Maxsurf CONNECT Edition V23 Update 5

1140018: Nesting Parts
Once you have calculated all your parts you can assign them to stock and have them nested onto that stock for export to dxf file.

Creating Stock
Switch to the Structure Data window and click on the Nest Stock tab:


There are two ways to add stock to this list. If you have already assigned materials from the material library to each part, then you can automatically populate the Nest Stock list by choosing Data | Calculate Parts | Create Stock from the menu. Modeler will then look at all the materials used for each of the parts and add them to the stock list:


The defualt stock sheet size is set to a length of 6m and width of 2.5m, the user is left to alter these values to what their physical material sheet sizes are.
Alternatively a new stock entry can be manually created by pressinjg Ctrl +A and editing the fields individually.


To choose a material group, click in the cell and choose from the drop down list, repeat for material type, add stock thickness, length and width.
Margin is the minimum allowable distance between parts when nested and between a part and the edge of the sheet.

Assigning parts to stock
Once stock has been created you can assign individual parts to the stock they are to be cut from. Again, this can be done either automatically or manually.
To automatically allocate the stock choose Data | Calculate Parts | Allocate Parts to Stock. Modeler searches through the stock for matching material stock for each part and assigns the best match.
Alternatively it can be done manually, click in the “Part List” tab:


Click in the parts “Nest Stock” cell and choose the stock from the drop down. Alternatively you can start typing the name of the stock and autocomplete will fill the rest. If multiple parts have the same stock you can copy and paste or fill down:


Creating the nest
Once all the parts you wish to nest have been assigned stock you are ready to run the nesting function.
Choose Data | Calculate Parts | Nest Parts… and the following dialog will appear:


Here you define the angles the parts can be rotated during the nesting algorithm iterations as well as whether to include the frame rider bars in the output. After hitting OK the resulting nest will be displayed in the part window:


Each row consists of stock plates packed with parts assigned to the stock. Once a sheet is filled a new column is added.
To export the nest diagram to dxf, choose File | Export | DXF and IGES…

1143040: Quadrilateral support in meshes – Technology Preview
This version of Modeler introduces quadrilateral elements (facets) to Mesh objects as a technology preview. We aim to extend the features and capabilities for meshes containing quadrilateral elements over the forthcoming releases of Modeler.

Quadrilateral and Triangle mesh elements
The Modeler Mesh objects now supports quadrilaterals as well as triangles. This is done by tracking the link between pairs of adjacent triangles which are to be considered as a single quadrilateral mesh element. Since the quadrilaterals are composed of two triangles there is no requirement (or enforcement) that quadrilateral element be planar. Under most circumstances, the common edge between the adjacent triangles is not displayed, however it is apparent in the shaded, rendered view if the two triangles are not in the same plane. It is also for this reason that you will see two mesh normal arrows on a quadrilateral element (one for each triangle). However clicking on either will invert the direction of the whole quadrilateral.

Generating quadrilateral meshes
Primitive geometrical shapes (plane, box, cylinder, column) can be added from the Meshes menu. In the dialog you are given the option to mesh using triangles or quadrilateral elements. Where possible the resulting mesh will use quadrilateral elements (triangle elements will be used to close the ends of cylinders and columns).


Meshing individual NURB surfaces can be done using quadrilateral elements. Use the Meshes | Add Mesh from Surfaces dialog. You can then select whether to create a trimesh or a quad-dominant mesh:


When creating a Quadmesh using the Optimised mesh type option, although the mesh will be quaddominant, triangles may also be added if necessary. The Regular Parametric mesh layout will produce a quad-only mesh provided the NURBS surface does not have a zero-length edge. The Regular Parametric mesh layout will mesh the whole NURBS surface, even if it is trimmed.
When remeshing an existing mesh, you can select whether the mesh should be triangular or quad-dominant. Note that this only applies when remeshing an entire mesh. When remeshing a part of an existing mesh, this will convert the entire mesh to triangular elements.


Meshes can also be created from MAXSURF structural parts, however it is not yet possible to create queadmeshes directly by this method. However the meshes could potentially be remeshed using quadrilateral elements if required. A new option has been added to the meshes generated from plates which allows for the exact stringer paths to be inserted into the resulting plate mesh, this will ensure node continuity between the plate and stringer meshes.



Import and export
The following import and export file formats now support quadrilateral elements: WAMIT, PLY and OFF. (STL file format supports only triangular mesh elements and any quadrilateral elements will be subdivided into two triangles about their common internal boundary.
Mesh operations
A large proportion of the Mesh operations will convert the mesh to a pure triangular element mesh. However these may be remeshed to a quad-dominant mesh if required.
User interface changes
We have stopped referring to “Trimesh” and now use “Mesh” since the can now include both triangular and quadrilateral elements. This is reflected in the Menu, Ribbon and Toolbar. We are updating the manual. However to prevent breaking automation scripts, we have not changed the COM interface objects; even though they retain the same “Trimesh” name they do support both type of elements.As noted earlier, the Mesh creation dialogs which now support an option for quadrilateral meshes.The Mesh toolbar has been extended to include all the commands available in the Mesh menu. Furhtermore, the icon for the snap node to surface button has been changed:


Bug fixes and minor changes
- 1140743: When adding a Longitudinal Girder sometimes an unexpected curve is temporarily added in the Assembly window. This has been fixed.
- 1140750: IMS LPP offsets files may now be saved with the “.txt” extension (as well as “.off”).
- 1140769: The Markers used to define the top of a Longitudinal Girder are displayed even if the Longitudinal Girder visibility is turned off. This has been fixed.
- 1140770: A Stringer selected in the Assembly view is highlighted in the drawing window even if the Stringer visibility is turned off. This has been fixed.
- 1140777: When exporting a model in the “Parametric” format, a crash could then occur later on under some specific conditions. This has been fixed.
- 1140780: When exporting a model in the “Stereo” format, a file access denied problem could occur depending on the user’s file permissions. This has been fixed.
- 1140835: When exporting a model in the “Stereo” format, length units were left in “mm”. This has been fixed.
- 1140937: As with other drawing windows, the mouse coordinates are now also displayed in the Part Drawing window.
- 1141100: Invalid warning of plate clash when adding a plate on a surface with other plates. Model specific. Fixed.
- 1142810: Markers being rotated about internal zero point not user defined zero point. Fixed.
- 1142855: Trimesh can be remeshed into a quadmesh. Select the trimesh in the assembly view. The dialog box allows the user to define whether they want the selected mesh remeshed in quad or tri elements.
- 1142982: Quickstart no longer working. The application was looking in the wrong directory for the samples. Fixed.
- 1143040: Change User Interface terminology from Trimeshes to Meshes. Enhanced Mesh toolbar
- 1143122: An incorrect “Locked Surface” warning message which could appear under some circumstances has been fixed.
- 1143163: The menu items: "Meshes | Visibility…" and "Display | Meshes | Show Mesh" which do the same have been given the same name.
- 1143234: Show Stringer Net for visible Stringers only.

1141511: Table Captions copied by default
For tables with captions, the captions are now copied along with column headers when the Shift-key is held down.


This option is turned on by default but can be turned off in the Edit | Preferences dialog:


Note that this behavior change may affect automated scripts, if you are using the COM automation interface to copy tables, you can also turn the option off with the CopyTableCaption property of the BentleyStability application Object.

Bug fixes and minor changes
- 1119211, 1141094: Some improvements have been made to the CopyTable method in the COM automation interface to ensure that the data are properly updated before being copied to the clipboard. The application should not be minimized when using this method since Windows does not update the display of minimized applications and this prevents the clipboard from being populated with the correct data.
- 1141650: A problem which sometimes occurred when restoring results from the SQlite database using the COM automation interface has been fixed.
- 1141749: A crash which could occur with the Fredyn export under some circumstances has been fixed.
- 1141751: The Edit | Select All will now select the entire table of the top window (previously the menu item was not enabled).
- 1143040: Change User Interface terminology from Trimeshes to Meshes.

1140853: Application can hang/crash whilst attempting to load a results (.skr) file
There is a possibility that the previous release of Motions 23.04.00.76 could hang whilst loading an .skr filesaved from an older version of Motions. This is due to it expecting new data to be present in the file which is not contained in the older format and the file reading code not properly checking for EOF (end of file). This appears to be an intermittent problem – if you manage to open and then resave the results, then the file will be fixed. This problem has been completely resolved in this 23.05 release of Motions, and if you were unable to read a results file in 23.04.00.76, you will be able to read it in 23.05.

Bug fixes and minor changes
- 1119211: Some improvements have been made to the CopyTable method in the COM automation interface to ensure that the data are properly updated before being copied to the clipboard. The application should not be minimized when using this method since Windows does not update thedisplay of minimized applications and this prevents the clipboard from being populated with the correct data.
- 1142185: Orcaflex RAO export now always uses 3dp for phase
- 1143040: Change User Interface terminology from “Trimeshes” to “Meshe”s.
- 1143080: Change User Interface terminology. "Mooring Stiffness" to "Stiffness".

228272: Rounded corner patch openings
Openings with rounded (filleted) corners can now be added and edited on arbitrarily oriented patches.


Bug fixes and minor changes
- 1119211: Some improvements have been made to the CopyTable method in the COM automation interface to ensure that the data are properly updated before being copied to the clipboard. The application should not be minimized when using this method since Windows does not update the display of minimized applications and this prevents the clipboard from being populated with the correct data.
Note that CopyTable is a property in Multiframe and uses the following syntax – use =True (or =False) to include (or exclude) the Table Caption and Row Headers: app.Frame.CopyTable (PatchOpenings24) = True since this syntax is a little confusing, a method CopyTableToClipboard has been added and this uses the following syntax app.Frame.CopyTableToClipboard PatchOpenings24, True
- 1119213: "Result Window - Member stress table" MemberStressdata44 is now included in the CopyTable method in the COM automation interface. And problems with "Result Window - Design efficiency table" DesignResultData43 have been fixed.