Version 8 beta

edited November 2017
Mecway 8 beta is available at the link below. This is only the 64-bit version. I welcome any feedback on bugs and the changes but probably won't add any new features. All customers' licences are also valid for version 8. Just re-enter your product key to activate it.

http://mecway.com/download/mecway80beta1.msi
http://mecway.com/download/mecway80beta2.msi
http://mecway.com/download/mecway80rc.msi
Final version now available http://mecway.com/download


General
Solution field variables in the outline tree are organized into groups which can be individually added and removed.
Formulas for creating custom solution field variables.
Tool that calculates the mass of a model.
Sum tool for summing a subset of reaction forces, etc.
Number of time steps is replaced by Time period in analysis settings.
Command line parameter to clear solutions from a .liml file.
Spring-damper elements are replaced by separate spring and damper elements.
Graphs can be directly exported to a CSV file.
Export table to csv has an option to use localized list and number formatting.

Graphics / UI
Faster graphics with big meshes.
Contour plot resolution setting has a higher maximum and is persistent.
Shell stresses can be displayed individually as well as on their respective surfaces.
Fit the contour plot scale to selected elements.
Show where the maximum and minimum values in a solution are.
Beam general section shows its orientation graphically as a rectangle.
When there’s no time=0 solution, the display shows the next available solution instead of nothing.
Progress bar for some slow operations such as refine.
Shortcut keys for all items on the edit menu.

CCX solver
Pressure loads can be applied to shell edges.
Custom element type allows reduced integration and other elements.
Zienkiewicz-Zhu improved stress components, von Mises, Tresca and principal stress.
Node temperature for Nonlinear Static 3D.
Temperature can be a function of position.
Internal heat generation can be a function of position or time.
Centrifugal force.
Shear strain is converted from tensor form (epsilon) to engineering form (gamma).
Strain energy density output.
External force output (FORC) is presented as a vector with units instead of 3 isolated components.
Uniform normal pressure uses *DSLOAD instead of *DLOAD.
Nonlinear analyis without time steps always uses automatic incrementation.
Inputs for minimum and maximum automatic time step sizes.
File save option “CCX input deck mesh only (*.inp)” which allows you to choose the length unit.
Error messages are shown when saving to a .inp file.
Pressure on curved shell faces uses a more accurate calculation of the face area that depends on its offset.
Normal pressure that’s a function of position on curved shell faces no longer includes near-zero moments which sometimes caused CCX to fail.

Internal solver
Temperature can be a function of position.
All 3 principal stress components in 2D and axisymmetric analysis types.
Strain output for solid elements in linear analysis.
Tresca stress for 3D and axisymmetric analysis types and the CCX solver
Internal heat generation can be a function of position and time.
Heat flux load.
Force and pressure loads on axi-symmetric elements are more accurately distributed near the axis.
Removed midplane stresses for laminates.
Improvement in tension only elements with large rotations in linear analysis.

Meshing
Nodes snap together and optionally merge when dragging with the mouse.
Mesh smoothing tool.
Circular hole tool for simple meshes.
Meshing parameters has more options for Gmsh.
Refine x2 with nodes selected selects all the nodes of newly created elements.

Bug fixes
Bugs 11-15 on the bug list.
Outline tree branches no longer collapse by themselves.
Time progress on CCX solver panel was scaled by 10^6 with some locales.
Displacement constraint window sometimes hid the unit controls.
Various minor bugs and crashes fixed.

Comments

  • Hello Victor,
    new tools like "mass", "sum", "max-min" are very useful.
    I have a problem. In MW8 I set the poisson coefficient with dot for decimals (for example 0.25)
    When I save the model, close e re-open the model I lost the dot, and for the poisson ratio I find "25". Same problem for all the parameters with dot for decimals
    Maybe because the international settings in my pc s are with "," for decimals.
    In MW7 I haven't this problem despite I use "," for decimals.

    Thanks,
    Marco
  • Thanks for reporting that bug, marco. I'll release a fix in a couple of days.
  • Update: beta 2

    mecway.com/download/mecway80beta2.msi

    Bugfixes
    Geometry didn't display or mesh.
    Samples and Tutorials folders weren't shown in File->Open
    Incorrect localized number format when saving files.
    Improved error message for out of memory with high contour plot resolution.

  • edited October 2017
    Hi Victor, nice features on the new version, thanks!. I have noted in beta 2:

    When we choose the displacement branch on the result tree, the Magnitude default field is showed with arrows in place of standard colors as usual

    If you have added shortcuts for the Edit menu commands, should not be visible on the menu?

    In the Gmsh properties, there is unit selector for minimun and maximun size, while in the Netgen only for maximun

    Now we can choose the field variables to keep on the results. Can you add the contact stress and displacement as well?

    Yesteday I played a little with the beta 1 with a no lineal analysis and it crashes while I postrocess, on two files and worst thing that the files gets corrupted. I try to clean the results with the new command line but even that told me that there were some truncated fields on the file. Now with the beta 2 I haven´t crash yet, but notice a big increase (x2) in memory usage


    Best regards

  • Hi Sergio, thanks for the detailed comments.

    1) The "displacement" tree node shows arrows but the "magnitude" one under it shows the usual contour plot. This is something I'm worried about because it's a bit harder to reach for the common case. Do you think that's going to be an inconvenience? The displacement branch is open by default so magnitude is immediately visible.

    2) It's a bit tricky for some reason. Press Alt, release Alt, then press E and it should underline the keys which you can press next.

    3) I couldn't get Netgen to respect the minimum size so it's not there.

    4) I'll put contact stress and displacement on my list for next time.

    5) Could you please send me a corrupt file by email? It might be the (now fixed) comma bug that made them unreadable. If the file is truncated, the point it stopped writing at might tell me where the bug is.

    The maximum contour plot resolution is higher than in v7 so if you turn it up to max, it can use a lot more memory on big models. Was it that?
  • Victor, about memory, yes was that, I setup the highest resolution and step colors as I was using on v7... will has to change my machine :-).

    I noticed that you has bundled CCX 2.11, while in v7 was 2.12, have you noted some wrong behavieur with the 2.12? Now they has released the 2.13, from my usage the only thing that could help me is the improvement in the pretension card for bolts.

    Regards
  • v7 had CCX 2.11 too. I haven't tried to compile 2.12 or 2.13 yet.
  • Have tested the ¨New CCX element type¨ feature and found usefull, but should not be limited the list of named selections to only element selections? Or better, take the list directly from the component names?
  • I agree that showing other types of selection in the list is inconvenient but it's the same behavior as all the loads and constraints that only support one or two types of selection, so that's a fix for another day.

    Using component names is a bit tricky so it doesn't currently do that sorry.
  • About v8 I had a good impression. New functions are welcome! Good job.

    About CCX I found that Prool's versions for Windows are stable and without bugs found for other version (eigenvalues analysis for example)
  • Victor,

    don't forget to send me the documentation to translate to spanish.
  • Victor,

    direct graph export to csv doesn't allow local format.
    It may be better that local format to be a general flag, not in each table, because if you want csv loca format you want it for all csv files.

    in formulas it would be great to have abs() and sqrt().
  • OK German. I'll make those changes unless I run into big obstacles. Thanks again for your very thorough and competent work on the manuals.
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