Version 8.0 released

Victor

Mecway 8 is now available at the link below. This is only the 64-bit version. All customers' licences are also valid for version 8. Just re-enter your product key to activate it.

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.
abs() and sqrt() functions available in all formulas.

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.

Stefanos

This is great Victor!

Is there an option for 32-bit?

marco

Hello Victor,

an error occur when I use "find contour min/max" in MW8.
Here attached a test model. When you try to find min/max contour of stress point 1,2,3 o 4 (for beam element) in a shell element MW8 crashes.
I know that I could not extrat the contour min/max stress point for line elements in a shell element but the software should advise the user without crashing.
After the messages (attached) the visualization is locked.

Thanks,
Marco

Victor

Stefanos: Yes. I'll contact you by email in a day or two.

Marco: Thanks for the bug report. I'm not able to reproduce it so could you please give more specific steps and/or take a full screenshot showing model and any selections? When I do it, it says "Cannot find any values".

I assume you mean Tools -> Find max/min? I also tried Fit contour plot max/min to selection and that doesn't crash for a shell element and beam stress.

marco

Steps:

1) Solve
2) On the solution tree select "Long stress point 1 element values"
3) Select "Select element" in the edit menu
4) Right key on a shell element -- > Find contour plot max/min
5) Crash and locked visualization

Here attached the full screenshot. I work with WIN10 Pro 64bit. Maybe is a problem of the Operation System.

Thanks,
Marco

marco

I forgot the full screenshot of the second message.

This message was displayed after these steps:

1) click on "ok" of the first error message
2) click on "Components and Material"
3) Displayed second message and red lines appear on the screen.

Marco

Victor

Thanks Marco. I can reproduce it now. It only happens with the gradient contour plot option.

lk70

Great work! I saw my recommendation thanks Victor.

Kaspars

Victor, good work!

For the future versions i would like to see the following features:
1) By holding down SHIFT key i could only add something to selection. Because like now by holding down CTRL key it is sometimes hard to select something without deselecting that i want to stay selected. I am very used to this in RSAPRO.
2) If i click on Edit-->Copy image, meanwhile having node selected with the node pop-out results, i can get the image with the pop-out results included (now i can have it only using the print screen button and afterwards cropping the images manually)
3) A timer somewhere in that little solution window (bottom left corner) or in status bar. Just for the curiosity to see and compare the time required to solve something. Or just for benchmarking my old/new machine.
4) For the CCX constrains - Rigid body constrain that can be defined by GUI
5) And maybe GUI selectable OUTPUT=2D option. Maybe under the right click with the name "Solve as 2D elements", or in maybe in shell thickness definition tab...

Victor

Thanks for the suggestions, Kaspers.

1,2,3 are tricky to design because they could make things worse as well as better. I'll keep what you say in mind to combine with what other people want.

4. I hope so soon. Also hopefully distributing coupling.

5. There have been some bugs with the 2D results being wrong so I don't want to make a button for that until it's pretty safe. Maybe 2.13 is OK now but I havn't checked.

amit

How to define spring and damper between 2 nodes? I had faced trouble doing that. so asking.

Victor

To create a spring and damper between two nodes:

1. Make a line2 element: Mesh tools -> Create -> Element.
   
2. Put it in a separate component: Right click the element, Add elements to new component.
   
3. Give it a spring material: Right click the component in the outline tree, Assign new material, Mechanical tab, Spring.
   
4. Repeat those 3 steps to create the damper but choose Damper as the material type.
   

Hengre

Hello Victor,

I just tried first time a simple spring damper application and followed the instructions in your last post step 1-4.
When I came to point 4 I was not able to enter viscous damping coefficient (not activated).
For which kind of analysis setting it will work?

Regards

Victor

It's for linear and nonlinear dynamic response 2D and 3D and both solvers.

But it turns out there's a bug that disables the input for Nonlinear Dynamic Response 3D. Thanks for finding this! It still works but you have to change to one of the other supported analysis types to enter the value.

amit

Victor can you please help me use spring damper system. not able to model it.

Victor

Here you go. I made these changes:

• Used Mecway's spring and damper materials instead of defining the CCX cards by hand. Those get generated automatically.
  
• Changed the analysis type to Dynamic response 3D
  
• Added density to the beam material
  

amit

Hello Victor,
Thanks for the help.
Why damper is not available in modal vibration analysis setting?

Victor

You mean to find the damped natural frequencies? Neither solver has that capability, sorry. I'm not sure why, other than perhaps it's difficult to implement and not widely needed.

amit

okay. thanks.