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Release Notes

HyperWorks Partner Version

nCode DesignLife 9 for HyperWorks Release Notes


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Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 4
Supported Platforms and Operating Systems ...................................................................... 4
DesignLife - New Features ...................................................................................................... 4
Short Fibre Composites with Solid Elements .............................................................................................4
Seam Weld Analysis with Solid Elements ....................................................................................................5
Animation of Finite Element Models .............................................................................................................6
General Enhancements ............................................................................................................ 6
Selection of Entities used in Subsets ..............................................................................................................6
Temperatures from ANSYS RST Files .............................................................................................................7
State Variable Mapping File ...............................................................................................................................7
Progress Information in Message Window .................................................................................................7
Upgrading Abaqus ODB Files ............................................................................................................................7
Faster Back Calculations .......................................................................................................................................7
Materials Map ...........................................................................................................................................................8
Worked Examples ...................................................................................................................................................8
Versions of Results Files supported ................................................................................................................8
HyperMesh Results ................................................................................................................................................9
FE Output Glyph ......................................................................................................................................................9
New Glyphs ................................................................................................................................ 9
XYZ Display ................................................................................................................................................................9
Glyph Enhancements ..............................................................................................................10
Multi-column to Time Series Glyph Metadata ........................................................................................ 10
Display and Reporting ...........................................................................................................10
Studio Enhancements ............................................................................................................11
File Formats .............................................................................................................................11
General Enhancements ..........................................................................................................11
User Forms Menu Options ............................................................................................................................... 11
Pick Glyph Multiple Selection ......................................................................................................................... 12
Time Zone Control .............................................................................................................................................. 12

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Introduction
nCode DesignLife 9.0 for HyperWorks provides a suite of engineering software
products within a single desktop environment. This is a specific version of
DesignLife that is available through the HyperWorks Partner Alliance program
and uses HyperWorks Units licensing. DesignLife is part of a wider range of
nCode software products from HBM.
DesignLife 9 for HyperWorks uses the licensing system provided with
HyperWorks 10.1 and HyperWorks 11.0, and will not operate with earlier versions
of HyperWorks.
If you have any questions on licensing, please contact Altair Support. This
document summarizes new features, enhancements, and supported platforms in
this release.
IMPORTANT: Please review the Resolved Issues and Known Issues documents
(resolved_issues_90.pdf and known_issues_90.pdf) before using this software and
as appropriate circulate to other users.

Supported Platforms and Operating Systems


nCode DesignLife 9.0 for HyperWorks is supported on the following platforms:
Windows 32-bit (XP, Vista, 7)
Windows 64-bit (XP, Vista, 7)
Linux 64-bit (RHE5, SuSe 10.2, 11.1)

DesignLife - New Features


Short Fibre Composites with Solid Elements
The Short Fibre Composite analysis engine has been enhanced as follows:
Stress results from solid elements can now be used and this enables thicker
components to be analyzed. The stress results are read from the element centroid and use a single fibre orientation per element (non-layered solid). Solid
element centroid stress results are a 3D stress state. Previously only shell elements were supported with 2D stress states.
If CombinationMethod=CriticalPlane and 3D stress data is being used, a latitude and longitude approach (spherical coordinates) is used with critical plane
theta and phi angles with 10 degree angular spacing. A fatigue analysis is then
performed for each theta/phi combination.
MultiaxialAssessment = Standard is modified for 3D stress data to output two
biaxiality ratios and two dominant stress direction angles (theta and phi).
If CombinationMethod=AbsMaxPrincipal and 3D stress data is being used, the
two angles defining the dominant direction are calculated as per the multiaxial
assessment. These angles are then used to determine the fibre share and interpolation as for critical plane.
Solid element results from Abaqus coupled with Digimat to produce state variables of stress and orientation tensors are supported.
The SNMethod = Digimat is a beta feature. This requires an option within Digimat (from e-Xstream Engineering) and should be available with Digimat 5.0.
This method obtains the SN curve required for analysis at each calculation
point based on the fibre orientation tensor at that point, together with the
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loading direction and in some cases the stress state. In order to use this
method, Digimat must be installed and licensed on the computer, the FE
model must have been analyzed using Digimat to provide the material model,
and the required fatigue properties must be present in the material definition
(.dmp) file or files.

Seam Weld Analysis with Solid Elements


Thicker welded structures (over 5mm) can now be analyzed using solid element
models.
The seam weld fatigue damage calculation in DesignLife uses a structural stress at
the location of interest, and the bending ratio associated with that stress. This
methodology is also applicable to thicker structures that need to be modeled
with solid elements. To avoid requiring a specialized meshing scheme, the stress
integration method outlined in the ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code VIII,
Division 2 has been adopted. This is detailed in 2008a Annex 5.A Linearization of
Stress Results for Stress Classification. This method integrates stress components
along user defined Stress Classification Lines (SCL) to determine membrane and
bending stresses.
When SeamWeldType = SolidWeld, three additional properties are used on the FE
import analysis group:
WeldDefinitionFilename - the XML formatted file that defines the weld location and orientation.
MaxWeldDepth - the maximum distance to recover stresses through the structure at the weld location. This distance can also be overridden on a per location basis in the weld definition file.
NumWeldLayers - the number of points through the structure to recover
stresses.
The FE Display has also been enhanced to display these seam weld results with a
specific result marker. The marker is coloured according to selected result such as
damage and also indicates the direction and depth of the stress recovery.

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Figure1:Stressrecoverythroughsolidelements

Animation of Finite Element Models


A new Animation mode is provided in the FE Display and is accessed via the
Animation toolbar button. Animation enables visualization of how a structure is
deforming in order to understand the structural performance. Three methods of
animation are provided (transient, static and modal) and the displacements can
be read directly from an FE results file or from an animation file. The animation
file is selected on the Animation property page of the FE Display.
The animation file is calculated using a new Animation analysis engine. This is
particularly useful for calculating the displacements due to linear superposition of
multiple load cases as performed using a Time Series load provider for linear
static or modal superposition. The animation file has both binary and ASCII
versions.
The animation within the FE Display is controlled via a dialog that enables the
speed, type and scaling of animation to be adjusted.
A new DesignLife worked example [#21] is also provided to illustrate usage.

General Enhancements
Selection of Entities used in Subsets
Static Entity Subsets specify a set of nodes or elements to be used or excluded in
an analysis. Previously these were specified using a manually entered list. It is now
possible to also define entity subset from
User Set file This is one or more ASCII files with required entity IDs.
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Multi-column pipe or file - Multi-column data must have columns with keywords NodeId or ElementId or both
This method is defined using the EntitySource property on the Static Entity
Subset object.
All definition methods also now support specific NodeAndElement
combinations in addition to Node or Element selections.

Temperatures from ANSYS RST Files


DesignLife now recognises temperature results in ANSYS .rst files but only when
there are no associated .rth files containing temperatures.

State Variable Mapping File


It is necessary to use the StateVariableMappingFile property with ANSYS and
DIGIMAT for Short Fibre Composite SN analysis. To make things easier for the
user, this is now exposed as the property ResultsSet_StateVariableMappingFile on
the Short Fibre Composite SN Analysis glyph.

Progress Information in Message Window


Progress information that is shown on the front of the CAE Fatigue glyph when a
job is running is now also shown in the Message Window together with a
progress bar and an estimate of time remaining.

Upgrading Abaqus ODB Files


Abaqus ODB files are required to be read with the correct version of Abaqus
libraries. This necessitates an upgrade of older file versions. Automatic Abaqus
ODB upgrade now supports two modes:
Upgrade Original Previous method (and default) creates a backup before
upgrading file.
Maintain Original - A file is created with a new name and is automatically used
by DesignLife.
The user will be prompted through a dialog to select one of the modes during an
automatic upgrade. The dialog can be switched off by checking the Do not ask
me this question again checkbox on the dialog and alsocontrolled by
Preferences in /Libraries/feimportlib.

Faster Back Calculations


In analysis engines that support back calculations (SN, EN, SpotWeld and
SeamWeld), the allowable range of calculation values have changed to improve
speed of calculation. The back calculation property BackCalcMaxScale has a
minimum value of 2.0 (previously 20.0), and a default value 5.0, and a new
property BackCalcMinScale that has a maximum value of 0.5 and the default
value 0.2. Whenever the maximum or minimum thresholds have been exceeded,
two new statuses are set on the scale factor results: Above Max Limit and Below
Min Limit. These are also displayed in the FE Display with specific colours. Back
calculation failures are also specifically coloured in FE Display.

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Materials Map
Material properties are now displayed as part the material map form in the
available materials list. This makes it easier for the user to identify the correct
material to select. The list of properties to display can be separately configured
for each material data set type by using a configuration file. There are three
separate configuration files, all of which have the same format and will be read to
obtain this list of properties. If the same data set type appears in multiple of these
files, the list of properties is taken from the file lower down in the list below:
material_property_display.sys from the nssys folder of the installation. This file
is provide as part of the installation and should not be edited.
material_property_display_custom.sys from the nssys folder of the installation.
This would typically be used to configure settings to apply to all users.
material_property_display_custom.sys from the users home folder. The settings
in this file will only apply to the current user.

Figure2:Materialmaplistwithsortablecolumns

Worked Examples
Three new worked examples are provided:
#19 Non-linear geometric loading showing an example of dividing a load
into positive and negative components.
#20 - Load reconstruction including a Python script for calculating loading
functions from measured strain values and finite elements results.
#21 - Animation showing application of Animation analysis engine and animation display functionality to a modal superposition example.
Other worked examples are now given more meaningful folder names under
demo\designlife to more easily find the required example.

Versions of Results Files supported

File Type

Version

ABAQUS .fil

6.12-2

ABAQUS .odb

6.12-2

ANSYS .rst

14.5

LS-Dyna d3plot

971

MSC.NASTRAN .op2

2012.1

NX NASTRAN .op2

Radioss .h3d

11.0 [Supported as a beta feature]


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Altair Radioss .h3d files is supported as a beta feature. Testing has been
completed for linear static analysis, stress and strain results for common shell and
solid element types (1st and 2nd order). Other results should not be used with
DesignLife at this time.

HyperMesh Results
FE Output glyph has a new property to enable the support of Node On Element
results with HyperMesh. It is shown if OutputFormat =Hypermesh. The property
is:
NodeOnElementCompression = Node / Element (default is Element)
This property will only do anything if there is BOTH a Node AND Element column
in the results. If NodeOnElementCompression = Node, then the Element column
is removed and the worst case result (damage or safety factor) will be found for
each Node number and a Nodal type of HyperMesh result file is written.
If NodeOnElementCompression = Element, then the Node column is removed,
and the worst case result (damage or safety factor) will be found for each Element
number and an Element type of HyperMesh result file is written. Previously, the
result type was set to Element with the node ID as a result.
When using results files from a duty cycle, where each event is a separate channel
(using ChannelPerEvent = True on the pipe post processor), the Hypermesh HYP
file now includes the event name (from the ChannelTitle) as the simulation label.

FE Output Glyph
FE Output glyph has a new property called EventNaming with the options
Number / Name.
This property controls the naming of results files from a duty cycle where each
event is a separate channel (using ChannelPerEvent = True on the pipe post
processor) and where the output results format requires each event to be written
to a separate file. The options have these effects:
Number: Uses a simple sequential number appended to the OutputFilename.
Name: Uses the name of the event appended to the OutputFilename. This
includes an event called ALL which is the total result for the duty cycle.
Number was the previous default behavior and is used when loading old flows.
Name is new default and is used when inserting new glyphs. The name is taken
from the ChanTitle of the multi-column input to the FEOutput glyph. This
property applies to all formats that create separate files per event.

New Glyphs
XYZ Display
A new display capability is provided for 3D scatter plots time series or multicolumn data. This is available in the XYZ Display glyph and as a display within
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Studio. In addition to using 3 data sets to create cluster type plots, the size and
colour of the symbols can be set using 2 additional data sets enabling up to 5dimensional data representations. Up to 8 different input tests can be plotted
simultaneously. The display can be dynamically rotated and zoomed and cursor
over tooltip gives the value of each data point.

Figure3:XYZDisplayshowingscatterplot

Glyph Enhancements
Multi-column to Time Series Glyph Metadata
A new MetadataCopy property property has been added to the MultiColumn to
TimeSeries glyph. The default SingleColumn minimizes the metadata copied to
each to time series output channels to be relevant to that channel and so
reducing size of data and speed of conversion.

Display and Reporting


Numerical Formatting
The ability to control the format of numbers (specify significant figures, decimal
places or exponential formatting) has been added in several places throughout
the software:
The Studio Table Display can now control the formatting of numeric values. The
formatting is specified for each column individually.
The Studio Text Display can now use the format() command inside an eval() to
control the formatting of numeric values.
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The format() function can also be used inside the multi column calculator to
create new column with a specific number of significant figures or decimal
places
The Metadata Display glyph can now control the formatting of numeric values
when using the table view mode. Each column can be formatted individually
and the format can be maintained during export by using the new ExportAsString option.

Studio Enhancements
Studio and Studio Display glyph have been enhanced as follows:
The JPEG images exported by Studio now use a higher quality setting.
The Studio XY Display now defaults to showing the full plot, rather than just the
first ten seconds.
The Studio export to a Word document now maintains the orientation (portrait
or landscape) of the pages it is exporting.
The Studio export to a Word document now defaults to not adding an index
page. When the index page is not included, extra text is no longer added to
each page for figure n and page n.
The Studio export to a Word document now adjusts the size of an image on a
page to account for both A4 and Letter size paper and allowing for figure
labels.
Both Studio and the Studio Display glyph now have a zoom option called Fit.
This maintains the zoom level so that the full page is visible, even when the
window is re-sized. This is now the default.
The Studio Display glyph property OutputOption can now be set by using a
metadata value to control whether reports are created when a flow is run.

File Formats
The following formats have been added :
MSC Adams .req (results from multi-body dynamics analysis) is now supported
as a time series format.
Altair MotionSolve .plt (results from multi-body dynamics analysis) is now supported as a time series format.
Dewesoft .d7d time stamped data can now be read as multi-column data. A
preference is provided to enable d7d all data to be read as multi-column if
required (Windows 32 and 64 bit platforms.)
The DSPCon DatX file format support has been enhanced to support multichannel data spread across multiple acquisition files.

General Enhancements
User Forms Menu Options
User forms containing string properties have been enhanced to allow extra
context menu options for editing and inserting data. This includes edit, pick
function, pick date, pick file and pick glyph.

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Pick Glyph Multiple Selection


Using the Pick Glyph option on the Property Editor it is now possible to select
multiple glyphs using a combination of shift and control mouse clicks.

Time Zone Control


The dateconv calculator function now has an additional option of a lowercase u
suffix in the third parameter (toFormat). When the input is a time in UTCSeconds
have the u suffix causes the formatted time to ignore the local timezone and
formats the time as UTCTime

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