RecurDyn V8R4 What’s New - eng.functionbay.co.kreng.functionbay.co.kr/down/WhatsNew_V8R4_E.pdf · RecurDyn most efficiently analyzes to the mechanism Plant and the control plant

RecurDyn most efficiently analyzes to the mechanism Plant and the control plant in a solver. Also, RecurDyn has the

integration of analysis from the load analysis to the fatigue analysis by adding the fatigue analysis.

RecurDyn V8R4

What’s New

ⓒ 2014 FunctionBay, Inc. RecurDyn V8R4 What’s New

1. UI Convenience

Relation Map

Function Information

Product Professional

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Home tab Tools group R.Map

Location in

Manual

Home Tools Relation Map

Description & Benefits

Description: A Relation Map has been added to RecurDyn that visually

displays the relationship between various entities in RecurDyn. Selecting a

body allows you to visually see all joint, force, and other elements that are

connected to this body. Similarly, selecting a joint allows you to see all

bodies that the joints connect to.

Benefits: Using the Relation Map, it is much easier to visually grasp the

relationship between entities like Bodies, Joints, Force elements in models

with many intricate connections. The Relation Map also makes it easier to

verify that connections are properly maintained after meshing a rigid body

or producing a Swap Body for a flexible body.


Measure Tool



New/Improved Improved

Location in

User Interface

Home tab Measure group Circular, Distance,

Interference, Intersection Points

Location in

Manual

Home Measure Circular, Distance, Interference,

Intersection Points


Description: Measure The Measure tool has been improved and new

functionality has been added. The Radius tool has been replaced with the

‘Circular’ tool. Furthermore, ‘Distance’ can now be measured to an Edge,

Face, or Solid.

Circular: Can measure the Arc Length or indicate the Center Point.

Distance (Edge, Face, Solid): Measured with respect to ‘Reference

Frame’, and provides the following results: Distance, First Point, Mid

Point, and Second Point.

In addition, now the interference and intersections between geometries can

be revealed.

Interference: Determines the interference of two Geometries and shows

the type of interference.


Intersection Points: Generates a list of intersection points between two

geometries; Exporting results also supported.

Benefits: The improvements to the Measure tool allow for more accurate

determining information about bodies. This permits more accurate

modeling. For example, when trying to create a shape between the closest

points of two existing shapes, the capabilities of the improved Distance

Measure (First Point and Second Point) can provide much more accurate

information.

Marker Creation




Location in

User Interface

- Professional tab Body group Marker

- Geometry tab Solid and Marker Marker

Location in

Manual

- Professional Body Bodies in Assembly Mode

Marker Modeling Options

- Professional Body Geometries in Body Edit Mode

Solid and Marker Marker Modeling Options



Description: New Marker creation options have been added. Now it is

possible to generate a specific number of markers that are uniformly

distributed along a Curve or Edge of Geometry. It is also possible to

generate a marker at the intersection of two Geometries.

Body, Curve, WithDialog: Generate a specific number of markers along

an Edge or Curve. Available in Assembly Mode and Body Edit Mode.

Body, Solid (Surface, Curve), Solid (Surface, Curve), Predefined Point:

Create a Marker at the intersection between Geometries. Available in

Assembly Mode and Body Edit Mode.


Multi-Layer




Location in

User Interface

Render Toolbar Layer Filter Multi Layer Layer

setting

Location in

Manual

User Interface RecurDyn Graphic User Interface

Render Toolbar Layer Settings


Description: A Multi-Layer option has been added to improve convenience.

Select Entities: Selects all Entities in the selected Layer.

Show User-Defined Layer: Causes only the currently selected Layer to

be displayed.

Benefits: The existing Layer functionality has become significantly more

convenient. Managing items in the same Layer is more convenient. And

determining the currently active Layer has also become easier to verify.

Quick View Rotation



New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

RecurDyn Working Window

Location in

Manual



Description: ‘Quick View Rotation’ Buttons have been added to the View

Control of the Working Window. These buttons provide a very simple and

convenient way to quickly rotate the view in the Working Window.

Benefits: The rotation buttons, which provide 3 degrees or 90 degrees per

click, depending on which button has been pressed, provide very rapid and

precise control of the rotation of the view in the Working Window. This

improves the usability of the Working Window especially for complex

models that require frequent view rotation.

Merge Body Tool




Location in

User Interface

Home tab Tools group Merge

Location in

Manual

Home Tools Merge



Description: After performing a Merge Body, the body that is selected in

the Merge Body Window will be highlighted in the Working Window.

Benefits: The highlighting allows the user to more easily verify which

bodies have been selected for merging in the Working Window.

2. Professional

Camera




Location in

User Interface

Analysis tab Animation Control group Select

Camera

Location in

Manual

Analysis Animation Control Select Camera


Description: When viewing the animation of a completed analysis, using

the Camera to control the view settings has been improved, which makes

it significantly easier to position the camera in the desired location. In

particular, in the case of the Following Camera, the position and rotation of

the camera used in the current view can be easily acquired, and the user

can easily verify that the camera is in the desired location for producing

video files of the animation. In addition, it is easy to set up the Following

Camera through the Camera Info. dialog box.


Get From View: The Offset, Up Direction, and Normal Direction are taken

directly from the current camera position relative to the selected marker.

Benefits: The options available for Following Camera have been extended,

allowing for animations to be generated from any angle. As a result, it is

much more efficient for generating videos of the resulting motion of the

model for presentation material.


License Control




Location in

User Interface

Home tab Control group License

Location in

Manual

Home License Control


Description: Now it is easily to determine the number of types of licenses

that are currently available for any instance of RecurDyn to use through

RecurDyn License Control. If you are using Floating Licenses, it is possible

to visually verify which licenses are currently in use and which are currently

available. Furthermore, if an instance of RecurDyn no longer needs a

particular license that it has already acquired, it can release the license

without having to exit RecurDyn.


Benefits: When multiple people share a set of Floating Licenses, using this

new License Control functionality to verify RecurDyn license availability and

usage. In addition, if one person needs access to a license that is being

used by another person, that license can now be released without having

to quit RecurDyn.

Import and Export of Subentities



New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

SubEntity tab Import/Export Group Import,

Export

Location in

Manual

Subentity import / Export Subentity


Description: It is now possible to Export and Import any subentity,

including Expressions, Requests, and Variable Equations.


Benefits: Now it is possible to easily import and reuse subentities that

have already been created in other places. This significantly simplifies

repetitive modeling tasks.

Contour Data Export


Product FFlex, RFlex


Location in

User Interface

Flexible tab FFlex (RFlex) group Contour

Contour dialog Export button

Location in

Manual

Flexible Post Process in FFlex Contour Dialog Box

Export


Description: The Contour Data dialog box has been improved. Nodes for

data output can be chosen more easily, and the data for the chosen node

can be easily verified in the Plot window. Can be adjusted to the significant

digits of the Export can output not only data of the desired precision. The

number of significant digits to be output can also be selected from this

dialog box.


Benefits: The accuracy of the data that is output can be adjusted more

easily and with less work than before.

General Constraint



New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

SubEntity tab Constraint group G.Con

Location in

Manual

Subentity General Constraints



Description: The ability for constraint equations to be defined directly

using user Expressions has been added. The GCon (General Constraint)

subentity has been added to RecurDyn for this purpose. Using a GCon

element, bodies can be constrained using user-defined constraint equations

rather than or in addition to existing RecurDyn constraint elements. The

user defines a constraint equation on body degrees of freedom by creating

an Expression that must be equal to 0 at all times, and then RecurDyn

forces the expression to evaluate to 0 throughout an analysis.


Benefits: The user has much more freedom to create models using GCon

constraint equations.

Examples:

Example 1: The expression Ex1 = 'DM(Body1.CM, Ground.InertiaMarker)

- 2000' as a constraint equation is the equivalent of a Constant Distance

Joint

Example 2: Using the expression Ex1 = 'DM (Body1.CM,

Ground.InertiaMarker) - (2000 - time * 200)' will create a time-varying

Distance Joint in which the constrained distance decreases over time.


Frequency Response Analysis




Location in

User Interface

Analysis tab Simulation Type group FRA

Location in

Manual

Analysis Frequency Response Analysis


Description: Frequency Response Analysis has been improved.

Input and output can be defined in a larger number of ways

After performing an FRA, an animation of the system behavior and the

Normal mode can be displayed.


Benefits: The number of ways in which Frequency Response Analysis input

and output can be defined has increased. FRA results can now be verified

by animation. It is now possible to easily analyze a plot that has been

optimized for a log scale using a Logarithmic Step.


MBD Solver improvements




Location in

User Interface

Home tab Model Setting group Simulation

General tab

Location in

Manual

Home Model Setting Simulation General Tab


Description: 2 options were added to improve the performance of the MBD

analysis. Use Sparse Solver for MBD: Improves the computational

performance when the model contains a large number of DOFs. Use Joint

Partitioning: Improves the computational performance when a model

contains a large number of joints.

Benefits: Computational performance is improved for large models.


3. Contact

Geo Surface Contact for RFlex


Product Professional, FFlex, RFlex

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Flexible tab RFlex group Contact Geo Sur

Location in

Manual

Professional Contact General Contact Geo

Surface


Description: The Geo Surface Contact element that was previously

available for only FFlex and Rigid bodies can now be used with RFlex bodies

as well. Geo Surface Contact can now be used with RFlex bodies, so now it

is possible to use the same contact definition on Rigid, FFlex, and RFlex

bodies.

When defining Geo Surface Contact for use with an RFlex body, an existing

Geo Surface Contact definition can be used as is with the same parameter

settings. Patch sets can be defined on RFlex bodies in the same way as with

FFlex bodies and used with Geo Surface Contact.


Benefits: Because contact can now be used with RFlex bodies, in cases

when deformation is small and the point of contact is in a fixed location,

RFlex can be used rather than FFlex bodies, which can allow for much

higher computational speeds.

Be aware that in cases where high accuracy in the contact response is

required, FFlex is often required.

When using contact on an RFlex body, it is required that constrain modes

are generated in the RFI file for the nodes that can make contact.

Geo Sphere Contact


Product Professional, FFlex, RFlex

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Professional tab Contact group Geo Sph

Location in

Manual

Professional Contact General Contact Geo

Sphere



Description: Optimized contact modeling between Sphere shaped

geometry and General Surfaces is now possible through the newly-added

Geo Sphere Contact. In Geo Sphere Contact, the Base Surface is a general

surface and uses the same algorithm as Geo Surface Contact, while the

Action Surface is treated as a perfect sphere. As a result of the Action

Surface is computed analytically, the computational speed of Geo Sphere

Contact is improved over Geo Surface Contact.

Using Geo Sphere Contact, contact conditions such as bearings in which

spherical balls make contact with a bearing race have both improved

accuracy and computational performance.

Benefits: For contact between spherical objects and general shapes, such

as with ball bearings, analysis will be considerably faster and more accurate.


Cylinder-To-Box Contact



New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Professional tab Contact group Cyl-Box

Location in

Manual

Professional Contact Primitive 3D Contact

Cylinder To Box


Description: Cylinder-to-Box Contact has been added to the Primitive3D

Contact group As with the other Primitive3D Contact elements, Cylinder-

to-Box makes use of an analytical formulation to locate the contact points,

and therefore offers very high computational speed, accuracy, and

robustness. It is extremely useful for geometry of the appropriate shape.

In these cases, it is considerably faster and potentially more accurate than

General Surface Contact.

Benefits: Because Cylinder-to-Box Contact makes use of an analytical

formulation, compared to General Surface Contact algorithms, it is faster

and more accurate for analyzing contact between a cylinder and a box.


4. MFBD

Cutting Plane


Product Professional, FFlex


Location in

User Interface

- Render Toolbar Cutting Plane

- Properties dialog of FFlex body FEInfo. tab

Display button Components & Sets dialog Cutting

Plane option

Location in

Manual

- User Interface RecurDyn Graphic User Interface

Render Toolbar Cutting Plane

- Flexible FFlex Edit Functions for FFlex body

Display Components & Sets Dialog


Description: The cutting plane has been substantially improved for

viewing details inside of FFlex bodies. The cutting plane is now able to show

the interior regions of FFlex bodies when the Contour Display is used. There

are 2 options for the Cutting Plane for viewing the interiors of FFlex bodies.

Furthermore, this improved Cutting Plane functionality is available in Body

Edit Mode as well.


Cross Section: The elements of an FFlex body that cross the Cutting

Plane are cut so that the interior regions of the elements are displayed.

Element Shape: Any elements that cross the Cutting Plane are

completely hidden. Only the surfaces of elements are shown. The

interiors of elements are not visible in this Cutting Plane mode.

Benefits: Through the combination of the Contour Display and the

improved Cutting Plane, now not only the exterior, but also the interior of

FFlex bodies can be examined, allowing for the stress and strain distribution

inside the bodies to be examined. Furthermore, using the Element Shape,

the quality of the interior regions of the Mesh can be verified.


RFlexGen


Product RFlex


Location in

User Interface

Flexible tab RFlex Interface group RFlexGen

Location in

Manual

Flexible RFlexGen


Description: New functionality has been added to RFlexGen, as well as

improvements to its accuracy. It is now possible for RFlexGen to generate

the stress and strain shapes and to output this information to the RFI file

when that file is generated. Furthermore, it is now possible to perform

modal analysis and generate RFI files for bodies that include pyramid

elements.

In the case of shell elements, it is also possible to provide a Shell Drilling

Stiffness Parameter.

Explanations of the log file items are now also included in the manual, and

the stability of RFlexGen has been improved.


Benefits: The general stability and simplicity of use of RFlexGen have been

improved. Shell Elements are better supported and now Pyramid Elements

can also be used. This provides an increase in the accuracy of RFlexGen’s

output.

Assist Modeling


Product FFlex


Location in

User Interface

Mesher tab Mesher group Assist

Location in

Manual

Flexible Mesher Meshing Functions in Mesh Mode

Assist Modeling


Description: A large number of improvements have been made to the

Mesher’s Assist Modeling to enhance its convenience and useful to users

when converting MBD models into MFBD (Multi-Flexible-Body Dynamics)

models.

Geo Surface Contact Preservation: When Geo Surface Contact is defined

on a Rigid Body, the Mesher is capable of preserving the Geo Surface

Contact when the body is converted into an FFlex body. When the body

is converted from a Rigid Body to an FFlex Body, the Patch Set that is

required on the FFlex Body is automatically generated.

Improvements to Automatic FDR Generation: When the Preserve

Constraint option is used on a body that is connected with a Joint to

another body, an FDR element is created. When the element is created,

the Geometry Surface that is required is automatically assigned.

Benefits: The process of converting Rigid Bodies into FFlex Bodies has

been improved. The improvements will save time reduce possibility of

making mistakes when using the mesher to convert bodies.


RBE Element


Product FFlex

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Flex Edit Mode Property FDR dialog

Location in

Manual

Flexible FFlex Edit Functions for FFlex Body

Property Property Dialog Box PFDR


Description: A new FDR constraint element has been added to RecurDyn.

The new FDR element type is called InterpE. The InterpE FDR element

type is available in addition to the previous FDR element type, which is now

called RigidE. The InterpE element is a constraint element that can be

used to make connection points on FFlex bodies and to distribute forces to

sets of nodes on an FFlex body. The InterpE element is constraint is an

interpolation constraint element. It constrains the position and rotation of

a master node to the positions of a set of slave nodes in an FFlex body.

Unlike the RigidE FDR element, the slave nodes can move relative to each

other in an InterpE element. The master node’s position and rotation is

constrained to be at the average of the positions of the slave nodes. When

used to distribute loads, forces applied to the master node are distributed

uniformly to the slave nodes.


Benefits: In certain cases, the InterpE element can often offer superior

performance to the RigidE element. Both elements can be used to create

connection points on an FFlex body to connect it to other entities. The

RigidE element causes the FFlex mesh to stiffen in the area around the

slave nodes because the slave nodes cannot move relative to each other.

The InterpE element, on the other hand, does not stiffen the mesh because

the slave nodes can move relative to each other. In addition, the forces

applied to the master node of an InterpE element are uniformly distributed

to the slave nodes.

MFBD Solver improvements


Product FFlex


Location in

User Interface

Professional tab Force group Bushing Bushing

tab

Location in

Manual

Professional Force General Force Bushing

Properties


Description: The computational performance of the bushing force element

used to attach things to flexible bodies has been improved in the MFBD

solver. Advanced Connection for Flexible Bodies: Use the formulation with

improved computational efficiency for the bushing force element of it is

connected to flexible bodies.


Benefits: When many bushing force elements are used to connect things with

flexible bodies, the simulation speed can be improved.

5. Particles and Particleworks Interface

[DEM] Contour of Contact Force


Product Particles

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Particles tab Post-Process group Contour

Location in

Manual

Particles Particles Functions Post-Process

Particle Contour


Description: Now, in RecurDyn/Particles, it is possible to see the force

distribution between the particles. This is controlled through the Particles

Tab. Functionality includes such things as displaying the Min/Max and

changing the coloring of the Contour. The option “Use the Averaged Step


for the Force of Particles” has also been included to reduce the noise in the

force distribution.

Use the Averaged Step for the Force of Particles: The force that is

displayed is averaged over multiple time steps rather than the

instantaneous force. The number of steps over which the force is

averaged can be set by the user.

Benefits: It is now possible to visually display the forces acting between

particles in the animation of the results.


[DEM] Particle Trajectory Display


Product Particles

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Particles tab Post-Process group Trace

Location in

Manual


Particle Trace



Description: In RecurDyn/Particles, it is now possible to view the

trajectory of a single particle, which can be displayed in the Working

Window as a line. It is possible to set the color of the trace of the particle

in the Particle Color options. It is also possible to hide the other particles.

Benefits: This makes the motion of the particles clear, and it is useful for

understanding the behavior of the system.

[DEM] 2D Outer Profile Measure


Product Particles

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Particles tab Port-Process group Profile

Location in

Manual


Particle 2D Profile



Description: In RecurDyn/Particles, after a simulation, RecurDyn can now

display all particles that fall within a certain thickness of a user-defined

plane. The animation can also be displayed in a 2D profile, which is

displayed in a similar fashion to a scope. This is also displayed in real time.

It is possible to export the 2D profile as a curve data.

Benefits: The 2D Outer Profile Measure makes it much easier to visualize

the particle system behavior.

[DEM] Counting Sensor


Product Particles

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Particles tab Port-Process group Sensor

Location in

Manual


Particle Sensor



Description: This sensor is used with RecurDyn/Particles and indicates the

number of particles in a user-defined region. The region can be either

spherical or a box-shaped volume, and it can be relative to the global

reference frame or to a body. The results of this sensor, like all sensors,

can be graphed, displayed in a scope, or exported to a text file.

Benefits: Using this capability, it is possible to know how many particles

are in a given region at any point in time, which can be useful for a

quantitative analysis of the system.

For example, using this capability, the number of particles that are in the

bucket of an excavator at any time can be determined, from which the user

can calculate the weight and volume of particles in the bucket.

[MPS] Particleworks Interface for Linux


Product Particleworks Interface

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Location in

Manual

Standalone Solver Linux



Description: The ability to co-simulate Particleworks with RecurDyn on

Linux workstations is now possible.

Benefits: Co-simulation of RecurDyn with Particleworks is now possible on

Linux-based super-computers or Linux clusters. As a result, it is now

possible to perform analyses of coupled solid-fluid dynamics with extremely

large numbers of fluid particles.

[MPS] Vessel Creation




Location in

User Interface

Communicator tab Particleworks group Vessel

Location in

Manual

Communicator Particleworks Particle Function

Vessel


Description: When defining Vessels for co-simulation between

Particleworks and RecurDyn, it is possible to generate multiple vessels from

multiple selected bodies with just a single operation now.

Benefits: When creating a system that has a large number of vessels that

need to be created from a large number of bodies, now it is possible to

create them with significantly less work from the user.


[MPS] Visualization of Particles in Particleworks

Interface




Location in

User Interface

Communicator tab Particleworks group Animation

Location in

Manual

Communicator Particleworks Particle Function

Animation


Description: When viewing an animation in RecurDyn of a co-simulation

between RecurDyn and Particleworks, it is now possible to use various

rendering techniques and graphical effects to the particles. In the

Animation Settings of the Particleworks Interface Tab, graphic effects such

as Particle Color, Transparency, and Reflection can be selected. It is also

possible to select only a specific Particle Set to be visible.

Benefits: It is now possible to vary the rendering techniques used for

Particle animations to help the user visualize the simulation results. Using

such graphical effects as transparency, it is now possible to see the interior

regions of the fluids, which can improve the ability to analyze the system

behavior.


6. Toolkit

eTemplate Helper


Product eTemplate

New/Improved New

Location in

User Interface

Customize tab eTemplate group Helper

Location in

Manual

eTempalte eTemplate Helper


Description: In order to make eTemplate easier to use, the eTemplate

examples have all been collected into a single file: eTemplate_Helper.xlsm.

Entities have been divided into such categories as Body, Joint, and Force.

Unneeded, optional formatting information has been removed, making it

easy to find the information that is needed about any particular Entity type.

Benefits: Using eTemplate_Helper.xlsm, it is possible and easy to make

your own eTemplate file by simply copying and pasting material from the

example file without needing to consult the eTemplate manual.

Documents

RecurDyn V8R4 What’s New - eng.functionbay.co.kreng.functionbay.co.kr/down/WhatsNew_V8R4_E.pdf · RecurDyn most efficiently analyzes to the mechanism Plant and the control plant