what’s new in femap

8/14/2019 Whats New in FEMAP

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Whats New in FEMAP

FEMAP 9.3.1 includes enhancements and new features in: User Interface on page 3

Meshing on page 4

Layups on page 6

Geometry on page 8

Groups and Layers on page 8

Geometry Interfaces on page 8

Analysis Program Interfaces on page 8

Tools on page 9

OLE/COM API on page 9

Preferences on page 10

FEMAP 9.3 includes enhancements and new features in:

User Interface on page 13

Meshing on page 23

Materials and Properties on page 24

Layups on page 25

Loads and Constraints on page 28 Using Data Surfaces with Loads on page 31

Connections (Connection Properties, Regions, and Connectors) on page 48

Geometry on page 53


Output and Post-Processing on page 58



Tools on page 63



FEMAP 9.2 includes enhancements and new features in:

User Interface on page 67

Meshing on page 70

Loads and Constraints on page 71

Connections on page 72


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9.3-2 Finite Element Modeling

Geometry on page 74


Graphics on page 74





64-bit Support on page 79


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Whats New for version 9.3.1 9.3-3

Whats New for version 9.3.1

User Interface"General", "Menu" , "Spaceball" , "Data Table" , "Entity Editor" , "Model Info Tree" , "Data Surface Editor" .

General FEMAP is now available as both a 32-bit and 64-bit application. The 64-bit version is able to take advantage of

the of the benefits of running on a 64-bit platform, such as being able to use more than 2GB of memory.

A function to compute memory usage percent was added to the preferences and sets better default values for theamount of RAM on a particular machine. Previously, you would need to specify a number of parameters in the

preferences based on the amount of memory on a machine.

Menu

List, Output, Force Balance Interface Load added to List menu.Spaceball

A tab has been added to the preferences to allow more precise use of a Spaceball

Data Table The Data Table can now be accessed via the FEMAP API in order to create customized tables in the Data Table.

Entity Editor Coefficient of Thermal Expansion on rigid elements is now displayed in the Entity Editor and Data Table

Model Info Tree

Added Group commands to tree menus for Solids, Properties, and Materials Added Automatic Add to the Group Menu in Model Info tree

Added context menu to the root of the Connections branch in Model Info tree.

Added support for editing Data Surface titles from the tree.

Data Surface Editor Added New interpolation commands for row column and to force weighted or bi linear interpolation.

Interpolate - This command will perform the initial interpolation on a Tabular Data Surface which is currentlyactive in the Data Surface Editor. This allows you to enter only certain portions of data into the Data Surface, thenhave FEMAP interpolate between those points for you. This also allows you to see the populated values whichFEMAP has calculated in the table of values.

Automatic - Automatically switches between a linear or distanceweighted interpolation method. A linear approach is used unless pointsinternal to the data surface have been defined.

Linear - Uses a linear interpolation method.

Distance Weighted - Uses a Distance weighted method.

Linear Row - Linearly interpolates each independent row.

Linear Column - Linearly interpolates each independent column.


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.

Table copy from Data Surface editor

Messages added indicating when location evaluated to zero.

Meshing Enhancements to meshing include:

Added "Copy in Same Location" to all Mesh, Copy... commands

Added 4 new patterns to Mesh, Editing, Interactive

Added 1 new pattern to Mesh, Editing, Split

Added Regenerate display at end of Mesh, Editing, Interactive command

Added the Radial method to Mesh, Extrude... commandsFor the Radial method, you will be asked a question:

Clicking Yes allows you to choose a location which defines the center of the radial extrusion. Clicking No prompts you to choose a vector for constant extrusion of all elements from that vector. Finally, you must specify theradial offset length, the radial distance between the original curve and the end of the extrusion.

When using the Extrude Around Point/Spherical option, FEMAP will compute an extrusion vector for each ele-ment which runs from the center that you chose, to the entity.

In a three dimensional case, this actually produces a spherical extrusion, since the extrusion vector is computedfrom the center of the sphere

When using the Around Vector/Cylindrical option, FEMAP will compute an extrusion vector for each elementwhich runs from the closest point on the defined vector, to the entity.

Note: Automatic interpolation is identical to the first step which is performed when a tabular data sur-face is evaluated to find variation locations.

Note: If you have a number of stacked curves which you would like extruded to create stacked parallellayers of elements, you will want to use the Radial Method with the Around Vector/Cylindrical option.

New Patterns


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Meshing 9.3-5

The figure shows one example of extruding a set of stacked curves

Added Bias to Standard Extrusion in the Mesh, Extrude... commands

You can set a Bias which will create smaller elements (values > 1.0) or larger elements (values < 1.0) near thestart of the extrusion, which is the Base of the vector for Vector method or closest to the specified point inspace or defined vector for the Radial method.

Updated Radial Copy of Nodes/Elements to do either spherical or cylindrical about a vector.

Three Curves extrudedusing the Radial MethodAround Point/Spherical

Three Curves extrudedusing the Radial MethodAround Vector/Cylindrical

Option

Option

Bias Set to 2.0 Bias Set to 0.5


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Layups Total Thickness is now displayed in the Layup Manager Dialog box.

New Layup Viewer helps in during the creation of layups.

The Layup Viewer allows you to graphically visualize the current layup being created or edited. Each ply currentlyin the layup will be shown and labeled with Ply Number, Thickness , Orientation , and Material in the Layup Viewer .The ply at the top of the viewing area always represents the top of the layup. Initially, all of the plies are shown inthe viewing area, with all plies being scaled based on the size of the largest ply. In layups with a large number of

plies or plies with large variation of thickness, this can create a somewhat cluttered display. The entire LayupViewer can be resized and the viewing area scaled and scrolled to allow in-depth examination of specific plies.

Thickness Displayed Layup Viewer Button


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Layups 9.3-7

General Controls and OptionsThe layup display can be scaled using the Scale slider bar. When the slider is all the way to the left, this representsthe default display and the middle of the layup will always be returned to the middle of the display area.

Once the layup has been scaled, you can explore different sections of the layup by moving the scroll bar up anddown on the right side of the Layup Viewer .

There are several options in the Layup Viewer which enable you to choose how the layup should be displayed.Also, the display can copied to the clipboard then pasted into other windows programs.

The options are explained in greater detail below.

ThicknessAllows you to choose if each ply should be displayed based on a scaled representation of the ply thickness or ifeach ply should be shown with a Constant thickness.

Ply AnglesWhen this box is Checked, the ply orientation angles will be displayed graphically on each ply. This option is ON

by default.

TitlesWhen this box is Checked, the Title of the ply material will be displayed instead of only the ply material ID. Thisoption is OFF by default.

Display Color Material Color - Uses the material color assigned to each material. If you have not specified any special mate-

rial colors, all of your plies will be the same color.

Random Color - Assigns a random color to each material in the model for Layup Viewer purposes only. If youhave not defined material colors, this is an easy way to see differentiation between layers of different properties.

Monochrome - Changes the layup display to Monochrome (Grayscale) which can be useful if copying thelayup display to another program for printing purposes.

Copy to Clipboard buttonCopies the layup display to the clipboard. By default, the Visible Only option is checked, which means only the

plies currently in the display area will be copied to the clipboard. When unchecked, the entire layup will be copiedto the clipboard.

Note: When using the scroll bar, you will notice that the top line of the top ply and the bottom line ofthe bottom ply will stop at the middle of the display area.

Note: The constant thickness is determined by dividing the available display area height by the number of plies (when the layup display is NOT scaled).

Note: On 32-bit operating systems, if the image of the entire layup becomes larger than 13,500,000 pixels,the Visible Only option will NOT be available to uncheck and can NOT be turned OFF. You will still

be able to copy the visible portion of the layup, but not the entire thing at once.

In certain cases, another program (such as Microsoft Word) may not be able to paste the image fromthe clipboard. If this is the case, try scaling the image less. One way to do this and still get a usefulimage of the layup may be to use the Constant Thickness option.

This is not a restriction when running FEMAP on 64-bit operating systems.


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Geometry Added "Copy in Same Location" option to all Geometry, Copy... commands

Improved Solid Add to work with various combinations of adjacent solids that previously did not fully add because of the order they were combined.

Updated Radial Copy of Points/Curves/Surfaces to do either spherical or cylindrical about a vector

Updated Geometry, Scale, Solid and Modify, Scale, Solid commands to allow scaling in X, Y, and Z directionsinstead of using 1 uniform scale factor.

Groups and Layers Added option to Group, Operations, Generate Material, Generate Property, and Generate ElemType to create

either one group with all selected entities or multiple groups, one for each selected entity.

Geometry InterfacesThe following FEMAP interfaces have been updated to support newer geometry formats:

For details, see Geometry Interfaces in the FEMAP User Guide .

Analysis Program InterfacesSeveral of the analysis program interfaces have been improved. These changes include:

FEMAP Neutral File Interface on page 8

Nastran Interfaces on page 8

NX Nastran Interface on page 8

MSC/MD Nastran Interface on page 8

NEi Nastran Interface on page 9 ANSYS Interface on page 9

ABAQUS Interface on page 9

FEMAP Neutral File Interface Added Read Groups and Read Views options to File, Import, FEMAP Neutral command

Nastran Interfaces Added reading CBUSH to ground.

A number of bugs were corrected for all of the Nastran interfaces.

For details, see Analysis Program Interfaces in the FEMAP User Guide .

NX Nastran Interface Added support for the Shell Thickness (OSHT1) output from Solution 601/701

Added support for Linear Contact in Modal Analysis (SOL 103).

MSC/MD Nastran Interface Added support for reading CTE on rigids

Added support reading MSC RBAR1 as RBE2 and

FEMAP Interface Latest Supported Version

Parasolid Parasolid 19.0


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NEi Nastran Interface 9.3-9

Added support reading RIGID=LAGRAN case control commands. Changed a few items specifying MSC.Nas-tran to MSC/MD Nastran

NEi Nastran Interface The DPHASE entries for frequency response analysis are now generated properly when translating to NEi Nas-

tran

ANSYS Interface Added support for reading major Poissons ratio PRij from Ansys

A number of bugs were corrected.

ABAQUS InterfaceA number of bugs were corrected.

ToolsStress Wizard Added the ability to choose an assembly made up of multiple solids for use with the Stress Wizard. The Con-

nect, Automatic command is run after import with the default values for contact detection and Glued Contact.m the material library to be applied to those solids.

Added the ability to change the material associated with any desired solids of an assembly in Step 1

In the case of a multi-solid assembly, if the parts do not have any materials assigned to them from the geometry being imported, the SW will prompt you to choose a single material for all the parts in the assembly. This willeffectively complete Step 1.

You can later change the materials of individual parts in an assembly from inside the

SW by clicking the Step 1 button. Once the SW dockable pane has changed to showthe Step 1 options, clicking the Update Material for Solid(s) button will prompt you toselect any desired solids and choose a different material from the material library to

be applied to those solids.

Added a button to Step 4 which allows the use of the View, Advanced Post, Dynamic Cutting Plane command

OLE/COM API

New API Objects and Attributes DataTable object to the API

CoordDialogMethod, VectorDialogMethod, PlaneDialogMethod parameters and zCoordDefinition, zVector-Definition and zPlaneDefinition

New API Methods Added CurrentID property to Set object.

Added GetFromSet and FindMaxMin methods to the Output object.

Added GetOutputListAtSet, GetScalarAtNodeSet, GetVectorAtNodeSet, GetScalarAtElemSet and GetElem-WithCornerSet to the Output object

Note: In some cases, the default settings for automatically detecting glued contact in an assembly will not beable to detect all of the required connections between the different parts. In this case, you must exit theSW, and use other FEMAP capabilities located on the Connect menu to create connections between thevarious solids in the assembly, where required.


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Added GetRowValues() to the DataTable Object

Added IsEmpty to Set object

Added MaxNormalDeviation method to the surface object

Added MapOutputFromModelToLocation() to the MapOutput Object

Added MaxNormalDeviation method to the surface object

Added Total Thickness to the Layup object.

Added AddAllExcept method to the Set object

Added BoundingBox methods to Curve, Surface and Solid objects

Updated API Methods Updated ApiVariantSize( ) to handle variants that were created by the WinWrap Basic Array statement

Updated ArcCircleInfo method of Curve object to work with Solid curves

Updated SelectID set method to properly handle case of requesting CSys when no user-defined CSys exist,even though Global CSys always exist.

Corrected API Methods

Corrected problem that caused curve object to generate custom mesh sizes unless you explicitly set MeshMax-Param(0) = 1.0

Corrected error in NextEmptyID and PrevEmptyID for CSys object - previously could return CSys 1 and 2 asempty IDs, when they are reserved.

Corrected bug in API Set Object when adding rule by element topology.

The following functions have been added: feSelectOutput method to the application object

feConnectAuto method for automatic connection generation

feMeshAttachNodes

feOutputProcessConvert

feCoordPickByMethod, feVectorPickByMethod, fePlanePickByMethod

feFileReadNeutral2( ) API method

feAppModelContents( ) api method

PreferencesRender Added multi-model memory setting for OpenGL

Multi-Model Memory

If this option is on (default) then FEMAP will use memory for the active window of each model currently open in

the interface. This improves performance when graphically clicking from one model to another, but uses more ofyour machines memory. When turned off, only the active view from the model currently active in the FEMAPinterface will be using memory. This will decrease performance when graphically switching between models, butuse less memory. For users with a relatively low amount of memory dealing with very large models, this optionshould be turned off.

User Interface Updated Layout and Shortcut Key save/load to use XML format (*.LAYOUT file) and allow for options in data

to transfer

Note: This option does not effect performance when clicking between different views of one model.


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Preferences 9.3-11

Database The Database Performance portion of this preference has been completely changed to offer better default val-

ues for memory usage

Database Memory Limit

The Database Memory Limit sets the maximum amount of system memory that FEMAP will use to hold parts ofyour model and results in memory. If your model is larger than the amount of memory that you choose, FEMAP

will automatically read data from your disk as it is needed, replacing data that is not being used. While this Swap- ping process can slow down overall performance, it does let you work with much larger models than would other-wise fit into your available memory.

The Database Memory Limit DOES NOT control the total amount of memory that FEMAP will be using. FEMAPuses memory for many different operations this is just one of them. Almost every command temporarily usessome small amount of additional memory. Some commands, like meshing, node merging and reading results cantemporarily use fairly significant amounts of memory. Other operations, like loading large amounts of data into the

Data Table require memory for a longer period of time in this case as long as the data is in the table. Finally, thelargest use of additional memory, and one which normally persists the entire time you have a model open is fordrawing your model. For optimal performance, FEMAP uses OpenGL graphics, and keeps copies of the data to bedrawn in memory at all times. You must always have sufficient free memory available for all of these uses, or theoperations will not be able to execute properly. In the very worst case scenario, running out of memory could cause

FEMAP to crash. It is for this reason that the default Database Memory Limit is set fairly low 20% of the memoryin your computer (The 32-bit version is also restricted by the 2 GByte limit for any program). This does not meanthat you can not increase the limit beyond its default, but the further into the yellow and red zones you push theslider, you are increasing the chance of running out of memory.

Using the Control

The slider control allows you to choose the amount of memory to use for the database. Move the slider to the left toreduce the limit, to the right to increase it. As you move the slider, the memory limit is updated and displayedabove the slider.

The colored bar below the slider gives you an indication of the riskof running out of memory if you use this setting. The yellow andred regions should be used with caution since there is a goodchance of causing problems with other operations like meshing andgraphics. The small line along the top edge of the green sectionindicates the default memory limit. It is simply displayed to make iteasy for you to go back to that limit if you try other settings. The

blue bar along the bottom edge indicates the amount of memory that the database is currently using.

With this option, you are simply setting the maximum amount of memory available for the database. If you areworking with a smaller model, FEMAP will not use memory that it does not need and the blue bar will not extendthe entire way to the slider setting. If you look at this control with an empty model, or if you have a small modeland a large amount of memory in your system, the blue bar may not be visible because it is too short to be seenalong the bar.

Max Cached Label

Sets the largest label that FEMAP will reserve memory for. This option must be set to a ID higher than any entity inthe model. Default value is 5,000,000.

Blocks/Page

This value sets the page size. The optimum setting of this number often depends on the speed of your disk and controller.

Note: Changing the Database Memory Limit does not change the amount of memory used for the current ses-sion. For this selection to take effect, you must exit and restart FEMAP.

Note: The blue bar in the above figure shows the amount of memory used by a 1,000,000 element model (4-noded plate elements) on a 32-bit machine with 2 GB of RAM. Most potential problems with exceedingthe 2 GB memory limit only occur with very large models.


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Interfaces Turned preference to always read nonlinear stress/strain from Nastran OFF by default.

Spaceball This section outlines the options located on the Spaceball tab of the Preferences dialog box:

The six values in Scale Factors enable you to control the relative sensitivity of each degree of freedom.

For example:

if rotation about the screen x-axis is slow, increase the xrotation scale factor. If youincrease it too much, themotion in that degree of free-

dom will not be smooth.if zooming is too fast, reducethe z translation scale factor. Ifyou reduce the value too far, itwill take a long time to zoomin or zoom out in the model

Sometimes, when moving thespaceball in one degree offreedom, it is difficult to pre-vent motion in another degreeof freedom.

On the 3Dconnexion driverdialog, you can switch Domi-nant Axis on. This suppressesall motion except the largest. Ifthis is off, you can effectivelycontrol the same thing with the

Directional Sensitivity slider.Moving the slider to the rightmakes the largest axes domi-

nant and moving the slider to the left allows all the axes to effect the motion. The default position is in the middle.

Note: The default value of 4 was determined via testing to produce the best performance over a wide rangeof values for Database Memory Limit and using the default settings for a number of different types ofdisk drives. You may want to try other values from 1 to 15 if you have changed any speed/caching set-tings on your drive or have high-speed drives to determine if performance is improved.


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Whats New for version 9.3 9.3-13

Whats New for version 9.3

User Interface"General" , "Menu" , "Entity Select, Locate (Coordinate, Vector, and Plane), and Color Palette" , "Toolbars" , "SelectToolbar" ,"View Toolbar" , "Customize dialog box" , "Icon Buttons", "Vista" , "Spaceball" , "Data Table" , "Entity Edi-tor" , "Model Info Tree" , "Data Surface Editor", and "Program File" .

General Added longer titles and automatic titling. Updated title length to 79 characters.

Added adjustable drop-downs on combo boxes

Added Help to Customize dialog box

All set activate (Load, BC, Solid, Output Set, Layer, Output Vector) dialog boxes resizable

Renamed Spring Elements to Spring/Damper Position of undocked Analysis Monitor is saved

Support of dialog placement for multiple monitors

Menu Reorganized Dockable Panes and Toolbars portion of the Tools menu for more efficient use and to group sim-

ilar panes into submenus.

Added Geometry, Surface, Remove Hole and Geometry, Solid, Thicken commands to the Geometry menu. Seethe Geometry section for more information on these commands.

Added Fluid Region, Bolt Region, and Rotor Region to the Connect Menu. See Connections section for moreinformation on these new commands

Added Layup command to Model Menu. See Layup section for more information on this command.

Added commands to the Modify, Project menu to project points and nodes on to a specified vector or plane.

Added commands to the Modify, Edit menu to edit Layups, Load Definitions, and Constraint Definitions.

Added commands to the Modify, Renumber menu to renumber Connection Properties, Connection Region,Connections, Functions, Layers, and Analysis Sets.

Reorganized commands on the Modify, Update Elements menu to group similar commands into menu sections.Changed names of some commands to be more descriptive and more intuitive. Added new commands to set orupdate the CTE on rigid elements and reverse direction of line elements (formally, reversing of all elements wasdone via the Reverse command).

Added command to the Modify, Update Other menu to specify Superelement ID on selected nodes. Added commands to the List, Model menu to list Layups, Load - Definitions, Load - Individual, Constraint -

Definitions, and Constraint - Individual

Added commands to the List, Output menu to l ist Results to Data Table and Nodal Changes to Data Table.

Added commands to the Delete, Model menu to delete Load - Definitions and Constraint - Definitions

Added commands to the Delete, Library menu to delete from the Layup Library.

Added additional commands to the Group menu for Regions, Nodes, Elements, Properties, and Loads. AddedGroup, Layup commands again.


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Added commands to the Group, Operations menu to perform New Boolean Operations, Add Related Entities toan existing group, Generate groups based on Superelement ID, and Generate groups from Entities on Layer.

Added commands to the View, Rotate menu to use a Single Axis and/or the Model Axis, set FEMAP to RotateAbout the View Center or a Rotation Axis.

Entity Select, Locate (Coordinate, Vector, and Plane), and Color Palette Added context help to all of the standard dialog boxes (Entity Select; Color Palette; Locate - Coordinate, Vec-

tor, and Plane)

Added Coordinate Picking, Around Point, Around Vector and Around Plane to the Pick Menu in the standardEntity Selection dialog box and the Select Toolbar.

Coordinate PickingThe Coordinate option allows you to select entities using a combination of X,Y, and/or Z values referencing aselected coordinate system along with various limiting criteria (Above or Below a single value; Between or Out-side two values; or At Location, within a specified Tolerance.

You can choose any coordinate system in your model and then select X, Y, and/or Z and a limiting criteria foreach coordinate. You can click the Graphical Pick Icon button next to any active field and this allows you to geta value for that field by graphically picking in the model.

When using the At Location criteria, a Tolerance is used and can be manually entered. By default, this value is setto the Merge Tolerance of your model and expands the selection area +/- that value (See Section 7.4.1, "Tools,Parameters..." for how Merge Tolerance can be defined). You can also enter a larger value to expand the selec-tion area further in both directions.

Any value entered in a field as selection criteria WILL be included in the selection.

Around PointThe Around Point option allows you to select entities using each entitys position in 3-D space in relation to aSpecified Point along with various limiting criteria (Farther Than or Closer Than a single value; Between or Out-side two values; or At Location, within a specified Tolerance). Essentially, a sphere will be created around theSpecified Point and selection will be based on the defined limiting criteria.

Question Mark Icon brings up help
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Entity Select, Locate (Coordinate, Vector, and Plane), and Color Palette 9.3-15

FEMAP will first prompt you for a point using the standard Locate dialog box and any coordinate definitionmethod can be used. Once the Point has been specified, the Select by Distance From Point dialog box willappear.

You can click the Graphical Pick Icon button next to any active field and this allows you to get a value for thatfield by graphically picking in the model.

When using the At Location criteria, a Tolerance is used and can be manually entered. By default, this value is setto the Merge Tolerance of your model and expands the selection area +/- that value (See Section 7.4.1, "Tools,Parameters..." for how Merge Tolerance can be defined).


Around Vector The Around Vector option allows you to select entities using each entitys position in 3-D space in relation to aSpecified Vector along with various limiting criteria (Farther Than or Closer Than a single value; Between orOutside two values; or At Location, within a specified Tolerance). Essentially, a cylinder will be created aroundthe Specified Vector and selection will be based on the defined limiting criteria.

FEMAP will first prompt you for a vector using the standard Vector Locate dialog box and any vector definitionmethod can be used. Once the Vector has been specified, the Select by Distance From Vector dialog box willappear.




Around PlaneThe Around Plane option allows you to select entities using each entitys position in 3-D space in relation to aSpecified Plane along with various limiting criteria (Positive Side or Negative Side of Plane with offset value;Between or Outside two offset values; or At Location, within a specified Tolerance).

FEMAP will first prompt you for a plane using the standard Plane Locate dialog box and any plane definitionmethod can be used. Once the Plane has been specified, the Select by Distance From Plane dialog box willappear.
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The Positive Side is the side of the Specified Plane with the positive normal direction (based on the righthand rule) and the other side is the Negative Side. You can enter an Offset Distance from the plane in either thePositive or negative direction.




Updated List push button on standard Entity Selection dialog to bring up a multi-select list instead of a singleselection.

Enhanced Copy and Copy as List to both export the net selection, not the ranges in the box.

Made Previous and Pick->Paste honor the Add, Remove, and Exclude settings

Added method to node picking to select nodes referenced by constraint equations

Added Methods to standard selection dialog box for Connections, Connection Properties, and Regions, and sev-eral for Elements, Props,...

Moved color palette to be model dependent and it is now saved with the model Moved User Contour Palette to be view dependent, now saved with model.

Spaceball Improved support of Spaceball graphics interface devices. Also, fixed many issues when using a Spaceball fromearlier versions of FEMAP
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Toolbars 9.3-17

Toolbars Added Dockable Panes toolbar (Panes)

This Toolbar gives you quick access to toggle the various Dockable Panes on and off in the User Interface. When aPane is open in the User Interface, the icon will turn orange. When a Pane is toggled on it will appear in the samelocation it was in before being toggled off with this toolbar or any other method for closing the Pane.

It is separated into three sections:

The first section contains icons for the Model Info Tree , Entity Editor , Data Surface Editor , Entity Info , and DataTable dockable panes.

The second section contains icons for the Programming and customization dockable panes in FEMAP, the API Programming and Program File panes.

The third section contains an icon for the Messages Dockable Pane.

Added Custom Tools functionality

The Custom Tools Toolbar makes accessing custom commands and tools (i.e., API programs, Macros created usingthe Program File dockable pane, outside executables, etc.) very easy by allowing the user to choose a Tools Direc-tory on the computer to store all of these tools.

The Tools Directory can be set a number of ways. Through this toolbar,choosing the Tools Directory... command will bring up a dialog box whichwill allow you to choose a directory. This directory you choose can be onyour computer or out on a network.

Once the Tools Directory... is set, FEMAP will automatically create a menuitem for each file it recognizes as a tool. FEMAP recognizes the follow-ing file types as potential tools:

*.exe; *.com; *.pif; *.bat; *.cmd; *.pro; *.prg; *.bas

If the Tools Directory... contains sub-folders, each sub-folder will become amenu item and the tools inside each of those sub-folders will appear alevel lower in the Custom Tools Toolbar menu hierarchy.

The Add Tools... command allows you to choose a custom tool (file must

be one of the expected file types above) and copies that tool file to thespecified Tools Directory... . The next time you use the Custom Tools Menu ,that tool will be on the menu available for you to use.

.

Added Bolt Preload to the Loads Toolbar

Note: By default, the Tools Directory... path points to the API folderin the FEMAP directory.

You can also set the Tools Directory... using File, Preferences ,then choosing the Library/Startup tab, and then entering adirectory path in the Custom Tools Path.

Note: If an API or other executable has any support files, such as a header file or something else, youcan prevent these from appearing in the Custom Tools menu by placing a *.skip file in the same direc-tory as the support file. For example, if you had something called header.bas, you could create afile called header.skip in the same directory and then header would not show up in the menu.


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Customize dialog box 9.3-19

Customize dialog box Added capability to save and load keyboard shortcut definitions. Saves a *.KEY file (Keyboard Shortcut File)

and works between versions of FEMAP.

Added 110 new custom icons for Customize command

Added option to turn off menu icons

Icon ButtonsIn many dialog boxes of FEMAP 9.3, you will see Icon buttons. These buttons take you from the dialog box forthe current entity to the creation dialog box of the entity whose icon is on the button.

Icon buttons exist for:

Model, Coordinate System; Model, Material; Model, Property; Model, Layup;

Model, Function; Tools, Layer; Tools, Data Surface (Menu in Load dialog box)\

Vista Updated File, Open to work properly on Vista

Changed Default Message Font and Program font to Segue for Vista

Special note about customers using Windows Vista:

FEMAP 9.3 is being released close to the same time as the initial release of Windows Vista. Although we havetested FEMAP on Windows Vista with much success, there are issues with many graphics cards and drivers not

being available for Vista at this time, which may cause issues in FEMAP. Currently, Windows Vista is an unsup- ported platform.

Data Table Added "List, Output, Nodal Changes to Data Table" command (Relative Deformations)

Added capability to add mass properties when you have properties or materials in the data table

Added Copy Rows and Copy Columns to Data Table


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Added Set Value and Set Title fields to List, Output, Summary to Data Table

Added wrapping for titles in output reports from List, Output, Results to Data Table, also added lookup forvector titles when the vector is not available in the first set selected

Added multiline header to report.

Added display of nodal data in Active Coordinate System, as well as, definition coordinate system.

Entity Editor Added editing of nodal point coordinates in the definition system and a separate display of the coordinates in

the active system.

Added ability to edit the definition csys and edit the coordinates in that system, changing systems will trans-form the edited values dynamically.

Model Info TreeAdded Loads and BC to tree

Added Combine Load/BC Definitions to tree

Added Icons for some Load/Constraint tree commands

Added Load Tree Context Menus

Added Nodal on Face for Loads and Constraints in Tree

Added Bolt Preload to Load Definition context menu in tree

Added Data Surfaces to TreeAdded Show Expanded on Connection Regions

Added when highlighting properties, if no elements areassigned to the property it will show geometry using the

property as a meshing attribute

Properly highlight loads and constraints when in the Selec-tion list in the tree

Added "Add Related" to Group Context menu in tree.

Updated to keep track of pages that were deleted so the treecan be properly updated on a Redo.

Added Load Set Copy and Constraint Set Copy to the rightmouse menus. Also corrected problem with Constraint SetCopy that caused Node counters to not be updated to reflectthe new set

Added Regenerate command when changing groups fromtree so that contours are updated

Data Surface Editor The Data Surface Editor is completely new for FEMAP version 9.3. This dockable pane allows you to create DataSurfaces in FEMAP. These Data Surfaces allow you to apply variable loading conditions using a number of pre-


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Data Surface Editor 9.3-21

defined methods. Each method has a unique dialog box with all of the required inputs. FEMAP uses the informa-tion from a specific dialog box and creates a table of values which is saved with the model and can then be appliedto any number of loading conditions. Data Surfaces themselves are explained in the Data Surface section of thisdocument.

Once the data surface has been created using one of the methods, the corresponding table of values will appear inthe Data Surface Editor dockable pane. Now the values can be modified in the table itself. You can also copy and

paste individual cells or use the Fill Down command to change a number of values in the same column at once.

Each Data Surface has an ID and a Title which can be entered (up to 79 characters). If no title is specified, FEMAPwill automatically create a title based on the definition method used to create the Data Surface.

Data Surface Editor IconsCreate/Load Data Surface menu - The menu on this icon contains the various definition methods for creatingdata surfaces, as well as the Edit Data Surface and Delete Data Surface commands.

The methods are:

Along Coordinates Data Surface - allows you to choose coordinates in space and apply a Scalar value (singlevalue) or Vector values (X, Y, and Z values) at each coordinate. The variation will follow the path of the coor-dinates in the order they are entered.

Between Coordinates Data Surface - allows you to choose the number of corners to use (2, 4, or 8), whetherthe variation is in linear or parametric space, and enter a Scalar value (single value) or Vector values (X, Y, andZ values) at each corner. The values will be interpolated between the specified corners.

Output Map Data Surface - allows you to map outputfrom one mesh to create load values for another mesh. Out-

put which can be mapped includes:

Nodal (Forces, Moments, Displacements, Velocities, Rota-tional Velocities, Accelerations, Rotational Accelerations,Temperatures, and Heat Flux)

Elemental (Pressures, Temperatures, Heat Flux, Heat Gen-eration, Convection, and Radiation)

Mesh Data Surface - allows you to choose node or ele-ment IDs and enter a Scalar value (or expression) or Vec-tor (X, Y, and Z) values (or 3 expressions). This type of

Create/Load

Save Data

Data Surface MenuEdit DataSurface Options

Clear DataSurface

Operate onData Surface Menu

Surface Menu Paste Data Surface(Entire Data Surface)Copy Data Surface(Entire Data Surface)


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data surface is much more useful when using an expression, which uses a particular coordinate of a node orelement centroid. (such as XND(!i), bases value on X coordinate of a node)

Tabular Data Surface - allows you to create a data surface by defining the size of the table and then enteringthe values one at a time or pasting them in from another program, such as Excel. This is the most general typeof data surface.

Arbitrary 3-D Data Surface - allows you to create a data surface using points in space and then distributes thevalues using an Inverse Weighted Interpolation method. This is a great way to enter test data at a number of

points in space and then the values are extrapolated from those points to the nodes or elements in your model.

Equation Data Surface - allows you to simply enter a FEMAP equation and stores the equation for use in anyloading condition.

Each method is described in greater detail in Edit Data Surface - a single-select dialog box appears which allows you to choose which data surfaces to edit.

You can also use this command to open an existing data surface for viewing, even if you do not plan to edit thesurface.

Delete Data Surface - a multi-select dialog box appears which allows you to choose which data surfaces todelete.

Save Data Surface menu - The menu on this icon contains the various options for saving a data surface.

Save - simply saves the data surface with the current name to the FEMAP model

Save As - allows you to change the name of the current data surface when saving using the Create or Updatedialog box.

To File - allows you to save the current data surface values to a comma-separated file (*.CSV file).

Edit Data Surface Options - Opens the definition method dialog box corresponding to the type of data surfacecurrently in the Data Surface Editor . This allows you to modify options such as the coordinate system or other vari-ation data. For instance, if an Along Coordinates data surface is currently in the Data Surface Editor , FEMAPwill bring up the Define Variation Along Coordinates Data Surface dialog box.

Clear Data Surface Editor - Completely clears any table and values currently in the Data Surface Editor .

Operate on Data Surface menu - The menu on this icon contains commands specifically for use with the Output

Map Data Surface ( Align Output Map and Plot Output Map ) and the Tabular Data Surface ( Interpolate ).Align Output Map - Used to align an Output Map Data Surface to thetarget model where the output is to be mapped.

Plot Output Map - Used to toggle a plot of the source mesh and output that will be mapped on and off when the Output Map Data Surface isapplied in the target model. Very useful when aligning the source modelto the target model for visual verification.

Note: To create an expression referencing the Node, Element, or Element Face Coordinates useXND(), YND(), ZND(), XEL(), YEL(), ZEL(), XEF(;), YEF(;), or ZEF(;). These are explained ingreater detail in Appendix C of the FEMAP User Guide (see Section C, "Function Reference" )

Note: In order for the equation to work properly in FEMAP, the proper syntax must be used, which isexplained in greater detail in Appendix C of the FEMAP User Guide (see Section C, "FunctionReference" ).)

Note: When this command is used, FEMAP will ask you if it is OK to Clear Grid? if there is a datasurface currently in the Data Surface Editor . By saying Yes, the grid will be cleared and anyunsaved changes will be lost.
http://../User/userguide.pdfhttp://../User/userguide.pdfhttp://../User/userguide.pdfhttp://../User/userguide.pdfhttp://../User/userguide.pdfhttp://../User/userguide.pdf


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Program File 9.3-23

Interpolate - This command will perform the initial interpolation on a Tabular Data Surface which is cur-rently active in the Data Surface Editor . This allows you to enter only certain portions of data into the Data Sur-face, then have FEMAP interpolate between those points for you. This also allows you to see the populatedvalues which FEMAP has calculated in the table of values.

Copy - Copies the data surface to the clipboard using the FEMAP neutral file format. This makes it easy to copy adata surface from one model to another.

Paste - Pastes the copied data surface into the active model. The Next available data surface ID will be used for thepasted data surface.

Context Sensitive Menu (All Data Surfaces)There is a context sensitive menu which will appear when cell(s) are high-lighted in the Data Surface Editor pane and the right mouse button is clicked.This menu allows you to:

Copy and Paste individual cells (either a single cell or multiple cells)

Fill Down is only available when multiple cells have been highlighted. It willcopy the value at the top of the highlighted group of cells and fill all ofthe highlighted cells in the same column with that value. If multiple columnsare highlighted, the value at the top of the cells in each column will be thevalue that is used.

Clear All completely clears any table and values currently in the Data Sur- face Editor , while Clear Selected will only clear the highlighted cells.

Update Entity ID allows you to graphically choose an appropriate new Entity ID in the screen (i.e., Nodes or Ele-ments) for the highlighted row. Update Coordinates allows you to graphically choose a new coordinate for theselected row using the Locate dialog box and any snap mode. Update Vector Values allows you to graphically spec-ify new vector values for a row using the Vector Locate dialog box and any snap mode(s).

Program File After IF statement program files now wait for timer - it allows other things to happen, like an API to run and set

some condition

Added program file support for Layup dialog controls

Allow or program file commands to work with File, Open dialogs

Supported Multi-select list boxes in program files, and corrected problem replaying

Program files that used dialog boxes with no underline in OK

Meshing Enhancements to meshing include:

Added option to Modify, Move By, Radial Nodes and Modify, Move By, Radial Elements to move cylindricallyaround a vector, not just spherically

Added extra pass at end of tet meshing to cleanup interior midside nodes

Note: This interpolation is identical to the first step which is performed when a tabular data surface isevaluated to find variation locations.

Note: The Copy and Paste icons are designed for copying a data surface from one model to another.

To copy individual cells to the clipboard (for pasting into other cells in the Data Surface Editor ora program such as Excel), highlight the cells you wish to copy, then click the right mouse buttonand choose the Copy command from the menu.

A similar procedure can be used to paste cells into the Data Surface Editor using the Paste com-

mand on the context sensitive menu.


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Changed setting size of small features to an option in Solid and Surface mesh size dialogs - automatically usesmesh size if turned off.

Changed Edge Members of line elements to require both nodes be selected. Previously only one node wasrequired so you got extra elements if you selected a "corner" node - which was different than the solid-facemode for the same command.

Allow loop feature suppression to work on sheet bodies

Materials and Properties

Materials Added support for MATHE for both NX and MSC Nastran using the Other Types material type.

Added support for MATG gasket material using the Other Types material type

Added MAT10 (fluid material) using the Other Types material type

Surface with several interior holes

Choose one curve on eachinterior hole and all of thecurves making up the loopwill be found and Suppressedfrom the surface for meshing

All internal holes have beensuppressed from the surfacefor meshing purposes only


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Properties 9.3-25

Added function drop-downs to materials and capability to create functions

Handled putting materials that reference functions of functions into the material library.

Properties Added new option to specify a Layup instead of entering the plies directly into a Laminate property.

Added new options for Membrane Only, Bending Only, SMEAR, and SMEAR Core.

Layups...creates a new layup. Layups are used to define the make-up of a laminate property, ply by ply. You can choose amaterial ID, physical thickness, and orientation angle for each ply in the laminate. There is also an optional Glo-

bal Ply which can be defined.

ID and Title:These options set the ID and Title for the layup to be created. Every time you create a layup, the default ID will beautomatically incremented. Title allows you to provide a title of up to 79 characters for each layup.

Global Ply ID (optional):This option is currently only used to save a particular ply of one layup for use in other layups in your model. Futureversions of FEMAP will expand the capabilities of the Global Ply.


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You can create a new Global Ply by clicking the Global Ply Icon Button next to the drop down list. In the Global Ply Definition dialog box, you can choose an ID , Title (up to 79 characters), Material , and Thickness . Once the Glo- bal Ply has been defined, you can use it in any layup of your model by simply choosing it from the Global Ply ID drop-down list and the Material and Thickness values will be entered.

Material, Thickness and Angle:The Material drop-down list allows you to choose the material to be referenced for each ply. If you want to create anew material, simply click the Material Icon Button next to the Material drop-down list.

Thickness allows you to enter the physical thickness of each ply.

Angle is used to enter the orientation angle of each ply. The angles are specified relative to the material axes whichwere defined for the element. If you did not specify a material orientation angle, these angles are measured fromthe first side of the element (the edge from the first to the second node). They are measured from the rotated mate-rial axes otherwise.

Layup Editor ButtonsThere are several buttons in the Layup Editor that allow you to perform different functions. Some buttons are avail-able all the time, while other require that certain fields be filled, one row highlighted, or multiple rows highlighted.

Each button or group of button is explained in greater detail below.

New PlyOnce you have a Material , Thickness , and Angle specified, click this button to add the ply to the layup. By default,it will add this ply to the Top of the List (Designated in the dialog box above the list of plies with Top of Layup).If you have a ply highlighted in the list, the new ply will be added UNDER the highlighted ply (i.e., closer to theBottom of Layup). If you have multiple plies highlighted, this button is not available

Update buttonsOnce a ply has been added the list, the definition of that ply can be updated using the Update Global Ply , Update

Material , Update Thickness , or Update Angle buttons. These commands are available when one or more plies arehighlighted in the list of plies (except Global Ply, which can only be used for one ply at a time). Once the desired

plies are highlighted, enter the new value for Material , Thickness , and/or Angle , then click the appropriate button toupdate all highlighted plies with the new value.

Note: A Global Ply can only be referenced in a Layup one time. If you use a Global Ply more than once in aLayup, the most recently entered instance of the Global Ply will have the Global Ply designation.


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Layups 9.3-27

DuplicateAvailable when one ply or multiple plies are highlighted. Simply highlight the plies you would like duplicated inthe list of plies, click the Duplicate button, and the duplicated plies will be added to the top of the list of plies.

DeleteAvailable when one ply or multiple plies are highlighted. Simply highlight the plies you would like delete in the l istof plies, click the Delete button, and the plies will be deleted from the list of plies

SymmetryAvailable only when multiple plies are highlighted. Simply highlight the plies you would like to mirror in the listof plies, click the Symmetry button, and the mirrored plies will be added to the top of the list of plies in reverseorder as the were originally in the list.

ReverseAvailable only when multiple plies are highlighted. Simply highlight the plies you would like to reverse in thelist of plies, click the Reverse button, and the order of the selected plies will be reversed in the list based on theoriginal position (i.e., the selected ply which was closest to the Bottom of Layup will now be closest to the Topof Layup in the list).

Move Up and Move DownAvailable when one ply or multiple plies are highlighted. Simply highlight the plies you would like moved up or

down in the list of plies, click the Move Up or Move Down button, and the selected plies will be moved closer to theTop of Layup (Move Up ) or Bottom of Layup ( Move Down ) one ply at a time.

RotateAvailable when one ply or multiple plies are highlighted. Simply highlight the plies you would like to rotate (alterangle) in the list of plies, click the Rotate button, and the Angle of the selected plies will updated by adding orsubtracting the number entered in the Rotate Ply By dialog box. Enter a negative number to subtract from the cur-rent angle.

ComputeAlways available once a single ply has been added to the layup. This command will calculate the equivalentmechanical properties for the layup. These values will be sent to the Messages dockable pane.

The calculated equivalent laminate propertyvalues include:

Total Thickness

In-Plane Properties (2-D orthotropic)

Modulus of elasticity (X and Y directions)

Shear Modulus (XY)

Poissons Ratio

Coefficient of thermal expansion (X,Y, and XY)

Bending/Flexural Properties (2-D orthotropic)

Modulus of elasticity (X and Y bending)

Shear Modulus (XY bending)

Poissons Ratio

Coefficient of thermal expansion (X,Y, and XY bending)

Note: If you have the Entity Info window open while creating or modifying a Layup, the equivalent propertieswill be calculated live every time a ply is added or modified. This is a great way to create a layupwhich will behave as expected in your model.


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Additional Load and Constraint Enhancements 9.3-29

On Curve ; Model, Constraint, on Surface ) a Constraint Definition will also be created in FEMAP. These Con-straint Definitions will appear in the Constraints branch of the Model Info tree and can be given a title.

Each Constraint Definition will contain all of the individual constraints which were created at the same time usinga Model, Constraint... command. Constraint Definitions can then be edited, listed, and deleted and all individualconstraints contained in that Constraint Definition will be edited, listed, or deleted.

For example, if you chose to put a constraint for Degrees of Freedom TX, TY, and TZ on 5 selected nodes, a singleConstraint Definition would appear in the Model Info tree. In this case, if the Constraint Definition were to beedited, 5 individual constraints would be modified using one command.

Constraint Definitions can be removed at any time using the Remove Definition command on the context sensitivemenu in the Model Info tree and the individual constraints from that Constraint Definition will be moved under theappropriate heading in the Other Constraints branch. The Other Constraints branch contains headings for OnGeometry , On Mesh , and Equations .

Also, a Constraint Definition can be created from any number of constraints of the same type (i.e., any number of Nodal Constraints, Constraints on Curves, or Constraint Equations, etc.) by highlighting them in the Model Info tree and using the Create Definition command from the context sensitive menu.

If you choose constraints of various types and then use the Create Definition command, FEMAP will create a Con-straint Definition for each separate type of constraint that was highlighted. For more information about the Remove

Definition and Create Definition commands, along with the process of combining Constraint Definitions, pleasesee Section 7.2.1, "Tools, Model Info" under Loads and Constraints in the Model Info Tree

Additional Load and Constraint Enhancements

Added Edit Load Definition/Edit Constraint Definition and Delete Load Definition/Delete Constraint Defini-tion to menu

Added new dialog boxes for Load and BC Combine

Note: Each Constraint Equation created will also create a new Constraint Definition. These Constraint Defini-

tions can then be combined.

Note: All of the commands for listing, deleting, and modifying individual constraints are still available inFEMAP.

Note: If you combine multiple constraint equations into one constraint definition, you will be prompted to editeach constraint equation one at a time.
http://../cmdref.pdfhttp://../cmdref.pdf


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Added functional dependence for body accelerations and rotations. Removed requirement for coincident vectorfor RFORCE rotation and accelerations. Also added "Rotating About Vector" to body loads to automatically setrotational velocity and acceleration components around a vector and made center of rotation on body loads

pick-able from screen

Added face selection by free face for loads on mesh

Clear the current face ID when you switch between Front and Back Face - to truly indicate that you have to re- pick the face after the radio button change.

Initial implementation of Bolt Preloads for NX Nastran


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Using Data Surfaces with Loads 9.3-31

Using Data Surfaces with Loads

A new method exists for varying a load on the Create Loads dialog box. In FEMAP 9.3, you can use a Data Surfaceas a load variation method. You can quickly create 6 of the 7 types of Data Surfaces from inside the dialog box bychoosing a Data Surface type from the menu that appears when the Data Surface Icon button is clicked.

Here is a description of what you can do with the different types of Data Surfaces - "Along Coordinates Data Sur-face", "Between Coordinates Data Surface", "Output Map Data Surface" , "Mesh Data Surface" , "Tabular Data Sur-face (Must to be defined before load is created)" , "Arbitrary 3-D Data Surface" , "Equation Data Surface"

Along Coordinates Data SurfaceThis type of Data Surface allows you to choose coordinates in space and apply a Scalar value (single value) or Vec-tor values (X, Y, and Z values) at each coordinate. The variation will follow the path of the coordinates (points)in the order they are entered. This type of Data Surface can have as few as 3 points and as many as 110 points.


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Variation Options Define Multiple - allows you to use the Variation Locations section of this Dialog Box. By clicking the Paste

button, values on the clipboard will be entered into the Variation Locations list in the appropriate format.

Number of Points - allows you to enter a number to represent the number of rows which will be created in theTable of the Data Surface Editor . The table can then be filled manually one cell at a time, using the UpdateCoordinates or Update Vector Values commands (available on the Context-Sensitive menu for this type of DataSurface ), or Pasting (also on context sensitive menu) cells from a spreadsheet or comma-separated values.

Data Options Scalar - allows you to enter one value for each coordinate

Vector - allows you to enter 3 component values (X, Y, and Z) for each coordinate.

Options button - One option is available for this data surface definition method. Project Curve onto Surfaceallows you to pick a surface to project the spline onto before it is interpolated.

Variation LocationsThe X, Y, and Z Location fields represent the X, Y, and Z coordinates of the points of the spline. These coordi-nates can be entered manually or picked graphically from the screen (use of snap options can aid in precise selec-tion of coordinates).

Once the Location fields are entered, a single value ( Data Options set to Scalar) or XYZ values ( Data Options set to Vector) can be entered into the appropriate Value fields.

To add a coordinate and value(s) to the list of Points, click the Add button.

Values for any of the fields in a single row can be updated by clicking a row in the list (the values will be filled infor Location and Value), altering the desired values, and then clicking the Update button.

Delete will delete only the highlighted row, while Reset will completely clear the list of Points.

ExampleThe value of a pressure load on the top of the wing needs to vary based on the coordinate values of each node at one

edge of the upper wing skin. Scalar was set in Data Options so only one value needs to be entered for eachlocation

Once the Data Surface has been created, you will use Model, Load, Elemental to create the pressure loading. Theelements on the top of the wing are selected and the Method in the Create Loads on Element dialog box has beenchanged to Data Surface. Pressure has been chosen from the list of loads and the Along Coordinates Data Sur-face has been selected from the Data Surface drop-down list. A value of 1.0 has been enter in the Pressure fieldin order to use the entered values in the Data Surface directly. Finally element faces are chosen (using the adjacentfaces method) on which to apply the variable Pressure load.

Note: When a row is selected in the Variation Locations list, it will be highlighted on the screen usingthe current settings for the Window, Show Entities command.

Nodes on this edge used to specifycoordinates (snap mode set to Snapto Node)


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Between Coordinates Data Surface 9.3-33

Between Coordinates Data SurfaceThis type of Data Surface allows you to choose the number of corners to use (2, 4, or 8), whether the variation is inlinear or parametric space, and enter a Scalar value (single value) or Vector values (X, Y, and Z values) at eachcorner. The values will be interpolated between the specified corners.

Variation Type2 Point Linear - Define two cornerlocations and two associated values.FEMAP will linearly interpolate

between the entered values at the twolocations.

2 Point Parametric - Define twocorner locations, two associated val-ues, and optionally a Curve (Chosenusing the Options button). The DataSurface values are then linearly inter-

polated between the two locations in parametric space using the chosencurve.

4 Point Bilinear - Define four cor-ner locations representing a rectan-

gular section and associated valuesat each corner. FEMAP will linearlyinterpolate in two directions to obtainthe values inside the rectangular sec-tion.

Pressure Loads Vectorsshown on top of wing.

Pressure Loads convertedto output and shown asCriteria Plot for clarity.


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4 Point Parametric - Define four corner locations representing a rectangular section, associated values ateach corner, and optionally a Surface (Chosen using the Options button). FEMAP will project the 4 corner loca-tions to the surface, then linearly interpolate in two directions in the parametric space of the chosen surface toobtain the values inside the rectangular section.

8 Point Trilinear - Define eight corner locations representing a prismatic volume and associated values ateach corner. FEMAP will linearly interpolate in three directions to obtain the values inside the prismatic vol-ume.

Data Options

Scalar - allows you to enter one value for each corner.

Vector - allows you to enter 3 component values (X, Y, and Z) for each corner.

Options button - three options are available for this data surface definition method overall, but some optionsare only available when certain Variation Type have been selected.

CSys is available for all Variation Types and defines the coordinate system in which the Data Surface will beevaluated.

Parametric Curve ID is only available when the 2 Point Parametric Variation Type have been selected. Thisallows you to choose a curve ID. The linear interpolation will then occur in the curves parametric space.

Parametric Surface ID is only available when the 4 Point Parametric Variation Type have been selected. Thisallows you to choose a surface ID on which the corner locations will be projected. The linear interpolation will thenoccur in the surfaces parametric space.

Variation LocationsThe X, Y, and Z Corner Location fields represent the X, Y, and Z coordinates of the Corner Points for each Vari-ation Type . These coordinates can be entered manually or picked graphically from the screen (use of snap options

can aid in precise selection of coordinates).Once the Corner Location fields for a row are entered, a single value ( Data Options set to Scalar) or XYZ val-ues ( Data Options set to Vector) can be entered into the appropriate Value fields.

Common UsesThis type of data surface is commonly used to define variations in 1, 2, or 3 dimensions, when corner values areknown.

Example

The value of a pressure load on the top of the wing needs to vary based on the four known corner values ofthen upper wing skin. Scalar was set in Data Options so only one value needs to be entered for each location

Note: When a Parametric Variation Type (2 Point or 4 Point) is used for a mesh-based loading con-dition, a geometry ID MUST be chosen to supply the parametric space.

When a Parametric Variation Type is used for a geometry-based loading condition, theoptional chosen geometry ID will override the geometry selected for the load.

Note: The required number of Corner Locations and Values rows will become active depending on thechosen Variation Type . All active rows must have values in order for this type of Data Surface towork properly. (i.e., you can NOT enter only three points for a 4 Point Linear data surface)

Known Values at 4 corner locations


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Data Options buttonTwo options are available for this data surface definitionmethod. Both can be used with any data surface of this type.

CSys - defines the coordinate system in which the Data Sur-face will be evaluated.

This drop-down menu in the Output Map Options section

allows you to choose a mapping option for entities which donot have a one-to-one mapping from the Source to the Tar-get. When a node is not mapped it is because a Targetnodes normal projection does not fall within any Source Ele-ment. The options for nodes that are not mapped:

0..Set to Zero - Sets all entities without a direct map to thevalue of zero (0.0)

1..Set to Value - Sets all entities without a direct map to aspecified value. The value can be specified as a constant or in X, Y, and Z components.

2..Extend Closest - Extends the value to the closest Target Entity.

3..Interpolate - Does a linear interpolation using the source values. (Default)

4..No Output - Applies no output values to any entities which do not have a direct map. FEMAP will alsoautomatically create a group of Target nodes which have not been mapped.

Using Align Output Map and Plot Output Map commandsBoth the Align Output Map and Plot Output Map commands in the Data Surface Editor are exclusively used onconjunction with the Map Output Data Surface. These commands are available to aid application of the Data Sur-face from a source mesh to a different target mesh.

After the Data Surface has been created (or copied into a different model), Align Output Map can be used to prop-erly align the Data Surface to the target mesh. The source mesh is saved with each Output Map Data Surfaceand can then be plotted in relation to the target mesh using Plot Output Map .

The recommended workflow of these commands is to first toggle on the plot of the source mesh, align it to

the target mesh, then toggle off the plot once everything is properly aligned.Example

After a steady-state fluid flow analysis of fluid through a pipe, the Total Pressure at each element in the fluid iscalculated. The Total Pressure output can be displayed in FEMAP using a contour plot. Now we want to transferthe pressure values on the outside of the fluid (solid elements in Model A) to the inside of the pipe walls(plate elements in Model B). Since nodes and element locations are completely different (element shapes aswell), we will map the Total pressure output to create a pressure load for structural analysis.

Total Pressure at Nodesfrom a fluid-flow analysis


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Mesh Data Surface 9.3-37

Once the Data Surface has been created, you will need to copy the Data Surface to the clipboard from Model Ausing the Copy command in the Data Surface Editor . Now Model B needs to be opened (or created) and once itis ready for loading, the Data Surface on the clipboard will be pasted in using the Paste command in the DataSurface Editor .

Now, you will use Model, Load, Elemental to create the pressure loading. The elements on the inside of the pipeare selected and the Method in the Create Loads on Element dialog box has been changed to Data Surface. Pres-sure has been chosen from the list of loads and the Output Map Data Surface has been selected from the DataSurface drop-down list. A value of 1.0 has been enter in the Pressure field in order to use the entered values inthe Data Surface directly. Finally element faces are chosen (Face 1) on which to apply the variable Pressure load

Mesh Data SurfaceThis type of Data Surface allows you to choose node or element IDs and enter a Scalar value (or expression) orVector (X, Y, and Z) values (or 3 expressions). This type of data surface is much more useful when using anexpression, which uses a particular coordinate of a node, element centroid, or centroid of an element face to varythe value (such as XND(!i), bases value on X coordinate of a node). The values shown in the Data Surface Editorare evaluated values for each selected entity.

Variation TypeYou must choose the entity type used to vary the datasurface

Node ID - When Select Entities button is clicked,FEMAP will prompt you to choose Node IDs for theData Surface

Element ID - When Select Entities button is clicked,FEMAP will prompt you to choose Element IDs for theData Surface

Data Options

Scalar - allows you to enter one value or expression

Vector - allows you to enter 3 component values (X, Y,and Z) or 3 individual expressions.

Options button - One option is available for this datasurface definition method. CSys is available for allVariation Types and defines the coordinate system inwhich the Data Surface will be evaluated.

Note: To create an expression referencing the Node, Element, or Element Face Coordinates useXND(), YND(), ZND(), XEL(), YEL(), ZEL(), XEF(;), YEF(;), or ZEF(;). These are explained ingreater detail in Appendix C of the FEMAP User Guide (see Section C, "Function Reference" )

Pressure Loads Vectorsshown on inside of pipe

Pressure Loads convertedto output and shown asContour Plot for clarity.

shell model.
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Define/Fill Data Surface DataDepending on the Data Option selected, you will be asked for 1 or 3 Value/Equation(s) (Expressions). After therequired Value/Equation(s) have been entered, click the Select Entities button to choose the appropriate entitieswith the standard Entity Selection dialog box.

Common UsesThis type of data surface is commonly used to define load variations where the variation is known relative to the

element or node ID.Example

The temperature of the exterior walls of a tank varies with height (Y direc-tion in global coordinate system) from a point at the origin. The tank has amapped mesh which will allow accurate distribution of either nodal or ele-mental temperatures. The Scalar Data Option will be used and an expres-sion (YEL(!i)) will be used to vary the X value (In this case, simplymagnitude) based on the height of the element centroid.

Once the expression has been entered, click the Select Entities button andchoose all of the elements in the model. When OK is clicked, the evaluatedvalues will be sent to the table in the Data Surface Editor .

Now, you will use Model, Load, Elemental to create the temperature loading.All of the elements are selected and Temperature has been chosen from thelist of loads. The Method in the Create Loads on Element dialog box has been

changed to Data Surface and the Mesh Data Surface has been selected from the Data Surface drop-down list.A value of 100 has been enter in the Temperature field in order to use the entered values in the Data Surface mul-tiplied by 100.

Elemental Temperature Loadsshown on Tank

Elemental Temperature Loadsconverted to output and shownwith Criteria plot for clarity


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When Define Data button is clicked, the Define Table Size dialog box withappears with fields for U Divisions , V Divisions , and Surface ID .

u Divisions - refers to how many intermediate points will be between 0and 1 in the U direction of the surfaces Parametric Space.

v Divisions - refers to how many intermediate points will be between 0and 1 in the V direction of the surfaces Parametric Space.

Surface ID - allows you to choose a 4-sided surface ID on which eachcorner value in the table, will be correspond to a corner on the surface.The linear interpolation will then occur in the surfaces parametric space.

For example, Corner 1 would be at (U=0, V=0) in Parametric space, Cor-ner 2 (U=1, V=0), Corner 3 (U=1, V=1), and Corner 4 (U=0, V=1).

ExampleThe table will look like this for a Parametric Table with 5 U Divisions, 5 V Divisions, and a chosen Surface:

Values can now be entered at the four corners of the table:

When the Data Surface is saved, FEMAP will save the corner values and when the Data Surface is used, FEMAPwill interpolate the saved points to create the load distribution.

Instead of just the corner values, values for all of the cells can be filled in manually to create a very specific distribution of values in the table. You can also fill the empty cells of the table automatically with interpolated valuesusing the Interpolate command in the Data Surface Editor .

Note: It is VERY important to remember to save this type of Data Surface before trying to use it to cre-ate a loading condition. Unlike most of the other Data Surface types, most or all of the data must

be entered into the table. FEMAP does not know this data has been entered or modified until youuse the Save or Save As command.


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Tabular Data Surface (Must to be defined before load is created) 9.3-41

Here is the Data Surface Editor showing the Interpolated values:

Once the Data Surface has been created, you could use Model, Load, Elemental to create a distributed pressureload. The elements on a surface are selected and the Method in the Create Loads on Element dialog box has beenchanged to Data Surface. Pressure has been chosen from the list of loads and the Parametric Table Data Sur-face has been selected from the Data Surface drop-down list. A value of 1.0 has been enter in the Pressure fieldin order to use the entered values in the Data Surface directly. Finally element faces are chosen (using the adjacentfaces method) on which to apply the variable Pressure load.

XYZ Table - This type of table is the most general type of Data Surface .

Pressure Loads Vectorsshown on mesh

Pressure Loads shownas output in contour plotUnderlying Surface used

for parametric space for clarity


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When Define Data button is clicked, the CSys type selected for the Data Surface using the Options button willdetermine which Define Table Size dialog box is shown.

The number of Divisions boxes checked dictates the size of the corresponding table.

For instance, if a cylindrical coordinate system is chosen, only R Divisions is checked, and a value of 5 isentered, the following table will appear

This type of data surface could be used to vary a loading condition using

the radial distance from a user-defined cylindrical coordinate system.For example, you have an annular plate which has an inner radius of 5and an outer radius of 10. You need to vary the temperature evenly fromthe inner radius to the outer radius with specific temperature values beingat precise radial distances from the center. This method, would allow youto do this rather easily.

To model this in FEMAP, you could define a cylindrical coordinate systemat the center of the inner radius and then create a data surface which hadthe desired number of R values with corresponding temperatures.

Now, you could create an elemental or nodal temperature loading condi-tion referencing this XYZ Table Data Surface .

Here is what elemental temperature distributions would look like on one half of the annular plate:

If the plate elements of the annular plate were extruded in the positive Z-direction 5 units to create solid elements,a tabular Data Surface could be used to vary a temperature load in both the Radial Direction and the Z-direction inthe same load.

Again, a cylindrical coordinate system is chosen, but this time R Divisions and Z Divisions are checked, and avalue of 5 is entered for R Divisions and 3 for Z Divisions.

Rectangular Coordinate System Cylindrical Coordinate System Spherical Coordinate System

Varying Elemental Temperatureson finer meshed model shownas output in Criteria plot for clarity

Varying Elemental Temperaturesshown on half plate model


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Tabular Data Surface (Must to be defined before load is created) 9.3-43

The table below represents this data surface, with some values manually entered to create the variation criteria. Notice that the row of R values varies from 5 to 10 and the column of Z values varies from 0 to 5.

Now, you could create an elemental or nodal temperature loading condition referencing this XYZ Table Data Sur- face .

Here is what this elemental temperature distribution would look like on one half of the solid mesh created from theoriginal annular plate:

Finally, if we want to vary the temperature using the radius, Z-distance, and theta angle, we could use this type ofData Surface.

Again, a cylindrical coordinate system is chosen, but this time R Divisions, T Divisions, and Z Divisions areall checked, and a value of 5 is entered for R Divisions, 7 for T Divisions and 3 for Z Divisions.

You can see that the table now has three tabbed sheets. Each sheet contains a table to define the Radial and Thetavalues for one particular Z value. By default, all of the Z values are 0.

Varying Elemental Temperatures

on solid meshed model shownas output in contour plot for clarity

Elements of fine-meshed annular

plate model extruded into solidelements in positive Z-direction


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To change the Z value for a particular tabbed sheet, click on the tab, then click the right mouse button andchoose Properties from the context sensitive menu. This dialog box will open:

Notice you may enter a Title and assign a Value for Z for each sheet. Click OK to return to the table in the DataSurface Editor.

The table below represents this data surface, with some values manually entered to create the variation criteria. Notice that the row of R values varies from 5 to 10, the column of Theta values vary from 0 degrees to180 degrees, and the Z values on the tabs, vary from 0 to 5.

Here is what this elemental temperature distribution would look like on one half of the solid mesh using 3-D XYZTabular Data Surface:

Note: If you have do not have enough sheets to define a particular Data Surface , you can add them oneat a time by clicking on the tab, then clicking the right mouse button and choosing Insert Pagefrom the context sensitive menu. On the other hand, you can delete excess sheets one at a timeusing the Delete Page from the context sensitive menu.

Varying Elemental Temperatureson solid mesh model shown asoutput in contour plot for clarity


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Arbitrary 3-D Data Surface 9.3-45

Data Options

Scalar - allows you to enter one value for each X value or XY Data Pair

Vector - allows you to enter 3 component values (X, Y, and Z) for each X value or XY Data Pair.

Options button - two options are available for this data surface definition method.

CSys - defines the coordinate system in which the Data Surface will be evaluated. The selected Coordinate Sys-

tem will bring up the appropriate Define Table Size dialog box.Tabular Options - instructs FEMAP what to do with undefined cells in the Data Surface Editor . The defaultis to use Interpolate from Closest, which will interpolate to the appropriate entity type from the closest definedvalue. The other option is to use Value , which will simply place the entered value into any undefined cells.

Data Variation Data

When Define Data button is clicked and Parametric Table is selected, the Define Table Size dialog box withappears with fields for u Divisions , v Divisions , and Surface ID.

When Define Data button is clicked and XYZ Table is selected, the CSys type selected for the Data Surface usingthe Options button will determine which Define Table Size dialog box is shown. For instance, if a rectangular coor-dinate system is selected, the Define Table Size dialog box allows you to enter values for X Divisions , Y Divi-

sions , and Z Divisions .

Arbitrary 3-D Data SurfaceThe dialog box for this type of Data Surface is very similar to the Along Coordinates Data Surface . The differenceis that this Data Surface does not use the order in which the variation locations and values were entered into thetable for anything. Instead, it uses the entered variation locations to perform an interpolation of values using aModified Inverse Weighted Interpolation method. Any number of independent 3D locations may be entered.

Variation Options Define Multiple - allows you to use the Variation Locations section of this Dialog Box. By clicking the Paste

button, values on the clipboard will be entered into the Variation Locations list in the appropriate format.

Note: One powerful way to use this type of Data Surface is to take data from physical/environmentaltesting which was retrieved at arbitrary locations and then apply them to a meshed model. Thisway, you do not have to create hard points in your model to apply specific loading conditions.


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Number of Points - allows you to enter a number to represent the number of rows which will be created in theTable of the Data Surface Editor . The table can then be filled manually one cell at a time, using the UpdateCoordinates or Update Vector Values commands (available on the Context-Sensitive menu for this type of DataSurface ), or Pasting (also on context sensitive menu) cells from a spreadsheet or comma-separated values.

Data Options Scalar - allows you to enter one value for each arbitrary 3-D location.

Vector - allows you to enter 3 component values (X, Y, and Z) for each arbitrary 3-D location. Options button - two options are available for this data surface definition method.

CSys - defines the coordinate system in which the Data Surface will be evaluated.

Arbitrary 3-D Interpolation Options - when this option is set to % Locations to Include , the value can varyfrom 0 to 100. If it is set to 100, FEMAP will use the weighted contribution from all of the

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