What you need to know about FEMAP v11.3

5/22/2012Page 1

Femap V11.3 What’s New

E. Gustafson

Structural Design and Analysis (Structures.aero)

5-10-16

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SDA Femap Symposium

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Femap Release Schedule

• Regular release schedule

– v11.3 April 2016

– v11.2 March 2015

– v11.1 November 2013

– v11: January 2013

– v10.3.1: January 2012

– v10.3: October 2011

– v10.2: October 2010

– v10.1.1: January 2010

– v10.1: August 2009

– v10: December 2008

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How do I get it?

http://download.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com

Head to this link, you will need a Siemens webkey account (reach out to us if you have any trouble with this)

• Then node-locked users need to get new dongle codes and then update the dongle with them.

• Network license users need to pull a new license and update their server.

• Head to the SDA Licensing FAQ site to see more steps

http://structures.aero/licensing-faqs/

http://download.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/

http://structures.aero/licensing-faqs/

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Femap 11.3 What’s New

New functionality and updates

Preprocessing MeshingSolver

SupportPost-

processingPerformance

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PreprocessingDraw/Erase Toolbar

– New toolbar for draw/erase• Fast access to mesh and geometry on/off

• Choose entities to draw or erase

• Toggle back and forth

• Choose by element, property, material

• Grow/shrink selection

• Mesh only, geometry only, or linked

• Create Femap group from draw/erase data

• Load Femap group into draw/erase data

– Couple of notes• Entities must already be visible

• Reference entities are also removed i.e. curves and points for surfaces, all three of those for solids, etc

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PreprocessingNew View Rotation Options

– Default option still “Rotate about View Center”

– Similar to v11.2.x – first two items toggle between view center and rotation center

– New option – choose between rotating about the “view axes” (screen) or the “model axes” (global csys)

– New option – “Rotate about Coordinate System” – simply pick a Femap csys

– “Rotate around vector” same as v11.2.x “rotate around rotation axis”

Femap v11.2.x

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PreprocessingRotate Around Cursor

New “Dynamic rotate about cursor location” option maintains the location of the click location on the model

Prior versions – Dynamic rotation can move model out of view depending on view center

Starting click and rotate location

– Accessed via File / Preferences / User Interface OR add a toolbar icon

– Model rotates about the closest entity on screen

– Model never swings out of view!

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PreprocessingZoom Around Cursor

Accessed via File / Preferences / User Interface OR add a toolbar icon

Original behavior

Now

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PreprocessingRoll Through Mode

• Roll-Thru: move “inside” the model – With Roll-Thru off (and in all previous

versions of Femap) you cannot move through your model, you just zoom closer and closer

– Roll-Thru moves the viewer’s eye to a certain depth in the screen direction, everything behind that is clipped

– Zoom in enough and you’re inside, and can turn around and see what was behind you

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Object


Nothing clipped

Object

Eye location moved by Shift+Atl+Scroll Wheel, or moving 3D mouse

Half of object clipped

Object

View rotated 180°

Other half of object clipped

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Imagine trying to peer into at a hollow structure. Prior to v11.3, this required steps like selective removal of entities from view, or manually setting a clipping plane

In view Obstructed

d

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Zoom will make the part large in view, but doesn’t bring the “eye” closer

In view Obstructed

d

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Roll thru will move the “eye” so that you can peer inside at features hidden by some obstructing entities

In viewClipped

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Roll Through Demo

Great for peering into internal features of semi-monocoqueconstruction

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PreprocessingTouch Gestures

Graphics Window Gesture Action

One finger drag Dynamic model rotate

Two finger drag Dynamic model pan

Two finger pinch Zoom out

Two finger spread Zoom in

Move one finger around another Rotate around screen z-axis

Touch gestures are available in Graphics and Messages Windows, Entity Editor, Meshing and Postprocessing

Toolboxes, Data Table, Connection Editor, Model Info Tree and Status Bar

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PreprocessingConnection Manager

– New connection editor• Easier management and access to connections

• Direct editing

• Sorting

• Filters

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PreprocessingElement picking – Add Connected

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PreprocessingElement picking – Add All Connected

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PreprocessingPick Visible

• New method for front picking

– Turn on/off in File / Preferences / Graphics

– Much faster than database access

• Uses OpenGL (basic and performance) to keep track of which ID is front

• If an entity is not represented by a pixel, it will not be picked, i.e. blocked by something else, or so small it did not make a single pixel

• Works in single pick, box, circle, polygon, etc.

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PreprocessingStreamlined Element Face Picking

– Face picking automatically loads currently displayed elements as possible entities to pick from

– Adjacent faces is now the default

– With front picking turned on, only front faces can be selected, so any face based selection can be made with a single double-click

– Combined with draw/erase toolbar, enables faster creation of connections (glue, contact)

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PreprocessingBeam Modeling Enhancements

• Immediate feedback of basic cross

section information

• Can see the reference graphic

immediately

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PreprocessingProperties

Only Connection Regions are available when creating a Connector

Intelligent Entity AvailabilityOnly Properties which are appropriate for current Element type are available

Unique property icons for properties

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PreprocessingRenumber All

New renumber all dialog

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PreprocessingAPI Program File Libraries

– Custom Tools

• Library of API programs delivered with the software

– User Tools

• Reference for your own corporate-wide API program library

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PreprocessingMiscellaneous

– Plane to Plane method now available when using commands on the Modify, Align… menu. Similar to Between Coordinate Systems method, with specified plane defining X and Y axes, plane normal defining Z axis.

– Loads • For the specified type(s) in the active Load Set, All Load Sets, or any number of

selected Load Sets, can now...– modify the color– modify the layer– scale the values– change the function ID– delete loads

• Updated Modify, Update Other, Load Phase and Delete, Model, Load - Body commands to allow selection of any number of Load Sets.

– Constraints• Added ability to of specified type(s) in the active Constraint Set, all Constraint

Sets, or any number of selected Constraint Sets.– modify the color– modify the layer– delete constraints

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SupportPost-


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MeshingQuad Meshing Improvements

– Max Quads

• Goal: all quad mesh through triangle removal

• Will allow triangles when required

• With an odd number of edges there will always be one triangle

– Example: default mesh contains 39 triangles – with Max Quads it’s just 1

Default mesh Max Quads mesh

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• Max Quads combined with Quad Layers provides maximum mesh customization and flexibility

Recall that quad layers can be used to have Femaptry to place a specified amount of quads at the boundary curves

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Internal element growth now available with quad meshes

Recall the Mesh Growth factor is simply a factor that is multiplied by the average size of the elements around the perimeter of the surface. This value is used as the target size of all the elements in the interior of the surface.

Factor = high

Factor = low

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MeshingMesh Smoothing Improvements

New smoothing algorithm for highly curved surfaces

Great for the sharp radius on wing leading edges.

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MeshingInteractive Mesh Refine

– Interactive update of shell/line mesh• Auto transition

• Shrink/grow selection

• Drag selection

• Loads/constraints propagated automatically

– Say we wanted to refine the area around the lug…

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MeshingMultiple Element Splitting

• Multiple elements (nodes) can now be selected for splitting in a single command

• More efficient mesh refinement process than selecting each pair of nodes to split between individually

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MeshingHard Point Auto Update – Meshing Toolbox

• Mesh hard point auto-update within meshing toolbox

• Meshing toolbox commands that update surfaces will now automatically manage moving mesh hard points to any split surfaces

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MeshingGeometry Cleanup – Meshing Toolbox

• Small curves and extraneous points are inadvertently captured in the mesh

• New feature removal tools to permanently remove them

• Similar to composite curves and composite surfaces, but done at a geometric (Parasolid) level

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SupportPost-


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Solver Support

– Abaqus• Can now Attach to (instead of internalizing) Abaqus ODB results

– Nastran element quality• More checks available, can get to them by meshing toolbox

– Nastran frequency response enhancements• Read and write support for all Nastran FREQ entries• New solution frequency tab in Nastran dynamic analysis form

– Non-zero constraints SPC in constraint set (Nastran/ ansys)

– Grounded springs now available• Spring/Damper/ DOF Spring to Ground elements (CBUSH/CELAS2)

– Configure multiple solvers within Femap• Different analysis sets can use a unique solver

– Ansys• New solution setup dialog and analysis monitor for Ansys

solutions• CBUSH-like spring elements can be written (also Abaqus) BK

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Solver SupportNastran Results Enhancements

• Use static subcase IDs – NEW

• Track revisions – NEW

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SupportPost-


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PostprocessingArrow Plots

• Contour Vector plots have been completely overhauled for v11.3 and have been renamed Contour Arrows

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PostprocessingContour Arrow Plots

• Automatic vector selection: the user specifies a single contour vector and Femapautomatically selects appropriate output vectors to display as well as the correct orientation for relevant elements

• On-the-fly results transformations: nodal, shell and solid results can now be displayed in a transformed orientation without having to first manually create a set of transformed results

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• Automatic styling: based on the selected output vector, Femap can automatically select the arrow styles that are the most appropriate for the type of vector displayed. These settings can always be overridden by the user

Arrow Heads

Arrow Location Arrow Colors

Moment HeadDouble Head Single Head No Head

Arrow at Tail Arrow at Center Contour Colors View Colors

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Automatic styling

Plate principals

• Double-headed arrows

• Located at center

Plate membrane

• Single-headed arrows

• Located at tip

• Designed to show

directions for positive

shear flow

Beam axial / shear

• Axial shown with

double-ended arrows at

center

• Shear shown with single

headed arrows at tip

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• Shear / resultant display: arrows can be shown as individual components, resultants or selected axial / shear components

Total output vectors (i.e. 1..Total Translation) are

automatically paired with the matching components

and shown as resultants

Component output vectors (i.e. 2..T1 Translation)

are automatically paired with the matching

components and shown as individual components

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• Shear / resultant display

CBUSH forces in the element coordinate system

shown as individual components

CBUSH forces in the element coordinate system

shown as shear (Y force / Z force) and axial (X force)

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• Output listing: when doing automatic vector selection, List / Output / Contoured Results to Data Table command lists Contour Arrow results to the data table as they appear on screen

• All results remain sortable and entities can be highlighted, even when resultants or shears are displayed

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PostprocessingFreebodies

• Glue and contact: support has been added for glue and contact results as discrete freebody contributions

• When you add contact contribution – FB summations will now show up in equilibrium

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• Freebody listing has been rewritten to consolidate commands and add additional features

v11.2.2

Single Dialog

v11.3

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• Freebody listing

– Consolidated into a single dialog box

• Interface loads can be sent directly to the data table

• Clipboard is a new listing destination option for tab delimited data

• Listing of F06-style GPFO data has been streamlined

• Dialog remembers previous settings

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PostprocessingFreebody Listing

• Interface loads in data table• GPFB to clipboard

• Convenient for pasting to Excel or similar applications• Same styling a traditional F06 output

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• Default settings: freebody defaults can be set in Preferences / Results tab

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PostprocessingCharting Enhancements

• Enhanced support for analysis studiesSpecify individual studies for Vector vs. Output Set

and Vector vs. Vector data seriesQuickly create new data series directly from the

Model Info Tree. Can be added to existing charts

or new ones can be created

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SupportPost-


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PerformancePerformance Improvements

• Addressed specific customer issues:

• Nastran XDB Attach: composite element results – 60x

• Femap sets (API feSet object) • Accessed from your APIs and used internally in Femap are now 30x faster adding and removing IDs

• Expanding pressure loads on shell elements attached to a surfaces 240x faster

• Performance Graphics continues to evolve

– Rigid elements: RBE2, RBE3, and RSPLINE elements are now drawn with PG, including their DOF labels, independent/dependent symbols and arrows indicating direction

– Contour Style: arrows are now drawn in PG, together with their numerical data

– Deformed Style: arrows are now drawn in PG, together with their numerical data

– Performance Graphics will be temporarily disabled when an unsupported command is used (i.e., Dynamic Cutting Plane, Dynamic IsoSurface, etc), then be enabled again after exiting the command

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Q and A

Eric GustafsonSenior Aerospace Stress Analyst/Femap Technical SupportStructural Design and Analysis, Incwww.structures.aero

46030 Manekin Plaza. Ste 120Sterling, VA 20166Phone: (703) 657-0919Email: [email protected]

New to Femap? Check out the book Learning Femap at www.learningfea.com

Submit support tickets here:http://structures.aero/services/#support

Any questions?

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http://www.structures.aero/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.learningfea.com/

http://structures.aero/services/#support

Engineering

What you need to know about FEMAP v11.3