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Patran ® 2010 Release Guide

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The Patran 2010 Release Guide. Description of the new features including CAD Access, MD Nastran preference enhancements for Improved Load Step/Subcase Designation, Contact and Composites. The release guide also has descriptions of the new GUI skins, 64 bit ports on Windows and Linux, F1 help from the web and more.

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Page 1: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran® 2010

Release Guide

Page 2: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Worldwide Webwww.mscsoftware.com

DisclaimerThis documentation, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used only in accordance with the terms of such license.

MSC.Software Corporation reserves the right to make changes in specifications and other information contained in this document without prior notice.

The concepts, methods, and examples presented in this text are for illustrative and educational purposes only, and are not intended to be exhaustive or to apply to any particular engineering problem or design. MSC.Software Corporation assumes no liability or responsibility to any person or company for direct or indirect damages resulting from the use of any information contained herein.

User Documentation: Copyright 2010 MSC.Software Corporation. Printed in U.S.A. All Rights Reserved.

This notice shall be marked on any reproduction of this documentation, in whole or in part. Any reproduction or distribution of this document, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of MSC.Software Corporation is prohibited.

The software described herein may contain certain third-party software that is protected by copyright and licensed from MSC.Software suppliers. Contains IBM XL Fortran for AIX V8.1, Runtime Modules, (c) Copyright IBM Corporation 1990-2002, All Rights Reserved.

MSC, MSC/, MSC Nastran, MD Nastran, MSC Fatigue, Marc, Patran, Dytran, and Laminate Modeler are trademarks or registered trademarks of MSC.Software Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

NASTRAN is a registered trademark of NASA. PAM-CRASH is a trademark or registered trademark of ESI Group. SAMCEF is a trademark or registered trademark of Samtech SA. LS-DYNA is a trademark or registered trademark of Livermore Software Technology Corporation. ANSYS is a registered trademark of SAS IP, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ANSYS Inc. ACIS is a registered trademark of Spatial Technology, Inc. ABAQUS, and CATIA are registered trademark of Dassault Systemes, SA. EUCLID is a registered trademark of Matra Datavision Corporation. FLEXlm is a registered trademark of Macrovision Corporation. HPGL is a trademark of Hewlett Packard. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. PTC, CADDS and Pro/ENGINEER are trademarks or registered trademarks of Parametric Technology Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Unigraphics, Parasolid and I-DEAS are registered trademarks of UGS Corp. a Siemens Group Company. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Revision 0. February 24, 2010

P3:V2010:Z:Z:Z:DC-REL-PDF

Corporate Europe Asia Pacific

MSC.Software Corporation2 MacArthur PlaceSanta Ana, CA 92707 USATelephone: (800) 345-2078Fax: (714) 784-4056

MSC.Software GmbHAm Moosfeld 1381829 Munich, GermanyTelephone: (49) (89) 43 19 87 0Fax: (49) (89) 43 61 71 6

MSC.Software Japan Ltd.Shinjuku First West 8F23-7 Nishi Shinjuku1-Chome, Shinjuku-Ku Tokyo 160-0023, JAPANTelephone: (81) (3)-6911-1200Fax: (81) (3)-6911-1201

Page 3: Patran 2010 Release Guide

C o n t e n t sPatran Release Guide

Patran ReleaseGuide,

1 Patran 2010 at a Glance

Key Highlights 2CAD Access 2

InterOp R20 SP1 2Parasolid 20 2Catia V5 R19 2NX 5 / NX 6 2Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 2

MD Nastran and MSC Nastran Support 3Implicit Nonlinear Analysis (SOL 400) 3

General Enhancements 4Set Current Working Directory 4New GUI Skins 464 Bit Port 4SimManager R3 - Linux Integration 4Patran Help on the Web 4Utilities 4Hybrid Surface Mesher 4

Supported OS/Hardware Platforms 5

Supported CAD Access 6

Supported Analysis Preferences 7

Technical Support 8Web 8Phone and Fax 9Email 10

2 General Enhancements

Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400) 2Step/Subcase Designation 2

Set Current Working Directory 3

Shaded Background Used For Non-MD Patran 4

Page 4: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release Guide

iv

How to Control The Background Effects of New Databases 4How to Change The Background Effects of the Current Viewport 5

New GUI Skins 6Overview 6Application Icon Ribbons 7Quick Access Bar 10Skins Installation Options 12

Native 64 Bit Port 13Tips and Tricks for Manipulating Large Models in Patran 13

SimManager R3 Integration on Linux 16

Patran Help on the Web 18

ABAQUS Preference Enhancements 191D Pressure Elements 19Inertia Loads on 0D (point) Elements 20Support for RBE2 and RBE3 21

Auto Select Picking 22

Shareware 23MechPat 23FEM-Elements -Regular Cube Mesher 2 24Solid Sphere Mesher 25Campbell Diagram Utility 26

Customer Requests 27

29

Index 29

Page 5: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a Glance Patran Release Guide

1Patran 2010 at a Glance

Key Highlights 2

Supported OS/Hardware Platforms 5

Supported CAD Access 6

Supported Analysis Preferences 7

Technical Support 8

Page 6: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideKey Highlights

2

1.1 Key Highlights

CAD Access

InterOp R20 SP1

The Spatial InterOp, Parasolid based translators, have been updated to the R20 SP 1 revision. This gives CAD access support based on the table in Supported CAD Access, 6. MSC makes periodic updates to CAD access and are available through download patches at:

http://www.mscsoftware.com/support/software_updates/#patran

Note that MSC has converted to the new Connect API version of the Spatial InterOp translators.

Parasolid 20

Parasolid import now supports up to version 20. The Patran Parasolid kernel is based on Parasolid 19.

Catia V5 R19

Support for Catia V5 R19 is available through the Parasolid import method using the Spatial InterOp translators.

NX 5 / NX 6

Support for NX 5 is available on most platforms and NX 6 on Windows is now available.

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0

Support for CAD import of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 is available in this release.

Page 7: Patran 2010 Release Guide

3Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a GlanceKey Highlights

MD Nastran1 and MSC Nastran Support

Implicit Nonlinear Analysis (SOL 400)

The following enhancements are provided for support of implicit nonlinear analysis.

• Improved Load Step/Subcase Designation

• Contact: Improved support of BCTABLE and BCBODY Nastran entries when defining contact bodies and their interaction

• Composites: Improved support of PCOMP and PCOMPLS Nastran entries when defining composite definitions for shell and 3D solid elements

See Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400), 2 and Customer Requests, 27

1SOLs 400 and 700 are only available in MD Nastran and must be submitted using Patran running in MD mode.

Page 8: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideKey Highlights

4

General Enhancements

Set Current Working Directory

The ability to set the current working directory was added in this release. See section Set Current Working Directory, 3 for details.

New GUI Skins

The capability to change the Patran graphical user interface (GUI) skin on the Windows platforms is available in this release. Details can be found in section New GUI Skins, 6.

64 Bit Port

A production version of Patran for Windows and Linux 64 bit machines is available in this release. The 32 bit version of Patran can still be run on 64 bit machines. Some details of the 64 bit port are listed in Native 64 Bit Port, 13.

SimManager R3 - Linux Integration

Publish, and retrieve Patran databases and related analysis files through the SimManager R3 client/server access. This functionality is now available on Linux 32. See SimManager R3 Integration on Linux, 16 for details.

Patran Help on the Web

The Patran 2010 context sensitive help is now available from MSCSoftware.com. See Patran Help on the Web, 18 for details.

Utilities

Please review the Utilities/ What is New menu to see additions/updates made to the utilities.

Hybrid Surface Mesher

The hybrid surface mesher is now generally available in addition to the isosurface and paver meshers for meshing surfaces and 2D geometry.

Page 9: Patran 2010 Release Guide

5Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a GlanceSupported OS/Hardware Platforms

1.2 Supported OS/Hardware Platforms

For a complete description of these configurations, see Required Hardware & Software Configurations (Ch. 5) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Vendor Description

HP (PA-RISC) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Hewlett-Packard HP-UX (PA-RISC) Requirements (p. 82) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

SUN (Solaris) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Sun Solaris Requirements (p. 86) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Intel (Windows) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Microsoft Windows Requirements (p. 87) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Intel (Linux) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Linux Requirements (p. 91) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

IBM (AIX) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see IBM AIX Requirements (p. 84) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Page 10: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideSupported CAD Access

6

1.3 Supported CAD Access

HP(PA-RISC) SUN IBM RS/6000

Windows 2000 / XP /

Vista Linux

CATIA V4*

*A CATIA CATXPRES (.cat) file can be imported. On Windows and Linux, only the CATIA to Parasolid translator is available and the CAT Direct Translator which runs CATIA in batch mode is not available.

4.2.4 4.2.4 4.2.4 4.2.4 4.2.4

CATIA V5 R19 R19 R19 R19

Pro/ENGINEER†

† The p3_ProE and p3_ProENGINEER executables are built using Pro/ENGINEER version 2000i and therefore will not work with earlier versions of Pro/ENGINEER. p3_ProE and p3_ProENGINEER Access allows reading of .geo geometry transfer files generated from other OS installs of Pro/ENGINEER Access. See Pro/ENGINEER Access Setup (p. 14) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Wildfire 4.0 Wildfire 4.0 Wildfire 4.0 Wildfire 4.0

Unigraphics‡

‡ UG NX supports only 64 bit machines.

NX5.0 NX5.0 NX5.0 NX6.0 XMT**

**Only Parasolid (transmit file) import is supported. Parasolid transmit files generated on other OS platforms can be imported on LINUX.

I-DEAS 11.0 12.0 11.0 12.0

Parasolid 20 20 20 20 20

ACIS 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0

Page 11: Patran 2010 Release Guide

7Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a GlanceSupported Analysis Preferences

1.4 Supported Analysis PreferencesSolver Platforms Solver Version

MD NastranMSC Nastran All

MD Nastran R3MSC Nastran 2010 *

*As of the release of Patran 2010, MSC Nastran 2010 and Marc 2010 have not been released.

Marc All 2010 *

Dytran All 2008 r1

Flightloads All 2008 r1

Thermal All 2008 r1

Fatigue All 2008 r1

MSC Sinda All 2008 r1

LS-DYNA3D All 970

PAMCRASH All 1995 / 1997

SAMCEF All 11 / 12

ABAQUS†

†ABAQUS discontinued platforms remain at the level of support at the time they were discontinued by HKS. For instance SUN support is frozen at 6.4.

All 6.8

ANSYS‡

‡Results access is enhanced to 11.0 (results import is frozen at 8.1).

All 11.0

Page 12: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideTechnical Support

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1.5 Technical SupportFor help with installing or using an MSC.Software product, contact your local technical support services. Our technical support provides the following services:

• Resolution of installation problems

• Advice on specific analysis capabilities

• Advice on modeling techniques

• Resolution of specific analysis problems (e.g., fatal messages)

• Verification of code error.

If you have concerns about an analysis, we suggest that you contact us at an early stage.

You can reach technical support services on the web, by telephone, or e-mail:

Web

Go to the MSC.Software website at www.mscsoftware.com, and click on Support. Here, you can find a wide variety of support resources including application examples, technical application notes, available training courses, and documentation updates at the MSC.Software Training, Technical Support, and Documentation web page.

Page 13: Patran 2010 Release Guide

9Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a GlanceTechnical Support

Phone and Fax

United States

Telephone: (800) 732-7284

Fax: (714) 784-4343

Frimley, CamberleySurrey, United Kingdom

Telephone: (44) (1276) 67 10 00

Fax: (44) (1276) 69 11 11

Munich, Germany

Telephone: (49) (89) 43 19 87 0

Fax: (49) (89) 43 61 71 6

Tokyo, Japan

Telephone: (81) (3) 3505 02 66

Fax: (81) (3) 3505 09 14

Rome, Italy

Telephone: (390) (6) 5 91 64 50

Fax: (390) (6) 5 91 25 05

Paris, France

Telephone: (33) (1) 69 36 69 36

Fax: (33) (1) 69 36 45 17

Moscow, Russia

Telephone: (7) (095) 236 6177

Fax: (7) (095) 236 9762

Gouda, The Netherlands

Telephone: (31) (18) 2543700

Fax: (31) (18) 2543707

Madrid, Spain

Telephone: (34) (91) 5560919

Fax: (34) (91) 5567280

Page 14: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideTechnical Support

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Email

Send a detailed description of the problem to the email address below that corresponds to the product you are using. You should receive an acknowledgement that your message was received, followed by an email from one of our Technical Support Engineers.

Patran Support

MD Nastran Support

MSC.Dytran Support

MSC.Fatigue Support

MSC.Marc Support

MSC.Mvision Support

MSC.SuperForge Support

MSC Institute Course Information

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Page 15: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Chapter 2: General Enhancements Patran Release Guide

2General Enhancements

Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400) 2

Set Current Working Directory 3

New GUI Skins 6

Native 64 Bit Port 13

SimManager R3 Integration on Linux 16

Patran Help on the Web 18

ABAQUS Preference Enhancements 19

Auto Select Picking 22

Shareware 23

Customer Requests 27

Page 16: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideImplicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400)

2

2.1 Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400)

Step/Subcase Designation

The previous method for designating which load steps were to be used to start new subcases was confusing and un-intuitive. A new method has been added that graphically shows the step/subcase distinction, giving you graphical confirmation of how the analysis will be run. A toggle on the Subcase Select form lets you go between the old and new methods.

Old method required a list of all load steps and forced the user to define the steps that designated the beginning of a new Nastran Subcase

New method allows visualization of Subcases and their Load Step in a tree-widget as shown here. Use the right mouse button on items on the tree to add, remove, and move Load Steps and Subcases. Items in the tree are also displayed in the original listboxes.

Page 17: Patran 2010 Release Guide

3Chapter 2: General EnhancementsSet Current Working Directory

2.2 Set Current Working DirectoryThe ability to set the current working directory to where the database resides is now possible. This also controls the location where Patran writes files, including job files from analysis jobs submitted through Patran.

This capability is available from the File|New, File|Open & File|Open Recent dialog forms. The File|Open Recent dialog also allows for more recent files to be viewed directly from the form and automatically opened if selected (this is controllable via a toggle).

Page 18: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideShaded Background Used For Non-MD Patran

4

2.3 Shaded Background Used For Non-MD PatranWhen MD Patran was introduced to support the new capabilities available (only) in MD Nastran, the Patran viewport background for this version was modified to allow multi-color shaded effects. The default Patran background when the “-iam MD” option was used was two different colors of blue with horizontal shading. As MD Nastran moved into “mainstream” usage, MSC removed the licensing distinction between MD Patran and MSC Patran (now called “Patran”). In Patran 2010, the final step in merging the MD capabilities into core Patran was to make the shaded background available in all “-iam” options. Please note that the function of the “-iam MD” flag is still in effect, e.g. this flag is still required to activate the MD Nastran functionality in Patran.

There are two areas where you can control the background appearance, one controls the background of a “new” database and the other controls the background of the current viewport.

How to Control The Background Effects of New DatabasesThe default background effects of a database opened using File – New is controlled under Preferences – Graphics – Default Background Color. Here you can specify the viewport color and shading used when a new database is opened. The values selected here will be stored in settings.pcl (if writable) such that you only need to change this once per installation. As a user convenience there is an “All Existing Viewports” toggle (turned ON by default) on this form that will also cause Patran to change the background of all existing viewports in the current database at the same time they change the defaults for databases to be opened in the future. If this toggle is not enabled then no visual changes will occur and the modification will only be visible when a new database is created.

Under Preferences – Graphics – Default Background Color you can change the default color and shading effects used for newly created databases and existing viewports.

Page 19: Patran 2010 Release Guide

5Chapter 2: General EnhancementsShaded Background Used For Non-MD Patran

How to Change The Background Effects of the Current ViewportThe background color and shading of the current viewport (if multiple viewports are used, each viewport can have a different background color and shading method) is controlled in two places. The main control is under Viewport – Modify – Attributes. These settings are stored in the database and thus will persist upon opening and closing the database.

A more user-friendly way to quickly control the background color is offered through the “Cycle Background” 3-way toggle icon found on the Home ribbon, which may also be found on the Quick Access Bar. Each time this icon is pressed the background will change from the current background color, to black, to white and repeats. You can set this in Viewport – Modify, to black, to white.

Page 20: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideNew GUI Skins

6

2.4 New GUI Skins

OverviewPatran’s graphical user interface (GUI) on Windows can now sport a new look and feel. New GUI skins are available using the -skin command line argument:

%patran -skin <skin>

where the available skins are:

office2007 (default)xproyalexplunale5vistaxptunes

The database content is independent of which GUI skin option is used, including the legacy Patran skin (no -skin option used) so there is no problem switching skins on the same database between Patran sessions. The desk top icon properties for invoking Patran can be edited to bring up Patran with the desired skin.

Turn on skins by using the -skin option on the command line.

Page 21: Patran 2010 Release Guide

7Chapter 2: General EnhancementsNew GUI Skins

Application Icon RibbonsThe new GUI skins provide for application icon ribbons allowing the user to avoid the normal permutation of pull-down menus by providing easy-access ribbon toolbars populated with icon buttons. Once selected the icon takes the user to the same application menu form they are accustomed to seeing, thus there is no learning curve required. See picture below.

Used in conjunction with the new right mouse button (RMB) capabilities, these new GUI skins provide the user with an exceptional experience. The tabs in the ribbon are equivalent to the legacy Patran GUI skin’s applications. To open an application, click on the tab. To close an application, select another tab. The Home tab will close any application currently open and show no tab application. The xptunes skin (-skin xptunes):

Page 22: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideNew GUI Skins

8

Application Menu Ribbon Groups Menus (tabs)

Application Menu Ribbons Provide Easy Access to Functions Without Searching the Pull-Down Menus

Click on the Application Ribbon Icon to Bring up the Application Form. A double click will put away the application or bring it back.

Icons Pull Up Familiar Action – Object – Method / Type Menus

Page 23: Patran 2010 Release Guide

9Chapter 2: General EnhancementsNew GUI Skins

Some Ribbons Have Application Menu Ribbon Group Sub-Menus With Pull-Down Options

Page 24: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideNew GUI Skins

10

Quick Access BarIn this new interface the standard toolbar has been replaced by the easily-customizable Quick Access Bar (QAB). If you right-click on any of the icons on any of the ribbons you will see the option to add that icon to the QAB. Most of the icons on the standard Patran toolbar are found on the Home tab.

Custom icons pointing to user-defined functions can be added using the p3toolbar.def menu file located in the installation directory.

Only individual icons can be added to the quick access bar and remain persistent from session to session. If you add an entire icon grouping or pulldown, it will remain only for the duration of the session.

Page 25: Patran 2010 Release Guide

11Chapter 2: General EnhancementsNew GUI Skins

The office 2007 skin (-skin office2007):

Page 26: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideNew GUI Skins

12

Skins Installation OptionsDuring installation you will be asked if you want to use the new “Skinned” GUI or the “Classic” GUI. The default will be set to the new “skinned” GUI so if you click through the installation and accept the defaults you will get the new GUI.

During installation you must change the Setup Type to “Classic” if you want to use the traditional Patran user interface.

Page 27: Patran 2010 Release Guide

13Chapter 2: General EnhancementsNative 64 Bit Port

2.5 Native 64 Bit PortA production version of the native port to 64 bit Windows and Linux machines is now available. The native 64 bit version of Patran can be installed from the installation disk. The 32 bit production version is still available for both 64 and 32 bit machines as well as all other supported platforms.

Advantages of a native 64 bit Patran mainly include access to all available memory. On 32 bit machines, the memory limitation is 2 gigabytes. The only limitation on 64 bit is the available memory of the machine. This allows you to work with larger models in many aspects of the finite element modeling process such as meshing and other modeling aspects.

It is possible to work with existing databases. An existing database created from a 32 bit version of Patran will go through a porting process to enable it to be opened from the 64 bit version of Patran. A 64 bit database can also be taken back to 32 bit via the porting process. Databases from other platforms should first be converted up to the 2010 level on the original platform and then ported to the 32 bit version of Patran and finally ported to 64 bit.

The following functionality is available on the Windows and Linux 64 bit port. Anything not listed here is not yet available.

• Patran (core application)

• MSC Nastran Preference

• MD Nastran Preference

• MSC Marc Preference

• MSC Dytran Preference

• ABAQUS Preference

• ANSYS Preference

• LS-Dyna Preference

• Laminate Modeler

• Patran Thermal (P/Thermal)

• UG NX Access

• CAD Interfaces (Spatial InterOP access only)

• CATIA V4 / V5

• ACIS

• STEP AP203/209

• IGES

• I-DEAS

Tips and Tricks for Manipulating Large Models in Patran• Set pdb_c_cache_size to amount (in bytes) of ram you want Patran to use (normally to get

maximum model size set this = total physical ram minus what OS needs).

Page 28: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideNative 64 Bit Port

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• Make sure you have adequate swap space in case it is needed (often systems with large amounts of ram assume that no swap space will be needed).

• If on a 32 bit windows system set 3 GB ram switch ON.

• Turn Free Face Only (Figure 2-1) Display mode under Display – Finite Elements to ON for graphics display manipulation.

• Turn Entity and Highlight Labeling under Picking Preferences (Figure 2-2) OFF.

Figure 2-1 Turn Free Face Display ON

Page 29: Patran 2010 Release Guide

15Chapter 2: General EnhancementsNative 64 Bit Port

Figure 2-2 Turn Entity Highlighting OFF

Page 30: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideSimManager R3 Integration on Linux

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2.6 SimManager R3 Integration on LinuxPublish and retrieve Patran databases and other related analysis files directly from within Patran with the SimManager R3 client, now directly accessible from the File pull down menu. Once the server connection properties and settings are established you can easily communicate with SimManager. Once logged on, you can publish, retrieve, and browse as well view connection properties and access the Web Client. This capability is now available for Windows and Linux platforms only.

Can retrieve and then open databases directly in Patran.

Page 31: Patran 2010 Release Guide

17Chapter 2: General EnhancementsSimManager R3 Integration on Linux

The following variables need to be set or are asked to be set during installation in order to communicate with the SimManager server. For more information on this, the user is directed to the SimManager documentation.

SM_RICH_CLIENT_CONFIG_FILE <location of SmRichClt.properties file>

SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_HOST <host_name>

SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_PORT <port number>

SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_PROTOCOL http

SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_WEBCONTEXT SimManager_R3

SM_RICH_CLIENT_ROOT <path>

Client access to a SimManager server via Patran is only supported on Windows and Linux machines. For more information on setting these environment variables, please see Patran Environment Variables (p. 52) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

Page 32: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuidePatran Help on the Web

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2.7 Patran Help on the WebFor the Patran 2010 release, Patran’s context sensitive help is now on www.mscsoftware.com. The F1-context sensitive help works the same as it does when you have it installed locally, but with no installation required. To access the help, you will need to have an internet connection and access to www.mscsoftware.com. If you do not have an internet connection, you can still install help locally on your computer or network by downloading the help installer from the Solution Download Center at http://mscsoftware.subscribenet.com (a user account is required) and installing help.

Several previous versions of the Patran context sensitive help are also on www.mscsoftware.com. If you would like to use one of the previous versions you will need to edit your site_setup.pm or user_setup.pm file and add the following:

On Windows:

setEnv('P3_HELP_DIRECTORY','http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2010/html_patran/');

On Windows you can also set your browser preference. For Example:

setEnv('P3_BRW_HELP','C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe');

On Unix/Linux:

setEnv P3_HELP_DIRECTORY http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2010/html_patran/

On Unix/Linux you will also need to set your browser preference. For example:

setEnv P3_BRW_HELP firefox

Set the P3_BRW_HELP environment variable to your browser of choice.

If you would like to view the Patran 2010 help outside of Patran, you can access it using the following link:

http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2010/html_patran/wwhelp.htm

Patran Version Environment Variable Setting

2010 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2010/html_patran/

2008r2 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2008r2/html_patran/

2008r1 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2008r1/html_patran/

2007 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2007/html_patran/

2005r3 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2005r3/html_patran/

2005r2 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2005r2/html_patran/

Page 33: Patran 2010 Release Guide

19Chapter 2: General EnhancementsABAQUS Preference Enhancements

2.8 ABAQUS Preference EnhancementsNew features have been added to the ABAQUS Preference for Patran in this release. This includes the ability to create pressure loads on 1D elements, support for inertial loads on 0D (point) inertia elements, and support for new MPC types RBE2 and RBE3.

1D Pressure ElementsThe ABAQUS preference now has support for the *DLOAD ABAQUS entry to create pressure loads on 1D elements. This will let you to put distributed loads on beam elements.

1D Pressure Loads are now supported in Patran.

Page 34: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideABAQUS Preference Enhancements

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Inertia Loads on 0D (point) ElementsThe ABAQUS preference now has support for inertial loading on 0D (point) elements using the *DLOAD ABAQUS input entry. With this feature you can now apply inertial loading to lumped mass elements for dynamic analysis.

Page 35: Patran 2010 Release Guide

21Chapter 2: General EnhancementsABAQUS Preference Enhancements

Support for RBE2 and RBE3 The ABAQUS preference now has support for RBE2 and RBE3 equivalents using the ABAQUS *KINEMATIC COUPLING and *DISTRIBUTING COUPLING entries.

Page 36: Patran 2010 Release Guide

Patran Release GuideAuto Select Picking

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2.9 Auto Select PickingThe Auto Select Feature on the LBC Application Region Form features an advanced entity picking capability that will allows you to input criteria limiting the application region selected. For example, you could select all horizontal faces in an area of your model.

In addition to this picking change the “Show Picking icons” toggle on the Preferences - Picking form is now ON be default. This causes the “t” and “-” icons, which toggles between select/un-select, to show up on the picking filter menu. This change was made because the right mouse button (RMB), which was previously used to un-select entities, is now used to display the RMB menu used for model manipulation and interaction. This toggle can be changed interactively and the status is saved/controlled by the pick_mode_switch variable in settings.pcl.

Page 37: Patran 2010 Release Guide

23Chapter 2: General EnhancementsShareware

2.10 SharewareShareware is found under the Utilities menu in Patran.

MechPatShareware to group geometric bodies in Patran and create Adams rigid bodies from them. Found under Applications – Mechpat – Adams Rigid Body Builder.

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Patran Release GuideShareware

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FEM-Elements -Regular Cube Mesher 2Support for loops has been added such that more elements can be created while using a smaller "Number of Elements in Max Dim". This is beneficial for non-massive solids like hollow thick cylinders. Please see the article in Simcompanion: http://simcompanion.mscsoftware.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KB8018926

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25Chapter 2: General EnhancementsShareware

Solid Sphere MesherFound in Shareware – Utilities - FEM-Elements -Create Solid Sphere and Hex Mesh By specifying a radius and mesh seed, a Solid Sphere is created which is meshed with Hex8 elements. Please see the article in Simcompanion: http://simcompanion.mscsoftware.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KB8018925

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Campbell Diagram Utility The Campbell Diagram utility is found in the shareware under Utilities – Results – Campbell Diagram.

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27Chapter 2: General EnhancementsCustomer Requests

2.11 Customer RequestsMany customer requests (CRs) were addressed in this release. These consist of defect corrections and enhancement request. The following are significant customer requests or defects that were addressed that may be of interest to users in addition to those that have already been referenced in previous chapters/sections:

CR # Description

1-207017422 Results from only one of two subcases were being recognized when attaching a certain XDB file.

1-224541999 Patran was crashing when submitting a Marc contact analysis using a specific glued contact configuration.

1-225675930 Stress results from SOL 400 Nastran job not loading into the database via an OP2 file.

1-214218661 SOL 400 auto detection of discontinuities option and feature angle not written to input file for contact bodies.

1-209366561 Undefined TREF and GE values not written correctly on Nastran PCOMP entry - should be blank and not zero.

1-73240931 No contact status results for glued contact visible from Master/DBALL file.

1-190723085 Setting the search order in glued contact table causes fatal Nastran error.

1-229666261 Initial load factor for adaptive load stepping not written correctly for Nastran NLAUTO entry.

1-201680911 PCL call ui_wid_get( file_id, "DIRNAME", dir_name ) failed for ui_file_create.

1-765373191-765242411-765242111-765241771-765241511-76524265

Nastran SOL 400, PCOMPLS - various problems corrected when writing this Nastran entry.

1-201681161 xplus_ideasp_env_setup.pm references incorrect Registry key and value for I-DEAS 12

1-201664504 Patran 64bit installer needs to install C++ redistributable run time for Windows 64 bit machines.

1-2292415711-226511628

LS-DYNA3D translator failed on Windows 64 bit machines.

1-238894248 Large list boxes behaved differently on Unix where they are always shown in "Scrolled Down" position. On Windows, the behavior is correct

1-78152616 After importing optimization results via OP2 file, unable to update the analysis model with new optimized design varialbe data. This used to be available via modifying the design study, selecting the design variable form, and then selecting the design cycle.

1-201184619 Patran crashed when reading in a certain bulk data files.

1-77732679 Cannot enter a negative non structural mass in Patran to adjust the mass.

1-51257236 Patran slow to plot stresses (when averaged by property).

1-201388666 Patran crashes when making graph vs. time of Abaqus ODB with multiple element types.

1-81107411 Patran can not plot stress tensor via Marc DRA (t16 file) access due to unsupported elements.

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1-200507145 Patran higher then 2005r3 does not filter Load Cases for Loads/BCs Plot Contour.

1-204211401 Patran does not write weight constraint for topography optimization.

1-2257411511-2260957611-228867342

MSC.Explore update - support SOL 106 nonlinear results

1-239622301 In Patran 2009r1, the following PCL functions have been made available:xy_window_location_get ( window_name, x, y )xy_window_size_get( window_name, width, height )First argument is a string and other arguments are reals.

1-79420181 Patran - External SE create - DMIGOP2 option not selectable.

1-21430771 Performance regression in ABAQUS input file reader.

23595 ABAQUS preference request to support inertia loads on 0D elements.

1-226510955 Patran Crashes extruding certain solids.

1-238125958 Switching to 3D:FullSpan beam display mode is very slow.

1-2511491911-252995071

Patran - Tools/Properties Import appears not to work when attempting to create new properties.

1-251808281 Patran does not write NLMOTPS,TSHEAR,TSHEAR.

1-250846898 Regression in default values of T1/T2 fields of TEMPP1 Nastran entries.

1-252274151 Model disappears when displaying results under Design Study / Post Processing menu.

1-250623265 General Section (CBEAM) option writes out incorrect pin flags

1-253107416 sf_record PCL function in the PCL start up files causes duplicate session files.

1-250554091 Segmentation fault and traceback message after File-Quit Patran on some Linux configurations (LX86).

1-251885801 Import bdf - Contact Distance Tolerance set to -9.9e+010 (should be blank)

1-250704310 Regression in reading certain ABAQUS fil result files.

39876 Save history lines disabled since Patran 2000r1 on Windows.

CR # Description

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MSC.Fatigue Quick Start Guide

I n d e xPatran Release Guide

Index

Numerics64 Bit Port, 4, 13

AACIS, 6AIX, 5

CCAD Access, 2, 6

Catia V5, 2InterOp, 2Parasolid, 2Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, 2UG NX, 2

CATIA V4, 6CATIA V5, 6Customer Requests, 27

EEnhancements, 2

FFile New/Open, 3

GGUI Skins, 4, 6

HHardware, 5Highlights, 2HP, 5

IIBM, 5I-DEAS, 6Intel, 5

KKey Highlights, 2

LLINUX, 5Load Steps, 2

MMD Nastran Preference, 3, 2Meshing, 4MSC Nastran Preference, 3, 2

NNastran, 3, 2Nonlinear Analysis, 3, 2

OOperating systems, supported, 5

PParasolid, 6patran help on the web, 4Platforms, supported, 5Pro/ENGINEER, 6

RRed Hat, 5

SSimManager Integration, 4, 16Skins, 4, 6SOL 400, 2Solaris, 5Steps, 2Subcases, 2Sun, 5Supported OS levels, 5

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Supported platforms, 5

UUnigraphics, 6Utilities, 4

WWildfire, 6Windows, 5Working Directory, 3