Femap 10.3
What’s New
Alastair Robertson
Femap Marketing
© 2011. Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. All rights reserved
Siemens PLM Software
Femap 10.3
Launch Plan
Femap version 10.3
 RTM & Press Release:
October 5th
 Shipping to customers:
Late October
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Femap Direction
Femap continues to provide:
 A modeling environment that’s dedicated to FEA
 The in-depth, detailed functionality required to accurately model realworld parts and assemblies
 Customer driven features and functionality
Courtesy of Revolution Design
Courtesy of Predictive Engineering
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Siemens PLM Software
Femap 10.3
Primary Focus and Messages
Improved productivity through process improvement
 Automatic geometry model preparation and cleanup
 Mesh most models first time without manual geometry cleanup
 Improved free body diagram calculation and display
Increased simulation scope through discipline extensions
 Support for NEi Nastran specific functionality
Faster preprocessing through performance improvements
 Improved forced response performance
 Improved modeling functionality performance
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Siemens PLM Software
Femap 10.3
Agenda – Key Items
Automatic geometry model preparation and cleanup
NEi Nastran support
Improved Free Body diagram calculation and display
Performance improvements
Customer driven enhancements
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Automatic Solid Geometry Preparation
Geometry and Meshing Considerations
 Analysts inherit CAD models that often contain difficult geometry
 Serviceable for CAD, but cause problems with FE meshing
 Affects mesh and element quality and hence solution accuracy
 Typical problems include:
 Sliver surfaces
 Short edges
 Narrow regions
 Close points
 Internal voids
 Difficult geometry has to be fixed before the model can be meshed
 Manual geometry clean up requires much effort and time
The solution: Femap’s automatic geometry preparation capability
 Greatly reduces and in many cases completely eliminates the need for
manual combination, suppression and splitting of geometry
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Automatic Solid Geometry Preparation
 Automatic clean up allows:
 Easier meshing of complex 3D
models with problematic
geometry
 Easy removal of unnecessary
detail
 Geometry cleanup actions
performed automatically include:
 Combination of surfaces and
curves
 Suppression of small curves and surfaces
 Surface splitting at strategic locations
 User defined tolerance controls extent of
geometry changes
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Automatic Solid Geometry Preparation
 Prepare Geometry and Mesh sizing tolerances
 Guide geometry feature removal / suppression and mesh sizing
 Internal voids identified and removed
 Access to further geometry preparation and mesh sizing options
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Automatic Solid Geometry Preparation
 Full control over the extent of model simplification
 Identify a group of entities that should be ignored
 Entities that are loaded or constrained are ignored
 Set maximum sizes and angles based on geometry preparation
tolerance
 Identify individual options to be included in the cleanup process
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Automatic Solid Geometry Preparation
Benefits
 Significant time savings with finite element model creation
 Ease of use
 Solid FE models are much easier to create and mesh first time
 Combine with the interactive Meshing Toolbox to further tune and
enhance the mesh
Serial vs. Interactive Workflows
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Automatic Solid Geometry Preparation
Benefits (cont.)
 Greater FE model accuracy
 Removal of geometry imperfections that compromise element quality
 User controls ensure there is no accidental or undisclosed model
oversimplification
 Femap ensures there is no unintended loss of load / boundary
condition data
Sliver surfaces
present
Geometry healed
automatically
Model meshes first
time
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NEi Nastran Support
Composites Support
 Additional failure theories for NEi Nastran
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NEi Nastran Support
Advanced Materials
 Nitinol and Shape Memory Alloys supported
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NEi Nastran Support
Rigid Element Support for Thermal Analysis
 NEi Nastran rigid element for thermal analysis now supported
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Free Body Display
Detailed Loads Postprocessing
Free body display
 “Purest” application of FEA
providing model load transfer
at a nodal level
 Provides the engineer with
detailed information about
the load distribution and
transfer in a structure
 Key information for strength
analysis and design
 A graphical display of this
data greatly improves
comprehension and speeds
up model postprocessing
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Free Body Display
 Free body display completely overhauled
 Added to the Postprocessing Toolbox
 Direct access at a higher level
 Now an object in the Femap database
 Calculation options are stored so results are
reproducible
 Greater control of free body
display options
 Vector display
 Load components in summation
 Multiple free body displays
supported
 Enhanced API capabilities
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Free Body Display
 Free body data is obtained from a combination of:
 Grid point force balance results
 Applied loads
 Constraint equation force results
 Force Balance must be selected
prior to analysis
 Free body displays can be made
using a combination of output
requests
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Free Body Display
Creating free bodies
 Add Freebody icon in the
Freebody Tool
 Model / Output / Create Freebody
menu
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Free Body Display
Two modes of Free Body creation
1. Free Body Only mode
 Simplest method for displaying
free body diagrams
 User select the elements
 Femap picks the nodes
 Free Body vectors displayed on
the nodes
2. Interface Load mode
 Provides more control over Free Body display
 User selects both elements and nodes
 Summation vector is available
 Full control of load component contribution
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Free Body Display
Free body entity selection
 Entity select
 Entities (nodes and elements)
selected through select dialog
 Group select
 Entities (nodes and elements)
obtained from selected group
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Free Body Display
Free body loads – six types available from force balance output
1. Applied loads – loads applied to nodes
2. Reaction loads – loads from SPCs
3. Multipoint reaction loads – loads from MPCs
4. Peripheral element loads – loads from elements external to the free
body
5. Free body element loads – loads from elements internal to the free
body
6. Total sum loads – summation of previous load types
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Free Body Display
Vector types available
 Nodal forces
 Nodal moments
 Total sum forces
 Total sum moments
 Individually toggled for each
free body
 Displayed as a resultant or components
 Each component can be toggled on or off
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Free Body Display
Free body summation vector
 Total summation vector available with Interface Load method
 Force summation
 Moment calculation of all nodal
summations at a given location
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Free Body Display
Free body color options
 Node markers
 Total force vector
 Total moment vector
 Nodal force vector(s)
 Nodal moment vector(s)
View properties
 Node markers
 Symbol sizes and colors
 Vector options
 Length
 Style
 Color mode
 Scale factor
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Free Body Display
Listing Free Body data
 Force Balance
 Lists data for selected nodes to the Messages pane
 Force Balance to Data Table
 Outputs data for selected nodes to the Data Table
 Force Balance Interface Load
 Lists total load summation for selected nodes / elements to the
Messages pane
 Force Balance Interface Load to Data Table
 Outputs total load summation for selected nodes / elements to the
Data Table
 Moment arm and forces / moment contribution data can also be
included
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Free Body Display
Benefits
 Ease of use
 Free body diagrams are easier to create and recreate
 Free body diagram data is easily accessed and transferred to other
Windows applications
 Easily find transfer loads on the fly
 Greater flexibility of free body display
 Time savings
 A more streamlined user interface allows free body diagrams to be
created more quickly
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Siemens PLM Software
Femap 10.3
Performance Improvements
 Forced dynamic response – much better performance for large models
with many frequencies
 Preprocessing improvements
 Entity Editor
 Meshing Toolbox
 Model Info Tree
 Meshing of solids that already contain some meshed surfaces
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Siemens PLM Software
Femap 10.3
Customer Driven Enhancements
 Spring/Damper Element Updates
 Element creation UI updated to show CBUSH or “Other”
 New element symbols for CBUSH and “Other”
 Benefit
 Easier to work with and identify CBUSH elements
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Siemens PLM Software
Femap 10.3
Customer Driven Enhancements
 Geometry Solid Embed
 Multiple solids can be embedded into one base solid simultaneously
 Benefit
 Easier to edit and manipulate solid models
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Siemens PLM Software
Femap 10.3
Customer Driven Enhancements
 New View Alignments
 Align a view to a selected surface
 Align a view to be normal to a specified plane
 Benefit
 Easier to align and position views
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Q and A
Thank You!
Al Robertson
al.robertson@siemens.com
+1 (714) 952-5506
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