New Feat

What’s New in FEMAP
FEMAP 10.1.1 includes enhancements and new features, which are detailed below:
“User Interface” on page 3
“Geometry” on page 5
“Meshing” on page 5
“Elements” on page 6
“Materials” on page 6
“Layups” on page 6
“Loads and Constraints” on page 7
“Functions” on page 8
“Connections (Connection Properties, Regions, and Connectors)” on page 8
“Groups and Layers” on page 8
“Views” on page 9
“Output and Post-Processing” on page 10
“Geometry Interfaces” on page 11
“Analysis Program Interfaces” on page 11
“OLE/COM API” on page 12
“Preferences” on page 13
FEMAP 10.1 includes enhancements and new features, which are detailed below:
“Elements” on page 19
10.1-2 Finite Element Modeling
FEMAP 10.0, 10.0.1, and 10.0.2 include enhancements and new features, which are detailed below:
(Please note, FEMAP 10.0.2 is a maintenance release only, therefore nothing is listed in this document. See
readme.pdf for additional details about 10.0.2)
“Mesh Associativity” on page 73
“Properties” on page 73
“Functions” on page 75
“Geometry” on page 76
“Tools” on page 90
What’s New for version 10.1.1 10.1-3
What’s New for version 10.1.1
User Interface
Menu, Entity Select, Model Info tree, Data Table, Graphics
Menu
• Added File, Picture, Copy Desktop command. Works much like File, Picture, Save Desktop, except it copies a
picture of the entire FEMAP GUI to the clipboard instead of saving it to a file.
• Added File, Picture, Copy Layout and File, Picture, Save Layout commands. These commands work much like
File, Picture, Copy Desktop and File, Picture, Save Desktop, except they only copy to the clipboard or save to a
file the contents of the “Graphics Area” instead of the entire GUI.
• Added Delete, Model, Mesh on Nodes command. Works exactly like Delete, Model, Mesh except nodes are
selected instead of elements.
Entity Select
• Added the ability to quickly access “Polygon picking” without choosing “Polygon” from the “Pick” menu in
the Entity Selection dialog box. Simply hold down both the Shift and Ctrl keys at once and press the left mouse
button to specify the first point of the selection polygon, then click additional points on the screen until the
appropriate area is within the polygon.
• Added “Filter” and “ Clear All Filters” buttons and corresponding text field to the “Select One or More...” dia-
log boxes displayed when the Select From List button is pressed in the Entity Selection dialog box. Once text is
entered into the text field click the Filter icon button to reduce the list to just those entries that contain the text
you specified. You can now enter additional text, then press Filter icon button again to further reduce the list.
Press Clear All Filters icon button to return to the full list and start again.
• Added “Color” option to the “Pick” menu of the Entity Selection dialog box. This option allows you to select a
color from the Color Palette, then adds all entities of the current type which are also the selected color to the
selection list. Options also exist to Match Color, Match Pattern/Transparency, and Match Line Style options
which may turned on/off to either broaden or narrow the selection criteria. By default, all Options are on.
• Added “Property/Material Value” option to the “Pick” menu of the Entity Selection dialog box. This option
allows you to choose entities in the model with values Equal to a specific material/property value (i.e., Plane
Element Thickness, Young’s Modulus, BEAM End A Area etc.) or entities which have values within a range
(Above or Below a single value; Between or Outside two values) for a particular material/property entry.
• Improved “Copy as List” option on the “Pick” menu of the Entity Selection dialog box. Using this function on
“Large” models containing several million nodes has gone from taking hours to taking seconds.
• Added “Filter” and “Clear All Filters” buttons and corresponding text field to all “Select ‘single entity’ from
list” dialog boxes. An example of a command that would display such a dialog box would be Modify, Update
Elements, Property ID, which displays “Select Property for Update”.
• Added graphical picking of Solids from the Solid Manager dialog box. Also, the displayed Loads Set, Con-
straint Set, Group (only when single group displayed), or View can be graphically chosen from the screen and
then become highlighted in the appropriate Manager dialog box.
Model Info tree

• Added “Auto Create Definition” to context-sensitive menu for “Other Loads”. Allows you to highlight any
number of loads and will automatically create new load definitions based on load type, load values, and addi-
tional load information (i.e., loaded face of an element). A new definition will be created for loads of the same
type which have different values and/or different additional load information, which differs from the Create
Definition command.
• Added ability to hold down Alt key and left click the “expand/collapse” toggle to expand/collapse all of the
“sub-branches” under the highlighted branch. Also, pressing the right arrow key while holding down the Alt key
will “expand” all sub-branches, while pressing the left arrow with Alt will “collapse” all sub-branches.
Data Table
• Added “Select All” command on context-sensitive menu for the Data Table. Selects all rows currently in the
Data Table regardless of which rows are currently highlighted.
Graphics
• Improved performance of undo/redo of surface facets.
Geometry 10.1-5
Geometry
• Added 3 “Align” options to the Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Pad command
The orientation of the “pad” can specified 3 separate ways. Auto Align will simple use a circular curve’s existing
points and extend out from them. Vector Align allows you to specify an orientation vector so the pad can be posi-
tioned in a certain orientation. Finally, Tangent Align will prompt you to select an additional curve and then create
a pad which has an outer edge aligned tangent to the selected curve.
Pads With “Auto Align” Pads With “Vector Align” Pads With “Tangent Align”
(aligned to displayed Vector) (Aligned using closest curves)
Meshing
• Added automatically assigning corners to surfaces with more than 4 corners when using the “Mapped - Four
Corner” approach of the Mesh, Mesh Control, Approach on Surface command.
If you do not select any “corners”, FEMAP will attempt to choose appropriate “corners” on certain types of sur-
faces. This includes surfaces with more than four points.
Example surfaces where “corners” likely do not need to be selected to achieve mapped mesh:
Surfaces with all points shown Automatically selected “mesh corners” shown with
resulting mesh
• Added “Radial Offset Around Vector” option to Modify, Update Elements, Line Element Offsets command.
• Improved performance of midside node attachment significantly, especially on models with a large number of
geometric entities (Surfaces, Curves. Points). This capability is used when creating new mesh on a solid, as
well as when using the Modify, Associativity, Automatic command.
Elements
• Added “New Node At Center” method to Independent (Reference) section of Define RIGID Element dialog
box. When this method is used, FEMAP will automatically create a node at “center” of all the selected Depen-
dent (Nodes to Average) nodes, much like the “Spider” API command.
• Added “Convert” button to Define RIGID Element dialog box. This button is used to convert a rigid element to
an interpolation element and vice versa. When converting from rigid element to interpolation, FEMAP will ask
“OK to Convert only Translational Degrees of Freedom?”.
• Added “Distance Weighting” option to the Update Interpolation Element dialog box displayed after clicking
the “Update” button in Define RIGID Element dialog box. This option will create different interpolation factors
for highlighted Nodes to Average based on their distance from the Reference node. Multiple nodes must be
highlighted in the list for this option to have any effect.
Materials
• Added support for Sussman-Bathe hyperelastic material to Other Types for solution 601 in NX Nastran
• Added support for Shape Memory Alloy material to Other Types for solution 601 in NX Nastran
Layups
• Added ability to create PCOMPG instead of PCOMP entries for Nastran by specifying a Global Ply for every
Ply in a Layup. If even 1 ply does not have a Globally Ply assigned, the PCOMP will be written instead.
Loads and Constraints 10.1-7
The following Layup would be written as a PCOMPG:
• Added “Ok to Update Material and Thickness of Global Ply # in all Layups?” question to Edit Ply capability in
the Global Ply Definition dialog box.
Loads and Constraints

• Added “Bearing Force” Load type to “Model, Load, On Surface” command.
When creating a Bearing Force, enter a Magnitude, Load Angle (specifies the area in which the “bearing” is in con-
tact, entered in degrees. 180 is the default), and Phase (if needed), then specify a vector to represent the direction of
the load. Additionally, there is an option to have the Bearing Force be Normal to Surface (“on” by default), which
will apply the loads radially to cylindrical surfaces. Also, the load may be a Traction Load (“off “by default), which
will essentially have the load “pull” on a surface instead of “push”.
Bearing Force on single Bearing Force on single Vector used to define

surface with “Normal to surface with “Normal to bearing forces on this
Surface” option “On” Surface” option “Off” line
Bearing Force on multiple Bearing Force on multiple Vector used to define

surfaces with “Total Load” surfaces with “Total Load”, bearing forces on this
and “Normal to Surface” “Normal to Surface”, and line
options “On” “Traction Load” options “On”
When expanded, Bearing Forces will have varying values:
Bearing Forces from above shown Expanded

(Load values and mesh not shown clarity)
• Updated “Force”, “Bearing Force”, “Moment”, and “Torque” load types from “Model, Load, On Surface” com-
mand to use “Total Load” option by default. Allows you to take a “total load” and spread it across all of the
selected surfaces.
• Updated “Total Load” option for “Force” and “Moment” load types to “Model, Load, On Curve” command to
use “Total Load” option by default. Allows you to take a “total load” and spread it across all of the selected
curves.
• Added “Update Scale Factors” button to Referenced Load Sets for Nastran LOAD dialog box. Allows you to
update the “For References Set” scale factor of all load sets currently highlighted in the list of Referenced Sets.
Connections (Connection Properties, Regions, and Connectors)

NX Linear tab
• Added “2..NXN 7.0 Method” to the “Refine Source” drop-down in the Common Contact (BCTPARM) and Glue
(BGPARM) Parameters section. This is the default for NX Nastran 7.0.
• Updated Auto Penalty Factor option in the Common Contact (BCTPARM) and Glue (BGPARM) Parameters
section to be “on” by default. This is the default for NX Nastran 7.0.
Groups and Layers

Added support for selecting Solids in the Group, Clipping... commands
Functions
• Modified the Function Definition dialog box to be more intuitive. The Add button replaces More, Copy Func-
tion replaces Copy, Load from Library replaces Load, Save to Library replaces Save, Copy to Clipboard
replaces Put, and Paste from Clipboard replaces Get. Also, added the Update button which will take the cur-
rently entered values and update the XY pair currently highlighted in the list, as well as the Get XY Plot Data
button, which will place the values from a XY Plot currently being displayed in FEMAP into the list.
Views 10.1-9
• Added 4 new function types which allow the user to specify use of the TABLEM1 for Nastran when creating
vs. Temperature functions. They are “19..vs. Temp (TABLEM1 Linear, Linear)”, “20..vs. Temp (TABLEM1
Log, Linear)”, “21..vs. Temp (TABLEM1 Linear, Log)”, “22..vs. Temp (TABLEM1 Log, Log)”
Views
• Added All Views option to View, Rotate, Model command. When All Views is checked, the first action taken in
the View Rotate dialog box will “sync” the views, then the views will move in unison until All Views has been
unchecked.
• Added Filter and Clear All Filters buttons along with corresponding text field to View, Visibility dialog box.
The Filter and Clear Filter buttons are available for use in the Group, Layer, Material, Property, and Geometry
tabs of the Visibility dialog box. Simply enter text into the field, then click the Filter button. The list in that tab
will be reduced to only those entries that contain the text you specified. You can now enter additional text, and
press the Filter icon button again to further reduce the list. Press Clear All Filters icon button to return to the
full list and start again. This can be especially useful in models which contain a large number of groups and lay-
ers.
• View Options: Labels, Entities and Color category: Force and Bearing - now controls display of Force and
Bearing Force loads
• View Options: Tools and View Style category: View Legend - added Legend Style option “3..Titles, Model
Name, Date” which will display the current time and date when the option is turned on along with the full
model name and directory path.
• View Options: Tools and View Style category: Render Options - removed the Graphics Engine button.
• Added Geometry tab to View, Visibility command.
This tab allows you to control the visibility of individual geometric parts in your model including Solids, Sheet Sol-
ids (single surface and multiple surfaces stitched together), and General Bodies. All surfaces, curves, and points
related to a geometric entity which has visibility set to “off” will also no longer be visible in the display.
General Body
icon
Solid icon
Sheet Solid
icon
The icon next to the title designates the type of geometric entity. A cylinder by itself represents a Solid, a cylinder
and a surface represents a “Sheet Solid”, while a cylinder with a connected surface represents a “General Body”.
This table describes the functions performed by each of the command buttons when in the Geometry tab:
Entity/Label Button Function

All On “Checks” boxes for ALL geometric entities in the list.
All Off “Unchecks” boxes for ALL geometric entities in the list.
Selected On “Checks” boxes of highlighted geometric entities in the list.
Selected Off “Unchecks” boxes of highlighted geometric entities in the list.
Selected Only “Checks” boxes of highlighted geometric entities in the list, while “unchecking”
boxes of geometric entities which are not currently highlighted.
Only geometric entities which are currently “checked” will be available for selection in the graphics window. This
can make it very easy to perform “box”, “circle”, “polygon”, or “freehand” picking of geometric entities.
Output and Post-Processing

• Added support for importing of Nastran output files containing PCOMPG results. PCOMPG results are stored
in Nastran output files using the Global Ply ID. Results are converted from Global Ply ID to FEMAP Ply ID.
• Updated View, Advanced Post, Contour Model Data command to only show property and material values in the
“Other” lists which are actually available in the model.
• View Options: PostProcessing category: XY Curve 1-9 - Updated use of Scale factor for Log plots.
Geometry Interfaces 10.1-11
Geometry Interfaces
The following FEMAP interfaces have been updated to support newer geometry formats:
FEMAP Interface Latest Supported Version

Parasolid Parasolid 22.0
Solid Edge Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology 2
NX NX 7
Pro/Engineer Wildfire 4
ACIS ACIS 20
CATIA V5 V5 release 19
SolidWorks SolidWorks 2009
• Added support to optionally read or skip blanked/invisible/hidden parts when importing NX 6 assemblies
• Restored support for ACIS versions 7, 8, and 9, which had been removed in a previous version.
For details, see “Geometry Interfaces” in the FEMAP User Guide.
Analysis Program Interfaces

Several of the analysis program interfaces have been improved. These changes include:
• Analysis Set Manager Enhancements
• FEMAP Neutral File Interface
• NX Nastran Interface
• Nastran Interfaces (NX and MSC/MD)
• MSC/MD Nastran Interface
• ABAQUS Interface
Analysis Set Manager Enhancements

For details, see “Analysis Program Interfaces” in the FEMAP User Guide.
• Improved performance of the Preview window significantly.
• Added ability to hold down Alt key and left click the “expand/collapse” toggle to expand/collapse all of the
“sub-branches” under the highlighted branch. Also, pressing the right arrow key while holding down the Alt key
will “expand” all sub-branches, while pressing the left arrow with Alt will “collapse” all sub-branches.
• Enhanced Analysis Multiple capability for MSC Nastran to perform as expected.
FEMAP Neutral File Interface

• Updated Neutral Write to use the proper versions of ACIS and Parasolid when exporting neutral files for older
version of FEMAP.
NX Nastran Interface
• Added Support for BCTADD and BGADD entries for version 7.0
• Updated XDB import to only allow reading of regular stress or nonlinear stress, not both.
• Added support for Sussman-Bathe hyperelastic material
• Added support for Shape Memory Alloy material
A number of bugs were corrected
Nastran Interfaces (NX and MSC/MD)

• Added support for PCOMPG entry
• Added support to read the QVOL, CONV, PCONV, QHBDY, QVECT, QBDY1, CHBDYG, VIEW, VIEW3D,
RADM, RADMT, RADCAV, and RADSET entries
• Added support to read and write PARAM,SIGMA and PARAM,TABS
• Added support to write TABLEM1 entries when creating vs. Temperature functions using specific function
types in FEMAP.
• Added ability to Skip NLPARM in the Nonlinear Control Options dialog box for the Master and all Subcases
when creating an analysis set for a nonlinear analysis.
MSC/MD Nastran Interface

A number of bugs were corrected.
NEi Nastran Interface

ABAQUS Interface
OLE/COM API
• For functions that take input arguments that are Arrays/Variants, you can now pass a single value/constant
directly if the entire array is supposed to be filled with the same value.
• Disabled Undo after calling feFileRebuild, feFileSave, feFileSaveAs, and feFileSaveAll from the API.
• Converted UserData to a non-Entity-based object. Implemented numerous methods that are identical in call to
Entity-based objects, but work properly with UserData
New API Objects and Attributes
• Added Length to Element object
New API Methods
• Added AddAllTitle, AddAllColor, and AddMidsideNodes to Set object
• Added ComputeStdShape and ComputeGeneralShape for Property object
• Added CountLoads and IsTotalLoad for LoadDefinition object
• Added Add to LoadMesh object
• Added Add to BCNode object
• Added Preview to AnalysisMgr object
• Added HasFullGlobalPly for Layup object
New Global Variables
• Added Pref_PictureCopyTextForXY
• Added Pref_PictureFormat, Pref_AnimationFormat, Pref_GIFColorOpt, Pref_GIFAnimationDelay, and
Pref_GIFFrameSeries
• Added Pref_NasQstOn, Pref_NasQstVal, and Pref_DeleteRdScratchLdSets
• Added Pref_CustomToolsPath
Preferences 10.1-13
The following functions have been added:

• feAppMessageStartListing
• feAppMessageEndListing
• feFilePictureSave2
• feFilePictureCopy2
• feFormatReal
• feTruncateReal
• feModifyRadialOffsets
• feDeleteMesh
Preferences
Views
• Added Include Text for XY Plots option in Picture Copy section.
When on, which is the default, the XY values representing the data points in the XY plot will be sent as a table of
XY values to the clipboard. When off, this table will not be sent to the clipboard.
• Added Picture Save Defaults section.
These options control set defaults file format when using the File, Picture, Save; File, Picture, Save Layout; and
File, Picture, Save Desktop commands.
Picture
Sets the default file format when using any of the File, Picture commands, while the display is NOT animating.
Choices are Bitmap (*.BMP), JPEG (*.JPG), GIF(*.GIF), PNG(*.PNG), or TIFF (*.TIF).
Animation
Sets default file format when using the File, Picture, Copy command, only when the display is animating. Choices
are Bitmap (*.BMP), Bitmap Series (*.BMP), Video for Windows (*.AVI), or Animated GIF (*.GIF).
GIF Options button
Sets default options when saving a GIF or Animated GIF file. For GIF files, choose from Network, Octree, and
Color Diffusion (Dither). In addition, the Frame Delay may be set for animated GIFs (milliseconds) and an option
exists to Save GIF Frame Series. Depending on your machine and other applications where you might be placing
saved pictures, one of these formats may produce a better image than the other two or similar image quality using a
smaller file size.
User Interface
• Added Captions Always on Top option to Dockable Panes section.
This option will force the Title Bar of any “docked” dockable pane to always be on the top of the pane, regardless
of where the pane is currently docked. By default, dockable panes which are docked on the top or bottom of the
graphics area will have the title bar displayed on the left side of the pane to use less space vertically.
Interfaces
• Added Auto Answer Post Questions button.
Pressing this button will display a dialog box which will allow you to toggle “Auto Answer” check boxes for a
variety of questions which may appear in dialog boxes during import of Nastran results from .f06 file. One addi-
tional General Question may also be “auto-answered” with regard to reading Nonlinear Stresses and Strains from
the .f06 and .op2 files.
When the check box next to an option is “checked”, FEMAP will “Auto Answer” the dialog box question related to
that option with the answer specified in the drop-down menu (“0..No” or “1..Yes”) to the right of the option. If the
check box is “not checked”, FEMAP will display the question in a dialog box and await manual response from the
user.
Here is a detailed description of each option:
Output Contains QUADR Elements - When importing results following analysis with MSC Nastran where XY
PLOT info has been written to the .f06 file, FEMAP will ask “Is Output on QUADR/TRIAR elements?”. If you
have QUADR/TRIAR elements in your model, then you should answer this question with “Yes”, if not, answer
“No”. It is very important to make sure this question is answered correctly. If not, the imported XY output data will
not be given the correct title, and in certain cases, entire functions will not be read into FEMAP.
Output Contains Corner Output - When importing results following analysis where XY PLOT info has been
written to the .f06 file, FEMAP will ask “Does Output Contain Corner Data?”. If you have requested corner data
for any elemental output from the analysis, then you should answer this question with “Yes”, if you have not, then
answer “No”. It is very important to make sure this question is answered correctly, because if you have requested
corner data and answer “No”, or have not and answer “Yes”, the imported XY output data will not be given the cor-
rect title, and in certain cases, entire functions will not be read into FEMAP..
Note: If you have NO output types “checked” in the “Elemental” section of the Nastran Output Requests dia-
log box in the Analysis Set Manager, then you do NOT have corner data output in your model. If you
have any output requested in the “Elemental” section, then the “Element Corner Results” option in the
“Customization” section of the Nastran Output Requests dialog box determines whether the resulting
output file contains corner data (checked) or not (unchecked).
Read PSD/Freq functions - When importing results following Random Response analysis, FEMAP will ask “OK
to read PSD vs. Frequency Functions?”. If you have requested this type of output using the NASTRAN Output for
Random Analysis dialog box in FEMAP or directly in the Nastran input file, this data is always imported from the
.f06 file, even if the rest of the results reside in an .op2 file.
Read Corner Output - If “Element Corner Results” were requested when an analysis job was run, FEMAP will
ask “OK to read plate element corner stresses?” or “OK to read solid element corner stresses?” when importing
results using a .f06 file into a model containing various plane or solid elements. By answering “Yes”, FEMAP will
import all of the additional output related to the element corner results. This “corner data” is always imported when
using .op2 files.
Hide f06 Warning Dialog - When checked, FEMAP will NOT display the “Message Review” dialog box. This
dialog box allows you to simply “Continue” with importing of results or “Show Details” which consists of fatal
errors, warning messages, and information messages written to the .f06 file during analysis. Once reviewed, the
results may then be imported.
Read Nonlinear Output - When a nonlinear analysis is run using Nastran, both Nonlinear stresses/strains and
“regular” stresses/strains are available in the output file. An Output Set in FEMAP can only contain the Nonlinear
Preferences 10.1-15
OR the “Regular” stresses/strains, not both. Checking this option will always read in the Nonlinear stresses/strains
from the output file of a nonlinear analysis. If this option is not checked, which is the default, FEMAP will bring up
a dialog box during the import of results which allows you to choose which stresses/strains to read (Yes = Nonlin-
ear, No = “Regular”).
• Added Delete Read Synthetic Load Sets option.
When importing a Nastran input file, several additional load sets are sometimes created to facilitate combinations
of structural, thermal, and dynamic loads. FEMAP allows different types of loads to be in a single load set, so often
these additional load sets are not required after they have been assembled. When this option is “on”, FEMAP will
simply delete these component load sets, as they are no longer needed.
What’s New for version 10.1 10.1-17
What’s New for version 10.1
User Interface
General, Menu, Toolbars, Model Info tree, Data Table/Entity Editor, Status Bar, Graphics
General
• Added Tab Location option to View Windows. Now the “View Tabs” may be places on the Top, Left, Right, or
Bottom of a View Window.
• Changed listing of model size from Bytes to MBytes when using “List, Model Info” command
• Updated “List, Model, Element” command to list element formulation based on solver set in the “active” Anal-
ysis Set in the Analysis Set Manager.
• Added Axis of Revolution method to Vector Definition dialog box.
• Added X Axis Log Scale option to Function Definition dialog box.
Menu
• Added Model, Load, Enforce Motion to Model menu. See Loads and Constraints section for more details.
• Renamed Model, Load, Set to Model, Load, Create/Manage Set on Model menu. See Loads and Constraints
section for more details.
• Renamed Model, Constraint, Set to Model, Constraint, Create/Manage Set on Model menu. See Loads and
Constraints section for more details.
• Added Model, Output, Global Ply to Model menu. See Output and Post-Processing section for more details.
• Renamed Model, Output, Set to Model, Output, Create/Manage Set on Model menu. See Output and Post-Pro-
cessing section for more details.
• Renamed Group, Set to Group, Create/Manage on Group menu. See Group and Layers section for more details.
• Reorganized top section of Group, Operations menu on Group menu. See Group and layers section for more
details.
• Renamed View, Set to View, Create/Manage on View menu. See View section for more details.
• Added View, Visibility command to View menu. See View section for more details.
• Added View, Advanced Post, Contour Model Data command to View menu. See View section for more details.
• Removed View, Layers command from View menu. Replaced by View, Visibility command.
Toolbars
• Replaced “View Layers” and “Quick Options” icons with “Visibility” icon on View Toolbar.
• Added “Model Data Contour” icon to View Toolbar.
• Added “Laminate Options” and “Contour Vectors” options to Post Options drop-down menu on Post Toolbar.
Model Info tree

• Added “Reset All Visibility Options” button.\
• Added Visibility check boxes (on/off) for Elements (Shape and Type), Properties, Materials, and Layers.
• Added Visibility check boxes (Show/Hide/Clear) for Groups.
• Added Elements object and context-sensitive menu to tree.
Visibility check boxes

Visibility “check boxes” exist for toggling visibility on/off of Elements (by Element Shape, Element Type), Materi-
als (Elements of that material), Properties (Elements of that Property), Groups (Show, Hide, and Clear options),
and Layers. The check boxes for each entity type perform the same functions they do in the View, Visibility dialog
box. See Section 6.1.4, "View, Visibility...". Also, multiple entities may be highlighted in a given section and spe-
cial context-sensitive menus exist when the cursor is then placed over the visibility check boxes.
• Added “Copy” command to context-sensitive menus for Coordinate Systems, Connections-Properties, Connec-
tions-Regions, Materials, Properties, Layups, Functions, and Groups
• Added “Color” command to context-sensitive menus for Materials and Properties.
Data Table/Entity Editor 10.1-19
• Added “Layer” command to context-sensitive menus for Materials and Properties.

• Added “Global Ply” command to Layups context-sensitive menu.
• Added “Referenced Sets” command to context-sensitive menus for Loads and Constraints.
• Added “Edit Where Applied” command to context-sensitive menus for Load Definitions and Constraint Defini-
tions.
• Changed “Edit” command to “Edit Load” on Load Definition context-sensitive menu.
• Changed “Edit” command to “Edit Constraint” on Constraint Definition context-sensitive menu.
• Added “Show Constrained Entities” command to Constraints context-sensitive menu.
• Added “Referenced Groups” command to Groups context-sensitive menu.
• Changed “View Active” command to “Show Active Group” and added “Show Full Model” and “Show Multi-
ple Groups” to Groups context-sensitive menu.
• Changed “Show All Layers” to “View All Layers” and “Show Visible Layers Only” to “View Visible Layers
Only” on Layers context-sensitive menu.
• Removed “Make Visible”, “Make Hidden”, and “Manage” commands from Layers context-sensitive menu. No
longer needed due to Visibility check boxes.
Data Table/Entity Editor

• Added “Memb-Bend Coupling” fields for plate elements.
• Added support for “Nastran LOAD Combination Sets” and “Nastran SPCADD/MPCADD Combination Sets”
Status Bar
• Changed “Set” to “Create/Manage (Set)” for Load Sets, Constraint Sets, Groups, and Output Sets
• Changed “View Active” to “Show Active” for Groups and added “Show Full Model” and “Show Multiple”
options
Graphics
Facets are now stored in memory instead of with the model file. When model is opened, it will be facetted. This is
beneficial as model files containing a large amount of geometry will be smaller.
Geometry
• Implemented the Solid Manager which is used to activate, update, or make no solids active in the model.
• Modified Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Pad command. Entering an Pad Size Factor of 1.0 will extend
curves out using the radius of the chosen circular curves, while entering a value of 1.5 would offset the curves
1.5*the radius of the chosen circular curves in all directions.
Meshing
• Added “Use Reference Point” option to Mesh, Mesh Control, Attributes Along Curve
Elements
• Added Update Button to Define RIGID Element dialog box. Allows you to update the Interpolation Factor and
DOFs on any number of highlighted nodes in the Nodes to Average section when using the Interpolation
option.
Layups
• Updated Global Ply Definition dialog box for Layups
Global Ply ID (optional):
This option can be used to save a particular ply of one layup for use in other layups in your model.
The “Global Ply” concept can also be used for Post Processing purposes by allowing you to choose any ply of any
layup to be the same “Global Ply” as any ply of a any other layup. For instance, a model has two layups, Layup 1
has 7 plies and Layup 2 has 9 plies. If you wanted to post process the results of a particular output vector on the
“middle ply” of the model, the “middle ply” for Layup 1 would be ply 4, while the “middle ply” for Layup 2 would
be ply 5. Once these plies have been designated with the same Global Ply ID, you can use the Laminate Options
functionality of View, Select to create a contour/criteria plot using a the results of the “Global Ply”.
You can create a new Global Ply by clicking the Global Ply Icon Button next to the drop down list. In the Global
Ply Definition dialog box, you may create a new global ply using the New Ply button. In the New Global Ply dialog
box, you may enter a Title (up to 79 characters), and optionally choose a Material, and/or enter a Thickness.
Once you have at least one global ply, you may highlight any ply from the list and then use Edit Ply to change the
Title, Material, and/or Thickness, Renumber to renumber the selected ply, or Delete to delete the selected ply,
Delete All will simply delete all of the global plies in the model, while Show will highlight all of the elements in the
graphics window which are currently using the Global Ply.
Note: A Global Ply can only be referenced in a Layup one time. If you use a Global Ply more than once in a
Layup, the most recently entered instance of the Global Ply will have the Global Ply designation.
Material, Thickness and Angle:

The Material drop-down list allows you to choose the material to be referenced for each ply. If you want to create a
new material, simply click the “Material” Icon Button next to the Material drop-down list.
Thickness allows you to enter the physical thickness of each ply. Angle is used to enter the orientation angle of each
ply. The angles are specified relative to the material axes which were defined for the element. If you did not specify
a material orientation angle, these angles are measured from the first side of the element (the edge from the first to
the second node). They are measured from the rotated material axes otherwise.

• Added “Torque” Load type to “Model, Load, On Surface” command.
• Added “Total Load” option for “Force”, “Moment”, and “Torque” load types to “Model, Load, On Surface”
command. Allows you to take a “total load” and spread it across all of the selected surfaces.
Loads and Constraints 10.1-21
• Added “Total Load” option for “Force” and “Moment” load types to “Model, Load, On Curve” command.
Allows you to take a “total load” and spread it across all of the selected curves.
• Implemented the Load Set Manager for creation, management, and activation of Load Sets
Create new load sets
Update the title of an

existing load set
Renumber highlighted
Load Set
Delete highlighted
Load Set
Delete all Load Sets
Copy highlighted
Load Set
Define “Nastran LOAD

Combination Set”
Deactivate All Load

Sets
• Added option to create a Load “Set Type” option which allows you to create a Nastran LOAD Combination and
use Referenced Load Sets
Load Set Type

You may choose a Set Type for the new load set. A Standard load set is any combination of Load Definitions, Body
Loads, and Other Loads used to define the loading conditions for that load set.
A Nastran LOAD Combination is a special type of load set which is a combination of “referenced” Standard load
sets in the model. When used, all of the selected Standard load sets referenced by a Nastran LOAD Combination
Set are written to the Nastran input file and combined by Nastran via a LOAD entry also written to the input file.
Note: Only Forces, Moments, Pressures, loads on Scalar points (SPOINTS), Rotational Velocity Body Loads,
and Gravity Loads may be combined using the LOAD entry. Also, Nastran LOAD Combinations in
FEMAP are only used when performing a Static Analysis.
Once a Nastran LOAD Combination has been created, highlight it from the list in the Load Set Manager and press
the Referenced Sets button. The Referenced Load Sets for Nastran LOAD dialog box will appear:
Highlight any number of Standard load sets from the list of Available Sets. Click Add Referenced Set to have them
placed in the Referenced Sets list. By default, each load set placed into the Referenced Sets list will be included with
a Scale Factor of “1.0”. If desired, the For Referenced Set “Scale Factor” can be changed before pressing the Add
Referenced Set button and all highlighted load sets will be placed in the Referenced Sets list using that Scale Factor.
These scale factors will be written to the appropriate “Si” fields of the Nastran LOAD entry for each load set.
Also, an Overall “Scale Factor” may be entered for the entire set, which is written to the “S” field of LOAD entry.
Note: A Referenced Load Sets command may be added to any menu or toolbar using the Tools, Toolbars, Cus-
tomize command. This command is located in the Additional Commands category on the Commands
tab of the Customize dialog box..
• Implemented the Constraint Set Manager for creation, management, and activation of Constraints Sets
Create new Constraint

Sets
Update the title of an

existing Constraint Set
Constraint Set
Delete highlighted
Constraint Set
Delete all Constraint

Sets
Copy highlighted
Constraint Set
Define “SPCADD/
MPCADD Set”
Deactivate All
Constraint Sets
Connections (Connection Properties, Regions, and Connectors) 10.1-23
• Added option to create a Load Set which represents a Nastran SPCADD/MPCDD Combination and use Refer-
enced Constraint Sets
You may choose a Set Type for the new constraint set. A Standard constraint set is any combination of Constraint
Definitions and Other Loads used to define the boundary conditions for that constraint set.
A Nastran SPCADD/MPCADD Combination is a special type of constraint set which “references” any number of
existing Standard constraint sets in the model. When used, all of the selected Standard constraint sets referenced by
a particular Nastran SPCADD/MPCADD Combination are written to the Nastran input file and combined by Nas-
tran via a SPCADD entry when dealing with normal constraints or a MPCADD when dealing with constraint equa-
tions.
Once a Nastran SPCADD/MPCADD Combination Set has been created, highlight it from the list in the Constraint
Set Manager and press the Referenced Sets button. The Referenced Constraint Sets for Nastran SPCADD/
MPCADD dialog box will appear:
Highlight any number of Standard constraint sets from the list of Available Sets. Click Add Referenced Set to have
them placed in the Referenced Sets list.
Note: A Referenced Constraint Sets command may be added to any menu or toolbar using the Tools, Toolbars,
Customize command. This command is located in the Additional Commands category on the Com-
mands tab of the Customize dialog box..

• Added “Reverse” button to Connection Regions to switch “positive” to “negative” and vice versa for surfaces
and “Face 1” to “Face 2” and vice versa for shell elements.
NX Linear tab
• Added Adaptive Stiffness and Penetration Factor to the Contact Property (BCTPARM) section. Create the
PENAPAPT and PENETFAC fields on the BCTPARM entry.
• Added Glue Type and Glue Factor to the Common Contact (BCTPARM) and Glue (BGPARM) Parameters sec-
tion. Create the GLUETYPE and PENGLUE fields on the BGPARM entry.
• Added Auto Penalty Factor to the Common Contact (BCTPARM) and Glue (BGPARM) Parameters section.
Creates the PENAUTO field on the BCTPARM entry.
• Modified Penalty Factor Units in the Common Contact (BCTPARM) and Glue (BGPARM) Parameters section
to have different options depending on what option is set for Connect Type.
NEiNastran tab
• Added 10..Offset Welded Contact option to Penetration Type drop-down list.
Groups and Layers

• Implemented the Group Manager for creation, management, and activation of Groups
Create new Group
Regular Group Update the title of an

icon existing Group
Constraint Set
Delete highlighted
Group
Delete all Groups
Define “Referenced
Group”
Deactivate All
Group containing Groups
Referenced Groups
icon
• Added ability to create “Referenced Groups”
The concept of Referenced Groups allows an existing group to “reference” other existing groups in your model
(essentially, create a “Group of Groups”). A group which “references” other groups may also contain any number
Views 10.1-25
of additional entities. Once a group is referencing other groups, the icon will change in the Group Manager dialog
box. Groups which reference other groups may also be referenced by any other group.
The Referenced Groups for Group drop-down list may be used to select any existing group. Any number of groups
may be moved between the Available Groups list and Referenced Groups list for a particular group by highlighting
the groups in the appropriate list and pressing the Add or Remove buttons. Remove All will move all groups from
Referenced Groups to Available Groups. When a group which references other groups is added to the Referenced
Groups list, the referenced groups will be listed in a “tree structure” beneath that group (Shown above).
Note: If Group “A” is referenced by Group “E” and Group “F” and both groups “E” and “F” are then refer-
enced by another group, Group “G”, Group “A” will only appear once in the Referenced Groups list.
All other instances of Group “A” will be shown using a red “X” in the middle of group brackets.
• Updated Group, Operations, Evaluate; Group, Operations, Evaluate Always; and Group, Operations, Renum-
ber Rules to allow selection of multiple groups.
• Updated Group, Operations, Condense to allow selection of multiple groups and “condense” the groups “in
place” without creating a copy.
• Added Condense New Group option to Group, Operations, Copy to also condense the active group when cop-
ied.
• Implemented the Layer Manager for creation, management, and activation of Layers
Create new Layer
Update the Title or Color

of existing Layer
Layer
Delete highlighted
Layer
Delete all Layers
Deactivate All
Layers
This dialog box works just like the other “Create/Manage” set dialog boxes. Simply press the New Layer button to
create a new layer. Then enter a Title, choose a Color by pressing the Palette button, then press OK to return to the
Layer Manager dialog box or More to be prompted to create another new layer.
Views
• View, Create/Manage
Displays the View Manager, which allows you to create a new view using the New View button. The new view will
become the active view when created. The Update Title, Delete View, and Copy View buttons can be used to update
the name, delete, or copy the view currently highlighted in the Available Views - Selected View is Active list.
• View, Visibility
This command allows you to control visibility of Entity Types, Entity Labels, Groups (one or multiple), Layers,
Load Sets, Constraint Sets, and sets of Elements based on Element Shape, Element Type, associated Material, and/
or associated Property.
Each tab of the Visibility dialog box controls different aspects of what is displayed in the FEMAP graphics window.
Combinations of settings on multiple tabs give the user a vast array of options for creating the desired display.
The two buttons at the bottom of the dialog box, Reset All and Done are available while in any tab. Done closes the
Visibility dialog box, while Reset All returns the model to the “default display configuration” of FEMAP, which is:
• All Entity Types displayed
• Labels on for Coordinate Systems, all Constraints (including Permanent and Equations), and all Loads
• View All Layers option set on Layer tab, Show Full Model option set on Group tab.
• View Active Load Set and View Active Constraint Set options set on Load/Constraint tab.
• All Element Shapes, Element Types, and Elements associated with all Properties and Materials displayed
The number of buttons on the right side of the dialog box and what the buttons actually do changes for each tab.
Once displayed, certain entities may or may not be available for selection based on the visibility options.
For instance, if Elements are turned off on the Entity/Label tab, no Groups are being viewed (i.e., Show Full Model
option), all Layers are currently visible, and all Element shapes, Element types, and elements associated with all
Materials and Properties are also displayed, then elements are still available for selection from the graphics win-
dow.
On the other hand, only entities in displayed Groups, on visible Layers, and Elements of types, shapes, and associ-
ated to Properties and Materials which are currently checked “on” in the Visibility dialog box or the Model Info tree
are available for selection from the graphics window.
Note: The Visibility settings on the Entity/Label, Group, Layer, and Load/Constraint tabs apply to the Active
View only. Settings on the Element, Material, and Property tabs apply to All Views in the model.
Views 10.1-27
Find button
The Find button is available for use in all tabs of the Visibility dialog box except the Load/Constraint tab. Simply
enter text into the field, then click the Find button. Any item in the “list” of the current tab which contains the text
you entered, will be automatically highlighted. This functionality can be very helpful in finding certain groups or
layers in complex models.
Quickly Choosing Visibility
In addition to using the Visibility icon on the View Toolbar or using Ctrl+Q, you can also access the Visibility dialog
box directly from the “Quick Access” menu. Simply press the right mouse button with the cursor anywhere inside
any graphics window, and select Visibility.
Entity/Label tab
There are times that you will want to quickly toggle on/off the overall visibility of entire entity types and/or the
labels for various entity types. The Entity/Label tab of the Visibility dialog box provides a single place to perform
both of these actions.
When Draw Entity is selected above the lists of entity types, visibility of each entity type is controlled by the check
box next to the entity type name. When Labels is selected, visibility for the entity type labels is controlled by the
check box. Visibility and/or labels for portions of the list can be turned on/off using the “special” check box next to
any entity type “header” (Geometry, Mesh, Connections, Constraints, and Loads).
Two additional options exist when the Labels option is selected. When Entity Color is checked, all labels will be
displayed using the same color as the entity. When Erase Background is checked, FEMAP will erase the area
where the label will be drawn, prior to drawing the label. If you are labelling filled areas, it is often good to choose
this option, as they are easier to read.
The table describes the functions performed by each of the command buttons:

All On Turns Draw Entity or Labels check box on for all entities.
All Off Turns Draw Entity or Labels check box off for all entities.
Selected On Turns Draw Entity or Labels check box on for selected entities.
Selected Off Turns Draw Entity or Labels check box off for selected entities.

Selected Only Turns Draw Entity or Labels check box on for selected entities, while turning
all unselected entities off.
Entity Colors Changes Color mode to Entity Colors for all options.
View Colors Changes Color mode to View Colors for all options.
Note: The following buttons change the entire view (selections, alignment, magnification, etc.), not
just the view options.
Load View Updates the current view by restoring from the View library.
Save View Store the current view in the View library
Reset View Resets the entire view to FEMAP defaults.
Group tab
This tab enables you to specify visibility options for groups which allow you to display only a portion of your
model. Groups are essentially subsets of the model based on entity IDs, rules to include entities related to other
entities already in the group (i.e., nodes on elements currently in the group), or limited by “clipping” regions.
Group Set to “Show”
Groups Set to “Hide”
Referenced Group
Set to “Show”
There are 4 visibility options for groups:

• Show Full Model - Groups are not currently being used to only display a portion of your model.
• Show Active Group - The “active” group will be used to only display a portion of your model. The active group
can be changed by selecting a different group from the drop-down list.
• Show Single Group - Any single group can be chosen from the drop-down menu and used to display only a por-
tion of the model.
• Show/Hide Multiple Groups - Any number of groups can be set to “Show” (Green Circle with “+”), “Hide”
(Red Circle with “-”), or “Clear” (no marker in box) to create the desired display.
By default, the Group option is set to Show Full Model, therefore the entire model will be displayed. Activating an
existing group will not change the display, but will allow you to graphically select entities from your entire model
to place into the group. If you want to display only a portion of your model, switch this option to Show Active
Group, Show Single Group, or Show/Hide Multiple Groups. Then only the entities which are in the appropriate
group(s) will be displayed.
Views 10.1-29
The Show/Hide Multiple Groups option gives you the most flexibility when creating a display. Show All will
change the “Show/Hide flag” of all groups to “show”, while Clear All will change the flag for all groups to “Clear”.
You may also highlight any number of groups from the list, then click Show Selected (set flag for all selected
groups to “Show”), Hide Selected (set flag to “Hide”), Clear Selected (set flag to “Clear”), or Show Selected Only
(sets flag of selected groups to “Show”, while setting flags of unselected groups to “Clear”).
Note: When Show/Hide Multiple Groups is set and ALL Groups are “Clear”, the whole model will be visible.
For Example:
In this model, there are 11 total groups. Individual groups exist for the elements of each color (7 groups). Also, one
group containing both the blue and green elements, one group containing the red, yellow, and cyan elements, one
group containing the top two rows of elements, and one “L-shaped” group.
“Green and Blue” “Red, Yellow, and “Top 2 Rows” “L-Shaped” Group
Group Cyan” Group Group
Here are a few visibility scenarios involving the Groups in this example model:
All Groups “Clear” “Orange” and “Purple” “Blue and Green” and “Top
(Whole Model shown) set to “Show” 2 Rows” set to “Show”
“L-Shaped” set to “Show”, “L-Shaped” and “Blue and “L-Shaped” set to “Hide”,
“Yellow” and “Blue” set to Green” set to “Show”, “Top all other groups set to
“Hide” 2 Rows” set to “Hide” “Show”
“Cyan”, “Top 2 Rows” and “Yellow”, “Top 2 Rows”, and

“L-Shaped” set to “Show”, “Blue and Green” set to “Show”
“Red” and “Blue set to “Hide” “Blue” set to “Hide”
Layers tab
Controls which layers will be displayed in the model. Also allows you to specify the Active Layer as well as the
NoPick Layer.
New Layer
icon button
The default setting is View All Layers. If you want to only view selected layers, change to View Multiple Layers,
then “check” the layers you would like to see in the view. The All On and All Off buttons simply “check” or
“uncheck” all of the layers in the model. Selected On will “check” the highlighted layers, while Selected Off will
“uncheck” them. Selected Only will “check” the selected layers while also “unchecking” all of the non-highlighted
layers.
As you “check” or “uncheck” the boxes next to various layers, the display in the graphics window will update “on-
the-fly”.
In addition to controlling your display, visible layers may also be used to control entity selection. Only entities on
visible layers and which are not on the NoPick Layer can be selected graphically. With the Active Layer option, you
can also select the layer that will be used for entity creation. You may also use the New Layer icon button next to
the Active Layer drop-down list to create a new layer in your model.
Views 10.1-31
Note: By default, entities used for solid geometry construction (such as a boundary surface for an extrusion)
are automatically deleted after being used. On the Geometry/Model tab of the File, Preferences dialog
box, you can change the “Construction Geometry... when used” option to “1..Move to NoPick Layer”.
When this option is set, the construction geometry will be moved to “9999..Construction Layer”, which
is the default for the NoPick Layer. This can be used to prevent construction geometry from being
selected for load or constraint application. If you need to access this geometry, change the NoPick
Layer to “0..none” and you will be able to graphically select these entities. Be careful when doing this
however, since this geometry may occupy the identical space as a solid face or edge.
Load/Constraint tab
Here you can choose the load set and/or constraint set that will be displayed in the view.
By default, View Active Load Set and View Active Constraint Set are the selected options, therefore the active load
set and active constraint set will be displayed. You can change the “active” Load Set and/or Constraint Set using the
appropriate drop-down list. You may eliminate loads and/or constraints from the display by choosing the View No
Loads and/or View No Constraints options. Also, you can select a particular set for display whether or not it is
active by using the View Selected Load Set and/or View Selected Constraint Set options and selecting an existing set
from the appropriate drop-down list.
Element, Material, and Property tabs

These tabs allow you to control the visibility of elements based on Element Shape and/or Element Type (Element
tab) and elements associated with specific Materials or Properties in your model.
The number of elements of each type or shape is listed after the type name or shape name when in the Element tab.
A special check box exists in the Material tab which allows you to toggle visibility on/off for “Elements with No
Material” which include plot only, link, spring/damper, DOF spring, gap, laminate (reference several materials, not
one), mass, mass matrix, rigid/interpolation, stiffness matrix, and slide line elements. A similar box exists in the
Property tab for “Elements with No Property” which include plot only and rigid/interpolation elements.
Note: Element visibility using the Element, Material, and Property tabs applies to All Views in the model, not
just the Active View like the Entity/Label, Group, Layer, and Load/Constraint tabs.
This table describes the functions performed by each of the command buttons when in a Element, Material, or
Property tab:

All On “Checks” boxes for ALL element shapes/types, materials, or properties (includes
box for Elements with No Material/Property).
All Off “Unchecks” boxes for all element shapes/types, materials, or properties (includes
box for Elements with No Material/Property).
Selected On “Checks” boxes of highlighted element shapes/types, materials, or properties.
Selected Off “Unchecks” boxes of highlighted element shapes/types, materials, or properties.
Selected Only “Checks” boxes of highlighted element shapes/types, materials, or properties, while
“unchecking” boxes of shapes/types, materials, or properties which are not currently
highlighted.
Only elements of shapes/types or associated with materials or properties which are currently “checked” will be
available for selection in the graphics window. This can make it very easy to perform “box”, “circle”, “polygon”, or
“freehand” picking of certain element types/shapes, materials, or properties.
Views 10.1-33
• View Options: Quick Options button - removed for 10.1

• View Options: Labels, Entities and Color category: - Added Load - Body options for displaying Body Loads:
This option controls the display of translational acceleration (straight solid arrow), rotational acceleration (curved
solid arrow with 2 arrowheads), and rotational velocity (curved solid arrow with 1 arrowhead) body loads in the
graphics window. Labels, Location for the “rotational” body loads, and Color may also be set.
By default, when only one of the above body loads is being applied in the “Active” load set, the corresponding
symbol for that load will appear in the “middle” of the View Axis, oriented to the XYZ of the View Axis.
Translational Acceleration Rotational Acceleration Rotational Velocity

(-1 in Y-direction) (100 about X-axis) (20 about X-Axis)
When more than one body load is being applied, translational acceleration will be displayed in the YZ plane, rota-
tional acceleration in the ZX plane, and rotational velocity in the XY plane of the View Axis.
Changing the Location from 0..View Axis to 1..Model, will only affect the position of rotational body loads. They
will be shown with the same symbol, but will also show a dotted-line representing the rotation axis of the load
within the model itself.
• View Options: Labels, Entities and Color category: Moment and Torque - now controls display of Moment and
Torque loads
• View Options: Tools and View Style category: Render Options - Changed “1..Surfaces Only” option for Surface
Hatch to “1..Hatch Wireframe Surfaces” and added “2..Never Hatch Surfaces” option.
• View Options: Tools and View Style category: Stereo - option removed for 10.1

• View, Advanced Post, Contour Model Data
... allows you to view model data as contour/criteria plots or beam diagrams. This commands is not really a post-
processing capability. Some common uses would be viewing a contour plot of the thicknesses of plane elements in
a shell model or a criteria plot of Youngs Modulus of the materials in an assembly model using solid elements.
If you would like to display model data on elements in the graphics window, the first option to check would be
Show Model Data Contour in the Contour Data From section. Next choose a single material/property data value
for display by highlighting a specific value from the tree structure. Most material/property data values in FEMAP
should be available for selection, with the major exceptions being the material values of the materials of the “Other
Types” material type. There are 5 “special cases” which are a little more flexible with regard to the type of materi-
als/properties in the model. For instance, “Plane Element Thickness” will work for any plane elements which have
a thickness, including laminates. Others like “Bar/Beam/Rod Area” will allow you to show a criteria plot of areas
on all the Beams/Bars/Rods in your model at once.
Once a value is chosen, you can choose to display the values as a Contour, Criteria, or Beam Diagram in the Show
As section. The Allow Labels will toggle the output labels on/off for all three of the Show As options.
Finally, you can choose to plot the material/property data values on the entire model using the All option in the
Show On section or only a portion of the model by choosing Group and then selecting an existing group from the
drop-down list.
For example, here is a contour plot of “Plane Element Thickness” on a Shell model containing laminates of various
thicknesses:
Output and Post-Processing 10.1-35
To turn off the display of material/property data values, choose the command again and UNCHECK the Show
Model Data Contour check box in the Contour Data From section.
Note: While the Show Model Data Contour box is checked, all Contour Style settings in the View Select dia-
log box (View, Select command) will be ignored until the display of model data has been turned off.
• View, Select: Contour Vectors - 2D Tensor Plot option

The 2D Tensor Plot (i.e.,“Crow’s Foot” plot) allows you to create a plot of three vectors on a 2D element. Vector 1
will be plotted in the X-direction (based on the option selected in the Output Data is Stored Relative To section),
Vector 2 in the Y-direction, and Vector 3 at a 45 degree angle between the X-direction and the Y-direction.
Although it may be used to show any three vectors on 2D elements, this is very useful when showing three related
vectors, with two being “directional” and one being “shear”, such as Plate X Normal Stress (Vector 1), Plate Y Nor-
mal Stress (Vector 2), and Plate XY Shear Stress (Vector 3).
2D Tensor Plot showing X Normal Stress, Y Normal Stress and XY Shear Stress
This plot differs from the other available Vector Type plots. By default, the options set in the PostProcessing cate-
gory of View Options for Vector Style and Contour Vector Style will be ignored, and the plot will be always be
shown with all vectors displayed using uniform vector length, centered on the element, with output values
Note: If you want the 2D Tensor Plot to follow the options set in Vector Style and Contour Vector Style, simply
select the File, Preferences command, choose the Views tab, then “uncheck” the “2D Tensor Plot View
Options Override” option.
• View, Select: Laminate Options

Used to control the display of laminate results. By default, this option will be set to Selected Output Vector, which
will simply create a contour/criteria plot using the Contour vector currently selected in the Output Vectors section
of the Select PostProcessing Data dialog box. The other options are Top Ply of Layup, Bottom Ply of Layup, and
Global Ply.
When using any of the other options, FEMAP will use the Contour vector currently selected in the Output Vectors
section of the Select PostProcessing Data dialog box along with the first ply entered for a each layup (Bottom Ply
of Layup option), last play entered (Top Ply of Layup), or designated ply in the layup (Global Ply) to create the
appropriate contour/criteria plot.
For example, a model contains sections of laminate elements using 3 different layups, one section with 7 plies
(Layup 1), one with 11 plies (Layup 2), and the last with 15 plies (Layup 3).
.
Layup 3 - 15 Plies Layup 2 - 11 Plies Layup 1 - 7 Plies
If you want to display the “X Normal Stress” for the “Top Ply” of this model, the “X Normal Stress” results from
Ply 7 for Layup 1, Ply 11 for Layup 2, and Ply 15 for Layup 3 will be used to create the contour/criteria plot.
If you want to display the “X Normal Stress” for the “Bottom Ply” of this model, the “X Normal Stress” results
from Ply 1 for Layup 1, Ply 1 for Layup 2, and Ply 1 for Layup 3 will be used to create the contour/criteria plot.
Finally, if you want to display the “X Normal Stress” for the “Middle Ply” of this model, you would need to desig-
nate the “middle ply” of each layup using a “Global Ply”. To set up a “Global Ply”, you will need to first create a
global ply in the Layup Editor, then choose a ply in each Layup and click the Update Global Ply button. See Sec-
tion 4.2.5, "Model, Layup..." for more information about a global ply.
Once the Global Ply has been assigned to a ply in each layup, you can then choose it from the Global Ply drop-
down list. In this case, the “X Normal Stress” results from Ply 4 for Layup 1, Ply 6 for Layup 2, and Ply 8 for
Layup 3 will be used to create the contour/criteria plot.
• View Options: PostProcessing category: Contour Vector Style - Added “Exponent” Color Modes, Digits, and
Length options
Geometry Interfaces

Solid Edge Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology 2
NX NX 6
ACIS ACIS 20

• Analysis Set Manager Enhancements

• FEMAP Neutral File Interface
• NX Nastran Interface
• Nastran Interfaces (NX and MSC/MD)
• MSC/MD Nastran Interface
• NEi Nastran Interface
• ANSYS Interface
• ABAQUS Interface
• DYNA Interface

• Added Previous (Prev...) buttons to many of the Analysis Set Manager dialog boxes when using the Nastran
Solvers.
• Enhanced Analyze and Analyze Multiple options to use internal solver queuing system when multiple jobs in
one model or jobs from any number of models are sent to the solver. Queuing system now tracks which model
the analysis job was launched from and will attempt to return to the correct model and import results before
beginning the next analysis job. Also, added “Clear Queue” button to clear the internal queuing system.

• Updated Neutral Read and Write for v10.1 changes
Solution 601 updates
• Turned the “Loads Change with Deformation” option in the Analysis Options section of NXSTRAT Solver
Parameters dialog box “on” by default.
• Turned the “Constraint Force” option in the Nodal section of Nastran Output Requests dialog box “on” by
default.
• Added support to SOL601 for function dependent acceleration body loads.
• Turned the “Loads Change with Deformation” option in the Analysis Options section of NXSTRAT Solver
Parameters dialog box “on” by default.
• Turned the “Constraint Force” option in the Nodal section of Nastran Output Requests dialog box “on” by
default.

• Turned off PARAM,MAXRATIO by default
• Added support to read the CVISC and PVISC entries
• Added support to read and write PARAM,RESVINER
• Added support to read and write LOAD, SPCADD, and MPCADD entries
• Added support to set the All Plates as QUADR/TRIAR option when CQUADR and CTRIAR elements are
imported
Nastran Interfaces (NX and MSC/MD) 10.1-39
• Added ability to write GEOMCHECK, NONE and read GEOMCHECK entries and populate GEOMCHECK
dialog box in Analysis Set Manager
• Added Dynamic Control Options dialog box to Analysis Set Manager for analysis Types 3..Transient Dynamic/
Time History, 4..Frequency/Harmonic Response, 5..Response Spectrum, and 6..Random Response.
Replaces using the “Model, Load, Dynamic Analysis” command and all fields of this dialog box should be popu-
lated when importing a Nastran input file for Solution Sequences (SOL) 108, 109, 111, or 112. Added
• Added Nonlinear Control Options dialog box to Analysis Set Manager for analysis Types 10..Nonlinear Static
and 12..Nonlinear Transient Response.
Replaces using the “Model, Load, Nonlinear Analysis” command and all fields of this dialog box should be popu-
lated when importing a Nastran input file for Solution Sequences (SOL) 106 or 129, when an NLPARM entry
exists.
• Added support to read DLOAD, NONLINEAR, TSTEP, TSTEPNL, NLPARM, SDAMPING, FREQUENCY,
RANDOM Case Control entries
• Added support to read PARAMs LMODES, LFREQ, HFREQ, W3, W4, G, RSPECTRA, SCRSPEC, OPTION
(ABS, SRSS, NRL, NRLO), CLOSE, LANGLE
• Added support to read TSTEP, TSTEPNL, NLPARM, NLPCI, RANDPS, DTI Bulk Data entries


• Added support to read PARAM,OPTION,CQC
ANSYS Interface
ABAQUS Interface
DYNA Interface
• Added support 8-noded Quad elements
• Added support for nonstructural mass for Beam and Shell elements
• Added support for the following element formulations:
Fully Integrated DKT triangular, Fully Integrated linear DK quadrilateral, Fully Integrated linear assumed strain
C0, 1 point Eulerian Navier-Stokes, 8 point Eulerian Navier-Stokes, and CVFEM Eulerian Navier-Stokes
OLE/COM API
• Added NasBulkDynLdAsLOADSET, NasBulkResViner, NasGCheckNone, NasBulkWriteAllLoadBCSets,
NasDynOn, NasDynUseLoadSet, NasDynDampOverall, NasDynDampW3, NasDynDampW4, vNasDynKeep-
Freq, NasDynTranDT, NasDynFreqTbl, NasDynDampModalTbl, NasDynKeepModes, NasDynTran-
TimeSteps, NasDynTransOutInt, NasDynDampModalMethod, NasDynRespSpect, vNasDynNoFreq,
vNasDynLogInterp, vNasDynFreqType, vNasDynMinFreq, vNasDynMaxFreq, and vNasDynSpreadCluster to
AnalysisMgr object
OLE/COM API 10.1-41
• NasCnlIncrements, NasCnlTime_Increment, NasCnlMaxIter, vNasCnlConvergenceFlags, vNasCnlConver-

genceValue, NasCnlCtiffnessMethod, NasCnlKstep, NasCnlIntermediateOutput, NasCnlOutputInterval,
NasCnlSolutionStrategy, NasCnlSolutionOverrides, NasCnlModnewtonLineSearch, NasCnlModnewton-
QuasiNewton, NasCnlModnewtonBisection, NasCnlArcConstraintType, NasCnlArcMinAdjust, NasCnlArc-
MaxAdjust, NasCnlArcLoadScale, NasCnlArcDesiredIter, NasCnlArcMaxSteps, NasCnlTimeSkipAdjust,
NasCnlDominantPeriodSteps, NasCnlBoundsRb, NasCnlStabilityTolerance, NasCnlDivergenceLimit, NasCn-
lQuasiNewtonVectors, NasCnlMaxLineSearch, NasCnlCreep, NasCnlLineSearchTolerance, NasCnlMaxBisec-
tions, NasCnlMaxRotation, NasCnlFstress, and NasCnlMaxAdjust to AnalysisMgr object.
• Added IsCombination to LoadSet object.
• Added Gradient to LoadETemp object.
• Added IsCombination to BCSet object
• Added GlobalPlyLocation to View object.
New API Methods
• Added AddCoordinate, AddAroundPoint, AddAroundVector, AddAroundPlane, AddNodesOnGeometry, and
SelectList methods for Set object
• Added RemoveSet, ConvertToBoundarySurfaces, and SelectListmethods for Sort object
• Added ClearAnalysisQueue, GetCorrelate2, and PutCorrelate2 methods forAnalysisMgr object
• Added GetDataSurfType method for DataSurf object
• Added PartialLengthXYZ, PartialLengthNode, and SelectList methods for Curve object
• Added IsBoundingSolidRegion, Mesh, and ResetMeshAttr methods for Surface object
• Added IsGeneral method for Solid object
• Added GetClosest method for Node object
• Added Thickness, Area, and Inertia methods for Elem object
• Added Thickness, Area, and Inertia methods for Prop object
• Added GetCombination and PutCombination methods for LoadSet object
• Added GetCombination and PutCombination methods for BCSet object
• Added ReferencedGroups method for Group object
• Added DefineReal method for Var object
• Added GetMultiGroupList, SetMultiGroupList, and ClearMultiGroupList methods for View object
• Added InitScalarAtBeam and PutScalarAtBeam methods for Output object
• Added Reverse method for Contact and ConnectionRegion objects
New Global Variables
• Added Pref_NastranUseILP64, Pref_ConstructionGeometry, and Pref_NastranWriteAllLdbcSets
• Added FLT_SNTORQUE for Load Type
• Added FVD_AXIS_OF_SURFACE for Vector Definition Method
• feSurfaceRemoveHole
• feModifySolidFacetting
• feSolidRemoveFace
• feMeshSurface2
• feAppRegisterAddInPaneWithFrame
• feVectorAxisOfSurface
• feMeshSurfaceByAttributes
Preferences
Views
• Added 2D Tensor Plot View Options Override option.
This option is on by default. When viewing contour vectors using the 2D Tensor Plot option, the options set in the
PostProcessing category of View Options for Vector Style and Contour Vector Style will be ignored, and the plot
will be always be shown with all vectors displayed using uniform vector length, centered on the element, with out-
put values
Database
• Added Open/Save Method option.
This option should only be used if you are experiencing VERY slow opening/saving FEMAP model files. On cer-
tain hardware, switching to option “2..64K widows I/O” may make a dramatic difference in the time a model takes
to open/save. Essentially, what option 2 does is copy to (opening) and from the scratch directory (saving) in 64K
“blocks” instead of allowing the hardware to choose the size. Options 1 and 3 are simply other alternatives to try.
Interfaces
• Added Use ILP-64bit NX Nastran option.
If you have NX Nastran installed on a 64-bit system, this option will instruct NX Nastran to solve using the “ILP”
version of 64-bit Nastran. “ILP” is able to allocate more memory than “regular” 64-bit NX Nastran by using a 64-
bit word size and 64-bit memory pointer, while integers are 64-bits and floating point uses one 64-bit word.
• Added Write All Static Load/BC Sets option.
When this option is on, FEMAP will write ALL loads and constraint sets to the Nastran input file for Linear Static
Analysis. This essentially forces FEMAP to write out Nastran input files for SOL 101 the way it has in all versions
before FEMAP 10.1.
What’s New for versions 10.0 and 10.0.1 10.1-43
What’s New for versions 10.0 and

10.0.1
User Interface
"Windows Vista", "General", "Menu", "Entity Select", "Toolbars", "Meshing Toolbox", "Model Info tree", "Data
Table", "Entity Editor", "API Programming", "Status Bar", "Graphics", "Astroid"
Windows Vista
FEMAP is now supported on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista.
Many issues from previous “unsupported” versions of FEMAP with regards to Windows Vista, such as entity pick-
ing and proper use of the Model Info tree have been addressed.
General
• Renamed Weld Property Element/Property Type to Weld/Fastener to include Fastener Elements
• Added support to create GIF, Animated GIF, TIFF, and PNG files when using File, Picture, Save command.
• Improved length-based spacing, distance along, and other length-based curve functions to perform better when
highly nonlinear parametric domains exist on curves.
Menu
• Added Tools, Meshing Toolbox command to the Tools menu. See the Meshing section for more information on
this dockable pane.
• Added Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Split at Locations; Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Offset Curve/
Washer; Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Pad; Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Point to Point; Geometry,
Curve - From Surface, Point to Edge; and Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Edge to Edge commands to Geom-
etry menu. See the Geometry section for more information on these commands.
• Deleted Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Split at Points. See the Geometry section for more information on
these commands. Replaced by Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Split at Locations.
• Added Geometry, Surface, NonManifold Add and Geometry, Surface, Recover Manifold Geometry commands
to the Geometry menu. See the Geometry section for more information on these commands.
• Added Geometry, Midsurface, Offset Tangent Surfaces command to the Geometry menu. See the Geometry
section for more information on this command.
• Added Modify, Associativity, Automatic command to the Modify menu. See the Mesh Associativity section for
more information on this command.
• Added Modify, Update Other, Solid Facetting command to the Modify menu.
Entity Select
• Added “Combined Curves” options (Default, All Points/Curves, Points/Curves Eliminated by Combined
Curves, and Combined Curves Only) to the Pick Menu in the standard Entity Selection dialog box. Only one
mode can be selected at any given time.
• Added “Boundary Surfaces” options (Default, All Curves/Surfaces, Curves/Surfaces Eliminated by Boundary,
and Boundary Surfaces Only) to the Pick Menu in the standard Entity Selection dialog box. Only one mode can
be selected at any given time.
• Added “Add Connected Fillets” option to the Pick Menu in the standard Entity Selection dialog box. Allows
you to quickly add “connected fillets” to the selection list by first choosing any number of surfaces which rep-
resent fillets in your geometry. This is a helpful picking tool when using Geometry, Solid, Remove Face or the
Feature Removal Tool set to “Surfaces” in the Meshing Toolbox to try and remove fillets from geometry. Only
visible when selecting surfaces.
• Added “Add Tangent Surfaces” option to the Pick Menu in the standard Entity Selection dialog box. Allows
you to add surfaces based on their relationship to surfaces which have already been selected. In this case, sur-
faces “tangent” to any number of surfaces already in your selection list will be added to the list. This is a helpful
command when you would like to pick all of the surfaces on “one side” of a part. Only visible when selecting
surfaces.
• Updated direction of mouse wheel for Query Pick list to follow direction of mouse wheel.
Toolbars
• Added Meshing Toolbox icon to Panes Toolbar.
• Added Curve Washer, Curve Pad, Split Between Points, Split Point to Edge, and Split Edge to Edge icons to
Curves on Surface Toolbar.
• Improved Select Related mode of the Select Toolbar to include coordinate systems used as definition coordinate
systems for other selected Coordinate Systems and include reference nodes on beams when the nodes are
related to elements, properties, or materials.
Meshing Toolbox
The Meshing Toolbox is completely new for FEMAP 10 and contains several individual tools which can be very
helpful during the meshing process. There are tools which allow you to simplify geometry; create “combined” geo-
metric entities for meshing purposes using several “underlying” geometric entities; change the mesh size, biasing,
and other options on any number of curves interactively; move any number of nodes dynamically while seeing the
mesh update; and plot the element quality in the graphics window.
The Meshing Toolbox also contains the Entity Locator, which can be used to locate Curves or Surfaces in your
model which meet certain search criteria (for example, “short” curves or “sliver” surfaces which may cause prob-
lems during meshing). Once the “Locator” identifies entities, you can then cycle through all of the located entities
in the model one at a time and take action using the Geometry Tools in the Meshing Toolbox, when appropriate.
Meshing Toolbox Icons
Mesh Quality Toggle Select Entity Toggle Tools menu - By default, all 7 of the “tools”
Entity Locator will be visible in the Meshing Toolbox.
Remesh Modes Dialog Select
Toggle Tools Using the drop-down menu from this icon, you can
make all of the tools visible or hidden at once using
“Toggle All Tools”, individually toggle them on and off
by choosing the individual “tool name” (for example,
Feature Suppression) from the menu, or decide to
show only one “set” of tools at a time by selecting the
appropriate “tool set name” (for example, Geometry
Tools). When a tool is visible, there will be a check
mark next to it in the list.
Here is a short description of each “set” of tools:
Geometry Tools
• Feature Suppression - Basically, this tool allows you to use the same options available in the Mesh, Mesh Con-
trol, Feature Suppression command interactively. You may suppress loops (curves of internal holes on surfaces
and solids, “base curves” of bosses and extrusions on solids), curves (usually relatively small in size), and sur-
faces (usually sliver surfaces, not fillets or chamfers). Suppressed geometry still exists in the model and can be
“restored” at any time. See "Feature Suppression Tool"
Meshing Toolbox 10.1-45
• Feature Removal - Most of the functionality in this tool, which is used to permanently remove geometric enti-
ties to simplify geometry, is offered in other FEMAP commands. This tool brings them together in one place
where they can be used interactively. Removing “Loops” basically mimics the functionality of the Geometry,
Surface, Remove Hole command, while removing “Surfaces” essentially uses the same process as Geometry,
Solid, Remove Face. Finally, removing “Curves” uses portions of the Geometry, Solid, Cleanup command
along some other methodology to try and remove redundant curves. In the case of “Aggressive Removal”,
localized geometry around the selected curve may be slightly altered to accommodate the curve no longer being
part of the geometry. See "Feature Removal Tool"
• Combined/Composite Curves - In some cases, combining several smaller curves along the edge of a surface
will allow you to create a higher quality mesh on the surface. This tool allows you to combine curves by choos-
ing the curves themselves or a point that two curves share. A “Composite Curve” will be created in FEMAP,
which will be used for mesh sizing purposes instead of the underlying curves. There are also options for split-
ting a “composite curve” at a selected point or removing any of the underlying curves. See "Combined/Com-
posite Curve Tool"
• Combined/Boundary Surfaces - Much like creating “composite curves” to improve mesh quality, it may be a
good idea to combine several surfaces into a “Boundary Surface”. This tool uses the same concept as the Geom-
etry, Boundary Surface, From Surfaces on Solid command. This can be especially helpful when there are “sliver
surfaces” next to a much larger surface. By combining the selected surfaces into one “boundary surface”, all of
the internal curves can be ignored during the meshing process. “Boundary surfaces” can be created by selecting
a curve shared by multiple surfaces or choosing the surfaces themselves. Also, any underlying surface can be
removed from a boundary surface or “split” along a chosen curve. See "Combined/Boundary Surface Tool"
Meshing Tools
• Mesh Sizing - Combines the options used to set mesh sizing and node spacing on curves (Mesh, Mesh Control,
Size on Curve) with the “Add, Subtract, and Set To” functionality of the Mesh, Mesh Control, Interactive com-
mand. When using the Auto Remesh option in the Meshing Toolbox you will be able to see the mesh update “on
the fly” after each change to sizing or node spacing, while you also monitor the element quality update (Mesh
Quality Toggle “On”). There are also options for matching any number of selected curves to a “Master Curve”,
as well as setting biasing and length based sizing without changing the number of elements on the curve. See
"Mesh Sizing Tool"
Mesh Editing Tools
• Mesh Locate - There may be times when you would like to make small changes to an existing mesh simply by
moving one or several nodes without changing the number of elements. This tool will allow you to do this while
making sure that as you move the node or nodes dynamically, they remain attached to specified solid(s), sur-
face(s), and curve(s), or if you have no geometry, follow the overall topology of the selected standalone mesh.
There are also options to move the selected nodes by a defined amount, continually smooth the mesh as the
nodes are moved, and allow the moved nodes to no longer be attached to surfaces or curves. Much like the
Mesh Sizing tool, you can also turn on the Mesh Quality Toggle and monitor the element quality “real time” as
the nodes are moved. See "Mesh Locate Tool"
• Mesh Quality - Creating a mesh with high quality elements is essential to the accuracy of a Finite Element
model. When the Mesh Quality Toggle in the Meshing Toolbox is set to “on”, this tool allows you to graphically
see an element quality value plotted on each element similar to a contour/criteria plot. There are several differ-
ent element quality types which can be selected and each type has default automatic values, but user-defined
values can also be specified. Also, the minimum and maximum distortion values for the specified “quality type”
are listed in the bottom fields of the tool. See "Mesh Quality"
Entity Locator menu - The Entity Locator is very helpful in finding “Short Edges” and “Sliver/Small Surfaces”
which may be causing meshing issues. It may also make it easier to locate “free edges” in troublesome geometry.
This menu contains commands for toggling the Entity Locator on and off, cycling through the entities currently in
the Entity Locator, removing the current entity from the Entity Locator or clearing it entirely, as well as creating a
group from the entities currently in the Entity Locator or sending them to the Data Table.
• Toggle Entity Locator - When this icon is toggled “on”, the Entity Locator is ready to be filled with entities
and the Locator fields will be available in the Meshing Toolbox. Depending on which entity type is selected in
the Search For drop-down list, Curves or Surfaces, the Locator fields change. The Locate Options and Show
Options can be used to modify how the Entity Locator searches for entities and then displays them. Also, the
entities loaded in the Entity Locator update after each change made in the Locator fields, unless Auto Locate is
turned “off” in the Locate Options section.
Once entities are loaded into the Entity Locator, use the following commands to move from entity to entity. By
default, the “current entity” in the Entity Locator will be “highlighted” in the graphics window using the display
options currently set in the Style portion of the Windows, Show Entities command (See Section 6.3.2.3, "Window,
Show Entities..."). There are other options for automatically rotating the model and zooming in to get a better view
of the entity. See the Locate Options and Show Options sections in the Locator section for more information.
• Next - Makes the next entity in the Entity Locator the “current entity”.
• Previous- Makes the previous entity in the Entity Locator the “current entity”.
Note: Once either Next or Previous has been selected, the icon will “persist” at the top of the Entity Locator
menu in the Meshing Toolbox. This enables you to easily go to the “next” or “previous” entity simply by
clicking the icon. When you reach the “last” entity in the Entity Locator, the Next icon will automati-
cally become the Previous icon and vice versa.
• Current - “Re-highlights” the “current entity” in the Entity Locator. This can be helpful if you have regener-
ated or rotated the model.
• First - Makes the “first” entity in the Entity Locator the “current entity”. When using Search Methods based on
physical size, the smallest “located” entity will be the “first” entity.
• Last - Makes the last entity in the Entity Locator the “current entity”. When using Search Methods based on
physical size, the largest “located” entity will be the “last” entity.
• Do Not Locate - Places the current entity into a group which is then automatically specified in the Not In Group
field of the Locate Options.
• Remove - Removes the current entity from the Entity Locator until cleared or new search criteria are entered.
• Clear Locator - Simply clears the Entity Locator of all entities.
• Create Group - Creates a new group with all of the entities currently in the Entity Locator or adds/removes/
excludes those entities from an existing group.
• Add to Data Table - Adds all entities currently loaded in the Entity Locator to the Data Table. The Data Table
needs to be “open” in the User Interface and “unlocked” for the command to be available.
Search For - Indicates the entity type, Curves or Surfaces, the Entity Locator will currently be able to “locate” in
the model. Depending on the entity type, different Locator fields become available.
Locator fields and buttons when Search For is set to Curves:
Search Method - Specifies the method the Entity Locator uses to “find, then load” itself with specific Curves in
the model. Depending on the Search Method, other options may become available.
Here are descriptions of the different Search Methods:
•Short Edges - “Short edges” will be loaded into the Entity Loca-
tor using criteria specified in the current Based On option.
When Based On is set to:
Global Mesh Size - Curves whose length is shorter than the speci-
fied % of Mesh Size (default) will be loaded into the Entity Loca-
tor.
Curve Length - Curves will only loaded into the Entity Locator
which are Shorter Than a user-specified value. You may type the
value in directly or specify the value by clicking the “Select Curve
to Set Length” icon button, then choosing any curve on the screen.
Shortest Curves - Finds the shortest “specified % of All Curves” in
the model (For example, if set to 5, it will find the bottom 5% of
curves, based on length) and loads them into the Entity Locator.
This value can be set from 0 to 25 using the “slider bar” or a value
can be entered directly (if value is higher than 25, loads all curves
satisfying that criteria into the Entity Locator, then returns to 25).
•Free Edges - Locates all edges in a Solid which are not stitched to
another surface. “Free Edges” in a Solid usually indicate “gaps” or
“holes” in the geometry, meaning the Solid does not fully enclose a
volume and is probably not viable for solid meshing (tet or hex). If
multiple surfaces are “stitched” together but do not enclose a vol-
ume (Sheet Solid) or “joined” using the Geometry, Surface, Non-
Manifold Add command (General Bodies), then “free edges” may
also indicate “gaps” or “holes” between surfaces. Of course, “free edges” in this type of geometry may be inter-
nal holes/loops or the outside edge of the stitched/joined “part”, which are normal.
“Free Edges” of surfaces joined using “NonManifold Add”
“Free Edges” of set of surfaces

“Stitched” together
• NonManifold Edges - Locates all “NonManifold” edges in the geometry. Only geometry that has been joined
using the Geometry, Surface, NonManifold Add command (General Bodies) will have any of these edges. Typi-
cal “NonManifold Edges” are found where surfaces come together at “T-junctions” or a surface has been “Non-
Manifold added” to a Solid.
Two Examples of
“NonManifold Edges”
Surfaces joined using “NonManifold Add” Surface and Solid joined using “NonManifold Add”
• From Group - Loads all Curves in a specified Group into the Entity Locator.
Show ‘#’ Curves button - By default, when you initially place Curves in the Entity Locator, ALL of the “found”
Curves will be highlighted in the graphics window using the display options currently set in the Style portion of the
Windows, Show Entities command (See Section 6.3.2.3, "Window, Show Entities..."). Like Windows, Show Entities
and the “Show When Selected” capabilities of the Data Table and Model Info tree, once the view has been redrawn
or regenerated the “highlighting” is removed and the view is restored to how it appeared before the “show” com-
mand. If you want to “highlight” the curves again, simply click the Show ‘#’ Curves button.
Locator fields and buttons when Search For is set to Surfaces:
Search Method - Specifies the method the Entity Locator will use to “search and locate” specific Surfaces in the
model. Depending on the Search Method, other options may become available.
Here are descriptions of the different Search Methods:
• Surface Geometry - This method is used in conjunction with any combination of the Small Surfaces, Slivers,
Spikes, and By Area options. If none of these options are turned on (checked), no surface geometry will be
loaded into to the Entity Locator.
Small Surfaces (Fit In Radius value) - Surfaces which completely fit inside a sphere with a specified radius
(defined by Fit In Radius value) will be loaded into the Entity Locator. Enter the Fit In Radius value directly or
click the “Measure Distance” icon button to specify the sphere radius by picking two locations graphically. Default
value is equal to the default Merge Tolerance in the model.
Slivers (Sliver Tolerance value) - Surfaces which have high aspect ratios and small areas are known as “Slivers”.
Examining a surface’s “maximum width” is often a good indication of whether a surface is a “sliver” or not. Sur-
faces with a “maximum width” smaller than the Sliver Tolerance will be loaded into the Entity Locator. Enter the
Sliver Tolerance value directly or click the “Measure Distance” icon button and choose two locations graphically to
specify a distance. Default value is equal to the default Merge Tolerance in the model.
Spikes (Spike Width value) - Much like “slivers”, Surfaces with “spikes” also have high aspect ratio and small area.
The main difference is that only a portion of the surface fits this criteria, not the entire surface. When this option is
on and a “spike” on a surface is detected (smaller than Spike Width), FEMAP will try and remove the “spike”,
while keeping the rest of the surface intact. Enter the Sliver Tolerance value directly or click the “Measure Dis-
tance” icon button and choose two locations graphically to specify a distance. Default value is equal to the default
Merge Tolerance in the model.
By Area (Area Less Than value) - Surfaces which have an Area Less Than the specified size will be loaded into the
Entity Locator. Enter the Area Less Than value directly or click the “Measure Area of Surface” icon button to spec-
ify an area by choosing a surface graphically. Default value is equal to 1/1000 of the “model box diagonal”.
• From Group - Loads all Surfaces in a specified Group into the Entity Locator.
Show ‘#’ Surfaces button - By default, when you initially place Surfaces in the Entity Locator, ALL of the
“found” Surfaces will be highlighted in the graphics window using the display options currently set in the Style por-
tion of the Windows, Show Entities command (See Section 6.3.2.3, "Window, Show Entities..."). Like Windows,
Show Entities and the “Show When Selected” capabilities of the Data Table and Model Info tree, once the view has
been redrawn or regenerated the “highlighting” is removed and the view is restored to how it appeared before the
“show” command. If you want to “highlight” the curves again, simply click the Show ‘#’ Surfaces button.
Locate Options:
• Only In Group - The Locator will only attempt to “locate” entities which meet the specified criteria in the
selected group.
• Not In Group - The Locator will only attempt to “locate” entities which meet the specified criteria and are
NOT in the selected group.
Note: A group based on any number of solids can be “generated” directly from the Locator by clicking the
“Select Solids for Group with Related Entities” icon button next to the Only In Group or Not In Group
drop-down list.
• Ignore If - Instructs the Locator to “ignore” entities which meet the specified criteria which are either Sup-
pressed or Combined. If you want to change the options, simply expand the Ignore If portion of the Locate
Options and check or uncheck Suppressed or Combined accordingly.
• Auto Locate - When this option is on, the Locator will automatically be loaded with the entities that meet the
criteria currently specified. If it is turned “off”, you will need to click the Locate button which is now visible.
• Update Selector - If this option is checked, the “Selection List” (usually created using the Select Toolbar) will
be cleared, then updated with the entities currently placed in the Locator.
Note: If you have entities currently in the “Selection List” before the Locator is filled with entities, they will
be cleared and replaced once the Locator is filled with entities.
Show Options:
• Show All On Locate - When “on”, entities loaded into the Locator will be highlighted on the screen immedi-
ately. The “highlighting” is controlled by the options currently set in the Style portion of the Windows, Show
Entities command (See Section 6.3.2.3, "Window, Show Entities..."). If this is set to “off”, you will have to
click the appropriate Show button to highlight the entities in the graphics window.
• Auto Rotate - When this option is “on”, the view will be automatically rotated to align the current entity in the
Locator on the screen. For surfaces, the view will align so the “normal” of the surface is pointing “out of the
screen” and centered about the CG of the surface. For curves, the vector tangent to the curve, at the curve’s mid-
point, will be used to align the view to the horizontal screen axis. The midpoint of the curve will be centered in
the view and the “normal” vectors of all the surfaces to which the current curve is attached will be averaged
together and that “averaged normal” will point “out of the screen”.
• Auto Zoom- If this option is checked, FEMAP will zoom in to the current entity in the Locator a specified
amount. The size of the current entity is used in conjunction with the Zoom Factor, which is a percentage of
graphics window size, to determine how far FEMAP zooms in to the entity. The Zoom Factor can be set from
“1” to “100” (using the “slider bar” or entering a value directly), with “1” essentially zooming in as far as pos-
sible, while still being able to see the entire entity in the graphics window, and “100” making the length of the
entity 1/100 the width of the graphics window.
Note: If the Entity Locator is filled with very small entities, FEMAP may only be able to zoom in so far
before it reaches the “magnification limit”, which is 1/10000 of model box size.
Mesh Quality Toggle - Toggles a plot of mesh quality on and off for all of the currently visible elements. Please
see the section regarding the Mesh Quality tool below for more information on the different quality “types” and
plotting options.
Jacobian check shown with 2 distortion levels Jacobian check shown with 4 distortion levels
Elements shown in red are above the specified Max Allowable Value for the Jacobian distortion check
set to 0.4
Remesh Modes menu - This menu contains several “modes” for remeshing the model when using all tools except
the Mesh Locate tool. There are three separate “modes”: Auto Remesh, Disable Remesh, and Track Meshing
Changes. The fourth option on the menu, Remesh Entities, is only used when using the Track Meshing Changes
mode. Essentially, only one mode can be active at any given time.
When Auto Remesh is on, the mesh will be updated every time a change is made using one of the tools in the Mesh-
ing Toolbox.
Note: Once Disable Remesh or Auto Remesh has been chosen, the icon will persist at the top of the Remesh
Modes menu. You can now toggle back and forth between these two modes by simply clicking the icon.
Disable Remesh does not track any of the changes made using the tools in the Meshing Toolbox. Any changes made
with the tools are applied to the model, but you will need to delete and remesh the model using the commands on
the Mesh, Geometry... menu or switch to Auto Remesh mode and make a change with any tool.
Note: Having the model Auto Remesh after every single change may not be the efficient way to use the tools
in the Meshing Toolbox, especially for larger models. You may want to use the Disable Remesh mode,
make changes to your model using the Meshing Toolbox, then remesh the model.
Track Meshing Changes will “track” all of the changes made using the different tools in the Meshing Toolbox, but
the model will only be remeshed by clicking the icon for the Remesh Entities command, which will be at the top of
the Remesh Modes menu whenever you are in Track Meshing Changes mode.
Note: Sometimes in larger models, tracking the meshing changes can be quite computationally intensive. You
may want to turn Track Meshing Changes off, which is accomplished by going to Disable Remesh.
Select Entity - Many of the tools in the Meshing Toolbox require you to select entities. Depending on which tool is
currently “active” and how the options for that tool are currently set, will determine the type of entity you will be
able to select when Select Entity is toggled “on”. When “on”, you can graphically choose entities from the graphics
window one at a time or use box/circle picking to select multiple entities (hold down the Shift key to make a pick
“box” or the Ctrl key to make a circular picking area). Depending on which tool you are using and the current
Remesh Mode set, you will be able to see the mesh update “real time” as you choose entities.
For example, if you are using the Add “Operation” in the Mesh Sizing tool, and have Auto Remesh “on”, every time
you select a curve or curves (box/circle pick) in the graphics window, the mesh will be updated “real time”.
Dialog Select - Very similar to Select Entity, except it allows you to use the typical Entity Selection dialog box to
choose entities. See Section 4.3.1, "Entity Selection" of the FEMAP User Guide for more information on the differ-
ent selection methods available.
Feature Suppression Tool
This tool allows you to use the “manual” options available in the
Mesh, Mesh Control, Feature Suppression command interactively.
You may suppress loops, curves (usually relatively small in size),
and surfaces (usually sliver surfaces, not fillets or chamfers). Sup-
pressed geometry still exists in the model and can be “restored” at
any time.
Feature Type - Choose which entity type you would like to sup-
press/restore. When using Select Entity or Dialog Select in the
Meshing Toolbox, only the selected entity type will be available
for selection.
•Loops - Usually curves of internal holes on surfaces and solids or
“base curves” of bosses and extrusions on solids.
•Curves - In this case, “curves” usually refers to curves which are
relatively small in size compared to the rest of the geometry.
•Surfaces - Like “curves”, “surfaces” to be suppressed are usually
small in size compared to the rest of the geometry, thus creating
the possibility of meshing issues.
Action - This option specifies what action will take place when
entities are selected using Select Entity or Dialog Select. When
either Suppress or Restore is set, all entities selected will either be
“suppressed” or “restored”. When Toggle Suppression is set,
selecting an existing entity the first time will “suppress” the entity,
while selecting it again will restore the entity.
Limit Size - When used, this option limits the entities which can be chosen based on size. Only “loops” that are
Smaller Than the specified size, curves that are Shorter Than the specified length, and surfaces with Area Less
Than the specified area will be available to suppress/restore. This can be helpful to “filter” what is included when
choosing multiple entities with Select Entity or Dialog Select.
Update Colors - When a loop, curve, or surface is suppressed, the color of the entity will be changed to the color
specified here. This allows you to easily see which entities have been suppressed. Click the “Color Wheel” icon
button to bring up the Color Palette dialog box to choose different colors for suppressed entities.
Show Suppressed (Curves and Surfaces buttons) - Highlights either suppressed curves or suppressed surfaces in
the graphics window using the display options currently set in the Style portion of the Windows, Show Entities com-
mand (See Section 6.3.2.3, "Window, Show Entities..."). Like Windows, Show Entities and the “Show When
Selected” capabilities of the Data Table and Model Info tree, once the view has been redrawn or regenerated the
“highlighting” is removed and the view is restored to how it appeared before the “show” command.
Restore All (In Solids and In Model buttons) - Restores all features on either selected solids by clicking the In
Solids button or all the features in the model by click in the In Model button.
For example
Original Solid Part with “stepped hole” Curve chosen for “loop” to “Suppressed” Resulting Solid Mesh
See Section 5.1.1.16, "Mesh, Mesh Control, Feature Suppression..." for additional examples
Feature Removal Tool
This tool is used to permanently remove geometric entities interactively to simplify geometry. Most of this tool’s
functionality is offered in other FEMAP commands. Removing “Loops” basically mimics the functionality of the
Geometry, Surface, Remove Hole command, while removing “Surfaces” essentially uses the same process as
Geometry, Solid, Remove Face. Finally, removing “Curves” uses portions of the Geometry, Solid, Cleanup com-
mand along some other methodology to try and remove redundant curves.
Feature Type - Choose which entity type you would like to remove.
When using Select Entity or Dialog Select in the Meshing Toolbox,
only the selected entity type will be available for selection.
•Loops - Usually curves of internal holes on surfaces and solids or
“base curves” of bosses and extrusions on solids.
•Curves - In this case, “curves” usually refers to curves which are rel-
atively small in size compared to the rest of the geometry.
•Surfaces - Surfaces to remove can be all the surfaces of a hole, fil-
lets, chamfers, and “cutouts”. In some cases, you may have to remove
more then one surface at a time for this command to be successful.
Limit Size - When used, this option limits the entities which can be
chosen based on size. Only “loops” that are Smaller Than the speci-
fied size, curves that are Shorter Than the specified length, and sur-
faces with Area Less Than the specified area will be available to
remove. This can be helpful to “filter” what is included when choos-
ing multiple entities with Select Entity or Dialog Select.
Aggressive Removal - If you have attempted to remove a curve or surface and FEAMP was not successful, then
you may want to try using this option.
For curves, Aggressive Removal uses functionality from the “Parasolid Bodyshop” to try and remove curves and
then “heal” the geometry, which may change the topology of the geometry.
For surfaces, instead of using the process used by Geometry, Solid, Remove Face, the Aggressive Removal option
instructs FEMAP to take a completely different approach. The chosen surface is deleted from the model and the
remaining surfaces are stitched together using a stitch tolerance which is slightly larger the chosen surface.
Note: Selecting relatively large surfaces while the Aggressive Removal option is on can have very adverse
effects on the geometry. Because the stitch tolerance is set so high, other surfaces may be removed dur-
ing the stitching process and the resulting solid may not really be very similar to the original solid.
There may also be times when this process creates an invalid solid.
Examples
Here is an example of removing “Loops” from a surface.
Choose one curve on each
“interior hole” and all of the
curves making up the “loop”
will be found and removed
from the surface
All internal holes have been
removed from the surface
Surface with several “interior holes”
In this example, the hole feature is removed differently from this solid geometry by choosing different “Loops”.
Original Solid Part with “stepped hole” Curve chosen for “loop” in Remove Face Resulting Solid Geometry
Original Solid Part with “stepped hole” Curve chosen for “loop” in Remove Face Resulting Solid Geometry
In this example, the features can be removed from this solid geometry by either removing “Loops” or “Surfaces”.
The holes in the solid along with the boss and the post can
Original solid geometry be removed from the geometry by removing “loops” and
choosing one curve on each “feature”.
Alternatively, the features can be removed by selecting all of

the surfaces of each individual feature. Geometry shown with holes and boss removed
Here is an example of removing a curve with the Aggressive Removal option turned “on”.
Original solid geometry Modified geometry without curve
Small curve to Remove
Here is an example of removing a surface with the Aggressive Removal option turned “on”.
Original solid geometry Modified geometry without surface
Small surface to Remove
Combined/Composite Curve Tool

In some cases, combining several smaller curves along the edge of a surface
will allow you to create a higher quality mesh on the surface. This tool
allows you to combine curves by choosing the curves themselves or a point
that two curves share. A “Composite Curve” will be created in FEMAP,
which will be used for mesh sizing purposes instead of the underlying
curves.
Action - This option specifies how individual curves may be combined to
form Composite Curves (Add by Point or Add Curves) and how Composite
Curves can be partitioned (Split At and Remove). You can also delete Com-
posite Curves completely using Delete, which may be more convenient than
using Delete, Geometry, Curve.
•Add by Point - Combines two curves connected to a selected point into a
Composite Curve. If you are creating a Composite Curve along the edge of a
surface with many small curves, you can watch the Composite Curve “grow”
simply by starting at one end and choosing the points in sequence.
Combine Surfaces - When this option is checked, a Boundary Surface will
automatically be created from the surfaces connected to the “underlying
curves”. As additional curves are added to the Composite Curve by choosing
points, more surfaces will be combined into Boundary Surfaces.
• Add Curves - Creates a Composite Curve by allowing you to choose individual curves. There are also several
options which can be used to make the process of creating Composite Curves more automatic.
Merge to Existing - When checked, each curve selected will be added to an existing Composite Curve, unless the
selected curve is not within Max Tangent Angle to the existing Composite Curve.
Add Short Curves - Automatically includes any Curve Shorter Than the specified length that is adjacent to a
selected curve in the Composite Curve. You may type the value in directly or specify the value by clicking the
“Select Curve to Set Length” icon button, then choosing any curve on the screen.
Add to Branch - Allows you to choose one curve and have a Composite Curve created by simply “branching out”
from that curve until it reaches the “corner” of a surface.
Combine Surfaces - When this option is checked, a Boundary Surface will automatically be created from the sur-
faces connected to the “underlying curves”. As additional curves are added to the Composite Curve, more surfaces
will be combined into Boundary Surfaces
• Split At - Allows you to choose points to “partition/break” a single Composite Curve into two.
• Remove - Allows you to remove any of the “underlying curves” from a Composite Curve. It you remove a
curve from the end, the Composite Curve will get shorter, but otherwise remain intact. If you a curve is removed
from the middle, the Composite Curve will be split into two with a gap in between.
Note: The appearance of Composite Curves can be controlled via the Combined Curve option in the Labels,
Entities and Color category of the View, Options command (See Section 6.1.5.3, "View, Options...").
Original Surface (9 individual curves on front edge of surface) Small curves on edge of surface create a skewed mesh
The 9 curves of the “front edge” have been combined to The quality of the mesh has been improved by using a
create one Composite Curve. Composite Curve.
• Delete - Allows you to delete a Composite Curve completely from FEMAP. The “underlaying curves” of the
Composite Curve will be available for picking again once it has been deleted.
Combined/Boundary Surface Tool
Much like creating “composite curves” to improve mesh quality, it may be a
good idea to combine several surfaces into a Boundary Surface. This tool
uses the same concept as the Geometry, Boundary Surface, From Surfaces
on Solid command. This can be especially helpful when there are “sliver sur-
faces” next to a much larger surface. By combining the selected surfaces into
one “boundary surface”, all of the internal curves can be ignored during the
meshing process.
Action - This option specifies how individual curves may be combined to
form Boundary Surface (Add by Curve or Add Surfaces) and how Boundary
Surface can be partitioned (Split Along and Remove). You can also delete
Boundary Surface completely using Delete, which may be more convenient
than using Delete, Geometry, Surface.
•Add by Curve - Combines two surfaces sharing a single curve into a
Boundary Surface. If you select a curve that a regular surface shares with a
Boundary Surface, the regular surface will simply be added as another
underlying surface for the existing Boundary Surface.
•Add Surfaces - Creates a Boundary Surface by allowing you to choose
individual surfaces. Using the Merge to Existing
• Split Along - Allows you to choose curves to “partition/break” a single Boundary Surface into two.
• Remove - Allows you to remove any of the “underlying surfaces” from a Boundary Surface.
• Delete - Allows you to delete a Boundary Surface completely from FEMAP. The “underlaying surfaces” of the
Boundary Surface will be available for picking again once it has been deleted.
Note: The appearance of Boundary Surfaces can be controlled via the Boundary option in the Labels, Entities
and Color category of the View, Options command (See Section 6.1.5.3, "View, Options...").
Original Geometry (11 individual surfaces make up the “bump”) Quad mesh on the individual surfaces of the “bump”
Boundary Surface created using all 11 individual surfaces of the “bump” Quad mesh on boundary surface
Mesh Sizing Tool

Combines the options used to set mesh sizing and node spacing on curves (Mesh, Mesh Control, Size on Curve)
with the “Add, Subtract, and Set To” functionality of the Mesh, Mesh Control, Interactive command. When using
the Auto Remesh option in the Meshing Toolbox you will be able to see the mesh update “on the fly” after each
change to sizing or node spacing, while you also monitor the element quality update (Mesh Quality Toggle “On”).
There are also options for matching any number of selected curves to a “Master Curve”, as well as setting biasing
and length based sizing without changing the number of elements on the curve.
Sizing Option - This switch is used to specify which method,

Size Curve(s) or Match Curve(s), is currently set for updating
the mesh size on curves.
•Size Curves - When selected, this method uses the option
currently set in Operation along with the specified Spacing
options to dynamically change the mesh sizing on curves.
With Select Entity on in the Meshing Toolbox, every time you
click on a curve the “Mesh Size” will be updated. You can
also change the size on multiple curves all at once using a
“box pick” or Dialog Select.
•Match Curves - With this method, a Master Curve ID may
be entered directly or selected graphically after clicking the
“Select Master Curve” icon button. Once the “Master Curve”
is specified, turn on Select Entity in the Meshing Toolbox to
match curves to the “Master Curve” one at a time by selecting
them or change multiple curves all at once with a “box pick”
or using Dialog Select.
Operation - Allows you to select the current operation for
the Mesh Sizing tool. You can choose to Add or Subtract the
specified Number of Nodes from the selected curve(s), update
the sizing on any curve(s) to the Number of Nodes using Set
To, or simply change the Spacing options (“Bias” and if
Length Based Sizing should be used) without changing the
number of nodes along the curve(s) with Set Spacing Options.
Manual Update - When this option is on, the specified
“Operation” and other options will not be used to update the
mesh size and spacing until the Apply Operation button is pressed. Using a “box pick” while Select Entity is active
or using Dialog Select in the Meshing Toolbox, is a very efficient method to update multiple curves at one time.
Pressing the “‘#’ Curve(s) Selected” button will “highlight” the selected curves in the graphics window. Pressing
Clear Selection sets the number of selected curves currently ready to be updated to “0”.
Spacing - This drop-down allows you to specify biasing options. By default, this option is set to Equal, which will
place a uniform distance between each node along a curve. The other options allow you to “bias” the mesh size and
the level of “biasing” will be controlled by the Bias Factor. here is a breakdown of the biasing options:
• Biased using Pick Location - The node spacing on the curve is biased using the location of the cursor when the
curve is selected. The “smaller distances between nodes” will be positioned by the selection location. When
working in a model that is not “planar”, which is quite common, it is a good idea to have the “snap mode” set to
either Snap to Node or Snap to Point. This will allow FEMAP to use the point or node related to the curve clos-
est to “pick location” to determine where the biasing should occur.
Note: When the “snap mode” is set to Snap to Point, you will only be able to “bias” towards one end of the
curve or the other. When it is set to Snap to Node, you will be able to bias towards either end of the
curve or towards the center, much like you can using Biased Small at Center in the Spacing options.
• Biased Small at Ends - The “smaller distances between nodes” will be positioned at each end of the curve with
the “larger distances between nodes” being at the center.
• Biased Small at Center - The “smaller distances between nodes” will be positioned at the center of the curve
with the “larger distances between nodes” being at the at each end of the curve.
Bias Factor - This factor is a ratio of the “largest distance between nodes” to the “smallest distance between nodes”
along a given curve. For example, when it is set to “2”, the “largest distance” equals the “smallest distance” multi-
plied by “2”. All of the “distances between the other nodes” along the curve are defined using a linear interpolation
of the large and small distances.
Mesh Elements = 10 Mesh Elements = 10
Bias Small towards this end Bias Small towards this end
Bias Factor = 3 Bias Factor = 4
Mesh Elements = 10
Bias Small at Ends
Mesh Elements = 10 Bias Factor = 2
Bias Small at Ends
Bias Factor = 2 Mesh Elements = 8
Bias Small at Center
Bias Factor = 3
Mesh Elements = 8
Bias Small at Center
Bias Factor = 2
Mesh Elements = 10 Mesh Elements = 10

Bias Small towards this end Bias Small towards this end
Bias Factor = 3 Bias Factor = 4
Length Based Sizing - Allows you to choose whether mesh locations will be located in parametric or length coor-
dinates along the curve. For lines, arcs and circles, these options make no difference since the parametric and
length coordinates are equivalent. For spline curves however, parametric coordinates are typically much different.
In most cases, choosing parametric spacing is the preferred method. It results in a finer mesh in areas of high curva-
ture, which is often desirable. However, if you have two spline curves side by side, which happen to have different
parametric coordinates, checking Length Based Sizing will allow you to match the meshes on those two curves (this
can also be accomplished using a matched custom mesh size on one of the curves - see Section 5.1.1.7, "Mesh,
Mesh Control, Custom Size Along Curve...".
Propagate Mapped Approach - This option, which is on by default, will update the mesh sizing accordingly on
all appropriate curves of a surface which has a “mapped” approach set using Mesh, Mesh Control, Approach on
Surface, in order for the approach to remain valid. Also, any other surfaces with a mapped approach which would
be effected by changing the size will also have their sizing updated as well. For more information on setting mesh
approaches, see Section 5.1.1.15, "Mesh, Mesh Control, Approach On Surface".
Note: If this option is turned “off”, there is a good chance that changing the mesh sizing on only one curve
of the surface will create inappropriate sizing for FEMAP to create a mapped mesh on the surface.
For Example, this geometry is three surfaces stitched together. Each surface has a “Mapped-Four Corner” meshing
approach specified and has been sized with the default mesh size.
3 Surfaces with
Mapped - Four Corner
Mesh using default
Approaches Set
Mesh Size
Two “Subtracted”
from this Curve
2 Nodes “Added” to sizing
on either of these Curves
Three Nodes “Added”
from this Curve
Change is “Propagated” through entire Model Changes only “Propagated” locally to individual
as all surfaces effected by new mesh size. surface where meshing sizing was changed.
Show Free Edges - Simply highlights the nodes of any free edges in your model. This can be helpful for confirm-
ing the mesh is still fully connected after sizing has been updated.
Mesh Locate Tool

There may be times when you would like to make small changes to an existing mesh simply by moving one or sev-
eral nodes without changing the number of elements. This tool will allow you to do this while making sure that as
you move the node(s) dynamically, they remain attached to specified solid(s), surface(s), and curve(s). If you have
no geometry, there is an option to have the nodes follow the “overall topology” of the selected standalone mesh as
they are moved. There are additional options to move the selected nodes by a defined amount, continually smooth
the mesh as the nodes are moved, and allow the moved nodes to no longer be projected to a surface or remain along
a curve. Much like the Mesh Sizing tool, you can also turn on the Mesh Quality Toggle and monitor the element
quality “real time” as the nodes are moved. Finally, once the mesh locations have been updated, you have the
choice to Save the new mesh or Discard the updated mesh and revert to the original mesh.
Select Mesh to Edit - Limits the elements whose nodes will be
allowed to move in this command. Simply choose an option, then
click the “...” icon button to choose the entities. Only elements and
nodes connected to the selected entities will be visible and available
for update of nodal locations.
Note: You must use the Select Mesh to Edit first in order for the
other options in this tool to become available.
•Attached to Surface - Allows you to choose surfaces in the model

to limit the nodes and elements for possible update.
•Attached to Solid - Allows you to choose solids in the model in the
model to limit the nodes and elements for possible update.
•Standalone Mesh - When no geometry is available, this option
allows you to choose any number of elements from the model and use
the “overall topology” of the selected mesh to limit where the nodes
can be moved, when the Project option is on.
Note: To create the “overall topology”, the existing mesh is

“facetted”, much like a surface. This allows the node(s)
to be projected back onto “pseudo geometry” in order to
maintain the general shape of the model.
Locate Multiple - When this option is checked, it enables you to move more than one node at a time. To select
multiple nodes to move, turn on Select Entity in the Meshing Toolbox and then choose the nodes one at a time, with
a “box pick” (hold down Shift key), or “circle pick” (hold down Ctrl key). Once the nodes are selected, they will
move in unison based on the chosen Locate Method. Press the “X” icon button to choose different nodes to move.
Locate Method - You may choose to move the node(s) “dynamically”, based on screen position, or “manually”,
using a vector. If you have the Mesh Quality Toggle on, you will likely want to use the Dynamic option and move
the node(s) around until the attached elements reach the desired quality. On the other hand, if you would like to
move the nodes a precise distance, it is probably better to use the Manual, Vector option.
When using the Dynamic method, simply
Original Mesh Dynamically
modified Mesh choose the node(s) using Entity Select in the
with improved Meshing Toolbox and then “drag” the node(s) to
Jacobian element
quality values the desired location.
Note: It is best to have the “Snap Mode”

set to Snap to Screen when using the
Dynamic method to allow for
“smooth” movement of the selected
node(s). This allows the most flexi-
bility when positioning the node(s).
When using the Manual, Vector method, the Move Along Vector
fields will appear. You may use the “Select Vector” icon button
to choose a vector graphically using any method available in
the Select Vector dialog box. Another option is to enter a “Base
Point” for the vector or use the “Select Coordinates” icon but-
ton to pick it graphically, then enter the distances in each direc-
tion (dX, dY, and dZ) manually. Once the vector has been
specified, click the Apply Vector button to complete the move to
the new location.
Smooth - When this option is checked, the selected mesh will
constantly be “smoothed” as nodal locations are updated. If you
want to only have the elements directly connected to the
selected node(s), turn this option off.
Project - When this option is enabled, the selected nodes are
constantly projected back to the surface to which they are attached. When the Standalone Mesh option for Select
Mesh to Edit is used, the nodes are projected back to “pseudo geometry” created using the “overall topology” of the
selected elements.
Constrain to Curve - Nodes which are attached to curves will only be allowed to move along the attached curve,
when this option is on. This is the default configuration and is usually the desired behavior, as it attempts to prevent
undesired “holes” from accidentally being introduced into the mesh.
Save and Discard buttons - Once the mesh locations have been updated, you have the choice to Save the new
mesh or Discard the updated mesh and revert to the original mesh.
Note: If you choose to use the “Undo” command (Tools, Undo or Ctrl+Z) after pressing the Save button, ALL
changes to the mesh since the Save button was last used will be “undone”, not the movement of individ-
ual nodes. Also, if you use “Undo” before choosing Save or Discard, the “original mesh” will be
restored.
Mesh Quality
When the Mesh Quality Toggle in the Meshing Toolbox is set to “on”, this tool allows you to graphically see ele-
ment quality values plotted on each element similar to a contour/criteria plot. There are several different element
quality types which can be selected and each type has default automatic values. User-defined values can also be
specified. Also, the minimum and maximum distortion values for the specified “quality type” are listed in the bot-
tom fields of the tool.
Quality Type - There are 8 different “types” of element quality checking
available through the Meshing Toolbox. They correspond to the element
distortion checks of the Tools, Check, Distortion command.
The element checks are:
•Aspect Ratio
•Taper
•Alternate Taper
•Internal Angles
•Warping
•Nastran Warping
•Jacobian
•Combined Quality
See Section 7.4.5.6, "Tools, Check, Distortion..." for more details on the
individual element checks.
Depending on which element check is currently set, the name of the element check will appear along with a Max
Allowable Value field in the Mesh Quality tool.
When Quality Type is set to Combined, all of the other individual Quality Types will also be displayed in the Mesh
Quality tool. The Max Allowable Value for each element quality type can be modified or individual types can be
turned on or off to modify which will be included when calculating the Combined element quality.
To specify customized default values for all of the element distortion checks, use the Element Distortion button in
the Geometry/Model tab of File, Preferences. See Section 2.6.2.6, "Geometry/Model" for more information.
Note: When the Mesh Quality tool is used on models containing solid elements, the distortion plotted on the
visible element face(s) is the quality of the quadrilateral or triangular element face, NOT the solid
element. This is important to remember, especially for element distortion checks which can be used
for solid elements, such as Jacobian and Aspect Ratio.
Number of Distortion Levels - Simply indicates the number of levels to use in the plot of the current element
quality set in Quality Type. Choose between 2 levels or 4 levels.
When the Number of Distortion Levels is set to 2, all elements with element distortion values above the Max Allow-
able Value for the specified Quality Type will be plotted “Red”, while all other elements will be “Green”.
When the Number of Distortion Levels is set to 4, all elements with element distortion values above the Max Allow-
able Value for the specified Quality Type will be also be plotted “Red”. The remaining elements will be plotted
from 0 to the Max Allowable Value in the following manner:
Distortion value = 0.0 to (1/3 * Max Allowable Value) are plotted “Green”
Distortion value = (1/3 * Max Allowable Value) to (2/3 * Max Allowable Value) are plotted “Yellow”
Distortion value = (2/3 * Max Allowable Value) to Max Allowable Value are plotted “Orange”
Smooth Contours - When on, the colors on the contour legend “blend” from low to high, similar to a Contour plot.
When off, the plot resembles a Criteria plot.
Internal Angle check shown with 2 distortion levels Internal Angle check shown with 4 distortion levels
Elements shown in red are above the specified Max Allowable Value for the Internal Angle distortion check
Same values as above, Smooth Contours “On” Same values as above, Smooth Contours “On”
This plot allows you to see which elements may be close to passing the distortion check.
Min Distortion and Max Distortion - Simply lists the best and worst element quality in the selected mesh.
Model Info tree

• Updated Show When Selected functionality. Entities already chosen will now highlight when Show When
Selected is turned on and un-highlight when turned off.
Data Table
• Added “Transformed To” capability for listing nodal and elemental output.
• Updated Show When Selected functionality. Entities already chosen will now highlight when Show When
Selected is turned on and un-highlight when turned off.
• Added “Save to a File” command (FEMAP 10.0.1).
Entity Editor
• Added “Transformed To” capability for displaying nodal output and elemental output.
• Added support for Load Definition and Constraint Definition information.

• Added support for Rotor Region information.
• Added support for Layup ID information.
• Added "is suppressed" fields for curves and surfaces
• Enhanced Loads and Coordinate Systems so they are displayed in definition CSys, transformed on the fly, then
saved in global or definition system.
API Programming 10.1-63
API Programming
• Changed the default lines of code when a new API is created from scratch to:
This change allows the API Programming dockable pane in that particular instance of FEMAP to connect directly
to FEMAP to run APIs in that instance. Previously, APIs could only be used from the API Programming window in
the first instance of FEMAP which was currently open on the machine. Any *.bas files in the Custom Tools direc-
tory or added to the menus or toolbars using this mechanism for attachment will also run in the current instance of
FEMAP.
Status Bar
• Added the ability to customize what entity types appear on the Status Bar.
Right clicking anywhere on the status bar will bring up the Customize Status Bar menu, which allows you to turn
any entity type in the “Tray” on or off with a left mouse click. When an entity type is on, it will be designated with
a “check mark” next to the entity type name.
Graphics
Improved Curve and Surface facetting to more accurately display geometry.
Astroid
Implemented support of the Astroid 3D controller from Spatial Freedom.
Meshing
The focus of version10 was to improve the overall mesh capabilities in FEMAP.
"General Meshing", "Surface Meshing", "Solid Tetrahedral Meshing"
Updates and improvements were made in the areas of surface meshing, solid tetrahedral meshing, mesh sizing, and
specifying mesh attributes. A substantial change for version 10 is that once a surface has been meshed, the “mesh
attributes” are automatically set on that surface. See Using Mesh Attributes in the Surface Meshing section below
for more details. Also, the Meshing Toolbox was introduced to offer an interactive “toolbox” which consolidated
functionality used during the meshing process. Tools for feature suppression and removal, creating combined
curves and boundary surfaces, specifying mesh sizing on curves, dynamically updating nodal positions, and plot-
ting mesh quality can all be accessed in one place with the ability to remesh “on the fly” as changes are made. See
Meshing Toolbox in the User Interface section of this document.
General Meshing
• Added 3 new patterns to Mesh, Editing, Interactive
• Added “Offset from Reference Point” option to Modify, Update Elements, Line Element Offsets.
• Added “Spring Elements” option to the Connection Type section of the Mesh, Connect, Unzip and Mesh, Con-
nect, Coincident Link commands.
• Removed “Quad Mesh Layer Options” option from Mesh, Mesh Control, Size on Solid.
• Updated Mesh, Remesh, Convert Facets command to included capability to associate facets/nodes with the
original geometry.
• Updated Mesh, Extrude, Element Face command to automatically delete plot-only elements that it creates on
the selected element faces
Surface Meshing
• Added “Suppress Short Edges” option to Mesh, Mesh Control, Size on Surface.
• Removed “Quad Mesh Layer Options” option from Mesh, Mesh Control, Size on Surface. This capability was
improved and is now the Quad Edge Layers “mesh attribute” which can be specified before meshing using
Mesh, Mesh Control, Attribute on Surface or during the meshing process using Mesh, Geometry, Surface.
• Added and updated many options found in the Mesh, Geometry, Surface command. All of the options set when
the surface is initially meshed are now automatically specified as “mesh attributes”. Additions include the new
“3-D Tri” triangle mesher, new mapped meshing options, the ability to specify mesh offsets on the surface,
automatic node merging when meshing surfaces connected to surfaces which have already been meshed, and a
“Post-Meshing Cleanup” option which improves the mesh by eliminating certain patterns and collapsed holes.
Automesh Surfaces dialog box
When you select the Mesh, Geometry, Surface command, you must select the surfaces to mesh. After they are
selected, the Automesh Surfaces dialog box appears.
After choosing the appropriate property, you can decide to press OK to accept default options or click the More
Options button to set up additional meshing controls. See More Options section below.
The Mesher section allows you to choose between meshing the surfaces with quadrilateral surface elements, where
possible (Quad option), or all triangular surface elements (Tri option). When using the Tri option, you may choose
to use Auto, which will examine each surface one at a time and attempt to choose the Tri mesher which will create
the best overall triangular mesh on each individual surface. If you want FEMAP to use a particular Tri mesher,
uncheck Auto and choose one of the three triangle meshers. See the "Element Shape" section below for details.
Checking the Midside Nodes option will create parabolic surface elements instead of linear surface elements, while
turning the Mapped Meshing Options will attempt to create a mapped mesh on the surface, if possible using the
options currently set.
Node and Element Options
These options control parameters that are assigned to the nodes and elements that you will create. The CSys option
does not control the mesh in any way. It is just assigned as the definition coordinate system of each node. The prop-
erty is most important. You must choose a property which corresponds to a planar element.
Using Meshing Attributes
If the surfaces that you are meshing have mesh attributes defined, you will see an additional property (0..Use Mesh-
ing Attributes) in the list. If you choose that “property”, FEMAP will use the attributes to define the property, type
of elements that will be created, and which meshing options will be used during the meshing process. If you wish to
ignore the attributes, simply pick a different property from the drop-down list or create a new property.
If you wish to use the property specified in the attribute, but set different meshing options, check the Use Property
Attribute Only option, which is only available when Property is set to “0..Use Meshing Attributes”.
Surface Meshing 10.1-65
More Options
When the More Options... button has been pressed, the Automesh Surfaces dialog box will expand to offer many
more meshing options. Depending on which options are selected in the Mesher section, certain portions of the dia-
log will “gray” and “un-gray” to only allow you to choose appropriate options for the selected Mesher.
Mesher
The Mesher section allows you to choose between meshing the surfaces with quadrilateral surface elements, where
possible (Quad option), or all triangular surface elements (Tri option). When using the Tri option, you may choose
to use Auto, which will examine each surface one at a time and attempt to choose the Tri mesher which will create
the best overall triangular mesh on each individual surface. If you want FEMAP to use a particular Tri mesher,
uncheck Auto and choose one of the three triangle meshers. See the "Element Shape" section below for details.
Pre-v10 Meshing
The surface meshing in FEMAP has dramatically changed for version 10. This switch allows you to use the “pre-
v10” surface meshing if you feel more comfortable with pre-version 10 meshers. This box will be checked by
default if you have “Pre-v10 Surface Meshing” checked on the “Geometry/Model” tab in the “Preferences” dialog
box (See Section 2.6.2.6, "Geometry/Model").
Note: Only options available is versions of FEMAP before version 10 will be available when Pre-v10 Mesh-
ing is checked. Notice, Quad Edge Layers is now set in the Automesh Surfaces dialog box when using
the Mesh, Geometry, Surfaces command instead of in the Automatic Mesh Sizing dialog box, which
appears when using the Mesh, Mesh Control, Size on Surface command.
Node Options
Midside Nodes
Checking the Midside Nodes option will create parabolic surface elements instead of linear surface elements. By
default, “midside nodes” are created along the element edge between the corner nodes of an element. You project
the midside nodes onto the geometry by using the Move to Geometry option. In some cases, you may want to limit
the distortion of elements created by projecting the midside nodes. If this is the case, check Max Distortion Angle
and enter the max allowable distortion angle.
Connect Edge Nodes

When this option is turned on, FEMAP will use existing nodes on edges of adjacent surfaces instead of creating
new nodes when at least one of the adjacent surfaces has already been meshed. This option is only applicable when
the adjacent surfaces are stitched together to form a solid (or sheet solid) or joined together into a “general body”
using Geometry, Surface, Non-Manifold Add
.
Three Surfaces stitched together using Surfaces 1 and 3 meshed at the same time Free Edge Plot of existing mesh on
Geometry, Solid, Stitch command Surfaces 1 and 3
Edges surface 2 shares with previously Free Edge Plot after meshing surface 2 with Free Edge Plot after meshing surface 2 with
meshed adjacent surfaces 1 and 3 “Connect Edge Nodes” turned ON “Connect Edge Nodes” turned OFF
Smoothing
These options are the same as those described in the Mesh, Smooth command. After an initial mesh is generated, it
is automatically smoothed to reduce element distortions. You will usually just want to accept the default values for
these options. For more information, see Section 5.3.4, "Mesh, Smooth...".
Offset
Allows you to automatically offset the surface mesh so the Top Face (Face 1) or Bottom Face (Face 2) of shell ele-
ments will be aligned with the surface(s) currently being meshed. There is also an option to simply offset the mesh
away from the Centerline of the elements (default) a specified amount. Entering a positive number will offset the
mesh towards the Top Face (Face 1) of the elements, while entering a negative value will offset towards the Bottom
Face (Face 2).
Note: The best way to determine which face is the Top Face and which face is the Bottom Face is to view the
normal direction of the elements. This can be accomplished by setting options for the Element - Direc-
tion option in the Labels, Entities and Color category of the View, Options command (See Section
6.1.5.3, "View, Options..."). To see the “normal vector” on each element, choose “1..Normal Vectors”
from the Normal Style list, check the box next Show Direction and then click Apply or OK. The arrow
representing the normal vector points towards the Top Face of the element.
For Example, the “thicker” Black lines represent a Surface. Elements are shown with Normal Vectors “on”.
Mesh with no offsets Mesh Offset so “Top
(Centerline of Elements Face” of elements Aligned
Aligned with Surface) with Surface
Mesh Offset from element

Mesh Offset so “Bottom Centerline a specified
Face” of elements Aligned “positive” distance from
with Surface surface
Mapped Meshing Options

When Mapped Meshing is set to Off, FEMAP will simply mesh the selected surface(s) with a “free mesh”, unless a
“Mapped Meshing Approach” is set. If Mapped Meshing is On, FEMAP will attempt to create a “Mapped Mesh”.
FEMAP uses the values set for Max Angle Deviation and Min Corner Angle to determine “corners” it can use to
attempt a mapped mesh on surfaces.
There are several other options available:
• Equal Sides Only - FEMAP will only attempt a mapped mesh on surface(s) with equal mesh sizing on opposing
“sides” of the surface(s). The “sides” are the curve(s) between the “corners” the mesher locates.
• Map Subdivisions - As the “subdivision” meshers “subdivide” the geometry during the meshing process, the
mesher will determine if each “subdivision” can by mapped meshed. If possible, that portion of the surface will
be mapped meshed and then “smoothed” using the current Smoothing settings to create the overall surface
mesh.
• Split Quad Map - Only available when using the Tri option in the Mesher section. FEMAP will actually create a
quad mesh first and then split the quads into the best possible triangles using the same approach as the Modify,
Update Elements, Split Quads command.
Triangle Mesh using Split
Curved Geometry Default Triangle Mesh Quad Map Option
• Alternate - Only available when using one of the Tri options in the Mesher section. The mesher will attempt to
alternate the direction of triangles which are side by side instead of having them all go in one direction.
• Right Bias - Only available when using one of the Tri options in the Mesher section. The mesher uses the oppo-
site direction to start when choosing the direction of the triangles.
Mapped On
Mapped On Mapped On Alternate and
Triangle Mesher Mapped Off Mapped On Alternate On Right Bias On Right Bias On
Subdivision
Fast Tri
3-D Tri
Subdivision Options (Tri Mesher set to Subdivision, Quad Mesher only)

These options control the size and shape of the mesh inside the boundary. The elements along the boundary edges
are defined by the mesh sizes that you choose and are unaffected by these settings. Those mesh sizes also have sub-
stantial impact on the interior of the mesh, but these options give you additional control.
Post-Meshing Cleanup
This option, which is on by default, attempts to eliminate specific “patterns” in a mesh in an effort to create an
overall higher quality mesh. It also does additional element checking in an attempt to eliminate meshing situations
which may cause problems with surface and/or solid meshing.
Additional clean-up includes inserting extra mesh points on long cylindrical surfaces with course mesh sizing. This
eliminates the possibility of elements “bridging the gap” resulting in a “collapsed” hole.
Note: In almost all cases, this option should be turned “on”, as it will usually create a better overall mesh. The
only potential drawback to using this option is the possibility that the “clean-up” will replace “patterns”
with less elements and therefore create a slightly courser mesh than expected.
Here are a few examples of mesh patterns which will be recognized and the resulting mesh after the “clean-up”.
Patterns
“Diamond” elements eliminated
Original After Clean-up
Quad Edge Layers

This option specifies the number of layers of quadrilateral elements that FEMAP will attempt to place around every
boundary curve on a surface. You can choose to have either 1, 2, or 3 layers of quads around each boundary curve
of a surface, including internal curves from the drop-down list. Additionally, you may enter a number higher than 3
directly into the field and the mesher will attempt to create the specified number of quad element layers. If there is
not enough room for the requested number of layers based on the mesh size, FEMAP will try to put as many layers
of quads in as possible. The process goes one layer at a time, meaning that one layer of quads will be placed around
all boundary curves (external curves first, internal curves second) before a second layer of quads will be attempted.
In many cases, more layers will produce a higher quality mesh, but on some pieces of geometry using only 1 or 2
layers may produce better overall mesh quality than using 3 or more layers.
0 Layers 1 Layers 2 Layers 3 Layers 5 Layers
Min Elements Between Boundaries

As a boundary is being meshed, groups of elements are often generated between two opposite edges of a boundary.
Sometimes, the mesh sizes that you have defined are large enough that a single element will span the distance
between surfaces. Since this may not be enough refinement for the model that you are creating, you can control this
behavior by setting a minimum number of elements that must be created between any boundary edges.
Setting this parameter does not guarantee that you will get that number of elements between every edge. But wher-
ever possible (based on compatibility with your surface mesh sizes) that number of elements or greater will be cre-
ated.
It is usually best to leave this parameter set to 1 initially, then if the results are undesirable, undo the mesh and try it
again with the number increased. Setting this number greater than 1 can greatly increase the number of elements
that are generated.
You will usually only have to set this option if you are meshing a
Min Elements = 1
surface that is long and thin relative to the mesh size, or one that has
long, thin “appendages”, as this example demonstrates.
Max Element Aspect Ratio
Min Elements = 3 (or 2)
Like the Min Elements setting described above, this option controls
the elements inside the mesh. In this case however, control over the
number of elements is only a secondary effect of this option. Prima-
rily, this number is used as a guideline for how “long” elements can
be relative to their “width”. You must always specify a value that is greater than or equal to 1.0. Smaller numbers
usually create slightly more uniform meshes with elements that are better shaped. Large numbers can lead to
severely distorted elements. If you make a mesh that contains long, thin or distorted elements, try again with a
smaller aspect ratio.
Quick-Cut boundaries with More Than “n” Nodes (n = 300 by default)
Meshing large non-uniform surfaces can often take some time. Turning this option on shortens the time required
while usually having minimal impact on the overall mesh quality. If you want the best possible mesh, and are will-
ing to wait, turn this option off. You can also control the threshold by setting the number of nodes to a smaller or
larger number. Do not reduce the number of nodes too much, or mesh quality will substantially decrease.
Cut Quads with Angle Deviation Above “n” deg (n = 60 degress by default)
Typically, quadrilateral elements with an angle deviation above 60 degrees will have poor element quality. Trian-
gles are created wherever a quadrilateral would be severely distorted. You can override the default 60 degree allow-
able distortion with any value that you want. Lower distortion values will result in more triangles in your mesh.
Element Shape
Quad Mesher
Although the mesher is called Quad, it is physically impossible on some surfaces with certain mesh sizing to create
a mesh using “all quads” without some being highly distorted. The Quad option will generate quadrilateral ele-
ments whenever possible using a “subdivision” approach in the “parametric space” of each surface being meshed.
Note: You must always get at least one triangle if you specify an odd number of nodes on the surface.) Trian-
gles are created wherever quadrilaterals cannot meet the specified boundary mesh sizes and wherever a
quadrilateral would be severely distorted.
Tri Meshers
These options control the creation of triangular elements in your mesh. If you want to create all triangles (Tri
option), you may choose from the Subdivision, Fast Tri, or 3-D Tri options. Use the Auto option to have FEMAP
choose which Tri meshing option should be used on each surface.
• Subdivision - FEMAP’s original triangle mesher. It creates triangle elements by making subdivisions of a sur-
face based on “parametric space”. It works very similar to the Quad mesher, but instead of making 90 degree
“splits” to create quadrilateral elements, it makes 60 degree “splits” to make triangles. In a few cases, it may
produce better quality mesh than the Fast Tri or 3-D Tri meshers.
• Fast Tri - creates large triangles in “2-D parametric space” of a surface (U and V directions) then creates the
final mesh through a process of splitting and improving the shape of the triangles based on where they are posi-
tioned in each surface’s “parametric space”. The Fast Tri mesher generally produces fewer triangles with better
aspect ratios than the Subdivision mesher. This technique works particularly well if you have a long thin surface
with holes.
• 3-D Tri - uses the “facets” of each surface as a “triangular seed mesh”, then uses a similar “splitting and
improving triangle shape” technique as the Fast Tri mesher, except it evaluates the shape of the triangles in true
“3-D space” instead of the surface’s “parametric space”. Also, the nodes are constantly projected back to each
surface to match the actual shape of the surface as closely as possible. In many cases, this will produce the best
quality mesh and is the recommended option for meshing “boundary surfaces” created from surfaces which are
part of a solid or stitched sheet solid.
Note: One of the only drawbacks to using the 3-D Tri mesher, is when trying to mesh surfaces which “wrap
around” with a large amount of curvature over a short distance. When using a relatively course mesh
size on this type of surface, the mesher may create elements which do not follow the curvature of the
surface properly, as a better shaped element can be created without following the curvature based on the
positions of the nodes in 3-D space.
Meshing a surface which has already been meshed

If you choose a surface to mesh which has already been
meshed, FEMAP will give you three options:
•Delete Existing Mesh and Remesh - Simply deletes the
mesh and remeshes the surface.
•Skip Meshed Surfaces - If you have chosen a number of sur-
faces to mesh, some of which have already been meshed,
only the surfaces which currently are not meshed will be
meshed.
•Create Duplicate Meshes on Meshed Surfaces - Usually
used when you want to “skin” a solid mesh with a shell mesh.
Surface Mesh Attributes dialog box
... is used to assign meshing attributes to one or more surfaces. Simply choose a surface element property to be
assigned to the surface(s) and specify the desired mesh options. The mesh options are identical to the ones which
can be specified when using the Mesh, Geometry, Surface command (See "Automesh Surfaces dialog box" section
for descriptions of the meshing options). Press the New Property “icon button” if you have not already created the
property that you need.
Once attributes have been defined, surfaces can be easily meshed with elements, as properties (thicknesses, materi-
als...) will be automatically assigned. Attributes are automatically assigned once a surface has been meshed.
Solid Tetrahedral Meshing 10.1-71
If you want to assign offsets to the planar elements (typically plates only), specify an option in the Offset portion of
this dialog box. You can offset the mesh to align the “Top Face” (Face 1) of the elements to the surface, align the
“Bottom Face” (Face 2) to the surface, or enter an offset from the “Centerline” directly (Positive values offset the
mesh towards Face 1, negative values offset towards Face 2).
By default, both the property and mesh options will be set for all of the selected surfaces. If you only want to
change the property of a number of surfaces but leave each surface’s meshing options intact, make sure that Update
Property is “checked” and Update Other Attributes is “unchecked”. Vice versa, if you only want to change the
mesh options, but leave the properties assigned to each surface intact, uncheck Update Property and check Update
Other Attributes.
If you would like to clear all of the attributes from the selected surface(s), click the Remove Attributes button.
Solid Tetrahedral Meshing

FEMAP’s tetrahedral mesher uses a triangular surface mesh as the basis for creating the solid mesh. Improved sur-
face meshing, discussed in the previous section, has a lot to do with improved solid tetrahedral meshing in version
10. Other options for initial sizing, using a “recovery mesher”, sending element quality to the Data Table, and locat-
ing problem areas which have caused the tet mesher to fail have also been added.
Also new for 10, if the tet mesher fails, FEMAP will ask “OK to Update Selector and Data Table with # nodes
causing errors?”. If you answer Yes, the “problem” nodes will be sent to the selection list and Data Table for easy
identification using the Show When Selected tool in the Model Info tree and Data Table.
• Added Initial Size Ratio option to the Automesh Solids dialog box. The Initial Size Ratio is another meshing
control you can use to change the number of elements the tetrahedral mesher creates. The default value of
“0.5001” should give you the best “mesh quality” with the least number of elements possible.
• Updated Adjust Nodal Precision option is to be on by default.

• Added Recovery Mesher (Use only if Standard Mesher fails) option to the Solid Automeshing Options. This
option should ONLY be checked if the standard mesher has already failed. The tet-mesher contains a special
“boundary recovering” mesher which will attempt to create a volume mesh starting from extremely poor quality
surface mesh (almost flat triangles on the surface, high density propagation, extreme aspect ratios, etc.) which
fail with the standard mesher. The resulting volume mesh will likely have a very poor quality and this mesher
should only be used when a volume mesh is absolutely required, regardless of element quality,
Note: If the surface mesh is invalid or not watertight (it contains holes, overlaps, gaps, self intersections, etc.)
this “boundary recovering” mesher will not repair the surface mesh and not create a volume mesh.
• Added Update Data Table with Mesh Quality option to the Solid Automeshing Options. The Data Table needs
to be open in FEMAP for this option to be available. If the Data Table is locked, FEMAP will ask if you want to
unlock it when leaving the Solid Automeshing Options dialog box. When this option is checked, every element
created in the current meshing operation will be added to the Data Table along with corresponding values for
“Tet Collapse” and “Jacobian” element quality checks.
• Updated the feedback sent to the Messages window during tet-meshing. FEMAP will produce status messages
while the tetrahedral meshing is occurring and provide feedback on element numbers and quality. The table in
the Surface Mesh Quality section of the listing displays the number of elements which fall into each range of
values using FEMAP’s “Minimum Angle” element quality check, while the table in the Tetrahedral Mesh
Quality section contains similar listings of values for “Tet Collapse” and “Jacobian”. For more information on
how FEMAP calculates element quality, please see Section 7.4.5.6, "Tools, Check, Distortion...".
The following is a sample of a typical status message list sent to the Messages window during the tetrahedral mesh-
ing process:
Mesh Associativity 10.1-73
Mesh Associativity
Modify, Associativity, Automatic
There is a new command under the Modify, Associativity menu. It contains the Automatic command which is
designed to automatically associate a solid mesh with solids or shell mesh with surfaces (sheet solids).
This command will attempt to associate the nodes of
selected elements with selected solids (Tet or Hex Ele-
ments) or surfaces/sheet solids (Shell Elements). In addition
to the nodes and elements being associated to the main
entity (solids or surfaces/sheet solids), they will then also be
associated to the surfaces of solids, curves on those sur-
faces, and points on those curves allowing you to use geom-
etry based commands in FEMAP (i.e., Loads and
Constraints on geometry, any selection method using a geo-
metric entity, etc.).
There are a few options in the Automatic Geometry Associa-
tivity dialog box. The Search Tolerance is used as a toler-
ance for attachment. If a node from a selected element is not
within this distance to any of the selected geometry, it will
not be attached. By default, the Search Tolerance is the
Merge Tolerance set in Tools, Parameters.
The Remove All Previous Associativity is on by default and should be on if you are taking an entire finite element
model and trying to attach it to selected geometric entities.
Check Solid Element Containment in Multiple Solids is only available when tet or hex elements have been selected.
This first runs a check of all the element centroids to determine which elements are “inside” which solid. FEMAP
then goes about attaching the nodes of those elements to each solid one at a time. On by default and should proba-
bly remain on when you have chosen multiple solids, although command will run faster when this option is off.
Attach Midside Nodes Even if not in Tolerance option will attach any
midside nodes on elements that have been attached, even if these mid-
side nodes are not within the distance specified in Search Tolerance.
Group Nodes/Elements not Associated will create a group with all of the
selected nodes and elements which were NOT attached to any geometry
during the command and turning on Detailed Associativity Summary
will create a summary of the attached entities to the Messages window.
This command is very useful if you have an analysis model and the
original geometry from which the model was created. Also, if you try to
attach nodes and elements to geometry which is completely different,
chances are the command will not be very successful.
Properties
• Added Section Evaluation option to Cross Section Definition dialog box for Beam, Bar, and Curved Beam
Properties (FEMAP 10.0.1).
• Added PBEAML/PBARL to Section Evaluation for use with Nastran PBEAML/PBARLs. The PBEAML/
PBARL evaluation method is always used when importing a Nastran input file that contains PBEAMLs and/or
PBARLs (FEMAP 10.0.1).
• Modified the Weld property to be the Weld/Fastener property.
• Added switch to specify if the property will used with CWELD (Weld) or CFAST (Fastener) elements. All Weld
property inputs are the same as before.
• Added property inputs for CFAST (Fastener) elements.
CFAST
Options in the Define Property - WELD/FASTENER Element Type dialog box when CFAST is chosen.
Diameter - This value represents the diameter of the virtual fastener, which is used to locate the virtual grids
(nodes) on the shell element patch.
Mass - Mass of the fastener.
Struc Damping - Structural damping of fastener
Material CSys - Material Coordinate System in which translational (KTX, KTY, and KTZ) and rotational stiffness
(KRX, KRY, and KRZ) are applied. This option is unchecked by default and Nastran uses a predefined method to
determine the x, y, and z-axis of the fastener element. Please see Note below
Note: When unchecked, the x-axis of the fastener element will be colinear to a vector from the location the
fastener intersects “Patch 1” (Element ID or Property ID) to the location the fastener intersects “Patch
2”, which is defined when creating the element. The y-axis will then be perpendicular to the element x-
axis and oriented to the closest basic coordinate axis (in case of identical proximity, basic x-axis first,
then y, then z will be chosen for orientation). Finally, the z-axis is the cross product of the element x-
axis and z-axis.
Absolute - When checked, specifies the Material Coordinate System is an “Absolute” Coordinate System.
Unchecked specifies the Material Coordinate System is a “Relative” Coordinate System.
KTX, KTY, and KTZ - These values represent the translational stiffness of the fastener in the x, y, and z-axis
specified for the element.
KRX, KRY, and KRZ - These values represent the rotational stiffness of the fastener in the x, y, and z-axis speci-
fied for the element.
Functions 10.1-75
Functions
• Added dynamic XY plotting of functions to the Function Definition dialog box.

• Modified Directional Pressure loads to no longer be affected by choosing a particular element face. Older mod-
els with these types of loads will be converted to the new standard, but will be modified in the version 10 in
such a way to create the same analysis input file as FEMAP 9.3.1 and earlier.
• Added option to apply nodal constraints using the “-1..Use Nodal Output System” option when choosing a
coordinate system. Allows you to NOT force the nodal output CSys to be updated to the constraint CSys.

• Updated Connection Regions to support 2-D contact in NX Nastran Solution 601.
Connection Regions for 2-D contact in Solution 601 of NX Nastran (usually in conjunction with axisymmetric ele-
ments) must be defined using nodes only and are written out to the Nastran file as BLSEG entries. The nodes must
be selected in proper order with contact occurring to the “left side” of the region. The BCTSET entry is used to
specify which BLSEG entries are in contact with one another. If a BLSEG is specified as “Rigid”, it must be the
“target” in the Connector (Contact Pair). BLSEG entries in Nastran input files for solution sequences other than
Solution 601 represent “slideline” elements.
There were several enhancements to the NX Nastran Connection Properties:
NX Linear tab
• Moved Normal Penalty Factor and Tangential Penalty Factor from the Contact Property (BCTPARM) section
to the Common Contact (BCTPARM) and Glue Parameters (BGPARM) section.
• Moved Shell Z-Offset from Glued Contact Property (BGSET and BGPARM) section to Contact Property (BCT-
PARM) section.
• Removed Penalty Factor from Glued Contact Property (BGSET and BGPARM) section.
• Replaced Num Allow Contact Changes with Convergence Criteria and Num For Convergence in the Contact
Property (BCTPARM) section. Together, these two values create the NCHG field on the BCTPARM entry.
• Added Contact Inactive to the Contact Property (BCTPARM) section. Creates the CSTRAT field on the BCT-
PARM entry.
• Added Penalty Factor Units to Common Contact (BCTPARM) and Glue Parameters (BGPARM) section. Cre-
ates the PENTYP field on the BCTPARM or PGPARM entry.
NX Adv Nonlin tab
• Added Glued Contact Property (BGSET) section with Extension Factor option. Extension Factor enters a value
in the EXTi field specified on the BGSET entry for the contact pair “i”. Specifies an “extension factor” for the
target region.
• Removed the Time Activation section and moved Birth Time and Death Time options to the General section.
• Added Friction Delay option to Standard Contact Algorithm section.
• Moved all options found in the Rigid Target Contact Algorithm section except Normal Modulus to a the Old
Algorithm (RTALG=1 on NXSTRAT) section of the NX Adv Nonlin Rigid Target Algorithm dialog box, which is
accessed by clicking the Rigid Target Options button. Normal Modulus is found in Common Options.
• Added Penetration Cutback and Max Penetration options to the Old Algorithm (RTALG=1 on NXSTRAT) sec-
tion of the NX Adv Nonlin Rigid Target Algorithm dialog box.
• Added Max Tensile Contact Force (TFORCE), Max Sliding Velocity (SLIDVEL), Oscillation Check
(OCHECK), Contact Gap (GAPBIAS), and Offset Method (OFFDET) options to the Current Algorithm
(RTALG=0 on NXSTRAT) section of the NX Adv Nonlin Rigid Target Algorithm dialog box.
NX Explicit tab
• Renamed Rigid Contact Algorithm section to Old Rigid Contact Algorithm section.
• Added Current Rigid Target Algorithm section with Max Sliding Velocity (SLIDVEL), Contact Gap (GAP-
BIAS), and Offset Method (OFFDET) options.
Geometry
• Updated Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Update Surfaces flag to be on by default.
• Added Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Offset Curve/Washer command.
Geometry 10.1-77
Washer mode should only be used for circular holes on planar surfaces, while Offset Curves is a more “general”
mode that can be used for oblong holes, slots, and other “general shapes” on many different types of geometric sur-
faces.
In either mode, once you click OK in the Define Washer or Offset Curves dialog box, FEMAP will ask you to select
the appropriate curves to offset. For Washer mode, only curves that make up circular holes will be eligible for
selection and only one curve per hole is required. In Offset Curves mode, all types of curves are eligible for selec-
tion and you will want to select all curves to be offset.
Clicking Cancel in the Entity Selection - Select Edges dialog box FEMAP will return you to the Define Washer or
Offset Curves dialog box. You can now change the mode and size options, then click OK and choose different
curves. Click Cancel in the Define Washer or Offset Curves dialog box to exit the command.
Washer Mode
In Washer mode you will first want to enter an Offset, then choose whether or not to Save Split Lines. By saving the
“split lines”, a line will be created from the end points of each curve in the circular hole to the end points of the new
offset curves, which will create an individual surface set-up for mapped meshing.
With “Save Split

Lines” Checked
Without “Save Split

Lines” Checked
Offset Curves Mode

In Offset Curves mode you also enter an Offset, but in this mode you have more choices. Again, you can choose
whether or not to Save Split Lines, but this time every selected curve will get an individual surface set-up for
mapped meshing.
Without “Save Split

Lines” Checked
With “Save Split

Lines” Checked
AutoSelect Surfaces will automatically offset the selected curves to ALL of the surfaces connected to those curves.
If you would like to choose which surfaces get the new offset curves, uncheck AutoSelect Surfaces. You will be
prompted for the surfaces after you have selected the curves and clicked OK.
With “AutoSelect
Surfaces” checked
With “AutoSelect
Surfaces” unchecked
and only top surface
selected.
When Extend Splits is on, FEMAP will try to extend all offset curves that do not meet up with another offset curve
to the closest edge of the surface onto which the curve was offset. In most cases, this should be checked if Save
Split Lines has not been checked.
With “Extend Splits” unchecked
Curve does not extend

Enough to break surface fully.
With “Extend Splits” checked
Curve extends to
fully break surface
Geometry 10.1-79
If Update Surfaces is on, the affected surface will also be partitioned by this command.
Note: Due to the process used in the Offset Curves mode, the specified Offset can not be larger than the radius
of any of the chosen curves. If you receive the message “Error sweeping along edge curves, offset not
possible”, try again using an Offset value reduced the by 25 %.
Also, many times a larger offset can be used in conjugation with the Save Split Lines option turned on.
• Added Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Pad command.

Requires you to choose a circular edge on a surface to create a “pad” pattern around the hole. The “pad” pattern
essentially creates a square a specified distance away from the center of the circular edge and then connects the
midpoints of each line of the square to four points on the circle (usually located at 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees).
The distance the curves of the pad are positioned from the selected hole
is determined by the Pad Size Factor.
The Pad Size Factor uses the diameter of the hole to calculate the size of
the pad. If it is set to “1”, the pad will extend out half the length of the
diameter (the radius) in all directions. If it is set to “1.25”, it will create
the lines 0.625 times the radius in all directions, while setting it to “0.75”
will create the lines 0.375 times the radius.
When Setup Mapped Meshing is on, the four newly created surfaces will
automatically have a “Four Corner” mesh approach set on them. For more information on mesh approaches, see
Section 5.1.1.15, "Mesh, Mesh Control, Approach On Surface".
Pad Size Factor = 0.75 Pad Size Factor = 1.0 Pad Size Factor = 1.25
If only a portion of a hole has been selected (a curve which is not 180 degrees or a full 360 degree curve), you will
also be prompted for a Pad/Width Length, select a point as the Pad Center, then specify an Pad Alignment Vector.
• Added Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Point to Point command.
Creates a parametric curve along a surface by choosing a start point and an end point.
• Added Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Point to Edge command.
Creates a parametric curve along a surface by choosing a point and then a curve on the same surface. The location
of the newly created point on the chosen curve is created by projecting the chosen point onto the selected curve
using the shortest possible distance.
Selected Curve
• Added Geometry, Curve - From Surface, Edge to Edge command.
Creates parametric curves along a surface by choosing a single curve (To Curve) on a surface and then a choosing
any number of curves also on that surface (From Curves). The locations of the newly created points on the “From
Curve” are created by projecting the end points of all the “To Curves” onto the “From Curve” using the shortest
possible distance and then joining the two sets of points with parametric curves.
“From Curves”
“To Curve”
• Added “Measure Distance” icon button to Geometry, Midsurface, Automatic command.
• Added Geometry, Midsurface, Offset Tangent Surfaces command.

This command is for use on solids of constant thickness only. You will be prompted for a “seed surface”, then a
“tangency tolerance”. All of the surfaces tangent to the “seed surface” within the “tangency tolerance” will be cho-
sen and highlighted. Next a “Mid-Surface Tangent Offset” value needs to be entered. This value is the distance
used to offset the selected surfaces towards the middle of the solid part. FEMAP will attempt to calculate this value
automatically and will fill the value in if successful. The offset surfaces will be automatically stitched together and
finally you will be asked if you want to delete the original solid.
Geometry 10.1-81
Original geometry Surface selected as “Seed Surface”
Resulting midsurface geometry

Tangent Surfaces Selected (original Geometry deleted)
• Added “Ok to Consolidate Properties by Thickness?” question to Geometry, Midsurface, Assign Mesh
Attributes command after the material has been chosen.
If you answer No, each selected surface will have an individual property created representing the thickness of that
portion of the model and assigned to that surface only. If you answer Yes, you will also be prompted for a “thick-
ness percentage tolerance” and any surfaces which have the same thickness, within the specified tolerance, will
have a single property created for all of them, then assigned. Along with the property information, the mesh options
on each surface will set to use the Quad surface mesher
• Added Geometry, Surface, NonManifold Add command.
Allows you to create “Non-Manifold Solid Geometry”, an option in the Parasolid modeling kernel which creates
“General Bodies” as opposed to regular solids (FEMAP solids) and sheet solids (FEMAP surfaces). The command
allows you to Boolean Add sheet solids to one another, as well as add “sheet solids” to Parasolid “solids”.
The use of Non-Manifold Geometry can be very useful in creation of mid-surface models with “T-Junctions”, mod-
els where shell elements (2-D) and solid elements (3-D) need to be connected and portions of the shell mesh are
embedded into the solid mesh, and “solids” with internal “surfaces” used in certain types of analysis.
Note: When bodies have been added together using “NonManifold Add”, many of the other commands on the
Geometry, Solid... menu will not function as they did before the geometry was changed from regular
geometry to “general body” geometry. A good idea is to have both the surfaces and solids “ready to go”
before using the “NonManifold Add” command.
If you need to stitch or add more bodies into those that have been put together with this command, you
will want to use the Geometry, Surface, Recover Manifold Geometry command to recover component
solids and sheet solids, which will allow you to use the commands on the Geometry, Solid... menu.
• Added Geometry, Surface, Recover NonManifold Geometry command.

Essentially the opposite of the Geometry, Solid, NonManifold Add command. The command will take all selected
“general bodies” in your model and separate them into component “Manifold” parasolid solids (FEMAP solids)
and sheet solids (FEMAP Surfaces). Once the “Manifold” solids and sheet solids have been recovered, the com-
mands on the Geometry, Solid... menu will be available to modify and operate on the geometry again.
Note: To break a “general body” into individual sheet solids for each and every surface, use the Geometry,
Solid, Explode command.
• Added “Cleanup Mergeable Curves” option to Geometry, Solid Stitch command\
When Cleanup Mergeable Curves is “on”, which is the default, FEMAP will remove all internal curves which are
redundant. The “stitched” geometry will contain as few surfaces as possible by removing curves which are not
needed to define the overall topology of the geometry. When “off”, all of the surfaces being stitched together will
remain in the geometry.
Stitched Geometry Stitched Geometry
Cleanup Mergeable Cleanup Mergeable
Original Geometry Curves “On” Curves “Off”
• Added Modify, Update Other, Solid Facetting command.

• Added option to Modify, Project, Point along Vector and Modify, Project, Node along Vector commands to
project in both directions along the vector.
Groups and Layers

• Improved Group, Operations, Add Related Entities to include coordinate systems used as definition coordinate
systems for Coordinate Systems in the selected group and include reference nodes on beams when the nodes are
related to elements, properties, or materials in the selected group.
Views
• Added options for Combined Curve, Element - Coordinate System, Combined - Eliminated Points, Combined -
Eliminated Curves, Combined - Eliminated Surfaces to the View, Options command.
• Added Rotate Around option to the View, Rotate, Model command (F8 key).
Using Rotate Around option

You may choose any defined coordinate system in FEMAP to Rotate Around (default is 0..Basic Rectangular).
This includes local coordinate systems and the chosen coordinate system will be used by both the scroll arrows and
the standard orientation buttons.
You may also choose -1..Screen Axes to have rotation via the scroll arrows occur using the screen axes where the
“screen” X axis is always horizontal to the right, Y is always upward, and Z is always a vector perpendicular to
your monitor (i.e., “out of the screen”). When -1..Screen Axes has been selected, the standard orientation buttons
default to using 0..Basic Rectangular.
• Updated Default Direction of the Mouse Wheel for Zoom to match direction of mouse movement.

Transforming Output (on the fly)
Added Transformation buttons for the Deformation output vector and the Contour output vector to the Select Post-
Processing Data dialog box. The Select PostProcessing Data dialog box is accessed by pressing the Deformed and
Contour Data button in the View Select dialog box, clicking the Post Data icon on the Post Toolbar, right-mouse
clicking in the graphics window and choosing Post Data from the menu, or choosing Post Data from the context-
sensitive menu when a results set is highlighted in the Model Info tree.
The Deformation and Contour Output Vectors can be transformed into different directions or coordinate systems
using the Transformation buttons. The transformed output can then be viewed using any of the options in Deformed
Style and/or Contour Style (except Beam Diagram and Contour Vector). This option is for display purposes only as
additional output vectors are not created, as they are when using the Model, Output, Transform command. Also, the
Post Titles will include information regarding the transformed output currently being displayed.
Displacement Output Vector Transformation
The Deformation Transformation dialog box
allows you to choose a Destination to transform the
chosen nodal output vector into and also which
Active Components should be displayed in the plot
of the deformation.
The Destination options are:
•None - no transformation (default)
•Into CSys - transforms the output vector into an
existing coordinate system
•Into Output CSys - transforms the nodal output
vector into each node’s specified output coordinate
system.
In Active Components, choose which component(s) of the transformed output vector should be displayed. For
instance, if you are showing “1..Total Translation” in the “2..Basic Spherical” coordinate system, you can choose to
deform the model in only the “Theta” component of the translated vector (no “R” or Phi” components).
Contour Output Vector Transformation

The Contour Transformation dialog box allows you
to transform output that references global X, Y, Z
components (like Total Translation, Reaction
Forces, etc.) into any chosen coordinate system or
into the nodal output coordinate system at each
node.
You may also transform plate element forces,
stresses, and strains into predefined “material direc-
tions”, a selected coordinate system, or along a
specified vector from the standard output orienta-
tion direction.
Finally, solid element stresses and strains can be
transformed into a single chosen coordinate system
or the current material direction (Material Axes)
specified on the solid properties of the solid ele-
ments currently being displayed.
Nodal Vector Output
In the Nodal Vector Output section, you will find
these options:
•None - no transformation (default)
•Into CSys - transforms the nodal output vector into
an existing coordinate system.
• Into Node Output CSys - transforms the nodal output vector into each node’s output coordinate system.
Plate Forces, Stresses and Strains
The options for Plate Forces, Stresses and Strains are:
• None - no transformation (default)
• Into Matl Direction - transforms output using the predefined “material angle” specified for each element. You
can set the “material angle” when creating plane properties (in Define Property dialog box, choose Elem/Prop-
erty Type, then click Element Material Orientation) or at anytime using the Modify, Update Elements, Material
Angle command (for more information, see Section 4.7.3.13, "Modify, Update Elements, Material Angle..."),
which has several options.
• Into CSys - transforms the output vector to align the X-direction of output vector to the chosen X, Y, or Z com-
ponent of an existing coordinate system.
• Along Vector - transforms the output vector to align the X-direction of output vector to a vector specified by
clicking the Vector button, then using the standard vector definition dialog box.
Note: Before using the “Into Matl Direction” method, be sure to refer to your analysis program documenta-
tion to see how material orientation angles are used and to find any limitations.
The other input required for the proper transformation of plate element output is the definition of the original com-
ponent data, which can be selected using the Output Orientation button. Please see the Output Orientation section
below.
Solid Stresses and Strains
Stresses and Strains for solid elements are returned to FEMAP from the solver in a direction specified using the
Material Axes for each solid property prior to running the analysis (for more information, see the Solid Element
Properties heading in Section 4.2.2.3, "Volume Elements").
For Solid Stresses and Strains, you may pick from these options:
• None - no transformation (default)
• Into CSys - transforms the standard component solid stresses and strains into an existing coordinate system.
• Into Matl Direction - transforms standard component solid stresses and strains from the analysis into the current
setting for Material Axes for each solid property.
As with plate elements, the other important input needed to properly transform the output is the definition of the
original component data orientation, which can be selected using the Output Orientation button. Please see the
Output Orientation section below for more information.
For Example, model run using three different options for solid element material axis..
Solid Element Output recovered in Solid Element Output recovered in Solid Element Output aligned to
Global Rectangular Coordinate System Global Spherical Coordinate System Individual Elements
Each material axis option transformed into a specified coordinate system.

Solid Element Output recovered in Solid Element Output recovered in Solid Element Output aligned to
Global Rectangular Coordinate System Global Spherical Coordinate System Individual Elements transformed into
transformed into Global Spherical transformed into Global Rectangular Global Spherical Coordinate System
Coordinate System. Coordinate System
Output Orientation
The Current Output Orientation dialog box contains the “default” output orientation for both Plane and Solid ele-
ments. For Plane elements, there is an option for each type of output data to transform (Stress, Strain, and Force),
for each Plane element shape that may appear in the model (Tria3, Tria6, Quad4, and Quad8).
There are two options for triangular elements (“0..First Edge” or “1..Midside Locations”) with the default being
“0..First Edge”, while there are three options for quadrilateral elements (“0..First Edge”, “1..Midside Locations”, or
“2..Diagonal Bisector”) with “2..Diagonal Bisector” being the default.
For Solid elements, there are three orientation options (“0..Material Direction”, “1..Global Rectangular”, or
“2..Element”) for different material types associated with Solid properties (Isotropic, Anisotropic, or Hyperelastic).
Pressing the Reset button when the Current Output Orientation dialog box is accessed through either the Deforma-
tion Transformation or Contour Transformation dialog box will reset all of the output orientation options to the val-
ues currently set in the Preferences.
For more information about these various orientation options, please see the Output Orientation portion of Section
2.6.2.6, "Geometry/Model".
Consult your analysis program’s documentation concerning the original coordinate system definition.
Transforming Output (new output vectors)
You may also transform plate element forces,
stresses, and strains into the material direction, a
selected coordinate system, or along a specified
vector from the standard output direction.
Solid element stresses and strains can also be
transformed into a ca single chosen coordinate
system or the current material direction specified
for the solid properties of the selected elements.
When you choose this command, you will see the
Transform Output Data dialog box. There are
seven transform options available:
•Vector Output (into CSys)
•Vector Output (into Node Output CSys)
•Plate Forces, Stresses and Strains (into Matl
Direction)
•Plate Forces, Stresses and Strains (into CSys)
•Plate Forces, Stresses and Strains (along Vector)
•Solid Stresses and Strains (into CSys)
•Solid Stresses and Strains (into Matl Direction)
Vector Output
When you choose the Vector Output (into CSys) option:
1. Use the Into CSys field to choose the coordinate system that you want to transform into.
2. Select the output set and output vector that you want to transform. Typically you will want to pick the “Total”
vector, (like Total Translation), not a component vector (like X or T1 Translation). If you want to transform just
the vector that you select, make certain that All Sets is not checked. If you want to transform that vector in every
output set, turn on All Sets.
When using the Vector Output (into Node Output CSys) option, you will only have to do step 2 above. FEMAP will
transform the selected output vectors into each selected node’s specified output coordinate system.
What You Get - Vector Output
This command creates 12 new output vectors from the single vector that you select. These vectors are the three
transformed components of the original global data, and nine additional vectors that are the global X, Y, Z compo-
nents of the transformed components. FEMAP needs these additional nine vectors so that you can use the trans-
formed component vectors for deformed plots, arrow plots, or other post-processing options that work with global
components.
Plate Forces, Stresses, and Strains
These options allow you to transform standard component plate forces, stresses, and strains to a specified “material
angle”, a chosen axis of an existing coordinate system, or by simply specifying a vector.
If you want to see component stresses output using the “into Matl Direction” option, you will first want to set the
“material angle” for the elements using the Modify, Update Elements, Material Angle command (for more informa-
tion, see Section 4.7.3.13, "Modify, Update Elements, Material Angle..."), which has several options. FEMAP then
uses the material angle for each output and the standard output vectors in the selected output set (unless you select
All Sets) to transform the components into the material angle coordinate system for each element.
Note: Before using the “into Matl Direction” method, be sure to refer to your analysis program documentation
to see how material orientation angles are used and to find any limitations.
When using the “into Csys” option, the vector and resulting angle are simply defined along a selected coordinate
direction (X, Y, or Z) of an existing coordinate system selected from the Into CSys drop-down list. This method is
especially useful if you want to align the material axes to the radial or tangential direction in a cylindrical or spher-
ical coordinate system.
If you choose the “along Vector” option, you will want to click the Vector button to also specify a vector. The stan-
dard vector definition dialog box will appear to allow you to assign a vector direction. FEMAP will transform the
output for each element and align the X-direction of the output vector with the specified vector.
The other input required for the transformation of plate element output is the definition of the original component
data, which can be selected using the Output Orientation button. Please see the Output Orientation section below
for more information. The new component plate forces, stresses, and strains will be placed in the user defined out-
put vector numbers (9,000,000+).
Solid Stresses and Strains
These options allow you to transform standard component solid stresses and strains from the Material Axes speci-
fied for each solid property prior to running the analysis (for more information, see the Solid Element Properties
heading in Section 4.2.2.3, "Volume Elements") to a specified existing coordinate system or the current setting for
Material Axes for each solid property.
As with plate elements, the other important input needed to properly transform the output is the definition of the
original component data orientation, which can be selected using the Output Orientation button. Please see the
Output Orientation section below for more information. The new component solid stresses and strains will be
placed in the user defined output vector numbers (9,000,000+).
Output Orientation
The Current Output Orientation dialog box contains the “default” output orientation for both Plate and Solid ele-
ments. For plane elements, there is an option for each type of output data to transform (Stress, Strain, and Force),
for each plane element shape that may appear in the model (Tria3, Tria6, Quad4, and Quad8).
There are two options for triangular elements (“0..First Edge” or “1..Midside Locations”) with the default being
“0..First Edge”, while there are three options for quadrilateral elements (“0..First Edge”, “1..Midside Locations”, or
“2..Diagonal Bisector”) with “2..Diagonal Bisector” being the default.
For solids, there are three orientation options (“0..Material Direction”, “1..Global Rectangular”, or “2..Element”)
for different material types associated with solid properties (Isotropic, Anisotropic, and Hyperelastic).
Pressing the Reset button when the Current Output Orientation dialog box is accessed through either the Transform
Output Data dialog box will reset all of the output orientation options to the values currently set in the Preferences.
For more information about these various orientation options, please see the Output Orientation portion of Section
2.6.2.6, "Geometry/Model".
Geometry Interfaces
• Added support for direct geometry import of SolidWorks parts and assemblies.
• Changed CATIA V5 direct geometry translator. CATIA V5 versions R7 to R18 are supported. Reading of CAT-
Parts and CATProducts created using versions prior to R7 is not supported

Solid Edge Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology (V 21)
NX NX 6

ACIS ACIS 19 Service Pack 1

• “Analysis Set Manager Enhancements” on page 88
• “FEMAP Neutral File Interface” on page 88
• “NX Nastran Interface” on page 88
• “Nastran Interfaces (NX and MSC/MD)” on page 89
• “MSC/MD Nastran Interface” on page 89
• “NEi Nastran Interface” on page 89
• “ANSYS Interface” on page 89
• “ABAQUS Interface” on page 90
• “DYNA Interface” on page 90

• Added Analyze Multiple option. This accesses a multi-select dialog box which allows you to pick any number
of Analysis Sets and run them one after another.

• Removed option for choosing Binary and Formatted in File Format Section. All Neutral files are Formatted.
• Updated Neutral Read and Write for v10.0 changes
• Added support for triangle and quadrilateral axisymmetric elements (CTRAX3, CTRAX6, CQUADX4, and
CQUADX8), which were new for NX Nastran version 6.
• Added option for “Extended Solution Status Monitoring”. Writes SYSTEM(442)=-1 to the *.dat file. This
option is on by default and the feedback it produces is used by the NX Nastran Analysis Monitor
• Added BOLTFACT to the PARAM section of the NASTRAN Bulk Data Options dialog box.
• Added “Gaps as Contact” to the “Plate, Beam, and Rigid” section of the NASTRAN Bulk Data Options dialog
box. Writes out a BCSET entry in Case Control.
• Added Support for CQUADR and CTRIAR Composite Stress and Strain output from the op2.
• Added “Large Strain Form” (ULFORM), “Incompatible Mode for 4 Node Shells” (ICMODE), “Max Disp/Iter-
ation” (MAXDISP), and “Drilling DOF Factor” (DRILLKF) options to the Analysis Options section of
NXSTRAT Solver Parameters dialog box.
• Added “Bolt Force Increments” (BOLTSTP), “Convert Dependency to True Stress” (CVSSVAL), and “Allow
Element Rupture” (XTCURVE) options to the Other Parameters section of NXSTRAT Solver Parameters dia-
log box.
Nastran Interfaces (NX and MSC/MD) 10.1-89
• Added “Line Search Lower Bound” (LSLOWER) and “Line Search Lower Bound” (LSUPPER) options to the
Line Search Setting section of NXSTRAT Iterations and Convergence Parameters dialog box.
• Added “Do not allow Consistent Contact Forces” (TNSLCF) and “Use Old Rigid Target Algorithm”
(RTALG=1) options to the Contact Control section of NXSTRAT Iterations and Convergence Parameters dia-
log box.
• Changed “Segment Type” (CSTYPE) options from “0..Old” and “1..New” to “0..Linear Contact” and “1..Ele-
ment based” in the Contact Control section of NXSTRAT Iterations and Convergence Parameters dialog box.
• Added support for 2-D Contact, usually used in analysis with axisymmetric elements.
• Added support for Glued Contact.
• Added Contact Control section to NXSTRAT Solver Parameters dialog box. Added “Segment Type”
(CSTYPE) and “Use Old Rigid Target Algorithm” (RTALG=1) to this section.
• Added Other Parameters section to NXSTRAT Solver Parameters dialog box. Added “Convert Dependency to
True Stress” (CVSSVAL) and “Allow Element Rupture” (XTCURVE) options to this section.

• Added support for “-2..Automatic(Statics)” for INREL to the PARAM section of the NASTRAN Bulk Data
Options dialog box.
• Added support for SUPORT1 to the Boundary Conditions dialog box.
• Added support for Fastener elements (CFAST) and properties (PFAST).
• Added support for spring/damper elements (CELAS1 and CDAMP1) which use a property (PELAS and
PDAMP). How the spring/damper elements are exported to the Nastran input file is controlled via the element
formulation.
• Added Beam/Bar Cross-Section Dimensions as comments when Nastran input file is written. When a Nastran
file with these comments is imported into FEMAP, the Beam/Bar Cross-Section Dimensions will be filled-in.
• Added support for reading Nastran Free-Field Auto Continuation (long entries with or without embedded con-
tinuation fields and large-field free field).
• Changed SESTATICS to SESTATIC, which is correct for Nastran
• Supported reading results from multiple subcases (and not overwriting) from modal frequency and nonlinear
(static and transient)


ANSYS Interface
• Added support for MPC184 rigid beam/link elements. Specified using element Formulation.
• Added support for output from rigid elements (Rigid Axial Force, Rigid Y Moment, Rigid Z Moment, Rigid Y
Shear Force, Rigid Z Shear Force, and Rigid Torsional Moment)

ABAQUS Interface
DYNA Interface
• Added support for 10-noded tetrahedral elements. Also, added “16..10 Node Tetrahedron - EQ 16” and “17..10
Node Composite Tetrahedron” formulations.
• Added support for Rigid and Interpolation elements. Writes *CONSTRAINED_NODAL_RIGID_BODY
(Rigid) and *CONSTRAINED_INTERPOLATION (Interpolation) entries.
Tools
Check, Coincident Elem...
• Added choice between Quick Check (Just Corners) and Full Check and added Check Rigid Element option.
Quick Check (Just Corners)
FEMAP will only compare elements with the same number of “end” or “corner” nodes to one another to determine
if they are coincident. This option will find a linear element and parabolic element coincident if the two elements
share all corner nodes. You can only use the Check Elements with Different Types and/or Check Mass Elements
options with this procedure.
Full Check
This method checks all nodes of all elements to determine coincidence based on the options selected. Also, two
additional options, Check Elements with Different Shape and Check Rigid Elements are only available when using
this method.
Check Rigid Elements
This option includes Rigid elements in the check. Of course, if a rigid element shares all of the same nodes with
another rigid element, those elements are considered coincident. Also, if a single “leg” of a rigid spider element
(independent node to dependent node) is shared with a “leg” of another rigid spider element, those elements will be
considered coincident. Finally, when the Check Elements of Different Types and Check Elements of Different Shape
are both on, a “line element” (bar, beam, tube, etc.) which shares both nodes with a “leg” of a rigid spider element
will be considered coincident.
Check, Distortion
• Added Permanent and Reset buttons to the Check Element Distortions dialog box. Pressing the Reset button
will set the values to the default values currently specified for each distortion check in the Element Distortion
Preferences dialog box, which is accessed from the Geometry/Model tab of File, Preferences command. Press-
ing the Permanent button will take the values currently specified in this dialog box and make them the default
values for Element Distortion Preferences.
• Added “Nastran Warping” and “Combined” Element Checks
Nastran Warping Checking...
... evaluates the planarity of element faces, using the same equations Nastran uses when using the GEOMCHECK
option “Q4_WARP”. This check only looks at quadrilateral faces. Internally, the Nastran Warping factor is defined
by determining the distance of the corner points of the element to the “mean plane” of the nodes divided by the
average of the element’s diagonal lengths. For “flat” elements, all of the corner nodes lie on a plane, therefore the
Nastran Warping factor is zero.
OLE/COM API 10.1-91
Combined (Quality) Checking...

The combined element quality ranges from 0.0 (good) to 1.0 (bad). Any values outside this range will return a
value of 1.0 and therefore indicate the element quality is not adequate. Combined Quality is useful as it provides a
single value that attempts to indicate “overall” quality while dynamically modifying nodal locations or changing
mesh sizes. It is not a guarantee that a model will solve.
The value for Combined Quality is determined using the maximum value of these seven values: Aspect Ratio,
Taper, Alternate Taper, Internal Angle, Warping, Nastran Warping, and Jacobian. Only element checks which are
currently “on” and applicable to the element shape will be used when calculating the Combined Quality. Also, the
values currently specified in the Check Element Distortions dialog box for each quality check are used by the Com-
bined Quality calculation.
Note: Customized default values for each of the element distortion checks can be set in File, Preferences on
the Geometry/Model tab by pressing the Element Distortion button. See Section 2.6.2.6, "Geometry/
Model" for more information.
If the “distortion check” calculated for Combined Quality is less than 0.75 times the value specified for a particular
“distortion check”, the corresponding value is set to 0.0. If the calculated “distortion check” value is more than the
value specified for a particular “distortion check”, the corresponding value is 1.0. The Combined Quality values are
linearly interpolated between 75% and 100% of the specified value for each distortion check.
Here is a plot of “% of distortion” value vs. “Combined Quality” value:
OLE/COM API
• Added NasExecSolutionMonitor, NasBulkInrelVal, NasBulkGapsAsContact, NasBulkBoltFact, and NasBulk-
BoltFactVal to AnalysisMgr object
• Added NasNXStratMaxDisp, NasNXStratBoltstp, NasNXStratCvssval, NasNXStratXtcurve, NasNXStratR-
talg, NasNXStratTnslcf, NasNXStratDrillkf, NasNXStratLslower, and NasNXStratLsupper to AnalysisMgr
object.
• Added InternalToBoundary and InCombinedCurve to Curve object.
• Added InternalToBoundary, attrTopology, attrMesher, attrMappedLevel, attrMapSubdivisions, attrMapEqua-
lOnly, attrMapAltTri, attrMapRightBias, attrMapSplitQuads, attrMapAngleDeviation, attrMapMinCornerAn-
gle, attrMidsideGeom, attrMidsideAngle, attrMinBetween, attrMaxAspect, attrQuickCutNodes,
attrQuickCutAngle, attrSmoothLaplacian, attrSmoothIter, attrSmoothTolerance, attrConnectEdgeNodes, attr-
ConnectEdgeNodeTol, attrOffsetFrom, attrInitialized, and attrPostMeshCleanup to Surface object
• Added RotateCSys, TransformDeformMode, TransformDeformCSys, TransformDeformX, TransformDe-

formY, TransformDeformZ, TransformNodalMode, TransformNodalCSys, TransformPlateMode, Transform-
PlateCSys, TransformPlateDOF, vTransformPlateVector, TransformPlateVector, TransformSolidMode, and
TransformSolidCSys to View object.
• Added Info_OrientSolidIsoOutput, Info_OrientSolidAnisoOutput, Info_OrientSolidHyperOutput,
Info_OrientTria3StressOuput, Info_OrientTria3StrainOuput, Info_OrientTria3ForceOuput,
Info_OrientTria6StressOuput, Info_OrientTria6StrainOuput, Info_OrientTria6ForceOuput,
Info_OrientQuad4StressOuput, Info_OrientQuad4StrainOuput, Info_OrientQuad4ForceOuput,
Info_OrientQuad8StressOuput, Info_OrientQuad8StrainOuput, Info_OrientQuad8ForceOuput to the Global
Properties of the main FEMAP application object.
• Added Pref_ReadTabSize, PickBoundaryInternalMode, and PickCombinedCurveInternalMode to the Global
Properties of the main FEMAP application object.
New API Methods
• Added SelectID, NextInSet, FirstInSet, and Count methods to the Common Entity Properties object
• Added OutputVectors method to the OutputSet object
• Added AnalyzeMultiple method to AnalysisMgr object
• Added GetMeshLoc, GetMeshLocXYZ, IsSmoothEdge, Surfaces, SurfacesAsSet, ElementsAsSet, NodesAs-
Set, Normal, IsCombinedCurve, GetCombinedCurves, CombineCurves, CombineCurvesAsSet, and Facets
methods to Curve object
• Added AddOutput method to DataTable object
• Added GetCentroid, GetEdgeNodes, GetFaceNodes, and IsParabolic methods to Elem object
• Added Add method to Group object
• Added GetPly, SetPly, GetAllPly, and SetAllPly methods to Layup object
• Added InCombinedCurve, NodesAsSet, Curves, CurvesAsSet, and SurfacesAsSet methods to Point object
• Added SharedDelete, JumpToEnd, Size, Time Created, TimeWritten, and TimeAccessed methods to Read
object
• Added RemoveNotCommon, RemoveNotCommonToGroup, RemoveGroup, Debug, IsSetAdded, Convert-
ToAllSurfaces, ConvertToBoundarySurfaces, ConvertToBoundarySurfacesOnly, ConvertToInternalSurfaces,
ConvertToAllCurves, ConvertToCombinedCurves, ConvertToCombinedCurvesOnly, ConvertToInternal-
Curves, IsArrayAdded, HasCommon, and RemoveArray methods to Set object
• Added CurvesAsSet, SurfacesAsSet, ElementsAsSet, and NodesAsSet methods to Solid object
• Added Current method to Sort object
• Added NormalAtXYZ, NormalBox, BoundarySurfaces, AdjacentSurfaces, BoundarySurfacesAsSet, Adjacent-
SurfacesAsSet, CurvesAsSet, PointsAsSet, EndPointsAsSet, ElementsAsSet, NodesAsSet, and Solid methods
to Surface object
Updated and Corrected API Methods
• Updated Curves and Surfaces methods of Solid Object.
• Updated Curves and Points methods of Surface Object.
• feAppModelDefragment
• feGetElementEdges
• feElementFreeEdge
• feElementFreeFace
• feSurfaceNormalDeviation
• feAddToolbarSubmenuSubmenu
Preferences 10.1-93
• feBoundaryAddSurfaces
• feCoordVectorPlaneIntersect
• feSurfaceConvert
• feGroupMoveToLayer
• feBoundaryFromPoints
• feAutoMeshAssociativity
• feSolidStitchNoCleanup
• feAppVersion
The following functions have been fixed, changed or removed:
• feFilePictureSave has been modified to support new file types available in File, Picture, Save.
• feOutputTransform has been modified to support new options available in Model, Output, Transform.
• feRenumber has been modified to allow renumbering of Layups, Connectors, Regions, Connection Properties,
Functions, Analysis Sets, and Layers.
• feDelete has been modified to allow deleting of Layups, Analysis Sets in the Analysis Manager, Connection
Properties, and Connectors.
Preferences
Views
• Removed preference for Autoplot Created/Modified Geometry. FEMAP needs to do this in order to function
properly.
Render
• Added preference for XOR Picking Graphics.
XOR picking effects how entities are highlighted when graphically picking in FEMAP. This was the only picking
graphics method in FEMAP before version 10. With the advent of Windows Vista, picking was not able to draw to
the screen image directly which made XOR picking much less efficient (slower) on some graphics cards. If XOR
picking is “off”, FEMAP basically draws a bitmap of the screen image and then determines the color that is the
“XOR” of the entity color and draws the entity twice, once with the “XOR” of the entity color but larger or thicker
and once with the entity color. Un-highlighting is done by redrawing the bitmap of the screen. In non Vista hard-
ware, turning XOR picking “on” will likely give better clarity but for Vista, performance is better with it “off”.
• Added preference for Dialog Refresh.
With certain graphics cards, the view will not be redrawn behind open dialog boxes, thus if the dialog box is moved
after the model has been dynamically rotated the display may not be correct. When this option is “on”, FEMAP
will force a redraw of the graphics window.
• Added preference for Block Size.
The block size determines the size of “blocked data” in “collectors” used by FEMAP internally. If you have a few
large “collectors”, a larger block size should provide better performance. On the other hand, if you have a large
number of small collectors (i.e., often happens with laminates), you might use a great deal of memory with too
large a block size, so selecting a smaller block size should be beneficial.
User Interface
• Updated how Load Layout works when loading a layout from an older version of the software into a newer ver-
sion. If a *.LAYOUT file is loaded into a newer version of the software, only “Shortcut Keys” and “User Com-
mands” will be updated, while “Menus and Toolbars” and “Panes” will not.
Geometry/Model
• Added “Construction Geometry - when used” preference.
Allows you to choose how “construction geometry” will be handled in FEMAP after the construction geometry has
been used by another geometry command. In simplest terms, “construction geometry” is a curve used to create a
surface using certain methods on the “Geometry, Surface...” menu (Edge Curves, Aligned Curves, Ruled, Extrude,
Revolve, and Sweep) or a surface or boundary surface used to create a solid via extruding or revolving. Construc-
tion geometry also includes any curves used by a “construction surface” and all points on “construction curves”.
FEMAP has three options for handling “construction geometry”:
0..Delete (default) - All “construction geometry” will be automatically deleted from the model after use by one of
the geometry commands specified above.
1..Move to NoPick Layer - Moves all “construction geometry” to layer “9999..Construction Layer”. Layer “9999”
is always the default “NoPick Layer”. When an entity is on the “NoPick Layer” and that layer is visible entities can
be seen but not graphically selected from the graphics window. You will need to change the “NoPick Layer” to
“0..None” in order to select these entities graphically if you would like to use them again for any reason.
2..Do Nothing - “Construction geometry” will not be moved to Layer “9999..Construction Layer” and will also not
be deleted from the model. All “construction geometry” will remain in the model on the original layer and be avail-
able for graphical selection when the layer containing the geometry is visible.
Note: The only option available for “construction geometry” in FEMAP prior to version 10, was “1..Move to
NoPick Layer”, so set this option to have FEMAP handle construction geometry as it has in the past.
• Added Output Orientation button which accesses the Current Output Orientation dialog box.
This dialog box allows you to choose the default orientation of the “X”
direction for different types of output for different element types. The
options set in this dialog box will be the default values set for all new
models. These options can be changed “on the fly” for a particular
model when using the Model, Output, Transform command (see Sec-
tion 8.5.8, "Model, Output, Transform...") or when using the “Trans-
formation” functionality of the View, Select command (see Section
8.2.2.2, "Selecting Data for a Deformed or Contour Style").
The Current Output Orientation dialog box contains the “default” out-
put orientation for both Plate and Solid elements. For plane elements,
there is an option for each type of output data to transform (Stress,
Strain, and Force), for each plane element shape that may appear in
the model (Tria3, Tria6, Quad4, and Quad8).
Defaults are for Nastran. Consult your analysis program’s documenta-
tion concerning the original coordinate system definition.
There are two options for triangular elements (“0..First Edge” or
“1..Midside Locations”) with the default being “0..First Edge”
First Edge Midside Locations
Node 1 Node 2 Node 1 Node 2

“0..First Edge” orients the element X-direction to a vector between “Node 1” and “Node 2” of the element, while
“1..Midside Locations” orients the element X-direction to a vector from the “midpoint” between “Node 1” and
“Node 3” to the midpoint between “Node 2” and “Node 3”.
There are three options for quadrilateral elements (“0..First Edge”, “1..Midside Locations”, or “2..Diagonal Bisec-
tor”) with “2..Diagonal Bisector” being the default.
Preferences 10.1-95
First Edge Midside Locations Diagonal Bisector

Node 3 Node 3 Node 3
Node 4 Node 4 Node 4
Node 1 Node 2 Node 1 Node 2 Node 1 Node 2

“0..First Edge” orients the element X-direction to a vector between “Node 1” and “Node 2” of the element, while
“1..Midside Locations” orients the element X-direction to a vector from the “midpoint” between “Node 1” and
“Node 4” to the midpoint between “Node 2” and “Node 3”. “2..Diagonal Bisector” orients the X-direction of the
elements to a vector originating from the point where a line from “Node 2” to “Node 4” intersects a line from
“Node 1” to “Node 3” and extends out following a vector which bisects the angle from “Node 2” to the “Intersec-
tion point” to “Node 3”.
For solids, there are three orientation options (“0..Material Direction”, “1..Global Rectangular”, or “2..Element”)
for different material types associated with solid properties (Isotropic, Anisotropic, and Hyperelastic).
Pressing the Reset button when the Current Output Orientation dialog box is accessed through the Preferences will
reset all of the output orientation options to the default values set when FEMAP is first installed.
• Added Element Distortion button which accesses the Element Distortion Preferences dialog box.
This dialog box allows you to set default values used when check-
ing element distortions. Also, you may choose which element
checks will be “on” by default when using the Tools, Check, Dis-
tortion command.
The Element Distortion checks are:
•Aspect Ratio
•Taper
•Alternate Taper
•Internal Angles
•Warping
•Nastran Warping
•Tet Collapse
•Jacobian
•Combined
See Section 7.4.5.6, "Tools, Check, Distortion..." for descriptions
of the individual element distortion checks.
The values set in this dialog box will be used for element distortion every time FEMAP is opened. If you change
the values while FEMAP is open, those values will persist until that session of FEMAP has been closed. Pressing
the Permanent button when using the Tools, Check, Distortion command will update these default values.
• Added Pre-v10 Tet Meshing and Pre-v10 Surface Meshing preferences. The tetrahedral and surface meshing in
FEMAP has dramatically changed for version 10. You will find in the “options” of several of the Mesh, Geom-
etry... commands, there are check boxes to use the “pre-v10” meshers. These two switches in the preferences
allow you to always use the “pre-v10” tetrahedral and/or surface meshing if you feel more comfortable with
these meshers and the associated default values they use.
Interfaces
• Added Improve Single Field Precision option. When this option is on, FEMAP will write all values specified
using “scientific notation” or longer than 8 characters to the Nastran input file without the “E” designation. For
instance, a value such as “4.86111E-4” in FEMAP would appear in the Nastran input file as “4.8611-4” when
this option is on instead of “4.861E-4”. Small field only.
Colors
• Added preference for setting the default color of Combined Curves.
Spaceball
• Added preference for Print Debug Messages.

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What’s New in FEMAP

What’s New for version 10.1.1

Model Info tree

The following Layup would be written as a PCOMPG:

Loads and Constraints

Bearing Force on single Bearing Force on single Vector used to define

Bearing Force on multiple Bearing Force on multiple Vector used to define

When expanded, Bearing Forces will have varying values:

Bearing Forces from above shown Expanded

Connections (Connection Properties, Regions, and Connectors)

Groups and Layers

Entity/Label Button Function

Output and Post-Processing

FEMAP Interface Latest Supported Version

Analysis Program Interfaces

Analysis Set Manager Enhancements

FEMAP Neutral File Interface

Nastran Interfaces (NX and MSC/MD)

MSC/MD Nastran Interface

NEi Nastran Interface

The following functions have been added:

What’s New for version 10.1

Model Info tree

Visibility check boxes

• Added “Layer” command to context-sensitive menus for Materials and Properties.

Data Table/Entity Editor

Material, Thickness and Angle:

Loads and Constraints

Create new load sets

Update the title of an

Delete all Load Sets

Define “Nastran LOAD

Deactivate All Load

Load Set Type

Create new Constraint

Update the title of an

Delete all Constraint

Connections (Connection Properties, Regions, and Connectors)

Groups and Layers

Create new Group

Regular Group Update the title of an

Delete all Groups

• Added ability to create “Referenced Groups”

Create new Layer

Update the Title or Color

Delete all Layers

Entity/Label Button Function

Entity/Label Button Function

Group Set to “Show”

Groups Set to “Hide”

There are 4 visibility options for groups:

“Cyan”, “Top 2 Rows” and “Yellow”, “Top 2 Rows”, and

Element, Material, and Property tabs

Entity/Label Button Function

• View Options: Quick Options button - removed for 10.1

Translational Acceleration Rotational Acceleration Rotational Velocity

Output and Post-Processing

• View, Select: Contour Vectors - 2D Tensor Plot option

• View, Select: Laminate Options

Layup 3 - 15 Plies Layup 2 - 11 Plies Layup 1 - 7 Plies

FEMAP Interface Latest Supported Version

For details, see “Geometry Interfaces” in the FEMAP User Guide.

Analysis Program Interfaces