VKI releases DevTools 4.5.0 with the following highlights.
+ A single pass Order Independent Transparency (OIT) feature is available.
+ Multi-sampled anti-aliasing now supported.
+ The NASFil module now supports Altair/OptiStruct bulk data CPYRA, SURF, SET and TIE commands.
+ The SysMatrix module now allows an initial displacement solution for the iterative solver.
+ The ProSolve module will now compute result quantities diagonalized mass and mode based participation factors.
VKI releases DevTools 4.4.6 with the following highlights.
+ The FBuffer module now supports "webm" video encoding.
+ The RendBuf module now supports depth peeling.
+ The TetMesh and VolMesh modules now propagate all edge and face associations to the nodes lying on the respective entities.
+ The EnSightLib module now supports reading measured geometry and variables, ie. particle results.
+ The OpenFoamLib module has expanded support for sets and particles.
+ All interfaces now support UTF-8 encoded character strings for file names.
+ The D3DLib module now supports reading d3eigv and d3ssd type files.
+ The NASLib module now identifies Altair/OptiStruct generated .op2 files and will create ^DesignCycle=^ qualifiers if an optimization cycle is detected. Element densities written to ONRGY1 blocks are also detected and described as ^FRACTION.[VOLUME]^ datasets. In addition, it now identifies MSC Nastran SOL 400 STEP identifiers and will create ^Step=^ qualifiers with the STEP id. Sparse K and M matrices and associated load vectors are now read.
VKI releases DevTools 4.4.4 with the following highlights.
+ The tetrahedral meshing kernel used in the TetMesh and VolMesh modules has been updated to address a robustness issue.
+ The VolMesh module did not properly support a user set sizing callback function.
+ The SurfMesh module mesh sizing in response to a user set sizing callback function has been improved. The processing of internal voids is now done much more efficiently.
+ All interfaces, except NASTRAN .op2, now support an option to put complex valued results in a single dataset. The NASTRAN .op2 interface will support this feature in the next release.
VKI releases DevTools 4.4.3 with the following highlights.
+ Numerous robustness enhancements for tri/quad surface meshing.
+ A complete interface to Open CASCADE has been developed as a source code example.
+ Reading of all NASTRAN CBUSH/PBUSH and CONM2 data has been added. Round tripping of CBAR/PBAR, CBEAM/PBEAM, RBAR and RBE2 has been improved.
+ The ANSYS .cdb reader now supports time dependent and complex valued loads and restraints.
+ The performance of the OpenFOAM reader is much improved for ASCII file formats.
+ The D3DLib module now supports reading the nodal contact force, "ncforc", file. The function vdm_D3DLibSetSearch has been added to toggle various search options.
+ Supports the Intel Pardiso and MUMPS direct sparse solvers. These solvers may be used in lieu of the native direct sparse solver implementation.
+ Supports iterative solver preconditioning for nonsymmetric matrices using GMRES.
+ Iterative solver preconditioner has been substantially improved for models dominated by linear elements.
+ The ProSolve module now supports parallel computation of mass, stiffness, geometric stiffness and results output.
+ The ProSolve module now has support for node and element set selection for results output.
+ The ProSolve module now has query functions for all set parameters.
VKI releases DevTools 4.4.1 with the following highlights.
+ The FBuffer module now supports RGBA, ie alpha values, at each pixel for PNG image files.
+ The drawing function ProjLoad has been added to support explicit loading of a projection matrix.
The State, History, ElemDat and RedMat modules provide support for complex valued solution results.
+ The State, History and ElemDat modules may now manage a "scalars" data type with up to 256 values per entity.
+ The SurfMesh module now supports generating identical meshes on periodic faces.
+ The SurfMesh module maximum edge length option is now treated as a hard maximum.
+ The TriMesh and TetMesh modules now support Delaunay triangulation/tetrahedralization of point sets. The boundary is the convex hull of the point set.
+ The CurvMesh module has been altered to accept input line segment tangents and implement writing and reading of the geometry and meshing input.
+ The D3DLib module now supports reading part names.
+ The ANSLib module now reads element thickness results. It also adds an EIP qualifier to element node results data which has been moved from an element integration point.
+ The NAFIL module now has full support for read/write of CONM1 and CONM2 concentrated mass elements.
+ The SDRCLib module now writes element based section results which have layer position information using data on ply elements format.
+ The NASLib, ANSLib and ABALib modules now support reading cyclic symmetry number of sectors and rotational symmetry axis information.
+ The NASLib module now reads the SECONCT record from the GEOM1 datablock to define superelement connectivity.
+ The NASLib module now recognizes the OESCPR and OESTRCPR laminate results datablocks.
+ The ANSFil module now supports writing ANSYS results output and printing requests.
+ The NatLib module has been enhanced to support a HDF5 implementation of VKI native file format.
+ The COMSOLLib module has been enhanced to write ASCII or binary "mph" files.
+ The NASLib module now supports writing subsets of node and element results to .op2 files.
+ The COMSOLLib module now supports reading mesh entities information from "mph" files.
+ The OpenFOAMLib module now supports writing mesh entities information.
+ The NASLib module did not read OPRESS results properly for CPYRAM elements. The module did not read CSTM results properly for ILP 64 formatted files.
+ The SysMatrix module now supports an automatic shifting strategy for vibration mode extraction. This strategy is now the default.
VKI releases DevTools 4.3.6 with the following highlights.
+ Support for VIS_VISUAL_USECONTEXT has been added. This allows the application to create and manage the graphics context.
+ The LCase and RCase modules have been extended to support real and imaginary parts of restraint and load cases. Individual restraints and load items may be dependent upon a user input table curve.
+ The State module now supports element integration point data.
+ The D3DLib module now supports reading "swforc" files.
+ The ANSLib module now supports reading ANSYS 17 compressed results files.
+ The FluentLib module now supports reading materials from the "Variables" block and associating them with the appropriate elements generated in the associated cell zone.
+ The ABAFil module now supports the "TIE" and "BASEMOTION" commands
VKI releases DevTools 4.3.5 with the following highlights.
+ The TriMesh module now uses exact arithmetic for all triangle predicates.
+ The NASLib module now supports NX/Nastran version 11.
+ The PAMLib module now supports ERF file format version 2.1
+ A unique solution type, SINGULAR, is now supported. This solution type quickly determines any singularities, ie rigid body modes, in the discretized model.
VKI releases DevTools 4.3.3 with the following highlights.
+ The Model object has been extended to support distributed radiation environments.
+ The OpenGL rendering module has been modified to support off screen rendering. There are two cases, color rendering and "data index" rendering. These cases are designed to implement in hardware what was previously performed in software by the RendBuf and DataBuf modules.
+ The native VdmTools file format now has an option to write to a HDF5 file.
+ The CGNSVLib module now allows specification of ADF or HDF5 file type to be used for file export.
VKI releases DevTools 4.3.2 with the following highlights.
+ The Stream and Trace modules are now more tolerant and provide improved user handling of inverted or otherwise degenerate elements.
+ The History module now supports arbitrary section point numbering.
+ The GProp module has been extended to support cyclic symmetry number of sectors and coordinate system. It also supports global physical constants such as the Stefan Boltzmann constant.
+ The ASurf module has been extended to support trimmed NURBS and facetted surfaces.
+ The SurfMesh, TetMesh, TriMesh and VolMesh modules now support specifying element sizing within a given depth of the input boundary triangles and faces.
+ The SurfMesh module has much improved proximity meshing.
+ The NASLib module now supports OESVM and OESXRMS data blocks. The CFAST element is supported. Reading reduced load vectors is supported.
+ The AFLRFil module has been added to support reading the Mississippi State AFLR grid file.
+ The MarcLib module has been extended to read analytic surfaces.
+ The Inter2D and Inter3D modules now have an option to support black body radiation.
VKI releases DevTools 4.2.4 with the following highlights.
+ The Glyph module now supports higher quality, tristrip optimized spheres.
+ The ExtMesh module has been modified to support global intersection and recession checking. Control over layer spacing has been greatly improved with options to insert layers of interface elements.
+ The VolMesh, TetMesh and TriMesh modules now allow sizing controls to be placed on individual input nodes and specified for individual regions.
+ The TetMesh module has had significant improvements to the boundary recovery robustness. There are now also options to allow points to be placed on the boundary to facilitate boundary recovery in extremely difficult cases.
+ The ANSLib module now supports ECT contact element node results available in ANSYS 14.5.
+ The NASLib module now supports OERPEL data blocks and Sort 1 and Sort 2 MPC reactions for random response analysis,
+ The D3DLib module now reads all SPH data variables. Internal part names are read. FEMZIP'ed files are automatically detected. Legacy files are read. Two shell element dependent variables are read.
+ The D3DFil module now supports the SET_PART keyword and the TITLE option on all SET keywords.
Mentor Graphics licenses VKI VisTools, VisTools/Mesh visualization and mesh generation toolsand VfeTools and VfsTools FEA solver tools to support product development.
VKI President, Gordon Ferguson, is interviewed about mesh generation technology in the fall issue of Spatial Technology's The Spatial Blend newsletter.
VKI releases DevTools 4.2.0 with the following highlights.
VKI releases DevTools 4.1.0 with the following highlights.
Comet Solutions licenses VKI VdmTools interoperability technology for their Comet/Multi-Physics application.
Design Simulation Technologies licenses VKI VfeTools and VfsTools FEA solver technology for inclusion in their SimWise 4D mechanical simulation product.
Bruel & Kjaer licenses VKI VdmTools interoperability technology for their PULSE Reflex application.
