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Fem2K
Revision History As of 16-Feb-07 |
1. Fem2K was completely rewritten from the Microfem 4.2 MS/DOS finite element program.
2. The program name has been changed for the Windows version. Accordingly, the restart file extension has been changed to “.f2k”. Fem2K will still read old Microfem 4.2 files.
3. All the utility commands such as plotting, printing and file management have been eliminated and are accomplished with Windows style menus.
4. The [C]onfig command has been eliminated. Its function is now automatically taken care of by Windows.
5. A node read/write from file utility has been added to the Node menu to facilitate transferring geometry with external programs.
6. Node merge capability was added to the Xecute menu.
1. Corrected errors in the Material menu where conductivity and resistivity were not being stored properly.
2. Appeared to have solved a file-handling bug where Fem2K would crash when dealing with several different models in one session.
3. Added an installation program to the Fem2K disk.
4. Made minor corrections and updates to this manual.
1. Added a Cancel option to error messages from file reading so one can abort rather than get multiple error messages from bad files.
2. Corrected the file extension display in the File menu when saving a file after execution.
3. Fixed an error reading local coordinate systems and problem type.
4. Fixed a problem affecting problems that would crash without a property definition even though none was needed (e.g., axisymmetric heat transfer).
5. Fixed a triangle stress plot problem affecting heat transfer and fluid flow analysis types.
6. Corrected a bug in the hex element stress plots.
1. Added automatic mesh generation.
2. Fixed a Restraint menu limitation where restraint entries had to start with a digit in order to be recognized as a real number.
3. Reworked all the menus to be more intuitive.
4. Ported code to full 32 bit Windows (i.e., Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, ME). The program will no longer run on 16 bit Windows (i.e., Windows 3.xx).
5. Corrected a data display problem in the BCs menu for the FixDoFs commands.
6. Corrected an error in the inertia loading routines that for six DoF problems was only applying loads in the X DoF.
1. Added plotting of applied masses: solid black circles, relatively scaled.
2. Changed color tone of local axes to show up better.
3. A local coordinate system read from a saved file will now be loaded properly.
4. Increased stress contours to 10 levels: from blue for lowest stresses to red for highest. Intermediate stresses are gradual transition shades from blue to red.
5. Eliminated element type plot label (it didn't work and was superfluous anyway).
6. Changed all math operations to double precision.
7. Added thermal stress capability.
8. Added a thermal stress soak option.
9. Added an automatic feature to thermal (i.e., heat transfer) analysis such that the resulting element temperatures are saved within the element definition data. The resulting element temperatures can now be used automatically for a subsequent thermal stress problem by changing AnalysType to structural (and adding any missing structural material, property, and boundary condition data, of course).
10. Added thermal stress examples to Verification Examples.
11. Changed thermal contours to temperature.
12. Changed fluid contours to display velocity vectors rather than potentials. Filled contours are now velocity amplitudes.
13. Corrected the axisymmetric structural quad elements. The transformations were incorrect for elements that are not oriented consistent with the global coordinate system. Any analyses using axisymmetric quad elements for structural problems should be rerun.
14. Fixed Results window incremental scrolling arrows.
15. Fixed scroll bar problems in the Node window.
16. Improved the Merge and Compress functions. Earlier versions didn't always merge all the nodes it should have or delete that highest unused node numbers.
1. Improved boundary condition symbols (arrows and carets) such that they are fully displayed in all axes.
2. Thermal conductors and electrical resistors are now plotted as schematic symbols.
3. Corrected pressure plot relative scaling.
4. Changed startup default window to -10,10 extents.
5. Fem2K.2i1 will not read pre-Microfem 4.2 property data.
6. Corrected the stress type selection. Earlier versions ignored the stress type display inputs and always displayed equivalent stress.
7. Fixed the AutoMerge command such that it is saved upon edit.
8. Fixed the AutoRestraint command such that it is saved upon edit.
1. Fixed the Property menu input. All inputs were offset by 1.
2. Pressure loads are ignored for solid elements (only for use on plate elements).
3. Cleaned up *.lst formatting.
4. The material, property, surface load, and temperatures for the entire block of elements displayed as the base set are now all modified to the displayed values when entering “EditOK”.
1. Added centrifugal loading.
2. As a result of adding centrifugal loading, the use of Gc had to be modified and the input commands expanded to still allow the option of inputting either weight or mass densities. Gc must now be set to the actual acceleration of gravity consistent with the units of all other input in order to get correct inertial loads. A radio button to choose weight or mass density inputs was also added to the Xecute menu.
3. Fixed scroll bar arrows in BCs.
4. Changed base set Node to button in BCs menu to provide alternate to scroll bar refresh for nodal boundary condition data.
5. BCs menu cannot be entered if no nodes exist.
6. In BCs menu, fixed value displayed for FixDofs such that it doesn’t reset to “Free”.
7. Material and property references are not plotted until they’re defined and this status is displayed as “0”.
1. Fixed a number of the menu inputs that were artificially restricting input to fewer digits than the maximum that Fem2K allows.
2. Fixed the zoom (+) such that it behaves properly for extremely large zooming.
1. Fixed the View Shrink menu input, which ignored data entry under some conditions.
2. Made further improvements to the zoom (+) and pan functions so they behave properly for extremely large zooming.
1. Fixed the View menu input for RotX, Y, Z to properly accept more than two digits.
1. Fixed a printing scale problem.
2. Fixed the BC display problem, which occurred for analysis types with bending included but less than six local DoF.
1. Added transient response analysis for structural problems.
2. Added Dynamic analysis type with Static and Transient buttons to the AnalysType menu.
3. Added a time input to the BCs menu.
4. Improved the graphics display, particularly for contours.
5. Eliminated Xmin, max, Ymin, max, and Zmin, max entries in the View menu and replace them with the Zoom entry. Plots in Fem2K.3 are now automatically scaled to the window as nodes outside the current workspace are entered. The Zoom entry scales the plot up or down. A zoom factor of 1 fits the model to the screen.
6. The PrinterSetup command was removed from the Files options. It’s now included as part of the Print command.
7. The Print function was improved.
8. The MetaFileCreate command was replaced by the BitMapCreate command.
9. Corrected several figure references in Finite Element Analysis with Fem2K.
10. Added transient response verification examples.
11. Added a button in the Node and Element menus to go directly to the node or element and update the displayed data. This is an alternate to using the scroll bar.
12. Fem2K now requires Windows 98 or later to run.
1. Corrected a problem with lumped masses where the mass/density option was being ignored such that it only worked correctly for mass density. All problems using lumped masses with weight density should be rerun.
2. Corrected a problem where lumped mass data was being lost in subsequent steps during a transient analysis. All problems using lumped masses in transient analyses should be rerun.
3. Corrected the Vection element math. All problems using the Vection element should be rerun.
1. Added chapters to Finite Element Analysis with Fem2K on finite element theory and generic FEA program usage plus a general rewrite as Elementary Finite Element Analysis with Fem2K.
2. Fixed a problem where the Vection element type wasn’t being saved as such in the restart file.
3. Added thermal transient.
4. Added some DXF read and auto meshing capability
5. Added a spring element.
6. Changed the element plot for beams to a thicker line for better visibility in mixed element models.
7. Changed Resister, Vection (and new spring) plots to a spring/resister representative shape (as it used to be in pre-Fem2K.3 versions).
8. Corrected some file handling problems where if problem were changed from a transient to static run, it would crash.
9. Added lumped mass weights to weight summary in the output file.
1. Changed the AutoSize to also center the model about 0, 0.
1. Corrected non-structural hex elements.
2. Reduced default tolerance on NodeMerge to 1e-6.
1. Added Select with commands PlotMa and PlotPr to the View menu so that subsets of the model could be selected for viewing and modeling by material and/or property reference numbers.
2. Node and element maximum number increased to 99,999. Actual model size still dependant on computer memory and disk space.
3. Results and overlay plotting will check for in core results data before plotting to avoid memory crashes. If data not found plot type will be automatically set to Model.
4. A hot key “Ctrl + b” has been added to turn off or on the boundary condition display symbols.
5. Fixed Zoom so that if your model is not centered about 0,0 it won’t drift.
6. Added element centroid printout to *.lst file after solve.
7. Added mouse wheel control for model zoom.
8. Added Outline command to View menu w/ “ctrl + O” hotkey to plot only the nodes at the maximum dimensions of the model.
1. Corrected offset in material name when getting a material from a database (Materials menu, Get).
2. Added
a materials database (about 600 entries English/metric) that can be read by Fem2K.