Release notes for SDT 6.3 and FEMLink 3.6

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1.8 Release notes for SDT 6.3 and FEMLink 3.6

1.8.1 Key features

Key features of the SDT 6.3 release are

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.

For MATLAB compatibility see section 1.9.3.

1.8.2 Detail by function

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.

1.8.3 Notes by MATLAB release

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.