Release notes for SDT 5.2 and FEMLink 3.1

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1.7 Release notes for SDT 5.2 and FEMLink 3.1

Key features of the SDT 5.2 release are

MATLAB 7 compatibility. Fixes concern the disappearance of the isglobal function, the changes in the object inheritance properties, help integration.
New support for the MATLAB 7.0 64 bit versions on Linux. This becomes the best platform to run large FEM models. The previous software limitation to 1.5 GB address space (4 GB on MACs) is no longer a difficulty.
OpenFEM development has progressed with much improved handling of cases, a major revision of element functions to optimize model assembly and non-linear reassembly, bug fixes for load and stress computations.
The new sdthdf functions implement a number of out-of-core operations that can be used when dealing with large FEM models.

Key features of FEMLink 3.1 are

nasread optimization has continued resulting in major speed improvements for large FEM models and further robustness. Large op2 file support has improved. OUTPUT4 matrix reading has been compiled to allow for large matrix handling.
naswrite has been rewritten in great part resulting in vastly improved speeds and major extensions in supported cards. The new job commands let the user drive NASTRAN from MATLAB. The new EditBulk commands can be used to generate multiple jobs. The new wop4 command can be used to write matrices to Output4 format.
ans2sdt a number of bugs linked to the use of models combining symmetric and non symmetric element matrices have been fixed.
perm2sdt the PERMAS reading interface has been fully rewritten allowing for much faster and consistent reading. Subcomponents are now supported.

For MATLAB compatibility see section 1.7.3.

cbush	the number of accepted input formats has been extended.
fe_cyclic	This new function supports cyclic symmetry : building of cyclic case entry, eigenvalue computation for n diameter modes.
fe2ss	Extensions on the types of sensors and loads supported. Bug fix on upcom assembly are returned basis.
fe_sens	Significant extensions of placement methodologies have been added see [2].
flui4 ...	this family of acoustic pressure element is now compiled.
hexa8b ...	this new family of elements (hexa20b, hexa27b, hexa8b, penta15b, penta6b, tetra10b, tetra4b) is the first series of the new generic multi-physic elements. It supports fully anisotropic elasticity for geometrically non linear problems. fe_cyclic supports gyroscopic and stress stiffening computations for models composed of elements in this family.
ii_mac	minor robustness enhancements, improved figure and colorbar generation, MATLAB 7 compatibility
idopt	Matlab 7 compatibility and minor fixes.
fe_case	New Connection commands allow the creation of complex kinematic connections.
fe_eig	Support of the EigOpt case information. Fixes on FMAX support in solution 5. Improved renumering strategies.
fe_exp	The fixed sensor modes are now returned as a deformation structure.
fe_load	The load assembly was fully revised to optimize the process for non linear operations.

fe_mat	The convert command for unit conversion has been significantly enhanced. Many internal changes have been introduced for fe_mknl assembly.
fe_mk	The assembly strategy has undergone a major revision with the introduction of fe_mknl for assembly in non-linear problems.
fe_norm	Memory usage has been optimized. Minor bug fixes are introduced.
fe_reduc	Now supports output of results as struct for use in superelements.
fe_time	The Newmark scheme as been optimized to support output resampling, intermediate saves, explicit computations, ...
fesuper	Minor corrections to set and MakeComplete commands.
feplot, fecom	Significant enhancement of the material and property visualization interfaces.
sdthdf	this new function allows
upcom	assembly is now performed in two steps so as to optimize out of core operation
ufread, ufwrite	speed and robustness improvements were introduced

MATLAB 6.5 and 7.0.x

SDT 5.2 and FEMLink 3.1 are developed for these versions of MATLAB and is fully compatible with them.

MATLAB is no longer compiled as a 64 bit code on SGI. This has negative effects operation speed for large sparse matrices used in FEM problems. Some improvements were introduced in SDT 5.0 but best performance is obtained under MATLAB 5.3. This comment holds for MATLAB 6.0 too.
MATLAB 6.1

There are no known incompatibilities but tests are no longer systematically performed on this version of MATLAB.

OpenGL support on LINUX has significant bugs so you may want to set the default feplot renderer to zbuffer
```
 cingui('Renderer zbuffer default')
```
MATLAB 6.0, 5.x

SDT is no longer tested and thus supported on these releases.