Patran 2008 R2 Release Guide

®

Patran 2008 r2 Release Guide

Corporate

Europe

Asia Pacific

MSC.Software Corporation 2 MacArthur Place Santa Ana, CA 92707 USA Telephone: (800) 345-2078 Fax: (714) 784-4056

MSC.Software GmbH Am Moosfeld 13 81829 Munich, Germany Telephone: (49) (89) 43 19 87 0 Fax: (49) (89) 43 61 71 6

MSC.Software Japan Ltd. Shinjuku First West 8F 23-7 Nishi Shinjuku 1-Chome, Shinjuku-Ku Tokyo 160-0023, JAPAN Telephone: (81) (3)-6911-1200 Fax: (81) (3)-6911-1201

Worldwide Web www.mscsoftware.com

Disclaimer This documentation, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used only in accordance with the terms of such license. MSC.Software Corporation reserves the right to make changes in specifications and other information contained in this document without prior notice. The concepts, methods, and examples presented in this text are for illustrative and educational purposes only, and are not intended to be exhaustive or to apply to any particular engineering problem or design. MSC.Software Corporation assumes no liability or responsibility to any person or company for direct or indirect damages resulting from the use of any information contained herein. User Documentation: Copyright ©2009 MSC.Software Corporation. Printed in U.S.A. All Rights Reserved. This notice shall be marked on any reproduction of this documentation, in whole or in part. Any reproduction or distribution of this document, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of MSC.Software Corporation is prohibited. The software described herein may contain certain third-party software that is protected by copyright and licensed from MSC.Software suppliers. Contains IBM XL Fortran for AIX V8.1, Runtime Modules, (c) Copyright IBM Corporation 1990-2002, All Rights Reserved. MSC, MSC/, MSC Nastran, MD Nastran, MSC Fatigue, Marc, Patran, Dytran, and Laminate Modeler are trademarks or registered trademarks of MSC.Software Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. NASTRAN is a registered trademark of NASA. PAM-CRASH is a trademark or registered trademark of ESI Group. SAMCEF is a trademark or registered trademark of Samtech SA. LS-DYNA is a trademark or registered trademark of Livermore Software Technology Corporation. ANSYS is a registered trademark of SAS IP, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ANSYS Inc. ACIS is a registered trademark of Spatial Technology, Inc. ABAQUS, and CATIA are registered trademark of Dassault Systemes, SA. EUCLID is a registered trademark of Matra Datavision Corporation. FLEXlm is a registered trademark of Macrovision Corporation. HPGL is a trademark of Hewlett Packard. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. PTC, CADDS and Pro/ENGINEER are trademarks or registered trademarks of Parametric Technology Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Unigraphics, Parasolid and I-DEAS are registered trademarks of UGS Corp. a Siemens Group Company. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective owners.

P3*2008R2*Z*Z*Z*DC-REL

Contents Patran Release Guide Patran Release Guide,

1

Patran 2008 r2 at a Glance Key Highlights 2 CAD Access 2 InterOp R18 SP1/SP3 2 Parasolid 19 2 Catia V5 R18 2 NX 5 / NX 6 2 Automatic Feature Recognition 2 MD Nastran and MSC Nastran Support (Patran 2008 r2) Optimization (SOL 200) 2 Implicit Nonlinear Analysis (SOL 400) 3 Explicit Nonlinear Analysis (SOL 700) 3 Thermal-Structural Interaction (SOL 101) 3 Results Access 3 Marc Support 3 New Physics Types 3 Results Access 4 General Enhancements 4 Right Mouse Button (RMB) (Patran 2008 r2) 4 New GUI Skins (Patran 2008 r2 - Pre-Release) 4 Native 64 Bit Port (Patran 2008 r2 - Pre-Release) 4 Batch Image Rendering 4 SimManager Integration 4 SimXpert Integration 4 MSC Sinda Preference 4 Laminate Modeler 5 Utilities 5 Customer Requests (CRs) 5 Supported OS/Hardware Platforms Supported CAD Access

7

Analysis Preferences Tested Technical Support Web 10 Phone and Fax 11

10

9

6

2

iv Patran Release Guide

Email 12

2

MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements 2 Topology, Topometry, Topography 2 General Optimization - More Design Variables. 5 More Responses, Constraints, Objectives. 5 Optimization Parameters. 7 Design Variable Relations. 7 General (DLINK): 9 Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements 10 Brake Squeal 10 Contact Improvements - BCONTACT = ALLBODY 10 Contact Detection - Shell Edge Contact. 10 Contact Detection - 3D Beam to Beam Contact 11 Contact Body Movement (BCMOVE) - approach step. 12 Contact Body Definition (BCHANGE/UNGLUE) 12 Contact Table. 13 Initial Contact 15 Solution Controls. 15 Thermal Analysis. 15 Analysis Chaining. 16 Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements Nastran Thermal-Structural Chaining Nastran Results

3

24

Marc Preference Multi-Physics Support Marc Results Initial Contact

4

23

28

30 31

General Enhancements Right Mouse Button (RMB) 34 Model Display Options 35 Node, Element or Geometric Entity Options 35

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CONTENTS v

RMButton – Entity Check Options 36 Right Mouse Button Customization 37 New GUI Skins 39 Overview 39 Application Icon Ribbons Native 64 Bit Port

39

43

Automatic Feature Recognition Batch Image Rendering

46

SimManager Integration

47

SimXpert Integration

49

MSC Sinda Preference

50

Laminate Modeler 51 Import Layup File… 51 Save As… 51 Create LM_Layup Add 51 Layup Definition Spreadsheet 52 Create LM_Layup Laminate 53 Create Results Failure Calc 54 Show LM_Ply Graphics 55 Delete LM_Layup Select 55 Import Plies File 55 Import Results ESAComp xml 56 Verify Laminate 56 Customer Requests 61 n

Patran Release Guide 61

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vi Patran Release Guide

Chapter 1: Patran 2008 r2 at a Glance

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Patran 2008 r2 at a Glance

J

Key Highlights

2

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Supported OS/Hardware Platforms

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Supported CAD Access

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Analysis Preferences Tested

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Technical Support

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7 9

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Patran Release Guide Key Highlights

1.1

Key Highlights The following general enhancements are available in Patran 2008 r2:

CAD Access InterOp R18 SP1/SP3 The Spatial InterOp, Parasolid based translators, have been updated to the R18 SP1 and SP3 revisions. This gives CAD access support based on the table in Supported CAD Access, 7. MSC makes periodic updates to CAD access and are available through download patches at: http://www.mscsoftware.com/support/software_updates/#patran Note that MSC has converted to the new Connect API version of the Spatial InterOp translators. The legacy Spatial InterOP translators can be installed and run in conjunction with the Connect API version if necessary. After installing 2008r2, the user can download the old legacy InterOp translators from the above web site that are compatible with 2008r2. Instructions to do this are included with the download. When this is done, both the new Connect API and the old legacy versions of the InterOp translators are accessible from the Patran user interface. Parasolid 19 Parasolid import now supports up to version 19. The Patran Parasolid kernel is based on Parasolid 19. Catia V5 R18 Support for Catia V5 R18 is available through the Parasolid import method using the Spatial InterOp translators. NX 5 / NX 6 Support for NX 5 is available on most platforms and NX 6 on Windows is now available. Automatic Feature Recognition This revamped feature recognizes geometric features and allows you to view, edit, and delete them. See Automatic Feature Recognition, 44 for more details.

MD Nastran1 and MSC Nastran Support (Patran 2008 r2) Optimization (SOL 200) The following enhancements are provided for support of optimization. 1

SOLs 400 and 700 are only available in MD Nastran and must be submitted using Patran running in MD mode.

Chapter 1: Patran 2008 r2 at a Glance 3 Key Highlights

• Design Variables: PCOMPG (Global Plys) • Responses/Constraints/Objectives: • Bush Forces • Acoustics • Fluid Modes • Objective Function Modification • Design Variable Relations • Topology, Topometry & Topography

See Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements, 2. Implicit Nonlinear Analysis (SOL 400) The following enhancements are provided for support of implicit nonlinear analysis. • Brake Squeal • Contact Improvements • Solution Controls • Thermal Analysis • Analysis Chaining

See Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements, 10. Explicit Nonlinear Analysis (SOL 700) The following enhancements are provided for support of explicit nonlinear analysis as detailed in Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements, 18.

Thermal-Structural Interaction (SOL 101) Thermal-structural analysis chaining can be performed in a single SOL 101 run using the HEATSTAT parameter. See Nastran Thermal-Structural Chaining, 23. Results Access Exterior acoustics results via the OP2 file and optimization results via the XDB file are now supported. See Nastran Results, 24.

Marc Support New Physics Types New physics types are added to the Coupled analysis type in an on-going effort to support Marc’s multiphysics capabilities. See Multi-Physics Support, 28.

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Patran Release Guide Key Highlights

Results Access Output requests now include the ability to select layers of composites. See Marc Results, 30. Initial Contact. It is now possible to define an initial contact table in the model definition section. See Initial Contact, 31.

General Enhancements Right Mouse Button (RMB) (Patran 2008 r2) The menus accessible via the RMB have been enhanced and the ability to customize has been added. This is described in detail in Right Mouse Button (RMB), 34. New GUI Skins (Patran 2008 r2 - Pre-Release) A pre-release capability to change the Patran graphical user interface (GUI) skin is available in this release. Details can be found in section New GUI Skins, 39. This is a pre-release capability. Please report any issues and/or enhancement requests to your MSC representative. Native 64 Bit Port (Patran 2008 r2 - Pre-Release) A pre-release version of Patran for Windows 64 bit machines is available for testing in this release. This version is meant for “beta” testing and is not recommended for full production work. Please report any issues to your MSC representative so we can solidify this port into a future production release. The production 32 bit version of Patran can still be run on 64 bit Windows machines. Some details of the 64 bit port are listed in Native 64 Bit Port, 43. Batch Image Rendering Graphical image files can be rendered and produced in batch mode. See New GUI Skins, 39 for details. SimManager Integration Logon, publish, and retrieve Patran databases and related analysis files through this SimManager client/server access. See SimManager Integration, 47 for details. SimXpert Integration Spawn SimXpert directly from Patran and transfer finite element model data to SimXpert. See SimXpert Integration, 49 for details. MSC Sinda Preference A new thermal analysis preference has been added as a standard analysis preference. See MSC Sinda Preference, 50.

Chapter 1: Patran 2008 r2 at a Glance 5 Key Highlights

Laminate Modeler A number of enhancements have been add to the Laminate Modeler as detailed in Laminate Modeler, 51. Utilities Please review the Utilities/ What is New menu to see additions/updates made to the utilities. Customer Requests (CRs) A number of enhancements and defect correction have been made. The most significant ones are listed in Customer Requests, 57.

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Patran Release Guide

Supported OS/Hardware Platforms

1.2

Supported OS/Hardware Platforms Vendor

Description

HP (PA-RISC)

For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Hewlett-Packard HP-UX (PA-RISC) Requirements (p. 76) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

SUN (Solaris)

For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Sun Solaris Requirements (p. 80) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Intel (Windows)

For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Microsoft Windows Requirements (p. 81) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Intel (Linux)

For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Linux Requirements (p. 85) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

IBM (AIX)

For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see IBM AIX Requirements (p. 78) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

For a complete description of these configurations, see Required Hardware & Software Configurations (Ch. 5) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Chapter 1: Patran 2008 r2 at a Glance 7 Supported CAD Access

1.3

Supported CAD Access IBM RS/6000

Windows 2000 / XP / Vista

Linux

4.2.4

4.2.4

4.2.4

4.2.4

R18

R18

R18

R18

Wildfire 3.0

Wildfire 3.0

Wildfire 3.0

Wildfire 3.0

NX5.0

NX5.0

NX5.0

NX6.0

11.0

12.0

11.0

12.0

19

19

19

19

HP (PA-RISC)

SUN

CATIA V4*

4.2.4

CATIA V5 Pro/ENGINEER† Unigraphics‡ I-DEAS Parasolid

XMT** 19

ACIS 18.1 18.1 18.1 18.1 18.1 *A CATIA CATXPRES (.cat) file can be imported. On Windows and Linux, only the CATIA to Parasolid translator is available and the CAT Direct Translator which runs CATIA in batch mode is not available. † The p3_ProE and p3_ProENGINEER executables are built using Pro/ENGINEER version 2000i and therefore will not work with earlier versions of Pro/ENGINEER. p3_ProE and p3_ProENGINEER Access allows reading of .geo geometry transfer files generated from other OS installs of Pro/ENGINEER Access. See more notes below. ‡ UG NX supports only 64 bit machines for HP and SUN Platforms. **Only Parasolid (transmit file) import is supported in this release. Parasolid transmit files generated on other OS platforms can be imported on LINUX. Patran has two methods for importing Pro/ENGINEER models: • Import to Native Patran Geometry which runs from within interactive Patran: requires a

Pro/ENGINEER license to run on the machine where Patran is installed, therefore, the list of platforms supporting this import method is the Pro/ENGINEER supported machines. • Import to Parasolid which runs from within interactive Patran: does not does not require a

Pro/ENGINEER license to run. The following notes are applicable to the Import to Native Patran Geometry method: The Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire release introduced the following platform changes: • IBM AIX platform unsupported. Existing Patran translator is still available for pre-

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire release. The following steps are necessary for customers to use the Patran Pro/ENGINEER translator with Pro/ENGINEER after January 10, 2004: • PTC Important System Notice - Timeout http://www.ptc.com/go/timeout/ • PTC Technical Resource http://www.ptc.com/go/timeout/technical_resource.htm

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Patran Release Guide Supported CAD Access

For Pro/ENGINEER 2001: • Download NMSD.exe and follow PTC instructions. For Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire: • Download NMSD.exe and follow PTC instructions. • Download wildfire datecode 2003490 and follow PTC instructions. The Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 release introduced the following platform changes: • HP-UX and SUNS supports 64-bit only. Patran translator compatible with pre-Pro/ENGINEER

Wildfire 2.0 and Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 release. If running Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0, the HP-UX and/or SUNS platform must be a 64-bit capable machine to run the Patran translator Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 • Linux is supported for Import to Parasolid • The p3_ProE and p3_ProENGINEER executables are built using Pro/ENGINEER version 2000i

and therefore will not work with earlier versions of Pro/ENGINEER. p3_ProE and p3_ProENGINEER Access allows reading of .geo geometry transfer files generated from other OS installs of Pro/ENGINEER Access.

Chapter 1: Patran 2008 r2 at a Glance 9 Analysis Preferences Tested

1.4

Analysis Preferences Tested Solver

Platforms

Solver Version

MD Nastran MSC Nastran

All

MD Nastran R3 MSC Nastran 2008 r2

Marc

All

2008 r1

Dytran

All

2008 r1

Flightloads

All

2008 r1

Thermal

All

2008 r1

Fatigue

All

2008 r1

MSC Sinda

All

2008 r1

LS-DYNA3D

All

970

PAMCRASH

All

1995 / 1997

SAMCEF

All

11 / 12

ABAQUS*

All

6.8

ANSYS† All 11.0 *ABAQUS discontinued platforms remain at the level of support at the time they were discontinued by HKS. For instance SUN support is frozen at 6.4. †Results access is enhanced to 11.0 (results import is frozen at 8.1).

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Patran Release Guide Technical Support

1.5

Technical Support For help with installing or using an MSC.Software product, contact your local technical support services. Our technical support provides the following services: • Resolution of installation problems • Advice on specific analysis capabilities • Advice on modeling techniques • Resolution of specific analysis problems (e.g., fatal messages) • Verification of code error.

If you have concerns about an analysis, we suggest that you contact us at an early stage. You can reach technical support services on the web, by telephone, or e-mail: Web Go to the MSC.Software website at www.mscsoftware.com, and click on Support. Here, you can find a wide variety of support resources including application examples, technical application notes, available training courses, and documentation updates at the MSC.Software Training, Technical Support, and Documentation web page.

Chapter 1: Patran 2008 r2 at a Glance 11 Technical Support

Phone and Fax United States

Telephone: (800) 732-7284 Fax:

(714) 784-4343

Frimley, Camberley Surrey, United Kingdom

Telephone: (44) (1276) 67 10 00 Fax:

(44) (1276) 69 11 11

Munich, Germany

Tokyo, Japan

Telephone: (49) (89) 43 19 87 0

Telephone: (81) (3) 3505 02 66

Fax:

Fax:

(49) (89) 43 61 71 6

(81) (3) 3505 09 14

Rome, Italy

Paris, France

Telephone: (390) (6) 5 91 64 50

Telephone: (33) (1) 69 36 69 36

Fax:

Fax:

(390) (6) 5 91 25 05

(33) (1) 69 36 45 17

Moscow, Russia

Gouda, The Netherlands

Telephone: (7) (095) 236 6177

Telephone: (31) (18) 2543700

Fax:

Fax:

(7) (095) 236 9762

(31) (18) 2543707

Madrid, Spain

Telephone: (34) (91) 5560919 Fax:

(34) (91) 5567280

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Patran Release Guide Technical Support

Email Send a detailed description of the problem to the email address below that corresponds to the product you are using. You should receive an acknowledgement that your message was received, followed by an email from one of our Technical Support Engineers. Patran Support

[email protected]

MD Nastran Support

[email protected]

MSC.Dytran Support

[email protected]

MSC.Fatigue Support

[email protected]

MSC.Marc Support

[email protected]

MSC.Mvision Support

[email protected]

MSC.SuperForge Support

[email protected]

MSC Institute Course Information

[email protected]

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference

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MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference

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Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

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Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

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Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements

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Nastran Thermal-Structural Chaining

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Nastran Results

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Patran Release Guide

Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

2.1

Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements Topology, Topometry, Topography A new Action has been added to the Analysis form to encompass topology, topometry, and topography optimization jobs. The new Action is called Toptomize. This replaces the “quick” topology optimization that used to be available under the Optimize action by using the Customized Solution form. All the functionality of the Customized Solution form is now available under the Toptomize action. Using this Action, a user can quickly set up and run a topology, topometry, or topography optimization job. Combined topology and sizing optimization is still available under the Optimize action. To use the standard optimization (Optimize action) a user must first create the design variables, objective, and constraint functions and combine them into a valid Design Study using the Tools / Design Study / Preprocessing utility. That Design Study must then be selected for the optimization analysis. With the Toptomize action, this is not necessary. All the design variables, objective and constraints are defined directly within the Toptomize form and subordinate forms. Naturally this subjects it to certain limitations, these being: • Only separate topology, topometry, or topography optimization is allowed; no combinations or

combined sizing optimization is possible • Supported objectives are limited to minimizing compliance or maximizing frequency or a

combination of both (represented as an equation) • Constraint targets are limited to mass fraction, weight, or volume

Enhancements over the previous release include: • Addition of topometry and topography design variables (TOMVAR, and BEADVAR) • Combined objective as mentioned above • Weight and volume target constraints as mentioned above • Ability to designate portions of design domain with different manufacturing and other

constraints A typical setup scenario is (see picture below): • A. Define the optimization type (topology, topometry, or topography), the objective of the

optimization (minimize compliance or maximize frequency) and the target constraint (mass fraction, weight, or volume) using the Objective & Constraints form. • B. Set any optimization controls such as the maximum number of design cycles and other

necessary items to properly define the problem using the Optimization Control form. • C. Define the design domain by selecting existing property sets and defining the parameters

associated with each, such as manufacturing constraints under the Design Domain form. • Run the Analysis.

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 3 Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

A.

B.

C.

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Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

Topology job showing original and optimized (non-smoothed) geometry determined using multiple design domain regions to preserve the connection and bolt holes, and a combined objective of minimizing compliance / maximizing frequency and a mass target constraint

Topography optimization job showing the shape change from a flat plate to maximize the first frequency.

Topometry optimization job: A real complex example car body is used here to demonstrate topometry optimization for graphical postprocessing. This example also shows that SOL 200 is able to deal with very large optimization problems. The objective is to minimize structural compliance and keep weight unchanged. SOL 200 produces an element thickness distribution file *.des that can be used by Patran to view topometry optimization results.

For more details on the usage of this new functionality, please see Toptomize (p. 462) in the Patran Interface to MD Nastran Preference Guide.

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 5 Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

General Optimization - More Design Variables. Support for specifying composite shell thickness and orientation based on global ply layers as design variables is now supported (PCOMPG - previously only PCOMP was supported). Design variable creation has also been extended to PCOMPG property entries for values such as offset, non-structural mass, reference temperature, etc.

More Responses, Constraints, Objectives. The following are available to define as responses, constraints, and objectives (DRESP1 / DRESP2 entries): • CBUSH Forces – available as constraint or objective for linear statics, normal modes, frequency

and transient response. • Acoustic responses available as constraints or objectives for frequency response analysis.

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Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

• Fluid modes for normal modes analysis.

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 7 Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

Optimization Parameters. Objective Function Modification: This toggle is available on the Advanced Optimization Parameters form under the Analysis (Action=Optimize) application when submitting the job. Turning this toggle ON indicates to MD Nastran SOL 200 to modify the objective function such that it reports back in the summary (F06 file) the relative change instead of the absolute change. For example if only one part of the model is being optimized and it changes by 0.2 lbs, then that is what is reported rather than saying the over all structural weight went from 100005.0 to 100004.8 lbs. This is written to the DOPTPRM (OBJMOD) entry.

Design Variable Relations. This new Variable Relations feature allows you to define an expression which contains a number of design variables linking them as dependent and independent. Once a variable relation has been defined it can be associated to a Design Study. A Design Study is a selection or grouping of the applicable design variables, constraints, objective, and responses that the user wishes to employ in a particular

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Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

optimization. The variable relations are also selected as part of a Design Study in order to activate them for any particular optimization.

There are several ways to define an expression or variable relation:

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 9 Optimization (SOL 200) Enhancements

General (DLINK): A number of design variables are linked by the DLINK card in MD Nastran. The dependent design variable is selected on the main form and the subordinate form is for selecting the independent design variables and associating a coefficient to each. The following simple, general equation is used to define the relationship between the selected design variables: DDVID = C0 + CMULT *(C1*IDV1 + C2*IDV2 + … + Cn*IDVn)

DDVID = Dependent design variable C0 = Constant offset value CMULT = Constant multiplier Ci = Constant multiplier for each independent design variables IDVi = Independent design variable

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Patran Release Guide

Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

2.2

Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements Brake Squeal Support for Brake Squeal Analysis (BSQUEAL). Specific brake squeal parameters are set on the Static Subcase Parameters form. The analysis is performed with a static step followed by with a complex eigenvalue step.

Contact Improvements - BCONTACT = ALLBODY This is written to case control if: 1. There are contact bodies in the selected load case, AND 1. The user does not make any changes to the contact table (i.e., all entries are default values) If the user wants the contact table written out, they can simply make any minor change and Patran will write the contact table. Contact Detection - Shell Edge Contact. Shell edge contact (with moment carrying glue) is supported on the Contact Detection form shown below. Moment carrying glue option is controlled globally via the Contact Detection form, by contact body, and via the contact table per body pair. See the next section on beam to beam contact and the section on contact table improvements.

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 11 Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

Contact Detection - 3D Beam to Beam Contact Beam to beam contact can be turned on under the Contact Detection form. Beam contact radii are defined on in the Element Properties application when defining beam properties. A standard default value defined by MD Nastran is used if not specified.

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Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

Contact Body Movement (BCMOVE) - approach step. Under the Analysis form when setting up subcases or load steps, a body approach subcase can be specified. In this subcase, active contact bodies are moved into place until one or all are just touching for the beginning of the next subcase, or load step. The Synchronized toggle indicates to the analysis code to move all bodies in sync with one another until the first contact is made at which point the movement is stopped for the load step. If this toggle is off, then bodies continue to move until all are in contact. This is controlled in Nastran using the BCMOVE entry.

Contact Body Definition (BCHANGE/UNGLUE) The following improvements are available when defining deformable contact bodies: • Contact Area - When defining a deformable contact body, nodes which come into contact can be

specified using the Contact Area definition. • Exclusion Region - Edges and faces of deformable contact bodies that are to be excluded and

ignored in the contact detection algorithms can be defined using the Exclusion Region. • Glue Deactivation – Certain areas of a contact body (that has been designated as glued) can be

switched to standard touching contact so not all nodes of a contact body need to be glued.

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 13 Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

• Note that Edge contact can be specified at the contact body level also.

Contact Table. The following improvement have been made to the contact table such that the following can be specified per body pair: • Braking Glue (BKGL) Parameters - defines the threshold at which a glued node separates • Edge Contact - controllable at the body pair level as well as per body and globally

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Patran Release Guide

Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

• Moment Carrying Glue - can be turned on/off per body pair for those bodies that are defined as

glued. This works in conjunction with the toggle to retain gaps.

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 15 Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

Initial Contact The initial contact table can now be defined for both the Nastran and Marc Preferences under the Contact Parameters form.

Solution Controls. More options to control the load incrementation have been opened up in the graphical interface. For example, the ability to specify automatic switching between displacement and residual force convergence criteria. Most items on the MD Nastran entries below are now accessible. • Load Increment Parameters form (NLAUTO) • Nonlinear Static and Transient Analysis Controls (NLPARM/TSTEPNL) • Additional Load Increment Parameters (NLADAPT)

Thermal Analysis. SOL 400 thermal analysis is now supported under the MD Nastran Thermal preference for unchained heat transfer analysis. Supported solution types are Steady State and Transient Heat Transfer analysis.

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Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

This includes specifying heat transfer contact bodies and the ability to control thermal properties per body pair using the contact table.

Analysis Chaining. This is the ability to create multiple subcases (load steps), select them in the order in which they should be run and the analyses are chained together, meaning that the results from the last increment of the

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 17 Implicit Nonlinear (SOL 400) Enhancements

previous load step become the starting point for the next load step. An example is a modal or a buckling stiffening problem where a static linear or nonlinear analysis is performed first and then the modal or buckling step. The following analysis types are available to be chained: • Linear and Nonlinear Static Analysis • Normal Modes Analysis • Buckling Analysis • Transient Dynamic Analysis • Direct Complex Eigenvalue • Modal Complex Eigenvalue • Body Approach

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Patran Release Guide

Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements

2.3

Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements New support is best illustrated by case study problems in which those shown below and like problems can now be prepared as run-ready input to MD Nastran: • Airbags and multi-compartmental airbags

• Blasts and Sloshing

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 19 Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements

• Bird strike / Prestress & Impact on Rotating Fan Blade

• SPH (smooth particle hydrodynamics) and

Drop test of computer package

20

Patran Release Guide

Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements

• Rod penetration

• Train barrier/pickup truck

This translates into support of the following MD Nastran SOL 700 entries which can be defined in the following application areas of Patran: Loads/BCs • AIRBAG/BCSEG – Defines an airbag; Loads/BC object is an Airbag; BCSEG entries are

created from the defined application region of the airbag • BCGRID – Defines contact grids; available as a new Contact boundary condition option • BCPROP – Defines contact based on element properties; available as a new Contact boundary

condition option • BCBOX - Another way of defining a contact body; available under Box Definition; all elements

inside the defined box are part of the contact body • SPCD2 – Imposed nodal motion

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 21 Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements

• GRIA – Grid point in a bag reference geometry; defined when creating an airbag • TICEUL1, TICREG, TICVAL, SPHERE – Eulerian initial conditions • MESH – Defines a mesh; this is done as a boundary condition under the Loads/BCs application • FLOWDEF – Eulerian flow boundary; defined as a boundary condition under the Loads/BCs

application • COUPLE, COUOPT – General Euler-Lagrange coupling surface; defined in the Loads/BC as a

Coupling LBC • TICD – Transient analysis initial conditions; defined as a boundary condition in Loads/BCs

application • HYDSTAT - Hydrostatic Preset of Density in Euler Elements; defined in the Loads/BCs

application as Hydrostatic Preset Materials • EOSGAM – Eulerian Gas; defined under Materials application, • MATDUEL – Eulerian material properties; defined under the Materials application • EOSPOL – Polynomial equation of state; defined in the Materials application as a Eulerian-Solid • MATDERO – Erosion material; defined under Materials application as Erosion model • MATRIG – Rigid body properties; defined under the Materials application as a Rigid

constitutive model for an Isotropic(SOL700) material • EOSGRUN – Gruneisen equation of state; defined under Materials application • MATD020 – Rigid material • MATD014 – Soil and foam with failure Element Properties • PEULER1 - SOL 700 eulerian solid properties; defined under the Element Properties application • PSHELL1 – SOL 700 shell element properties; defined under the Element Properties application • CSPH, PSPH – Defines an SPH particle; done as a 0D element property under the Element

Properties application Analysis • PRESTRS – To perform a pre-stress run and determine the pre-stress state, which is used as

initial conditions; activated in the Analysis application under Solution Parameters • DYDEFAUL – SOL 700 defaults settings; defined in the Analysis application under Solution

Parameters • SPHDEF – SPH analysis controls; set under the Analysis application under Solution Parameters FEM (Finite Elements) • CSPOT, CFILLET, CBUTT – Spot weld, fillet weld, and butt weld; defined as MPCs in the

FEM application

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Patran Release Guide

Explicit Nonlinear (SOL 700) Enhancements

• Meshing - Because of lack of numerical grid, SPH processor requires some conditions in setting

initial particle masses and coordinates. The particle mesh needs to be regular, i.e., all particles of given neighborhood need to have same mass. As a consequence, the particles of the same material which has same initial density need to have same volume. To preserve this they need to be distributed on a uniform mesh. When meshing a cylinder it is better to use regular mesh to guarantee stability and convergence of the method. To get a regular mesh, this is done under the FEM application: Create/Mesh/Regular

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 23 Nastran Thermal-Structural Chaining

2.4

Nastran Thermal-Structural Chaining It is now possible to set up a chained thermal-structural analysis in one run using SOL 101. The procedure is to: 1. With the Preference set to Structural, create and set up your structural LBCs and load case 2. Change the Preference to Thermal, create and set up your thermal LBCs and load case 3. Set the Solution Type to STRUCTURAL HEAT ANALYSIS 4. Set up two Subcases, one referencing the structural load case and the other referencing the thermal load case. 5. Select the two Subcases in the order: Thermal, Structural 6. Submit the job The Nastran run is submitted as a SOL 101 with two Subcases. The first subcase is the heat transfer run to determine the temperature loading. The temperature results from the first subcase are used along with any other structural LBCs called out in the second subcase, which is a SOL 101 run. The PARAM, HEATSTAT, YES is written to the input deck. Select STRUCTURAL HEAT ANALYSIS

Select the two Subcases

This only works for SOL 101 presently. The model shown is a computer chip with temperature fringe due to heating and convection and resulting (exaggerated) structural deformation.

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Patran Release Guide Nastran Results

2.5

Nastran Results OUTPUT2 File

Exterior acoustic results via the OP2 file can now be imported. Shown are results on a field point mesh. Results include Intensity, Acoustic Power, and Results on Field Point Meshes.

The following datablocks are now supported via the OP2 file for exterior acoustics analysis: • OARPWR1- Acoustic power • OAIG1- Acoustic Intensity • OUGFP1- Field point Mesh • OVGFP1 - Field point velocity

Chapter 2: MD Nastran MSC Nastran Preference 25 Nastran Results

XDB File

Topology element density results can now be imported via the XDB file under Tools / Design Study -> Post-Process… Shown is the element density as imported via the XDB file for a topology optimization job.

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Patran Release Guide Nastran Results

Chapter 3: Marc Preference

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Patran Release Guide

Marc Preference

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Multi-Physics Support

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Marc Results

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Initial Contact

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Patran Release Guide Multi-Physics Support

3.1

Multi-Physics Support In the previous release, the following physics types were supported in addition to Structural, Thermal, and Thermal-Mechanical coupling: • Electrostatic • Joule Heating (Electrodynamic-Thermal coupling)

This release now supports: • Electrostatic-Structural coupling • Joule-Structural coupling • Magnetostatics • Electromagnetics • Induction Heating (Electromagnetic-Thermal coupling) • Piezoelectric

The physics selection is done under the Analysis application from the Step Select form as shown below.

Chapter 3: Marc Preference 29 Multi-Physics Support

Shown is a micro-thermal actuator / an electrical-thermal-mechanical coupling (Joule-structural). The following enhancements have been made to the Materials, Element Properties, Fields, and Loads and BCs applications in support of Multiphysics: • Materials: Electrostatic, Electrodynamic, Magnetostatic, and Piezoelectric constitutive model for

applicable material types (Isotropic, Orthotropic, and Anisotropic) • Fields: Magnetic material fields to define B-H relations • Element Properties: Support for the following Marc elements: • 109 – Hex/8 3D Magnetostatics • 110 – Hex/12 3D Semi-infinite Magnetostatics • 111 – Quad/4 Planar Electromagnetic • 112 – Quad/4 Axisymmetric Electromagnetic • 113 – Hex/8 3D Electromagnetic • 160 – Quad/4 Plane Stress Piezoelectric • 161 – Quad/4 Plane Strain Piezoelectric • 162 – Quad/4 Axisymmetric Piezoelectric • 163 – Hex/8 3D Piezoelectric • 164 – Tet/4 3D Piezoelectric • 181 – Tet/4 3D Magnetostatic • 182 – Tet/10 3D Magnetostatic • 183 – Bar/2 3D Magnetostatic • Loads and BCs: The following are supported for the above mentioned physics types • Current (boundary, body, vector, and wire current) • Charge (boundary and body) • Voltage • Potential (electrostatic, magnetostatic) • Magnetization (permanent magnet)

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Patran Release Guide Marc Results

3.2

Marc Results A significant new enhancement regarding requests for Marc results output is the ability to specify the layers of composite results. The Results Output Format must be set to 2007 (POST code revision 13) on the Translation Parameters form to access this functionality.

1. Set Results Output Format to 2007 (POST Code rev13) in Translation Parameters form 2. In Step Create form, go to Output Requests 3. In Output Requests form go to Element Results 4. In Element Results go to Layers form. The default is not to specify any layers. Options are all layers, top/bottom/middle, layers only or a list of layers.

Chapter 3: Marc Preference 31 Initial Contact

3.3

Initial Contact The initial contact table can now be defined for both the Nastran and Marc Preferences under the Contact Parameters form.

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Chapter 4: General Enhancements

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General Enhancements

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Right Mouse Button (RMB)

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J

New GUI Skins

J

Native 64 Bit Port

J

Automatic Feature Recognition

J

Batch Image Rendering

46

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SimManager Integration

47

J

SimXpert Integration

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MSC Sinda Preference

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Laminate Modeler

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Customer Requests

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49

51 57

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Patran Release Guide Right Mouse Button (RMB)

4.1

Right Mouse Button (RMB) Additional context-dependent functionality has been added to the right mouse button to reduce the “mouse travel” required to manipulate the display or obtain simple model information. • RMB Display Control – right click on an open area of the viewport to perform operations such

as: clean up the display or refresh the graphics, “tile” the viewport and menus in the Patran window, or do a “fit view” to see the entire model. • RMB Viewport Control – right click on an open area of the viewport to change the model

orientation, render style, reverse the background, or show the cycle picking labels. • RMB Model Information – right click on an entity to find information or attributes of that entity.

Picking filter controls entity selection.

Note:

•

Right click on a node or element to obtain information such as location, attributes, verification options or associations.

•

Right click on a geometry entity to obtain information such as surface area, curve length or arc dimension, and FEM association such as mesh seeds or associated nodes / elements. The right mouse button menu is completely customizable so you can add your favorite viewport or display function to the menu. The customization procedure is described below.

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 35 Right Mouse Button (RMB)

Model Display Options Many of the most commonly used display control commands are available through the RMB menu. This shows the Viewport Display and Model Orientation menu options.

Node, Element or Geometric Entity Options You can use the right mouse button in conjunction with the select filter to get information on FEM entities without navigating the Action-Object-Method (AOM) menus. Clicking the right mouse button when over an entity will bring up the RMB menu where you can choose from a long list of options.

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Patran Release Guide Right Mouse Button (RMB)

Some of the options available from the right mouse button apply to individual entities, such as the transform, modify, show or sweep options.

RMButton – Entity Check Options Many of the options available from the right mouse button apply to all posted entities in the model, such as Verify – Element - Boundaries, Verify – Hex – Aspect Ratio, etc.

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 37 Right Mouse Button (RMB)

Right Mouse Button Customization Through the customization capability you can add a menu-item to a particular RMB menu. To do this you must specify: • Name of the menu where the item needs to be added • Callback function for the menu-item (PCL) • Condition function for the menu-item (PCL) – This decides if the menu-item is activated or

deactivated. • Label for the menu-item (optional)

Consider the case of adding a menu-item to set the color of all selected geometric entities. Let us name the menu-item as AsmSetColor. Let us also specify the callback function as asm_set_color_cb, the condition function as asm_set_color_cond, and the label as “Set Color.” Once selected the icon will take the user to the same application menu form he or she is used to seeing, thus there is no learning curve required. • There are 2 types of xml files. One containing the information regarding the menu layout and the

callback of menu-items. The other contains the “resource” related information for the menus and menu-items. • The file containing the definition (p3_user_menu.xml) starts with the tag . The one

containing the resource information (p3_user_menu_res.xml) starts with the tag . These 2 files are kept in the Patran installation directory ($P3_HOME) by default, but can be anywhere in the PCL path and are read after all other default menu-definition files, which also reside in the $P3_HOME/rmb_menu directory. The menu-items defined in these files appear at the bottom of the menu. • Add the following definition in p3_user_menu.xml within the tags:

<MENU> NoEntityMenu AsmSetColor <MENUITEM> AsmSetColor asm_set_color_cb asm_set_color_cond • Add the following in p3_user_menu_res.xml within the tags: <MENUITEM> AsmSetColor Set Color • Implement the callback function in any .pcl file (note the function input arguments): FUNCTION asm_set_color_cb( sel_entities, entity_type ) STRING sel_entities[] STRING entity_type[]

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Patran Release Guide Right Mouse Button (RMB)

dump sel_entities dump entity_type END FUNCTION • Implement the condition function in any .pcl file (note the function input arguments): FUNCTION asm_set_color_cond( sel_entities, entity_type ) STRING sel_entities[] STRING entity_type[] RETURN TRUE END FUNCTION /* Activate this menu item */ • Run Patran. Load the PCL file containing the callback and condition function definition using !!input command in the Patran command window. Thus if you put the functions in the text file test_rmb.pcl, you would type !!input test_rmb.pcl Once the functions are input (compiled), click on the RMB in the viewport to see that “Set Color” was added at the bottom:

A slightly more complex example can be performed by replacing the name NoEntityMenu in the NoEntityMenu line of the p3_user_menu.xml file with ASM_MENU. If you do this and carry through with the rest of the example, you will find that the “Set Color” option will only appear at the bottom of the RMB menu after you have selected multiple types of geometry. The above examples show how users can add functionality to the RMB. The XML files that control the default RMB menu are in the Patran installation directory under the rmb_menu subdirectory. Users can examine these files to see how the submenu structures are set up if they wish to create their own. Users can also modify these files to change the default behavior of the RMB, or even change the functions called by the call backs. New and more complex call back functions can be created by the user, however, these call back functions must all have argument lists that follow the same format. Specifically they must use the format and arguments identical to those of the example: two string variables as arguments. This means that there are no limits on what the call back functions do as long as the argument list is matched.

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 39 New GUI Skins

4.2

New GUI Skins1 Overview A pre-release capability has been added to Patran’s graphical user interface (GUI) for the Windows platform. Additional options are available to streamline user interaction. These options are available using the -skin command line argument: %patran -skin <skin> where the available skins are: office2007 (default) xproyale xpluna le5 vista xptunes The database content is independent of which GUI skin option is used, including the legacy Patran skin (no -skin option used) and so it is acceptable to switch skins on the same database between Patran sessions.

Application Icon Ribbons The new GUI skins provide for application icon ribbons allowing the user to avoid the normal permutation of pull-down menus by providing easy-access ribbon toolbars populated with icon buttons. Once selected the icon takes the user to the same application menu form they are accustomed to seeing, thus there is no learning curve required. See picture below. Used in conjunction with the new right mouse button (RMB) capabilities, these new GUI skins provide the user with an exceptional experience. The tabs in the ribbon are equivalent to the legacy Patran GUI skin’s applications. To open an application, click on the tab. To close an application, select another tab. The Home tab will close any application currently open and show no tab application. Future plans will continue to improve this enhanced interface.

1This

is a pre-release capability. If you encounter problems, please revert back to the legacy Patran skin and report problems to your MSC representative so they can be corrected. This capability is only available on Windows.

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Patran Release Guide New GUI Skins

Application Menu Ribbon Groups Menus (tabs)

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 41 New GUI Skins

Application Menu Ribbons Provide Easy Access to Functions Without Searching the Pull-Down Menus

Click on the Application Ribbon Icon to Bring up the Application Form

Icons Pull Up Familiar Action – Object – Method / Type Menus

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Patran Release Guide New GUI Skins

Some Ribbons Have Application Menu Ribbon Group Sub-Menus With Pull-Down Options

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 43 Native 64 Bit Port

4.3

Native 64 Bit Port1 A native port to Windows 64 bit machines is available for testing in a pre-release status. The native 64 bit version of Patran can be installed from the installation disk. The 32 bit production version is still available for both 64 and 32 bit Windows machines as well as all other supported platforms. Advantages of a native 64 bit Patran mainly include access to all available memory. On 32 bit machines, the memory limitation is 2 gigabytes. The only limitation on 64 bit is the available memory of the machine. This allows for the user to work with larger models in many aspects of the finite element modeling process such as meshing and other modeling aspects. It is possible to work with existing databases. An existing database created from a 32 bit version of Patran on Windows will go through a porting process to enable it to be opened from the 64 bit version of Patran. A 64 bit database can also be taken back to 32 bit via the porting process. Databases from other platforms should first be converted up to the 2008r2 level on the original platform and then ported to the Windows 32 bit version of Patran and finally ported to 64 bit. The following functionality is available in the Windows 64 bit port. Anything not listed here is not yet available. • Patran (core application) • MSC Nastran Preference • MD Nastarn Preference • MSC Marc Preference • ABAQUS Preference • ANSYS Preference • Laminate Modeler • Patran Thermal (P/Thermal) • UG NX Access • CAD Interfaces (Spatial InterOP access only) • CATIA V4 / V5 • ACIS • STEP AP203/209 • IGES • I-DEAS

Future plans are to support all Patran supported platforms with native 64 bit ports. 1This is a pre-release capability on Windows only. If you encounter problems, please report problems to your

MSC representative so they can be corrected. MSC advises against using this port for production work until it is officially released. This port is made available as pre-release to facilitate testing and gather feed back to MSC.

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Patran Release Guide Automatic Feature Recognition

4.4

Automatic Feature Recognition Automatic feature recognition (AFR) has been removed from the Tools/Pre-Release menu and is now a supported feature under Tools pull down menu. It works from parasolid geometry. Select the entity type and entities of interest; set the controls; then right-mouse-click on the features you want to recognize (holes, chamfers, blends) in the tree widget. This populates the tree widget with the recognized features. Right mouse click on the features to show, edit, or delete them.

Edited hole/feature. 1. Select Solid 1. Expand Feature Tree 1. Select “Holes” 1. Right-mouse-click: Recognize - Automatic (treewidget expands with recognized features) 1. Select feature (Hole 9, say) 1. Right-mouse-click: Edit 1. Make changes as required.

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 45 Automatic Feature Recognition

The Parasolid Kernel will fail to edit or delete a feature if there is a topological dependency on other geometry. Multiple features can be deleted as long as all dependent features have also been selected for deletion in the same operation. The propagation controls get passed to the feature recognition API to control the type of recognition. In other words, if you select the “Chain” option for Blends and do interactive recognition then it will do the recognition and then perform chaining so finally you will get “Blend Chains”. Each “Blend Chain” may be a combination of several individual Blends. To recognize each blend individually you can select the “Single” option. For automatic recognition these propagation control options are not used. For automatic recognition these options have been set to default values of Hole:Single, Chamfer:Chain, Blend:Chain. These options are valid for interactive recognition only and respective values get passed through the second argument in the API. status = ifr_recognize_blends_list(entity_list, propagation, @ topology, entity_type, number_of_features) “Recognize – Automatic:” works with Geometric Entity as “Solid” only. “Recognize – Interactive:” works with Geometric Entity as “Face” or “Edge” only. “Recognize – Automatic” does not need any input other that “Solid ID” in which the features need to be recognized. All other inputs are defaulted. It is available to provide user a convenience only. It will recognize the features in the whole solid. Recognizing features in the whole solid may not always be useful as there may actually only be the need of recognizing features in one particular region of the solid. In this case simply select the faces/edges where the need to recognize the features exists and use “Recognize – Interactive.” “Recognize – Interactive” does not work with “Solid” geometric entities. Change the Geometric Entity option to “Face” or “Edge” and select the faces or edges in the vicinity where the features are to be recognized. If you select all the faces of solid, this is equivalent to automatic recognition with additional propagation controls besides the default values. “Edge” Geometric Entity is available for holes only.

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Patran Release Guide Batch Image Rendering

4.5

Batch Image Rendering1 The combined usage of the batch and graphics command line arguments for invoking Patran used to be mutually exclusive. Now you can generate graphical images in batch mode by using both together to invoke Patran via a session file (-sfp session file name) as shown here: patran -b -graphics -sfp test.ses Batch mode does not know what the dpi resolution is and uses a default of 100. But you can set this in the settings.pcl file with graphics_batch_dpi, e.g., pref_env_set_real( "graphics_batch_dpi", 92.5 )

This works for JPEG, MPEG, BMP, PNG and TIFF graphics file formats.

1Customer

Request (CR) 40421

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 47 SimManager Integration

4.6

SimManager Integration Publish and retrieve Patran databases and other related analysis files directly from within Patran with the SimManager client, now directly accessible from the File pull down menu. Once the server connection properties and settings are established users can easily communicate with SimManager. Once logged on, the user may publish, retrieve, and browse as well view connection properties and access the Web Client.

Can retrieve and then open databases directly in Patran.

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Patran Release Guide SimManager Integration

The following variables need to be set or are asked to be set during installation in order to communicate with the SimManager server. For more information on this, the user is directed to the SimManager documentation. SM_RICH_CLIENT_CONFIG_FILE SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_HOST SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_PORT <port number> SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_PROTOCOL http SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_WEBCONTEXT SimManager_R3 SM_RICH_CLIENT_ROOT <path> Client access to a SimManager server via Patran is only supported on Windows machines. For more information on settings these environment variables, please see Patran Environment Variables (p. 48) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 49 SimXpert Integration

4.7

SimXpert Integration SimXpert can be launched from Patran under the File pull down menu or from within the MD Nastran Preference. Launching from the File menu only launches SimXpert with no data transfer. Launching from the Analysis application will transfer the finite element model to SimXpert. For this capability to be available, the user must set the environment variable MSC_SX_HOME to the top level directory of a valid, local installation of SimXpert. If an installation of SimXpert is detected at installation time, this will automatically be configured for the user.

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Patran Release Guide MSC Sinda Preference

4.8

MSC Sinda Preference MSC Sinda is now a new thermal analysis offering from MSC. As such a new MSC Sinda preference is available to give access to this state-of-the-art thermal analysis module. MSC Sinda must be installed in order for the Preference to be able to submit analyses and retrieve results. However, Sinda database can be created without an MSC Sinda installation. Besides setting up a model for thermal analysis, various utilities are also available from an additional pull down menu to read in material data from Excel spreadsheets and other capabilities. You are referred to the MSC Sinda Preference User Guide for further in formation.

This Preference is only available on Windows. MSC Sinda solves problems using resistance-capacitance network approach, coupled with fast finite difference numerical methods and including power FORTRAN programming. Very Powerful!

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 51 Laminate Modeler

4.9

Laminate Modeler Laminate Modeler incorporates a number of enhancements to promote the effective modeling of laminated composites structures. These are described below under the headings of the appropriate command. The Laminate Modeler initialization form, which allows the user to begin the Laminate Modeler session now has two new options: Import Layup File… Available if no mesh exists in the current Patran database. This opens the selected Layup file AND imports the shell mesh in the Layup file into the database. This avoids the need to issue the Import Model Layup File command manually after opening the Layup file. Save As… Saves the Layup model to the selected Layup file AND updates the current file name. This is convenient when investigating multiple configurations. Create LM_Layup Add When creating an analysis model (i.e., generating properties) at the same time as creating or modifying a LM_Layup, the default laminate orientation method and additional options were used previously. This meant that for fine control of the property generation, the user would need to use the separate Create

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Patran Release Guide Laminate Modeler

Laminate LM_Layup command. Now, the user can set detailed options directly on the first form, increasing efficiency and promoting the use of the most appropriate orientation option.

For many problems, best practice is to use coordinate systems to define both the Reference Directions of plies, and the orientation of the generated laminate materials. This maximizes correlation between ply and property definition, and means that the coordinate system is written to the analysis input deck and directly available to the solver. Layup Definition Spreadsheet The Layup spreadsheet allows the definition of the Ply Group and Sequence associated with each Layup Ply instance as shown below. This is not used directly within the analysis environment but promotes interoperability with composites design systems where plies are grouped hierarchically under these headings. Transferring a design model from CATIA Composites Design and Laminate Modeler using

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 53 Laminate Modeler

Simulayt's Composites Link will transfer this information bi-directionally to ensure that designers and analysts can communicate effectively.

The symmetry of the current Layup sequence is now reported as a label instead of the previous option menu to emphasize that this is a result of the Layup sequence defined and not an option that can be set by the user. Create LM_Layup Laminate This new command extracts ply and layup definitions stored in the Laminate Materials using global ply identifiers (GPlyIds). The plies are named gplyid.X where X is the appropriate GPlyId value. The start point is arbitrarily set to the centroid of the element in the ply having the lowest Id, and the application direction is set opposite its normal direction. The ply type is set to a Projected type based on rotation with respect to the element datum, and the rotation is set to that for the start element. Please note that as these are necessarily arbitrary assumptions, modifying a ply of this type will reset orientations so that this should be avoided.

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Patran Release Guide Laminate Modeler

The global plies are added to the LM_Layup in increasing order of GPlyId. Please note that while this follows recommended practice for the use of global ply identifiers, there is no guarantee that the order on each element will be consistent and so this should be checked carefully. Create Results Failure Calc This command has been enhanced to work with results that have already been sorted by MD Nastran on the basis of global ply identifiers (GPlyIds). The results are assumed to be sorted already if results layer ids do not begin at layer 1 OR the results layer ids are not sequential OR the number of elements in a result increases with results layer id OR an element in a result does not exist in a previous layered result. With this comprehensive checking, it is highly unlikely that sorted results will be identified as unsorted ones. The failure calculation in Laminate Modeler has traditionally supported custom failure criteria using a PCL function. Now, comprehensive support for custom failure criteria is provided by means of Add-Ins developed in C++ using Simulayt's Add-In architecture. The Add-Ins are simply placed in a directory identified by the environment variable SLTAddinPath, after which the Add-In becomes available for selection by the user as shown below. Both the Allowable values and the Results created are set by the selected criterion and are then respectively input and selected readily by the user.

The flexibility of the new Add-In failure criterion system will allow the creation of high performance failure criterion able to model multiple failure criteria in a single compound criterion. And, as the criterion's interface is well defined, these same criteria could be used consistently in other calculation environments, such as a spreadsheet for initial calculations.

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 55 Laminate Modeler

Show LM_Ply Graphics This command has been enhanced to allow the visualization of draped and flat patterns where appropriate. These are computed on-the-fly and can prove to be a most effective visualization tool, particularly when the Auto Execute option is used in the ply selection listbox.

Delete LM_Layup Select As a Laminate Modeler model can only contain a single LM_Layup, the name of an exiting LM_Layup is now displayed in a databox and not a listbox to prevent confusion. Import Plies File When importing plies from a Layup file or FiberSIM data, the plies from the source file are mapped onto the destination elements in Patran. If the source and destination elements are too widely separated, the mapping is not initialized and it was difficult to identify the faulty element previously. Now, if selected elements are unmapped, a warning is given and the unmapped elements are placed in a group called LMImportUnmappedElements so they can be identified easily. This allows quicker identification and resolution of mapping problems. Mapping was calculated using a line from the centroid of a destination element in the element normal direction. Now, the option of defining an average normal direction based on the surface normals at each node of an element has been added. This can improve mapping where the destination surface contains sharp creases as shown below. This is a common situation for frames and spars commonly used in the aerospace industry.

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Patran Release Guide Laminate Modeler

Import Results ESAComp xml ESAComp is a laminate analysis tool that can generate failure criteria that are written in an xml file. This new command reads the result data from the file and creates a Patran result that can be viewed in the usual way. Verify Laminate This new command allows the user to verify that the laminate created satisfies general rules that reflect the requirements of the aerospace industry, such as symmetry, balance, taper ratio and so on. The user selects the element to be verified, a "main" direction (such as the trailing edge of a wing) and thickness and angle tolerances required for some tests. The required test is then selected and applied. Elements which fail the selected tests are highlighted in the viewport using the relevant color, and a spreadsheet listing all failed elements and the test they have failed is displayed. The results of a symmetry check on a vertical tail plane model are shown as an example below.

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 57 Customer Requests

4.10

Customer Requests Many customer requests (CRs) were addressed in this release. These consist of defect corrections and enhancement request. The following are significant customer requests or defects that were addressed that may be of interest to users in addition to those that have already been referenced in previous chapters/sections:

CR # 1-68705473

Description File / Open Recent - Allows you to select from a list of recently accessed database files. The number of files visible is controlled by settings.pcl file environment variable: pref_env_set_integer("max_num_recent_files",num_files) The list of recent files is found in a file called .Patran.RecentFiles located in the users’ home directory. On Windows, this is determined by the HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH variables, e.g., “C:” and “\” = C:\.Patran.RecentFiles. On UNIX, the environment variable HOME must be set, e.g., /home/user.

1-66889951

Preselection Highlighting Entity Offset - A defect was corrected where if a group of nodes and/or elements was erased that caused a fit view to occur (Preferences->Graphics->Auto Extend), then pre-selection highlighting would display nodes offset from their true position.

1-64306194

OEFIT OP2 Datablock - A defect was corrected where failure indices from composite failure analysis were not being processed correctly when reading the OEFIT datablock from a Nastran OP2 file.

1-66078121

Long Result Case Names - Result case names that exceeded 80 characters would result in a PCL traceback if filtered. The character limit has been increased to 256 to avoid this.

1-15765121

“$” Allowed in Group Names - Groups with “$” symbols in the name now function properly when editing Global Subcase Output.

1-16900917

15 Noded CPENTA Results - Results for 15-noded CPENTA elements can now be accessed via XDB files.

1-19052381

Material Stiffness Matrix Terms - The C44, C55 and C66 terms are now ordered correctly when converting 3D Orthotropic materials to 3D Anisotropic for MAT9 entries.

1-19730217

Jobname and Results Case Name Conflict - In cases where an existing jobname is active but an XDB file is attached with subcases not associated to the active job, the results cases were picking up the jobname instead of the actual subcase name as defined in the Nastran job. A new settings.pcl variable has been implemented to control this. pref_env_set_integer("RESULTS_TITLE_CHECK_LEVEL",level) This is an integer value with the following meanings:

58

Patran Release Guide Customer Requests

CR # 1-19730217

Description 0 - Default behavior: not set or zero or >3 - if results (XDB) file name and jobname do not match for Nastran Preference only, results case names do not get associated to load case names of the existing jobname 1 - user is prompted for default behavior (NO) or to use previous behavior, which is to put the loadcase names associated to the current jobname into the result case names (NOT RECOMMENDED - but the use can do it if he wants) 2 - users is notified that jobname and results file name differ and given the choice to continue or not. Continuing will give the default behavior. 3 - user is warned that the jobname and results file name differ but the default behavior still occurs In all cases, if the jobname and the XDB filename are the same, then the functionality remains the same as the default behavior. Values of 1, 2, or 3 only have effect if the jobname and the XDB file name differ.

1-19960526

DB Import Changes Poisson’s Ratio Value - This corrected an incorrect rounding of material data occurring occasionally on import into another database, which slightly changing the property value.

1-23657326

Some Result Layers missing from XDB Attachment - XDB attachments were only recognizing layers of the first results cases even though subsequent result cases had more layers.

1-50872269

TET10 Stress Data using GAUSS on PSOLID - Incorrect fringe plots have been corrected when the GAUSS field on the PSOLID entry is activated during a Nastran run and results accessed from Patran via the XDB file.

1-32732851

MBOLTUS Import Support - MBOLTUS entries in the Nastran input deck are now imported as Overclosure MPCs

1-52553651

Residual Vector Computation - In the Nastran preference, on the solution parameters form, the Residual Vector Computation toggle now writes RESVEC=YES or RESVEC=NO if the parameter is present in the database for that job no matter what. Previously only RESVEC=NO was being written because RESVEC=YES is the default for most SOL sequences. But for SOL 103, no RESVEC entry defaults into RESVEC=COMPONENT where the desired default is RESVEC=YES or BOTH. So now RESVEC=YES is written if the toggle is ON.

1-64846211

Large Listbox Capability - There are number of places in the Element Properties, LoadsBCs, Materials, and Fields applications as well as Groups and Regions where the large listbox capability has been enabled without having to invoke Patran with the “-l” option for large listbox capability. A small icon appears next to the listbox that can be expanded to a large listbox.

1-18201068

PLOAD4 Import - Importing Nastran files with PLOAD4 pressures that vary spatially now import correctly and a proper spatial field is created for each load set.

Chapter 4: General Enhancements 59 Customer Requests

CR #

Description

1-40919043

Significant Digit Control - More control for writing significant digits is given when writing Nastran input decks. Individual control is now given under the Translation Parameter form for grids, coordinate frames, MPCs, LBCs, materials and properties.

1-45336797

Mesh in Wrong Location after Surface Transformation - After transforming parasolid surfaces to new locations using Group/Transform, subsequent meshes were being placed in the wrong physical location using the Hybrid or Sheet Body meshers.

1-40918941

MPCs & Tools/List/Create - The ability to create lists of nodes associated to MPCs has been implemented under the Tools/List/Create utility.

1-67076271

Fastener Results in Multiple XDB files - An issue where fastener results were not accessible if multiple XDB files were attached has been corrected.

1-70170481

Significant Digits in Envelope Plots - It is now possible to control the number of significant digits in envelope plots under the Tools / MSC.Explore utility.

1-19671064

SPOINT Import - SPOINTS associated with beam definitions of warping degrees-offreedom from the Nastran input deck are now imported to retains those definitions in the beam element properties.

1-18657123

Nodes/Grid Projection in Radial Direction - Nodes and grids can now be projected onto a surface in the radial direction when a cylindrical system is referenced. Spherical systems are also supported and all other component directions.

1-9146004

Nodes Left Behind After Group/Transform - Nodes referenced as GO points for defining beam orientations were not transformed during a Group/Transform operation. Now if nodes in a group are referenced in properties, fields or MPC's, then during the transform operation such nodes are copied.

1-25240879

SOL 600 TEMPD Support - Nastran case control TEMP(LOAD), TEMP(INIT), and bulk data TEMPD entries now supported for SOL 600.

1-59220230

Torsional Constant J of Cross Cross-sections - The calculation of the torsional constant J of a cross-type cross-section does not have a closed form solution. The beam section library now calculates J and the shear stiffness factors of this standard cross section by using the routines for calculating these properties for arbitrary beams cross sections.

1-17613229

Turn Spectrum Off with Constant Contours - When creating a contour plot, the user can set the attributes to 'Constant', displaying all contour lines in a single color. Other results tools automatically turn off the spectrum and hide the option from the user, but the contour leaves the spectrum in place with its varying colors. The user no longer must manually turn off the spectrum to see a correct plot.

1-70358907

Automatic Spectrum Update - When a new spectrum is selected from the Display/Spectrums form, the spectrum is applied immediately without having to recreate the results plot.

1-43797130

Imprinted Parasolid Geometry - It is now possible to mesh imprinted Parasolid geometry.

60

Patran Release Guide Customer Requests

CR #

Description

28974

Deletion of Multiple Load Cases - The ability to delete multiple load cases in one operation has been implemented.

1-75970050 1-77244825

Large listbox capability has been implemented for portions of the Tools / Design Study / Preprocessing application.

1-54421399

In the FEM application, when equivalencing nodes you can now do the boundary verify operation on the same form rather than having to change the Action / Object to Verify / Boundaries

1-77359861

Direct Text Input for the MSC Nastran Preference now allows you to specify if you want the text input at the start or the end of the specified section of the input file.

1-78080878

Correction to Shear Area Factor K for tube cross sections.

1-50781738

Correction of assembly meshes of some parasolid models that were incorrectly offset.

1-62817224

RSPINR entry for Nastran rotor dynamics has been updated to support both Nastran 2007 and pre 2007 formats.

1-67083505

Connector elements are now erased in a deformation plot if the user requests the undeformed shape to be hidden.

MSC.Fatigue Quick Start Guide

Index Patran Release Guide

Numerics

K

A

L

64 Bit Port, 4, 43

P atr an R el ea se G ui

ACIS, 7 AIX, 6 Automatic Feature Recognition, 2, 44

B

Batch Image Rendering, 46

C

CAD Access, 2, 7 Catia V5, 2 InterOp, 2 Parasolid, 2 UG NX, 2 CATIA V4, 7 CATIA V5, 7 Contact, 4, 31 Customer Requests, 5, 57

E

Enhancements, 2

G

Key Highlights, 2

Laminate Modeler, 5, 51 LINUX, 6

M

Marc, 3, 28 MD Nastran Preference, 2, 1 MSC Marc Preference, 3, 28 MSC Nastran Preference, 2, 1 MSC Sinda Preference, 4, 50

N

Nastran, 2, 1 Nonlinear Analysis, 3, 10, 18

O

Operating systems, supported, 6 Optimization, 2

P

Parasolid, 7 Platforms, supported, 6 Pro/ENGINEER, 7

GUI Skins, 4, 39

H

Hardware, 6 Highlights, 2 HP, 6

I

IBM, 6 I-DEAS, 7 Intel, 6

R

Red Hat, 6 Results, 3, 24, 30 Right Mouse Button, 4, 34

S

SimManager Integration, 4, 47 SimXpert Integration, 4, 49 Sinda, 4, 50 Skins, 4, 39

62 Patran Release Guide

Solaris, 6 Sun, 6 Supported OS levels, 6 Supported platforms, 6

T

Thermal Analysis, 3, 23 Topography, 2 Topology, 2 Topometry, 2

U

Unigraphics, 7 Utilities, 5

W

Wildfire, 7 Windows, 6