CAEfatigue Software (Cf)
RELEASE NOTES
This document provides a brief description of the New Features and Feature Improvements added to the latest
release of the software. The document also provides a brief description of Bugs (errors) that were corrected.
Disclaimer
CAEf atigue Limited reserves the right to make changes in specifications and other information contained in this
document without prior notice.
The concepts, methods, and examples presented in this text are for illustrative and educational purposes only and
are not intended to be exhaustive or to apply to any particular engineering problem or design. CAEfatigue Limited
assumes no liability or responsibility to any person or company for direct or indirect damages resulting from the use
of any information contained herein.
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This notice shall be marked on any reproduction of this documentation, in whole or in part. Any reproduction or
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Please consult the Release Notes file that comes with the installation package for latest software updates.
CAEf atigue is a trademark or registered trademark of CAEfatigue Limited. MSC and MSC Software logo are the
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CAEF:V2021:Z:Z:Z:DC-REL-PDF
16 December 2020 1
RELEASE NOTES
V2021
New Features or Feature Improvements:
• RANDOM package added to CF offering. The RANDOM package is for random analysis (DVA) only, i.e.
no f atigue analysis can be done. CF is now available in the standalone packages RANDOM, TIME,
FREQUENCY and PREMIUM.
• PSD Loads Database now available when defining PSD loading. The database contains varies predefined
PSDs shapes and allows for comparisons between PSD profiles and the ability to add a PSD profile to the
database.
• Pseudo Damage solution type added to software. This analysis allows an estimate of the damage change
when the input loading is changed, i.e. how might the damage change if input A is switched to input B?
This can be done without an FEA model.
• 3D Critical Plane option has been added to the Quasi-Static and Modal Transient Time Domain solver.
• Time Domain maximum stress output is now provided as Neuber Stress as default.
• Process Flow Additions
o Random Analysis solution type added (i.e. no fatigue calculations).
o Allow f or multiple FSET3 definitions within the same text file is now supported.
o Allow f or PSD Type = Multi Uncorrelated, i.e. using only direct PSD from PSDM file.
o Allow f or INP file to be defined as a Resource.
o Allow f or the use of AUTOSN/EN.
o Allow the use of FE Load Magnitude (FE_L_MAG) for LQSTATIC and LMTRANS.
o Provide single input PSD images in Frequency Load Schedule.
o Allow f or zooming in/out of the Process Flow working view.
• Time2PSD FFT Plotter now provides Envelope Data:
o Allow f or viewing of all events at the same time.
o Allow f or viewing of “envelope” surrounding all events.
o Allow f or viewing of “envelope” over event.
• Improved Fringe Plotter with:
o Label above legend for plotted results.
o Viewport: Opacity setting that hides/shows part of the model that do not have results.
o Pick: Ability to view User specified element data via Pick box.
o Pick: Ability to select element and request PSD information to be displayed for that element in the
PSD Plotter.
• Improved PSD Plotter with:
o the capability to plot multiple PSDs at the same time
o the capability to plot a Cumulative RMS for Response PSD plots.
16 December 2020 2
RELEASE NOTES
• Support for Nastran Pyramid element (CPYRAM) added to solver.
• Improve CSV Merger Utility tool to allow renaming of JOB ID’s.
• Main CSV f ile now contains max/min stress data on the summed/max line when using multiple events.
• Several Process Flow examples have been added to the Test Problem Library (TPL).
Defect Fixes:
• Entries f or Gy.yyy, Ry.yyy and Sy.yyy in the vFTGDEF>PARAM1 have been converted to % input instead
of decimal input. This action permits 2 additional integers to be used within the permitted 8 character field
def inition. Hence, an entry like R0.01 is now R1.0, meaning 1%. Software and documentation have been
updated.
• Fixed possible issue with DVA for situations where some subcases in OP2 may not be referenced in
OP2MAP.
• Static stress handling modified for spot welds in frequency domain. Faster and more accurate solution
obtained.
• Fringe Plotter visualization issues with RBE3 elements has been resolved.
• Fringe Plotter will now default to corner results when f irst opened (if corner results exist).
• Fringe Plotter Max/Min button modified to show actual results regardless of the modified Legend Scale.
• Previously known issue now corrected: Spot weld image layer in Fringe Plotter is above Legend layer and
will hide the legend scale if the 2 layers overlap. Spot weld image layer will also not disappear if spot weld
property set is unchecked.
• Fixed TD spotwelds issue when MPCForces are missing for spotweld.
• Time Data plotter now shows events with new label if events have been renamed.
• FSET3 selection boxes now update prior to rerun of analysis.
• Fixed solver issue that would not allow ABSRESP, RELRESP and DIAGNOS to run together in some
cases.
• Fixed Load Scheduler to allow time discretization to decimals of a second.
Defects Known
• vIBFAT> GIDOUT> NODAV is not properly supported for Time Domain analysis. Use of NODAV will
produce the same results as CORNER.
• vMATSTAT f ails to product the filenamePSD.csv file. This means that the PSD Plotter is unavailable.
16 December 2020 3
RELEASE NOTES
======
V2020 FP1
New Features or Feature Improvements:
• CAEf atigue has completed the Process Flow method for creating a CAEfatigue analysis job. This method
is an alternative to the control file (text based) method, which has been the primary method for job setup up
to this release. The Process Flow is currently working for Time Domain and Frequency Domain analysis
with Nastran OP2 f iles. See Introduction to Process Flow in the User Guide for current limitations. It will be
f urther expanded in the next release.
• CAEf atigue has added Spot Weld and Seam Weld options to the Time Domain analysis. Note: The seam
weld output is for the weld TOE (same as frequency domain). This will be expanded in the next release as
detailed in the Quick Reference Guide under vFTGDEF.
• CAEf atigue can now read Nastran HDF5 file formats along with OP2 file formats. To support this, we have
created new mapping entries called CASEMAP and CASEMAPS.
• CAEf atigue now supports the mapping of Ansys RST files in the Frequency Domain with new entries called
RSTMAP and RSTMAPS. Note: This is not yet supported for Time Domain.
• Time Domain solution types have been renamed to the following to accommodate the expansion of the
capability to other Solvers besides Nastran. However, original names can still be used.
o TIME101 is now LQSTATIC (linear static superposition)
o TIME103 is now LMTRANS (linear stress recovery via MPF)
o TIME112 is now LTRANS (linear direct stress recovery)
• Additional Time Domain solutions types have been added for Nastran:
o NQSTATIC (non-linear quasi-static superposition) for SOL400 / MARC
o NTRANS (non-linear direct stress recovery) for SOL400 / MARC
• The LTRANS entry now handles more element types and skip modes if present in the Nastran solver file.
• Extended LQSTATIC and LTRANS - Time Domain linear static superposition analysis and linear transient
analysis to ANSYS.
• Extended the Loads Scheduler functionality with the addition of a PHASE variable for deterministic input
load definitions and more functionality for the importing of data files.
• Added functionality vFTGDEF>RCCOUT to output rainflow cycle count (RCC) and damage data for a
specific set of nodes or elements. Similar to PSDOUT.
• Added functionality vFTGPARM>CYCPROC to adjust the way CAEfatigue accounts for mean stress and
highest rainflow cycle when dealing with TRUE stresses from the Solver.
• Added functionality to the Fringe Plotter to allow viewing of Max / Mean values over the entire model.
• Significantly increased CSV reading speed for plotting output in the GUI.
• Extended support for reading RSP files to short and long format.
16 December 2020 4
RELEASE NOTES
• Extended support for reading FSET3 sets using free format with the word THRU and comma separated
values.
Defect Fixes:
• Corrected running of Seam Weld job to use default material values when no material properties are
specified.
• Corrected small errors in Time Domain strain value output for non-linear analysis using Marc inputs.
• The TIMEOUT entry now plots the time signal in User defined units.
• The export of RSP/CSV files from the Load Scheduler is more stable.
• Fixed issue with PSD Plotter and FFT Plotter which would not auto adjust in scale between runs.
• Allows FSET3 output from selected property sets, not just a single property set.
Defects Known
• vIBFAT> GIDOUT> NODAV is not properly supported for Time Domain analysis. Use of NODAV will
produce the same results as CORNER.
• vMATSTAT f ails to product the filenamePSD.csv file. This means that the PSD Plotter is unavailable.
• Spot weld image layer in Fringe Plotter is above Legend layer and will hide the legend scale if the 2 layers
overlap. Spot weld image layer will also not disappear if spot weld property set is unchecked.
======
V2020
New Features or Feature Improvements:
• CAEf atigue has launched a new Graphical User Interface for v2020. This interface is designed to have the
same look / feel as the MSC Software APEX product. The software contains the same Control File entry
process that our current Customers are familiar with but also introduces a Process Flow entry method as
an ALPHA release. The intent of the new GUI is to allow the User to use either entry method to conduct a
random analysis and/or fatigue analysis.
• CAEf atigue has expanded the Time Domain solver with a new sophisticated LOADS SCHEDULER toolset
to allow the creation of Customer specified loading time histories. Events can be created from existing RPC
/DAC /CSV file plus Block Loading plus deterministic loading (sine wave, square waves, etc.) and sine
sweeps plus XY pair loading. Multi-channel events of time histories can be written out in RPC /CSV
/TABLED1 format. The TABLED1 format is particularly useful for Nastran Time Domain linear dynamic
analysis.
16 December 2020 5
RELEASE NOTES
• CAEf atigue has expanded the Time Domain solver to offer stress calculations on Critical Planes.
• CAEf atigue has expanded the Time Domain solver with new entries called MEMORY and PARALLEL.
These entries control the maximum memory to use and the maximum threads to be used, respectively for a
Time Domain analysis.
• CAEf atigue has expanded the Time Domain solver with a TIMEOUT entry that will permit the User to
output a response time history at an element. This is similar to a PSDOUT entry used in the Frequency
Domain.
• CAEf atigue has expanded the Time Domain solver to work with an Abaqus linear static stress file.
• CAEf atigue now provides a material database (XML) software to allow easy selection of standard, public
domain, material data. The User can also choose to autogenerate generic SN / EN data through the use of
vMATFTG: AUTOSN or AUTOEN. This feature will use the CODE entry in the vMATFTG: STATIC entry.
• GUI Enhancements: The GUI Result f ield now contain a TIME DATA option. This will allow a User to plot
the data f rom a TIMEOUT entry in a Time Domain analysis.
• GUI Enhancement: The PSDM Plotter now supports output in Real / Imaginary format and Amplitude /
Phase format
• GUI Enhancement: The Fringe Plotter has been given a Display option under the Properties window. This
view allows the User to select High Accuracy graphics or Normal graphics.
• GUI Enhancement: The Fringe Plotter has been given a NO RESULTS option for the Results field that will
allow the User to view the model geometry prior to the application of results.
• GUI Enhancement: CAEfatigue has updated the Control File Wizard to allow plotting of material SN/EN
or autogenerated curves in the MATERIALS tab.
• GUI Enhancement: CAEfatigue now contains a TIME2PSD Wizard that will allow access and control of a
TIME2PSD control file analysis. The Wizard will also allow graphical selection of Subevents in the
EVENT PARAMS tab.
• In the TIME2PSD calculation, we now name the PSDM files with the following format “load_name” _
“jobname or filename” _ “event number” _PSDM.txt. Note: if Jobname does not exist, we will use Filename.
This was done to follow the format of a CF analysis, where the jobname or f ilename is added to the results
f ile, thus allowing the User to identify and connect the TIME2PSD output to a TIME2PSD control file.
• Nastran input files can now use POST, PARAM, 1 or -1.
Defect Fixes:
• Predef ined viewing layouts in the Fringe Plotter have been corrected.
• Loss of the Y scale axis display in the Event Plotter for very small values has been corrected.
16 December 2020 6
