Siemens Simcenter FEMAP 2020.2.0 with NX Nastran

Views
- Added functionality throughout View Options dialog box which automatically switches the Color Mode to “1..View Color” after the user clicks the “Color Block” icon to access the Color Palette, then clicks OK.
- Added “Element - Nastran General Matrix” option in “Labels, Entities and Color” Category of View, Options command, which controls if symbols are drawn to indicate if nodes are specified as Connected DOFs (Nodes to Connect) or Constrained DOF (Reference). In addition, Label Model allows Degrees of Freedom to be labeled at nodes used by Nastran General Matrix elements.
- Added “Curve Connectivity” option in “Tools and View Style” Category of View, Options command, which displays the type of connectivity for each curve used by a surface (sheet solid), solid, or general body using a color specified by the user.
Connection Properties, Regions, and Connectors
- Added Traction Removal Convergence to Multi-Step Structural (401) tab, which is accessed by clicking the More Options button.
- Updated *Initial Penetration option on Multi-Step Structural (401) tab by adding “1..Ignore Gaps” option.
- Added Include Shell Thickness Offset option to Multi-Step Kinematic (402) tab.
Geometry
- Added ability to remove loops from multiple disconnected faces (i.e., disjoint solids).
- Updated Duplicate Materials option in Other Entities to Include section to be Duplicate Materials/ Layups for commands on the Geometry, Copy… menu. Same as the Duplicate Properties option, but for laminate and solid laminate properties, all referenced layups and all materials used by referenced layups will be duplicated. Any property assigned as a meshing attribute to the original geometric entity will also be copied, then the copy of the property referencing copies of the material(s) and layup will be assigned to the copied geometric entity.
- Updated Duplicate Materials option in Other Entities to Include section to be Duplicate Materials/Layups for commands on the Geometry, Rotate… menu. Same as the Duplicate Properties option, but for laminate and solid laminate properties, all referenced layups and all materials used by referenced layups will be duplicated. Any property assigned as a meshing attribute to the original geometric entity will also be copied, then the copy of the property referencing copies of the material(s) and layup will be assigned to the copied geometric entity.
- Updated Duplicate Materials option in Other Entities to Include section to be Duplicate Materials/ Layups for commands on the Geometry, Reflect… menu. Same as the Duplicate Properties option, but for laminate and solid laminate properties, all referenced layups and all materials used by referenced layups will be duplicated. Any property assigned as a meshing attribute to the original geometric entity will also be copied, then the copy of the property referencing copies of the material(s) and layup will be assigned to the copied geometric entity.
User Interface - General
- Added ability to use commands on “floating” toolbars (i.e., not “docked”) while using another command. It was already possible to use commands on “docked” toolbars in previous versions.
- Added “Group Display Mode” (i.e., Show Full Model, Show Active Group, and Show Multiple Groups) commands to the Commands tab of the Customize dialog box. They are found under “Additional Commands”. Once added to any toolbar, shortcut keys can also be assigned to these commands.
- Added Send to Excel command to Pick^ menu for the standard selection dialog box, which automatically opens Microsoft Excel and sends the IDs currently selected to Excel using the same format as Copy as List.
- Added ability to keep registry and initialization settings separate for multiple installations on the same system when they use different licensing and/or language versions. Currently licensing using Demo, Subscription, API-only, and Dongle/Network are considered separate, as are English and other language installations.
- Enhanced Copy to Clipboard and Save to File commands for the Data Table, Connection Editor, Mesh Point Editor, Function/Table Editor and Entity Editor to copy/save the data using formatted HTML.
- Improved performance and accuracy of the Along Curve, Length Along, and Midpoint options on the Methods^ men u of the standard coordinate definition dialog box.
- Updated Equation Editor dialog box to be resizable, added context-sensitive help by pressing the F1 key, and reordered the items in the Functions list to group similar items together. In addition, added ELTHK( elemID ; cornerID ), which returns planar element corner thicknesses.
- Updated the cursor to show when FEMAP is busy but the current activity/command can be aborted, using the cursor selected with the current windows themes. Also, enhanced performance when aborting commands used to calculate mass properties, calculate solid properties, measure, check, and list various entities by only checking for abort after a certain number of passes through a loop in the command instead of every single time through the loop. In some cases, this leads to over a 10X performance increase in responsiveness to abort a command. Now uses the cursor selected with the current Windows theme rather than a custom one.
- Updated minimize, maximize, and close icons in the title bar of an undocked graphics window to more closely match the “flat style” of the same icons found in title bar of the main FEMAP application.
- Updated selection of solids to allow use of the Select Visible icon, but only selects visible solids, not volumes.

User Interface - Toolbars and Icons

View - Simple and View Toolbars
- Added Curve Connectivity to the View Style icon menu

User Interface - Dockable Panes

Meshing Toolbox - Feature Removal tool
- Added Preview option when Feature Type is set to Blends. When enabled, the standard entity selection dialog box will appear pre-populated with the blends (i.e., surfaces) to be removed. Simply add or remove surfaces using the standard entity selection dialog box, then click OK to proceed with blend removal.
Meshing Toolbox - Geometry Editing tool
- Added Geometry Type option when Operation is set to Extend. When set to Curve on Surface, offers all functionality which existed in previous versions of the tool When set to Surface/Replace Face, mimics the Geometry, Solid, Extend/Replace Face command.
Charting
- Added Send to Excel command to the Copy to Clipboard icon menu, which opens Microsoft Excel, then sends both the image and values from the active Chart to Excel.
Data Surface Editor
- Added Send Data Surface to Excel command to the toolbar, which opens Microsoft Excel and transfers text from the Data Surface Editor directly to Excel.
Function/Table Editor
- Added Send to Excel command to the Copy Text to Clipboard icon menu, which opens Microsoft Excel, then sends all text, including header information (ID, Title, Type, Column Titles, and Row IDs) directly to Excel.
- Improved the Function/Table editor. If only one Function or Table exists in the model, the Reload commands no longer ask you to select the item to reload, it simply reloads the only one available.
- Updated copying from the Function/Table editor and other Table controls. The copied text format no longer includes numbered row or column headers (RTF still includes them). In addition, blank rows at the end of the table are no longer copied for either format.
Mesh Point Editor
- Added Send to Excel command to the Create/Manage Mesh Points icon menu, which opens Microsoft Excel and sends all Mesh Point data directly to Excel in a specific format, via the clipboard. This data can then be pasted back into the same FEMAP model or a different model as long as the data remains on the clipboard in the format created by the command.
Connection Editor
- Added Send to Excel command to the toolbar, which opens Microsoft Excel and sends the current data in the Connection Editor directly to Excel.
Entity Info
- Added curve length and arc/circle info to when Curve is the active entity in the Select Toolbar.
Data Table
- Added Send to Excel command to the toolbar, which opens Microsoft Excel and sends the current data in the Data Table directly to Excel.
- Updated Data Table to be unlocked by default when it is opened.
API Programming
- Added Auto-Completion Favorites. When calling a method that contains arguments that are chosen from a number of available options, the options have traditionally been shown in a drop-down list as you type. Now, as you choose an option the first time, it will move to the top of the list and be shown with an * to indicate that it is a “favorite”. This means that when you come to another argument of the same type, your “favorites” will be easier to find at the top of the list and you won't have to search the entire list to find them. “Favorites” persist for an entire session, but not across sessions.
- Added Symbol Highlighting. After you have created a script, as you click on a parameter, method or other symbol in the script, the User Interface will highlight all occurrences of that symbol throughout the script making it easy to see where that symbol is referenced. In addition, a second scroll bar will appear in the upper right portion of the window. This scroll bar can be used to jump to the next or previous occurrence of the symbol in the script.
- Updated to show the Watch window as the default tab when debugging.

Interfaces - FEMAP Neutral
- Updated Neutral Read and Write for v2020.2 changes

Interfaces - Nastran
- Added read/write support for GENEL entry as Nastran General Matrix element type.
- Added support to write values specified as 0.0 for End B of beam properties as either 0.0 or “blank” fields to PBEAM entries, based on each property’s setting for Write Zeros at End B (Off=Blank).
- Added support to write AEROF and APRES case control commands for Static Aeroelastic analysis (SOL 144), by default, which produce aeroelastic force, pressure, and coefficient results in the .f06 file only. In addition, these results can now be imported from the .f06 and shown as contour/criteria plots on aero mesh (aero boxes).

Interfaces - Simcenter Nastran (formally NX Nastran)

SOL 401 and 402 Only
- Added read/write support for MATDMG entry to specify material properties for progressive ply failure using two material types found in Other Types. To create a MATDMG with PPFMOD set to “UD”, use “512..Sim. Nastran UD Ply Failure (MATDMG Sol 401,402)” which references a 3D Orthotropic material. To create a MATDMG with PPFMOD set to “EUD”, use “513..Sim. Nastran EUD Ply Failure (MATDMG Sol 401,402)” which references a 3D Orthotropic material.
- Added support to automatically write PFRESULTS to request progressive ply failure results when a material which writes a MATDMG entry to the input file exists in the model.
SOL 401 Only
- Added support for LGSTRN option in NASTRAN Bulk Data Options dialog box, which writes PARAM,LGSTRN,1 to input file. When enabled, LGDISP option becomes unavailable.
- Added support for Rot. Load Inertia Scaling (RFVAR) option in Solution and Convergence Options dialog box.
SOL 402 Only
- Added support to write TRUE to STRMEAS field on MATS1 entry by using a function of type “46..True Stress vs. Strain” or “47..True Stress vs. Plastic Strain” for Function Dependence on Nonlinear tab for a material.
- Added support for reading results generated by the SHELLTHK Case Control entry.
- When LGSTRAN option is enabled, LGDISP option now becomes unavailable.

Interfaces - ANSYS
- Added ability to import results from compressed ANSYS results files (*.RST files). Only files compressed with “Version 1” compression, which is the current default in ANSYS, are supported.
- Added Skip CSys, Skip Nodes, Skip Materials, Skip Properties, and Skip Elements to ModelControl section of ANSYS Command and Model Options dialog box.When enabled, the entity type selected to “skip” will not be written to the ANSYS input file. For example, if Skip Nodes and Skip Properties are enabled, then no nodes or properties will be exported.
- Added Skip Groups to Model Control section of ANSYS Command and Model Options dialog box.When enabled, groups will not be written to the ANSYS input file (ESEL, NSEL, and CM entries), but entities contained in those groups are still exported unless one of the other Skip options is enabled.
- Added Skip Misc to Model Control section of ANSYS Command and Model Options dialog box.When enabled, comments starting with a single “!”, view settings (/VIEW, /ANGLE,/ZOOM, etc), preprocessor commands (/NOPR, /FCOMP, /PREP7, /GOPR, etc), solution setting (/SOLU, ANTYPE, EQSLV, etc), SOLVE, and FINISH are not written to the ANSYS input file.
- Updated name of Skip Beam/Bar Cross Sections in Model Control section of ANSYS Command and Model Options dialog box to Skip Shapes. When enabled, all Beam and Bar properties are written to the ANSYS input file as SECTYPE, #, BEAM, ASEC, along with the corresponding computed property values from the Define Property - BEAM Element Type dialog box as SECDATA, regardless of how the beams were defined.
- Added File Compression Level option to Result Control section of ANSYS Command and Model Options dialog box, which sets the level of compression for the ANSYS Results file (*.RST). Default in FEMAP is “1..No Compression”, but other option is “0..Sparse”, which creates a compressed results file FEMAP can read.
- Added Manual Control sections containing a Skip Standard option, along with Start Text and End Text buttons to all appropriate ANSYS dialog boxes in the Analysis Set Manager.
- Improved performance between 2x-3x when importing non-compressed ANSYS results files (*.RST files).

Interfaces - ABAQUS
- Added support to read loads and boundary conditions which reference a SET and create a Load Definition or Constraint Definition in FEMAP.
- Added support to write all supported load/constraint types that are contained in a Load Definition or Constrain Definition as a SET entry in the ABAQUS input file, if requested by enabling the Write All Groups as Sets option in the ABAQUS Model Options dialog box. When expanded, some Load Definitions which were defined with a single value actually create variable values on entities,such as geometry-based loads which are expanded to nodes. Because the values are not constant, they cannot be written as a single SET entry, thus the loads are exported on a per entity basis, as they were in previous versions of FEMAP.

Interfaces - LS-DYNA
- Added Skip CSys, Skip Nodes, Skip Materials, Skip Properties, and Skip Elements to Model Control section of LS-Dyna Model Options dialog box.When enabled, the entity type selected to “skip” will not be written to the LS-Dyna input file. For example, if Skip Nodes and Skip Properties are enabled, then no nodes or properties will be exported.
- Added Skip Groups to Model Control section of LS-Dyna Model Options dialog box. When enabled, groups will not be written as *SET_ entries to the LS-Dyna input file, but entities contained in those groups are still exported unless one of the other Skip options is enabled.
- Added Skip Functions to Model Control section of LS-Dyna Model Options dialog box.When enabled, functions (*DEFINE_CURVE entries) are not written to the LS-Dyna input file. In addition, any loads or material properties which were functionally-dependent in the model no longer reference functions
- Added Skip Misc to Model Control section of LS-Dyna Model Options dialog box. When enabled, comments starting with “$”, *KEYWORD, *TITLE with corresponding “title”, *CONTROL TERMINATION with corresponding value, *DATABASE_BINARY_D3PLOT with corresponding value, *END, and other entries are not written to the LS-Dyna input file.
- Added LS-Dyna Analysis Monitor to monitor solver progress, review solver files, and optionally import results.

Interfaces - Geometry
- Added support for Parasolid 32.1, NX 2020 (version 1899), SolidWorks 2020, CATIA V5 R8 - V5- 6 R2019 SP4, and JT 10.6.
- Added ability to import JT geometry files using the “-JT” argument when launching FEMAP from a command line prompt.
- Added ability to import NX geometry files using the “-NX” argument when launching FEMAP from a command line prompt.

Element - Nastran General Matrix - New for 2020.2!
- Added Nastran General Matrix element type, which is used to support GENEL elements for Nastran solvers. All element information is stored on the elements, thus a corresponding property is not required.
Properties
- Added Write Zeros at End B (Off=Blank) option to the Beam Property, which is only for Nastran solvers. This option exists because as a value of 0.0 for an End B value is interpreted differently by Nastran then a “blank” field. When the option is enabled, values of 0.0 specified for End B in the FEMAP property are written as 0.0 to the Nastran input file. When disabled, values of 0.0 are left blank in the Nastran input file.
Layups
- Added Send to Excel button, which opens Microsoft Excel and transfers the current contents of the Layup Editor directly to Excel.
Loads and Boundary Conditions
- Added the ability to create Follower Force and Follower Moment loads on nodes, points, curves, and surfaces. When creating follower forces or follower moments on nodes, the only available option in Direction is Magnitude Only. Enter a value for Magnitude, then select Node 1 (G1) and Node 2 (G2) that specify the direction to create FORCE1 or MOMENT1 entries for Nastran. To create FORCE2 or MOMENT2 entries instead, enable the Normal to Plane option, then specify Node 1 (G1) through Node 4 (G4). The direction of the force or moment is parallel to the cross product of vectors from Node 1 (G1) to Node 2 (G2) and Node 3 (G3) to Node 4 (G4).
Meshing
- Added Set Default Size button to Mesh, Mesh Control, Default Size command. When clicked, the value for Element Size is calculated based on all geometry currently in the model and the Set Element Size on Next Use option is automatically disabled.
- Updated Duplicate Materials option in Property/Material Options section to be Duplicate Materials/Layups for commands on the Mesh, Copy… menu. For laminate and solid laminate properties, all referenced layups and all materials used by referenced layups will be duplicated. When Geometry option in Other Entities to Include section is enabled, all duplicated laminate and solid laminate properties which have been assigned as a meshing attribute will reference a copy of the referenced layup and copies of all materials used by a referenced layup.
- Updated Duplicate Materials option in Property/Material Options section to be Duplicate Materials/Layups for commands on the Mesh, Rotate… menu. For laminate and solid laminate properties, all referenced layups and all materials used by referenced layups will be duplicated. When Geometry option in Other Entities to Include section is enabled, all duplicated laminate and solid laminate properties which have been assigned as a meshing attribute will reference a copy of the referenced layup and copies of all materials used by a referenced layup.
- Updated Duplicate Materials option in Property/Material Options section to be DuplicateMaterials/Layups for commands on the Mesh, Reflect… menu. For laminate and solid laminate properties, all referenced layups and all materials used by referenced layups will be duplicated. When Geometry option in Other Entities to Include section is enabled, all duplicated laminate and solid laminate properties which have been assigned as a meshing attribute will reference a copy of the referenced layup and copies of all materials used by a referenced layup.
- Updated various commands which split elements on the Mesh, Editing… menu to more fully and consistently handle the other entities associated and/or related to the elements being edited
- Improved the Mesh, Geometry, HexMesh Solids command to provide a warning if you attempt to remesh solids that are already meshed. The warning gives the option to delete the existing mesh, skip the meshed solids, or create a duplicate mesh. This workflow now matches the one for tet meshing.
- Improved performance and accuracy when using length-based mesh sizing on the Parasolid curves (i.e., curves on sheet solids, solids, and general bodies). In a large model with many nonlinear curves, this resulted in a 2X increase in performance and more consistent constant length spacing throughout the model. Also, improved accuracy when attempting to size curves by Element Size instead of Number of Elements on curves which were seemingly the same length. Due to numerical accuracy, even a very small difference in the length of two curves could result in the curves having a different number of elements assigned. This improvement should improve sizing on curves, surfaces, and solids, whether they are sized by menu commands or Meshing Toolbox.
- Improved several commands to prevent creation of CBUSH elements that reference coincident nodes when a third node or vector is used for orientation.

Functions
- Added “46..True Stress vs. Strain” and “47..True Stress vs. Plastic Strain” for Simcenter Nastran SOL 401/402, as well as “48..Shear Damage vs. Thermodynamic Force (TABLEM5)” for MATDMG entry.

Listing
- Added List, Output, Results to Excel command. See Output and Post-Processing for more information.
- Updated List, Geometry, Curve command to include Arc/Circle center coordinates when Advanced is chosen.

Aeroelasticity
- Added ability to import Aeroelastic forces, pressures, and coefficients results from .f06 file from Simcenter Nastran and MSC Nastran, then display those results as contour/criteria plot on the aero mesh (aero boxes).

Output and Post-Processing
- Added List, Output, Results to Excel command, which is similar to List, Output, Results to Data Table, but quickly sends chosen output vector values for specific nodes or elements (from any number of selected output sets) directly to Microsoft Excel using a specified “Report Style”.
- Added View, Advanced Post, Stress Linearization command, which allows you to perform Stress Linearization. The FEMAP Stress Linearization Tool is based on the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, 2007 SECTION VIII, DIVISION 2, ANNEX 5.1 LINEARIZATION OF STRESS RESULTS FOR STRESS CLASSIFICATION.
- Added ability to display Aeroelastic forces, pressures, and coefficients results as a contour/criteria plot on the aero mesh (aero boxes).
- Added support for results generated by Simcenter Nastran for progressive ply failure (Damage Status, Damage Values, Damage Energy, and Crack Density).
- Improved performance of Copy, Linear Combination, RSS Combination, and Envelope operations in the Model, Output, Process command. For Linear Combination, RSS Combination, and Envelope, this should reduce the processing time by at least 25%. In addition, improves performance when accessing output sets which were created with the As Needed/Temporary option via the Result Set Processing Table (or Data Surface).

Tools
- Updated the Tools, Parameters command to allow specification of the Nodal Output Coordinate System (Output CSys drop-down). While this could be done using the Model, Node command and pressing Parameters button or in other meshing commands by pressing Node Parameters icon button, this is more convenient.
- Updated Tools, Mass Properties, Mesh Properties command to be able to automatically send the mass properties listing to the clipboard using the Send to Clipboard option. In addition, Check Mass Properties dialog box has been reorganized into separate Reporting Options and Mesh Options sections. Finally, improved performance to reduce the amount of time it takes to calculate mass properties for 1.95 million tetrahedral elements from ~38 seconds to ~3 seconds
- Updated the Tools, Mass Properties, Solid Properties command to be able to calculate and output the volume, surface area, center of gravity, and moment of inertia for the selected sheet solid(s), solid(s), and/or general bodies, either as a single assembly or for each individual body. Additional options exist to create a representative mass element and potentially attach it to existing nodes.

Model Merge
- Added ability to access the functionality of the File, Merge command via the FEMAP API by using the MergeTool Object. See OLE/COM API for more information.
- Improved handling when using the File, Merge command to overwrite Load Sets, Constrain Sets, Connection Regions, Connections, Functions, Tables, Fields, Analysis Sets, Views, Result Sets, Discrete Value Sets, and Matrix Inputs.

Preferences

Graphics
- Added Ctrl-G Group Evaluate to Graphics Options section. When this option is enabled, Group, Operations, Evaluate is performed on all groups currently visible in the active view when Window, Regenerate is used. If View, All Views is enabled, then all groups currently visible in all views of the active model will be evaluated. If Show Full Model is specified for Groups in the View, Visibility dialog box, the Model Info tree, or the Grp: menu in Status Bar, no groups are evaluated.
- Added Disable Abort to Graphics Options section. Certain operations can cause the graphics window to be completely redrawn without explicitly using Window, Redraw. In some cases, the user can abort (interrupt) the redraw by clicking in the screen or selecting another command. For this to happen, FEMAP checks for user input during redraw, which can cause the redraw to take additional time to finish compared to not doing any checking. When this option is enabled, no checking is done, thus aborting a redraw is not possible and potentially improving performance.
- Added Center to Include In Dynamic Rotation section. When enabled, the Center option displays a symbol in the graphics window at the “center of rotation” currently being used for dynamic rotation. If the “center of rotation” has been set by View, Rotate, Rotate About Rotation Center, then the “center of rotation” is obvious. Alternatively, if using the “view center” and the Dynamic Rotate Around Cursor Location preference found on the User Interface tab is enabled, then it may be helpful to have a visual representation at the “center of rotation”.
- Added OpenMP and Options… button to Advanced/Debug Options section. Enable this option touse OpenMP functionality (i.e. multi-threading) which has been implemented for a limited number of commands and operations. Once enabled, click the Options… button to set Number of Threads,which should not exceed the number of cores available on the machine running FEMAP. Note:This is initial implementation, thus considered Beta Functionality which is not officially supported. If any issues are encountered, please disable this option, then feel free to contact GTAC to describe the issue.
User Interface
- Added Language option to new Global Options section. Language displayed by user interface. When set to “0..Default”, uses the language which was selected during the initial installation of that version of FEMAP. When set to any other option, that language is used by FEMAP. Available option are “1.English”, “2..German”, “3..Japanese”, “4..Chinese, Traditional”, or “5..Chinese, Simplified”.
- Added UI Scaling option to new Global Options section. When set to “0..Enabled”, which is the default, certain Windows display settings are used to determine how the user interface should be scaled to improve user experience. Scaling the user interface can be especially helpful when using a high resolution display. If scaling is not required for any reason, set this option to “1..Disabled”.
Interfaces
- Added Preserve Load/BC SET(s) option to ABAQUS Options section. Sometimes in an ABAQUS input file, *SET entries with unique names are used to specify “groups” of loads or boundary conditions. When this option is enabled, an attempt is made during import of the ABAQUS input file to collect loads or boundary conditions defined by a *SET entry into an appropriate Load Definition or Constraint Definition.
Results
- Added Compute Average Mid Stress/Strain option to General Solver Options section. When enabled, stresses and strains at middle locations for plate elements are calculated as a simple average of the top and bottom values in FEMAP
Color
- Added Monitor Point to Entity Colors section to control default color of monitor points.

API

General
- Added additional checking to the Read object to make sure the file is open before other methods will work. Also added checking to various parse and string functions to prevent FEMAP from unexpectedly exiting when a NULL string pointer is passed in by mistake.
New and updated API Objects and Attributes
- Added MergeTool (feMergeTool) object to the API. Also, added UsePattern, CreateGroupForMerged, AlwaysCreateParentCSys, CondenseMergedGroups, LimitToMergedEntities, KeepInOriginalSets, and DuplicateFirstInPatternto to the feMergeTool object.
- Added ndID1, ndID2, ouSetID, nElemType, nStressmode, bNonlinearMode, bFullStressTensor, dMembraneStress, dBendingStress, dMaxMemBend, and dMaxStress to the Stress Linearization (StressLinear) Object.
- Added NasMsnlCntRFVAR attribute for Simcenter Nastran SOL 401 to the Analysis Case Object.
- Added NasMsnlCntRFVAR attribute for Simcenter Nastran SOL 401 to the Analysis Manager Object.
- Added AnsModelGroupID, AnsModelSkipCsys, AnsModelSkipNode, AnsModelSkipMatl, AnsModelSkipProp, AnsModelSkipElem, AnsModelSkipGroup, and AnsModelSkipMisc attributes for ANSYS to the Analysis Manager Object.- Added DynModelGroupID, DynModelSkipCsys, DynModelSkipNode, DynModelSkipMatl, DynModelSkipProp, DynModelSkipElem, DynModelSkipGroup, and DynModelSkipMisc attributes for LS-Dyna to the Analysis Manager Object.
- Added addl_ptID and vaddl_ptID attributes to the LoadGeom Object.
- Added RenderLogDepthOffset attribute to the View Object.
- Added DO_BeamDiagram_Option, DO_BeamDiagram_RoundToZero, DO_BeamDiagram_RoundToZeroValue, DO_BeamDiagram_BeforeDecimalSeparator, DO_BeamDiagram_MinimumExponentSize, DO_BeamDiagram_ExponentDigits, DO_BeamDiagram_SigFigs, DO_BeamDiagram_LeadingZeros, DO_BeamDiagram_TrailingZeros, DO_BeamDiagram_DecimalPlaces, DO_BeamDiagram_MaxDigits, DO_BeamDiagram_BaseExponent, DO_BeamDiagram_OriginalDigits, and DO_BeamDiagram_Exponent attributes to the View Object. These attributes are used by the “Beam Diagram” option in View Options to control the display of digits in the graphics window for Beam Diagrams.
- Added CurveConnectWirebody, CurveConnectFree, CurveConnectManifold, CurveConnectNonManifold, CurveConnectWirebodyColor, CurveConnectFreeColor, CurveConnectManifoldColor, and CurveConnectNonManifoldColor attributes to the View Object. These attributes are used by the “Curve Connectivity” option in View Options to control the visibility and color for the display of curve connectivity.
- Updated RenderPushForward, RenderPushUnit, RenderPushUndeformed, and RenderPushLabel on the View Object. They now have specific values ranges assigned.
New and Updated API Methods
- Added Clear, SelectModel, SelectModelByName, SelectCurrentModel, GetEntityTypes, GetEntityStatus, GetEntityOptions, SetAllStatus, SetStatus, SetEntityStatus, SelectEntity,SelectFromGroup, ShowDialog, AddRelated, Merge, AlongVector, PointToPoint, BetweenCSys, BetweenVectors, BetweenPlanes, RotateAroundVector, RotatePointToPoint, Reflect, VectorPattern, CSysPattern, and CreatePattern methods to the MergeTool Object.
- Added AddSetFromModel, AddNodesOnFreeEdges, AddNodesOnFreeFaces, and IsIdenticalSet methods to the Set Object.
- Added CalcStressLinearization method to the Stress Linearization (StressLinear) Object.
- Added AnsWriteGroup, AnsSkipCsys, AnsSkipNode, AnsSkipMatl, AnsSkipProp, AnsSkipElem, AnsSkipGroup, AnsSkipMisc, and AnsRSTcomp methods for ANSYS to the Analysis Manager Object.
- Added DynWriteGroup, DynSkipCsys, DynSkipNode, DynSkipMatl, DynSkipProp, DynSkipElem, DynSkipGroup, and DynSkipMisc methods for LS-Dyna to the Analysis Manager Object.
- Added NextOnNode method to the BCEqn Object.
- Added NextOnEntity method to the BCGeom Object.
- Added ManifoldType method to the Curve Object.
- Added GetCentroidArray, GetSingleFaceInfoArray, GetMultiFaceInfoArray, and ElementalCSys methods to the Element Object.
- Added NextOnEntity method to the LoadGeom Object.
- Added NextOnEntity method to the LoadMesh Object.
- Added ComputeStdShape2 and ComputeGeneralShape2 methods to the Property Object.
- Updated EraseSet method to the Draw/Erase Object.

New and Updated Global Variables
- Added Pref_RenderCtrlGGroupEvaluate, Pref_RenderDisableAbort, Pref_OpenMP, and Pref_OpenMPThreads to set preferences on the Graphics tab of File, Preferences. Also, updated Pref_RenderRotate to be able to control the Center option in the Include In Dynamic Rotation section.
- Added Pref_GlobalLanguage to set Language option and Pref_GlobalUIScaling to set UI Scaling option in the Global Options section of User Interface tab of File, Preferences
- Added Pref_Abaqus_PreserveCompressedLoads to set Preserve Load/BC SET(s) on Interfaces tabof File, Preferences
- Added Pref_ComputeAverageMidResults to set Compute Averaged Mid Stress/Strain preference on Results tab of File, Preferences
- Added ModelFromPreviousVersion, ModelMigratedFromVersion, and ModelMigratedFromDB as new Global Parameters which can determine from which previous version the model was migrated from and other information.
- Updated Pref_RenderRotate and vPref_RenderRotate to be able to control Center option in Included In Dynamic Rotation section of Graphics tab.
- Updated Pref_EntityColor and vPref_EntityColor to be able to control Mesh Point and Monitor Point color in Entity Colors section of Color tab.
The following functions have been added or updated:
- feAppGetModelByName
- feAppRunningApplicationInfo
- feAppGetRunningApplication
- feEdgesOfFreeFaces

Corrections

Analysis Manager
- Corrected issue that prevented Analysis Sets from loading from the Library in V2020.1 (PR#9718319).

Connection Properties, Regions, and Connectors
- Corrected issue where value for Shell Z-Offset on the Linear tab of Define Connection Property would not be written as an override when exporting to Simcenter Nastran.

Geometry
- Corrected issue with tolerance values which could cause certain surfaces to not be properly offset or cause the offset operation to fail.
- Corrected issue with tolerance values which could cause certain curves to not be properly offset or cause the offset operation to fail.

Graphics
- Corrected various issues with Elements with no results. Options are to draw elements with no contour/criteria, hide the elements, or show the elements with a contour/criteria of value 0.0. Addressed issues include instances where RBE2 and RBE3 not contoured with zero correctly if noresults and Line elements not contoured when having a value of zero.
- Corrected issue where Model Clipping Plane is not included in the Reset All Visibility Option button in the Visibility dialog (View, Visibility command) or the Model Info tree.
- Corrected performance issue when displaying curves so calculation of curve mesh graphics only happens for curves that need the curve mesh displayed. The default only processes curves that have an element density set and does not display curve mesh for curves with default mesh size (PR#9666376)
- Corrected issue where element coordinate system axis labels are drawn at the element centroid and not at the end of the coordinate system axes. This did not occur in Wireframe but did occur when Fill was on.

Performance Graphics
- Corrected various issues with Elements with no results. Options are to draw elements with no contour/criteria, hide the elements, or show the elements with a contour/criteria of value 0.0. Addressed issues include instances where no plate or solid elements criteria with zero if no results; RBE2, RBE3, and Mass elements not hiding with contour or criteria; RBE2, RBE3, and Mass elements not showing criteria of zero when no results; RBE2 and RBE3 elements not being contoured with zero when no results; and Line elements not showing criteria when having zero value.

User Interface - General
- Corrected issue where Auto Max Min button for the Contour/Criteria Levels option in View Options dialog box was replaced visually by a “color block” palette button. The button still functioned correctly but was not labeled correctly.
- Corrected issue where Filled Edge Offset factor value for the Performance Graphic option in View Options dialog box, which has not been used since Femap 12.0, was never removed from the user interface. The underlying functionality has been replaced with Filled Edge Depth Offset Factor option in the Advanced Depth Control dialog box accessed via Graphics Options in the View Options dialog box.
- Corrected issue where limiting the element selection set with element face or element edge selection could cause the By Pick method in the entity selection dialog to become disabled until Femap is restarted.

User Interface - Dockable Panes

Meshing Toolbox - General
- Corrected issue that prevented loops from being removed from solids made from multiple disconnected pieces… i.e. disjoint solids. This type of solid is unusual, however it can be created using Geometry, Solid, Add or by importing geometry.
Meshing Toolbox - Geometry Editing
- Corrected issue which could cause a Solid Washer to not be created as expected (PR#9769750)
PostProcessing Toolbox
- Corrected issue that occurred in v2020.1MP2 that prevented the PostProcessing Toolbox from being able to change the Contour Legend Label Color mode (PR#9728308).
Charting
- Corrected issue which caused the Chart dialog box to take an excessive time to open and be available for use.
- Corrected issue where automatic titling for Vector Combination vs Set Chart Data Series would swap the entity IDs for Vector 1 and Vector 2.
- Corrected issue where scaling factors were being applied to phase values on Charts which showed both magnitude and phase components.
- Corrected issue in Chart Data Series dialog box where output sets would not be saved correctly if the data series was loaded with an Output Study selected.
Data Table
- Corrected issue with the List, Output, Results to Data Table command that caused the columns in the Data Table to be shown in the wrong order. All of the data in the table was correct, the columns were simply not shown in the expected order.
Program File
- Corrected issue when playing program files that are recorded in localized languages (PR#9670936)

Interfaces - FEMAP Neutral
- Corrected issue that prevented FEMAP from warning if you tried to read a Neutral File from a version that was newer than the current version. This error only occurs in the 2020.1 version and its maintenance packs.
- Corrected issue when importing a neutral file which contains weld elements and the user selects to offset the IDs when importing. The entities referenced by many types of welds (nodes, elements and properties) were not renumbered within the weld element.
- Corrected issue which caused Ansys group ID for “Portion of the Model to Write” and Skip Standard option to become corrupt when transferring models through the neutral file. This correction will allow old neutral files to migrate forward into Femap version 2020.2 and above, but does not apply to Femap 2019.1 MPx and 2020.1 MPx, as the issue exists in the Neutral import code within those versions.

Interfaces - Nastran
- Corrected issue reading Nastran F06 files for buckling, frequency and flutter analyses that would not properly identify the solution type of the results if there was an addition in-line comment following a “$” on the executive control SOL command.
- Corrected issue which prevented DMIG bulk data entries from being written in the proper field size if the 'Machine Precision' option was used (PR#9709334).
- Corrected issue with Optimization Limits entities which reference output vector IDs greater than 10,000,000, which may cause them to not be properly translated to the appropriate DRESP1 card. Interfaces - Simcenter Nastran (formally NX Nastran)
- Corrected issue reading thermal and elastic strains on PENTA solid elements for SOL 401. Previously the output vectors where the results were stored was incorrect. This only occurred for wedge elements, not Bricks, Pyramids or Tetras.
- Corrected issue that caused incorrect reading of stresses/strains for wedge elements in SOL 401/SOL 402
- Corrected issue that prevented the appropriate ASSIGN statement from being written for Restart Analysis in solutions other than SOL 401/SOL 402 (PR#9703290).

Interfaces - MSC Nastran
- Corrected issue that prevented results from being read for pyramid (CPYRAM) elements. This occurred because of a discrepancy between the value associated with this element type for MSC Nastran's delivery database, as opposed to the one for Simcenter Nastran (PR#9716553).

Interfaces - ABAQUS
- Corrected issue when importing an ABAQUS file containing pressure loads on solid elements which could result in the load being applied to the wrong element face.
- Corrected issue which could cause a memory leak during import if the ABAQUS input file contained assemblies.
- Corrected issue where the titles material title contained a character unsupported by the ABAQUS solver.

Interfaces - ANSYS
- Corrected issue which allowed ill-defined Spring/Damper Elements which reference a Spring/ Damper Property with Type set to CBUSH to be created and later exported.
- Corrected issue which caused beam properties using either the NASTRAN Z or NASTRAN BOX1 shape to be exported incorrectly.
- Corrected issue when importing *DIM entries which could case names for row, column, and plate to be incorrect.

Interfaces - LS-DYNA
- Corrected issues which caused parabolic triangular and brick elements to not be exported correctly in some cases.
- Corrected issue which caused orthotropic materials to not be exported correctly.

Element Update
- Corrected an issue that caused the Modify, Update Elements, Solid Material CSys… command to generate incorrectly oriented Coordinate Systems if the 'Vector Direction' method was used for the alignment of the first axis (PR#9715208).

Loads and Boundary Conditions
- Corrected issue when editing a Load Definition that caused future edits to issue the warning that the Load Definition was non-uniform (different loads on different entities), even though it wasn't.
- Corrected issue that caused loads generated by a “Torque on Surface” load to be incorrect. In cases where the load was not applied normal to the surface and the surface was asymmetrical about the load application point, the expanded nodal forces could be too small and would not result in the expected total torque. (PR#9699116)

Meshing
- Corrected numerous issues with the Mesh Editing commands (Mesh, Editing, Interactive; Mesh, Editing, Split; Mesh, Editing, Element Refine; and Mesh, Editing, Edge Split). The issues were related to the commands incomplete and inconsistent handling of various issues rather than incorrect performance. All of these commands should now consistently handle the updating of Constraints (both Set Based and Permanent), Loads (On Element Faces or Edges, Varying Corner Pressures and Distributed Line Loads), Connection Regions (Nodal and Elemental), Groups, Elemental Data (Tapered Beam Shapes, Beam Offsets, Varying Plate Thickness and Material Directions) and Geometric Associativity (PR#9702230)
- Corrected issue when trying to extrude elements or project points or nodes onto a surface along a vector or normal direction. Previously if the vector/normal just missed the edge of the surface due to numerical tolerances the commands or API methods would fail or generate inconsistent results. Now assuming the vector passes within numerical tolerances of the edge the process should work consistently.
- Corrected issue that prevented suppressing loops on faces of NonManifold solids that did not bound a solid region.
- Corrected issue that caused Curves that already had constant length spacing to be resized in the Mesh, Mesh Control, Size On Solid command even if you turned off the “Replace Mesh Sizes on all Curves” option.
- Corrected a number of issues that could sometimes occur with the Mesh, Editing, Cohesive Meshing command if there were multiple elements along the edge being split or if parabolic wedge elements were being split. Also corrected a more general issue with splitting elements during cohesive meshing that was introduced in 2020.1 MP2 (PR#8443193)
- Corrected issue in mesh sizing along curves that could occur if you specified a number of elements rather than a size. Due to the double precision numerical accuracy of the curve length, depending on the number of elements specified, two seemingly identical length curves could previously end up with a slightly different number of elements (+/-1). Improvements have been made to minimize the chances of these differences occurring. (PR#9636055)

Mesh Associativity
- Corrected issue that occurred when reflecting both mesh and geometry if you specified a nonzerotrap width. In this case, if any of the reflected nodes fell within the specified trap width, the reflected mesh was properly connected to them, however any elements using those nodes were not properly associated with the reflected geometry. (PR#9767532)

Listing
- Corrected a formatting issue that occurred when listing Weld Properties. Output and Post-Processing
- Corrected issue that caused Femap to display incorrect results for complex output when a transformation was required (PR#9762084).

Groups and Layers
- Corrected an infinite loop that could occur in the Group, Operation, Generate With Output command dialog if you typed an invalid number into the “Output Vectors”, “From” field. This did not occur if you simply selected from the drop-down or if you typed a valid ID (PR#9703284).

Tools
- Corrected an issue with the Tools, Mass Properties, Mesh Properties command. Previously, although no error message was issued, Solid Laminate Elements were not supported by this command. Mass Properties of Solid Laminate Elements is now supported.

API
- Corrected issues in the Clear and EraseSet methods of the DrawErase object. Previously they did not work as documented or as you would expect. Documentation has also been updated.
- Corrected several issues with the calls used for the Frequency object with the Analysis Set Manager Object. Previously, TurnOnFreq and TurnOffFreq could not process all frequency records, could not give a set of frequency records, and used a positive ID to access a single frequency record. Also, corrected issue in the corresponding API Put function that meant the frequency record usages were not saved unless a “put, get, put” sequence was done instead of just a put. All of these issues have been addressed.
- Corrected issue with AreDuplicate method on Material Object. Previously, it was returning TRUE when the data was different between two materials. Now it returns False.

Welcome to FEMAP! This document will help you to setup your computer so that you can immediately begin to explore the many capabilities of FEMAP.

This document contains information specific to getting started on a PC, which includes 64-bit versions for Windows 7, Win-dows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.

The FEMAP installer contains only the 64-bit version of FEMAP, as a 32-bit version is no longer available.

Hardware/Software Requirements

There are no special hardware/software requirements for FEMAP beyond those imposed by the Windows operating systems. There are many types of hardware that will allow you to use FEMAP. Proper choice of hardware, however, can often make the difference between frustration and productivity. Here are a few suggestions:

- Memory, RAM
- Memory, (Hard Disk)
- Graphics Boards
-Abaqus ODB Requirements

Memory, RAM
You will need at least 128 Mbytes of RAM to run FEMAP and the Parasolid solid modeling engine, which is the default. Obviously, the more amount of RAM the better. Adding RAM can be one of the most cost effective means of increasing per-formance.If using the “Standard” geometry Engine in FEMAP, you can actually run with as little as 32 Mbytes of RAM. This is not a recommended configuration.

Memory, (Hard Disk)
Required hard disk space is very difficult to estimate, but in general you will never have enough. Analysis results will be the main driver of any disk space requirement. Models are typically relatively small. A model with 1000 nodes and 1000 ele-ments would typically be less than 1 Mbyte in size. Output from an analysis of that model, however, could be 5 Mbytes, 10 Mbytes or even larger, depending on the output you request. To estimate total disk space, you need to first estimate how many models you will have on-line simultaneously, the approximate size of those models, and the type of output you will request. It is recommend to have as much disk space as budget will allow, as each version of FEMAP can support larger and larger models, which in turn create larger and larger amounts of output.

Graphics Boards
While, standard graphics adapters may work very well with FEMAP, having a specialized board with support for OpenGL will provide increased graphical performance when dynamically rotating large, complex models. They also usually provide higher resolution and more colors, which make graphics easier to see and more realistic. Also, in order to use the “Perfor-mance Graphics” option, a graphics card which supports OpenGL 4.2 is required.