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Mecway
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Victor
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Hello mattone Mecway's STEP import can only mesh a single closed solid shape. So a shell won't work. One way around that is to change it into a solid (ie. fill in the interior of the vessel) using your CAD program, then generate a surface mesh in M…
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Hello Tim Yes, you can do that. Simply connect the elements together and they'll transmit moments as well as forces between each other. Here's an example of a 3D frame structure. For non-symmetric cross-sections, you'll also need to define the ori…
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No, it doesn't have that feature. You could do something similar with stiff shell or beam elements laid over the surface to accept point moments and distribute the load, but that takes time to model. My preferred way is to simply use two point forc…
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Interesting comparison. I'm surprised the results are so similar! Since these are solid elements, it's to be expected that the linear hex8 model doesn't deflect as far because those elements are unphysically too stiff in bending. You would usually n…
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Mecway isn't well suited to the kind of multi-step analysis because it doesn't have the concept of arbitrary steps. If it can do this in future, it'll probably be manually controlled - do one solve, then another, then combine the results.
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In this case, force on either faces or nodes will be OK because the total magnitude and direction is determined by what you specify and won't change during the solution. There's an undocumented way to output strains but it won't be accurate for lar…
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Material non-linearity is certainly on the radar but it's not a very popular feature so may be a while. However version 3 will have Abaqus/Calculix file support allowing you to use the Calculix solver which has plastic and hyperelastic materials. C…
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Hello Jacinto 1) Mecway doesn't have any failure models so it's not specifically for ductile or brittle materials. The non-linear analysis currently only includes geometric nonlinearities like large rotations, stress stiffening and buckling and doe…
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Hello Janko While this is possible, it can be a little tricky to specify the boundary conditions. Use the 2D Navier-Stokes analysis type which allows velocity boundary conditions for a no-slip condition at the cylinder. Here is an example. As you …
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I'll add this to the list. As always I can't promise but thanks for suggesting it. Are you also looking for the internal contour surfaces?
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Thanks for the suggestion. This is a widely requested feature, so I'm aiming to get it into Mecway in a near future version as long as there are no major obstacles.
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Hello VMH Typically, if you've used imperial units in the model (except for the mesh if you reopen the file), the tape measure will show inches. It could be that it contains some metric lengths or no imperial units at all. A workaround is to start…
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Thanks for the suggestion. I can't promise temperature dependent mechanical properties though. For now you would have to do it manually using components to define regions of uniform properties.
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Hello apadzak I think this is not a problem, just a difference. By refining the mesh several times, it looks like the "true" mode 9 should be out-of-plane as you found with Mecway. In that case, the hex8 elements in both Mecway and Abaqus are incor…
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Hello apadzak I recognize the limitation of not being able to select edges. However using nodes will give exactly the same results as edges because edge constraints would be internally converted to node constraints. I'd be interested to see the mo…
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A few hundred or thousand, depending on what features you're interested in. Maybe down to 100 using hex20 elements (hand-made mesh). I notice that in this case the stress away from the fixed support mostly changes by less than a couple of percent wh…
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These two files are identical (wrong upload?). Mesh refinement will probably have a big effect on them though because they use tet elements which can need a lot of refinement for good results, especially when they're so distorted like that. You don…
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Hello Andrew This is actually a shell mesh, even though it looks solid at first. That's the reason it complains about no thickness in the Aluminium material. Not having a thickness is then the reason it doesn't solve. Mecway can only make shell me…
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Yes, hold ctrl to do multiple selections of nodes, then change them all to faces in one hit.
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Hello Andrew Here are two ways: A) Since it's from a STEP file, it's better to apply loads directly to the surface there so you can remesh it without losing the selection. If the hole is made from 2 surfaces like in the 1st picture below, you'll h…
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Hello FEMnewb. Thanks for the suggestions and helping to improve Mecway. The way loads are distributed over nodes is consistent although it's different to some more classical FEA programs which have them independently attached to each node. For exa…
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Don't blame yourself. Software should be usable without a manual. One goal for Mecway is to make a manual redundant but unfortunately that's still a long way off.
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Hello saf001. I was formerly the sole developer of LISA from 2006-2013. They are two independent companies and both are licensed to sell some of the same code.
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Hello Jim_C You can turn off the element edges with the button at the top right of the toolbar as shown in the picture. You can change the range of field values displayed in the contour plot by expanding the branch of the outline tree and right cl…
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A stress linearization tool is now available in version 2.0.
