Table of Contents

8. Release Notes VdmTools

Table of Contents

8.1 Bug fixes

• The NASLib module did not properly compute material coordinate systems when specified in a non-rectangular system. (4.5.3: March 30, 2021)

• The NASFil module did not properly order layers in PCOMP with the SYM option. (4.5.1: January 20, 2020)

• The ABAFil module did not properly process contact pair surfaces when defined inside of parts used in an instance. (4.5.1: November 5, 2020)

• The SDRCLib module now exports node to ground springs and dampers correctly to .unv file format. (4.5.1: September 8, 2020)

• The NASLib module .h5 and .xdb readers did not properly process strain-curvature results if the output option varied from subcase to subcase. (4.5.1: August 18, 2020)

• The D3DLib module did not read shell element equivalent plastic strain properly if the shell stress was not written. Strain energy density was also misrepresented as strain energy. (4.5.1: July 21, 2020)

• The NASLib module .xdb reader did not process PCOMP properties properly if the laminate was symmetric. (4.5.1: July 8, 2020)

• The ABAFil module did not modify STEP loading commands correctly when named surfaces repeated element/node numbers. (4.5.1: April 3, 2020)

• The ANSLib module did not read element temperatures correctly in some cases. (4.5.1: April 3, 2020)

• The NASLib module .h5 interface incorrectly indicated element local coordinate systems with element node forces and moments in dataset EN_FORC. (4.5.0.r1: January 21, 2020)

• The NASLib module inserted in some cases shell strain-curvature results in strain datasets. (4.5.0: January 16, 2020)

• The ANSFil module did not export parabolic beam element connectivity properly. (4.5.0: January 8, 2020)

• The NASFil and NASLib modules did not order the MAT11 NU and G components properly. (4.5.0: November 18, 2019)

• The NASFil module did not properly read a NASTRAN blank Z0 entry on the PCOMP and PCOMPG cards. (4.4.7.r4: November 14, 2019)

• The NASFil module did not properly read certain continuation card image sentinels. (4.4.7: Octorber 1, 2019)

• The PAMLib module did not properly read complex stress results from .erfh5 files. (4.4.7: September 17, 2019)

• The PLOT3DLib module did not read solution files correctly. The 4 floating point conditions were read as nodal densities. (4.4.7: August 1, 2019)

• The ABALib module CYLINDER surfaces were not processed correctly. (4.4.7: June 13, 2019)

• The ANSLib module did not return contact results for parabolic line contact/interface elements correctly (4.4.5: March 13, 2019)

• The NASFil module did not read RBE1 elements correctly when the number of dependent nodes exceeded three. (4.4.5: February 21, 2019)

• The H3DLib module did not read adaptive meshes correctly. (4.4.5: February 12, 2019)

• The PAMLib .erfh5 module did not read material ids correctly. (4.4.5: February 12, 2019)

• The NASFil module could crash reading BCPROP commands. (4.4.5: January 24, 2019)

• The PERMASLib module did not recognize buckling modes. (4.4.4: February 20, 2018)

• The ABAFil module did not transform parts correctly. Quoted strings embedded in a larger part name were not correctly processed. (4.4.3.r3: November 14, 2017)

• All Nastran reader modules did not properly account for a missing center node for quadrilateral planar solid. (4.4.3.r3: October 20, 2017)

• The FLUENTLib module did read the SV_WALL_VV variable, V.[Wall_Original] dataset, correctly. (4.4.3.r1: September 19, 2017)

• The ABAFil module did not treat tab characters as spaces. (4.4.3.r1: August 18, 2017)

• The ABAFil module did not recognize full path names when processing *INCLUDE commands. (4.4.3: June 30, 2017)

• The NASLib module did not read CGAP element coordinate systems if the CID option was used. (4.4.3: May 22, 2017)

• The MARCLib module did not process node coordinate systems properly. (4.4.3: March 6, 2017)

• The ANSFil module did not import CMBLOCK correctly. (4.4.3: February 28, 2017)

• The ABAFil module did not process node sets correctly for *CLOAD commands. (4.4.2: July 18, 2016)

• The NASLib module did not read OPRESS results properly for CPYRAM elements.
• The NASLib module did not read CSTM results properly for ILP 64 formatted files. (4.4.1: June 6, 2016)

• The MarcLib module did not set the engineering strain attribute correctly. (4.4.0: January 12, 2016)

• The ANSLib module did not transform element node force, dataset EN_FORCE, correctly to global in the case of rotated node coordinate systems. (4.3.6: December 15, 2015)

• The SDRCLib module did not read complex element node data correctly. (4.3.4: August 3, 2015)

• The PLOT3DLib module did not read double precision coordinates mixed with iblanking correctly. (4.3.1: November 21, 2014)

• The AFLRFil module has been added to support reading the Mississippi State AFLR grid file. (4.3.1: May 13, 2014)

• The H3DLib module now reads element thickness in a superelement model. (4.3.1: May 12, 2014)

• The ABALib module now reads element and element nodal section data and promotes element data correctly to element nodal. (4.3.1: May 12, 2014)

• The CGNSVLib and TecpLotLib modules now write polyhedra correctly. (4.3.1: May 12, 2014)

• The CGNSVLib module did not read the 3 node bar element connectivity correctly. (4.3.0: March 10, 2014)

• The ANSLib module would execute a divide by zero reading certain data. (4.3.0: March 7, 2014)

• The D3DFil module did not read SPH element part ids properly. (4.3.0: February 21, 2014)

8.2 New features and changes

• The D3DFil module now supports MESH_NODE, MESH_SURFACE_ELEMENT and MESH_VOLUME_ELEMENT keywords. (4.5.4: March 23, 2021)

• The ANSFil module now supports SECTYPE BEAM MESH and associated SECBLOCK entries. (4.5.4: February 5, 2021)

• The ANSFil module now supports ANSYS version 2021R1 exported .cdb files. The "R5.0" strings have been replaced by "UNBL". (4.5.4: February 2, 2021)

• The NASFil module now supports the Optistruct CORD3R and CORD4R commands. The bulk data SET command with the PROP subtype is supported. The TIE command referencing element sets is supported. (4.5.4: January 22, 2021)

• The ANSFil module now writes SFE convection and radiation correctly and formats the overall file structure to be more compatible with ANSYS WorkBench. (4.5.2: January 7, 2021)

• The NASFil module now supports export of pyramid elements. Set the GProp object value GPROP_EXPORT_VENDOR to control the vendor specific format to be used. (4.5.2: December 2, 2020)

• The ANSLib and ANSFil modules now support SOLID291, PLANE292, PLANE293, CABLE280 elements. (4.5.2: November 5, 2020)

• The NASLib and NASFil modules now support reading the MSC/Nastran quadratic beam (CBEAM3) element and associated PBEAM3 property. (4.5.1: October 5, 2020)

• The NASLib module now properly represents the local coordinate systems of layered elements. The dataset ROT_ANG.[PLY] is generated containing the local system rotation angles at each layer. The .op2, .xdb and .h5 file formats are supported. (4.5.1: October 5, 2020)

• The NatLib module .vdm format has been changed, writing performance is significantly improved. (4.5.1: October 2, 2020)

• The D3DLib module now reports internal energy as ENERGY_DENSITY.[INTERNAL]. (4.5.1: September 16, 2020)

• The TecplotLib module now supports a VDM_CONVENTION_ALTPART option to enable the assignment of a partid for each zone regardless of zone name. (4.5.1: September 2, 2020)

• The ANSLib module now properly represents the local coordinate systems of layered elements. The dataset ROT_ANG.[PLY] is generated containing the local system rotation angles at each layer. (4.5.1: August 4, 2020)

• The ANSLib module now supports .rst file geometry changes introduced in ANSYS 2021 R1 (4.5.1: July 28, 2020)

• The NASFil module now reads rigid element ALPHA and composite GE. (4.5.1: June 23, 2020)

• The NASFil and NASLib modules now support NX Nastran GROUP, BSURFS and CYCSET commands.
• The NASFil module supports the BSURF command. (4.5.1: June 4, 2020)

• The ANSFil module now supports Workbench friendly versions of SFE, MPTEMP, MPDATA commands. (4.5.1: May 12, 2020)

• All result types now have associated physical dimensions strings associated with them. Use the Dataset module function vdm_DatasetDimensions to access the dimensions string. (4.5.1: May 1, 2020)

• The ABAFil module will now convert node based master surfaces to an element face surface. Any element face is assumed to be on the node based surface if all it's nodes are contained in the node based surface. (4.5.1: April 24, 2020)

• The VDM_CONVENTION_NOCOMMENT option has been added to avoid reading vendor specific comment card conventions. This option will avoid detecting $HMNAME comments in Nastran .bdf files for example. (4.5.1: February 25, 2020)

• The NASLib module now supports SET in The MSC/NASTRAN .h5. The .xdb and .h5 interfaces support CWELD min/max stress, max shear and bearing stress. (4.5.0.r1: January 21, 2020)

• The NASLib module now supports CVISC element stress and strain. The MSC/NASTRAN .h5 support now properly reads shell strain-curvature results. In addition, element node datasets will contain entity centroidal results copied to the element nodes. (4.5.0: January 16, 2020)

• The NASLib module now returns unaltered contact and gasket status values. In addition, frequency attributes are always computed using the absolute value of the eigenvalue. (4.5.0: November 6, 2019)

• The NASFil module now supports Altair/Optistruct bulk data CPYRA, SURF, SET and TIE commands. The SET command only supports GRID and ELEM simple LIST types. (4.5.0: August 9, 2019)

• The NASLib module MSC/Nastran .h5 support now includes SUMMARY/EIGENVALUE and MODAL data. (4.5.0: July 12, 2019)

• The D3DLib module now supports 8 node shell elements. (4.5.0: July 9, 2019)

• The VDM_CONVENTION_NOSETS option has been added to avoid reading and generating node and element sets. This option is added primarily to avoid a very costly query in support of ABAQUS .odb files. (4.4.7: June 13, 2019)

• The FLUENTLib module now does not keep all Append'ed file descriptors open to avoid overflowing this system resource. (4.4.7: June 5, 2019)

• The OpenFOAMLib module now supports the specific quantities SOUND_MODEL, REACTION_PROGRESS and PHASE_DIAMETER. (4.4.7: May 8, 2019)

• The OpenFOAMLib module now supports path names with non-ASCII characters. (4.4.7: April 29, 2019)

• The ANSFil module now has improved support for APDL comnmands. Also component names are recognized for the D, F, M and SFE commands. (4.4.7: April 23, 2019)

• The ABALib module now supports cyclic symmetry. (4.4.7: April 4, 2019)

• The ANSLib module now supports "sparsified" results files. (4.4.6.r3: May 3, 2019)

• The NASLib module now supports reading sparse K and M matrices and load vectors. (4.4.6: April 1, 2019)

• The EnSightLib module now supports measured geometry and variables, ie. particle results. (4.4.6: March 27, 2019)

• The ANSLib module now recognizes FLUID218 elements. In addition, a workaround has been added to avoid solutions which involve rezoning. (4.4.6: March 13, 2019)

• The ANSFil module now recognizes local node displacement coordinate systems in the NBLOCK command. (4.4.6: March 7, 2019)

• The OpenFOAMLib module now has expanded particle support. (4.4.6: February 21, 2019)

• The RASLib module now identifies load case numbers greater than 99. (4.4.6: February 14, 2019)

• Support for UTF-8 encoded file names added. All interfaces with user specified files in UTF-8 encoding are now properly treated when the file is not opened by an underlying external library. The new base module StrUtil can be used for UTF-8 to wide character string conversion, etc. (4.4.6: January 18, 2019)

• The RASLib module now identifies and reads contact pressure. (4.4.5: October 22, 2018)

• The NASLib module now identifies MSC Nastran SOL 400 STEP identifiers and will create Step= qualifiers with the STEP id. (4.4.5: September 27, 2018)

• The NASLib module now identifies Altair/OptiStruct generated .op2 files and will create DesignCycle= qualifiers if an optimization cycle is detected. Element densities written to ONRGY1 blocks are also detected and described as FRACTION.[VOLUME] datasets. (4.4.5: September 26, 2018)

• The ANSLib module now supports reading element node forces for MPC184 type elements. (4.4.5: August 8, 2018)

• The NASFil module now insert the AUTOSPC parameter in the GProp object. (4.4.5: August 6, 2018)

• The D3DLib module now supports reading d3eigv and d3ssd type files. (4.4.5: May 9, 2018)

• The ANSLib module now supports reading named components from result files generated by ANSYS version 18.2 and higher. Node and element sets are generated for master and duplicate models in cyclic analysis cases. (4.4.4: March 12, 2018)

• The NASFil module now supports export of GRAV and RFORCE. The PARAM, INREL option is not exported. (4.4.4: February 15, 2018)

• The ANSLib module now supports an option for reading element local coordinate system rotation angles in double precision. Solid element stress/strain is no longer transformed to the global system. All element quantities remain in the local system described by rotation angles. (4.4.4: February 8, 2018)

• The Dataset module function vdm_DatasetQualVal has been added to parse "valued" qualifiers in dataset names. (4.4.4: February 8, 2018)

• The ANSLib module now supports search options for scanning an associated input file for named components. (4.4.4: January 30, 2018)

• The ANSLib module now supports naming datasets with the mode (harmonic) number for cyclic symmetry. (4.4.4: January 24, 2018)

• The ANSFil module now supports reading BEAM 188 and 189 orientation nodes from EBLOCK. The MAT and TYPE options have been added to the ESEL command. (4.4.4: January 24, 2018)

• The ABAFil module now supports the computation of face based node weights for distributing couplings. (4.4.3.r3: January 17, 2018)

• The result SYS_RES_PROBABILITY and the qualifier SYS_QUA_OVERHEATING have been added. (4.4.3.r3: January 15, 2018)

• The NASFil and NASLib modules now support NX Nastran PLOTEL3, PLOTEL4, PLOTEL6 and PLOTEL8. (4.4.3.r3: November 8, 2017)

• The NASLib module now supports OUG1F datablock acoustic results. (4.4.3.r3: October 30, 2017)

• The FLUENTLib module now explicitly supports mass fraction of species. (4.4.3.r1: September 15, 2017)

• The valued qualifiers SYS_QUAVAL_SPECIES and SYS_QUAVAL_CONTACTPAIR have been added to distinguish solution results at various species and contact pairs. (4.4.2: August 17, 2017)

• The OpenFOAMLib module performance reading ASCII formatted files is much improved. (4.4.3: August 3, 2017)

• The D3DLib module now supports reading the node contact force, "ncforc", file. It searches for this file by default. The function vdm_D3DLibSetSearch has been added to toggle various search options. (4.4.3: July 12, 2017)

• The NASLib module now supports MSC .h5 format. (4.4.3: June 30, 2017)

• The ANSLib module now reads the contact GAP variable. (4.4.3: April 21, 2017)

• The NASFil module now reads/writes all CBUSH/PBUSH and CONM2 data. Round tripping of CBAR/PBAR, CBEAM/PBEAM, RBAR and RBE2 has been improved. (4.4.3: March 22, 2017)

• The ABAFil module now reuses element sets when possible when writing elements to input deck format. (4.4.3: February 28, 2017)

• The FLUENTLib module now imports cell zones as element sets. (4.4.3: February 28, 2017)

• The SDRCLib module now supports import and export of cubic Serendipity solid and shell elements. (4.4.3: February 10, 2017)

• The SDRCLib module now supports export of complex data. (4.4.2: January 19, 2017)

• The DataFun module function vdm_DataFunReadDatasetCols has been added to support reading selective columns of data for a dataset. (4.4.2: January 12, 2017)

• The Dataset module function vdm_DatasetQualStrings to return the short name and long descriptive contents string for a built-in dataset qualifier. (4.4.2: December 15, 2016)

• The NASFil module now generates node and/or element sets for node/elements in each INCLUDE file. (4.4.2: December 5, 2016)

• All model related datasets now have "Model" and "Description" attributes. (4.4.2: November 29, 2016)

• The LMan module function vdm_LManLoadIdTranState has been added to support loading a subset of entities into a State object. (4.4.2: October 26, 2016)

• The ANSFil module now supports time dependent and complex valued loads and restraints. (4.4.2: September 29, 2016)

• The PERMASLib module now supports the following elements, CA1ZERF3, CA2ZERF3, CA2XERF1. (4.4.2: September 14, 2016)

• The valued qualifier type SYS_QUAVAL_DESIGNCYCLE has been added to distinguish solution results at various design cycles. (4.4.2: August 17, 2016)

• The VDM_CONVENTION_STRESSGLOBAL option has been removed. It was used to transform ANSYS shell stress on .rst files to global. (4.4.1: June 9, 2016)

• The D3DLib module now supports reading part names. (4.4.1: May 25, 2016)

• The ANSLib module now reads element thickness results. It also adds an EIP qualifier to element node results data which has been moved from an element integration point. (4.4.1: May 25, 2016)

• The NASFil module now has full support for read/write of CONM1 and CONM2 concentrated mass elements. (4.4.1: May 18, 2016)

• The SDRCLib module now writes element based section results which have layer position information using data on ply elements format. (4.4.1: May 18, 2016)

• The NASLib, ANSLib and ABALib modules now support reading cyclic symmetry number of sectors and rotational symmetry axis information. (4.4.1: May 17, 2016)

• The NASLib module now reads the SECONCT record from the GEOM1 datablock to define superelement connectivity. (4.4.1: May 17, 2016)

• The NASLib module now recognizes the OESCPR and OESTRCPR laminate results datablocks. (4.4.1: May 12, 2016)

• The ANSFil module now supports writing ANSYS results output and printing requests. (4.4.1: April 15, 2016)

• The NatLib module has been enhanced to support a HDF5 implementation of VKI native file format. (4.4.0: March 17, 2016)

• The COMSOLLib module has been enhanced to write ASCII or binary "mph" files. (4.4.0: March 17, 2016)

• The SAMCEFLib module has been added to support reading SAMCEF des files. (4.4.0: January 12, 2016)

• The NASLib module now supports writing subsets of node and element results to .op2 files. (4.4.0: January 12, 2016)

• The COMSOLLib module now supports reading mesh entities information from "mph" files. (4.4.0: January 12, 2016)

• The OpenFOAMLib module now supports writing mesh entities information. (4.4.0: December 14, 2015)

• The ABALib and MarcLib modules now support element integration point data. Use the VDM_CONVENTION_EIP convention to specify that element integration point results are to be generated. (4.3.6: October 16, 2015)

• The NASLib module now supports the VDM_CONVENTION_STRESSINVARIANT convention for generating shell vonmises stress result datasets. (4.3.6: October 5, 2015)

• The NASFil module now supports reading PARAM,UNITSYS (4.3.6: October 5, 2015)

• The D3DLib module now supports reading the spot weld force, "swforc", file. It searches for this file by default. (4.3.6: October 5, 2015)

• The ANSLib module now supports reading ANSYS 17 compressed results files and material records. (4.3.6: September 9, 2015)

• The FLUENTLib module now supports reading materials from the "Variables" block and associating them with the appropriate elements generated in the associatied cell zone. (4.3.6: September 3, 2015)

• The ABAFil module now supports the TIE command. (4.3.5: May 27, 2015)

• The ANSFil module now supports the CERIG command. (4.3.5: March 2, 2015)

• The R_MPC result type has been removed and replaced using a R result type with a MPC qualifier. (4.3.5: February 13, 2015)

• The NASLib module has changed the names of the datasets associated with LAMA and CLAMA datablocks to follow the dataset naming convention for result types. (4.3.3: February 4, 2015)

• The SetMode data function now accepts the VGL_INCLUDEERRORMODE mode to enable or diable emitting an error for failure to open files associated with "INCLUDE" type input. (4.3.3: January 23, 2015)

• The vdm_AdamsLib module has been added to support MSC/ADAMS .adm and .res file. (4.3.3: January 23, 2015)

• The H3DLib module now supports Altair Engineering H3D version 13 by default. Use VKI_LIBAPI_H3D_V12 to use version 12. (4.3.1: Sept 30, 2014)

• The NASLib module now reads CFAST element results. (4.3.1: Sept 17, 2014)

• The NASLib module now reads NX/Nastran OESVM and OESXRMS data blocks. (4.3.1: August 12, 2014)

• The CGNSVLib module function vdm_CGNSVLibSetWriteFileType function has been added to allow specification of ADF or HDF5 file type to be used for file export. (4.3.1: August 7, 2014)

• The NASLib module now reads reduced load vectors. (4.3.1: March 19, 2014)

• The D3DLib module now reads particle state data. (4.3.0: February 27, 2014)

• The NASLib module now supports .xdb format. Support for modal contribution and panel contribution data blocks has been added. (4.3.0: February 27, 2014)

• The SDRCLib module now supports 4001, 4002 and 4003 dataset, stream, void and zone boundary condition maps respectively. (4.3.0: January 14, 2014)

• The NASLib module now supports NX Nastran OERR element error estimate data blocks. (4.3.0: January 14, 2014)

• The NASLib module now supports nodal pressure results for acoustic regions. (4.3.0: January 7, 2014)

8.3 Existing Application Programming Interface Changes

• The ANSLib module has been changed so that element results are left in the local coordinate system as they appear on the .rst file. A Link.RotAng attribute is created if necessary to the rotation angles describing the local system. (4.4.5: August 21, 2017)

• The DatasetComplx function has been changed to return an integer valued complex type. (4.4.5: August 21, 2017)

• The "transitional" file interface for supporting large files on 32 bit operating systems has been removed. This was supported using the VKI_LFS32 conditional compilation. (4.4.3: March 29, 2017)

• The ABALib module no longer supports export to .fil format. (4.4.2: January 10, 2017)

• The CAPRIFil and CtCore modules have been removed. (4.3.2: November 14, 2014)

• The ACISFil module has been removed. (4.3.1: May 13, 2014)

8.4 Known problems and limitations