Version 6 beta

edited October 2016
Mecway 6 beta is available at the link below. It's mostly minor improvements in response to requests. I welcome any feedback on bugs and the changes but probably won't add any new features. All licences that include version 5 are also valid for version 6. That is everyone who bought it after 2015-11-15. Just re-enter your product key to activate it.



Editing:
Paint select's brush size scales with mouse speed, making it easy to select all the way to sharp edges.
Refine x2 does local refinement with all element shapes.
Refine custom has a live preview and is limited to 40 subdivisions per direction.
Quad local refinement x3 is extended to include all line, triangle and quadrilateral element shapes. Renamed to "1D/2D local refinement x3".
Rotate/copy only allows rotation about one axis at a time to reduce ambiguity.
For CAD files, you can easily create a local refinement at a node using "New local refinement" on the node context menu.
Invert selection works in the geometry view.
Components meshed from CAD files are named using the file name for easier identification.
Undo and redo buttons are disabled if they won't work instead of popping up a message.
More undo levels for small models, typically less than 200,000 nodes.

CCX interoperability:
Solver choice (CCX or internal) is now part of analysis settings and saved with the model. This allows the available loads and constraints, materials and error messages to be appropriate for the chosen solver.
64-bit CCX 2.10 binary and source code are distributed with Mecway.
Automatic time stepping option in Analysis settings.
Mechanical loads and constraints that are specified as constant are no longer ramped when time steps are defined. Define ramping explicitly with a formula or table instead.
Displacement, frictionless support, and node rotation can be time dependent. This is limited to nodes that don't have any other non-zero constraints on them.
Temperature for thermal stress can be time dependent.
Nonlinear dynamic response analysis type added.
TIE option with position tolerance added to Bonded contact.
Initial displacements for dynamic response.
Pyramid elements allowed by exporting them as collapsed hexahedra for mechanical (C3D8, C3D20) and thermal (DC3D8, DC3D20) analysis types.
Saving to the .inp format is now only intended for CCX and has lost some Abaqus compatibility. Particularly with *ORIENTATION and circular beams where the two programs differ.
Enabled orthotropic mechanical material type for solid elements in nonlinear analysis.
For nonlinear analysis with no time steps specified, only the solution at the final time step is displayed.
Node rotation is enabled for Nonlinear static 3D.
Output messages are no longer truncated when they're very long.
Solver panel shows progress by time and iteration number.
Disabled nonlinear materials for linear analysis types.
2D and axisymmetric models automatically enforce zero node Z coordinates which is required by CCX.
Command line solve parameter works.
"Write solution to liml file" and "Write to CSV file after solving" work.
Inverted elements in 2D and axisymmetric analysis types are shown as errors because CCX doesn't allow them.
When writing .inp files, material definitions are moved to be after sets and sections to make hand editing easier.

Internal solver:
Navier-stokes convergence test is more robust.
Navier-stokes solver window shows convergence graph.
Moment load enabled for modal vibration 3D to use for stress stiffening on shells.

Display:
Show origin setting is persistent.
Deformation scale factor is displayed in the graphics area.
Node coordinates in the table have a units option.
Density is moved to a separate tab in the material properties window.
Icons scale smoothly with the DPI setting instead of in increments of 100%.
150% DPI setting causes graphics to scale by 100% instead of 200%.
Renamed "Amplification factor" to "Scale factor" in deformed view settings window.

Other file formats:
Component and face selection names are included as physical entity names with Gmsh export.
Opening .inp files prompts for the unit system of node coordinates. However, other quantities in the file will still be treated as m,kg,s units.

Removed:
Graduated mesh options in Refine custom.
"Quad local refinement x2" and "Hex8 local refinement at a point". They are now included in Refine x2.
Quad9 element shape.
Fluid potential flow 2D and 3D analysis types. Use thermal steady state instead and interpret the meanings of the variables appropriately.
Magnetostatic 2D analysis type.
Templates. Use Refine custom and the enhanced Refine x2 instead.

Comments

  • edited October 2016

    Great improvents Victor! I didn't have time to test it all, but see some comments bellow:


    1) Great inclusion of CCX, for new users will be easy to adopt it. But, can you add a parameter to select the number of processors to use to solve? Now is fixed in 1

    2) On bonded contact window, there is a glitch in the controls. Also the unit is not taking the user current units (should be mm in this example)

    3) Deformation scale factor is displayed in the graphics area.Great! Can you add solver and version as a new line?

    4) Have noted that in the status bar when hovering over nodes appears XYZ coordinates, can be added also the actual results in postprocess mode?

    5) "Write solution to liml file" and "Write to CSV file after solving" work. Can you explain this? Is a new option to enforce the writtings? One of my problems is that for long runs I left the computer alone, then Mecway/CCX solves the problem but Windows put the pc in hibernation mode. Problem arise when I wake up the computer, Mecway interface gets blocked (always, is not some times) and then the results are not saved into the lml file (thus loosing component associativity on result display). One walkaround could be to enforce the saving of the lml after solving and importing the results.


    Regards!

  • Thanks for the feedback Sergio.

    1) I haven't looked into this much since I see it as an advanced option that you can do yourself by setting an environment variable. Is that right? Maybe for the next version.

    2) Thanks.

    3) Not yet sorry. I'll have to plan a proper report or configurable notes feature that includes that kind of information.

    4) Sounds like a good idea. I'll put it on the list for the next version since it's a new feature.

    5) These are existing options that automatically save the solution after solving. The first is in Analysis settings -> Output Files and the second one is in the Table. Previously they only worked with the internal solver but they're now extended to CCX too. It does sound like the first one would work around the bug you described. Thanks for pointing that out.

  • edited October 2016
    "Paint select's brush size scales with mouse speed, making it easy to select all the way to sharp edges."

    I'm really struggling with this new behavieur, is dificult to me to make big selections, now the brush is almost a fine brush only. The size scaling appear very rarely in my models ;-(

    Regards
  • Mecway 6 Beta 2 here


    The main change is the paint selection tool is split into two tools - one for paint selection and one for selecting all the way to the edges of the mesh.

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