate Definition Methods (v7.0)

Added a new coordinate location that is the length along a curve.

Additions and Corrections - Layer ID Selection (v7.0)

When you are specifying a layer ID, the Ctrl+L shortcut key can now be used to display a list of the available layers.

Additions and Corrections - Dynamic Query (v7.0)

Disabled dynamic query if the "Track Mouse Picking" preference is turned off, since this is required for dynamic query to work properly.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Corner Surfaces (v7.0)

Corrected a problem that prevented creation of 3-corner ACIS surfaces.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Copy Curves (v7.0)

Corrected a problem that caused duplicate curves to be created if you selected curves to copy, then cancelled the command in one of the other dialog boxes.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Midsurfacing (v7.0)

Corrected a problem that caused the wrong plate thicknesses to be computed for co-cylindrical faces of midsurfaced ACIS solids. Also corrected a problem which created incorrect midplanes for skewed planar ACIS solids.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Solid Primitives (v7.0)

Corrected a problem that occurred if you tried to create a Parasolid cone that had a top radius that was larger than the bottom radius, and you had a modeling scale factor that was larger than 1.0.

Additions and Corrections - Properties (v7.0)

Materials can now be picked graphically, or selected from a material list (press Ctrl+L) for laminate properties. Updated the Beam Cross Section Calculator to show the Reference Point as soon as you turn it on, without first selecting a location. Also added additional locations to the T, Hex, Hex Tube and Hat sections for the reference point and for stress recovery.

Additions and Corrections - Materials (v7.0)

Added support for temperature dependent heat generation and phase change material properties.

Additions and Corrections - Loads (v7.0)

Added new load types for fluids analysis: Static Fluid Pressure, Total Fluid Pressure, General Scalar, Steam Quality, Relative Humidity, Fluid Height, Unknown Condition, Slip Wall, Fan Curve and Periodic. These are all nodal quantities, but can also be specified on geometry.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Points on Surface (v7.0)

Corrected a problem that caused mesh points on standard (not ACIS or Parasolid) surfaces to be ignored if you did not have at least one mesh point on surface 1.

Added the ability to specify mesh "hard" points on a surface that lie inside of a hole. Previously the mesh points were only properly recognized if they were located on the actual "material" portion of the surface, not on the interior of a hole.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Remesh (v7.0)

Corrected the Mesh Remesh Edit and Mesh commands so that they are disabled until you have built remeshing regions.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Connection Coincident Link (v7.0)

Added the ability to create Coincident Links between nodes that already have existing direct links between them. For example, creating multiple springs between the same sets of nodes.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Sizing (v7.0)

Updated the surface meshers to include control over the mesh size on the interior of the surface (not just the edges). This can eliminate clusters of small elements between holes that sometimes occurred previously, or can be used to control the growth of the mesh sizes inside a surface. Added the capability to adjust mesh sizes based on curvature. This involves not only the mesh sizing on the curves, but also on the interior of the surfaces. Added the capability to adjust mesh sizing based on an aspect ratio of the mesh sizes that meet at a vertex. This results in a smoother graded mesh in areas where you are specifying a relatively large mesh size compared to the curve length. Update the sizing algorithms to always honor the mapped approaches that you set. Previously these were sometimes ignored on triangular surfaces. Improved the mesh sizing routines to produce hex-compatible sizing in more situations. Also corrected numerous minor problems that prevented specific solids from hex meshing.

Additions and Corrections - New Fast Triangle Mesher (v7.0)

Included a new fast triangle surface mesher. This mesher is especially good for producing meshes where you want growth in the element size on the interior of the surface, or for meshing surfaces that have many holes. You can set this new mesher as your default in File Preferences, select it manually when meshing surfaces, or assign it as a mesh approach.

Additions and Corrections - Hex Meshing (v7.0)

Hex Meshing and Mesh Sizing now recognizes and supports feature suppression. This allows you to suppress features, like holes, that you do not want represented in your mesh, and in some cases can make parts that are not hex meshable easier to mesh. Updated the tolerances in the slaved surface mesher to allow larger gaps between slaved surfaces on different solids. Automatically merges nodes before hex meshing, even if no surfaces are being meshed on a solid.

Additions and Corrections - Other Meshing (v7.0)

Boundary Surfaces can now be mapped meshed if you specify a mapped approach on those surfaces.

Updated the original surface mesher to produce better shaped triangles. Updated the Mesh On Surfaces, Mesh Curves, Mesh Region and Mesh Between commands to ask if you want to automatically mesh with Plot-Only elements if you do not specify a Property. Updated the surface meshers to optionally place midside nodes onto associated geometry rather than just at the element midside. This can be limited by a distortion angle, just like solids. Also updated the Modify Update Element Order command to include the same capability. Corrected the geometry associativity of mapped meshes on standard (not ACIS or Parasolid) triangular surfaces. Previously the node at one corner was improperly associated with one of the other curves on the surface.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Extrude (v7.0)

Updated the Mesh Extrude commands to report the number of elements created.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Move By Radial (v7.0)

Added the Modify Move By Radial Node and Radial Element commands that work like the radial copy commands to move a mesh radially.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Break (v7.0)

Updated the break command to preserve any mesh spacing that was previously established. The mesh spacing is split at the nearest mesh location to maintain the same number of elements along the broken curves.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Elements Split Quads (v7.0)

Updated the approach used by the Split Quads command to always give the best triangles. Previously it just split the worst angle, but this did not always result in the best triangles

Additions and Corrections - Delete (v7.0)

Added the Delete Model Mesh commands which allows you to select a portion of your mesh (using elements) and deletes not only the elements but all associated nodes, properties, materials, loads, constraints, and coordinate systems that are no longer needed. Now properly removes all associativity from your mesh if you delete the underlying geometry. Corrected a problem that could cause a crash if you used the Delete All or Delete Geometry All command in a model that contained either ACIS or Parasolid geometry, and later tried to Undo that command. Corrected a problem that prevented you from deleting nodal heat loads using the Delete Load Individual command.

Additions and Corrections - List Solids (v7.0)

Included the Modeling Scale Factor with listing of solids.

Additions and Corrections - List Constraint Equations (v7.0)

Added the ability to limit listing to only constraint equations that reference selected nodes.

Additions and Corrections - Group Generate Solids (v7.0)

Added the Group Operations Generate Solids command to automatically create a group that contains all geometry (Points, Curves, Surfaces...) from one or more solids or volumes.

Additions and Corrections - Group Methods (v7.0)

Added new group definition methods: Coord Sys On Point, Coord Sys on Node and Element by Shape. Nodes in Solids/Volume and Elements in Solid/Volume are now available even if you only have Volumes and no Solids.

Additions and Corrections - Group Automatic Add (v7.0)

Corrected a problem with Create Line Continuous that resulted in the lines not being automatically added to the group if you were using Snap To Point or Snap To Node to create the line locations.

Additions and Corrections - View Render (v7.0)

Improved the memory management for data in Render Mode. This results in faster displays with lower memory requirements.

Additions and Corrections - View Highlighting (v7.0)

Correct several problems that caused either excessive or no highlighting of geometry and meshes when you were picking under certain conditions, after certain commands, or between multiple windows

Additions and Corrections - View Autoscale (v7.0)

Changed the View Autoscale command to a menu. Added the View Autoscale Visible command which just autoscales around the visible portion of your model including the effects of groups or layers. Also added the View Autoscale Regenerate All command which reevaluates the overall dimensions of your model.

Additions and Corrections - View Options (v7.0)

Added an option to Element Direction to allow for Backface Shading, which darkens elements that are pointing away from the viewer. Automatically regenerates view when you change between Nodal and Elemental contours in the Contour Type option. Corrected a problem with labeling of Max/Min locations on Elemental Contours. The labels were correct, but were at the wrong locations.

Additions and Corrections - View Element Contour Vectors (v7.0)

Corrected a problem that caused vectors to plot in the wrong direction on plate elements if you chose "3D component" mode and simultaneously chose "Hide Contour Vectors" in a hidden line view style. Added "Alternate Color" option in the View Options Contour Levels command to add a dark blue, rather than magenta band at the bottom of the contour legend. Also added a File Preference to choose which you want as the default.

Additions and Corrections - View Contours (v7.0)

Corrected a problem with Double-Sided Elemental Plate contours if you set backfaces to "Skip Solid Backfaces". Previously in this condition Plate Backfaces were also skipped. Corrected another problem with Double-Sided Elemental Plate contours, in render mode, if you had both

shading and element thicknesses turned off you only saw one side of the contour.

Additions and Corrections - Contour Vectors (v7.0)

Added the capability to select individual elemental output (like X Membrane Force and Y Membrane Force) and display them as two different contour vectors in the appropriate directions, and not just as a single vector using both of them as components.

Additions and Corrections - CATIA Interface (v7.0)

Version 7.0 includes an optional direct CATIA interface. This option requires FEMAP Professional and directly reads CATIA model files and converts them to Parasolid geometry in FEMAP.

Additions and Corrections - STEP Interface (v7.0)

The STEP Interface that was included in FEMAP v6, has been improved to provide broader STEP support. The interfaces now support import/export of class 2, class 3, class 4, class 5 and class 6 entities from/to AP203 and AP214 STEP files They also support import/export of class 6 assemblies from/to AP203 and AP214 STEP files.

Additions and Corrections - IGES Interface (v7.0)

The IGES interfaces have been improved to provide better support for certain versions of IGES. Users of certain CAD systems such as CATIA should now have much better success transferring data via IGES into FEMAP.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS Interface (v6.02)

Modified the orientation of planar elements which under certain conditions could be written incorrectly. Corrected a problem that caused stress recovery locations on Beam elements to be written incorrectly if the Neutral Axis was offset from the Shear Center. Improved support for Laminates by writing ply orientation angles, instead of a separate Orientation command for every ply.

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Interface (v6.02)

Corrected a problem that caused stress recovery locations on Beam elements to be read or written incorrectly if the Neutral Axis was offset from the Shear Center. Corrected a problem that caused ANSYS 5.5 RLBLOCK commands with multiple properties to be read incorrectly.

Additions and Corrections - LS-DYNA Interface (v6.02)

Supported limiting history output to the nodes in a selected group. Removed an invalid error message stating that plate edges were in the contact segment when writing some contact segments. The contact segments were always written correctly, only the message was wrong.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Interface (v6.02)

Increased the precision writing Coordinate system locations that are far from the global origin. Supported combined Rotational Acceleration and Rotational Velocity that are along the same vector but in opposite directions. Corrected a problem that occurred if you specified Rotational Velocity, but not Rotational Acceleration, in combination with translational acceleration (gravity), with no other structural loads in the same load set. In this case, the rotational velocity was previously written in the same load case as the translational acceleration which is invalid. Corrected a problem with the continuation cards for Hyperelastic Parabolic Quadrilateral Axisymmetric elements. Corrected a problem that occurred in the DEC/Alpha version when reading results of a Modal Analysis with Strain Energy Output from Output2 Results files that contained uninitialized data.

Additions and Corrections - NEUTRAL File Interface (v6.02)

Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to hang if you wrote a Neutral File and specified a Group to Write, if the model contained nodes that were associated with geometry.

Additions and Corrections - Expanding Geometric Loads (v6.02)

Corrected a problem that caused nodal pressures that were applied to the edges of elements (ANSYS and ABAQUS) to be averaged improperly.

Additions and Corrections - Load from Output (v6.02)

Corrected the "Cancel" operation. Previously when you pressed Cancel, the command was still processed.

Additions and Corrections - Create Loads (v6.02)

Corrected a problem that in very rare situations could cause some faces to be missed when using the Adjacent Faces method.

Additions and Corrections - Create Contact Segments (v6.02)

The ID for creating new contact segments was previously ignored, and the segment was always created as the next available ID. You can now choose the ID that you want.

Additions and Corrections - Mass Properties of Solids (v6.02)

The inertias of mass elements that could be created by this command were off by the volume. They were multiplied by the mass instead of the density.

Additions and Corrections - Unit Conversion (v6.02)

The scale factors for Interpolation Rigid Elements were converted improperly for rotational degrees of freedom. These factors for rotational degrees of freedom are areas.

Additions and Corrections - Plotting Multi-line Text (v6.02)

Corrected a problem that caused duplicate characters to be drawn at the end of multi-line text.

Additions and Corrections - Solid Slice (v6.02)

Modified the approach used for Slicing ACIS solids with a plane. The method previously used had problems slicing multiple solids, and sometimes created invalid extra solids.

Additions and Corrections - Scripting Functions (v6.02)

New Basic scripting functions have been added: esp_FileNew App ( ) as Long - start a new file esp_FilePrefMenu App ( ByRef fn as String ) as Long - change menu preference esp_FilePrefMatlDef App ( ByRef fn as String ) as Long - change Material Definition file preference esp_DBGetTitle App( ByVal ID as Long, ByVal ent_type as Long, ByRef title as String ) as Long - Get entity title, works for groups, views properties, materials, load and constraint sets, layers and output sets. esp_ViewNew App ( ByVal copy as Long, ByVal vu_number as Long, ByRef vu_title as String ) as Long - Create a new view, if copy is true it copies vu_number esp_ViewRegenerate App ( ByVal vu_number as Long ) as Long - Regenerate view esp_ViewActivate App ( ByVal vu_number as Long ) as Long - Activate view esp_ViewGroup App ( ByVal vu_number as Long,ByVal active_group as Long,ByVal group_number as Long ) as Long - Set Group in view. If active is true it sets the model data view to active, otherwise sets to group_number esp_ViewCloseAll App ( ) as Long - Close all views esp_ViewTile App ( ) as Long - Tile views esp_ViewLoadSet App ( ByVal vu_number as Long,ByVal active_group as Long,ByVal load_number as Long ) as Long - Set Load set in view. If active is true it sets the model data view to active, otherwise sets to load_number. esp_ViewBCSet App ( ByVal vu_number as Long,ByVal active_group as Long,ByVal bc_number as Long ) as Long - Set Constraint set in view. If active is true it sets the model data view to active, otherwise sets to bc_number. And the following Basic Scripting function has been modified: esp_PropGetType App ( ByVal ID as Long, ByRef type as Long, ByRef matID as Long ) as Long now returns material ID of property.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Additions and Corrections - Improved Performance (v6.01)

Improved performance of several of the Model Read translators by about 25%. This includes ANSYS, COSMOS, STAAD, and MSC/pal. Improved performance of the NASTRAN Model Read translator by almost 40%. Improved performance of the OUTPUT2 Post translator by about 25% for models with corner stresses or strains.

Dramatically improved the performance of merging nodes at the end of meshing a model with a large number of curves. One extreme case went from 1+ hours to 30 seconds.

Additions and Corrections - New Solid Modeling Engines (v6.01)

Now supports new versions of both solid modeling engines - Parasolid v10.1 and ACIS v5.0. Also added support for reading ACIS assemblies from HP Solid Designer.

Additions and Corrections - Thermal Interface (v6.01)

Added a preference to configure the FEMAP user interface for Structural, Thermal or Advanced Thermal Analysis. Structural is the default, and is the standard interface that will be familiar to current users. Thermal modifies certain dialog boxes (such as materials) to simplify them for thermal analysis. Advanced thermal makes many more modifications, including limiting the element library, and changing material, property and load definitions. It will typically be used by those using FEMAP in conjunction with SINDA.

Additions and Corrections - Most Recently Used Models (v6.01)

Added a preference to set the number of files in the Most Recently Used list to any number between 0 and 9.

Additions and Corrections - STEP Interface (v6.01)

Numerous problems have been corrected that prevented geometry from being read properly converted from STEP files. In addition, support has been added for STEP class IV (surface models with topology) and class V (faceted brep) entities.

Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS Model Write (v6.01)

Corrected writing of second value of POROUS BULK MODULI. Previously wrote the wrong value. Also corrected Material Type 202 (CAP PLASTICITY), when writing a POROUS BULK MODULI that was constant. Corrected writing of contact segments for plane strain and axisymmetric elements. Corrected problem writing lines and arcs for the new rigid surfaces. Eliminated duplication of start and end points. Corrected the *SURFACE INTERACTION option to eliminate a blank line that was created if you used a property with no friction defined. Corrected the *RIGID BODY command for EXPLICIT analysis. Was written as RIGID BODY without the *. Corrected writing rotational velocity body loads. Now use the CENTRIF load type, convert rev/time to square of radians/sec, and write direction cosines instead of second point on the axis of rotation. Added options for Automatic Tolerances and Stabilize for Contact in ABAQUS Standard Added support for stress recovery for modified contact elements for EXPLICIT analyses (CPE6M, CPS6M, CAX6M, C3D10M) Added capability to define number of output intervals for EXPLICIT analyses.

Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS Results Read (v6.01)

Corrected problem reading moments for some reduced integration plates (S4R5, S8R, and S8R5). Also modified reading of shear forces for S4 plates. These corrections account for changes that have occurred in recent versions of ABAQUS.

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Model Write (v6.01)

Supported the 7th real constant (RMI) for SHELL63 plate elements (both write and read). This value can be set as the bending stiffness parameter on the plate property.

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Model Read (v6.01)

Modified the reading of beam and bar properties to convert the torsional moment of inertia to IY+IZ if it is not specified or is zero. This corresponds to the ANSYS default, and allows more accurate conversion of these models to other programs that do not use this default.

Additions and Corrections - LS-DYNA Model Write (v6.01)

Corrected and added error messages when you specified an unsupported standard shape (i.e. Trapezoidal Tube, Hex Bar, Hex Tube, Hat and General) and chose an element formulation other than resultant beam. Now correctly selects and evaluates the group used to limit output. Corrected export of cable area and cable offset to the property for a discrete beam cable. Previously exported 0.0 values. Added Initial Tension support for LS-DYNA Material 71- Cable Discrete Beam.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Model Write (v6.01)

Added a continuation line to the PSOLID card that was written in wide-field format. Previously, no continuation was present to complete the first card. Corrected error message that is written if you have enforced displacements on unconstrained DOFs. Previously the DOF numbers reported were incorrect. Corrected selection of initial temperature for nonlinear static analysis that used subcases. Also corrected how temperature loads were referenced in Case Control for sets that were referenced in more than one subcase. Corrected writing of forced convection faces. Corrected problem with FREQ2 command that occurred for Modal Frequency Response if you used logarithmic interpolation on the frequency range.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Model Read (v6.01)

Supported reading constraint equations that reference SPOINTs or EPOINTs. Improved performance of NASTRAN Read by almost 40%. Added support for the SPCADD and MPCADD commands. You can optionally keep or delete the sets that are combined into the ADDed sets.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Results Read (v6.01)

Added support for reading the Gap Element stress table from a Nonlinear Analysis in the printed output file (.F06). This corrected a problem that caused the table to be incorrectly recognized as displacements. Corrected reading of the OUTPUT2 file for Nonlinear Transient analysis. Previously, on some analyses, output would be split into multiple output sets, even though it appeared to have the same time step value. FEMAP no longer checks the time steps for exact matches, since the time step actually varies slightly (on the order of 1E-7) between the various types of output. Corrected the OUTPUT2 reader to properly compute the max/min values of stresses and strains for elements with corner values. Previously, the centroidal max/min values were being overwritten with the max/min from the final corner vector. This had no real impact on the postprocessing other than to improperly set the contour legend limits on Criteria plots of the centroidal values. Added support for planar elements with a material orientation set using the MCSID coordinate system that referenced the radial direction of a cylindrical or spherical system. Corrected the OUTPUT2 reader to properly handle "blocked" results files from large models, from certain versions of CSA/NASTRAN and UAI/NASTRAN.

Additions and Corrections - Neutral Read (v6.01)

Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to be unable to read some Neutral files that contained ACIS parts. Depending upon the geometry in the part (especially cones), the Neutral file could contain a few very long lines ( > 260 characters ). Long lines are now supported.

Additions and Corrections - Neutral Write (v6.01)

Corrected several problems writing property data to old (v4.51 and before) Neutral files. Eliminated a memory leak that occurred when you wrote a Neutral File that contained Beam or Bar Properties with Shapes defined.

Additions and Corrections - File Notes (v6.01)

Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to hang during the Export Analysis Model command if you defined File Notes Translation Text that consisted of just a carriage return ( one blank line ). Also now support completely deleting File Notes.

Additions and Corrections - BASIC Scripting (v6.01) **********************************************************************************

NOTE: OLE support from Basic Scripting is not currently available. It will be available in the near future. Check our Web Site, www.femap.com, to download an update that will enable OLE support.

**********************************************************************************
Added a command to FEMAP to Compile Basic scripts into Binary executable scripts. Compile script takes a ".BAS" file and produces a ".BAX" file. This command is not required, the run script command can now run either .BAS or .BAX scripts. However, application developers who do not want users to see or change their scripts can use this to create precompiled scripts. Compiling will also speed up the load time of scripts that are going to be run frequently. Changed all subroutine functions to make them consistent with the function calling syntax. Also changed all True/False type return codes to make them compatible with Basic True/False testing.

Corrected various problems with functions esp_FileNeutralWrite, esp_FilePictSave, esp_CsysCreateVec, esp_CsysCreatePoint, esp_DupRadialCopy, esp_DupRotate, esp_CurveFSIntersect, esp_ModRotateTo, esp_ModRotateBy, esp_SplineEllipse, esp_ModScaleLoad, and esp_ModLoadFunc Corrected return values for esp_FileExecWait, esp_ElemOrient, esp_ListSelectGroup, esp_CoordSurfaceIntersect, esp_CsysCreateVec, esp_CsysCreatePoint, esp_DupRotate, esp_DupScale, esp_DupReflect, esp_PointCreate, esp_LineParallel, esp_LineOffset, esp_LinePointTangent, esp_LineTangentTangent, esp_CirclePointonArc, esp_ArcPoints, esp_PropBeamXSection, and esp_ModElOrder. Added new functions, including, esp_SaveAs, esp_CurveLength, esp_SurfArea, esp_SolidCleanup, esp_SolidExplode, and esp_PropPlateMatls

Additions and Corrections - Coordinate Definition (v6.01)

Corrected a problem with the "Location in Workplane" method that occurred if you picked from the screen, and you had a definition coordinate system other than Global Rectangular ( CSys 0 ). Previously, if you picked in a different coordinate system, for this method, you would get the wrong coordinates. Added a method to select the center of gravity of a surface.

Additions and Corrections - Preview Vectors (v6.01)

If you were defining a vector, and pressed the Preview button, FEMAP could sometimes crash if you had more than one graphics window visible on the screen, and one or more of them were minimized as icons. This has been corrected.

Additions and Corrections - Tools Mass Properties (v6.01)

Added a question to ask if you want to create a node and mass element at the center of gravity of a solid. You also have the opportunity to link this node to other parts of your mesh via the Closest Link command.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Curve Parametric Curve (v6.01)

Corrected splitting of a cylindrical surface with a uv parametric curve. Previously worked for solids, but not for independent surfaces.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Midsurface Assign Mesh Attributes (v6.01)

Corrected the assigned thickness attribute if you are working with an internal scale factor other than 1.0 for your geometry. Previously the thickness was multiplied by that scale factor.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Spline Multiple Curves (v6.01)

Corrected the assignment of the internal scale factor to a multiple curve spline, so that it matches the original geometry. Previously it only matched the original geometry if the internal scale factor was 1.0.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Surface Edge Curves (v6.01)

Corrected an error that prevented creation of 3-curve and 4-curve surfaces using the ACIS geometry engine.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Surface Corners (v6.01)

Corrected an error that caused 3 corner surfaces, in Parasolid, to be created at the wrong location if FEMAP was using a geometry scale factor other than 1.0.

Additions and Corrections - Geometry Copy Curves (v6.01)

Allowed you to Cancel the Geometry Copy Curves command from the Generation Options dialog box.

Additions and Corrections - Model Output Envelope (v6.01)

Added support for enveloping all vectors in a set for a ply summary. With a single command you can now get a ply summary for an entire set. This works for plates and/or laminates.

Additions and Corrections - Output from Loads (v6.01)

Corrected a problem that prevented you from creating Output from Nodal Heat fluxes.

Additions and Corrections - Expanding Geometric Loads (v6.01)

Corrected the error message that is generated if you expand loads on a curve that are defined by a function, where the function is not of the correct type (i.e. not a function vs. Curve Length or Curve Parameterization). The message now properly reports the invalid function. Corrected a problem that could cause FEMAP to crash if you used nodal loads on surfaces that required the surface area (Force, Force per Area, Heat Flux...), and the surface referenced linear elements.

Additions and Corrections - Temperatures on Curves (v6.01)

Temperatures on curves can now be displayed in both render and standard display mode. Previously they were not available in render mode.

Additions and Corrections - Model Load Combine (v6.01)

Now correctly applies the specified scale factor to geometric (as well as nodal and elemental) loads when you combine load sets.

Additions and Corrections - Model Load Dynamic Analysis (v6.01)

Corrected a problem that prevented deselection of the logarithmic interpolation option for modal frequency analysis when certain other options were selected.

Additions and Corrections - Geometric Constraints (v6.01)

Properly deletes constraints on geometry that has been deleted during a boolean or other solid modeling operation. Previously these constraints would remain in the database and generate error messages when you tried to expand or translate them.

Additions and Corrections - Section Property Calculation (v6.01)

Corrected a problem that could occur for very specific, typically very thin, sections (for example, a Hex Tube with r=14.625 and t=0.375) which caused J and Shear Area to not be computed. Also corrected a problem that could cause very long compute times for some other very thin sections ( for example, a Circular tube with R=100.0 and t=0.25).

Additions and Corrections - Curve Mesh Size (v6.01)

Added an option to save length-based spacing as a custom mesh size. Since evaluating length based spacing can be significantly slower than parametric spacing, saving it as a custom mesh size can dramatically improve performance, especially if you have a large number of curves.

Additions and Corrections - Element Material Orientation (v6.01)

Modified the convention used by the Element Material Orientation in the Element/Property dialog box, and in the Modify Update Element Material Angle command. If you refer to a coordinate direction, and you reference a cylindrical or spherical coordinate system, the radial location is now based on the element center, not

the location of the first node as before. This change makes the command independent of the mesh location, corresponds more closely with solver conventions, and results in orientations that are shown as truly radial.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Sizing (v6.01)

Corrected a problem that could cause FEMAP to crash if you tried to size and match adjacent faces, where the faces to be matched were very thin or annular.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Approach (v6.01)

Added an error message to identify surfaces where you have specified a mesh approach that referenced control points, and those control points no longer exist (such as through a boolean operation). In this case the invalid mesh approach is identified, but ignored when you mesh.

Additions and Corrections - Surface/Solid Meshing (v6.01)

Improved the surface meshing algorithm for meshing surfaces of "tolerant" solids - that is, solids that have gaps between two or more surfaces. The surface meshes can now much more reliably be merged into a closed solid for these models. Also corrected a problem that could in rare cases cause the mesh to fill the inside of a hole in a surface. Corrected a problem that prevented proper merging of nodes on some surfaces that were slaved to surfaces on a different solid. This problem only occurred on surfaces that contained multiple holes, and then only under certain conditions resulting from the order in which the holes were created. Dramatically improved the performance of merging nodes at the end of meshing a model with a large number of curves. One extreme case went from 1+ hours to 30 seconds.

Additions and Corrections - Hex Meshing (v6.01)

Corrected the attachment of hex meshes that contained midside nodes, to geometry that contained one or more wedges (triangles in the base mesh). Previously, these meshes would have at least one row of midside nodes that was not properly attached to the geometry. Added a question to allow you to keep the hex mesh even though it contains relatively distorted elements. This allows you to review the mesh, and even use it if you can accept a mesh with warped faces. Eliminated a crash that occurred if you meshed (and smoothed) a trivial case with only one element on the base surface. Enhanced the autolinking feature to recognize more complex cases. Previously, parts that were cut into more than 3 solids through the thickness had a possibility of creating incorrect slaving between the adjacent surfaces.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Reflect (v6.01)

Changed the reflection of beam/bar elements so that the cross section is now properly reflected. The YZ axes of the cross section are now a true reflection, but the X axis (along the length of the beam) is not. Previously X was, but YZ were not.

Additions and Corrections - Mesh Remesh (v6.01)

Allowed canceling the Mesh Remeshing Regions command from the Mesh Properties dialog box, by pressing the Cancel button.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Update Element Order (v6.01)

Corrected a problem in Modify Update Element Order that caused some elements to not be properly attached to the original geometry. All mesh attachments are now properly maintained.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Edit Nonlinear Force Load (v6.01)

Corrected a problem that could cause FEMAP to crash if you attempted to edit one of these types of loads. Editing other load types was not changed.

Additions and Corrections - Postprocessing (v6.01)

Added computation of the Average shear panel flow as the average of the 12, 23, 34, and 41 Shear Force results. Automatically regenerates beam diagrams when you change the default direction in View Options. Corrected Dynamic Query to show proper output vectors if you are displaying multiple simultaneous output vectors (i.e. plates and solids).

Additions and Corrections - Contour Vectors (v6.01)

Corrected a problem with contour vectors of principal stresses and strains in both planar and solid elements. For planar elements, the computation of the contour vector directions was incorrect for stresses and for strains. For solid elements, the computation of the contour vector directions was only incorrect for strains, and only if your output data contained engineering shear strain values. Also added support during the computation of direction for the preference switch for engineering vs. actual shear strain.

Additions and Corrections - Elemental Contours (v6.01)

Corrected a problem with elemental contours of nodal data displayed on a group of nodes and elements. The contours were always correct, however the limits of the legend were sometimes improperly computed to have a 0.0 value at one end.

Additions and Corrections - File Locations (v6.01)

Modified the behavior of the File selection dialog box on Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0, so that it does not automatically switch back to the "My Documents" folder if there are no files of the type that you are working with in your current directory. This allows you to choose a directory and stay there. Previously, if there were no files of the desired type, you would be switched to the "My Documents" folder, which was often inconvenient to return to where you were working. This makes working with files consistent with the behavior on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.

Additions and Corrections - Unit Conversion (v6.01)

Corrected the computation of the conversion factor for "SpringRot". Previously this was computed as force/ radian. It has been modified to correctly reflect moment/radian units. This only effects conversion of rotational stiffness for Spring, DOF Spring and Link elements. Removed the conversion of damping coefficients on materials and laminates. These are dimensionless ratios. ATTENTION NASTRAN USERS: Damping conversion is still done on Spring and DOF_Spring elements. You must manually set the conversion to 1.0 for NASTRAN models. Unlike other programs, NASTRAN uses critical damping ratios for these elements as well.

Additions and Corrections - Launching VisQ (v6.01)

Corrected the process for launching VisQ after you export a model for analysis. VisQ client is now properly launched with the submission dialog box displayed and filled with the proper defaults.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS (v6.0)

Corrected a problem writing the slave nodes of a rigid body contact problem for ABAQUS Modified FEMAP to wrote Plastic Strains (calculated from Nominal Strain in the Stress-Strain Table) Updated the ABAQUS Post Reader to import nonstandard beam bending moments. Now support ABAQUS 5.7+

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Model and Post Read (v6.0)

Added support for changes that occurred in ANSYS 5.5.

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Model Read (v6.0)

Corrected a problem when reading ANSYS input files that included Beam End Moment Releases. Corrected a problem reading Thermal Tetrahedral elements. Modified FEMAP to import a BEAM4 Element that is aligned exactly with the z-axis.

Additions and Corrections - ANSYS Model Write (v6.0)

Corrected a problem writing time dependent nodal loads to ANSYS. Corrected a problem applying pressure loads to the edges of elements.

Additions and Corrections - CSA/NASTRAN Model Write (v6.0)

Update the NASTRAN write translator to output PBEND property cards when creating an input file for CSA/ NASTRAN.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Model Write (v6.0)

Corrected a problem creating a NASTRAN input file that contained both enforced displacements and inertia loading. Corrected a problem writing a NASTRAN input file that contained both rotational and gravitational loads.. Fixed a problem writing a Wide Field Formation NASTRAN input deck containing DLOAD and FREQ cards for dynamic analyses. Updated the NASTRAN Model Write portion of FEMAP to correctly write time or temperature dependent heat fluxes. Corrected a problem writing thermal boundary conditions for parabolic triangular elements.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Model Read (v6.0)

FEMAP v5.0 added the capability to read in legacy NASTRAN input files that contain duplicate element and property IDs across different element types. V6.0 has been updated to support duplicate IDs across PELAS and PSOLID properties that did not work in v5.0.

FEMAP now reads all Stress/Strain tables for non-linear analysis as Stress vs. Strain, although they can be input the other way around. Since most customers use the Stress vs. Strain convention, FEMAP now does as well. Fixed a problem reading PSHEAR cards from NASTRANs other than CSA/NASTRAN. Corrected and error reading NASTRAN MAT8 cards to properly read the STRN field to determine the allowables in Xt, Xc, Yt, Yc, and S are stress allowables or strain allowables. Updated FEMAP to correctly write a NASTAN input file when a node has both an enforced displacement and the model contains gravitational loads. Updated the reading of NASTRAN Coordinate Systems to overcome a problem where a coordinate system is specified using very large numbers that limit the number of significant digits for calculation due the eight character field size in most NASTRAN input decks. FEMAP now looks for this situation and adjusts its conversion of NASTRAN coordinate systems into FEMAP coordinate systems to insure accuracy.

Additions and Corrections - Reading Results from the NASTRAN Printed Output File (v6.0)
Several errors were corrected in reading results from the printed output file generated by NASTRAN. In general reading a file that was originally designed for printing to line printers is very difficult due to the large number of combinations of page breaks, page feeds, titles, etc. that can be mixed together with the output data we are trying to extract. All reported problems have been corrected, and in addition, a new method for importing NASTRAN results has been implemented - Binary Output2 Read. Binary Output2 (OP2) read is significantly faster and less prone to errors due to the very structured layout of the output data without the extra information required for printing.

Additions and Corrections - Neutral File Write (v6.0)

Corrected a problem writing a FEMAP v4.5 or v4.51 Neutral File containing laminates.

Additions and Corrections - ALGOR Post (v6.0)

Updated the ALGOR output data reader to properly handle corner results for 10-Node tetrahedral elements whose stress results are reported as 20-noded degenerate brick elements.

Additions and Corrections - Ctrl-L List Access in Selection Dialog Box (v6.0)
Corrected problems using Ctrl-L in the standard entity selection boxes. Ctrl-L can be used in many of the FEMAP selection dialog boxes that pick an ID value to display a list of ID along with their associated titles. Problems accessing and interpreting the results of Ctrl-L selections have been corrected.

Additions and Corrections - Last Command/Last Menu (v6.0)

As many of you noticed the popular Ctrl-F10 and Alt-F10 keyboard shortcuts that allow you to automatically repeat the last FEMAP command were broken in FEMAP v5.0, they are now available.

Additions and Corrections - Undo (v6.0)

A problem in Undo, connected to backing up in either the ACIS or Parasolid Modeling engines has been corrected.

Additions and Corrections - Surface Meshing Spherically Shaped Surfaces (v6.0)

Several complaints with the spherical surface meshing capabilities of FEMAP capabilities of FEMAP have been addressed with the new FEMAP capability to specify a Mesh Approach for individual surfaces. In particular, spherical surfaces, usually portions of spherical surfaces, can now be meshed using the Planar Projection approach to achieve a quality surface mesh.

Additions and Corrections - Matching Tetrahedral Meshes Between Coincident Surfaces (v6.0)
In FEMAP v5.0 it was possible, but time consuming to ensure that tetrahedral elements matched across adjacent solids meshed with the automatic tetrahedral mesher. This situation frequently arises when trying to automesh assemblies and/or solids composed of two or more materials. As a by-product of the hexahedral meshing capability added in FEMAP v6.0, FEMAP can now slave two surfaces together for meshing purposes. Once slaved, only one of the surfaces is meshed, and that mesh is transferred to the other surface when it is time for it to be meshed. When the surfaces are coincident, this guarantees the tetrahedral mesh generated on both sides of the interface will match.

Additions and Corrections - Custom Mesh Size On Curve Attached to a FEMAP Standard Surface (v6.0)
Corrected a problem that reversed the custom mesh sizing set up for a curve attached to a FEMAP standard surface.

Additions and Corrections - Display of Loads on Geometry in Non-Global Coordinate Systems (v6.0)
Corrected the display of loads on geometry that were defined in a coordinate system other than one of the three FEMAP global systems. This problem only appeared when using Render Mode in FEMAP v5.0

Additions and Corrections - Shear Areas in Tapered Beams (v6.0)

FEMAP allows you to input different shear area factors for End A and End B of tapered beams. When writing an input file for NASTRAN, it is only possible to have shear area factors for the entire beam, FEMAP now displays a warning message when you have entered different values for End A and End B when writing to NASTRAN.

Additions and Corrections - Transformation of Elemental Stress Output (v6.0)

Corrects problems transforming elemental stresses into user-defined coordinate systems when only triangular plates were present in the model.

Additions and Corrections - Applying Thermal Boundary Conditions to Both Sides of Plates (v6.0)
FEMAP now properly handles the application of thermal boundary conditions (convection and radiation) when applied to both sides of the same plate element.

Additions and Corrections - Coordinate Along Curve (v6.0)

When using the Percentage Along Curve method for defining a coordinate, FEMAP now calculates the coordinate as a percentage of length, not a percentage of the 0 to 1 parametric space of a curve. The 0 to 1 parametric space of splines is often not linearly related to length as it is on an analytic curve.

Additions and Corrections - Creating AVI Files (v6.0)

Several customers had problems creating AVI files, including crashes. Upon further investigation, we found that this was due to problems in the AVI system drivers if your computer is not running in either 16-bit (high color) or 24-bit (true color). If you plan on creating AVI files, please make sure that your running in high-color

or true-color mode.

Additions and Corrections - Extruding ACIS Surfaces into Solids (v6.0)

FEMAP v6.0 incorporates changes that allow you to extrude faces of ACIS solids into new solids, or as extension to the original.

Additions and Corrections - ACIS Solid Center of Gravity (v6.0)

Updated the mass properties calculator to correctly report center of gravity results for ACIS solids.

Additions and Corrections - Surface Modeling (v6.0)

FEMAP v6.0 adds the capability to create a planar stand-alone surface in both the ACIS and Parasolid geometry modes.

Additions and Corrections - Copying Surfaces that Belong to Solids (v6.0)

FEMAP v6.0 adds the capability to copy selected surfaces of an existing solid.

Additions and Corrections - Duplicate Labels in Prints (v6.0)

Corrected a problem that printed the labels associated with the workplane twice when both the deformed and undeformed models were present.

Additions and Corrections - List Load with Equation (v6.0)

Fixed a problem listing loads that used long equations (greater than 145 characters).

Additions and Corrections - Modify Update Scale Load - Geometric Loads (v6.0)
Fixed a problem scaling loads on geometry that would only update the x-component of the load.

Additions and Corrections - Deleting Nodal Heat Generation Loads (v6.0)

It is now possible to delete nodal heat generation loads without having to delete the entire load set.

Additions and Corrections - Distributed Loads on Geometry (v6.0)

Fixed a problem expanding geometric loads on curves when an end point of the curve was coincident with the endpoint of another geometrically loaded curve, the node at this location would get loaded twice.

Additions and Corrections - Post Calculations (v6.0)

When they are not read in from the results of a analysis, FEMAP will automatically calculate Major, Minor, Von Mises, Max Strain, etc. type data. FEMAP was incorrectly calculating and reporting actual shear strain and not engineering shear strain as most engineers expect. Also updated the Von Mises strain calculation for the same reason.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Edit Load (v6.0)

Corrected a problem editing a load that was defined in a user-defined coordinate system.

Additions and Corrections- Tools Check Planar (v6.0)

A bug was reported that FEMAP was not moving nodes determined to be out of a specified plane in the Tools - Check - Planar command to the specified plane. There actually was an error in the documentation, inside of Tools - Check - Planar, FEMAP prompts you for a Max. Allowable Distance From Plane, if you want to move nodes to the specified plane, this number is the maximum distance of a node from the plane that will still be moved onto the plane. Therefore, enter a number big enough to include any non-planar nodes you

want moved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Integrating FEMAP with Analysis Programs - ABAQUS

If you use ABAQUS, FEMAP can automatically launch your analysis and recover the output. To do this however, you must define an environment variable ABAQUS_EXE that defines the location of your ABAQUS program. There are a number of ways to define this environment variable depending on your operating system. On Windows NT 4.0, click Start, then Settings and then Control Panel. Next double click the System icon, and then the Environment tab. In the Variable field type ABAQUS_EXE, and in the Value field type the full directory and name of your ABAQUS executable - for example, C:\abaqus\abaqus.exe. Press Set and then OK. On Windows 95, you can define the variable in an AUTOEXEC.BAT file located in the root directory of your boot disk drive (usually C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT). Just add the line: set ABAQUS_EXE = 'abaqus_executable_name' for example, set ABAQUS_EXE = c:\abaqus\abaqus.exe to that file, then reboot. If you have properly defined the variable, when you export your model to ABAQUS, you will see an extra question that asks whether you would like to begin the solution of your model. If you answer "Yes", FEMAP will launch ABAQUS. When the analysis is complete, FEMAP will automatically load the results into your current model.

Integrating FEMAP with Analysis Programs - ANSYS

Integrating FEMAP with ANSYS is just as simple as integrating it with ABAQUS (described above). You follow the same procedure, just define the variable ANSYS_EXE instead of ABAQUS_EXE. The amount of memory used by ANSYS during the analysis ( the -m command line option ) can be specified as you are exporting your FEMAP model. If you do not define a specific amount of memory, no -m option is used and ANSYS will analyze with its default memory settings.

Integrating FEMAP with Analysis Programs - MSC/NASTRAN

Integrating FEMAP with MSC/NASTRAN is just as simple as integrating it with ABAQUS (described above). You follow the same procedure, just define the variable MSCNAST_EXE instead of ABAQUS_EXE. With NASTRAN, unlike ABAQUS, a "Run Analysis" option has been built into the export dialog box. If you check this option, and the environment variable is properly defined, FEMAP will launch your analysis.

Integrating FEMAP with Analysis Programs - CSA/NASTRAN

Integrating FEMAP with CSA/NASTRAN is basically just like integrating it with the other solvers just described, except that instead of defining a new environment variable, FEMAP uses the one that CSA/NASTRAN already requires - NASTDIR. In this case, NASTDIR does not specify the entire program name, it only specifies the directory where the program is contained. FEMAP automatically runs the file CSANAST.BAT from that directory. If you do not have this environment variable defined or do not have this batch file, you will have to add them. When you begin the analysis you also have options to specify memory limits, rigid format alters and other CSA/NASTRAN command line options.

Integrating FEMAP with Analysis Programs - LS-DYNA

Integrating FEMAP with LS-DYNA is just as simple as integrating it with ABAQUS (described above). You follow the same procedure, just define the variable LSDYNA_EXE instead of ABAQUS_EXE.

Integrating FEMAP with Analysis Programs - Using VisQ

Instead of letting FEMAP run your analysis programs, you can also use VisQ. Refer to the VisQ documentation for information about configuring both the client and server portions of that product. If you are using VisQ, and you have installed the client software in your FEMAP directory, then you should NOT define any of the environment variables described above. If you have those variables defined, FEMAP will try to automatically launch the analysis program itself. If they are not defined, your translated analysis model will be passed directly to the VisQ client for submission. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Documentation - LS-DYNA3D Interface

The following information supplements that which can be found in the User Manual Section 7.2.8.1 Analysis Conditions You will select what load and constraint set to chose for this analysis, as well as the Initial conditions. When you select a load set for initial conditions, only the loads which are pertinent to initial conditions, such as velocities and temperatures, will be exported from the load set. Since velocities and temperatures can also be applied throughout the history in the load set chosen under Loads, it is best to define a load set specifically for initial conditions. You may also limit any initial body load, specifically angular velocity, to certain parts in your model by including the properties in a group and selecting this group under Initial Body Load Group. Note: There are several different methods of applying initial velocities. If you activate the Angular Velocity Body Load in the initial conditions load set and input a non-zero value, FEMAP will automatically apply that angular velocity as an initial condition to the entire model, or to certain parts of your model if you select an Initial Body Load Group. If the Initial Body Load Group is active, or the angular velocity body load was activated but with a zero input, you can also apply initial velocities for each property/part simply by applying a nodal velocity to one node contained on an element by that property. This node should not be shared by elements with different properties. With this capability, you could establish initial velocities for an entire complex model by applying a few initial velocities to specific nodes. The alternative would be to apply nodal velocities to all the nodes of the model. Implicit and Springback Analyses These options allow you to specify the type of solver to use. By default, the standard LS-DYNA3D Explicit solver will be used. If you want to perform an Implicit analysis, which is only available in LS-DYNA v950+, simply select Implicit. Any implicit controls should have been previously selected in the chosen Load Set under Model Load Nonlinear Analysis. You can also select a Springback analysis (Explicit followed by an Implicit Analysis) by selecting this option.

Documentation - MSC/NASTRAN Interface

The following information supplements that which can be found in the User Manual Section 7.2.3.1 Applying a Response Spectrum Support for the second half of a Response Spectrum Analysis has been added to the MSC/NASTRAN Interface. This allows you to apply a spectrum and compute the response. This stage of a Response Spectrum Analysis is actually selected by choosing a Modal Analysis type. When you choose Modal Analysis, you will see an additional

"Spectrum" button in the Analysis Control dialog. Press this button to access the dialog box that is used to define the Response Spectrum options. Note - if you are going through the "Advanced" path, this button is also available in the Modal information dialog box that is automatically displayed for modal analysis. The first option allows you to choose the type of spectrum that you will be applying (Acceleration, Velocity or Displacement), choose the spectrum function and specify an additional scale factor. You can also choose the method that will be used to combing the modal results into the response. Finally, you can choose SUPORT (base) degrees of freedom by selecting a constraint set, and a modal damping function.

Documentation - STEP Interface

The following information supplements that which can be found in the User Manual Section 7.3.3 The FEMAP STEP Interface now supports reading both AP203 and AP214 Class-VI (solids) and Class-II (free surfaces with topology) entities and assemblies.

Documentation - File Preferences

The following information supplements that which can be found in the Commands Manual Section 2.6.3.2 A new preference, called "Dynamic Speed" has been added that allows you to control the relative "speed" of dynamic rotation and zoom. The amount of rotation or zoom is computed by multiplying the factor that you specify with the amount that you move your mouse. Specifying a larger factor makes the rotation faster, but less precise. A preference has been added to the Interfaces section that allows you to specify whether your results contain engineering shear strain (usually denoted as, gamma_xy...) or actual shear strain (usually denoted as, epsilon_xy...). This preference is VERY IMPORTANT. If you use the contour vector display, or the Output Transform command for strains, you must properly set this preference to match the actual data types that you are manipulating, or you will get incorrect answers.

Documentation - Toolbar View Options

The following information supplements that which can be found in the User Manual Section 4.2.2 Two new options have been added to the Toolbar View Options menu. The first "Rendered Solid" simply combines the "Solid" and "Render" options that are on the same menu - it provides a single command to access these two options which were often chosen together. The second, "Mesh Size" turns on and off the display of mesh size indicators on curves.

Documentation - Dynamic Query

The following information supplements that which can be found in the User Manual Section 4.2.7 The Dynamic Query capability has been updated to show meshing information on curves and surfaces. Mesh sizes, approaches and attributes are shown in the popup text.

Documentation - Viewing Elements

The following information supplements that which can be found in the Commands Manual Section 6.1.3.3 Elements Some types of elements (springs, links, and gaps) can connect coincident nodes and therefore have no length. This makes it very difficult to see those elements. When you are not in render mode, FEMAP now displays these elements as symbols at the node location. The symbol represents the element type ( -/\/- =

spring, L = link, -| |- = gap ).

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Additions and Corrections (Version 5.0)

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Additions and Corrections - Availability of UNIX Platforms
This is the first release that supports UNIX platforms, as well as, Intel and DEC Alpha Windows. The supported UNIX platforms include: HP, IBM, SGI and Sun.

Additions and Corrections - Beam Property Libraries

Included with this release are several beam libraries that provide properties for common structural shapes. To access these libraries, simply choose the appropriate file using the "Library" button, or specify the file in File Preferences. The files include: reang.esp (angles), rechan.esp (channels), reishape.esp ( I and Wide-Flange), retee.esp ( T ), and retube.esp (tubes). More information can be found in the file rebeam.doc.

Additions and Corrections - ABAQUS Interface

Automatic launching of an ABAQUS solution now works properly with ABAQUS 5.7. Previous versions of FEMAP could not launch this version of ABAQUS. Corrected the numbering of output vectors that were created when otherwise unsupported results were read from ABAQUS. Corrected a problem translating enforced displacements to Direct Frequency Analyses that caused only the first term of a function dependent load to be written.

Additions and Corrections - NASTRAN Interface

MSC/NASTRAN Response Spectrum - corrected a problem that caused Absolute and Relative results from these analyses to be mislabeled. MSC/NASTRAN Heat Transfer - Geometric convections are now properly expanded to tetrahedral elements. Reading CQUAD8 - A problem was corrected that prevented CQUAD8 elements with missing midside nodes and no continuation line from being read properly. Enclosure Radiation - A problem has been corrected that caused CHBDY elements to be improperly generated (wrong normal) on solid element faces. Pressure on Shear Panels - Pressures on Shear Panel elements are now properly written as PLOAD2 (not PLOAD4).

Additions and Corrections - IGES Interface

Numerous improvements have been made to the IGES interface, including removing the limitation on the number of points on B-Spline trimming curves when reading trimmed surfaces. Surfaces that do not meet Parasolid tolerance requirements are now discarded. This improves the robustness of operations and meshing of imported geometry.

Additions and Corrections - I-DEAS Interface

A problem was corrected that caused the program to crash when translating to I-DEAS (This problem only

occurred when running as part of NASTRAN for Windows).

Additions and Corrections - PATRAN Interface

The material specific heat is now written to a PATRAN Neutral file.

Additions and Corrections - ALGOR Interface

Corrected a problem that caused multi-material laminates to be read and written incorrectly.

Additions and Corrections - CAEFEM Interface

Geometric Loads and Constraints are now properly expanded when launching CAEFEM using the direct DDE interface.

Additions and Corrections - COSMOS Interface

A problem was corrected that occurred when plane strain or axisymmetric triangles were read from a COSMOS model. Previously, they were improperly read as quadrilateral elements.

Additions and Corrections - File Management

FEMAP can now properly open and view model files that are "Read-Only". Previously the file could not be opened. In addition, model files can now be opened by double clicking, or drag-and-drop, even if there are spaces in the filename or pathname. Previously this would only work if there were no spaces in the names.

Additions and Corrections - Keyboard Shortcuts

Pressing Ctrl-Shift-U expands the graphics window to the maximum size that fits inside the main window. Previously, it covered the toolbars and status bar. Now it properly stays outside those regions.

Additions and Corrections - Equation Entry

A problem has been corrected that could cause FEMAP to crash if you entered a ";" into an equation outside of a function, or if you specified parentheses out of order (i.e. a ")" before "(" ).

Additions and Corrections - File Preferences

A new preference has been added to allow you to choose whether or not shear strain data is to be treated as Engineering Shear Strain when computing Principal Strains and when transforming strain.

Additions and Corrections - View Library

Corrected a problem that prevented you from starting FEMAP with a default view that was stored in the View Library.

Additions and Corrections - File Picture

In addition to bitmap and metafiles, FEMAP can now save pictures as compressed JPEG images. This is a very compact, compressed bitmap format that can be used for Internet publishing and is compatible across Windows and UNIX platforms.

Additions and Corrections - ToolTips

The ToolTip windows have been modified so that they no longer cause unnecessary repaints when they popup on top of an animation.

Additions and Corrections - Program File Recording

Program File recording has been enhanced to also include the capability to record picking of toolbar buttons.

Previously the toolbars could not be used when you were recording a program file.

Additions and Corrections - Basic Scripting

The PRINT statement in the BASIC Scripting language has been corrected. Previously it could lose the last character in the string that you were printing.

Additions and Corrections - DDE Toolkit

A function has been added to the DDE Toolkit to allow developers to determine if a program file is still running in FEMAP.

Additions and Corrections - Selection of Loaded Entities

Previously this selection method improperly used the constraint set instead of the load set in the selection dialog box.

Additions and Corrections - Tools Convert Units

This function has been improved to properly convert solid geometry and geometric loads. In addition, the standard Unit Conversion library files (*.CF) are now included - they were inadvertently missed on previous CDs.

Additions and Corrections - Tools Check Mass Properties

This command has been updated to still give results if you have "bad" elements (elements with missing nodes) in your model.

Additions and Corrections - Solid Extrude

Using the ACIS Geometry Engine, when you extrude a surface into a solid, the surface no longer moves from its original location.

Additions and Corrections - Solid Revolve

Solids created by revolving a profile thru a full 360 degrees have been corrected. Previously they were not split properly and sometimes caused meshing problems.

Additions and Corrections - Solid Stitching

Now requests a stitching tolerance. This allows you greater flexibility in handling "dirty" or small geometry. The default of 1.0E-6 should continue to be used for most cases unless you have problems stitching your geometry.

Additions and Corrections - Material Damping Coefficient

The dialog boxes for material definition have been modified to help to eliminate some confusion over the Damping Coefficient. FEMAP expects you to enter the damping coefficient, GE (in NASTRAN terminology), which is two times the critical damping ratio. For programs that expect the critical damping ratio, FEMAP adjusts accordingly DO NOT enter the critical damping ratio.

Additions and Corrections - Laminate Properties

Corrected a problem that caused the Damping, Reference Temperature and Bond Shear to all be set to the same value.

Additions and Corrections - Loads

Nodal and Elemental loads now properly use the Active Coordinate System for equation based definitions. Load expansion on single closed curves (like circles, not two arcs) has been corrected. Previously, it computed incorrect values at the "start / end" of the curve. Removed extraneous error messages that were generated when you expanded enforced displacement

loads that contained time or frequency dependent functions. The expansion was always correct, but previously generated a number of invalid messages. The Advanced Loading Methods dialog box that is used for Variable Geometric Loads has been corrected. Previously it required valid interpolation values along a curve, even if they were not being used.

Additions and Corrections - Load Dynamic Analysis - Enforced Motion

Removed the ability to change methods while selecting nodes for this command.

Additions and Corrections - Constraints

The Copy and Combine commands for Constraints now properly operate on Geometric constraints.

Additions and Corrections - Constraint, Nodal on Element Face

An error was corrected that caused elements in your model to be deleted if you chose the element faces containing the nodes to be constrained using the "loaded elements" method.

Additions and Corrections - Combine Output

Combine Output no longer computes principal and Von Mises stresses/strains if the preference is turned off.

Additions and Corrections - Computing Principal and Transforming Strains

An error has been corrected in the equations used to compute principal strains (only used if you read strain components but not principal strains from your analysis results), and in the equations used when transforming strain directions. Previously these equations did not properly account for Engineering Shear Strain.

Additions and Corrections - Meshing Surfaces with Specified Points

An error has been corrected that occasionally (depending on the geometry of the surface and points) caused meshing of surfaces to fail when mesh points were specified on the interior of the surface.

Additions and Corrections - Meshing Volumes

Meshing of 5 cornered, pyramid volumes has been corrected. Previously, certain shapes of these volumes would not mesh.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Renumber

Under certain conditions, namely rearranging into the same ID range, renumber previously lost the associativity between the mesh and the geometry. The associativity is now properly retained.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Update Element Order

This command now properly updates only the elements that you select. Previously all elements were updated.

Additions and Corrections - Modify Commands with Solids

The Modify Move By, Rotate By, Rotate To, Align and Scale commands have been updated to properly prevent independent moving of solid curves and surfaces. This function was already restricted, but could be accidentally used if you selected other non-solid curves or surfaces (that were modifiable) along with the solid entities.

Additions and Corrections - Group Automatic Add

Group Operations Automatic Add now works properly for solids.

Additions and Corrections - View Autoscale

Autoscale now properly accounts for Solids.

Additions and Corrections - Displaying Boundaries

Boundaries now display properly if they are selected and you are plotting a group. Previously they were ignored.

Additions and Corrections - Installation

The installation procedure has been updated to properly install either the Intel or Alpha version depending on the hardware.

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Additions and Corrections - Network Licensing (v5.0a)

This release includes an option for floating network licensing. This implementation uses the industry standard FLEXlm License Manager from Globetrotter Software. Contact your ESP sales representative for more information.

Additions and Corrections - Availability of DEC Alpha NT Version (v5.0a)

This release also includes a full implementation for the DEC Alpha NT platform, including the FEMAP Professional modules. UNIX versions will be available in the near future. Again, contact us for more information.

Additions and Corrections - Moving Workplane to Standard Surfaces (v5.0a)

An error was corrected that caused FEMAP to abort if you attempted to move the workplane onto a standard FEMAP surface. This capability worked correctly with Parasolid and ACIS surfaces/solids, but failed for standard surfaces. It now works for all surfaces.

Additions and Corrections - Minimum Principal Stress Contour Vectors (v5.0a)

Contour vectors of minimum principal stress/strain in planar elements were off by 90 degrees for elements where X Stress/Strain = Y Stress/Strain. All other elements, stress/strain conditions and output types were previously correct.

Additions and Corrections - Isosurfaces in Render Mode (v5.0a)

A problem was corrected that caused FEMAP to crash if you were in Render Mode with an Isosurface display on the screen and you chose the View Advanced Post Dynamic Isosurface Command.

Additions and Corrections - Reading Loads from Old Neutral Files (v5.0a)
An error was discovered and corrected that occurred when you read a pre-V5 FEMAP Neutral File. The error caused Rotational loads, like Moments, Enforced Rotations, Rotational Velocity and Rotational Acceleration to be converted to Translational loads ( Forces, Enforced Displacement, Velocity and Acceleration). This error also occurred when automatically converting old databases.

Additions and Corrections - Removal of Binary Neutral File Format (v5.0a)

The FEMAP Binary Neutral file is no longer supported. We have made this decision because these files are not compatible across different platforms (for example, Windows NT and UNIX) and provided little additional benefit to our users. FEMAP can still read existing binary neutral files so old files can still be imported, but they can no longer be written. The new Binary Neutral Output file is still available for those third party developers who wish to have a fast, compact, cross-platform compatible, mechanism to load large amounts of output into FEMAP.

Additions and Corrections - Import of IGES Surfaces (v5.0a)

The IGES interface in FEMAP Professional has been enhanced to provide improved support for B-Spline surfaces that are closed but not identified as such in the IGES file.

Additions and Corrections - Slicing ACIS Solids (v5.0a)

ACIS Solids that were scaled during import (with a scale factor other than 1.0) are now properly handled in the "Slice" operation. Previously this operation would not work on scaled ACIS solids.

Additions and Corrections - Revolved ACIS Solids (v5.0a)

A problem was corrected that caused an invalid solid to be generated if an ACIS profile or surface was revolved in the direction opposite to its "right-hand rule" normal. This problem did not occur for extrusions or for Parasolids geometry.

Additions and Corrections - Contour Palette (.CNT) Files (v5.0a)

The sample user contour palette files that we had always shipped with FEMAP were inadvertently left off of the FEMAP 5.0 CD and Installation. They are now available again in this distribution.

Additions and Corrections - Picking Boundaries to Modify Associativity (v5.0a)

In the dialog box for the Modify Associativity command, previously you could only graphically select normal surfaces - boundaries were not selectable (although you could still type their ID in the dialog box). You can now pick either boundaries or normal surfaces for this command.

Additions and Corrections - Detaching Nodal Associativity from Boundaries (v5.0a)

In certain conditions, if you attempted to detach the associativity of one or more nodes from a boundary, you could end up with a random set of other nodes becoming attached to that surface - up to and including all the nodes in the model. This problem has been corrected.

Additions and Corrections - Associativity of Elements Extruded from Surfaces (v5.0a)

Previously, if you extruded planar elements that were associated with a surface, the resulting solid elements were also associated with that surface, although incorrectly. This has been removed. The solids should not, and are not associated with any geometry.

Additions and Corrections - Autogrouping of Tetrahedral Meshes (v5.0a)

If you used the Group Operations Automatic Add capability, automatic tetrahedral meshes were still not included in the desired group. These meshes are now properly added to the group.

Additions and Corrections - Group Surfaces using Curves (v5.0a)

The Group Surfaces using Curves command did not work for standard FEMAP surfaces. It did work properly for ACIS and Parasolid surfaces. It now works properly for all surfaces.

Additions and Corrections - Renumbering Load and Constraint Sets (v5.0a)

Under certain conditions, renumbering a load or constraint set could cause the loads or constraints in the set to be lost. These sets are now renumbered properly.

Additions and Corrections - Renumbering Performance (v5.0a)

FEMAP v5.0 added the ability to automatically renumber groups. Unfortunately, if you had groups with large ranges of entities (like 1 to 10,000,000) the performance of the renumbering was very slow - even if all of these entities did not exist. This was caused by FEMAP's effort to completely preserve the original intent of the group rules - whether or not they applied to actual entities in the model. This version changes the approach to

renumbering the groups. FEMAP no longer preserves the overall numbering that was originally specified, rather, the renumbered group will only contain entities that currently exist in the model. While we realize that this could cause some problems depending on how you are using groups, it results in dramatic performance improvements. You can still prevent renumbering by using the Group Operations Renumber command if you would rather set up groups that just reference ranges of IDs rather than specific entities.

New Features - Command Line Options

In addition to the command line options defined in the User Guide, additional options are as follows: -iges filename Automatically creates a new FEMAP model and calls File Import Geometry to read the IGES file. This can be used to integrate FEMAP with CAD systems other than the ones described above. -nospl Prevents display of the FEMAP splash screen.

New Features - Database Compatibility

The current version of FEMAP uses model databases that are incompatible with previous versions of the product. However, it can recognize and automatically convert an old database from either FEMAP version 4.4x or 4.5x. All you need to do is open the old database with File Open. You will be notified that it requires conversion and asked to confirm before conversion begins. Once converted, databases can no longer be used in earlier versions of FEMAP (although you can still export a Neutral File that is backward compatible), so it is a good idea to save the converted database with a new filename.

New Features - NASTRAN Solution Types

Support for several new solution types and capabilities have just been added. These include: Restarts, Response Spectrum Analysis, and Design Optimization. Very little is required in FEMAP to support restarting previous analyses. During translation, you simply choose the Restarts button and specify whether you want to save the databases from this analysis for later restart, or whether you want to restart from a previous database. If you are restarting, you must also select the database that contains your previous analysis information. FEMAP will automatically delete the previous model information and submit the current model for analysis. HOWEVER, it is up to you to recreate any necessary Case Control, whether it be from the previous analysis, or additional cases to add during this analysis. FEMAP does not automatically recreate the previous case control. Restarts are currently only available in MSC/NASTRAN. Response Spectrum Analysis can be setup under the Model Load Dynamic Analysis command. When you choose either of the Transient (Direct or Modal) solutions, you have the opportunity to specify frequency and damping functions for Response or Shock Spectrum Analysis. When you export for Response Spectrum Analysis you will also have the opportunity to select the Absolute or Relative output information that you wish to retrieve. Response Spectrum analysis is also currently only available in MSC/NASTRAN. Design Optimization provides the ability to perform a sizing analysis to minimize the weight of a model that consists of rod, bar and/or plate elements. You define the optimization model and constraints using the Model Optimization command. Here you choose the Goal of your analysis (minimize weight), select the design variables (such as plate thickness), and define constraints based on displacement, stress or strain. Design Optimization currently only supports Static Analysis for MSC/NASTRAN and CSA/NASTRAN.

The Model Load Heat Transfer dialog box has been modified to allow you to select an ambient temperature element for enclosure radiation. You can define an element, control its temperature, and select it here as the ambient or space condition.

New Features - ANSYS Support

The FEMAP interfaces have been modified to support ANSYS 5.4. An option was also added to allow you to choose the ANSYS Iterative Solver.

New Features - IGES Import

An option has been added to scale IGES parts as they are imported. Since FEMAP uses Parasolid to import geometry all IGES parts must lie in the Parasolid box (all dimensions between -500.0 and 500.0 units). If you have an IGES part that is larger than that, or translated from the origin, you can use this scale factor to adjust it during translation. The scale factor is only applied internally - your part will still be the same size as when you started.

New Features - Printing and Render Mode

Render mode in FEMAP uses the industry standard OpenGL graphics. Unfortunately, printer support of OpenGL graphics is not widely available. To overcome this FEMAP provides several options. First, as always you can choose to print at Screen Resolution. This method should work in any environment, with any graphics board and any printer. The resolution of the resulting picture however is the same as the screen resolution - no higher. If you choose to print at printer resolution, FEMAP must build a high resolution "off-screen" bitmap for OpenGL rendering this uses a large amount of memory. To limit that memory, we have provided an option in File Page Setup where you can specify the "printer" resolution as a factor of screen resolution. If you set the "Render Res Factor" to 2, FEMAP will allocate a bitmap that is 2 times the screen resolution - this is still typically much smaller than actual printer resolution. If you have a computer and a printer with a large amount of memory (and you have time to wait), you can change the Render Res Factor to 0.0. This tells FEMAP to use the actual printer resolution. NOTE: If you are experiencing trouble printing Render Mode graphics, try switching to a different color mode on your graphics card. Printing works best if you are in a 32K or 64K color mode. True color requires much more memory and seems to cause problems.

New Features - View Quick Options

Two new buttons have been added to View Quick Options that allow you to quickly turn all loads and constraints on or off.

New Features - Standard Coordinate Methods

A new standard coordinate method has been added that allows you to find the location at the intersection of a curve and a surface.

New Features - 2D Orthotropic Materials

2D Orthotropic materials (typically used for laminates) now support either stress or strain limit values, and allow you to specify the Tsai-Wu Interaction term which is often used for failure analysis.

New Features - Gap Property

Gap Element properties now support MSC/NASTRAN adaptive and nonadaptive gaps.

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Enhancements and Updates (Version 4.5)

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Most Recently Used Models

FEMAP now remembers the last 4 models that you have accessed. They can be found and opened on the File menu.

Standard Dialog Boxes

The Methods button in all of the standard dialog boxes has been changed. Previously it displayed another dialog box where you made a choice, then picked OK to return to the original box. Now it just displays a popup menu. This eliminates mouse movement and picking and should make changing methods much quicker.

Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

Using the File Preferences command you can now assign any FEMAP command to a key. This will allow you to effectively bypass the menus for commands that you use often and can greatly reduce the amount of time required to choose commands.

Dynamic Rotation
The dynamic rotation, pan and zoom command now supports curves as well as finite elements. This allows you to use this command even before you mesh your model.

B-Splines and NURBS

FEMAP splines can now be defined with up to 110 points and create B-Spline curves (not Bezier splines as in previous versions). Several new update capabilities have also been added that allow you to insert knots in splines and change the mathematical order of a spline. In addition to creating B-Splines inside FEMAP, you can now read BSpline and NURB curves from IGES.

File Picture Commands

Several improvements have been made to the various File Picture commands. The 32-bit versions of FEMAP now fully support Enhanced Metafiles. This resolves the clipping problems that occurred when you attempt to transfer regular (non-Enhanced) metafiles into some other 32-bit programs. In addition, FEMAP can now transfer animation frames to a series of bitmap files rather than to our proprietary single bitmap format. In many cases these bitmap series can be useful in multimedia applications and can be converted to .AVI files.

Create Constraint Equation

The number of available coefficients has been increased from 12 to 70.

Generate Radial Copy

The generate radial copy command now fully copies as a rigid body. Previously, you could not use this command to copy arcs or circles about any point other than their center because the defining points did not lie along radial lines. This is now properly handled. Furthermore, if you are copying surfaces or volumes, FEMAP now prevents you from copying about any point other than the center of an arc or circle because the new surfaces can not be properly defined.

Materials
Added support for an Extended Material definition for Plastic materials.

Beam Elements / Properties

You can now define an additional offset of the neutral axis from the shear center for beam elements.

Create Arc thru Three Points

This command has been improved to allow you to create very small arcs. Previously it was unable to create arcs where the three points were less than 1.0E-5 units apart.

Create Rigid Elements

Rigid elements can now reference an unlimited number of nodes. In addition they can be more generally used to support interpolation elements (like NASTRAN RBE3), with full definition of weighting factors and degrees of freedom at each node.

Create Function
Two new function types - "StrainRate vs. Value" and "StrainRate vs. Function ID", can now be created.

Create Output Commands

When doing linear combinations, copies or envelopes of output sets, FEMAP will now copy the original analysis program and analysis type rather than label the output as FEMAP generated. In the Create Output Set command, you can now define or edit the Output Set Value (time, frequency...). A new capability has been added to the Create Output Envelope command that allows you to save the ID of the set where the output originated.

Generate On Geometry On Surface

Boundary Meshing of triangular surfaces has been greatly improved. Previously the resulting mesh was often very bad near the "tip" of the triangle. Now meshes are very consistent across a wide range of triangular surfaces.

Generate Closest Link

Added this command to generate sets of line elements that connect each of a set of nodes to the closest node in a second set. This can be used for connecting "spiders" or rigid areas.

Generate Solid Update Edges

Dynamic mouse tracking is now supported as you choose elements for this command.

Modify Update Adjust Thickness

Added the capability to automatically create a series of plate properties with varying corner thicknesses based on a variety of definition methods including a linear taper between two selected points and a general equation form. This command can also be used to generate plate offsets (only supported for NASTRAN).

Check Distortions
The Element Aspect ratio check has been changed to use a more intuitive measure of the aspect ratio. Previously all element dimensions, including diagonals were used and then factored to give a "pseudo" aspect ratio. Now the ratio is just the ratio of the longest to shortest edge. You can still find highly skewed elements using the other checks.

Group Operations Generate

Added Generate Property and Generate Material commands that simply create groups containing all elements that reference each selected property or material. This supplements the similar capability in Group Operations Generate. In that case however multiple groups can be created for each property/material if the elements are not in a contiguous group.

Drawing Curves and Surfaces

A new View Option has been added to the Curve and Surface Accuracy option that allows you to display direction arrows on curves and surfaces. This can be invaluable as you define mesh sizes, since you can now see the parametric directions.

ABAQUS Interfaces
Support for ABAQUS has been greatly enhanced. FEMAP now contains new elements and material definitions, has better support for contact surfaces and supports a variety of additional analysis procedures, including: Transient, Frequency Response and Creep. Refer to the documentation for more information. FEMAP can automatically run your ABAQUS analysis and recover the output, if you are using the Windows NT version.

ANSYS Interfaces
Added support for SHELL43, SOLID92, SHELL99 and new CEAVE elements.

DXF Interface
FEMAP now supports VERTEX packet 42 (bulge info). This enables FEMAP to read polylines that contain arcs.

IGES Interface
Added support for reading B-Spline and NURB curves (Type 126). Also added option that allows you to skip non-geometric entities - typically construction geometry that is not used to define your part.

CSA/NASTRAN Interfaces
32-bit versions of FEMAP can now run CSA/NASTRAN and automatically recover output. The default extension for CSA/NASTRAN files has been changed to ".dat" to properly match what CSA/NASTRAN expects. Rigid and Interpolation (RBE3) elements are now more fully supported using the new rigid elements. Corner Stresses for plates can now also be requested.

MSC/NASTRAN Interfaces
- You can now select temperature initial conditions for Nonlinear Static analysis. Corner Stresses for plates can now also be requested. - Rigid and Interpolation (RBE3) elements are now more fully supported using the new rigid elements. - Support for solving problems involving forced convection over surfaces. - The postprocessing interface now supports reading output where you requested STRESS(BILIN) or STRESS(SGAGE). Added more support for reading SORT2 complex output including complex displacements, loads, spcforces, velocities and accelerations.

MTAB*Stress Interfaces
A warning has been added if you try to translate a model that contains element temperatures on plane strain or axisymmetric elements since they are not supported by MTAB*Stress. You can also now add an option to split your analysis scratch files onto a different disk/directory. If you define the DOS environment variable WINTAB, and you are using the new Windows version of MTAB*Stress, FEMAP can automatically run your analysis and recover the output.

StereoLithography Interfaces
Added the ability to write a Stereolithography file based on the element definition in your model. Plate elements are written "as-is". For Solid elements, only the free faces are written.

On-Line Help
A Search command has been added to the help menu to allow you to directly search the Help system for any keyword.

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Corrections (Version 4.5)

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Standard Coordinate Dialog

Previously, when using the Intersection method, you could accidently select the same curve twice without receiving an error message. This is now prevented.

File Preferences
In the Startup Color dialog, the Palette button beside the Constraint Equations option now works properly. Previously it did not display the palette dialog box.

Create Volume Between

Just like the Standard Coordinate Dialog, Create Volume Between allowed you to accidently pick the same surface twice without a warning. Again, this is prevented.

Create Load Nonlinear

Previously using the Copy button in this command did not copy the dynamic/damping options. All options are now copied correctly.

Create Load Copy

Corrected an error that caused loads that were defined in a nonzero coordinate system to be corrupted when they were copied.

Material Library
Several corrections to the conductivity and specific heat values that are contained in the sample material library have been made to resolve issues of inconsistent units. Again however as we have always said - this is just a sample library - you should create your own library based on the material data that you need.

Generate Between
If you had an active property type other than a line, plane or solid type, the Property List and New Prop controls were disabled. If you wanted to change to a different property you had to Cancel the command, select another property and start again. These controls are now always available so you can change without leaving this command.

Generate Define Boundary

Eliminated several problems that occurred if you were trying to define a boundary that contained just 2 curves.

Quick Display
Corrected several problems that caused FEMAP to crash if you tried to plot loads or deformations on nodes or elements that were not displayed because they were on a layer that was turned off or because they were not contained

in the display group.

Dynamic Rotation
Corrected a problem that caused the snap grid to flash during dynamic rotation/pan/zoom if it was displayed.

Free Edge Plot with a Section Cut

Previously a free edge plot did not display the contour legend when a Section Cut contour style was selected even though all of the contours on the cut were properly displayed.

Contour Vectors
Corrected problems which occurred if you tried to display contour vectors on selected layers or a group. In this case nodal output would not be displayed at all, and elemental output was displayed for all elements, even if the elements were not shown. Contour vectors now properly recognize the layer and group selections. In addition the contour vector scale now works with the "Auto-Group" display option.

ABAQUS Interfaces
- The TRANSFORM command was written incorrectly for rotated rectangular output coordinate systems that had origins that were not coincident with the global origin. - Corrected the face number for heat transfer loads being written on solid elements.

ANSYS Interfaces
- Previously FEMAP could not postprocess output from SOLID92 or other tetrahedral only solids. Corner stresses for these elements were not properly read. - A problem was also eliminated that caused FEMAP to hang if you had multiple load cases defined in your model and tried to translate for a Heat Transfer analysis. - Corrected the face number for face loads being written on tetrahedral elements for Heat Transfer analyses. - For SOLID45 elements, KEYOPT(4) is now properly controlled by the FEMAP property to select either global or elemental coordinates for output. - Corrected reading KEYOP commands from ANSYS Rev 5.2 CDWRIT files. This eliminates various problems including DOF Spring elements being read as linear Spring elements. This problem only occurred with ANSYS Rev 5.2. Previous versions worked properly.

Comma Separated Interface

Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to crash if you had blank lines at the end of your file.

CSA/NASTRAN Interfaces
Corrected a problem that caused the first page of DISPLACEMENT output to be skipped if you also requested EQUILIBRIUM CHECK LOADS with the PARAM,GRDEQ command.

MSC/NASTRAN Interfaces
Corrected a problem that could cause elemental heat flux, convection and radiation loads to miss differences in diameter or area resulting in incorrect PHBDY references.

MTAB*Stress Interfaces
Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to hang when writing a file for Response Spectrum analysis if you chose a "vs. Freq" function for the Response Spectrum table. When writing a file for Random Response analysis, FEMAP no longer asks you to choose a load set since it is never used.

NASTRAN Interfaces
- Corrected the translation of Angular Acceleration. FEMAP defines angular acceleration in radians/time/time but NASTRAN expects rev/time/time. The value you define is now correctly converted using a 2*PI factor. In addition, if you enabled both accelerations and angular velocities, but specified angular velocity as (0,0,0), the angular acceleration was written incorrectly. - When writing TABLEST commands, FEMAP previously included decimal points in the y components, even though they are actually table IDs. They are now properly written as integers. - Changed translation on MAT4 and MAT5 commands for non-MSC interfaces. Previously the FEMAP Specific Heat was written directly to the Cp field. In non-MSC NASTRAN however this field should really be Cp*density. It is now written properly. If density is zero, Cp is written directly (not as 0.0) as before, but you will receive a warning.

STARDYNE Interfaces
Previously if you placed pressures on triangular plates and then chose to translate them to thick plates using degenerate QUADS elements, the pressures were still written as TPRS loads (on triangles) and STARDYNE did not recognize them as valid. They are now correctly written as QPRS loads (on quads).

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Enhancements and Updates (Version 4.41)

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Dynamic Selection Tracking

When you move the cursor thru the graphics window to select nodes, elements or other geometry, FEMAP now dynamically highlights the entity that will be selected if you click the mouse button. This makes accurate selection much easier in complex models. You can turn the selection tracking on and off in the File Preferences command.

Large Model Support - 32-Bit Versions

The maximum cache size for the 32-Bit Versions has been increased to over 200 MBytes. This allows better use of the larger amounts of physical memory that are available on many systems today. Previously, cache sizes were limited to 13 MByte, resulting in unnecessary swapping for larger models on machines with 32 MByte or more of memory. Because of limitations in the 16-bit architecture, maximum cache sizes for the 16-bit versions are still the same. We strongly advise switching to the 32-bit versions if you are working with larger models.

Windows 95 and Windows NT Support

Added support for "Full Drag" mode of FEMAP graphics windows in these operating systems. Previously, if you enabled this capability in the operating system, it was very difficult to resize a window because it would constantly repaint as you dragged the border. Now only the coordinate axes redraw while dragging, then when you stop the entire picture regenerates. FEMAP now automatically registers the .MOD file type in the System Registry. This allows Windows to display proper icons with those files in Windows 95, and also allows you to start FEMAP simply by double-clicking the model file name. Model files can also be dropped onto the system printer to print the active view saved in the model. For Windows 95, FEMAP now uses the new Explorer-style File Open dialog boxes. While this is slightly different than the File Open used with the other operating systems, it provides easier access to network resources and displays

additional information, such as file sizes. The toolbox has been improved to resize the buttons based on your system resolution and fonts to improve the appearance of the buttons and the associated icons.

ABAQUS - PostProcessing
Plate Forces have been changed to load into the Middle Layer locations. This enables them to be compared with the results from other programs.

ANSYS Interfaces
Support has been added in the ANSYS Write and PostProcessing Interfaces for Transient, Frequency Response, Buckling, Nonlinear Static and Nonlinear Transient Response. Support is also included for Nonlinear and Hyperelastic materials.

ALGOR Interfaces
The ALGOR Model Read interface can now automatically delete beam reference nodes, converting all beams back into a vector orientation. This eliminates the problems caused by ALGOR placing reference nodes at extremely large distances from the model.

Advanced Meshing Module

Added support for meshing ACIS (.SAT format) files that contain: - subshells - multiple bodies with voids - multiple independent surfaces

Creating Loads and Constraints

Loads and constraints can now be created on the faces that are the edges of planar (plates, axisymmetric, ...) elements. The "Adjacent Faces" capability can now also be used with the faces that are the edges of these elements.

Combining Loads and Constraints

Added the ability to combine multiple loads and constraint sets. Loads can be combined with a different scale factor for each load set. The scale factor is ignored when combining temperatures, and only the last temperature on any particular node or element is used. You can either overwrite or combine duplicate constraints on the same node during this process. NOTE: You must use some care when combining loads. If loads on the same node or element in different sets are combined, the resulting set will simply contain multiple loads on that node or element - they are not combined into a single load.

FEMAP Neutral Write

Neutral files can now be written in a format that is compatible with a specified earlier version of FEMAP. Supported versions include 4.1, 4.3 and 4.4. This allows you to use a current FEMAP and still interface it with older FEMAP versions, or with 3rd party software that has not been upgraded to be compatible with the latest version.

Scaling Loads - Convection and Radiation

A new capability has been added to the Modify Scale Load command to allow modification of either the primary load coefficient or the ambient temperature for convection and radiation loads.

File Preferences
You can now control the default colors for all entities thru the File Startup Preferences options. The colors you choose will be used whenever you start a new model.

File Rebuild
New capability has been added to File Rebuild to attempt to automatically reconstruct databases even if they contain duplicate copies of the same data (same IDs). Previously rebuild would just give up if it encountered this situation.

Modify Color - Materials and Properties

A new capability has been added to the Modify Color Material and Modify Color Property commands to automatically change the colors of a group of materials or properties in a random fashion. This allows you to automatically distinguish property differences by element colors.

MTAB*STRESS Interfaces
The MTAB Interfaces have been enhanced to request and recover corner stresses (as well as centroidal stresses) for Type 8, Parabolic Solid, elements. Also added an option to use Type 8 elements even for Linear Solids.

NASTRAN Interfaces
Added the capability to request Elemental Strain Energy Output. When reading a model, the interface now asks whether to use the adjustment factor whenever it encounters a PARAM, WTMASS command. Added an option in the femap.ini initialization file to control the default output destination. Set NasOutDest=n, where n of 0 = Print, 1 = Post, 2 = Print and Post, 3 = Punch and 4 = Punch and Post. Added support for reading CELASi, CDAMPi elements to ground. Also added general support for reading CELAS3, CDAMP3, CELAS4 and CDAMP4 elements and NOLINi loads. Added ability to read ASET, BSET, ... xSET commands on scalar points. Added ability to read LOAD commands.

Output Reports
The List Output Standard and List Output Use Format commands have been improved to only print the FEMAP header at the top of the report, and/or at the top of every page if you list directly to a printer.

Property - Laminate
When defining or editing laminate properties you can now insert and delete plies in the layup that you are defining.

View - Contour Vectors

Elemental and Nodal Results can now be displayed as vectors in contour colors based on their magnitude. Elemental results are displayed as vectors at the centroid of the element. Several options allow control over the placement of arrowheads on the vectors. You can also define the original orientation of the results to be displayed.

View - Trace Plots

Deformations can now be displayed as trace lines. This new capability works much like MultiSet Animation, except that as the animation proceeds, a line or trace is left behind showing the deformed location of one or more nodes. Options are available to select the nodes to trace, to turn on or off the model deformations, and for labeling and animation of the traces.

weCan Interface
Added support for beam and bar releases.

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Corrections (Version 4.41)

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ABAQUS - Write Model

Hyperelastic material constants have been corrected. Hyperelastic constants Di are now properly inverted (1/Di) prior to translation.

ABAQUS - PostProcessing
Plate Forces have been changed to load into the Middle Layer locations. Previously, Plate Force results were loaded into Bottom Layer locations. While there was nothing wrong with this, it made it more difficult to compare results with other programs.

Advanced Meshing Module

When meshing, you could still choose toolbar commands, and then press additional meshing buttons. This has been corrected to disable the toolbar while you are in the middle of a meshing command. The toolbar is staill available between meshing commands.

ALGOR - PostProcessing
Corrected a problem in the 32-bit versions that prevented binary stress output files from being read.

Create Volume Between

The Create Volume Between command was disabled when there was only one surface, even though you can use it with just one surface and a point.

Check Sum Forces

The sign convention for concentrated moments has been corrected. Previously the result of concentrated moments was reversed in sign (added when it should have been subtracted).

Create Output Envelope

When creating an envelope, you previously had to specify a vector number greater than 7000, even if you were enveloping an entire output set. This is no longer required.

Create Output Convert Complex

When converting complex output between mag/phase and real/imaginary if you chose to convert the entire output set, and that set contained corner data, you would get many messages informing you that converted data already existed for the corners. These messages have been eliminated. There was no problem in the conversion, it just generated unneccessary messages.

Check Measure Curves

This command was not disabled even when there were no curves in the model. Curves must now exist for this command to be available.

FEMAP Neutral Read

Corrected a problem that prevented successful reading of Binary Neutral files that contained load sets. This problem did not impact ASCII Neutral Files which we recommend for most purposes. Also corrected a more general problem in the 32-bit versions that prevented Binary Neutral files from being read properly.

File Picture Copy and Save

In the 32-bit versions, several problems have been corrected that prevented Metafiles and placeable Metafiles from being pasted into Word 6.0, or some other programs, or from being replayed.

Generate Remesh
In the 32-bit versions only, Generate Remesh would sometimes crash. Corrected the memory access problem that caused this problem.

Group - Materials by Type

Previously you were unable to select Hyperelastic materials when choosing the type of materials to include or exclude from a group.

Mass Elements
Numerous problems were corrected with Mass Elements. Their labels did not plot at the element location. You could not graphically select them, except in Quick Display mode, and List Elements did not list their nodes. All of these have been corrected.

Modify Scale Load

This command only scaled the load at the first end of a distributed load. It now properly scales both ends.

MSC/NASTRAN Interfaces
For Buckling Solutions, a LOAD=xx command has been added to the eigenvalue subcase. For Version 68 and later this is required for buckling. Switched to using SPOINTs instead of constrained nodes as reference nodes for convection or radiation loads. While there was nothing wrong with using constrained nodes, the use of SPOINTs eliminates messages encountered during postprocessing that output exists for nonexistent nodes (the ficticious ones written as reference nodes that were never saved in the model). Corrected a problem that caused a PARAM, LGDISP command to be incorrectly written if you change the analysis type from Linear Static, to Nonlinear Static and then back to Linear Static again. For Nonlinear Analysis, the Modified Newton-Raphson options for Line Search, Quasi-Newton and Bisection were reversed (On when should be off). They are now written properly. Nonlinear Material Table (TABLES1) x-y values were previously written in reversed order. Data should be entered as requested in FEMAP - it is now written and read properly. An error was corrected that occurred when convections were placed on the edges of axisymmetric elements. Previously, incorrect interface elements (quad shaped) were written instead of the correct line interface elements.

Laminate properties with >36 plies in small field format have been corrected. Previously they would not work because the continuation field was inadvertently repeated after the 36th ply. For Solid Element properties, if you choose to align the material coordinate system to the element axes we now write a -1 instead of a blank for the selection. This change was required because the default value on the PSOLID changed in MSC/NASTRAN Version 68. Added a warning to indicate that initial tension was being ignored for Rod / Cable element properties if it is nonzero. This capability is not available in NASTRAN. For Heat Transfer Analysis, the default convergence method was changed to UPW (from U) and the default tolerance values are now used instead of the previously looser tolerances. The previous methods did not lead to accurate or reliable convergence in many cases. Removed the Estimate Button from the Analysis dialog box for Steady-State Heat Transfer Analysis, since it did not apply to that type of solution. For Heat Transfer, the LANGLE and LGDISP parameters are now off by default. Previously LGDISP was on. The standard output report format for Plate Forces has been corrected. It previously tried to display output stored in the vectors for the Top Layer of the element, while the output is actually stored in the Middle Layer.

MSC/pal and CDA/Sprint Interfaces

Beam elements were always being written as Type 4 (nonsymmetrical), which caused the analysis to abort if you specified I12=0. Now correctly checks to see if stress recovery locations are symmetric and writes Type 1 (symmetric) elements instead. Corrected the postprocessing of Triangular Plate Stresses. Previously stresses for triangular plates were read into wrong vectors. Corrected the postprocessing of models where only displacement output was requested. Previously, if only displacement was requested, the displacement on the final node in the model was missed - it is now read properly. Changed the order of the commands written to select laminate materials from the MSC/pal laminate database. The previous order selected the material constants, but did not properly assign masses to the nodal degrees of freedom.

MTAB*STRESS Interfaces
Corrected a problem in the 32-bit versions that prevented Element Output from Type 3, 4 or 5 elements from being read properly, along with results from Time History analyses. Also corrected a problem in 32-bit versions that prevented some models with Type 8 elements from being read properly. Added an integration order of 3 for Type 8 elements (Parabolic Solids). Previously nothing was written. The default integration order however does not give good results with brick elements that reference midside nodes. Corrected the face numbering for pressures on Type 8 elements. Pressures on Faces 1 and 2 were previously reversed (on the opposite face).

Corrected numerous problems in reading output for specific models, including proper handling of multiple boundary elements in multiple load case static analyses. Also now handle multiple element type models which are bandwidth minimized and reordered before analysis. Corrected a problem with Plane Strain elements that caused them to always be written with a thickness of 1.0.

SSS/NASTRAN - PostProcessing
Plate Forces have been changed to load into the Middle Layer locations. Previously, Plate Force results were loaded into Bottom Layer locations. While there was nothing wrong with this, it made it more difficult to compare results with other programs.

Stereolithography Interface
Corrected the STL interface to be case insensitive. Some programs use upper case when writing the STL file, and this was previously not supported.

Toolbox
Corrected a problem with user-defined toolboxes that used more than two levels of menus. Previously you could not get back to the main menu level with the backup command after going below the second level. The maximum depth has been increased to 8 levels, and you are now prevented from going below that level. This did not occur in the standard toolbox that ships with FEMAP, but was possible in user-defined toolboxes.

UAI/NASTRAN Interfaces
Improvements have been made in the UAI/NASTRAN interfaces that now support requesting and postprocessing of element corner output. Results are now properly handled with or without corner output. Changed output requests to NLSTRESS and NLSTRAIN for nonlinear static analysis - previously incorrectly wrote STRESS and STRAIN. Also now properly read QUADR element results.

View - Animated Contours

If you animated contours of data that is all negative, the contours previously animated backwards (i.e. the least deformed resulted in the biggest, most negative value, and vice versa). The animation scaling algorithm has been improved to correct this problem.

View - Dynamic Rotation

In the 32-bit versions, if you dragged the mouse out of the left or top of the graphics window while rotating the model would jump to a new location rather than rotating smoothly. This has been corrected.

View New
When you create a new view by copying an existing view, the list of active layers for that view is now properly duplicated. Previously, the layer list was missed, requiring you to recreate it in the new view.

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Documentation (Version 4.41)

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6.3.12 Create Material - Hyperelastic

When entering Hyperelastic material constants Di, be careful. They are translated directly for NASTRAN, but for ABAQUS the values written are 1 / Di.

6.10.11 View Select . . .

Two new postprocessing styles have been added to the View Select command. The new deformed style called Trace Plotting allows you to display "streamline" style lines as nodes deform. The new Vector Contour Style provides the display of contour-colored vectors at the centers of elements. Deformed Trace Style You can now produce a Trace Plot from a output contained in multiple Output Sets. This capability is especially valuable for visualization of deformation in transient analyses which produce time dependent results. This new capability works much like MultiSet Animation, except that as the animation proceeds, a line or trace is left behind showing the location of one or more nodes. Through the Trace Locations option in the Deformed and Contour Data dialog box, you can choose to select all the nodes, a group of nodes, or a single node to use for the trace. A new Trace Style option has also been added to the View Options command. Here you can choose whether to display or label each location along the trace lines, and whether to display full length trace lines or to animate them with the model. When used in combination with the Skip Deformation option in View Select, you can independently control whether the model and/or the trace lines are animated. Contour Vector Style Elemental and Nodal Results can now be displayed as vectors in contour colors based on their magnitude. If you choose elemental output, the vectors will be shown at the centroids of the associated elements. Choosing nodal results causes vectors to be displayed at the nodes. You choose the output to be displayed via the Contour Vectors option in the Deformed and Contour Data dialog box. You can define the output in any of four different methods - Standard Vectors, Single Value, 2-D Components, or 3-D Components. Typically you will want to select a Standard Vector since these Output Vectors contain data which was already calculated based upon their components. Examples of these type of vectors include Total Translation or Rotation for Nodal Data, Plate Top Major Stress for 2-D Plate Elements, and Solid Major Principal Stress for 3-D Solid Elements. The direction and magnitude of these vectors are automatically calculated by FEMAP to generate the Vector Contour Plot. If you want to display vectors other than standard, you can simply select the number of components of the vector (Single, 2-D, or 3-D). If you decide to display a single vector, you must also define the vector direction under the Display Direction button. The standard FEMAP Vector Definition Dialog Box is displayed to enable you to define the direction of this 1-D plot. If you select 2-D components, and the two associated vectors for the X and Y components, the data will be displayed in the coordinate directions defined by the "Output Relative To" portion of the dialog box (discussed below). 3-D components works just like 2-D except that you must now choose three vectors. In either of these cases, the components must be chosen in a top-down fashion. That is, the first vector represents the x component, the second is the y component, and the third (if necessary) is the z component. By allowing you to select a Standard Vector, or any combination of 1-D, 2-D, or 3-D vectors, FEMAP can produce Elemental Centroidal plots for a wide variety of conditions and vectors. FEMAP does not know nor keep track of the coordinate system where your output is defined. Therefore it is up to you to provide this information prior to making a vector plot. You can choose any one of five different methods, depending on how your results were defined by your analysis program. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT ! IF YOU CHOOSE THE WRONG, OR INAPPROPRIATE METHOD, THE DISPLAY WILL BE WRONG. YOU MUST KNOW HOW THE DATA WAS DEFINED BY YOUR ANALYSIS PROGRAM BEFORE PROCEEDING.

Element Edge / Solid CSys or Nodal Output CSys This method is used for output from planar elements if the X output direction is defined relative to the first element edge (the line connecting the first two nodes). It is used for Solid elements if output is defined in the solid property coordinate system. Use it for nodal output, if the results are in the Nodal output coordinate system. Be aware however that for most standard three dimensional nodal output vectors (Displacements, Constraint Forces, Applied Loads, Velocities and Accelerations) FEMAP transforms output into global coordinates and this option is not appropriate. Element Midside Locations This option is used for output from planar elements when the X output direction is defined as the vector that joins the midsides of the second and final (4th for a quad, 3rd for a triangle) edge. Element Diagonal Bisector This option is used for output from planar elements when the X output direction is defined as the vector that bisects the angle formed by the two element diagonals, in the quadrant that generally points along the first edge. Element Material Direction This option is used for elemental output that is defined in the material direction. For example along the rotated plies of a laminate. CSys This final method is available if your output is defined in some known coordinate system. You must also choose the appropriate coordinate system along with this option.

View Options - Contour Vector Style A new Contour Vector Style option has been added to the View Options command as well. Here you can choose whether the length and/or color of the vectors will be adjusted based on their magnitude. You can also choose how the vectors are located and whether or not they have arrowheads. If you choose to center the vectors, they will either be centered at the node or element centroid, as appropriate. Otherwise, the start of the vector will be placed at that location. If you choose a Single Arrow style, the direction of the vector (toward the arrowhead) will imply whether the value is positive or negative. For Dual Arrow styles, outward pointing arrowheads are used for positive values, inward pointing arrowheads are used for negative values.

8.4 ANSYS Interfaces

Many new capabilities have been added to the ANSYS Interfaces for this release including support for Transient, Frequency Response, Buckling, Nonlinear Static and Nonlinear Transient Response analyses. The following documentation is meant to supplement the information that is already in the FEMAP manual. Revision It is very important that you set this option correctly for the version of ANSYS that you will be using. There are significant changes in commands and conventions between ANSYS Revision 4.4 and Revision 5.0. If you choose the incorrect version, your model will almost certainly fail to run. Revision 5 is now the default option. Furthermore, only Static and Modal Analysis are available for ANSYS Revision 4.4. Commands for Automatic Solve If you check this option, FEMAP will write additional commands to the end of your ANSYS file. These commands automatically perform the analysis when you load the file into ANSYS, or run the model in batch mode. This command is automatically selected for Transient, Frequency, Buckling, and Nonlinear Transient analyses. Do not select this option if you are running a Static, Modal, or Nonlinear Static analysis and want to load the model into ANSYS,

and then review it in PREP7 before beginning your analysis. Large Deformation Effects For Nonlinear Analysis (both Static and Transient), you also have the option to choose Large Deformation Effects. Simply click on this dialog box if you would like to include these effects. This selection will not appear if you did not select a Nonlinear Analysis Type. Preparing for Static Analysis - Additional Information You may also define multiple load and constraint sets for Nonlinear Static analysis, however, the first load set chosen must have active Nonlinear Analysis options. If Nonlinear Analysis options are not defined, an error will occur and FEMAP will not translate the load sets. If Nonlinear Analysis options are defined for the first load set, these options will be used for all following load sets since ANSYS does not allow modification of these options after entering the solution process. Preparing for Transient and Nonlinear Transient Response Analyses Preparing for these types of analyses is very similar to preparing for Static and Modal Analysis except only one load set and one constraint set may be chosen. A dialog box will appear to enable you to select the load case. The load case selected must have the correct Dynamic Analysis Solution Option chosen to prevent translation errors. If Dynamic Analysis options are turned Off, or a mismatch occurs between solution and analysis type (i.e. you chose Transient Analysis but the Dynamic Analysis Solution Option for the chosen load set is Direct or Modal Frequency), an error message will appear and the load set will not be written. If the Analysis Type and the Dynamic Analysis option match, FEMAP will automatically determine whether to use a FULL (direct) or MODAL analysis method based upon the Dynamic Analysis Solution Option. If a direct method is active in the Dynamic Analysis Solution option, the Constraint Set dialog box appears and you can select the appropriate constraint set, after which the translation is completed. If a modal method is active, FEMAP will first write commands for the Modal solution and then the transient solution. The ANSYS Dynamic Analysis Options (see Preparing for Modal Analysis) dialog box appears to allow you to select information related to the initial Modal Analysis. Translating for Nonlinear Transient analysis is identical to Transient analysis except that Modal Transient is not available, Nonlinear Analysis options must be active, and you can choose to activate Large Deformation Effects. If a Modal Transient Solution Method is selected, or Nonlinear Analysis options are not active, an error message appears and the load set is not written. Preparing for Frequency/Harmonic Response Analysis Preparing for Frequency analysis is identical to transient except for an additional dialog box which appears at the end of translation. This dialog box is identical to the ANSYS Dynamic Analysis Options dialog box and is used to select the number of frequencies and the frequency range to be analyzed. If a Modal Frequency Solution Method is chosen, this dialog box will appear twice. The first time you must choose the options for the initial Modal Analysis, while the second time it appears you must choose the frequency range of interest. As shown below, only Number of Frequencues, MIN Frequency, Max Frequency, and whther to calculate Element results will be available for the Frequency protion of this analsyis. All other options are grayed. Preparing for Buckling Analysis Buckling analysis simply requires the writing of a Static Solution followed by a Buckling Solution. Only one load set and one constraint set may be chosen for Buckling Analysis. The only other inputs required are the number of modes to be extracted and whether Elemental Results should be calculated. These are input in the standard ANSYS Dynamic Analysis Options dialog box. Notes on Dynamic Analyses

It is important to review limitations on Transient and Frequency Response loading conditions in ANSYS. Loads on the same node or elemental face must have the same time history (Transient) or same phase (Frequency). If they do not, FEMAP will write the loading conditions assuming the last time history/phase, and you will most likely get results for a different loading condition than desired. Also, with regard to damping, you can define alpha and beta damping for frequency analysis by defining the Overall Structural Damping Coefficient (G). FEMAP will automatically compute alpha and beta. If only one frequency is defined for the analysis, FEMAP assumes alpha is 0 and computes beta from 2*G/wi where wi is the frequency. If a range of frequencies are specified, FEMAP will compute alpha and beta based on the equation G = alpha/(2*wi) + beta*wi/2 by assuming G is constant over the frequency range. Two simultaneous equations are produced at the two frequencies which define the range. For damping in transient analysis, alpha is assumed to be zero and beta is set equal to the G divided by the Frequency for System Damping (W3). Alpha and Beta damping are not available for Nonlinear Transient Analysis. For more information concerning damping in ANSYS, please review the ANSYS Procedures Manual.

Appendix G - FEMAP Neutral File

Data Block 413 - Layer Information This data block has been added for Version 4.41 and provides information that was lost in previous versions. Record 1 Record 2 ID color title ID of Layer Color of Layer Title of Layer 4 byte integer 4 byte integer character string

Data Block 407 - Loads The following field has been added to the end of Record 19 (after "dyn_out_int") Record 19 ... dyn_out_int ... dyn_rand_psd Random PSD Function ID

4 byte integer

Data Block 409 - Views The following fields have been added to the end of the record that contained "anim_frame" and "anim_delay" 1 record anim_frame ... anim_delay .... trace_opt trace_ID cntvec_hide cntvec_mode cntvec_csys cntvecID[0..2] cntvec_dir[0..2]

Trace Option ID of trace vector Flag to Hide contour Vectors Contour Vec Mode CSys for Contour Vectors IDs of Output Contour Vectors Components of Contour Vector direction

4 byte integer 4 byte integer 2 byte boolean 4 byte integer 4 byte integer 4 byte integers 8 byte double precision

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Enhancements and Updates (Version 4.4)

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Advanced Meshing Module

The most exciting news regarding this version is the availability of our new Advanced Meshing Module. Accessible via the Generate Automesh commands, this module provides the following capabilities: * Automatic tetrahedral solid meshing of arbitrary solid models or any volume bounded by a closed set of triangular surface elements. * Direct meshing of Solid and Surface models from products like AutoCAD R13, AutoCAD Designer, MicroStation Modeler, MSC/Aries, or any other ACIS-based modeler. * Import, cleanup and remeshing of StereoLithography files, or remeshing of any surface mesh. Unlike many other systems, all of these commands can be used at several levels. They are all set up to mesh most geometries automatically. That is, they automatically select mesh sizes, build surface meshes and fill the surface mesh with tetrahedral solids. If you want more control over the process however, those capabilities are also available. You have control over the mesh spacings that are used to generate the surface meshes, and many meshing options are available to handle special situations. For the ultimate control you can even tweak some or all of the surface mesh before proceeding with solid meshing. NOTE: This module is not part of the standard FEMAP system. It can be purchased as an option for the 32-bit FEMAP systems (for Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT). It is not compatible with the 16-bit Windows 3.1 version of FEMAP.

Windows 95 Support
The 32-bit (Windows NT) versions of FEMAP have been enhanced to support Windows 95 when it is available. This includes use of new Windows 95 dialog boxes providing a full Windows 95 look-and-feel when you run it on this operating system.

Calculator
Added the POW( ) function which can be used to raise a number to an arbitrary power.

Standard Library Usage

All of the FEMAP Libraries can now be accessed via a new interface. The new interface allows searching for entries in the library and the ability to connect to new library files at any time.

New Element Type - Slide Lines

A new slide line element type has been added. This is currently only used for MSC/NASTRAN, but will be expanded in the future.

New Material Capabilities

FEMAP now supports Hyperelastic materials in addition to the traditional Isotropic, Orthotropic and Anisotropic materials. Nonlinear capabilities have also been added to support nonlinear elasticity, plasticity and creep.

Create Functions
Many new function types have been added to support the new types of dynamics and nonlinear analyses.

Create Constraints
Nodal constraints can now be created on element faces. See the following section describing the new nodal loading capability for more information.

Create Loads
Many new capabilities have been added to this menu. You can now specify options to control Dynamics (Transient and Frequency Response) Analyses, and Nonlinear Analyses along with your load sets. Currently, these are only used by the NASTRAN (and Neutral File) interfaces, but we expect to be broadening this support in the future. Just as elemental face loads could be specified by various face selection methods, including automatic selection of adjacent faces, nodal loads and constraints can now also be applied in this fashion. You simply select the elements, and appropriate faces, and FEMAP will apply the loads or constraints to all nodes on those faces. In addition to the previous nodal load types, Nodal Velocities can now be defined, and Load Phase can be defined as a function of frequency. Finally, nonlinear transient forces (loads that are a function of a displacement or velocity at one or two other degrees of freedom) can also be defined. These are currently only translated for NASTRAN.

Create Output Envelope

This command has been enhanced to provide the capability to create max/min envelopes of Plate and Laminate results across all Plys or output locations (Top, Middle and Bottom, for example). This new capability allows you to find and plot worst case results across all plies in a composite.

Create Output - Convert and Expand Complex

These two new commands allow you to manipulate complex results (typically from Frequency Response Analyses). Convert allows you to go between Magnitude/Phase and Real/Imaginary formulations. Expand takes complex output and creates multiple real output sets as a function of phase so that you can view "phased" animations. NOTE: To support complex output, a change has been made in the allowable Vector IDs for User Defined Output. Previously any ID over 100000 was available. Now, User Defined Output must conform to the following conventions: Magnitude (or non complex output) must use Vector IDs 100000 to 999999. Phase output uses IDs 1100000 to 1999999. The Real component of Complex output must use IDs 2100000 to 2999999 and the Imaginary component uses IDs 3100000 to 3999999.

Generate Radial Copy and Generate Scale

These two new menus of commands allow you to easily generate a radial or spherical pattern from existing geometry or finite element data. For example, if you have a spherical or cylindrical shell that you want to duplicate at a different radius, these commands will make it simple.

Generate Between
A new biasing option has been added to this command to allow logarithmic/geometric biasing. This new method allows smoother element size transitions near the small elements - which is very important for many fluid dynamics

analyses near boundary layers.

Generate Mesh Refine

Several new capabilities have been added to this command. First, you can now remesh (or refine) complex regions. That is, regions that contain one or more holes. Previously, you could only select simple regions (no holes). In addition, there is now an Unrefine option that lets you remesh with a coarser mesh.

Modify Element Reverse

FEMAP could always reverse element normals, but now you can automatically make all element normals point in a consistent direction (in or out of the model). This new capability allows you to model without worrying about planar element normals and then have FEMAP automatically align the normals before you apply your loads.

Group Generate
A new option has been added to this command to automatically update the element layers along with placing elements into a group. This allows display of multiple model sections using Layer Management.

All PostProcessing Interfaces

Normally when FEMAP reads analysis results, it calculates certain types of output like principal, max shear and Von Mises stress and strain if they were not read from the results file. For large models, this can take some time. If you do not want to postprocess this output, you can now disable this calculation in the File Preferences command.

ABAQUS Interfaces
Many new additions have been made to the ABAQUS interfaces. The most significant of these is the totally new support for Steady-State and Transient Heat Transfer Analyses. FEMAP can now produce complete, ready-to-run heat transfer models. Several other changes have also been made to support formats for both ABAQUS Version 5.4 and previous versions.

ALGOR Read
Updated interface to be able to read models that contain free format Master and Element control records that are now generated by ALGOR.

ANSYS Read Interfaces

Added ability to read SOLID72 tetrahedral elements.

NASTRAN Interfaces
Some of the most significant new developments in this version are contained in the new NASTRAN interfaces. With this version, we go beyond just Static and Modal analysis and now support Transient Dynamics (both Linear and Nonlinear), Frequency Response, and Nonlinear Statics (including Creep, Slide Lines, Material Nonlinearities and Hyperelasticity). Although the primary implementation of these new interfaces was done for MSC/NASTRAN, many of the new features are also available for both UAI/NASTRAN ( Transient, Frequency Response and Nonlinear Static) and CSA/NASTRAN (Transient and Frequency Response) as well. New Case Control and Bulk Data interfaces have been added which provide additional capabilities for Output Selection and PARAM specification. Based upon popular request, RBE3 interpolation elements are now supported as a variation of our Rigid Element.

NASTRAN PostProcessing
All of the NASTRAN results interfaces now scan the output files for Errors, Warnings and Messages. Those messages are then displayed for your review at the end of the translation. In conjunction with the new modeling support for NASTRAN, all of the postprocessing interfaces have also been enhanced to read the results of these solutions - including complex output from Frequency Response Analyses.

STARDYNE Interfaces
Added capabilities to both request and postprocess strains and element corner stresses.

PATRAN Interfaces
Added support for distributed loads and improved support for other loads including pressures.

mTAB*STRESS Interfaces
Many new options have been added to the Model Write interface which now offer complete control over how FEMAP utilizes the STRESS load factors. This gives you much greater control over how you will combine different loads in your analysis. Added support for Parabolic Tetrahedral Solids.

weCan Interfaces
Added support for coupling the results of a Heat Transfer analysis into a Static Analysis.

StereoLithography Interface
A new interface has been added that can read StereoLithography files and create FEMAP surface elements from them. This is primarily intended for use with the Advanced Meshing Module (see above) but can also be used in a stand-alone fashion as another way to get "keypoints" or geometry into FEMAP. Both ASCII and Binary STL files can be read.

XY Plotting
XY plots can now be Log-Log or SemiLog, in addition to the standard Rectilinear. XY plots vs. SetID or SetValue can now be limited to a specified range of output cases.

View Select and Options

Several new capabilities have been added relative to animations and contours. You can now animate contour plots without showing deformations, simply by picking Skip Deformations in View Select. Similarly, MultiSet animations no longer need any special setup in View Options to display properly, (you do not have to use Actual Deformations, % of screen is also now supported).

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Corrections (Version 4.4)

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Dynamic Rotation

Corrected a problem that could cause a crash if you had too many elements that referenced nodes that did not exist and tried to dynamically rotate the model. This problem did not occur in normal, valid models.

Plotting Laminate Thicknesses

When you plot laminate elements with thicknesses shown, the symmetric laminate flag was previously ignored when calculating the thickness. The thickness is now correctly doubled to account for this flag.

Delete Loads
Corrected a problem that resulted from the deletion of loads that were defined in a user-defined coordinate system that then prevented the coordinate system from being deleted without running File Rebuild.

Merge Coincident Nodes

Fixed the merging of coincident nodes where nodal heat fluxes or nodal heat generations are applied. Previously if one of these nodes was deleted the loads were lost. They are now reapplied to the other node.

Check Mass Properties

The mass properties command has been corrected to account for the symmetric laminate flag. Previously, symmetry was ignored, resulting in half of the mass for these elements.

Group Clipping - Volume

Corrected a problem that prevented 2-point Volume clipping from working properly if you did not enter the maximum clipping volume coordinates as the first point.

Group Rules
A problem was corrected that occassionally resulted in rigid or other elements that do not reference a property to be included into a group that included Elements by their Property IDs. A similar problem was corrected for Properties selected by Material ID for properties that do not reference a material.

NASTRAN Interfaces
MAT3 cards generated from orthotropic materials have been corrected. There were several errors that resulted in wrong data being written and read from MAT3 cards.

PATRAN Interfaces
Corrected the configuration of P_AXISYM elements to properly transfer thru PATNAS as CTRIAX6 elements. Corrected the use of the NU31 term (not NU13) on orthotropic material constants. Corrected reading and writing of element pressures regarding the proper application to element faces.

DXF Interfaces
Corrected a problem in the Windows NT and UNIX versions of FEMAP that prevented reading of blocked entities in a DXF file. The problem did not occur in the 16-bit Windows 3.1 version.

weCan Interfaces
Previously nodal rotation angles were written in the incorrect order for nodes where constraints or loads were applied to a node in a non-global coordinate system. The previous order was about X, -Y and Z. Now written in the correct order Z, X, -Y.

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Documentation (Version 4.4)

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FEMAP Neutral File - Appedix G

The DOF Spring Property records use Flags 2 and 3 for the degrees of freedom, not Flags 0 and 1 as previously documented.

Create Load Nonlinear Force

The Create Load Nonlinear Transient command described in the documentation (Chapter 6.3.14.8) has been changed to Create Load Nonlinear Force to better reflect the purpose of this command.

Create Load Nonlinear Analysis

Under the Advanced dialog box (Other Transient Options), you can now directly define the three structural damping parameters (G, W3 and W4) that are also available in Create Load Dynamic Analysis. This eliminates the need to go to both commands when defining options for a nonlinear transient analysis. In addition, when you choose a nonlinear transient analysis method, FEMAP will automatically switch the Dynamic Analysis type to Direct Transient, if you have not previously set some other Dynamic type.

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Enhancements and Updates (Version 4.3 & 4.31)

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New Platforms
We are happy to announce that FEMAP is now available for the following platforms: Windows 3.1 : Intel-based PCs Windows NT : Intel-based PCs, and DEC Alpha UNIX : IBM, Hewlett Packard, Sun, and Silicon Graphics Workstations We will also be porting to other platforms based on customer demand. If you would like to use FEMAP on a different system, please call us.

Performance Improvements - Display

Once again we have been able to make some rather significant performance improvements in drawing speed. In the View Quick Options dialog box (Ctrl-Q), you will find a new option labelled Quick Display. When you turn on this option, FEMAP will build and maintain an in-memory display list. Our testing shows speed improvements of up to 12:1 when redrawing plate models. Hidden line and filled displays are also significantly faster, but do not show quite as much improvement. You can turn this option on and off whenever you like. Since it does require significant amounts of additional memory, we do not recommend using this option if your machine does not have at least 8 MBytes of memory (although it will

still work). Refer to the View Options command in the manual for more information.

Performance Improvements - Boundary Meshing (4.31)

Performance of the FEMAP Boundary mesher has been improved by a factor of 3, while giving identical meshing results. Part of this improvement results from the use of an additional memory cache which can be enabled or disabled in File Preferences (it is on by default). These new performance enhancements benefit all of the commands that use the Boundary mesher, including Generate Boundary Mesh, Generate Transition, Generate Refine Mesh and in some cases Generate On Geometry On Surface.

Element Selection
Element selection has been accelerated in several ways. First, it uses the display list (if it is available). By using the in-memory display list, the selected entities can be located in less time. In addition however, the method used to add the selected elements to the dialog box list has been improved. The new method results in significant speed improvements in box/circle picking.

Element Plotting
New options have been added to plot element normals as normal vectors, and to selectively remove planar element backfaces.

Preferences
All FEMAP preferences are now stored in a private FEMAP.INI file in the same directory as the program. Previously they were stored in the system WIN.INI file. FEMAP no longer adds any information into the system initialization files.

Dynamic Rotation
The default Dynamic Rotation method has been changed to "Reduced Bitmap". We have found that this method works for most people and is usually much faster and smoother. Unfortunately we have found some video drivers (like ET4000) that do not properly handle this method. If Dynamic Rotation is not showing you a good picture of your model, or is not working well, switch to one of the other methods.

Command Line Options

A new command line option ( "-d filename" ) has been added to automatically read a DXF file. A new command line option ( "-n filename" ) has been added to automatically read a FEMAP Neutral file. (4.31) A new command line option ( "-neu" ) has been added to automatically write a neutral file when you save your model.

File Access
The standard FEMAP file access dialog box has been replaced with the Windows Common File Access Dialog box. The new dialog box provides many benefits including separate lists for disks and directories, and the ability to connect to network drives. More importantly however, it is the same file access dialog box that you will see in most other Windows applications.

Printer Setup
The previous printer setup box has been replaced with the Windows Common Printer Setup Dialog box. Just like the file access dialog box this provides an interface that is common with other applications. In addition, it provides many benefits like immediate access to the landscape/portrait orientation options.

Replay Picture Program

The Replay program, used to replay FEMAP (or other Windows) picture files has been enhanced to display the common file access dialog box when it is run directly from Windows (not from the File Picture Replay command). Previously, you simply typed the full filename that you wanted to replay.

Window Management
Typing Ctrl+U now toggles the Messages and Lists window between a full tiled size and its original size. Ctrl+Shift+U does the same thing for the active graphics window.

Program Files
Two new functions have been added to program files. #EXEC( "program" ) allows you to launch the specified program. (4.31) #TIME( "message" ) prints the current date and time, along with your message. (4.31) Added a <PAUSE> command to program files that waits for the current command to complete before continuing the program file. This can be used like the <USER> command to let someone complete a series of dialog boxes interactively. It is also useful if you want to print from a program file. Since printing occurs thru Windows, the program file must be <PAUSE>d at the point printing begins, so that the program file waits for printing to complete.

Toolbox
The compiled FEMAP toolbox file format has changed. Any previous toolboxes that you have created must be recompiled with the new compiler. No changes have been made to the toolbox definition file format, so all you have to do is recompile. The new format is cross-platform compatible, so the same compiled toolbox can be used on Windows 3.1, Windows NT (Intel and DEC Alpha) and on UNIX.

Tools Cursor Position

An option has been added to the system menu of this dialog box to keep the dialog box on top of all other windows. This insures that you can always see the position as you move the mouse.

Libraries (4.31)
The material or property ID can now be loaded along with the other data from the appropriate library if the ID in the library is set to a nonzero value. This requires that you edit the library, FEMAP always writes the ID as zero.

Functions
A new capability has been added to create, edit, list and delete XY functions. These functions can be defined vs. Time, Temperature or dimensionless quantities. They can then be assigned to create varying materials or loads. They can also be plotted and transferred between other Windows applications. Functions can be edited by phase shifting and magnitude adjustment.

New Loading Capabilities

Many new loading features have been added. New load types include: Heat Generation, Heat Flux, Convection, Radiation and Distributed Loads along line elements. In addition, the method of applying loads to the faces of elements has been significantly improved. All elemental face loads can now be applied via several methods, including a new method which will select all adjacent faces to a single face that you select. Graphical selection of element faces has also been improved to highlight the face as you select it. If you did not choose the correct face, just pick again until the correct face is highlighted. Finally, elemental face loads can now be applied to the edges (and back) of planar elements, not just the normal face.

Check Chapter 8 to see which load types are supported by your analysis program before using them in your model.

Extrude Elements
Added the capability to extrude planar elements along their own normal vectors. Optionally, you can choose to adjust the resulting thicknesses based on the angles of intersection between the planar elements. This capability allows fairly complex plate models to be turned into solid elements.

Generate Copy Elements (4.31)

When you copy elements using existing nodes, you can now specify a node increment of 0 if you want to create coincident elements. If you do specify a zero increment, you will be warned that coincident elements will be created.

Generate On Geometry (4.31)

If you mesh multiple surfaces or volumes that are adjacent to each other, coincident nodes will be generated. To eliminate these, FEMAP previously automatically merged all coincident nodes. This resulted in unnecessary calculations if you already knew that the entities were not adjacent. There is now an option that allows you to skip the merging process. In some cases this can result in an overall speed improvement of 3 to 1.

Generate Mesh on Surface

Previously, you had to specify double the mesh density on a surface if you wanted to mesh with parabolic elements (to account for the midside nodes) than if you wanted to generate linear elements. This is no longer necessary. You should always specify the mesh density as if you were generating linear elements. When parabolic elements are chosen, extra nodes will be created for the midnodes.

Split Quadrilateral Elements

Added the Modify Update Split Quad command to split quadrilateral elements into triangles. This works with both linear and parabolic elements.

Element Alignment
The Modify Update Reverse command has been enhanced to provide an option that allows you to reconnect/realign elements so that their starting edge is generally along a vector direction. This can be used to "rotate" the connection of elements so that the first edge is in a consistent direction for the application of loads.

List Elements (4.31)

The element shape has been added to the listing header. This allows you to tell the shape without counting the number of nodes that are listed.

Check Element Distortion

Elements that fail the distortion checks can now be automatically placed into a group for further manipulation or correction. In addition, an alternate taper check has been added that matches the corresponding MSC/NASTRAN check.

Check Coincident Nodes (4.31)

A new option has been added to turn off the listing of coincident nodes as they are found. This has resulted in a change to the dialog box which is not reflected in the manual. NOTE: BE CAREFUL WHEN MERGING MODELS THAT CONTAIN VERY SMALL OR ZERO LENGTH ELEMENTS. UNDER SOME CIRCUMSTANCES THEIR NODES CAN BE MERGED TOGETHER. SPECIFICALLY, THIS CAN HAPPEN IF A NODE THAT IS NOT ON AN ELEMENT IS WITHIN THE MERGING TOLERANCE OF MORE THAN

ONE NODE ON AN ELEMENT.

Heat Transfer Analysis

As described above, new loading types have been added which can be used for Heat Transfer analysis. Currently Heat Transfer support has been added to a limited number of interfaces. Check Chapter 8 to see if your analysis program is supported.

Creating Loads from Output

A new capability has been added to allow you to create all nodal and elemental load types - including element face pressures and heat transfer loads, from analysis results.

Group Operations Peel

This new command allows you to automatically create groups by removing layers of solid elements from your model - much like "peeling" your model.

View Options
The checkbox options (at the top right) can now be turned on/off by simply double clicking the associated entry in the option list. (4.31) The default option has been changed so that the Label Parameters option is now highlighted (rather than no options being highlighted) the first time you choose View Options during a session.

View Select
Previously when you went into the dialog box to select output for postprocessing, nothing was automatically selected. Now the last output case, Total Translations and Von Mises stress are automatically chosen.

Automatic Output Calculation

FEMAP has always automatically calculated any missing principal stress, Von Mises stress ... as it was reading output from the various analysis programs. Previously however, it based the calculations for all Quad/Tri shaped elements on an in-plane 2D formulation - even if transverse shear was present. This was especially bad for the 2D (plane stress/strain and axisymmetric) elements. This has been enhanced to always use a 3D formulation, setting whatever transverse shears that are missing to zero.

File Analyze Command

The File Analyze command has been added. It will directly attempt to launch of analysis using the solver that you have chosen in File Startup Preferences. This is only currently supported for a limited number of solvers.

Postprocessing Interfaces (4.31)

The cleanup phase of the postprocessing interfaces has been modified to issue a warning whenever output has been read that is outside of the range of existing nodes or elements. This helps to detect reading output into the wrong model.

ABAQUS Read Interface

FEMAP can now read nodes and element connectivity from the ABAQUS postprocessing file. You can access this capability either by choosing Model Read, or simply by reading a results file into an empty FEMAP model. Zero properties and materials are created for all elements. No loads or boundary conditions are created.

ABAQUS PostProcessing
Strain Energy output is now read, and is available for postprocessing. (4.31) All ABAQUS Element Centroidal and/or Nodal Output is now read from the postprocessing file. Fully supported output is placed into the standard output vectors. If other output exists, you will be given the opportunity to read or skip it. If you choose to read this extra output, it will be placed in vectors above 200000.

ANSYS Read Interface

Added changes to support the new Rev 5.1 CDWRIT file format. (4.31) Added the ability to read SOLID92 elements.

COSMOS Interfaces
Support has been added in the COSMOS interfaces for Buckling, Steady-State Heat Transfer and Transient Heat Transfer analyses. In addition, the postprocessing interfaces have been enhanced to directly read the COSMOS binary databases. This avoids parsing thru the printed output file, significantly improving the speed and reliability of these interfaces. Refer to Chapter 8 for more information about the new COSMOS interfaces. Support for plane stress analyses has also been added via an option in the interface to write plane strain elements as plane stress. Anisotropic materials have also been added.

DXF Interface
The AutoCAD/DXF interface has been enhanced to read blocked entities. This allows you to read much more complete data from your CAD models without first exploding the blocked entities.

FEMAP Neutral Interfaces

New information can now be written to the Neutral file, including: a list of active views, free faces, and free edges.

MTAB*STRESS Interfaces
An option has been added to the Case Control dialog to request elemental strain output. In addition, support has been improved for materials. You can now specify any two of the three (E, G, nu) elastic constants and FEMAP will automatically write the proper values required for all element types.

NASTRAN Interfaces
An option has been added to the Case Control dialog to request elemental strain output. For MSC/NASTRAN many changes have been made. A new analysis control dialog box has been added to the write interface to allow you to quickly specify, in one dialog box, all of the options that you will usually need. This allows you to bypass the three (or more) dialog boxes that were previously required. More importantly, support for buckling, steady-state heat transfer and transient heat transfer have been added. For UAI/NASTRAN, CSA/NASTRAN, ME/NASTRAN and Cosmic NASTRAN, support for buckling analyses has also been added. Added support for MPCFORCE output requests and postprocessing. Support has been added for the CIHEX2 element in the Cosmic NASTRAN interfaces.

(4.31) Also added support for reading stresses in CIHEX1 and CIHEX2 elements. For MSC/NASTRAN linear axisymmetric triangles are now written as the recommended CTRIAX6 elements (with missing midside nodes) instead of the previous CTRIARG elements. Furthermore, quadrilateral axisymmetric elements are automatically split into triangles during the translation. The default solution sequences for MSC/NASTRAN have been changed to SESTATICS and SEMODES. For any of the NASTRAN interfaces however, you can override the default solution sequences by editing your FEMAP.INI file and adding one or more of the following lines: SolStatic=... SolModes=... SolBuckling=... SolSSHeat=... SolTransHeat=... where you should replace "..." with the text that you want to appear on the SOL command. If you do not currently have a FEMAP.INI file, create one in your FEMAP directory. The first line must be [FEMAP]. (4.31) The Include file capability during Model Write has been improved to automatically strip control characters (including end-of-file characters) from the file you include. This eliminates problems when you run the resulting file in NASTRAN. (4.31) Added a Solve capability for SSS/NASTRAN. FEMAP can now launch SSS/NASTRAN, monitor its progress and automatically read the results. (4.31) Corrected a problem that prevented Element Strain Energy, Failure Indices and Heat Flow from being read from a file that had been processed by NASCRUSH.

STARDYNE Interfaces
Changed all of the interfaces to free format to support the capability to analyze models with more than 10000 nodes. Added support for requesting and postprocessing strain and element corner output.

WECAN Interfaces
Support has been added for Buckling, Response Spectrum, Steady-State Heat Transfer, Transient Heat Transfer, and Coupled Thermal-Stress analyses. Multiple load sets can now be written as independent load cases, and when they are previous loads are no longer zeroed. Plane Strain elements can be written for plane stress analysis. For postprocessing, heat transfer support has been added, along with support for strain output and reaction forces, and support for axisymmetric triangular elements (STIF56). In addition, any analysis error messages are echoed to the Messages and Lists window when you read output. (4.31) For transient thermal analyses, the default temperature for the load case is now used as the initial temperature. Additional iteration control has been added for transient analyses. Heat generation values are written for each element corner.

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Corrections (Version 4.3 & 4.31)

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Drawing in Small Windows

Several errors have been corrected that could cause FEMAP to crash if you made a graphics window very small.

Dynamic Rotation in Windows NT

An error has been corrected that caused large models (>8000 elements) to crash in the Windows NT version of FEMAP.

Dynamic Rotation
Several problems have been corrected that sometimes caused FEMAP to crash when you tried to rotate models that had missing nodes (for example, if you read and incomplete model from an analysis program). While we do not recommend the practice of working with incomplete/corrupted models, and do not specifically test FEMAP for these conditions, we were able to eliminate these problems.

Automatic Plotting of Boundaries

Boundaries are now automatically added into groups and properly incrementally plotted. Previously they were skipped.

Isosurfaces and Section Cuts

An error has been corrected that occurred when you combined the AutoGroup contour level selection option with either Isosurface or Section Cut displays. Previously, the contour max/min levels with this combination were not selected properly.

Element Release Labels

Previously beam/bar element release labels were always displayed at the first end of the element when the element fiber distance/inertia ratio shapes were displayed simultaneously. They are now properly labeled.

Layer Blanking
Text ignored the layer blanking options. It was displayed even if it was on a hidden layer. It is now displayed correctly.

Toolbar in Windows NT
In the Windows NT version of FEMAP only, the Alt, Shift and Ctrl keys did not previously work with clicking the toolbar buttons. This has been corrected.

Printing in Windows NT
A problem has been fixed that in many cases prevented you from printing at printer resolution when running the Windows NT version of FEMAP (you got the message "Insufficient Resources to Print"). Another problem was corrected that caused FEMAP to crash when you tried to print Messages. This error occurred only on DEC Alpha NT machines, not Intel.

Printing Multiple Copies (4.31)

If you tried to print multiple copies of a multi-view layout you previously got many, many copies, not the number you

asked for. The correct number of copies is now printed.

Low Memory Conditions

Previously no diagnostic messages were given if FEMAP ran out of memory when trying to read a file. Error messages have been added.

AutoPopup Menus (4.31)

Corrected a problem that caused FEMAP to hang if you chose File Save, then immediately chose File Exit when you had the AutoPopup Menus Preference on. This problem only occurred with this sequence of events.

File Picture Save

When saving a bitmap using some video boards/drivers, the "OK to Compress" message box appears in the saved bitmap, if you moved the box from its original location. FEMAP now makes sure that any outstanding message boxes are cleaned up before saving the bitmap.

Create Line Angle To Curve

Previously created a line at the wrong angle if the new base point was not on the selected curve.

Create Line Tangent (4.31)

Previously calculated the tangent line incorrectly.

Create Spline Project Points

An error was corrected that caused FEMAP to crash if you attempted to create a spline through points where the two intermediate points were coincident. This now functions properly.

Create Load on Plane

When creating pressure loads on planes, in a nonrectangular coordinate system, FEMAP did not always pick the correct face of a solid. This has been substantially changed with the all of the new face selection methods.

Create Load from Output and Create Output Commands

Many of the Create Output commands and the Create Load from Output command were improperly grayed in the menu if you did not have Output Set 1 in your model - even though other output did exist.

Create Load Copy

Previously when you copied loads, the internal database counters that prevent nodes/elements from being deleted when loads are attached, were not updated properly. This could result in a corrupted model. This problem has been corrected.

Create Surface Ruled

A problem has been eliminated that caused various configurations of two concentric, semicircular arcs to generate twisted ruled surfaces.

Create Output Extrapolate

If you used Extrapolate on models that contained other than planar or solid elements, the results were previously unpredictable. In some cases, no extrapolated data was produced. Any element type can now be present in the model.

Create Output Envelope (4.31)

When using the Max Absolute Value enveloping option, the absolute value of the output was being stored. This has been corrected so you still get the largest value but the sign is retained.

Generate Define Boundary

In some cases, you could previously create an open boundary. This has been corrected, since all boundaries must be closed.

Boundary Meshing
A problem has been corrected that prevented some boundaries from being meshed with all triangular elements. Also corrected the message that reported the number of nodes created. Previously it did not include the nodes that were created on the boundary, now it includes boundary and interior nodes.

Modify Join
Join did not work properly if the curves to be joined already crossed. The "Near" option did not properly select the sections of the curves to be retained. This has been corrected to work just like the Fillet command. You select Near the sections that you want to keep.

Modify Renumber Materials (4.31)

When you renumber materials, the materials referenced by the plys of a laminate and the materials referenced by the bending, transverse shear and membrane-bending coupling on plates are now properly renumbered. Previously, these were ignored.

Help About on Windows NT

The Help About dialog box incorrectly reported the type of processor that was being used in Windows NT. It always reported a 80486.

ABAQUS Write Interface

If you defined a rigid surface group that contained Arcs an improper error message was given, and any additional rigid surfaces were skipped. Arcs can now be used successfully in rigid surface groups.

ALGOR Read Interface

Beam Releases were not being read correctly from free-format ALGOR model files and have been corrected. Fixed format files were always correct.

ANSYS Read Interface

Corrected a problem that occurred if you had multiple element types (like springs in different directions) connected to the same real constants (like spring stiffness). Previously, this would not create additional properties for the different element types resulting in an incorrect translation.

ANSYS Postprocessing
A problem has been corrected that prevented you from postprocessing Rev 5 output for any model that had more than 7000 nodes or elements. Previously you would see a message: "Record Too Large for Internal Buffers." There are no longer any limitations.

FEMAP Neutral Interface

The list of visible layers for each view were not written to the neutral file, although the flag to say that some layers

were hidden was written. The visible layer list has now been added.

I-DEAS Write Interface

Elements that referenced node IDs larger than 32767 were previously written as negative numbers. This has been corrected to write the correct node ID.

MTAB*STRESS Write Interface

Corrected the model written for Type 3 and 4 (plane stress, strain and axisymmetric) triangles. Previously wrote fourth node as zero, corrected to write fourth node with same ID as third node. (4.31) Corrected the Type 8 elements that were generated when you used orthotropic materials along with linear brick elements (no midside nodes). With this combination, the top and bottom face of the elements were previously reversed.

MTAB*STRESS PostProcessing
Output was not read correctly if your model contained both boundary elements and multiple output cases. In addition, nodal rotations were being improperly converted from degrees to radians, even though they were already in radians.

NASTRAN Write Interface

If you selected displacement output for a set of nodes, the command DISPLACEMENT=0 was always written, not the correct set id. This has been corrected. Also corrected the model for plates with varying corner thickness. Previously the corner thicknesses were not written if any of the other corners had the same thickness as the first corner. Parabolic elements with missing midside nodes formerly wrote the missing nodes as 0. This worked for most elements in MSC/NASTRAN, but not for axisymmetric elements, and not for other versions of NASTRAN. All missing midside nodes are now written as blanks. Previously FEMAP would attempt to write a PLOAD4 (pressure) load on the face of an axisymmetric element if you had applied a pressure to that element in FEMAP. Now you simply get a message saying that type of load is not supported. The continuation field numbering technique for wide field commands has been changed. There were problems previously with some versions of NASTRAN being unable to read commands that had some blank continuation fields mixed with some explicit continuations. Now for wide field commands, all continuation fields are left blank, except for Cosmic NASTRAN (which does not support blank continuations) where they are all numbered sequentially. For the Cosmic NASTRAN FEER method of modal analysis the dialog box labels for the frequencies of interest were incorrect. They have been changed from "From, To", to "Center, Tolerance". The resulting NASTRAN file did not change, just the labels in the dialog box. (4.31) For the Cosmic Translator, corrected pressure loading. Previously PLOAD3 loads were written on 8 and 20 noded bricks. They are now written only to 20 noded bricks and PLOADS are written for 8 noded bricks. Furthermore, the PLOAD3 directions were backwards (negative pressure values). This has also been fixed. (4.31) Corrected a problem that occurred if you had very large E (Young's modulus) values (like 1E20), on an isotropic material and you chose to write wide field format materials. In this case the resulting card was previously formatted incorrectly.

(4.31) The buttons for turning Stresses and Strains in the Case Control dialog box have been corrected. Previously when you pressed None, the "All" buttons still remained highlighted for these two options.

NASTRAN Postprocessing
Corrected a problem that prevented FEMAP from reading the laminate failure indices. Solid element (Hex and Wedge only) stresses were not being read properly ( Cosmic NASTRAN only ).

PATRAN Write Interface

The PATRAN interface was not writing beam/bar offsets properly. It was writing 6 offset components per line. This has been corrected to write 5 components per line, on 2 lines. If there were multiple properties in your model, previously solid and axisymmetric elements were sometimes written with the wrong property ID.

PATRAN PostProcessing
In some cases, FEMAP would attempt to more fields of output than were actually present in the PATRAN files. This resulted in read errors that persisted even past reading that particular file. This has been corrected to only read the correct number of fields. Also corrected a problem that prevented PATRAN from reading the last line of output from some files.

STAAD Read Interface

When pressure loads were read from a STAAD model, the element face was not correctly set. This did not cause any problem if you translated back to STAAD, but did cause problems if translated to some other analysis programs. Multiple commands on the same line with command separators were not properly read.

STAAD PostProcessing
Multiple output cases were not being properly read from the stress output file.

STARDYNE Write Interface

BETA angles on offset beams have been corrected. If beams were offset non-parallel to the line connecting the nodes, the BETA angles were previously incorrect. In most cases the error was very small, unless the offsets caused the offset direction to fall along Global Z (when the nodes were not along Global Z). In this case the error could be significant.

STARDYNE Read Interface

If your model contains constraints on nonexistent nodes, FEMAP now simply skips them. This corresponds to the STARDYNE convention. Previously, error messages were given for each nonexistent node. FEMAP can now read models that contain nodes with a blank title field. FEMAP no longer checks past the fourth character to see if the title field is blank. FEMAP now properly reads models that have Load Case Descriptions that begin with the word STARTING, or some other variation of the word START. Previously this type of description was interpreted as a START command.

UAI/NASTRAN Read
An error has been fixed that caused problems reading models that contained comments with many commas on the same line.

WECAN Write Interface

Added a check to insure that all THxx properties are positive. Also errors have been corrected that caused blank values to be put into the real constant table, if you did not completely specify all property values. For Beam/Bar stress recovery locations, if either of the first two locations is exactly 0.0, FEMAP improperly recalculated the location based on the other properties. This has been changed to recalculate only if BOTH are exactly 0.0. Beam/Bar shear constants were previously written incorrectly. They are now computed and written correctly. Changed any blank (zero) values in the real constant tables to "****" to insure that weCan can read past them. An error was corrected that caused rigid elements with 20 nodes to be written incorrectly. Rigid elements with fewer nodes were correct. The Radius of Gyration and Ixx terms for Bar/Beam elements have been corrected. Previously they were written as J/area. They are now correctly written as (I1+I2)/area.

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Documentation (Version 4.3 & 4.31)

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6.4.4.2 Generate Extrude Element . . .

When you are extruding planar elements, you will have two additional methods available: extruding along the element normal directions, and extruding along the element normal directions with thickness corrections. Both of these methods use the normal vectors at each node to determine the extrusion direction. As shown here, this can be used to quickly take a surface model and turn it into a solid element model. < Picture Removed > The Element normal method simply extrudes along the element normal by the extrusion length that you specify. This method will result in the distance between all inner and outer nodes being equal to the extrusion length. In areas where the planar elements are not "coplanar" however, the resulting element thicknesses will not be constant, and in general will be less than the extrusion length. For this reason, it is usually best to choose the final method that includes thickness corrections. By using this method, FEMAP attempts to adjust the extrusion length at each node to make the resulting element thicknesses at that point node to the extrusion length. This will typically result in the distance between the inner and outer nodes being greater than the distance you specified. If your plates are at the midplane of where you want the solids, you will have to use this command twice. One time, you will specify a positive extrusion length (along the positive element normal), then use a negative extrusion length (along the negative element normal).

NOTE: It is up to you to prepare your plate elements with all of their normals pointing in a consistent direction prior to using this command. FEMAP assumes that you want to use the normal direction that you have defined. You can use the Modify Update Reverse or Check Normals commands to adjust the element normals. The View Options command can be used to display a vector along the normal direction.

8.2 Reading ABAQUS Models

In addition to the ability to write ABAQUS Models and Read Results, FEMAP can also read the nodal locations and element connectivity from the ABAQUS Results File. There are two ways to read this information. First, you can simply choose Read Model, and then choose the output file that you want to read. In addition, if you start with an empty model, and directly select Read Analysis Results, FEMAP can read both the model and results in one pass. NOTE: FEMAP can currently only read the nodes and element connectivity because that is all that is contained in the results file.

8.18.1 Writing a weCan Model

The following information supplements the printed information for the newly implemented thermal analysis capabilities:

Preparing for a Heat Transfer Analysis

If you are translating for either a steady-state or transient heat transfer analysis, the model options dialog box is displayed just as it is for structural analyses. Steady-State heat transfer requires no additional input, other than the selection of one or more load sets. Transient analysis only uses one load set, where the loads are linked to timedependent functions. In addition, another time function must be selected, during the translation. Defining the Transient Time Function Prior to translating for transient analysis, you must define a time-dependent function which will control the load/time steps to be used in the analysis. When you create this function, you must define a function data point to represent each of the load steps that you want to analyze. The X values of these data points are the values of time at that step. The Y values should be set to the number of iterations that you want to use during this step. If you set Y to a positive value, loads will be applied as a ramp. Set Y to a negative value for step loading. In either case, the absolute value of Y is the number of iterations. The time points in this transient time control function do not have to correspond in any way to the points in the functions that are used for the loads. FEMAP will automatically interpolate the loading functions at the time points in control function, based on linearly interpolation between the points that you specify. The interpolated function value is then multiplied by the load value and the loads are written at the time you selected.

Neutral File - Appendix G

In a binary neutral file, Data Block 451, Record 7, the comp_dir field is 4 bytes long, not 2 bytes as shown in the manual. In Data Block 402 (Properties), the axial/torsion flag for spring elements is really Flag Number 1, not Flag Number 0 as previously documented.

(4.31) For distributed line loads, the direction/method is 1 thru 6, not 0 thru 5.

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Enhancements and Updates (Version 4.1)

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Performance Improvements
As always, we try to make every version faster and better than the previous. In this case, we have made some significant improvements - especially if you work with large solid-element models: * We have significantly changed the hidden line algorithm for solid models. Previously FEMAP sorted and drew all faces in the model to create the hidden line plot. Now, we simply draw the external (free) faces. We have seen redraw times for various models decrease by factors between 10 and 100 ! As an example, one 6000 brick element model now redraws a hidden line view in around 2 seconds. * Previously, postprocessing information was reloaded/recalculated every time you changed or redrew the view. The processed information is now retained, greatly improving redraw speeds when postprocessing data is being displayed. * We have also changed many of the calls that FEMAP makes to the Windows system to better take advantage of the newer generation of "Windows Accelerator" graphics boards. As a side benefit to this, Metafiles that you save, or paste into other applications are now significantly smaller, and will also redraw much faster. * This version of FEMAP is compiled as a "386/486/Pentium" application. By dropping support for 80286 processors we have been able to do some further optimizations to the code to improve performance. Your registration cards and calls tell us that none of you use 80286 systems, but if anyone is inconvenienced by this change, please let us know. * The database blocksize has been increased in this version. This improves performance, and also allows FEMAP to access more real memory. Now models of up to 15 MBytes can be processed without swapping, if memory is available on your computer. * Several of the Model Read translators ( NASTRAN, ALGOR, and PATRAN ) have been improved relative to their speed of reading models with large numbers of loads. In some cases, this has resulted in an overall 3-to-1 speed improvement in the time required to read the model.

3D Dynamic Rotate, Pan and Zoom

In addition to the general speed improvements in redrawing, FEMAP can now rotate, pan and zoom your model on screen, as simply, and as quickly, as moving your mouse. Even better, this new capability does not require any special hardware - it will work with the graphics adapter you already have. You can access this capability from the Toolbar or the View Align By Dynamic command.

Toolbar
FEMAP now has a toolbar like many other Windows programs. The toolbar gives you instant, graphical access to

many of the commonly used View commands without going through menus or other dialog boxes. In addition, the toolbar remains active when you are in most other commands, so you can change the display (pan, zoom, turn entities on or off, change Groups or Visible Layers, ... ) while you are working.

Layer Management
New commands have been added to FEMAP which allow you to Create, List, and Delete Layers in your model. Layers can now be given titles just like many other entities. The Modify Layer commands have been changed to display a list of the available Layers, including titles. When you are choosing the layer as you create other entities (Curves, Nodes, Elements...), you can press the Ctrl+L key to display a list of the available layers. The new View Layer command allows you to select which layers will be visible in a View. View Layer can also be found on the new Toolbar.

Libraries
FEMAP Property, Material, Format and View Library formats have been changed. They are now an enhanced version of the FEMAP Neutral File format. If you have modified the default libraries in your previous version, you will need to convert them to the new format. The new format however will eliminate this requirement in the future. Furthermore, the new library formats can be read with the FEMAP Neutral File translator, if you want to load the entire library into your model.

File Preferences
Several changes have been made to the File Preferences command: * A new preference has been added which allows you to choose the default rotation angle for the View Rotate and Toolbar Rotate commands. * A new preference has been added which allows you to choose an alternate method to fill polygons. The filling mode is used when you choose to display filled elements or surfaces, and for contour/criteria plots. Some graphics boards, especially some of the more expensive Windows Accelerators (Number Nine, Matrox, ...) have errors or limitations in their drivers that resulted in some polygons being skipped. If you see missing polygons, or other missing pixels, when you redraw a FEMAP picture on your graphics board, try this option.

File Page Setup

Just like Preferences, the Page Setup can now be saved permanently - including across models. Because of this, the Plot and Metafile Style options have been removed from Preferences, and are saved along with the Page Setup.

File Print
You can now change the page header and footer directly from the File Print command, without going into the Page Setup option.

Printing Messages
You can now print messages and errors that have been echoed to the Messages and Lists Window. Simply select the messages that you want to print like you do for the File Messages commands, then choose File Print. You will see a new option to print messages. This avoids having to change the List Destination prior to printing a listing, and allows you to print error messages.

Program File Record

You can now create program files simply by recording your FEMAP session. You can even use your mouse as you

normally would to choose commands and make selections. The resulting program files can be edited and replayed to regenerate models, build parametric models, or for many other purposes. The File Program Record function makes building the files as simple as using FEMAP.

Program File Functions

Several new program file commands ( <@...>, jump to control, and <~...>, list box selection ) have been added to allow proper functioning of the Program File Record capability. A new #silent( ) function has been added which will allow you to run a program file without displaying all of the FEMAP dialog boxes. In addition, you can now use the menu accelerator keys from a program file.

Other Program File Items

FEMAP no longer automatically restarts an animation after a command is executed from a program file. Typically running animations and program files at the same time is not a good idea. They both compete for some of the same resources and neither runs well. You can always use the View Animation command to restart the animation sequence at the end of the program file.

File Translate - PostProcessing

A message has been added if you try to read an output file into a model that has no nodes or elements. New users are often confused that they must read output into an existing model, and hopefully this will help them.

File Rebuild
The option to compress the database has been improved slightly to recover more space during the compression.

Toolbox
The FEMAP toolbox now supports up to 36 buttons on each menu (12 rows of 3 buttons each). If you have developed your own toolbox, you must recompile the .tbx file using the new toolbox compiler. You do not have to make any changes to the file, just recompile.

Snap To
A cursor snapping option has been added that restricts snapping to coordinate selections only. With this active, the snap mode is ignored for entity selections, zooming, ... .

LAMINATE Element Properties

The maximum number of plys in a laminate has been increased to 45 from 20.

PLATE Element Properties

Added the capability to reference different materials for membrane, bending and membrane-bending coupling. The dialog box has also been rearranged to isolate options that are only used when building a model for NASTRAN.

GAP Element Properties

Interface Plane and Interface Width properties have been added to the GAP element. These were needed to support Slide Lines in ABAQUS.

RIGID Elements
The number of nodes on a Rigid Element has been increased from 13 to 20.

PLANAR PLOT ONLY Elements

A new element type, Planar Plot Only elements (linear quads and triangles) has been added.

Create Output From Load

You can now create elemental output from pressure loads in your model. Other load types were already usable for creating output, but pressures have been added.

Create Output Transform

This new capability allows you to take any output which has global components (like Total Translation), and transform it into any coordinate system that you choose. Twelve new vectors are created.

Create Output Extrapolate

Extrapolate can be used to compute elemental corner output from elemental centroidal output. It does a linear extrapolation from the centroids of the elements to the edges/corners, and automatically detects geometric and property discontinuities between elements and does not extrapolate across these boundaries.

Generate Nodes on Points

The Generate Nodes on Points command has been added to generated nodes on a selected group of points.

Generate On Surfaces
When you generate a mesh on a surface, FEMAP will still produce a mapped mesh if you specify equal numbers of elements on opposite sides of the surface. If you specify different numbers of elements, you will have an option to boundary mesh the surface. There is no need to define a boundary, FEMAP will use the bounds of the surface as the boundary. This new capability insures continuity of meshes on surfaces that join at common edges.

Generate Edge Members

The Generate Edge Members command now allows you to generate planar (plate, membrane...) elements on the free faces of solid elements, in addition to generating line elements along free edges. You can now also limit the generation to only consider certain nodes. This allows you to limit generated elements to specific edges or faces. Elements will be generated if any node is selected on the edge or face. Also a message has been added to say how many elements were generated.

Modify Elements
The Modify Move By Elements, Modify Rotate To Elements, Modify Rotate By Elements and Modify Align Elements commands have all been updated so that when you modify line elements, the associated orientation vectors, orientation nodes and offsets are also modified automatically.

Check Coincident Nodes, Points, Curves and Elements

These commands have all been updated to allow you to automatically place the entities that are found to be coincident into Groups. This allows you to review or update the coincident entities without merging.

Check Planar
If you updated the position of the nodes that you checked, to move them onto the plane, they would still display at their old location until you Regenerated the View. They now update automatically.

Group Operations Generate

This new capability allows automatic extraction of model features. It generates multiple groups based on geometric and attribute criteria that you select. For example, given a model of a box with stiffeners, it can automatically place

each face of the box, and each stiffener into a separate group - with no further input or selection from you.

Group Operations Automatic Add

Automatic Add allows you to choose a group which will be automatically updated to include all newly created entities. This eliminates the need to constantly reevaluate groups, or manually update them as you build your model.

Free Edge Plots

An option has been added to display the remainder of the model along with the free edges. Simply choose the View Options command, then under the Tools and View Style category, choose the Free Edge and Face Option. Finally, set the Free Edge Color to "View, Show Model". The default view color for free edges has been changed so that free edges will normally still be visible when displayed with the rest of the model. Free Edge Plots can now be aborted, just like other plots. You will see the combined pointer/hourglass cursor to indicate that you can abort simply by choosing your next command.

Free Face Plots

The color of backfaces in a free face plot can now be controlled using the Free Edge color, if you set the Free Edge/ Face Color Mode to "View Color".

View Activate
You can now double-click the left mouse button in either list box to automatically open (or close) a view. This is typically faster than using the push buttons to move views between the lists.

View UnZoom
A new command, View UnZoom, has been added which will return you to the previous magnification and centering. You can now "zoom in" on a section of your model, and quickly return to your previous view using this command. View UnZoom can also be found on the Toolbar.

PostProcessing - Vector Plots

Previously, if you displayed a vector plot using an output vector that did not have output for every node, arrows and labels were still displayed, with zero length and value, at the nodes where there was no output. This has been improved to skip those vectors entirely.

PostProcessing - Contour Plots

New View Options have been added which allow you to choose how FEMAP will compute the nodal data that is used for Contour Plots when you choose Elemental Output. Previously, FEMAP simply averaged Elemental corner data (or centroidal data, if no corner data was available) at each node. Now you can choose to display the maximum value at each node with no averaging. And you can skip using the corner data, even if it is present.

PostProcessing - Beam Diagrams

FEMAP can now display contours on line elements (not just Beams) that resemble Shear and Moment diagrams. These diagrams are displayed with contour colors, and can use any line element output, not just shear and moments.

PostProcessing - Section Cuts

This new postprocessing capability allows you to cut a solid model with a plane and display contours on the remaining portions of the model, as well as the cut surface. Alternatively, the model can be shown transparently, and interior contours can be shown on one or more sectioning planes.

PostProcessing - IsoSurfaces
Isosurfaces are to solids elements what line contours are to planar elements. They show the internal surfaces where output values are constant, and are probably the fastest way to find out what is happening inside your solid model. For best results, make sure that you turn on shading, and turn down (probably 10 or less) the number of Contour/IsoSurface Levels before making an IsoSurface display. FEMAP will automatically make your elements transparent so you can see the isosurfaces inside.

Layer Colors
All entities can now be displayed with the color of the layer that they reference.

Contour Legend
The contour legend no longer fills the entire window if you only have a few levels. If you choose 10 or more levels, the full size legend is shown, otherwise each level is limited in size.

ABAQUS Interfaces
New Model Write and PostProcessing interfaces have been added to support the ABAQUS program from HKS, Inc.. These interfaces are somewhat unique in that they support some of the more advanced concepts for nonlinear analysis in ABAQUS, like slide lines and rigid contact surfaces.

ALGOR Interfaces
When reading plate material properties, which are specified as Anisotropic material matrices, FEMAP will now automatically convert them back to Isotropic if the matrix matches the Isotropic formulation. Added support for the Type 9 (Tetrahedral Solid) element type.

ANSYS Rev 5.0 Interfaces

The ANSYS Rev 5.0 Translators have been finalized, and are now the default ANSYS translators. Several problems were found and corrected in the preliminary Rev 5 translators that shipped with FEMAP Version 4.02. For example, the Read and Write Translators did not handle rotated cylindrical coordinate systems properly. Similarly, the degrees of freedom on the CERIG command were read incorrectly.

CAEFEM Interfaces
An interface to CAEFEM from Concurrent Analysis Corp. has been included in this version of FEMAP. In fact, this interface actually uses the FEMAP Neutral File format, which is supported by CAEFEM.

CDA/Sprint Interfaces
Model Write, Model Read and PostProcessing interfaces have been added for CDA/Sprint from The CDA Group. CDA/Sprint is an enhanced version of MSC/pal 2 Version 4, that can handle larger models.

COSMIC/NASTRAN Interfaces
Our existing NASTRAN Model Write, Model Read and PostProcessing interfaces have been expanded to support, and tested with, the current release of COSMIC/NASTRAN.

COSMOS Version 1.7 Interfaces

The FEMAP translators have been enhanced to support COSMOS Version 1.7.

Also added support for the Thick Plate (SHELL4T) elements. Also added the ability to read SHELL3, SHELL3T and SHELL3L elements. These will be converted to SHELL4, SHELL4T and SHELL4L elements respectively if you write the model back to COSMOS. Also added the ability to read TETRA4R elements - can only be rewritten as TETRA4.

MSC/pal 2 Version 4.05

Upgraded the postprocessing translators to handle output from Version 4.05 of MSC/pal 2.

MSC/pal 2 - PostProcessing
Added the capability to read stress recovery locations from BEAM TYPE 5 elements.

mTAB*STRESS / SAP 386 Interfaces

New Model Write, Model Read and PostProcessing interfaces have been added which support the mTAB*STRESS / SAP 386 products from Structural Analysis, Inc.. The mTAB*STRESS model file format is identical to the SAP IV format, so FEMAP can now be used with that program also.

MSC and UAI/NASTRAN Interfaces

The MSC/NASTRAN and UAI/NASTRAN interfaces can now read and write tangential acceleration on the RFORCE command.

NASTRAN - Model Read

You can now read RBE2 elements with any number of nodes. Any RBE2s with more than 20 nodes will be automatically split into multiple elements.

NASTRAN - PostProcessing
Now support postprocessing of ELEMENT STRAIN ENERGY output. Also supports postprocessing of elemental corner output for plates.

SSS/NASTRAN Interfaces
These are the former PC/NASTRAN interfaces. Removed support for the CWEDGE element since it is no longer supported, and changed to the CPENTA.

STAAD III / ISDS Interfaces

New Model Write, Model Read and PostProcessing interfaces have been added to support the STAAD III analysis system from Research Engineers, Inc..

STARDYNE - PostProcessing
The default output file specification has been changed from "*.4" to "*.4*". This provides automatic support for the version control supplied by the STARDYNE for Windows product.

weCan Interfaces
New Model Write and PostProcessing interfaces have been added to support the weCan analysis program from AEGIS Software Corp. FEMAP also has the ability to automatically run your weCan analysis in a window, and automatically recover the output for postprocessing.

"Out of Disk Space" Error Handling

FEMAP previously gave a message "Unable to Expand Scratch File..." if you ran out of disk space. Many people tried to continue working after receiving this message, even though FEMAP was unable to add to the database. This mes-

sage has been replaced by a rather lengthy dialog box which describes the problem that has occurred, tells you to stop immediately, and gives directions for recovering your model from the scratch file. If you follow these directions, you should lose no more than the last command - even if you have not saved your model. In addition, this dialog box contains an Abort button which will immediately terminate FEMAP. Do not press it unless the "Out of Space" dialog appears several times - which can sometimes happen if you are in the middle of a large operation when the "Out of Space" condition occurs. Please Note: We recommend that you place your scratch files on a disk that is large enough to hold them, so these conditions do not occur. You can choose a location either with the DOS TEMP environment variable, or with the FEMAP File Preferences command.

Rulers and Snap Grids

FEMAP now automatically redraws the screen when you leave the Tools Snap To command. This insures that any changes to the Rulers and Snap Grids are properly displayed.

Displaying Loads and Other Vectors

An option has been added that allows you to set the relative size of Load and Other vectors that are displayed in your model. Simply choose the View Options command, then under the Tools and View Style Category, go to the Symbols Option. The vector lengths can be controlled by setting the Load Len and Other Vec options to a percentage of the default (which is 100%).

International Number Formats

FEMAP now supports the International Number formats that you choose from the Windows Control Panel. In fact, all numeric input to FEMAP dialog boxes must be in the format that you choose. These formats are not used for any of the translators, since the analysis programs do not support them.

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Corrections (Version 4.1)

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Messages and Lists Window

If you started two simultaneous FEMAP sessions, then close one, the background color of the remaining Messages and Lists Window changes to the default Windows background color. In most cases this matches the Messages and Lists background, but it does not have to. The color is now properly maintained.

File Save As
The File Save As command did not work properly if you chose not to use a scratch file (not recommended). In this case, the model was saved as the current name. The new filename that you specified was not created. File Save As worked properly as long as you were using a scratch file. It now works in either case.

File Page Setup

Users occasionally encountered a floating-point error when turning off the plot border, or other options in this dialog box, if they did not specify a custom plot size (height and width). This has been corrected.

File Picture Save

Placeable metafiles have been modified so that they can now read successfully into programs like Microsoft Word and Corel Draw.

"Out of Disk Space"

In some cases, if you ran out of disk space when FEMAP was building the initial scratch file when you opened an existing model, no warning message was given, although the scratch file was corrupted. This caused no permanent problem as long as you did not save the corrupted model and replace the original.

Picking Nodes
If you had a Group Active in a View which included certain nodes, and then merged nodes in the model, then went to another command (like Create Element) where you picked a node, FEMAP would sometimes crash. This was caused by the nodes that were removed during the merge still being referenced by the Group, and has been corrected.

Create Line
The Create Line Parallel, Point-Tangent and Tangent-Tangent commands did not properly set the default coordinate location, resulting in a random default. The default is now set properly. The Create Line Horizontal and Vertical did not create a line in the Workplane. They created a line through the specified point, parallel to the desired Workplane Axis. They now project the point and the line onto the Workplane.

Create Arc Points and Create Circle Points on Arc

These commands sometimes failed to create a curve if you picked three points that were very close together.

Create Volume Between

There were intermittent problems when trying to create a volume between two triangular surfaces, depending on how the surfaces were created. Now works for all known combinations.

Create Volume Surfaces

When you created a wedge volume from triangular surfaces, the volume was sometimes created incorrectly, which prevented you from using it for mesh generation.

Create Spring Elements

There was an error that prevented you from creating zero length DOF Spring elements, and allowed you to create zero length Spring elements. This is reversed. You can now properly create zero length DOF Spring elements, but you can not create zero length Springs.

Create Surface Sweep

If you sweep multiple curves, one or more of which is an arc, previous versions would hang. They are now handled properly.

Create Volume Between

Several problems have been fixed that either created no volume, or a bad volume, between two surfaces or between a surface and point.

Create Loads - Nodal Temperatures

If you tried to create nodal temperatures using the Equation capability, incorrect temperatures were generated. Con-

stant temperatures worked properly. Equations can now be used to create varying temperature distributions.

Create Loads - From Output

When creating Elemental temperatures from output, the message "No Output for Node ..." was sometimes written. The only error was the message, which should read "No Output for Element ...".

Create Output Linear

The Create Output Linear command was improperly combining vectors that can not be linearly combined (Principal Stresses, Total Translations...). The check to prevent this was being ignored. Create Output Linear will no longer combine these "nonlinear" vectors.

Boundary Meshing
If there a boundary contained multiple parallel lines, and one of them was the first curve in the boundary, and the mesh points on these curves were closely aligned, the boundary mesher could sometimes mesh outside the boundary. This would not always occur depending on the remainder of the boundary, and how it was decomposed during meshing, but it has been corrected.

Generating Nodes
Many of the meshing commands (On Geometry, Transition and Boundary Meshing) did not properly set the default Permanent Constraints on the nodes that they created. Nodes are now generated with the active permanent constraints.

Modify Scale Loads

Scaling nodal loads did not work properly if the loads were defined in any system other than Global Rectangular. The loads are now properly scaled in the transformed system. Scaling multi-component loads did not work properly if you specified an "Add" value. The value was added to each component, not the resultant vector.

List Coordinate Systems

When coordinate systems were listed, the identifiers for Cylindrical and Spherical types were backwards. This did not cause any problems in using the coordinate systems as they were defined, they were simply listed incorrectly.

List Output Query

The List Output Query function was disabled if you did not have any output in Output Set 1, even if output existed in other sets. This has been corrected so that the command is only disabled when no Output Sets are available.

List Output Unformatted

If you listed output summaries, and you had one or more empty output sets (no output in the set), then any output sets after the empty sets were not listed. Empty output sets no longer cause this problem. In addition, the Analysis Type (Static, Modal...) was listed incorrectly and has been fixed.

Deleting Loads and Constraints

You were previously unable to delete any loads or constraints if you did not have loads or constraints in Set 1 - the commands were disabled. The commands are now properly disabled only if you have no loads or constraints in the model - no matter what Set.

Materials - NonIsotropic Conversions

Previously when a material was converted from Orthotropic 3D to Anisotropic, the conversion routine improperly used the Nu13 (Poisson's Ratio in the XZ direction) term. It was being used as if it was Nu31. The conversion is now correct.

Check Mass Properties

Corrected a problem that gave incorrect results if you calculated mass properties in any coordinate system other than global coordinates. Also corrected a problem that gave wrong answers, and periodic crashes, if you tried to compute the mass properties of parabolic plate elements that had missing midside nodes.

Check Coincident Nodes

When you merged nodes that were referenced by loads in Load Sets 2 or above, those loads would sometimes disappear. This did not occur for Load Set 1, and has been corrected for the other Sets.

Check Sum Forces

The calculations for summing pressure loads were incorrect, unless you had a pressure load on every element from 1 thru N, or every element had an equal area. The calculation for summing nodal forces was also incorrect, if the loads were defined in a non-Global coordinate system, and some of the components of the loads were disabled (off). These have been corrected.

View Pan and Zoom

Previously the Up, Down, Left, and Right Pan buttons did not work if a cursor snap mode (other than screen) was active. Similarly, if a cursor snap mode was set, the Zoom box was positioned incorrectly. These have been corrected and they now work properly.

Displaying Arrowheads
Arrowheads on vectors that were very close to being normal to the screen were sometimes not displayed.

Displaying Nodes
The Definition CSys and Output CSys color modes did not work, they simply displayed the Node view color. This has been corrected, and they now display the color of the coordinate system.

Displaying Elements
The colors of elements that did not reference a property or material were set randomly, if you chose to color elements using the Property or Material color. They now simply reference the element View color.

Displaying Constraint Equations

Constraint equations did not display properly if they were included in a Group and only that Group was displayed. They are now properly displayed in Groups.

FEMAP Calculation of Principal Stresses

At the end of the PostProcessing read translators, FEMAP calculates the principal stresses if they were not read. Under some circumstances, if the magnitude of the stresses was around 1.0E-5, and you were calculating principal stresses for solid elements, floating point errors could occur. The calculation routine has been improved to properly handle all ranges of output.

ALGOR - Model Read

The Poisson's ratios for Type 3 (Plane Stress) and Type 4 (Plane Strain/Axisym) elements, with orthotropic materials, were read in the wrong order. The order has been corrected. Boundary elements were skipped during read if their TRACE (stiffness) was 0.0 or blank. They are now correctly read, with the default 1.0E+10 stiffness. There was an error encountered when reading RIGID elements. No degrees of freedom were set and the nodes were not zeroed from element to element, so extra nodes could be added to subsequent elements.

COSMOS - Model Read

Skipped all of the extra degrees of freedom on a DND command. Only the first DOF was read, the others were ignored. Now properly reads all DOF. Increase the maximum line length that can be read by the translator. This avoids "Line Too Long" messages on lines which are very long (typically for Geometry, which is skipped anyway, but you still got the message).

FEMAP Neutral - Model Write

Wrote incorrect loads to the neutral file if you chose to write only a group from your model (rather than the complete model). Also wrote incorrect Constraint Equations from a group.

PATRAN - Model Read

Although 3 noded beams are not supported by FEMAP, the PATRAN Read translator can now read the two endpoints from the beam. Previously they were incorrectly read as masses. A warning message is still issued. Similarly, Parabolic Brick (20-noded) elements were skipping the midside nodes. They now read all nodes properly.

PATRAN - Model Write

Never wrote Node 1. Always started at Node 2 and above. Now correctly writes Node 1. Constraints were not written in Constraint Sets 2 or greater, if the same nodes were not also constrained in Constraint Set 1. The constraints now translate properly. The messages printed in the Messages and Lists Window regarding the number of Load and Constraint Sets that were translated were incorrect.

PATRAN - PostProcessing
Incorrect titles were echoed to the Messages and Lists Window when you were reading PATRAN output. This did not change the output, just the messages that were produced. Also, the translator was very fussy about blank lines at the end of the output files. If there were any blank lines at the end, the translation was aborted, and no questions were asked about additional files to read. Previous versions had trouble reading Nodal Results files if there were not 6 result values per record. This has been changed to support any number of results, up to 6, per record.

STARDYNE - Model Write

Previously, a BPROP5 command was written when you specified stress recovery locations for a beam. Unfortu-

nately, BPROP5 only recovers stresses at 3 locations, and could miss one corner. FEMAP still writes a BPROP5 command if you specify arbitrary locations, but if you just specify the four corners of a rectangle, the sizes are converted to HEIGHT and WIDTH specifications on a BPROP2 command, and no BPROP5 is written. The STARDYNE Model Write translator has been changed to write free format STARDYNE input files. Using free format allows you to use IDs greater than 9999 in the latest version of STARDYNE. The STARDYNE Model Write translator did not write elemental temperatures for Rod, Tube, Curved Beam or Curved Tube elements.

STARDYNE - Model Read

A problem was encountered reading a model which did not specify the MATLG title on the second material record, if you had a single Header record.

STARDYNE - PostProcessing
If you did not read all output cases from a static analysis, the Output Set titles were not read correctly. All output was still correct, just the titles were wrong. Titles are now set correctly, whether you read all cases or not. Stresses for Axisymmetric elements were read improperly, like plate stresses. Support has now been added to read them properly.

NASTRAN - Model Write

In some cases the a continuation card with multiple thicknesses was written for Laminate, Bending Only and Membrane elements - even though they were not applicable. Now the continuation is never written for these elements.

NASTRAN PostProcessing
The postprocessing read translator encountered problems when trying to read output from an analysis where you specified a LABEL option in the Case Control, and that LABEL began with a numeric value. This has been corrected and any LABEL can now be specified. The postprocessing translator also had trouble reading LANCZOS modal output if the line "TRIAL EIGENVALUE =" appeared anywhere in the file. These files can now be read successfully. Plate Force output was being saved in incorrect vector IDs for NASTRAN. This did not really create any problems, except if you tried to compare output from NASTRAN with output from other analysis programs.

UAI/NASTRAN - Model Write

Several problems were found with the UAI/NASTRAN translator relating to modal solutions. If you chose the Lanczos method, an EIGRL command was generated. This has been corrected to generate an EIGR command. Similarly, choosing the INV method, now properly creates an EIGC command.

UAI/NASTRAN - PostProcessing
An error was corrected regarding reading of VON MISES stresses and strains. Previously these were labelled as MAX SHEAR values. They are now handled correctly.

PostProcessing - Contours
Contours on parabolic elements were sometimes not continuous across the element boundaries at the midside nodes. The algorithm used to compute the nodal output has been modified slightly to insure continuity at the midside

nodes.

PostProcessing - Strains
If you read X,Y,Z strains, but not principal strains from your analysis program FEMAP will calculate the principal values. Previously this calculation was incorrect. This only applies to principal strains that were calculated, not read from analysis output.

Help About Version Number

In FEMAP Version 4.02, the Help About Dialog box still said FEMAP Version 4.01. It has now been changed to simply say Version 4.

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Documentation (Version 4.1)

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Chapter 6.3.11
The section describing Beam releases said that the codes specified nodal degrees of freedom. This was incorrect. Beam releases are now, and always have been relative to the elemental coordinate directions.

Appendix G - Data Block 404 (Elements)

Data Block 404 only contains 7 records, not 8 as previously stated. The final releases which were shown as record 8 are really located at the end of record 7.

Appendix G - Data Block 402 (Properties)

The Property Values table was incorrect for the Mass and Stiffness Matrix properties. These entries are not contiguous, but are spaced as if they represented a full 6x6 matrix.

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Enhancements and Updates (Version 4.02)

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Performance Enhancements
FEMAP has been enhanced to access the larger amounts of memory available today on most PCs. Access to more memory means that FEMAP is now faster - especially on large models. Our testing of Version 4.02 shows up to a 3 to 1 speed improvement as compared to Version 4.01, when simply redrawing a large model. Most other operations on large models should show similar improvements. Small models will not show much change because FEMAP Version 4.01 already accessed enough memory to handle those types of models. The changes in Version 4.02 result in a few changes in our recommended configuration for FEMAP. In the past, we have always recommended creating a RAMDrive and placing your FEMAP model scratch files on the RAMDrive (either by setting the TEMP environment variable, or by choosing the RAMDrive in File Preferences). This has always resulted in dramatically improved FEMAP performance. Unfortunately, it also required that you dedicate a

fairly large amount of memory to a RAMDrive, and it is therefore unavailable for other uses. And, since the RAMDrive will still be relatively small compared to a hard disk, it can lead to further problems if your model gets too large and you run out of space on the RAMDrive. With FEMAP Version 4.02, there is no need to create a RAMDrive to store your scratch files. In fact, it is preferable to get rid of your RAMDrive and make more memory available for FEMAP and other programs. This will result in more flexibility, and improved performance. You should now change your TEMP variable to place scratch files on your hard disk. If you have multiple disks, choose the fastest one with sufficient space. The File Preferences Startup Options dialog box has been modified slightly to accommodate the new memory operations. The total amount of memory that FEMAP can access is controlled by the Min and Max Cache Pages options, and the Blocks/Page option. As shipped, FEMAP can access up to 250 (Max) pages of 20 blocks (20K bytes). This can access up to 5 MByte of memory (if it is available) while working with your model. If you are working with models that are even larger, you can increase the Blocks/Page value up to a maximum of 50. FEMAP can then access up to 12.5 MBytes of memory. Remember, no matter what values you choose, FEMAP can still handle models which are larger than that value, some data will just be held on disk and performance will be somewhat slower. NOTE: It is still highly recommended that you use the SMARTDrive disk caching utility that comes with DOS and Windows. Our experience has been that it will offer greatly improved performance for FEMAP, Windows, and all other programs. The only time you don't want to use it is if you have a disk controller that does caching in hardware.

Curved Tube Element

A curved tube element has been added to FEMAP. The geometry of the curved tube is defined just like the previous curved beam element (refer to Chapter 7.1.6 in the manual), including the specification of the radius of curvature. The difference is that the properties are defined like the tube element (i.e. inner and outer diameter). This new element will typically be used in piping analyses along with straight tube elements. Curved Tube elements translate to Type 12 tube elements in Algor, STIF18 elements in ANSYS, ELBOW elements in COSMOS, CBEND elements in NASTRAN, and PIPEG elements (with a BPROP3 defined) in STARDYNE. They are not currently supported for MSC/pal.

View Libraries
Just as you can create material and property libraries to save commonly used information, FEMAP now supports View Libraries, to store and access commonly used Views across different models. In addition, the View Library can be used in combination with the File Preferences command to define the View that is active when you start a new model, or create a new View in an existing model. Two options (Load View... and Save View...) have been added to the View Quick Options (Ctrl+Q) dialog box. They work just like the corresponding options when dealing with Material or Property Libraries. "Load View" updates the active View by reading data from the library. "Save View" adds the active View to the library. The File Preferences dialog box has been updated to include the name of the View Library, and the ID of the View from the Library to be used as the Default View when you start a new model. If you just want to use the normal FEMAP defaults, rather than referencing a View in the library, just set Default to 0 (zero). Otherwise, set it to 1 to use the first view in the Library, 2 for the second, and so on. Make sure you save the preferences with the Permanent option before starting a new model. The Delete Library View command has also been added so that you can remove Views from the library. It works just like the other Delete Library commands.

View Options - Line Element Colors

When element fill was turned on, beam and other line elements were being drawn in the filled edge color rather than their normal element color. This has been changed to draw the line elements using the setting for element color. The filled edge color is still used along the edges when the element cross section/shape is displayed.

View Options - Curved Beams

In deformed and animated plots of curved beams, the elements are always drawn as straight lines between the nodes, even if you request that the curvature be shown. Since there is no deformation information for the center of the curved beam, the deformed shape can not be properly defined.

Rulers
FEMAP can now display rulers along with your model in graphics windows. The rulers are located at the origin of the Workplane, along the Workplane X and Y axes. By moving the origin and orientation of the workplane (using the Tools Workplane command) you can move the rulers wherever you want them. The size of the rulers and the number of tic marks are both controlled through the Tools Snap To command. The X Ruler and Y Ruler controls are used for the rulers. You can turn on either or both of the rulers by checking the "Draw X/Y Ruler" boxes. The "Length" option controls the overall length of each ruler, while the "Label Every" option positions the major tic marks, and hence the labels. "Divisions" specifies how many minor tic marks will be drawn between every major tic. In addition to the Snap To command updates, the Workplane and Rulers option in the View Options command allows you to control the color and visibility of the rulers in a particular window. Both the View Options and the Snap To "Draw" options must be on for a ruler to be visible. NOTE: The first time you open an existing FEMAP Version 4.01 model, the rulers may be already displayed, with a large number of tic marks. Use the Tools Snap To command to adjust the rulers or to turn them off.

All Write Translators

The formats used for writing real numbers have been changed to make the numerical precision more consistent across a broader range of possible values. You may notice a different number of significant digits in files created by these translators, compared to previous versions.

UAI/NASTRAN Translators
Specific translators have been added for UAI/NASTRAN. While UAI/NASTRAN is similar to versions of NASTRAN from other vendors, there are some differences.

UAI/NASTRAN Write Translator

The support provided by the UAI/NASTRAN Write Translator is essentially the same as that provided by the MSC/ NASTRAN Write Translator. Refer to Chapter 8 in your manual for more information. The Curved Beam and Curved Tube, Plane Strain, Parabolic Axisymmetric element types are not supported by the UAI Translator.

UAI/NASTRAN Read Translator

In addition to the normal NASTRAN syntax, FEMAP also supports the UAI Free-Field input options when you are reading existing UAI/NASTRAN models.

UAI/NASTRAN Output Translator

The NASTRAN Output Translator reads the normal "printed" output files from UAI/NASTRAN. Due to differences in the formats of the output files, you must always use the UAI/NASTRAN Post Translator to read output from UAI/NASTRAN. You should not use any of the other NASTRAN translators to read UAI/NASTRAN output. Refer to Section 8.6.4 (the documentation for the MSC/NASTRAN Post Translator), for more information about the NASTRAN output that is supported.

ANSYS Output Translator

For STIF16 (pipe) and STIF18 (elbow) elements FEMAP now also reads the shear stress due to torsion (STH).

COSMOS Read Translator

When reading a MODSTAR generated model, FEMAP complained about nodes being duplicated on certain quad plate elements. The COSMOS documentation (and Tech Support) says that only the 3rd and 4th nodes can be duplicated to form a triangle, but the program will accept any duplicate pair. FEMAP will now read any duplicate pair as well, but you will receive a warning message if you duplicate other than the 3rd and 4th nodes. Note: Be careful if you are creating COSMOS models outside of FEMAP. COSMOS will accept any quad plate element ordering - even "bowties" - without producing any warnings. You will even get element stresses on these meaningless elements. FEMAP will not allow you to create this type of invalid element.

MSC/NASTRAN Translators
Material Properties
Previously FEMAP wrote a blank value for the shear modulus (G) if you specified it as zero, but wrote zero (not blank) for the Young's modulus (E) and Poisson's ratio (NU) when they were specified as zero. This effectively meant that you had to at least define the values for E and NU. FEMAP now writes a blank for any of the three values when they are zero so you can now specify any two of the three values.

TEMPP1 and TEMPRB

FEMAP can now read TEMPP1 and TEMPRB commands that reference multiple elements on the continuation lines.

Continuation Fields
FEMAP now supports continuing commands by leaving Field 10 blank, as long as the continuation follows the parent.

STARDYNE Translators
Duplicate Element IDs
STARDYNE has the capability to use duplicate element numbers across different element types (i.e. plates, solids...). FEMAP does not support this capability, but can now read existing STARDYNE models that contain duplicate IDs. If duplicate IDs are found, the STARDYNE Read translator automatically renumbers the model so that the ID ranges do not overlap. Messages are displayed to let you know that renumbering is occurring. You can not read output from a model with duplicate IDs, you must first read the model, then use FEMAP to write a new, "non-duplicate" model before doing your analysis.

MADDX, MADDEL, and MADDXINC

Support has been enhanced for the MADDX, MADDEL and MADDXINC commands in the STARDYNE translators. FEMAP now translates Spring elements (axial and torsional) into a MADDEL containing a series (actually 3) of MADDX commands. FEMAP can also read this same combination from a STARDYNE file and reassemble the internal spring element. Your MADDEL statement must however use the same node IDs for orientation as are used on the MADDX statements.

FEMAP can also now read individual MADDX statements that represent "springs-to-ground". Since FEMAP does not have a "spring-to-ground" element, a fictitious, coincident node is created and fully constrained, and a DOF Spring element is created to join it with the original node.

Writing Nodal Temperatures

STARDYNE does not support nodal temperatures, but no warning message was written if nodal temperatures existed in the model and were skipped. The message has been added.

Reading Beam Orientations

Previously, the orientation angle (Beta) was sometimes read incorrectly from beam elements that were almost, but not quite parallel to the Global Z axis. This has been corrected.

Reading QUADS Elements

The thickness on QUADS elements was previously always read as 0.0. The thickness is now read properly.

Reading Stresses at User Locations on Beams

FEMAP now supports reading the stresses at user defined locations on Beam cross sections.

Out of Disk Space Conditions

If you ran out of disk space while working in previous versions, FEMAP issued a message that no space was available, but did not give any further explanation. This has been enhanced to give a full description of what to do and how to recover from any problems. It also warns you that you should immediately correct the problem rather than continue working. Previously if you ran out of disk space while reading STARDYNE output, the translator would keep reading, giving you many error messages. It now simply stops reading and allows you to correct the problem.

Using FEMAP from the Keyboard

If you want to run FEMAP from the keyboard (or a program file), it is often necessary to get the input focus (the active window) back to the FEMAP Main Window so that you can access the menu for your next command. In previous versions, this was difficult. Now, simply pressing Enter, when you are not in a command will automatically activate the FEMAP Main Window, so that you can access the menu.

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Corrections (Version 4.02)

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Long DOS Path Names

Previously, FEMAP had trouble opening files if the pathname of your current directory was longer than about 60 characters. This problem has been eliminated and file/pathnames up to the operating system limits can be used throughout FEMAP.

Toolbox
In previous versions, if you had the toolbox or cursor position dialog box open when you used the File New or File

Open command, FEMAP would abort the next time that you pressed a button in the toolbox. This has been corrected, and the Toolbox can remain open when you start a new model.

Create Element
Previously, FEMAP allowed you to create zero length rod, tube, and axial spring elements. These can no longer be created since they are not valid for most analyses. You can still create zero length DOF spring and Link elements.

Boundary Meshing
If you generated a boundary which was mapped to a surface, and one or more of the curves were the defining curves of the surface, and you set a bias along those curves, the elements that were generated were sometimes biased incorrectly. Biasing has been updated to work properly in this situation.

Renumbering
Whenever you renumbered nodes, the counters which are listed by the List Model Info command were increased, even though no new nodes were created. This did not cause any significant problem (other than in limited node systems), but has been corrected. If you chose to renumber Nodes or Coordinate Systems based on one of the sort options other than X, Y or Z, FEMAP could occasionally crash. Any renumbering option can now be selected.

Deleting Boundaries
When you deleted boundaries in previous versions, some curves in your model (including ones which were not on the boundary) sometimes became nondeletable. This has been corrected.

Mass Properties
The nonstructural mass reported by Link elements has been corrected. In fact, Link elements do not have nonstructural mass, but previous versions reported the Y stiffness at End 2 of the link as a nonstructural mass per unit length. The mass of Link elements is now always zero. The mass of curved beam elements has been corrected. Previously the curved beam length was calculated improperly resulting in the incorrect mass.

View Options - Contours

If you have a hidden line display, with element fill turned off, and displaying line contours, all of the contours are visible (not hidden). This has been corrected, and the contours are now hidden as well as the elements.

ALGOR Write Translator

If you selected a pressure load case, but turned off "Other Loads", the pressures were written to the elements, but no load multipliers were written so the pressures were ignored. Now a unit load multiplier is written so that the pressures are effective.

ANSYS Read Translator

Previously, FEMAP would occasionally abort if you tried to read an ANSYS model that contained beam elements that had offsets which were much larger (orders of magnitude) than the length of the beam. FEMAP can still not handle this case, but now gives a warning message and skips the offsets, rather than aborting.

MSC/NASTRAN Write Translator

The MSC/NASTRAN Write translator intermittently produced a warning that structural loads and temperatures could not exist in the same load case. This message has been corrected so that it only appears when the two types of loads actually exist in the same case.

MSC/NASTRAN Read Translator

The densities and lumped masses were scaled by the PARAM,WTMASS factors, but nonstructural mass was not. Nonstructural mass is now scaled as well. FEMAP only supports one material per property while NASTRAN PSHELL commands can reference multiple materials. A warning has been added if multiple materials are found (and skipped) on a PSHELL. Coordinate systems must always be defined by three points which are not colinear. Previously, FEMAP had trouble if the points were colinear within about 1 degree. This has been improved to handle cases where the points are colinear within a small fraction of one degree - even though it is strongly recommended that you do not define coordinate systems in this manner. The read translator was previously unable to read the continuation "cards" on wide-field formatted commands unless the continuation mnemonic (Field 10) was eight characters long. This problem has been eliminated and FEMAP can now handle any continuation mnemonic.

MSC/NASTRAN Output Translator

Previously, if you tried to read an MSC/NASTRAN output file that was created by an analysis which contains a LABEL statement (in the Case Control) that started with a numeric value, every other page of stress output was skipped. This problem only occurred with LABELs, not TITLEs or SUBTITLEs, and only if the LABEL started with a number. It has been corrected, and LABELs can now begin with numbers. A problem was also corrected that occurred when you tried to read output from a modal analysis that contained duplicate eigenvalues. Previously the translator was unable to read this output.

STARDYNE Read Translator

The STARDYNE Read translator has been changed to match the current STARDYNE conventions that terminate the Title commands only when a MATLG command is found. The "X" in column 72 is no longer required for continuation, and Title commands can begin with names/words that mimic other valid STARDYNE commands. This change however means that you MUST have at least one MATLG in your model, or FEMAP will not be able to read it. Previously, the translator could not properly read QUADCM elements, and they were skipped. They are now read properly. In addition, laminate properties were not read if the QCSTACK and/or QCBLOC commands preceded the first QUADC element. They can now come in any order.

STARDYNE Write Translator

MATLG2 and/or MATLG6 commands are no longer written for nonisotropic materials unless they contain nonzero constants. Previously, they were always written, even if you specified zero constants. Messages were previously written that the translator was skipping the nonstructural mass for beam, bar, tube and rod elements, when in fact it was being written. This message has been eliminated. However, the nonstructural mass was written incorrectly. FEMAP simply wrote the mass/length that was defined, but STARDYNE expects weight/ length. The translator now multiplies by the gravitational constant. If you read a STARDYNE laminate model, and then wrote it back out, the write translator would abort. This was not a

problem with models created in FEMAP, but did exist when a model was read from STARDYNE. STARDYNE does not support all possible combinations of the twelve beam releases (six at each end) that FEMAP does. Previously however, the Write Translator let some unsupported combinations slip through without warnings. Now the translator only writes the supported combinations and issues warnings for all other combinations.

STARDYNE Output Translator

Previously FEMAP read the End A Axial and Torsion Forces on Curved Beams incorrectly. They were simply set to the negative of the corresponding End B terms. This was correct for straight beams, but not for curved beams. FEMAP now reads the curved beam forces correctly. Stresses were read incorrectly for Beam, Elbow and Pipe elements. Max stresses were wrong for Elbows and Pipes. End A axial and torsion used the incorrect sign convention (negative) for regular beams and elbows/pipes. Max Shear stresses were calculated improperly. These have all been corrected.

IGES Translator
IGES files from some CAD systems contain Type 108 (Plane) entities that are either nondisplayable or do not contain a complete definition. This caused previous versions of the IGES translator to abort, typically resulting in little or no data being loaded into FEMAP. The translator has been updated to properly handle these entities, and read the remaining data. The following CAD systems were found to exhibit this behavior, but now work correctly: UNIGRAPHICS, Computervision CADDS5, and AutoCAD Release 12 (IGES, not DXF).

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Documentation (Version 4.02)

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Appendix D - Toolbox Reference

On page D-3, the text {fpr} program_filename {OK} should read {fmr} program_filename {OK}.

Appendix G - FEMAP Neutral File Format

On page G-16 (and beyond) the View Data block records should be Type 409, not 410 as listed.

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Enhancements and Updates (Version 4.01)

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Security Device
This version (and future versions) of FEMAP require the use of a security device, which was included with your system. The device must be connected to a parallel port on your computer. Typically, you should connect it to the first available port (LPT1:). If you connect it to a different port, you must use an additional command line option when you start FEMAP, to define

which port will be used, the full command line syntax is as follows: [win] FEMAP [-X] [-R] [-P program_file] [-SY top] [-ML lines] [-L port] [model_file or ?] where the [-L port] option has been added, to allow you to specify a parallel port. For example, if you want to attach the security device to parallel port 2 (LPT2:), use -L 2, for parallel port 3 (LPT3:) use -L 3. Remember, the -L option is not necessary if you attach the security device to LPT1: (although you can specify -L 1, if you want to). If your system is non-standard, or uses some other parallel port convention, you can specify the actual parallel port address. For example, if your parallel port was at address 03BCH (hexadecimal), you would convert the address to a decimal value, in this case 956, and specify -L 956. If you need to specify the -L option, you can change the default command line associated with the FEMAP icon in Windows Program Manager. First, select/highlight the FEMAP icon, by clicking it once with your mouse, then choose the File Properties command (or press Alt+Enter). Move down to the command line option, and just add the appropriate -L options. From then on FEMAP will look for the security device on the specified port. If you are experiencing any problems with your security device, or are having trouble installing it on your system, please give us a call.

Security Module
The Help About dialog box has been updated to show your product serial number, and to contain a Security capability that interfaces with the security device. This capability allows us to upgrade your FEMAP license over the phone, this is especially important if you have a timed, or limited-node license for FEMAP, or if you are leasing FEMAP. If you need to update your license, give us a call for more information on using this capability.

On-Line Help and Documentation

The FEMAP on-line help capability has been greatly expanded to include complete context-sensitive help for all commands. Most of the printed documentation, including graphics, is now available online. To browse through the help system you can use the Help commands from the menu. To access the help information on a particular command (i.e. context sensitive help) you can press Shift-F1, and then select the command from the menu. When you press Shift-F1, your cursor will change to a pointer with a question mark. Alternatively, during any command/dialog box, you can find help for that command just by pressing the F1 key. As before, the single-line help messages are still available in the FEMAP title bar as you select commands.

Program File Commands

Four new commands #MSG( ), #DELAY( ), #OPT( ) and #OPTGO( ) have been added. They can be used as follows:

#MSG( )
Syntax: #MSG( "string" ) where: "string" is the text that will be displayed in the message box. It must always be enclosed in quotes. "string" must be less than 160 characters.

#MSG( ) is used to display message text in a dialog box, and pause the program file. The dialog box contains an OK button that you must press before the program file will continue.

#DELAY( )
Syntax: #DELAY( number ) where: number is the number of milliseconds between simulated keystrokes or commands as the program is running. Smaller numbers make the program run faster, larger numbers make it run slower. The default value if you do not use the #DELAY( ) command is 25. #DELAY( ) is used to control the speed of a program file as it replays. If you are debugging a program file, add a #DELAY( ) with a large value, so that the program runs slower. Multiple #DELAY( ) commands, with different values can be used to make some sections run quickly and others run slowly.

#OPT( )
Syntax: #OPT( keystroke ) where: keystroke is the keystroke to simulate. It can be a single letter, or any of the special keystrokes nomally enclosed in angle brackets ( i.e. < > ). If you use a special keystroke mand, do not include the angle brackets. For example, use #OPT(Esc), not #OPT(<Esc>). which are with this com-

#OPT( ) is used to optionally add a keystroke. If a FEMAP error or question dialog box is displayed, #OPT( ) will push the button in that dialog box which corresponds to the keystroke you specify. In any other situation (i.e at the FEMAP Menu level, or in any other normal dialog box), #OPT( ) does nothing. The keystroke is simply skipped. You can identify FEMAP error or question dialogs by the fact that they always have between 1 and 3 buttons, centered at the bottom of the dialog box, and no other options (except for the question or message text). A typical place where you will want to use the #OPT( ) command is following the standard file access dialog box. If you specify an already existing file, and FEMAP wants to write to that file, a question will be displayed to overwrite or append to the file. Since the message is only displayed when an existing file is chosen, you can not just code a Yes/ No response, you must code #OPT(Y) for Yes, or #OPT(N) for No. The Y or N keystroke will only be issued if the message is displayed.

#OPTGO( )

Syntax: #OPTGO( label_expression ) where: label_expression is a numeric value, variable, or FEMAP equation which can contain the FEMAP described in Appendix C. If you use a variable or equation, FEMAP will round nearest integer. functions the value to the

#OPTGO( ) is really just an alternative to the #GOTO( ) command. In this case however, the jump to the label is only taken if a message or question dialog box is currently displayed - just like the #OPT( ) command. You can use this command to insert special error handling code into your program file. Note: #OPTGO( ) just jumps to the specified label, it does not complete the message/question dialog box. You must add those keystrokes immediately after the label - potentially using the #OPT( ) command.

Calculator - Recursive Equations

In FEMAP Version 4, the @variable_name operation was introduced to allow an equation to reference the current value of another equation. When you use this capability, FEMAP must reevaluate all of the referenced equations. Previously however, FEMAP prevented you from using this capability in a recursive manner. That is, the referenced equations could not also use the @ operator to reference additional equations. This capability has been expanded to allow up to 5 levels of recursion. For example, you can now define the following: !x = 5*sin(45) !a = 2.5*@x !b = @x+@a , which is equivalent to typing (5*sin(45))+2.5*(5*sin(45))

Calculator - New Functions

To allow you to do even more output calculations, and to help with modeling, additional functions have been added to the calculator which allow you to retrieve property and material IDs and values. They include the following:

PID( elemID )
returns the ID of the property that is referenced by element "elemID". The return will always be 0, if the element does not reference a property.

MID( propID )
returns the ID of the material that is referenced by property "propID". This function should not be used with laminate properties which can reference multiple materials - use MLAM( ) instead.

MLAM( propID; ply )

returns the ID of the material that is referenced by layer "ply" of property "propID". This function can only be used if "propID" selects a laminate property. "ply" must be between 1 and the maximum number of allowable plies for a laminate, however the return will be 0 if you choose a ply that is not defined for the selected property.

PROP( propID; index )

returns a property value from property "propID". The value of "index" determines the property value that will be returned. Refer to the table of Property Values in Data Block 402 of the FEMAP Neutral File documentation (page G6 in your manual) for proper values of "index". As you can see from this table, the "index" values differ depending on the type of property that you are using. As an example, if propID selects a Bar property, setting index = 0 will return Area, index = 4 will return J, the torsional constant. For a plate, index = 0 will return the thickness.

MAT( matlID; index )

returns a material value from material "matlID". The value of "index" determines the material value that will be returned. Unlike the PROP( ) function, the values of "index" in this case are the same, no matter what type of material is being referenced. You should use the following values for "index". Index Value Returns Index Value Returns Index Value Returns 0 Ex 1 Ey 2 Ez 3 Gx 4 Gy 5 Gz 6 NUxy 7 NUyz 8 NUzx 9 G_3D[1,1] 10 G_3D[1,2] 11 G_3D[1,3] 12 G_3D[1,4] 13 G_3D[1,5] 14 G_3D[1,6] 15 G_3D[2,2] 16 G_3D[2,3] 17 G_3D[2,4] 18 G_3D[2,5] 19 G_3D[2,6] 20 G_3D[3,3] 21 G_3D[3,4] 22 G_3D[3,5] 23 G_3D[3,6] 24 G_3D[4,4] 25 G_3D[4,5] 26 G_3D[4,6] 27 G_3D[5,5] 28 G_3D[5,6] 29 G_3D[6,6] 30 G_2D[1,1] 31 G_2D[1,2] 32 G_2D[1,3] 33 G_2D[2,2] 34 G_2D[2,3] 35 G_2D[3,3] 36 alpha[1,1] 37 alpha[1,2] 38 alpha[1,3] 39 alpha[2,2] 40 alpha[2,3] 41 alpha[3,3] 42 k[1,1] 43 k[1,2] 44 k[1,3] 45 k[2,2] 46 k[2,3] 47 k[3,3] 48 thermal cap 49 density 50 damping 51 ref Temp 52 tension limit[1] 53 tension limit[2] 54 comp limit[1] 55 comp limit[2] 56 shear limit

List Output
The List Output dialog box has been improved so that the defaults are always the values that you used for the previous report. This makes it much easier to do a series of similar reports. In addition, several new options have been added to this dialog box, and output reports. They include: Title: This field allows you to enter a one line title that is added at the top of each page of your report. It allows you to add an additional description to the report, such as the name of the group that is included in the report.

Report Header: If you turn on this option, an additional header is added to the top of the report which simply lists all of the options that you selected to make the report. The following is a sample header: FEMAP Version 4.00 Wed Jan 13 09:53:08 1993 Model : s:\c\animate.mod Report : Node Format : NASTRAN Displacement Sort By : 2..X Translation in Ascending Order (Absolute Value) Includes: Top 10 Limit To: Above 1.E-4 (Absolute Value) Entity List: If you turn on this option, a list of the IDs of all selected Nodes or Elements is added to the top of the report. This list can be quite long if you have a large model, but it can be invaluable if you are limiting the actual output with the Top N or Limits options. It can also be helpful when you use more complicated selection techniques like box picking or groups. The following is a sample Entity List: Selected Entities: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26, 27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49, 50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70

STARDYNE Write Translator

The STARDYNE Write translator dialog box for modal analysis has been simplified by removing support for the Inverse Iteration method. This method is no longer supported in most STARDYNE systems, so it has been removed from FEMAP.

Comma-Separated Table Translators

Two new translators have been added which allow you to read and write output in a tabular format. This format is easily exchanged between FEMAP and various spreadsheet and database programs, and also provides a simple and fast way to load output into FEMAP from your own programs. The new translators can be accessed from the File Translate command.

Writing a Comma-Separated Table File

To create a Comma-Separated table, choose the File Translate command, select the Comma-Separated format, and press Write. You will see the standard file access dialog box, where you can choose the name of the file to create. The default extension is always ".CSV". You will then see the Write Comma-Separated Table dialog box, which contains the following options: Set and Vector Options These options allow you to choose the output data that will be written to the file. You can only write data from one output set at a time, and you should choose it first. Then choose the First and Last vectors to write. The only restriction is that all vectors that you write must be of the same type - that is they must all contain either Nodal or Elemental data. You can not write both types to the same file.

Format Options These options control how the selected output will be formatted. If you choose "First Row Contains Titles", the Output Vector titles will be written at the beginning of the file, otherwise, no titles will be given. If you choose "First Column Contains IDs", the Node and Element IDs will be written along with the output data. It is usually best to write these IDs, so you can relate the output back to the associated Nodes or Elements. Finally, you can specify the number of significant digits that will be included in the output. While you can increase this number from the default, the data can only be as meaningful as the original data that you loaded into FEMAP - if you originally read output with only 6 significant digits, you can specify a larger number, but any additional digits are meaningless. Finally you will see the standard entity selection dialog box, which will allow you to select the Nodes or Elements where output will be written.

Reading a Comma-Separated File

To read a Comma-Separated table, choose the File Translate command, select the Comma-Separated format, and press Read. Again, you will see the standard file access dialog box, where you can choose the name of the file to read. As before, the default extension is always ".CSV". You will then see the Read Comma-Separated Table dialog box, which contains the following options: Format Options If the first row of your file contains vector titles, you must select the "First Row Contains Titles" option. The titles will be read from the file and added to the vectors that are created. If the file does not have titles, default titles will be assigned to each new vector. If the first column of your file contains Node or Element IDs, you must select the "First Column Contains IDs" option. The IDs will be read from the file, and used to properly load the output data. If your file does not contain IDs, FEMAP will load the output data as if it matched the nodes/elements in your model. That is, the first output value will be associated with the first node/element, the second with the second, and so on. You may not have any missing output values, and they must be in order. If your file contains both IDs and Titles, there must be an extra title (or simply a blank field, specified by a leading comma), for the ID column. The second title will be associated with the first output vector. Output Type These options specify whether the data in the file is Nodal or Elemental data. Since this file format is basically just a table of numbers, there is no way for FEMAP to determine what type of data you are loading, you must specify the choose the correct option here. Set and Vector Options Here you can either read the output into a new output set, by choosing "Create New Set", or add it to the active set, by choosing "Add to Active Set". This second option will not be available if you do not have an active set. You must also specify the ID of the first vector to be created. Any additional vectors will be created with IDs greater than this number. The default will be the first available user-defined vector. If the file that you are reading contains 3 vectors which are the global X, Y and Z components of some output, or 6 vectors which are the global X, Y and Z components, and the associated X, Y, Z rotations of some output, you should choose the "Vectors are XYZ Components" option. When this option is checked FEMAP will automatically calculate a 4th (or 7th and 8th) vector which is the magnitude of the component data. In addition, FEMAP will make the appropriate modifications to the vectors, so that you can choose the magnitude vector and use it for displaying threedimensional deformations and animations. If you have component data, you should always load it in this manner. Do not calculate the magnitude yourself and include it in the file - the vectors will still not be setup properly to do the deformation.

The Comma-Separated Table Format

The comma-separated table format that is supported by FEMAP is very simple. The following sample shows the basic capability, including titles and ID numbers, for a file with three output vectors: , "title 1", "title 2", "title 3" 1, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 2, 2.2, 3.1, 4.0 5, 1.4E2, 2.3E2, 0.111 10, , , 0.5 This file contains output for 4 entities (1, 2, 5 and 10), they could be either Nodes or Elements. There is no way to tell from the file. Note that the since IDs are contained in the first column, the first record which contains the titles starts with a comma, to skip the title for the IDs. You could also specify a title for the IDs, but it will be ignored. The titles, in the first record, are text, and must be less than 25 characters long each. Typically you should enclose them in quotes, as shown, but this is not required, as long as no commas are contained in the title. If you specify any titles in the file, you must specify a title for all vectors. Output data is specified in the remaining records. Each record corresponds to a node or element, and contains one output field for each vector that will be created. You can skip intermediate fields just by entering a series of commas (like entity 10 above, where the 0.5 is for the third vector). All skipped data will have the value of 0.0. If you do not specify titles in the file, the first record must contain output for all vectors. Later records can omit data for trailing output vectors if you want the values to be 0.0. The numeric values can be in floating point or exponential format. You can enclose the output values in quotes, if you want, but they are not required. If you do not include the ID column, data for all nodes/elements must be present, and must be in numerical order corresponding to the entities in your FEMAP model. If IDs are not present, the first title will correspond to the first output vector (the leading comma should not be present).

Multi-View Printing
Previously the only way to print a multi-view layout was to select the Print Desktop option. This alternative was however limited to printing at screen resolution - there was no way to print multiple views at printer resolution directly from FEMAP (of course you could transfer them to a graphical word processor or desktop publishing program, but that took additional steps). The File Print command has been modified to include the Layout option, which will print multiple views simultaneously at printer resolution. The layout on the printed page will be identical to the layout on screen. Other than that, it works just like any of the other print options. This option is only available when you have multiple on-screen views, and will only print at printer resolution. You must continue to use the Print Desktop option to print at screen resolution. Tip: If you are going to print a multi-view layout, turn off the title bars on screen. This will maximize the area occupied by your model, eliminating the gaps created by the title bars.

User Defined Contour Palettes

Previously, you could control the standard contour palette from the View Options command (Contour/Criteria Levels option, then push Set Levels... ). You could only specify six colors however, and FEMAP would interpolate between them to produce the entire contour spectrum. This method produces very smooth transitions between colors in the spectrum, but does not allow very precise color control, and often results in dithered (rather than solid) colors being used. This capability has been retained, but an additional User Palette option has been added. To define a palette, go to the View Options command, select Contour/Criteria Levels, push Set Levels, then push

User Palette... . You will see a dialog box that looks very similar to the standard color palette dialog box. In addition to the standard colors however, you will see additional boxes that show the defined contour palette. To add to the palette, choose the color (and linestyle and pattern) from the top of the box, then press Add. The selected color will be added to the palette. To remove a color from the contour palette, select it and press Delete. Press Reset to delete all of the selected colors. Press Reverse to swap the order of the colors in the palette. Press Save to save the selected contour palette in a file, which you can retrieve later with the Load button. In either option the standard file access dialog box is used to access the contour palette files. The file extension ".CNT" is always used for these files. The default user defined contour palette file is selected in the File Preferences command, and is loaded every time you start FEMAP. To use the contour palette that you have defined, you must return to Contour/Criteria Levels in the View Options dialog box, and switch the Contour Palette option to "User Palette". When you select the User Palette, all contour and criteria plots will be done with the number of levels in the user palette, the "# of Levels" option is simply ignored. To change the number of levels, you must change the user palette, or switch back to the "Standard Palette". This version of FEMAP includes several predefined contour palette files. These files have been defined to access solid colors when used with most Windows 256-color drivers. You can use them as a starting point for your own palettes by loading and modifying them.

Deformed Style Options

The Deformed Style View Option which chose deformations as a "% of Screen" has been changed. Instead of calculating the scaling based on a percentage of the screen, the calculation is now based on a percentage of the model size. For an autoscaled view, these methods are identical, but if you zoom in/out, the former method changed the relative scaling of the deformed model. Depending upon the overall shape of the deformed model, this change in scale could be confusing. The new method does not change scale when you change the magnification, therefore the deformed shape always remains constant. On the negative side however, the new method does require that you use the View Options command to manually change the deformation scale, whenever the deformations appear too large in a zoomed View. In addition, if you are working with a model that has reference nodes or points at a great distance from your real model, you will again have to adjust the deformation scale factor in the View Options command - or switch to the actual deformation method.

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Corrections (Version 4.01)

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Startup Program Files

If you chose a startup program file in the File Preferences command, it was not running when you first started FEMAP, but it did run when you opened any new or existing models. You could work around this problem by also specifying the same program file on the FEMAP command line ( -p option ). The problem has been corrected and you can now simply specify the preference and it will run when you start FEMAP, and when you open models.

Calculator
The ln( ) function did not work. It resulted in messages that said that the logarithm was infinite, even if it was not. The function has been corrected.

Standard Plane Dialogs

If you started using the Plane Locate method, then switched to the Global method by using the keyboard, you would get a message that you had not yet picked one of the available options. While this message did not cause any harm, it was also not necessary, so it was removed.

Printing
On some printers, especially PostScript printers, the Default Fixed Pitch Font, that was chosen for Page Headers and Footers (Page Setup command), and for listings directly to the printer, was extremely small. The default printer fonts have been adjusted to be more readable. In addition, when you did multi-page listings of nodes or points, directly to a printer, the listing header was printed incorrectly on all pages except the first. This has also been corrected.

ANSYS Read Translator

When reading STIF82 elements with KEYOPT(3) set to 0 or 3 (i.e., plane stress), midside nodes were being ignored. Midside nodes are now read correctly.

NASTRAN Read and Write

The plate fiber distances that were translated on the PSHELL command were switched relative to how FEMAP translates to other programs. This did not really cause any errors since the fibers were correct, they were just switched. The only problem occurred if you analyzed the same model with NASTRAN and another program. If you then tried to compare plate stresses, the Top Fiber Stresses from NASTRAN were actually the Bottom Fiber Stresses from all other programs. Since this could cause possible confusion, the NASTRAN translators have been changed to swap the order of the fibers on the PSHELL command.

Output Read Translators

When reading an output file that contained elemental X, Y, Z stresses that had very large values ( > E15 ), in a hydrostatic state (zero shear), and where no principal stresses were read, FEMAP would sometimes abort. This condition was found in the STARDYNE output translator, but could also occur in any of the other translators where all of the conditions were met. The problem has been corrected.

STARDYNE Output Read Translator

A problem was found and eliminated that occurred when reading plate corner forces. The problem did not cause any real errors, all data was read correctly - it just resulted in slightly slower translation.

Units Conversion
The conversion factor files USCSCGS, USCSBRIT and USCSMKS (and the reverse files CGSUSCS, BRITUSCS and USCSMKS) had mass conversion factors that are incorrect by a factor of "g" in USCS (i.e., 386.088). The factors in the USCSxxxx files have been multiplied by "g" , and the factors in the xxxxUSCS files have been divided by "g", to correct the problem.

Undo
Previously if you started a new model, pressed Ctrl-F4 to close the only graphics window, then pressed Ctrl-Z to undo the last command, FEMAP would abort. This has been corrected, but you can not undo the closing of a graphics window, whether you do it using with Ctrl-F4, the View Activate command, or any other method.

Standard Material Library

All densities were input in weight density, not mass density as they should have been. This may or may not have caused problems, but it is against the FEMAP convention to input all mass and density in terms of mass, not weight.

Create Output Commands

The Create Output Copy, Linear, Envelope and Error Estimate commands, and the Check Compare output command, did not update the output vectors in the drop-down combo boxes when you changed the selected output set. This was not really a problem, since you could still select any vector by typing it's ID, and in most cases the same vectors exist in each set anyway. If you did have different output in each set however, it was somewhat inconvenient and has been corrected.

Create Output Vector

The Category and Node/Element type options were not being properly initialized for the default vector that was chosen when you started this command. If you clicked the list box to reselect the vector, or select a new vector, the dialog box was properly updated, but the defaults were incorrect. These incorrect defaults typically did not cause any problems, but were inconvenient and have been eliminated.

Modify Update Orientation

When you converted a bar or beam orientation from a third node to a vector, the model was not properly updated and the third nodes became nondeletable. You could work around this by using the File Rebuild command, but the problem has been corrected in this version.

Standard Output Reports

The STARDYNE Report formats for Plate Forces, Plate Corner Stresses and Solid Corner Stresses were incorrect. They chose incorrect, nonexistent vectors. The formats have been corrected.

Deformed Contours
If you chose a deformed contour (or deformed criteria), then selected a group for display, and defined user-defined contour levels, the max/min contour levels were reset based on the deformation output vector, not the contour output vector. This problem has been corrected.

Contour Legend
If you defined more contour levels than you had vertical (or horizontal, for Top/Bottom Center legends) pixels in the window, FEMAP would abort. This obviously only occurred for small windows with a large number of contour levels. This problem has been eliminated, you can now choose any number of levels in any size window. In addition, previously the contour legend would change size depending on the number of contour levels that you chose. The change of size was not an error ( FEMAP was supposed to work that way ! ) but it was somewhat annoying, especially when you chose a large number of contour levels in a small window. The legend has been redesigned to always remain the same size relative to the size of the window.

User Defined Contour Levels

If you used User Defined Contour Levels and defined the first entry as level 1, FEMAP would abort. In fact, the first level should always be defined as level 2, since the max value is level 1, but the dialog box did not prevent you from defining an additional level 1. The Contour Level dialog box has been changed to prevent you from improperly defining the level, and changed visually to show that you should enter specify numbers between 2 and "max".

User Defined Contour Levels

If you chose a small number of contour levels, and then tried to define them all as user defined levels, the last contour value that you entered was ignored. This problem has been corrected and all levels are now accessible.

On-Line Help
Previously, the on-line help files could not be found by FEMAP if you did not include the FEMAP directory in your path, and you changed out of the FEMAP directory. This has been corrected, so that it will always be found as long as it is in the FEMAP directory.

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Documentation (Version 4.01)

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Tools Move Workplane . . .

The Tools Move Workplane command allows you to quickly move the workplane relative to its current position and orientation. This command requires only one dialog box, where you can specify a new elevation, and a rotation for the workplane. A nonzero elevation will move the workplane along its Z axis (normal to the workplane). A nonzero rotation will rotate the workplane around the Z axis (positive values go counterclockwise). If you want to reorient the workplane, use the Tools Workplane command, and choose the appropriate plane definition method.

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

Version 4.00
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Upgrading from previous versions of FEMAP

Be sure to review Appendix F (Converting Old Databases) for information regarding how to use your existing models with this version of FEMAP. Existing FEMAP databases (*.MOD) are not directly compatible with this version.

Installing FEMAP and your PATH Statement

You no longer have to include the FEMAP directory in your path. FEMAP can automatically look for files that it needs in the same directory as the executable. The Windows Program Manager icons that are created by the installation procedure include the name of the directory where you installed FEMAP, so Windows can find the executable. The only time that you will have to include a directory in your path is if you move some of the support files to a different directory than the main FEMAP executable (this is not recommended).

Working with Libraries and Other Files

As described above, FEMAP can locate its support files in the same directory as the executable. This also applies for library files. If you do not specify a particular directory, FEMAP uses the following search sequence: 1. The current directory, 2. The Windows and Windows System directories, 3. All directories along your PATH, in the order they are specified, 4. Directories that are mapped in a network,

5. The FEMAP executable directory. You will notice that the FEMAP directory is searched last. This gives you the opportunity to use multiple libraries and access them by adding those directories into your PATH (which will be found before the default libraries in the FEMAP directory). You can also locate alternate libraries by specifying full path names (including the directory) in the File Preferences command.

Text File Conversion Utilities

ESP has provided two DOS based utilities to aid in conversion of text files that do not contain Carriage Return and/or Line Feed characters at the end of each line. FEMAP can read files with records that are terminated by Line Feeds (LF), Carriage Return/Line Feed Pairs (CR-LF), or Line Feed/Carriage Return Pairs (LF-CR). It cannot read files terminated only by Carriage Returns (CR). 1. CR_CVT.EXE adds Line Feeds to files terminated only by Carriage Returns. No checking is performed, therefore, do not run this program on a file that already contains Line Feed characters. One easy way to tell if your file contains only Carriage Returns, is to type the file to the screen using the DOS TYPE command (TYPE FILENAME.EXT). If the lines of the file constantly overwrite one another or the text appears jumbled, no Line Feeds are present. 2. CR_FIXED.EXE adds Line Feeds to files that contain no line termination information, but contain data in fixed length records (like an IGES file). These files typically appear as one long line of data. To run these programs: a. Switch to the FEMAP directory (typically C:\FEMAP4). b. Type in the program name. (CR_CVT or CR_FIXED). Both programs prompt you for input and output file names, or they can be entered along with the program name on the command line. i.e., [CR_CVT or CR_FIXED] [input file] [output file] In addition, CR_FIXED asks for the default record length, normally 80.

Removing FEMAP from your system

If you ever want to remove FEMAP from your system, follow these two steps: 1. Startup FEMAP. Choose the File Preferences command, and press the Reset button. This will delete all entries in your WIN.INI file that were created by FEMAP. 2. Exit FEMAP and go to DOS. Delete all of the files in the FEMAP directory. Make sure to get the subdirectories also. Finally, remove the directories.

Section 8.11 DXF Interfaces

Supported DXF Entities
The following entities are supported by the DXF Read Translator: POINT Group Codes: 6 8 10,20,30 38 62 210,220,230 LINE Group Codes: 6 8 10,20,30 11,21,31 38 39 62 210,220,230

- Linetype - Layer - Point - Elevation - Color - Extrusion Direction

- Linetype - Layer - Start Point - End Point - Elevation - Thickness - Color - Extrusion Direction

Lines are always translated to FEMAP lines. If a thickness is specified, a single DXF line creates 4 FEMAP lines which represent the original "thick" line. CIRCLE Group Codes: 6 8 10,20,30 40 38 62 210,220,230

- Linetype - Layer - Center Point - Radius - Elevation - Color - Extrusion Direction

Circles translate to FEMAP circles. Additional points are created as required to define the FEMAP circle. ARC Group Codes: 6 8 10,20,30 40 50 51 38 62

- Linetype - Layer - Center Point - Radius - Start Angle - End Angle - Elevation - Color

210,220,230 - Extrusion Direction Arcs translate to FEMAP arcs. Additional points are created as required to define the FEMAP arc. TRACE Group Codes: 6 8 10,20,30 11,21,31 12,22,32 13,23,33 38 62 210,220,230

- Linetype - Layer

- Corner Points - Elevation - Color - Extrusion Direction

Traces are read as FEMAP lines. Options are available to create the outline and/or the centerline of the trace, as specified by the four corners.

TEXT Group Codes: 1 6 8 10,20,30 40 38 62 72, 73 210,220,230

- Text Value - Linetype - Layer - Insertion Point - Radius - Elevation - Color - Horizontal and Vertical Justification - Extrusion Direction

Text can be read as FEMAP text entities. It is usually best to skip text however, since font and orientation information can not be translated. SOLID Group Codes: 6 8 10,20,30 11,21,31 12,22,32 13,23,33 38 62 210,220,230

- Linetype - Layer

- Corner Points - Elevation - Color - Extrusion Direction

Solids are read just like 3DFACEs. 3DFACE Group Codes:

6 8 10,20,30 11,21,31 12,22,32 13,23,33 38 62 210,220,230

- Linetype - Layer

- Corner Points - Elevation - Color - Extrusion Direction

3DFACES can either be translated to lines which define the outline of the face, or directly to Plate elements. POLYLINE Group Codes: 6 8 38 39 62 70 71, 72 73, 74 75 210,220,230

- Linetype - Layer - Elevation - Thickness - Color - Polyline Flag - Polygon Mesh M and N Vertex Counts - Smooth Surface M and N Densities - Smooth Surface Type - Extrusion Direction

POLYLINE VERTICES 8 - Layer 10,20,30 - Point 38 - Elevation 62 - Color 70 - Vertex Flag 71,72,73,74 - Vertex Indices for Polyface mesh DXF Polylines represent a variety of curve and surface types. FEMAP converts all polylines which represent curves to a series of line segments (either lines or plot-only elements). FEMAP converts polygon and polyface meshes into lines or plate elements (depending on your selection for the "Read Polygon Meshes as Elements" option). FEMAP does not create spline curves, or surfaces from polylines. In addition to the above entities, the LAYER table is read if it is present. This enables FEMAP to translate from the DXF layer names into FEMAP layer numbers, and supports reading the Group Code 8 blocks defined above.

Exploding DXF Blocked Entities

Other than the LAYER table, FEMAP only reads the ENTITIES section of the DXF file. The BLOCKS section is skipped. If you have blocked data, you should use the EXPLODE command prior to writing the DXF file for FEMAP. If you read a DXF file, and portions of the geometry are missing, go back to AutoCAD, EXPLODE that portion of your model, and write a new DXF file. You may have to use EXPLODE several times if you have nested BLOCKS. You can also use this process in reverse. If there are portions of your model that you want to ignore as you translate to FEMAP, simply BLOCK them before you write the DXF file.

DXF Paper Space and Viewports

FEMAP does not support AutoCAD Paper Space, but will read all entities as if they were defined in model space. If you have "Paper Space" geometry, it will probably be positioned incorrectly relative to your model. In general, Paper Space geometry should not be included in the DXF file, since it is usually not part of the defining model geometry. Likewise, FEMAP ignores Viewport information since it is trying to transfer the model, rather than the correct "drawing".

Section 8.12 IGES Interfaces

FEMAP can import geometry from many CAD (and other) programs via IGES formatted files. FEMAP requires that the IGES file be written in uncompressed ASCII format.

Reading IGES Files

To begin, choose the File Translate command, select the IGES format, and press the Read button. After you select the file, using the standard file selection dialog box, you will see a dialog box which is similar to that used when reading DXF files. There are two basic options available: Read Colors and Layers: When this option is on, color and layer information will be read from the file. Otherwise default values will be assigned from FEMAP. Merge Coincident Points: When this option is on, FEMAP will eliminate points that are within the "Minimum Distance" from each other after the model has been translated. If you leave this option off, you can still merge the points later with the Check Coincident Points command. The default minimum distance is loaded from the IGES file that you are reading, so it may vary between models.

Supported IGES Entities

An IGES file is divided into the following sections: 1. Start Section This section contains text describing the model. FEMAP reads it and simply echoes it to the messages window, to verify the file being read. 2. Global Section This section contains information about the program that wrote the file and information needed now to read the file. In addition to reading values needed to properly interpret the model, FEMAP reads the Filename and System ID fields and echoes them to the messages window. 3. Directory Entry Section This section contains one, 2-record, entry for each entity in the file. These are as follows: Record 1: Entity Type Number: Parameter Data:

read read

Structure: Line Font Pattern: Level: View: Transformation Matrix: Label Display Assoc.: Status Number: Sequence Number:

skipped read read skipped read skipped skipped read

Record 2: Entity Type Number: skipped, but must match Record 1 Line Weight Number: read Color Number: read Parameter Line Count: read Form Number: read Reserved 1: N/A Reserved 2: N/A Entity Label: skipped Entity Subscript: skipped Sequence Number: read Each of the fields that are marked as "read" must be properly defined for the entity to be properly translated. The Entity Type Number, Transformation Matrix, Parameter Line Count and Sequence Number fields are especially critical. Line Font Pattern: FEMAP only supports the standard (positive value) line fonts. Line Font Definition Entities (Type 304) are not supported. Level: Either a positive level number, or a negative number which references a Property Entity (Type 406, Form 1) can be used. If you do reference a Property Entity however, only the first layer defined on that property will be used. FEMAP does not support multiple layers for a single entity. Line Weight Number: This field is read, but has minimal functionality. If defined, FEMAP attempts to match to one of the available line thicknesses, but FEMAP only has a few thicknesses to choose from. Color Number: Color numbers can either directly reference one of the 8 predefined colors, or reference a Color Definition Entity (Type 314). If this field is 0, colors are assigned based on the current FEMAP defaults. 4. Parameter Data Section This section contains the parameters associated with each entity.

The following entities are supported: Type 100 - Circular Arc Circular Arcs are translated directly to either FEMAP Circles or Arcs. Type 108 - Plane Planes are translated to a series of FEMAP lines, only if they are unbounded (Form 0). Bounded planes are skipped, since they just reference other curves. Type 110 - Line Lines are translated directly to FEMAP lines. Type 112 - Parametric Spline Curve Parametric spline curves are translated into a series of FEMAP Bezier splines which match the polynomial coefficients in each segment of the original curve. If your original curve had many defining segments, you will get a lot of curves! Type 116 - Point Points are translated directly to FEMAP Points. FEMAP can only display points as a "plus sign" (+), so the PTR option is ignored. Type 118 - Ruled Surface Ruled surfaces are translated to FEMAP ruled surfaces, if both of the defining curves are supported (i.e. lines, arcs or circles), otherwise the surface is skipped. Type 120 - Surface of Revolution Surfaces of revolution are translated to FEMAP surfaces of revolution if the generatrix is supported (i.e. lines, arcs or circles), otherwise the surface is skipped. Type 124 - Transformation Matrix Transformation matrices are converted to FEMAP coordinate systems. Only Forms 0 and 1 are read, and only Form 0 is really supported. Form 1 is a left-handed coordinate transformation. If you have these, FEMAP creates a right-handed transformation, and that portion of your model will appear reflected. Rather than just using the transformation matrices to orient the geometry, FEMAP creates a coordinate system for each matrix, then defines the geometry relative to that system. This maintains the original hierarchy, and allows you to manipulate the geometry by moving the defining coordinate systems. If your IGES file contains a large number of transformation matrices, you may want to eliminate all of the coordinate systems. Just use the Modify Update Point Definition Coordinate System command to set all point coordinate systems to Global Rectangular (CSys 0). Then use the Delete Coord Sys command to delete the

unwanted coordinate systems. Type 314 - Color Red/Green/Blue color combinations are read and used to assign color numbers to the entities that reference them. FEMAP matches the color combination to the closest available color in the default palette. No attempt is made to exactly match the colors, or to match to the current palette. Type 406 - Layer Only Form 1 is supported to define the layer number for entities that reference this property. FEMAP entities can not reference multiple layers so any additional layers are ignored. 5. Terminate Section The terminate section is not read by FEMAP.

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