The engineers at BETA CAE Systems see simulation as a tool that can be used to predict the future. The Swiss company seeks to offer tools for every stage of the product development process, and its vision is to stop trade-off thinking. Instead of working under the constraints of quality, time and cost, the company hopes that customers using its tools early enough in the process will be able to win in all three areas.
Working through a full development cycle can require different tools for different phases. ANSA is the preprocessor tool that accepts CATIA V4, CATIA V5, NX, Pro/ENGINEER and Jupiter Tessellation (JT) files. The EPILYSIS solver performs structured analysis in both linear and nonlinear paths. The META post-processor offers several options for framing and presenting a study, with a focus on graphics and visualization.
When the company announced the v22.0.0 version of its software, the major changes focused on ANSA, EPILYSIS and META with several smaller upgrades made to its suite.
The Preprocessor Gets the Big Functional and Visual Updates
ANSA, BETA CAE’s preprocessor, has several changes to its visual approach to inputting data, as well as some added functions. Users can now customize many more aspects of the processing to separate different analysis runs. The logbook for Density Matrix (DM) reports can now be customized. It feels more like a spreadsheet now that can be manipulated instead of a static list.
Assembling disparate modules is another area where features were added. It’s now possible to take two separate modules (the example shown is a vehicle body and a door) and create a simple connection between them. These connections also get their own user interface where the connectivity of each module can be specified and the body connection created can be called out as rigid.
Model simplification still exists with the previous tools available, but the Direct Modify option gives users the ability to change geometry for simulation simplification, right in the ANSA software. The final judgment call still resides with the engineer to know if model simplification will affect the function of the part, but if a geometry-intense area is deemed to be a simulation drag, then the user can simplify the component.
Shell, middle, tetra/hybrid, hexa/penta, wrap and voxel meshes all receive their own mesh toolsets in V22.0. Each mesh configuration has a specific set of options and descriptions available. Options for shells and solids are now included together. The most useful tool that I saw in the release video was the direct mesh editing feature. The mesh of a feature was pulled and dragged and modified by the operator’s mouse, with a live preview of the remeshing. A mesh that looked confusing and unplanned was modified to look like it followed the feature in the center of the part and transitioned cleanly to the outside edge of the part. This should result in better mesh layouts and might give more accurate results that are computed faster.
“Middle mesh” areas of parts are now easier to develop quickly, and new color-coded errors show the operator where a mesh will fault during a simulation. Middle surface errors, constraint errors, and missing mass errors were all called out on an example component. Mesh adaptivity added to V22.0 provides the ability to grow or shrink mesh sizes and give a focus and processor preference to the areas that are the most important to the study.
Vehicle Design Has New Tools
Crash and safety engineers and designers get their own upgrades. The human body models have more articulation points, with cervical and lumbar spine movements added. An airbag modeling tool shows how an airbag can be stitched and then analyzed with Ansys LS-DYNA. A barrier positioning tool lets users place a barrier at different positions and configurations to run different study cases according to test regulations and specifications, without needing to physically model or code the barrier and its parameters.
Soft contacts also gain a new user interface, with special functions added for hysteresis and restitution cases. Two-dimensional cross-section for both thin and solid sections now have a separate 2D tool for better accuracy and shorter calculation times.
The Solver Updates Are Short but Sweet
EPILYSIS updates are a short list of major changes to the solver functions. The new Grounding Check Analysis Tool runs a quick check for stiffness to see if there are any single grounding components or rigid element errors.
Nastran’s SOL 200 topology optimization tool is integrated with V22.0 for adjusting casting planes and checking the surface conditions. Cross-section calculations are now grouped and batch solved with PBMSECT and PBRSECT functions.
The solver area is one example of BETA’s willingness to take its interface and plug in other software tools for its users. There’s no need to build a SOL 200 or PBRSECT function into your software if you can use MSC’s tool and plug it right into your model.
The Results Get Upgraded
The biggest upgrade to META in V22.0 is the addition of HoloLens 2 hardware and software, giving users the ability to undertake virtual reality (VR) tours of an environment. Each collaborator can hold their own viewpoint or follow along with the presenter’s view of a meeting. In some ways this feels like a distracting tool that could cause many people to lose their focus on the presenter and play with the new HoloLens, but there’s also an interesting potential to have group members poke around the vehicle or simulation environment and find new opportunities to improve the assembly’s output or performance.
Results are another section where each user can independently chart their own path and focus on their area of interest. If a user isn’t interested in the crash test data, for instance, they can use that portion of the presentation to look more deeply at the results from their area of expertise.
Frequency and transient response models that have been built and solved can now be tested using an acoustic source placed inside the vehicle environment by the user.
IsoFunction surfaces can be opened to create a developed surface for better visualization of results. A turbine blade example unrolled the model from the round outside surface to give an obvious visual indication of where the problem areas were located in the model.
Changes Made for the Superusers
BETA CAE is playing a balancing game here. The software suite and its internal components are updated multiple times a year, and it’s easy to wonder if keeping up with the changes could be tough for its users. However, these changes all look and feel like minor upgrades that were based on user input. Some of the changes might have been made to address errors in the code but many feel like they resulted from requests made by BETA’s customers.
The Our Services section of the company’s website shows that BETA is interested in retaining its customers as its tools are upgraded. Technical support is available to help with upgrades, and training is offered for new versions and new customers alike. Consulting services is one of the bigger pieces of this puzzle for me. When you have employees in your organization who are using your software to perform projects for your customers, those users are going to know the software almost as well as the coders. These users are also positioned to provide user feedback more directly and perhaps more bluntly than someone participating in a standard customer-supplier relationship.
Preprocessing and meshing areas received the most shiny new toys for V22.0, but all areas of the software suite have gained functions and offer better visuals. The commitment to integrating more and more outside finite element analysis (FEA) software, CAD software, preprocessor tools and post-processor tools seems like a lot of work, but BETA looks to be a great partner in integrating other companies’ work into its sandbox.