Release notes for SDT 6.4 and FEMLink 3.7

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1.9 Release notes for SDT 6.4 and FEMLink 3.7

1.9.1 Key features

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

significant enhancement of sensor support in terms of speed and functionality with the new stress cut (see section 4.7). 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 6.1.13 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.
rewriting of documentation and improvement of correlation criteria.

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.

For MATLAB compatibility see section 1.9.3.

1.9.2 Detail by function

The following functions have been 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 4.7) 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 reformatting 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.
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.

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.
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.
line2	was introduced as topology holder for multi-physics 3D line elements.
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 rewriting 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.
tria3	now properly supports local fiber orientation.

1.9.3 Notes by MATLAB release

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.