Historical Software Updates Click here to see Recent Software Updates for this product Click here to see all Upcoming Software Updates All dates reflect actual ship dates. 9/30/2005 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added ability to perform a draft motion-based analysis to verify linkages Added new hyperelastic material models - Arruda-Boyce and Blatz-Ko Added finite-strain viscoelastic material models for Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden, Arruda-Boyce and Blatz-Ko foam Added curve fitting for new hyperelastic material models Added ability to specify velocity and angular velocity throughout analysis Added smoothing contact parameters across different contact surfaces Improved robustness including beam elements and surface-to-surface contact Superview IV Results Environment Added isosurface display of results Added contour plots for shell thickness Added factor of safety contour displays for beam elements Added ability to specify default display settings for new models Added ability to show node numbers for minimum and maximum values Added export capability to VRML 6/30/2005 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Introduced a reduced integration scheme for original shell element Added viscoelastic material model (small strain) Added thermoelastic material for beam elements Added thermoplastic material for beam elements Improved surface-to-surface contact Improved use of system resources when pausing an analysis Superview IV Results Environment Added stand-alone animation player Added factor of safety for Mechanical Event Simulation Improved display of impact and slice planes Improved ease of use and robustness 4/1/2005 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added support for hyperfoam material properties Added support for linear thermal expansion in all hyperelastic and hyperfoam material models Improved support for large models Superview IV Results Environment Added capability to view graphs in same window as contours Added ability to save probes and Min/Max annotations Added ruler to display scale when viewing models Improved overall ease-of-use and robustness based on customer feedback Improved support for large models 12/22/2004 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added support for surface-based loads on shell elements Added support for a user-defined flexural modulus in composite elements Improved ease-of-use when setting up a static stress analysis with nonlinear material models Superview IV Results Environment Added diagnostic displays to help locate areas of an MES model leading to convergence difficulty Added ability to display sliced models using transparency Improved performance of slice planes by automatically capping element faces Improved ability to save and delete presentations 9/30/2004 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added conservation of kinetic and strain energy for 2-D surface-to-surface contact Improved accuracy and convergence of buckling and snap-through analyses by adding Riks method for problems with very quick, drastic geometric change Improved speed of surface-to-surface contact Improved support for sliding contact Improved handling of input/output data for faster run times 7/30/2004 Superview IV Results Environment Added support for user-defined result types Improved realistic beam visualization based on AISC or user-defined section properties Improved ability to select multiple nodes 7/7/2004 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added a new pulley element with full, 3-D visualization Added support for defining beam element data using AISC section properties Added support for variable surface loads Updated to an all-new parallel iterative solver that provides a significant speed increase for mid- to large-size models Added ability to specify the number of processors to use during an analysis Added parallel solver support for actuator, slider and pulley elements Improved speed of surface-to-surface contact Improved support for general cross-section beam elements Superview IV Results Environment Added realistic beam visualization based on AISC or user-defined section properties Added realistic plate visualization 4/13/2004 Superview IV Results Environment Added ability to define graphs based on the addition/subtraction of results Added ability to display X- and Y-axis labels Improved support for calculating and graphing the derivative of results 3/30/2004 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added a new spring element with full, 3-D visualization Added ability for automatic, dynamic activation of contact elements during an event which simplifies model setup and reduces simulation runtimes Improved speed of surface-to-surface contact Improved shell element convergence Monitor Introduced built-in, virtual instrumentation through an all-new Monitor for time-dependent result graphs Added ability to graph all available result types for all analysis types such as strains, maximum stress, heat flux and velocities Added support for results relative to local coordinate systems Added ability to display grid lines on graphs Superview IV Results Environment Added annotations to highlight the location of minimum and maximum results Added ability to define result probes at desired locations Added ability to display the undisplaced model using transparency Added ability to display impact planes for Mechanical Event Simulation Added embedded animation player Added ability to specify the size of vector arrows Improved tools for selecting parts, elements, faces, loads and constraints Improved ability to sum reaction forces from a Mechanical Event Simulation analysis 12/17/2003 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added ability to specify a tensile or compressive breaking stress for general contact elements Improved automation of input options for surface-to-surface contact Improved support for restart analyses involving surface-to-surface contact Improved support for beam elements used with local coordinate systems Superview IV Results Environment Added ability to include the mini-axis in image files, animations and printouts Improved support for user-specified thresholds for result contour ranges Improved display of feature lines for hand-built models 11/4/2003 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added adaptive contact stiffness calculation for improved convergence of surface-to-surface contact Improved efficiency by reducing the stress/strain output file size Improved sparse solver to provide better performance for large models Superview IV Results Environment Added transparent display capabilities (translucency) Added ability to vary display of mesh and results on individual parts Improved ability to save presentations with a model Improved ability to import presentations from a model 9/18/2003 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added capability to calculate strains for shell elements Improved contact with friction through a new Coulomb friction model Improved support for surface-to-surface contact for parts that initially touch Improved Mooney-Rivlin material model for 2-D elements Superview IV Results Environment Added ability to display plastic strain result plots for MES that provide visualization once a part has yielded and experienced permanent deformation Added ability to display results on the top and bottom of plate elements Added ability to display principal direction vectors on plate elements Improved ability to quickly smooth result contours Improved ability to quickly display the displaced shape of structural models 6/30/2003 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added automatic calculation of contact parameters including the contact tolerance which leads to accurate solutions with faster run times Added ability to restart an analysis using previously calculated stress results as initial pre-stress conditions Improved the automatic time-stepping scheme (which allows a larger time step to be used during periods of inactivity and then a smaller time step to be used when effects such as impact occur) to speed up analysis run times by intelligently reducing the total number of steps needed by using an improved method for detecting convergence Improved restart capability allows for changes to a user-defined time-step size during the simulation of an event, allowing for greater flexibility when a specific time-step size is needed Improved parallel sparse solver robustness for very large models Superview IV Results Environment Added ability to display results in an arbitrary orientation using any of the user-defined coordinate systems Added ability to display principal stress directions as vector plots Added ability to save annotations with presentations Improved speed of all dynamic viewing commands by hiding the display of load and constraint symbols during viewing operations Improved controls for quickly showing the displaced model Improved controls for setting the result smoothing options Improved controls for defining and working with slice planes Improved ability to display the maximum value (without smoothing) when displaying result contours 5/14/2003 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added automatic calculation of contact stiffness values used in surface-to-surface contact Improved performance of surface-to-surface contact for models with non-uniform surface meshes Improved support for surface-to-surface contact between 2-D elements Improved support for models with midside nodes involved in surface-to-surface contact Added ability to define local coordinate systems for defining nodal loads and constraints Improved membrane elements to consider wrinkling effects for applications involving fabrics (e.g., sails and parachutes) 4/7/2003 Superview IV Results Environment Added capability to dynamically monitor the distance between parts or surfaces involved in surface-to-surface contact during a Mechanical Event Simulation Improved support for displaying bending stress results for plastic beams Improved default settings for legend box range to provide a wider band of values Improved ability to display models using feature lines Improved ability to output inquired results to text files 2/28/2003 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Improved support for surface-to-surface contact between parts using mid-side nodes 2/6/2003 Superview IV Results Environment Added ability to display element quality contours before an analysis Improved display of element quality contours Improved display of midside nodes on triangular elements Improved display of traction and pressure loads Improved ability to modify plot settings Improved ability to inquire on displacement and precision values Improved ability to inquire on results at multiple locations and use the summary option 12/20/2002 Superview IV Results Environment Added display of part names in the tree view Added support for saving the lighting settings used with a presentation 11/14/2002 KinePak Mechanism Wizard Improved ability to define common mechanisms for analysis within FEMPRO 11/1/2002 Superview IV Results Environment Added ability for realistic rendering of springs (Mechanical Event Simulation) Added ability to choose a user-defined center of rotation either on the model or by specifying arbitrary XYZ coordinates Added ability to use keyboard modifier keys to constrain rotation about only the global X, Y or Z axis or the view's Z axis when using the arrow keys Added ability to define the angle of rotation in degrees as the incremental value for model rotations using the cursor keys Added ability to specify user-defined model views and then save, modify, delete or restore them 10/18/2002 Monitor Added ability to plot stresses and all result types at a node (Mechanical Event Simulation) Improved ability to plot nodal rotations (Mechanical Event Simulation) 10/2/2002 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Improved analysis performance for large models Improved convergence performance for shell elements on curved geometry Improved modeling flexibility through beam end releases Superview IV Results Environment Updated to an all-new, integrated environment for model visualization and results evaluation (Mechanical Event Simulation) Added docking toolbars to provide quick access to the most common commands (Mechanical Event Simulation) Added tree view that provides summary information about model data and quick access to visualization and results evaluation options (Mechanical Event Simulation) Added right-click menus for quick access from the graphics window and tree view to common commands (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides ability to simultaneously view a model and varying result types through multiple view windows (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides fast dynamic viewing options and rich colors through OpenGL-based displays (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides dynamic clipping planes for slicing models to view various profiles (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides quick access to a variety of pre-defined color palettes or a user-defined palette when displaying results (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides dynamic controls for positioning the results legend, annotations and background images (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides a display of the units related to the display in the results legend (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides mixed display options to show results only on specified parts while other parts are illustrated in their respective part colors (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides ability to save all settings for a specific presentation and view that same display at any time or use those settings with a different model (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides a slider to dynamically control the scale and display of the displaced model (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides various methods for selecting parts or elements in order to hide areas of the model in a display (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides ability to use TrueType fonts and control all related attributes for use in annotations and the results legend (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides quick and complete access to the display attributes and controls for the results legend (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides an inquire mode where results from selected objects or load and constraint data is displayed and available for copy and paste operations to other applications (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides a slider to control the display of elements based on a lower or upper result limit (Mechanical Event Simulation) Provides real-time results monitoring during an analysis (Mechanical Event Simulation) 8/23/2002 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Provides a refined automatic time-stepping routine and convergence checks for robust, fast analyses Added support for multiple surface-based loads for elements located along a part edge or on a corner 7/17/2002 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Improved support for models that contain over 256 unique parts Improved support for models that contain parts consisting of over 256 unique surfaces 5/24/2002 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Improved support for reporting the material properties of beam elements using the plastic material model Improved support for considering the user-defined shear modulus when determining the torsional rigidity of beam elements Improved support for restarting models that contain shell elements Improved support for using load curves with a large number of data points Improved support for analyzing large models with the new fast solver Improved support for automatic time-stepping when analyzing large models with the new fast solver Improved support for considering centrifugal loads on beam elements Improved feedback when user specifies that results should be printed out for a node number that is higher than contained in the model 4/24/2002 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added an all-new fast sparse solver as the default solver Added ability for sparse solver to perform parallel processing by utilizing multiple processors Improved ability to dynamically perform memory allocation when using the sparse solver Improved support for the Mooney-Rivlin (5-constant) and Mooney-Rivlin (9-constant) material models for 2-D, brick and tetrahedral elements Improved support for error handling and feedback Improved support for automatically using the required solver for models that include slider elements Improved support for using transient heat transfer analysis results and a specified stress-free reference temperature with the thermoplastic material model Improved support for out-of-core solutions using the skyline solver 2/22/2002 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Improved support for restarting models that contain enhanced shell elements 12/20/2001 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added consideration of thermal effects to the enhanced nonlinear shell element to allow for thermal stress analysis using thermoelastic and temperature-dependent orthotropic material models Added support for the new viscoelastic material model of the nonlinear shell element that allows the user the capability to model situations where the structural response changes over time due to sustained stress at elevated temperatures (thermal creep) 12/3/2001 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Improved support for outputting displacements, velocities and accelerations for out-of-range node numbers Improved robustness for models that include the enhanced nonlinear shell element and impact planes Improved support for controls relating to the nonlinear membrane element Improved support for stress calculations of nonlinear pipe elements Improved formatting of nonlinear pipe element connectivity data in log file Improved support for the automatic node numbering of nonlinear pipe elements to maintain consistency with other nonlinear line elements Improved support for the definition of the material axis rotation angle of the nonlinear shell element 11/1/2001 Superview Improved help messages for various menu commands Provides direct access to the ALGOR User's Guide from the HELP pull-down menu Provides direct access to the "Getting Started with ALGOR" video from the HELP pull-down menu Provides direct access to important areas of the ALGOR web site for additional product and service information Provides direct access to the tutorials from the HELP pull-down menu Improved support for displaying the current result type of nonlinear beam elements in a label 10/4/2001 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Improved support for orienting enhanced shell elements Added membrane element Improved performance of out-of-core skyline solver Improved output of number of linear and nonlinear shell element groups in a model Added pipe element with capability for modeling internal pressure Improved support for defining pressure points for shell elements Simplified data input for the material axis orientation angle of 2-D orthotropic elements Added option to enlarge effective 3-D contact surface area, which improves performance for certain contact problems Improved output of log file information for shell elements Improved restart/resume operation for models that include enhanced shell elements Improved output of log file information for orthotropic brick elements Improved stress calculations for 2-D Ogden, 2-D Mooney-Rivlin and 3-D Mooney-Rivlin material models 9/27/2001 Timeline Editor/Viewer Provides an all-new user interface that allows a user to view and edit the multiplier data associated with a loading event Includes full presentation support such as the capability to save curves as images for reports Provides ability to click and drag points on a plot display Provides ability to view various event curves on a single plot or multiple plots Includes a library for the saving of commonly used curves Provides ability to exchange curve data with Microsoft or other applications through the use of a comma separated value file Provides a tree view to track different event curves associated with a nonlinear structural or Mechanical Event Simulation analysis 9/6/2001 Superview Improved display of selection indicators when using the mixed display option or when working with selected element groups Improved support for creating graphic images of models that are located near the edge of the viewing window Added support for overlaying contour line plots over light or material shading Added support for the usage of up to 240 colors when defining contour plots Improved ability to display models using only the feature lines Added and updated various help messages to reflect the latest software updates Improved ability to output Superdraw geometry files with proper group numbers for any model Improved ability to save contours or other images to bitmap files that can be used within a wide range of third-party graphic applications Improved display of pressure or traction loads on nonlinear solid elements Improved ability to show beam stress results in nonlinear models where beam element groups are hidden 8/21/2001 KinePak Mechanism Wizard Provides an all-new mechanism wizard that allows the user to quickly define links and then dynamically examine the motion of various types of basic mechanisms Creates a parametric mechanism that automatically updates as the required dimensions are entered or modified Provides support for four-bar, toggle, slider/crank, class 1 lever, class 2 lever, class 3 lever and triangle mechanisms Resulting mechanism can be used as the base geometry, as "skeleton" lines of a more complex CAD or hand-constructed mechanism or to drive the motion of a more complex model Resulting mechanism can be automatically transferred to the FEA Editor Environment for further analysis Visual motion range plots quickly indicate the possible range of motion based on the current link lengths Mechanisms can be saved in several ALGOR geometry formats enabling complete flexibility in where and how the mechanism is incorporated Automatically applies appropriate constraints to the mechanism to simplify further FEA analysis Monitor Improved support for the number of result components that may be considered in unison to create a plot Added right-click inquire capability for determining the exact coordinate values of curve points Improved support for displaying results involving mathematical equations of the results from multiple nodes Added the capability to display contact forces for nodes involved in surface-to-surface contact Improved support for displaying results of Mechanical Event Simulation models that include surface-to-surface contact Added the capability to output detailed maximum stress values to an ASCII file Improved support for displaying the stresses of nonlinear beam elements Improved help messages 7/23/2001 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Improved support for contact with warped faces of any element Improved support for contact involving the ends of truss and beam elements 5/25/2001 Mechanical Event Simulation/Nonlinear Solver Added new shell element that supports isotropic and orthotropic material models Added new slider element that allows a node to move along a specified line as in a slot or guide Improved support for the handling of forces located on constrained nodes Added piezoelectric and general piezoelectric material models for brick and tetrahedral elements Added a temperature-dependent, orthotropic material model for brick and tetrahedral elements Added a Drucker-Prager material model for brick and tetrahedral elements Added a multiple-coefficient (5 and 9 coefficients) Mooney-Rivlin material model for 2-D, brick and tetrahedral elements    Nonlinear Material Model Extender Related Information Product Data Sheets Live Webcast Product Demonstrations Software In Action Software Updates Customer Application 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