SDT 7.5 pre-release posted

SDT 7.5 is compatible with MATLAB 9.4 (2018b) to 24.1 (2024a). In the base and FEMLink modules, key changes of this release are

  • To answer customer requests on making numerical and test processes accessible through GUI, revision and extension work has continued. In particular
    • for the tabs Ident identification of modal tests, MAC shape correlation, MDRE expansion, Report automated report generation.
    • This is enabled by the continued rewrite of the SDT handle and sdtm allowed implementation of generic utilities transversely used in SDT. urn resolutions for object search urnObj. Callback and string formatting urn_fmt are now more explicitly documented. User readability of parameters is better supported using vhandle.uo objects. Integration of graphical tables is now uniformly supported by vhandle.tab.
    • code was made compatible with the deployment of GUI using the MATLAB Compiler and Runtime license.
  • Parametric superelement/reduced model handling continues to be a key capability that differentiates SDT from other software. The latest developments are
    • uniformisation efforts to render SDT a FEM code neutral import form the major software (NASTRAN, ANSYS, Abaqus, …). This has driven recent FEMLink developments of nasread, ans2sdt, abaqus, and documentation efforts SeImport.
    • to answer the need to efficiently animate models in tens of million of DOF and deal with confidentiality issues, new level-set based model selections for display as plane cuts combinations for feplot, see selcut.
    • GUI interactions between state-space building fe2ss  frequency response computations qbode, and state-animation have been notably extended.
    • ability to use superelements in test-analysis correlation processes
    • parametric superelements deal with reduced models with stiffness, complex modulus, mass, thickness, … aggregated in element groups zCoef or distributed in non-linearities NLdata.
    • Integration of parameter inputs in abaqus for SDT compatible types.
    • for large FEM, DOE, JobH applications, out-of-core functionalities have been thoroughly revised and extended. Revision of sdthdfmethods for HDF5 support with optimized read/write capabilities and improved robustness. Implementation of omat object for out-of-core numerical data handling, supporting several underlying file strategies (extended v6, low level HDF5 or high level MATLAB builtin commands HDF5).
    • job generation and monitoring for abaqus, combined with module SDT/JobH
    • cases reduced using nominal periodicity and extendend to variable properties  [2, 3, 4, 5]
  • In relation to the experimental vibration applications
    • ufread and fe_sens support better channel label translation
    • on the experimental modal analysis side, the handling of parametric tests (dependence on temperature, loading, amplitude, …)
  • To support of the development of efficient custom solvers
    • low level optimization associated with time integration continued with performance optimization in vhandle.matrix, viscoelastic transient models, …
    • Contact support for ans2sdt and abaqus, combined with SDT/Contact, or translated as MPC.
    • Moving contact of surfaces was notably extended for the simulation of rail-wheel contact problems.
  • Piezo capabilities for active control and SHM applications, were continued and the associated documentation (https://www.sdtools.com/help/piezo.pdf) will be updated soon.