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Structural Dynamics Toolbox
Previous releases
Version 6.4
Version 6.3
Version 6.2
Version 6.1
Version 6.0
Version 5.3
Version 5.2
Version 5.1
Version 5.0
SDT 6.4
November 2011
SDT 6.4 is a relatively minor release due to significant architectural work on GUI and implicit curve models that is not yet mature enough for general release. Key features are
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significant enhancement of sensor support in terms of speed and functionality with the new stress cut (see section 4.4). The objective is to allow detailed stress analysis on arbitrary viewing meshes. This strategy is particularly interesting for the analysis of stress responses in long transients where the volume of data can become very large. Detail extensions of stress processing were also introduced with this functionality.
- proper documentation and introduction of an Euler solver was made for the study of transient heat equation problems, see section 6.1.12 and p_heat.
- feplot handling of field colors has undergone a major revision for more consistent handling and improved on the fly generation of color maps for the animation of long transients.
- partial MAC
Key features of FEMLink 3.7 are - abaqus significant robustness enhancements, in particular for parts and motion commands.
- ans2sdt improved CP reading in multi-physics configurations. Added some elements missing from the supported list. Fixed compatibility issues with newer ANSYS binaries.
- nasread introduced partial support for OUTPUT4 in text format. Detail corrections and performance enhancements.
- samcef now supports an imp2 command to build explicit second order models from implicit ones. A number of detail enhancements are also introduced.
MATLAB compatibility
- MATLAB 7.6 to 7.13 (2011b). SDT 6.4 and FEMLink 3.7 are developed for these versions of MATLAB and are fully compatible with them.
- MATLAB 7.5 is fully compatible with the exception of the new curvemodel object which requires the newer MATLAB object.
- MATLAB7.1 to 7.4 compatibility is no longer tested. But there are only minor limitations in HDF support (only affects users interested in large FEM computations).
- Earlier MATLAB releases are no longer supported.
In more detail the following functions have been significantly modified:
| feplot | fecom ColorScale commands were fully revised for improved stability and performance. ColorDataEner was fully revised to allow reuse of existing energy computations. A new InfoMass command is available to summarize component masses. ColorDataEval was significantly extended in particular for the support of StressCut selections. A new -ColorBarTitle option was added. Minor corrections to the AnimAvi command were introduced. |
| feutil | Major extension of the feutil SetPro command. Improved handling of surface sets. |
| feutilb | major improvement in matching speed (used for ConnectionSurface or StressCut). Robustness enhancement for out-of-core operations. |
| fe2ss | Minor bug corrections on damping handling. |
| fe_case | SensDof entry has been extended for better rotation sensor support. Incompatible matching speed has been greatly enhanced. The new StressCut command (see section 4.4) was introduced to allow stress processing of long transient simulations. |
| | ConnectionSurface now support multi-physics FEM problems. |
| | stack_get and set commands are now supported. |
| fe_def | Enhanced documentation, label generation, curve joining, ... |
| fe_fmesh | now packages calls to MATLAB 3D delaunay capabilities. |
| fe_mknl, basis | Fixed minor bugs with the generation of dependent coordinate systems and improved handling of round-off errors. Port of right hand side computations to of_mk has been extended. |
| fe_mpc | a new FixRbe3Alt was introduced to ease reformating of RBE3 entries. |
| fe_reduc | the documentation was rewritten. The Craig-Bampton command was revised to support out-of-core operations with .mat files in the HDF format. |
| fe_time | support for θ-method and Euler solvers has been added. Improvements of on the fly processing with have been made in of_time. Major improvements for for non-linear time simulation are being developed and will be offered as a SDT extension. |
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sdtweb | m-file opening with tag searches has been enhanced. |
| curvemodel | This new object (requires MATLAB >=7.6) is used for implicit curve models. This object is the basis for future extensions of signal processing and FEM restitution capabilities in SDT. |
| fe_sens | ToFEM option was added to the basis command to improve test mesh orientation procedures. |
| fe_simul | Static now supports mixed DofSet and DofLoad entries. |
| idcom | Robustness enhancements and improved support of quality indicator. |
| id_rm | Minor revisions for data structure support. |
| ii_mac | now supports a SubDof option for MAC computation on partial DOF sets. Documentation was rewritten. Minor bug corrections on COMAC and MACCO labels. |
| ii_plp | Extended vertical line generation capabilities. |
| iicom,iiplot | Extended support of HDF file reading. Significant extensions of polar and 2D plots. Many minor bug corrections. |
| p_piezo | Enhanced compatibility with fe_simul and minor bug fixes. |
| p_beam | Introduced NSM support for subtype 3 and revised section display capabilities. |
| p_heat | Support and documentation of solvers for transient heat equation has been extended. |
| ufread | Improved robustness reading headers. |
| upcom | Major documentation rewritting and better integration with fe_case. |
| cingui | Major revision in preparation for SDT/Java integration and improved command option handling. |
| sdthdf | improved robustness and performance. |
| line2 | was introduced as topology holder for multi-physics 3D line elements. |
| tria3 | now properly supports local fiber orientation. |
SDT 6.3
November 2010
Key features of the SDT 6.3 release are
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iiplot was significantly enhanced (multi-dimensional scanning, channel lbel generation, channel selection, ...). The SubToFig command was introduced to ease the automated report generation process.
- fe_curve signal processing and curve generation were extended and integrated into iiplot.
- sensor documentation and robustness was significantly revised to improve ease of use and access for new users (see section 4.3 and fe_sens commands Basis, Laser and WireExp).
- Tutorials on wire frame definition (section 3.1) and basic interpolation (section 3.3.2 and fe_sens('WireExp') were revised).
Key features of FEMLink 3.6 are - ans2sdt was significantly enhanced in its ability to read CDB files (and some forms of input files). Local coordinates are now supported. Material properties are read more consistently. Partial support of .sub and .cms files was introduced.
- nasread was revised for enhanced PBEAML, PBARL read/write, ASET, GENEL and OEF support, OQG read performance, ...
- ufread has new or improved support of files 776, 791, 1710, 2435, 2467, 2477
OpenFEM - Significant extensions of the ability to specify fields at nodes, DOFs and integration points were introduced. See section 7.13 (sdtweb('VectFromDir')). Associated fe_mknl commands OrientMap and MapMerge were fully revised.
- elem0 command GaussObserve that supports generation of observation information at Gauss points was extended.
- fe_time underwent many detail improvements. An implementation of the Theta method was added.
- p_beam underwent a major revision to support a wider range of pre-defined sections.
MATLAB compatibility
- MATLAB 7.4 to 7.11 (2010b). SDT 6.3 and FEMLink 3.6 are developed for these versions of MATLAB and are fully compatible with them.
- MATLAB7.1 to 7.3 compatibility is tested and there a minor limitations in HDF support. This limitation really only affects users interested in large FEM computations.
- MATLAB 6.5 and 7.0 are not compatible with this release of SDT.
The following functions have been modified. | feplot | ColorBar was fully revised to allow consistent property editing. |
| | Inits for cf.def.LabFcn are more consistent. |
| | ColorData has been extended. Eval options now support radial or tangential motion colors. -EdgeAlpha can now be specified directly to obtain transparent edges. |
| | ScaleMatch now works more consistently in mixed FEM/test displays. |
| | the material and property tabs now generate view of all elements with the associated material (earlier faces internal to the body were not shown) |
| | AnimAvi for AVI generation was rewritten for more robustness. |
| fesuper | improved restitution and minor robustness enhancements |
| feutil | performance and robustness was enhanced for AddNode. ShellMap now supports material orientation maps. AddTest (model merging) now supports material and property renumbering. Orientation problems in the divide command were fixed for surfaces. |
| | MatId, ProId now support easier property renumbering. |
| | AddElt is a new command easing addition of element groups. |
| | FindNode now supports a selection within a cylinder with cyl |
| | SetPro was introduced to associated fields with element properties stack entries (for example orientation maps) |
| | RotateNode was introduced to allow rotations without node duplication. |
| fe_case | the ConnectionScrew command was significantly extended. |
| | Assemble now supports a -reset option to force reassembly (see sdtweb('simul#feass') ). A number of minor problems were also fixed. |
| fe_cyclic | Solve-FixTan is now supported to fix the global rotation mode in 0 diameter computations. An error was corrected for periodic static and mode solutions. |
| fe_curve | Test and window commands for signal generation and windowing were fully revised. |
| fe_def | was significantly extended for GUI handling, deformation structure manipulation (see section 7.8 for SubDef, SubDof, Exp), Curve[Join,Cat] were extended, ... |
| fe_eig | method 5 was rewritten to optimize accuracy and memory handling |
| fe_gmsh | the OpenFEM driver for GMSH was revised |
| fe_mpc | a rbe32c command for RBE3 to MPC transformation was added. |
| fe_reduc | now consistently supports the -matdes option. |
| fe_quality | for mesh quality evaluation was improved for robustness |
| iicom,iiplot | have undergone major revisions for label generation, multi-dimensional array viewing, scanning of 2D views (spectrogram, ...), integration with signal processing in ii_mmif. |
| | The MATLAB waitforbuttonpress bug is bypassed. The SubToFig command eases manual editing of iiplot figures. The polar command extends support of polar plots. |
| idcom | now support cursor interaction in the identification error plot. EstLocal the narrow frequency band estimator was rewritten to improve results in cases with closely spaced modes. |
| ii_mac | was revised and now supports interactivity with feplot (see feplot('Show2def-mac')) |
| ii_mmif | robustness and signal processing capabilities were significantly enhanced |
| iimouse | significant architecture changes and rewrite of view and current view (cv) commands. |
| nor2ss | now support -foh and -zoh options for discrete time state space model generation. |
| p_solid | supports better defaults. |
| p_beam | was significantly rewritten. |
| sdthdf | due to MATLAB bug corrections, support of HDF 5 is now stable for MATLAB >= 7.10 |
| sdtweb | now allows m-file opening with tag searches. This is used to ease documentation of internal commands. |
| comgui | imwrite used to generate captures was significantly revised and supports -clipboard and -ftitle options. |
SDT 6.2
November 2009
Key features of the SDT 6.2 release are
- a major revision of the iiplot interface was introduced to improve
label handling, support the direct display of time simulation results,
integration of signal processing capabilities of ii_mmif, 2D displays associated with
time/frequency plots, ...
- fecom, and iicom usability is improved
with new icons, revised menus, iiplot/ feplot interaction, interactive mesh editing,
default model properties, ...
- improved the readability of the documentation through
keyword highlighting in both the HTML and PDF, see section 1.4.
- introduction of a generic file for test setup
definitions typically filled with Excel. This significantly simplified the
definition of sensors and triaxes normal to the supporting surface as well
as laser vibrometer measurement specification.
- full rewrite of node matching algorithms which
enhances speed for mesh generation, sensor matching, incompatible mesh
handling, ...
Key features of FEMLink 3.5 are
- ufread has been modified to improve
robustness to fields containing blanks, enhance reading speed and correct
problems with local coordinate systems.
- abaqus has been extended and optimized.
- samcef import/export capabilities have been
extended.
- ans2sdt was revised for a better support of
degenerate elements.
- nasread was extended to support variations
introduced in NASTRAN 2007. Stress reading from op2
files was improved.
OpenFEM has undergone many detail improvements and the following
revisions
- The support of general fields at nodes has been
significantly generalized with labels identifying the fields for easier
generation of families of elements with implementations depending on fields
actually present (typical fields are constitutive properties, material
orientations, thickness, temperature, pressure, ...). The first version of
a property interpolation mechanism based on tables is introduced.
- a better mechanism to return to MATLAB after the field
extraction and Jacobian computations of each element is introduced.
- composite shell support has been extended.
Compatibility
- SDT 6.2 is compatible with MATLAB 7.1 to 2009b (7.9). Currently compiled
platforms are Windows (32 & 64), Linux (32 & 64) and MacOS. For
earlier releases, see details
- SDT 6.2 is the ONLY version compatible with MATLAB > 7.8 (R2009a) on
64 bit platforms.
- Release notes can be found in the documentation http://www.sdtools.com/help/rel62.htm.
- For download/installation procedures see www.sdtools.com/faq/Release.html.
The following functions have significant modifications
iiplot
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has undergone significant extensions for
improved dataset support (direct display of FEM responses, selection in
multi-dimension datasets, ...), mouse interactivity, improved menus and
icons. Many detailed robustness enhancements. |
| idcom |
now support cursor interaction in the
identification error plot. |
| fe_sens |
introduced cell array description of
complex test setups (see section 4.3.2), improved sensor matching
robustness |
| ii_mmif |
signal processing capabilities have been
significantly extented. Processing of FEM time deformations can now be
done directly. |
| fe2ss |
now supports parametric models |
| fesuper |
many detail improvements in superlement
building and restitution |
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feplot, fecom
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improved support for the display of stack
entries. |
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Display of sensor entries has been improved
through bug corrections on the cursor, compatibility with TextDof command. |
| fe_case |
improved of RBE3 support. |
| fe_cyclic |
support of periodic rather than cyclic
solutions. Major extensions of the cyclic symmetry capabilities are
under way be will be distributed as a SDT-Rotor module. |
| fe_mknl, fe_case |
Significant efforts where done to clarify
debugging information when improper models are used. |
| fe_quality |
This new function supports many estimates
of finite element mesh quality. |
| feutil |
improved face support. Corrected bugs in
r based node selection. All mesh building
commands have been ported so that femesh can be bypassed alltogether. This
seems easier to learn for new users. |
| fe_stres |
the function has been renamed fe_stress (the limitation on 8 characters
being very obsolete). Bugs in shell stress processing have been
corrected. |
| q4cs |
the SDT composite/piezo element has
undergone a major revision for improved orientation handling and stress
computations. |
SDT 6.1
August 2008
Key features of the SDT 6.1 release are
- Significant extensions, optimization and robustness enhancements for iiplot and feplot property editors.
- Major extensions of the superelement capabilities with optimized full and partial restitution for models with millions of nodes.
- Significant refinement and robustness enhancement for sensors: improved matching, detailed visualization, ...
- Extensions of the support tools state-space model building for active structures, see section 6.6.
- Performance enhancement on the handling of large models.
Key features of FEMLink 3.4 are
- nasread, naswrite have undergone further speed optimization, support for property conversion has been extended.
- abaqus has been extended and optimized. This release is the first to introduce a mechanism for ODB export to an SDT readable format.
- ans2sdt .cdb support has been extended. Robustness modifications were performed for ANSYS 11 compatibility.
- samcef import/export capabilities have been optimized.
OpenFEM has undergone many detail improvements and the following revisions
- model manipulations in feutil and fe_mknl have been optimized for very large models.
- field at node definitions are now much more consistenly implemented and sforwarded to element level computations. This capability is used for general shell, thermoelasticity or to support fully anistropic properties defined by fields.
- element functions have been been extended
for a better automated support of user defined problem
formulations. 2D volumes and boundaries now work consistently and were
applied to 2D heat diffusion problems (see ofdemos
AnnularHeat).
Compatibility
Function with significant extensions
fe2ss
| support for Rayleigh damping specification. Support state display in feplot. |
| feplot, fecom | Optimized loading and colordata operations. Improved robustness of the property figure (multiple sensor, boundary condition selection, rapid selection of groups, materials and properties shown, simple delete of stack entries, ...). Improved the robustness of selection cursors (use context menu Cursor:Stack. |
| | Support of partial restitution of superelements. Selections now support a -linface to allow animations without use of the mid-side nodes of quadratic elements. |
| | Improved Stack and CStack operations with multi-level name based indexing and regular expressions. |
| fe_coor | major optimization for the handling of models in the 1e6 DOF range. |
| fe_cyclic | support of periodic rather than cyclic solutions. Major extensions of the cyclic symmetry capabilities are under way be will be distributed as a SDT-Rotor module. |
| fe_mknl,fe_case | assembly operations have been optimized for large models in both memory use and speed. The definition of a model.Dbfile can be used to allow off-load to a database. |
| fesuper | major optimization of superelement assembly and introduction of partial restitution mechanisms. Extension of feplot to support on the fly partial restitution. |
| feutil | major performance enhancements for large model handling. These apply to selection mechanisms, lin2quad transformation. |
| q4cs | speed optimization. |
| fe_sens | significant robustness enhancements in SensMatch and all sensor related commands. See section 4.3. |
| fe_simul | introduces optimized assembly, more consistent consideration of damping, ... |
| iiplot, idcom | significant robustness and performance optimization. Cursor linking abscissa and deformation shown in feplot. |
| ii_mmif | major extensions of signal processing capabilities integrated in the iicom GUI, see section 2.1.6. |
| v_handle | support for
variable handles stored in HDF5 .mat files has been introduced. This
is the basis for fecom load-hdf, which loads
minimal information into feplot, and model.Dbfile
support. |
SDT 6.0
June 2007
SDT 6.0 is marks a major revision of SDT. Key features of the release are
- A complete revision of the GUI functions feplot and iiplot, with great extensions of the property viewing capabilities as well as easier command line access to data in the figure. See section 5.1 and section 3.1.
- A complete rewriting of the superelement modeling features, with transformations of parts into models, optimized restitution, ... See section 6.2.
- A major generalization of the notion of sensors for both analysis and test/analysis correlation, see section 5.4.
- Major optimization, for large models, of the fe_case connections commands.
- The introduction of support tools for structures with piezoelectric materials, modeled using volume or shell elements, see section 6.5. The q4cs shell now fully supports classical lamination theory and piezoelectric actuation/sensing.
Key features of FEMLink 3.3 are - nasread, naswrite have been the object of many detail improvements in particular for large model read/write.
- abaqus is the new interface to read and write ABAQUS models.
- ans2sdt ANSYS 9-11 support and large file handling was refined. Reading of ASCII format full matrix, reading and writing of .cdb model files were introduced.
- samcef import/export capabilities to SAMCEF have been greatly enhanced.
OpenFEM has undergone many detail improvements and the following revisions
- Support for material orientation maps for surfaces and volumes that are useful in composite and biomechanics applications.
- An OpenMP parallel version of matrix assembly, that can be used for non-linear solutions is available trough separate downloads (with minor interactions with a MATLAB bug at exit).
- support for definition of selections through sets, which is compatible with most CAE environments, has been fundamentally revised.
- Time integration capabilities have undergone significant optimization (fe_time) .
- the GMSH has undergone significant extension.
Version 5.3
April 2006
Key features of the SDT 5.3 release are
- MATLAB 7 integration, this release takes real advantage of new Matlab 7 features. 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.
- Optimization efforts have been made on the feplot and iiplot which result in significant stability and speed gains when dealing with large data sets or models.
- the new q4cs shell element based on an MITC4 formulation fixes limitations that existed in earlier shell elements. Classical lamination theory is fully supported and support of piezoelectric shells is under experimentation. Piezoelectric volume formulations are now supported.
- The v_handle object now implement a number of out-of-core operations that can be used when dealing with large FEM models. This is used by feplot which can now dynamically read shapes from a file, fe_reduc which can use out of core operations and functions that use shapes read from a binary FEM file.
- The incompatible mesh matching features feutilb Match (given a position find intrinsic coordinates within the matching volume of surface element) and MpcFromMatch build linear constraints giving displacement and possibly rotation at the matched node) have been significantly enhanced. This is currently used for advanced connection models accessible through fe_case Connection commands. Possible uses of the base capability are enhanced test/analysis correlation capabilities, support for strain sensors, general non-conform mesh handling, contact problems, ...
OpenFEM (the FEM engine included in SDT) has undergone major revisions to get it ready for fully non linear applications. Although no working application is distributed, a number of key capabilities are included in this distribution.
- To ease the use for multi-physics problems, DOFs used by an element are now normally dependent on the declared element properties. Standard shapes (hexa8, ...) are thus topology holders (8 node volumes) rather than associated with a particular physics formulation. The implementation of a particular set of physics is now entirely defined in the associated property function p_solid for 2D and 3D mechanics, linear acoustics and fluid structure coupling, p_heat for the heat equation, p_piezo for piezoelectrive volumes and shells. Other applications not included in the distribution are the generation of layered shell models with variable numbers of layers or the development of poroelastic formulations based in Biot's model. This major change can affect the result of GetDof commands when the properties are not defined.
- Compilation for generic elements has progressed so that you can now define new formulations that include right hand side and stress computations with to need to enter of_mk or fe_mknl. These developments are associated with some performance enhancements and a more consistent set of error reports. sdtdef('diag',12) can now be used in a debugging mode for many assembly related problems. Non linear follower pressure forces are now supported.
- The selection of integrations rules in the element properties is now consistently implemented. This is particularly important for non-linear problems but is also used in post-processing applications since it allows stress evaluations at other points than model assembly.
- Time integration capabilities (fe_time) have been significantly enhanced with optimization for explicit integration and implementation of output sub-sampling techniques that allow for different steps for integration and output. Definitions of time variations of loads is now consistently made using curves (see fe_curve).
- an interface to GMSH has been introduced to give an access to its interesting unstructured meshing capabilities.
Key features of FEMLink 3.2 are - nasread has been significantly optimized in particular for very large file support in relation with the v_handle object which allows random access to large data sets (deformations stored in .op2 and .op4 formats).
- naswrite has been significantly extended for bulk generation and editing, OUTPUT4 matrix writing, remote job handling.
- ans2sdt now supports ANSYS 9 and 10 version.
- perm2sdt the PERMAS reading interface has been fully rewritten allowing for much faster and consistent reading. Subcomponents are now supported.
- samcef import/export capabilities to SAMCEF have been introduced.
This version is compatible with MATLAB 6.5 to 7.2 (2006a).
Version 5.2
May 2005
Key features of the SDT 5.2 release are
- 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. Handling of large models has improved significantly.
- 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.
- 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.
This version is compatible with MATLAB > 6.1. It is the only
version compatible with MATLAB 7 (R14, R14.1 R14.2).
Version 5.1
October 2003
The SDT 5.1 and FEMLink 3.0 release introduces
SDT 5.1 is developed for MATLAB
R12 and R13. It is compatible with MATLAB R11 (6.0) with minor restrictions on graphics linked to MATLAB bugs. SDT 5.1 is not compatible versions of MATLAB older than 6.0.
SDT 5.1 is currently available on Windows, Linux, SGI, HP-UX
For download/demo procedures see www.sdtools.com/faq/Release.html.
Version 5.0
September 2002
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The SDT 5.0 release introduces
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A major rework of Graphical User Interfaces
(GUI) allow graphical editing of many properties of
feplot and iiplot figure properties,
FEM model properties, idcom options, ...
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A major upgrade of the finite element tools as a result
of the OpenFEM
project.
This release introduces compiled versions of volume elements,
new volume and 2-D elements, proper support of volume and
surface loads, generalized material support, ...
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• |
A major revision of the manual, to introduce many short
examples for easier learning.
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Finite element models are now stored in a data structure
that allows more structured access to materials,
element properties. The new case
data structure declares boundary conditions,
loads and varying physical parameters
which are seamlessly used by standard solvers.
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The spfmex sparse matrix library
(introduced in SDT 4.1p1)
provides a fast and memory efficient alternative to standard matlab
solvers. This library is now the default static solver for the
skyline object.
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