DesignSpace R8.1 New Features

What’s New in ANSYS R8.1 DesignSpace and ANSYS Workbench environment?

General DesignSimulation News
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Start Page Revised - DS 
Workbench features a re-design of the Start Page, intended to simplify and streamline the process of creating and accessing data.

Geometry Import to DesignModeler from Project Page - DS 
Users now have the option of loading selected geometry directly into DesignModeler from the Project Page. In previous versions, this task could only be accomplished from within DesignModeler.

Common Options for All Workbench Modules - DS 
The Control Panel in DesignModeler and Simulation has been standardized and renamed to the Options dialog box. When a user chooses Tools> Options from anywhere within Workbench, the same Options dialog box appears regardless of where the menu was chosen. The Options dialog box presents the main categories in a tree format. The Common Settings category includes general options governing graphics and interfacing for all modules. The remaining categories include options specific to particular modules.

Rotation Behavior Based on Cursor Location - DS 
The roll circle used with the Rotate tool in DesignModeler and Simulation has been removed to improve visual clarity. The constrained rotation functionality indicated by cursor shape (for pitch, yaw, or roll) has been retained, and the "hot regions" for each have been optimized to emphazise rotation. This feature is one of the viewing tools used in all of the Workbench modules.

Online Resources Available via the Project Page - DS 
The Project Page now provides integrated access to current Workbench-related headlines from ANSYS Inc. These headlines will include support, service pack, and training links to information on www.ansys.com. 

CFX-Mesh Module Added to Workbench - CFX 
The CFX-Mesh module is available in Workbench for generating meshes ready for CFD simulations in the CFX-5 software product.

Workbench Help Available in PDF Format - DS  
Printable English version of the Workbench Help is available in PDF format at:
<install directory>:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v81\CommonFiles\Help\en-us\Workbench.pdf for Windows		  

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Engineering Enhancements

Material Plasticity - Struc 
Users can now add bilinear or multilinear material data under each material folder. 

ANSYS Commands Objects - Prof 
Users familiar with ANSYS commands and APDL programming can now enter these commands directly in Simulation using Commands objects. After inserting a Commands object at the Environment or Solution level, the Worksheet tab transforms to a text editing window for entering the commands.
 
Point Mass - DS 
Users can apply a Point Mass to the model from the Geometry object. The location of a point mass can be anywhere in space and it can be defined in a local coordinate system. 

Default Material for Enclosures  
Any enclosures included with models attached from DesignModeler are assigned a new field material property of Air, by default. The default field material property can be changed in the Options dialog box under Simulation. This feature is being implemented to accommodate future Electromagnetic and Fluid simulations where the field material property will be assigned to fields such as antenna radiation and fluid flows. 		  

 

 

 

 
 
Geometry Enhancements

Refresh of Coordinate Systems from DesignModeler or SolidWorks - DS 
Coordinate systems from DesignModeler, Pro/ENGINEER or SolidWorks that were added or changed, are refreshed in Simulation upon updating the model. In past releases, coordinate systems defined in DesignModeler and SolidWorks were brought in upon attaching the model, but they were not refreshed upon updating. 

Defining Local Coordinate System Origin on Surface/Edge - DS 
Users can now change the origin of a local coordinate system to the centroid of an edge or a face. 

Adjacent Select Capability Expanded - DS 
The Adjacent Select button on the Graphics toolbar has been replaced by a drop down menu whose tool tip is Extend Selection. The menu includes the options Extend to Adjacent and Extend to Limits. The function of Extend to Adjacent is the same as the former Adjacent Select button. The Extend to Limits option allows the user to add all tangent faces or edges to the current selection. 

Contact Ease of Use EnhancementsContact Options Added - Prof 
Contact filter options (Face/Face, Face/Edge, Edge/Edge and Priority), as well as contact region options for Type, Formulation, and Update Stiffness have been added to the Simulation section of the Options dialog box. Options are persistent for every new Workbench project. 

Renaming Contact Regions Based on Geometry Names - DS 
Users can change the default name of a contact region to match corresponding descriptive names for items in the Geometry branch of the tree that make up the contact region. Clicking the right mouse button on a contact region and choosing Rename Based on Geometry in the context menu changes the name of that contact region. Clicking the right mouse button on the Contact branch and choosing the same option changes the names of all contact regions under the branch.
 
Symmetry Behavior Control Extended to Automatically Generated Contact Regions - Prof 
Prior to release 8.1, the contact region Behavior control in the Details View was available only for manually generated contact regions. At this release, the control is available for both manually and automatically generated contact regions. 

Auto Asymmetric Contact Option Moved to Contact Regions - Prof 
Prior to release 8.1, the capability for automatically creating asymmetric contact pairs applied globally to contact objects. At this release, the Auto Asymmetric control is applied to contact regions where it is an option under the Behavior control in the Details View. 

Update Contact Stiffness Option Added for Contact Regions - Prof 
An Update Stiffness advanced contact control has been added that allows the program to automatically update contact stiffness at the end of each equilibrium iteration or each substep. The Update Stiffness control is available for contact simulations where the Formulation is set to either Augmented Lagrange or Pure Penalty. 

Flip Contact and Target Faces or Edges in a Contact Region - Prof 
For asymmetric contact, a useful enhancement at this release is the ability to flip contact and target faces or edges in a contact region. This feature is available through a right mouse click on the contact region and choice of the Flip Contact/Target context menu item. All contact and target items displayed under Scope in the Details View are reversed. 

Contact Tool Added for Solutions and Solution Combinations - Prof 
A Contact Tool object can now be added to a Solution or Solution Combination folder that allows users to conveniently scope contact results to a common selection of geometry or contact regions. Using a Contact Tool, all possible contact results can be investigated at one time for a given scoping. 

Contact Results Available in Solution Combinations - Prof 
The following contact results can now be added to Solution Combinations: Frictional Stress, Penetration, Pressure, and Sliding Distance. 

Selecting Worksheet Columns for Viewing Contact - DS 
When viewing a worksheet of a Contact folder or a Contact Reactions item, users now have the ability to select which columns to display in the worksheet table. The choice is made in a context menu through a right mouse button click inside the worksheet table. 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Meshing Enhancements

Part Relevance - DS 
The Part Relevance mesh control has been reintroduced at this release. It was removed at release 7.1. Part Relevance controls the fineness of the mesh of a particular part by use of a slider control whose behavior is the same as the global Relevance control. Users can set the slider control to bias the solution toward high speed (-100) or high accuracy (+100). If the Part Relevance control is applied to an individual body of a multi body part, the relevance will be applied to the entire part. 

Part Proximity - DS 
Part Proximity is a new mesh control that performs a pre-refinement on the meshed edges of a part. Its recommended use is on thin parts, or parts where features are very close together and where discretization is very important. 

Contact Sizing - DS 
Contact Sizing is a new mesh control that creates elements of relatively the same size on bodies from the surfaces of a face to face contact region. 

Initial Size Seed Control - DS 
An advanced control has been added that allows users to control the initial seeding of the mesh size for each part. Prior to this release, the initial size of the mesh was determined solely by the diagonal of the bounding box of the "active" assembly (defined as the assembly made up of unsuppressed parts). This mesh was prone to change as users suppressed and unsuppressed parts. At release 8.1, users have the following options for controlling the Initial Size Seed: 
Active Assembly (default) available in previous releases, described above.
Full Assembly based on the bounding box of the entire assembly independent of part suppression.
Part based on the bounding box of a particular part independent of part suppression. This option may produce a finer mesh as well.

Sphere of Influence Element Sizing - DS 
A new Sphere of Influence element sizing option has been added that is especially valuable for users who desire localized mesh sizing. Sphere of Influence allows users to apply an element sizing only to a localized area on any topology defined by a physical sphere. 		  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Loads/Supports Enhancements

Local Coordinate Systems for Loads and Given Displacements - DS
Forces, remote forces, bearing loads, moments and given displacements can now be defined in a local coordinate system. With this capability, users no longer need to transform the loads and given displacements into the global coordinate system manually. When any of these loads or given displacements are defined by components in the Details View, a new drop down menu is available from which users select a specific coordinate system to be applied.
 
Scoping Remote Force Load to an Edge of a Shell - DS 
Prior to this relase, a remote force load could only be applied to one or more faces of a solid model. At this release, a remote force load can be applied to one or more edges of a shell model as well. 

Scoping Loads/Supports to Named Selections - DS
Loads and supports can now be scoped to either selected geometry or to named selections through a drop down menu added to the Details View for any load or support. 

Harmonic Acceleration Added - Prof 
Acceleration loads can now be used in harmonic analyses. To specify a harmonic Acceleration load, users apply the load, then, in the Details View, choose Harmonic as the Time Type. 

Pretension Bolt Load - now in DesignSpace!
 This feature was introduced in Workbench at v8.1 and required a ANSYS Mechanical license to access. In v8.1, this feature is now available with a DesignSpace license. A pretension bolt load has been added to the available list of structural loads, for use in structural and thermal-stress analyses. This load applies a pretension to a cylindrical surface, typically to model a bolt under pretension. As input only pre-tension force value or initial displacement adjustment needed to input. The analysis requires two load steps. Preloads are applied in load step one. Pretension loads will become "locked" in load step two and the working loads will be applied.
 
 

 

 

 Solution Enhancements

Asynchronous Solutions - Prof 
Users can now choose to run their Simulation solution asynchronously, meaning that the solutions can be run remotely on more powerful machines. Also, the duration of an asynchronous solution need not be confined to that of a particular Workbench session. The choice of a synchronous (traditional solution on a local machine and run during a particular Workbench session) or asynchronous solution is available in the Details View of a Solution object. There, users can designate that an asynchronous solution be run on a specific UNIX machine, or in an LSF Windows Cluster. LSF is a separate product from PlatformTM Computing that manages job queues and balances machine resources. 

Solution Tracking and Nonlinear Diagnosing Tools - Prof 
Users who perform nonlinear solutions now have several new tools to assist them in tracking and diagnosing their solutions. A new Solution Information object can now be added to a Solution branch that provides real time solution output in terms of an ANSYS output file or a variety of convergence graphs. Included as well is a Result Tracker object that provides displacement or contact result plots. A diagnostic tool is also included that will return Newton-Raphson residual forces for inspection in determining the cause of failures in nonlinear analyses. 

Solution Status Icons Revised - DS 
The status icons indicating the solution state are more intuitive at this release. A yellow lightning bolt still indicates that the item has not yet been solved (unchanged from previous release). A solve in progress is indicated by a green lightning bolt. A successful solve is indicated by a green check mark (unchanged from previous release). A failed solve is indicated by a red lightning bolt. A successful asynchronous solution that is ready for downloading is indicated by a green down arrow. A failed asynchronous solution that is ready for downloading is indicated by a red down arrow. 		  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Results Enhancements

Equivalent Plastic Strain - Struc
Equivalent Plastic Strain has been added as a result item. 

Scoping Results to an Edge/Vertex - DS 
Prior to this release, results could only be scoped to faces or parts. Results can now be scoped to a single edge or a single vertex. When scoping results to an edge, the Worksheet tab displays a graph of the variation of the result along the length of the scoped edge. 

Vector/Contour Switch for Total Deformation and Thermal Heat Flux Results - DS 
When viewing Total Deformation or Thermal Heat Flux results, a new Graphics setting is available in the Details View that allows the user to view these result types in either Vector or Contour format. 

Negative Values for Thermal Expansion Coefficient - DS 
Either positive or negative values can now be entered for the thermal expansion coefficient in determining thermal-stress results. 

Rename Result Based on Definition - DS 
Results under Solution objects and Result Trackers under Solution Information objects can now be renamed based on type, geometry, and orientation if applicable (for example, "Directional Deformation" is renamed to "Y Axis - Directional Deformation - All Bodies"). This option is available in a context menu by a right mouse button click on a result or Result Tracker object.
 
License configurations: 
DS - DesignSpace and above
Prof - Professional and above 
Struc - Structural and above

 

 

 

 
Viimeksi muutettu 14.06.2004
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