Multiframe September 2010 Release Note

Transcription

1 Multiframe September 2010 Release Note This release note describes the version release of Multiframe, Steel Designer and Section Maker. This release is a minor upgrade that will run on Windows XP/2003/Vista/7. Contents Multiframe... 2 Applying Patch Edge Loads... 2 Sea Motion Load Case... 3 Centre of Gravity D Rotation... 5 DXF Background... 6 Bug fixes and minor changes... 7 Problem Reports... 8 Page 1

2 Multiframe The following features have been modified or added to Multiframe in this release. Applying Patch Edge Loads Multiframe allows edge loading on patches to be applied relative to the direction of the local patch coordinate system. A local patch edge load is a load which is distributed along the edges the patch and acts in a direction either normal or tangential to the patch edge. To apply a local edge distributed load to a patch Select the patch or patches to be loaded Choose Local Patch Edge Load from the Load menu or short cut menu A dialog box will appear with icons to indicate the shape of the load and its direction relative to the patch edge. All six icons will be displayed in the direction of the appropriate local axes of the patch in the current view. Click on the icon which shows the shape of the load Click on the icon which shows the direction in which the load is to act Click on the patch edge which the load is applied to Type in a value for the magnitude of the load at its end Click on the OK button There is no need to enter '+' or '-' signs for your load magnitudes. The directions are determined from the icon that you select. If you wish to remove the patch edge loads from a patch, select the patch and choose Unload patch from the Load menu. You can also double click on a patch to view a table of all the loads on the patch. Page 2

3 Sea Motion Load Case Multiframe allows you to add a Sea Motion load case, where linear and angular acceleration can be applied to a structure. Choose Sea Motion from the Add Case menu in the Case menu A dialog will be displayed which allows you to enter the accelerations due to the sea motion to be applied to the structure. Multiframe converts these into loads. Rotation Angle ( ) It is possible to model the structure heeled in any direction, or combination of directions, by entering values for Rotation Angle. In reality the structure is not rotated but the subsequent accelerations are applied at that angle. Linear Acceleration (a) Combinations of surge, heave and sway can be applied be entering values for Linear Acceleration. Surge is applied along the x-axis with forwards positive, heave is applied along the y-axis with upwards positive and sway is applied along the z-axis with to starboard positive. Angular Acceleration ( ) Angular accelerations can be applied. These act around the centre of motion of the vessel, the location of which is defined by the Motion Axes, see below. Roll is applied about the x-axis with starboard side down positive, yaw is applied about the y-axis with bow to starboard positive and pitch is applied about the z-axis with bow up positive. Motion Axes The location of the motion axes with respect to the origin is defined by the Motion Axes. The x direction is positive if the model s origin is forward of the centre of motion, the y direction is positive if above the centre of motion and the z direction positive if it is to the starboard of the centre of motion. Page 3

4 Self Weight It is possible to include the Self Weight load case within the Sea Motion case. The reason for doing this, instead of creating a combined load case made up of a Sea Motion and a Self Weight load case, is because linear accelerations due to gravity will be adjusted for any Rotation Angles entered. To include the self weight of the structure in the Sea Motion calculation tick the Include Self Weight check box and enter the gravitational acceleration. You will more than likely usually use the default setting of g in the y direction. Include Members, Plates and Joint Masses By un-ticking the checkboxes it is possible to exclude different types of element from the Sea Motion calculation. Note that accelerations are only applied to Joint Masses in the direction that the Joint Mass acts. For the Joint Mass to act equally in all directions, enter the same value of mass in the x mass, y mass and z mass fields when adding the joint mass. Sea Motion accelerations are only applied to the linear masses and not the rotational values. A summary of the Self Weight accelerations that can be applied and their positive directions can be seen in the following diagrams. P x y z ay az y x ax z az y x SB View looking fwd View from above ay x ax z y z SB side view After clicking OK, a new Sea Motion load case will be created. You can create any number of sea motion load cases with different acceleration factors. You should make sure that you have set all of the section types for the structure before you use the Sea Motion command. Page 4

5 Sea Motion Loads Sea Motion loads are applied and displayed similarly to Self Weight loads. To view he loads on the structure turn self weight loads on in the Display Symbols menu. Sea Motion joint mass loads are applied as joint loads. Centre of Gravity Multiframe now calculates and displays the centre of gravity of the model while you work. The CG can be displayed graphically in the drawing windows and is also displayed at the bottom of the Sections table in the Data window. A CG icon shortcut in the View toolbar can be used to turn the CG icon on and off. The centre of gravity calculations include the mass of all of the members in the model as well as the mass of any plate elements in the model. 3D Rotation There is now a new Rotate command in the View menu and a corresponding Rotate button on the View toolkbar. This allows for arbitrary 3D rotation of the current view in the 3D views of the Frame, Load or Plot window. The short cut to access this command is Shift-MiddleButton click (same as Autocad). The 3D rotation uses the virtual trackball found in most CAD systems. Page 5

6 DXF Background It is now possible to load a DXF file and display it in the background behind your Multiframe model. The command can be accessed from the Import sub-menu under the File menu. A DXF Background menu item in the View menu and a corresponding icon at the end of the View toolbar can be used to turn the display of the DXF background image on and off. You can control the colour of the DXF background image using the View-Colour command and selecting the item at the end of the list. Before importing a DXF file, you should be aware of some preprocessing that you should do before loading into Multiframe. Only lines, linear polylines and arcs will be loaded All blocks should be exploded prior to import All polylines containing arcs should be exploded Units in the DXF file should match units in the Import dialog which appears in Multiframe when loading the file Page 6

7 Bug fixes and minor changes Changes from 12.1 to 12.11: A problem fixed on x64 machines where Multiframe could not find the MF Learning manuals has been resolved. Performance improvements. The performance for user interaction and plate drawing has been significantly improved. Issue 2994: Plate self weight does not remember ignore settings. Issue 3008: Steel Designer: Lateral Restraints in AS4600 not displayed. Issue 3011: Section rotation info doesn't store into section library. Issue 3012: Mass per area forward compatibility issue with MF12.1 or earlier. Issue 3014: Duplicate patch/plate causes crash when turning on plate selections. Issue 3015: Plot label's missing & legend should be hidden if no plates. Issue 3038: Merging joints doesn't work for plate nodes and causes error. Issue 3040: Patch Uniform meshing not working after doing a Non-uniform mesh. Task 4759: Added merge close joints options for fine plate meshes. Task 4765: Speed improvement for patch meshing command. Task 4766: Speed up patch drawings when patch internal mesh is off. Task 4773: Limited file-reading features with plate elements, but without plate license. Task 4777: Separate the display between patch-plate loads and independent plate loads. Changes for 12.1: A bug has been fixed in the AS4100 Steel Design module for the bending design of hot rolled flat plates In the Eurocode 3 Steel Design module a number of bugs have been fixed including the correct value of shear modulus, G, being used in several places, Lc is now used instead of Lb in the calculation of the bending compressive capacity and a division by zero error is prevented when designing members in pure compression. In the AISC2005 Steel Design module the correct value of Tr for the Torsion check is now used. The compression slenderness check has now been reduced to a warning inline with this being only a recommendation in the latest code. Double angles are now included in the Minor Shear check. A warning message has been removed from Steel Designer for closed sections (RHS, CHS, SHS) if the warping constant (Cw or Iw) is zero. For these section types deformations are small, and the warping torsional constant is generally taken as zero. Thus this is not an error in our section libraries as previously reported. An additional option has been added to the Display Symbols dialog that controls member type (tension or compression). This was previously included in the member release check box. Using the 3D rotate option via the Shift-Middle button mouse click, now rotates the model correctly. A problem which could cause clipping to be incorrect I the Plot window has been fixed Page 7

8 Using File->Export now remembers the name and location of exported files if the command is used again A problem which could cause the Plot diagram to rotate incorrectly in 3D has been fixed. Issue 2887: Load Arrows now will print correctly when printing from the Load Window. Issue 2846: The Lock Grid is now sized correctly in the perspective view of the Frame and Load windows. Issue 2699: Patch outlines can now be displayed in rendered mode in the Frame and Load windows. Issue 2879: Patch clipping now works correctly in the plot window. Issue 2860: Group masking works correctly for groups containing Panel, Patches and Plates. Issue 2892: Joint Spring drawing bug has been corrected. Task 4602: Plates are now exported with a Dxf export. Task 4693: F5 will now display the Symbols Dialog. Bug 2900: Mask Out Selection now works correctly if other items have been previously masked Bug 2864: Member properties of an individual subdivided member are now shown instead of the design member properties to which it belongs Bug #2821: Stream to word causes crash on models with specific custom sections Bug #2731: Problem when clearing preferences and some settings still left set The problem with the calculation for the self weight of sloping patches and plates has been corrected Bug 3036: Incorrect shading for plates in the Plot Window when Masking is enabled. Problem Reports We greatly appreciate any bug reports or suggestions you may have. Please report any bugs or anomalies you find to: Fax: support@formsys.com Page 8