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®

Patran 2010

Release Guide
Corporate Europe Asia Pacific
MSC.Software Corporation MSC.Software GmbH MSC.Software Japan Ltd.
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contained herein.
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All Rights Reserved.
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Revision 0. February 24, 2010

P3:V2010:Z:Z:Z:DC-REL-PDF
Contents
Patran Release Guide
Patran Release
Guide,

1 Patran 2010 at a Glance


Key Highlights 2
CAD Access 2
InterOp R20 SP1 2
Parasolid 20 2
Catia V5 R19 2
NX 5 / NX 6 2
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 2
MD Nastran and MSC Nastran Support 3
Implicit Nonlinear Analysis (SOL 400) 3
General Enhancements 4
Set Current Working Directory 4
New GUI Skins 4
64 Bit Port 4
SimManager R3 - Linux Integration 4
Patran Help on the Web 4
Utilities 4
Hybrid Surface Mesher 4

Supported OS/Hardware Platforms 5

Supported CAD Access 6

Supported Analysis Preferences 7

Technical Support 8
Web 8
Phone and Fax 9
Email 10

2 General Enhancements
Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400) 2
Step/Subcase Designation 2

Set Current Working Directory 3

Shaded Background Used For Non-MD Patran 4


iv Patran Release Guide

How to Control The Background Effects of New Databases 4


How to Change The Background Effects of the Current Viewport 5

New GUI Skins 6


Overview 6
Application Icon Ribbons 7
Quick Access Bar 10
Skins Installation Options 12

Native 64 Bit Port 13


Tips and Tricks for Manipulating Large Models in Patran 13

SimManager R3 Integration on Linux 16

Patran Help on the Web 18

ABAQUS Preference Enhancements 19


1D Pressure Elements 19
Inertia Loads on 0D (point) Elements 20
Support for RBE2 and RBE3 21

Auto Select Picking 22

Shareware 23
MechPat 23
FEM-Elements -Regular Cube Mesher 2 24
Solid Sphere Mesher 25
Campbell Diagram Utility 26

Customer Requests 27

29

 Index 29
Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a Glance Patran Release Guide

Patran 2010 at a Glance


1
 Key Highlights 2
 Supported OS/Hardware Platforms 5

Supported CAD Access 6
 Supported Analysis Preferences 7
 Technical Support 8
2 Patran Release Guide
Key Highlights

1.1 Key Highlights

CAD Access
InterOp R20 SP1
The Spatial InterOp, Parasolid based translators, have been updated to the R20 SP 1 revision. This gives
CAD access support based on the table in Supported CAD Access, 6. MSC makes periodic updates to
CAD access and are available through download patches at:
http://www.mscsoftware.com/support/software_updates/#patran
Note that MSC has converted to the new Connect API version of the Spatial InterOp translators.

Parasolid 20
Parasolid import now supports up to version 20. The Patran Parasolid kernel is based on Parasolid 19.

Catia V5 R19
Support for Catia V5 R19 is available through the Parasolid import method using the Spatial InterOp
translators.

NX 5 / NX 6
Support for NX 5 is available on most platforms and NX 6 on Windows is now available.

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0


Support for CAD import of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 is available in this release.
Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a Glance 3
Key Highlights

MD Nastran1 and MSC Nastran Support


Implicit Nonlinear Analysis (SOL 400)
The following enhancements are provided for support of implicit nonlinear analysis.
• Improved Load Step/Subcase Designation
• Contact: Improved support of BCTABLE and BCBODY Nastran entries when defining contact
bodies and their interaction
• Composites: Improved support of PCOMP and PCOMPLS Nastran entries when defining
composite definitions for shell and 3D solid elements
See Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400), 2 and Customer Requests, 27

1SOLs400 and 700 are only available in MD Nastran and must be submitted using Patran running in
MD mode.
4 Patran Release Guide
Key Highlights

General Enhancements
Set Current Working Directory
The ability to set the current working directory was added in this release. See section Set Current Working
Directory, 3 for details.

New GUI Skins


The capability to change the Patran graphical user interface (GUI) skin on the Windows platforms is
available in this release. Details can be found in section New GUI Skins, 6.

64 Bit Port
A production version of Patran for Windows and Linux 64 bit machines is available in this release. The
32 bit version of Patran can still be run on 64 bit machines. Some details of the 64 bit port are listed in
Native 64 Bit Port, 13.

SimManager R3 - Linux Integration


Publish, and retrieve Patran databases and related analysis files through the SimManager R3 client/server
access. This functionality is now available on Linux 32. See SimManager R3 Integration on Linux, 16 for
details.

Patran Help on the Web


The Patran 2010 context sensitive help is now available from MSCSoftware.com. See Patran Help on the
Web, 18 for details.

Utilities
Please review the Utilities/ What is New menu to see additions/updates made to the utilities.

Hybrid Surface Mesher


The hybrid surface mesher is now generally available in addition to the isosurface and paver meshers for
meshing surfaces and 2D geometry.
Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a Glance 5
Supported OS/Hardware Platforms

1.2 Supported OS/Hardware Platforms


Vendor Description
HP (PA-RISC) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Hewlett-Packard HP-UX
(PA-RISC) Requirements (p. 82) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.
SUN (Solaris) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Sun Solaris
Requirements (p. 86) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.
Intel (Windows) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Microsoft Windows
Requirements (p. 87) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.
Intel (Linux) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see Linux Requirements
(p. 91) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.
IBM (AIX) For more information on Operating Systems and Hardware support, please see IBM AIX Requirements
(p. 84) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.

For a complete description of these configurations, see Required Hardware & Software Configurations
(Ch. 5) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.
6 Patran Release Guide
Supported CAD Access

1.3 Supported CAD Access


Windows
HP 2000 / XP /
(PA-RISC) SUN IBM RS/6000 Vista Linux

CATIA V4* 4.2.4 4.2.4 4.2.4 4.2.4 4.2.4

CATIA V5 R19 R19 R19 R19

Pro/ENGINEER† Wildfire 4.0 Wildfire 4.0 Wildfire 4.0 Wildfire 4.0

Unigraphics‡ NX5.0 NX5.0 NX5.0 NX6.0 XMT**


I-DEAS 11.0 12.0 11.0 12.0
Parasolid 20 20 20 20 20
ACIS 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0
*A CATIA CATXPRES (.cat) file can be imported. On Windows and Linux, only the CATIA to Parasolid translator
is available and the CAT Direct Translator which runs CATIA in batch mode is not available.

† The p3_ProE and p3_ProENGINEER executables are built using Pro/ENGINEER version 2000i and therefore will
not work with earlier versions of Pro/ENGINEER. p3_ProE and p3_ProENGINEER Access allows reading of
.geo geometry transfer files generated from other OS installs of Pro/ENGINEER Access. See Pro/ENGINEER
Access Setup (p. 14) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.
‡ UG NX supports only 64 bit machines.
**Only Parasolid (transmit file) import is supported. Parasolid transmit files generated on other OS platforms can be
imported on LINUX.
Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a Glance 7
Supported Analysis Preferences

1.4 Supported Analysis Preferences


Solver Platforms Solver Version
MD Nastran MD Nastran R3
MSC Nastran All MSC Nastran 2010 *
Marc All 2010 *
Dytran All 2008 r1
Flightloads All 2008 r1
Thermal All 2008 r1
Fatigue All 2008 r1
MSC Sinda All 2008 r1
LS-DYNA3D All 970
PAMCRASH All 1995 / 1997
SAMCEF All 11 / 12
ABAQUS† All 6.8
ANSYS‡ All 11.0
*As of the release of Patran 2010, MSC Nastran 2010 and Marc 2010 have not been released.
†ABAQUS discontinued platforms remain at the level of support at the time they were discontinued by HKS. For
instance SUN support is frozen at 6.4.
‡Results access is enhanced to 11.0 (results import is frozen at 8.1).
8 Patran Release Guide
Technical Support

1.5 Technical Support


For help with installing or using an MSC.Software product, contact your local technical support services.
Our technical support provides the following services:
• Resolution of installation problems
• Advice on specific analysis capabilities
• Advice on modeling techniques
• Resolution of specific analysis problems (e.g., fatal messages)
• Verification of code error.

If you have concerns about an analysis, we suggest that you contact us at an early stage.
You can reach technical support services on the web, by telephone, or e-mail:

Web
Go to the MSC.Software website at www.mscsoftware.com, and click on Support. Here, you can find
a wide variety of support resources including application examples, technical application notes, available
training courses, and documentation updates at the MSC.Software Training, Technical Support, and
Documentation web page.
Chapter 1: Patran 2010 at a Glance 9
Technical Support

Phone and Fax

United States Frimley, Camberley


Surrey, United Kingdom
Telephone: (800) 732-7284
Telephone: (44) (1276) 67 10 00
Fax: (714) 784-4343
Fax: (44) (1276) 69 11 11
Munich, Germany Tokyo, Japan

Telephone: (49) (89) 43 19 87 0 Telephone: (81) (3) 3505 02 66


Fax: (49) (89) 43 61 71 6 Fax: (81) (3) 3505 09 14
Rome, Italy Paris, France

Telephone: (390) (6) 5 91 64 50 Telephone: (33) (1) 69 36 69 36


Fax: (390) (6) 5 91 25 05 Fax: (33) (1) 69 36 45 17
Moscow, Russia Gouda, The Netherlands

Telephone: (7) (095) 236 6177 Telephone: (31) (18) 2543700


Fax: (7) (095) 236 9762 Fax: (31) (18) 2543707
Madrid, Spain

Telephone: (34) (91) 5560919


Fax: (34) (91) 5567280
10 Patran Release Guide
Technical Support

Email
Send a detailed description of the problem to the email address below that corresponds to the product you
are using. You should receive an acknowledgement that your message was received, followed by an
email from one of our Technical Support Engineers.

Patran Support mscpatran.support@mscsoftware.com

MD Nastran Support mscnastran.support@mscsoftware.com

MSC.Dytran Support mscdytran.support@mscsoftware.com

MSC.Fatigue Support mscfatigue.support@mscsoftware.com

MSC.Marc Support mscmarc.support@mscsoftware.com

MSC.Mvision Support mscmvision.support@mscsoftware.com

MSC.SuperForge Support mscsuperforge.support@mscsoftware.com

MSC Institute Course Information msctraining.support@mscsoftware.com


Chapter 2: General Enhancements Patran Release Guide

General Enhancements
2
 Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400) 2
 Set Current Working Directory 3

New GUI Skins 6
 Native 64 Bit Port 13
 SimManager R3 Integration on Linux 16
 Patran Help on the Web 18
 ABAQUS Preference Enhancements 19
 Auto Select Picking 22

Shareware 23
 Customer Requests 27
2 Patran Release Guide
Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400)

2.1 Implicit Nonlinear (MD Nastran SOL 400)


Step/Subcase Designation
The previous method for designating which load steps were to be used to start new subcases was
confusing and un-intuitive. A new method has been added that graphically shows the step/subcase
distinction, giving you graphical confirmation of how the analysis will be run. A toggle on the Subcase
Select form lets you go between the old and new methods.
Old method required a list of
all load steps and forced the
user to define the steps that
designated the beginning of a
new Nastran Subcase

New method allows


visualization of Subcases and
their Load Step in a tree-
widget as shown here. Use
the right mouse button on
items on the tree to add,
remove, and move Load
Steps and Subcases. Items in
the tree are also displayed in
the original listboxes.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 3
Set Current Working Directory

2.2 Set Current Working Directory


The ability to set the current working directory to where the database resides is now possible. This also
controls the location where Patran writes files, including job files from analysis jobs submitted through
Patran.

This capability is available from the File|New, File|Open & File|Open Recent dialog forms.
The File|Open Recent dialog also allows for more recent files to be viewed directly from the form
and automatically opened if selected (this is controllable via a toggle).
4 Patran Release Guide
Shaded Background Used For Non-MD Patran

2.3 Shaded Background Used For Non-MD Patran


When MD Patran was introduced to support the new capabilities available (only) in MD Nastran, the
Patran viewport background for this version was modified to allow multi-color shaded effects. The
default Patran background when the “-iam MD” option was used was two different colors of blue with
horizontal shading. As MD Nastran moved into “mainstream” usage, MSC removed the licensing
distinction between MD Patran and MSC Patran (now called “Patran”). In Patran 2010, the final step in
merging the MD capabilities into core Patran was to make the shaded background available in all “-iam”
options. Please note that the function of the “-iam MD” flag is still in effect, e.g. this flag is still required
to activate the MD Nastran functionality in Patran.
There are two areas where you can control the background appearance, one controls the background of
a “new” database and the other controls the background of the current viewport.

How to Control The Background Effects of New Databases


The default background effects of a database opened using File – New is controlled under Preferences –
Graphics – Default Background Color. Here you can specify the viewport color and shading used when
a new database is opened. The values selected here will be stored in settings.pcl (if writable) such that
you only need to change this once per installation. As a user convenience there is an “All Existing
Viewports” toggle (turned ON by default) on this form that will also cause Patran to change the
background of all existing viewports in the current database at the same time they change the defaults for
databases to be opened in the future. If this toggle is not enabled then no visual changes will occur and
the modification will only be visible when a new database is created.

Under Preferences – Graphics – Default


Background Color you can change the default
color and shading effects used for newly
created databases and existing viewports.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 5
Shaded Background Used For Non-MD Patran

How to Change The Background Effects of the Current


Viewport
The background color and shading of the current viewport (if multiple viewports are used, each viewport
can have a different background color and shading method) is controlled in two places. The main control
is under Viewport – Modify – Attributes. These settings are stored in the database and thus will persist
upon opening and closing the database.

A more user-friendly way to quickly control the background color is offered through the “Cycle
Background” 3-way toggle icon found on the Home ribbon, which may also be found on the Quick
Access Bar. Each time this icon is pressed the background will change from the current background
color, to black, to white and repeats. You can set this in Viewport – Modify, to black, to white.
6 Patran Release Guide
New GUI Skins

2.4 New GUI Skins

Overview
Patran’s graphical user interface (GUI) on Windows can now sport a new look and feel. New GUI skins
are available using the -skin command line argument:
%patran -skin <skin>
where the available skins are:
office2007 (default)
xproyale
xpluna
le5
vista
xptunes
The database content is independent of which GUI skin option is used, including the legacy Patran skin
(no -skin option used) so there is no problem switching skins on the same database between Patran
sessions. The desk top icon properties for invoking Patran can be edited to bring up Patran with the
desired skin.

Turn on skins by
using the -
skin option on
the command
line.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 7
New GUI Skins

Application Icon Ribbons


The new GUI skins provide for application icon ribbons allowing the user to avoid the normal
permutation of pull-down menus by providing easy-access ribbon toolbars populated with icon buttons.
Once selected the icon takes the user to the same application menu form they are accustomed to seeing,
thus there is no learning curve required. See picture below.

Used in conjunction with the new right mouse button (RMB) capabilities, these new GUI skins provide
the user with an exceptional experience. The tabs in the ribbon are equivalent to the legacy Patran GUI
skin’s applications. To open an application, click on the tab. To close an application, select another tab.
The Home tab will close any application currently open and show no tab application. The xptunes skin
(-skin xptunes):
8 Patran Release Guide
New GUI Skins

Application Menu Ribbon Groups Menus (tabs)

Application Menu Ribbons Provide Easy Access to


Functions Without Searching the Pull-Down Menus

Click on the
Application Ribbon
Icon to Bring up the
Application Form. A
double click will put
away the
application or bring
it back.

Icons Pull Up
Familiar Action –
Object – Method /
Type Menus
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 9
New GUI Skins

Some Ribbons Have Application Menu Ribbon Group


Sub-Menus With Pull-Down Options
10 Patran Release Guide
New GUI Skins

Quick Access Bar


In this new interface the standard toolbar has been replaced by the easily-customizable Quick Access Bar
(QAB). If you right-click on any of the icons on any of the ribbons you will see the option to add that
icon to the QAB. Most of the icons on the standard Patran toolbar are found on the Home tab.
Custom icons pointing to user-defined functions can be added using the p3toolbar.def menu file
located in the installation directory.

Only individual icons can be added to the quick access bar and remain persistent from session to session.
If you add an entire icon grouping or pulldown, it will remain only for the duration of the session.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 11
New GUI Skins

The office 2007 skin (-skin office2007):


12 Patran Release Guide
New GUI Skins

Skins Installation Options


During installation you will be asked if you want to use the new “Skinned” GUI or the “Classic” GUI.
The default will be set to the new “skinned” GUI so if you click through the installation and accept the
defaults you will get the new GUI.

During installation you must change


the Setup Type to “Classic” if you want
to use the traditional Patran user
interface.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 13
Native 64 Bit Port

2.5 Native 64 Bit Port


A production version of the native port to 64 bit Windows and Linux machines is now available. The
native 64 bit version of Patran can be installed from the installation disk. The 32 bit production version
is still available for both 64 and 32 bit machines as well as all other supported platforms.
Advantages of a native 64 bit Patran mainly include access to all available memory. On 32 bit machines,
the memory limitation is 2 gigabytes. The only limitation on 64 bit is the available memory of the
machine. This allows you to work with larger models in many aspects of the finite element modeling
process such as meshing and other modeling aspects.
It is possible to work with existing databases. An existing database created from a 32 bit version of Patran
will go through a porting process to enable it to be opened from the 64 bit version of Patran. A 64 bit
database can also be taken back to 32 bit via the porting process. Databases from other platforms should
first be converted up to the 2010 level on the original platform and then ported to the 32 bit version of
Patran and finally ported to 64 bit.
The following functionality is available on the Windows and Linux 64 bit port. Anything not listed here
is not yet available.
• Patran (core application)
• MSC Nastran Preference
• MD Nastran Preference
• MSC Marc Preference
• MSC Dytran Preference
• ABAQUS Preference
• ANSYS Preference
• LS-Dyna Preference
• Laminate Modeler
• Patran Thermal (P/Thermal)
• UG NX Access
• CAD Interfaces (Spatial InterOP access only)
• CATIA V4 / V5
• ACIS
• STEP AP203/209
• IGES
• I-DEAS

Tips and Tricks for Manipulating Large Models in Patran


• Set pdb_c_cache_size to amount (in bytes) of ram you want Patran to use (normally to get
maximum model size set this = total physical ram minus what OS needs).
14 Patran Release Guide
Native 64 Bit Port

• Make sure you have adequate swap space in case it is needed (often systems with large
amounts of ram assume that no swap space will be needed).
• If on a 32 bit windows system set 3 GB ram switch ON.
• Turn Free Face Only (Figure 2-1) Display mode under Display – Finite Elements to ON for
graphics display manipulation.
• Turn Entity and Highlight Labeling under Picking Preferences (Figure 2-2) OFF.

Figure 2-1 Turn Free Face Display ON


Chapter 2: General Enhancements 15
Native 64 Bit Port

Figure 2-2 Turn Entity Highlighting OFF


16 Patran Release Guide
SimManager R3 Integration on Linux

2.6 SimManager R3 Integration on Linux


Publish and retrieve Patran databases and other related analysis files directly from within Patran with the
SimManager R3 client, now directly accessible from the File pull down menu. Once the server
connection properties and settings are established you can easily communicate with SimManager. Once
logged on, you can publish, retrieve, and browse as well view connection properties and access the Web
Client. This capability is now available for Windows and Linux platforms only.

Can retrieve and then open


databases directly in
Patran.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 17
SimManager R3 Integration on Linux

The following variables need to be set or are asked to be set during installation in order to communicate
with the SimManager server. For more information on this, the user is directed to the SimManager
documentation.
SM_RICH_CLIENT_CONFIG_FILE <location of SmRichClt.properties file>
SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_HOST <host_name>
SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_PORT <port number>
SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_PROTOCOL http
SM_RICH_CLIENT_IC_WEBCONTEXT SimManager_R3
SM_RICH_CLIENT_ROOT <path>
Client access to a SimManager server via Patran is only supported on Windows and Linux machines. For
more information on setting these environment variables, please see Patran Environment Variables
(p. 52) in the Patran Installation and Operations Guide.
18 Patran Release Guide
Patran Help on the Web

2.7 Patran Help on the Web


For the Patran 2010 release, Patran’s context sensitive help is now on www.mscsoftware.com. The F1-
context sensitive help works the same as it does when you have it installed locally, but with no installation
required. To access the help, you will need to have an internet connection and access to
www.mscsoftware.com. If you do not have an internet connection, you can still install help locally on
your computer or network by downloading the help installer from the Solution Download Center at
http://mscsoftware.subscribenet.com (a user account is required) and installing help.

Several previous versions of the Patran context sensitive help are also on www.mscsoftware.com. If you
would like to use one of the previous versions you will need to edit your site_setup.pm or user_setup.pm
file and add the following:
On Windows:
setEnv('P3_HELP_DIRECTORY','http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_20
10/html_patran/');
On Windows you can also set your browser preference. For Example:
setEnv('P3_BRW_HELP','C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe');
On Unix/Linux:
setEnv P3_HELP_DIRECTORY
http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2010/html_patran/
On Unix/Linux you will also need to set your browser preference. For example:
setEnv P3_BRW_HELP firefox
Set the P3_BRW_HELP environment variable to your browser of choice.

Patran Version Environment Variable Setting


2010 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2010/html_patran/
2008r2 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2008r2/html_patran/
2008r1 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2008r1/html_patran/
2007 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2007/html_patran/
2005r3 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2005r3/html_patran/
2005r2 http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2005r2/html_patran/

If you would like to view the Patran 2010 help outside of Patran, you can access it using the following
link:
http://www.mscsoftware.com/patran/patran_2010/html_patran/wwhelp.htm
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 19
ABAQUS Preference Enhancements

2.8 ABAQUS Preference Enhancements


New features have been added to the ABAQUS Preference for Patran in this release. This includes the
ability to create pressure loads on 1D elements, support for inertial loads on 0D (point) inertia elements,
and support for new MPC types RBE2 and RBE3.

1D Pressure Elements
The ABAQUS preference now has support for the *DLOAD ABAQUS entry to create pressure loads on
1D elements. This will let you to put distributed loads on beam elements.

1D Pressure Loads are now supported in


Patran.
20 Patran Release Guide
ABAQUS Preference Enhancements

Inertia Loads on 0D (point) Elements


The ABAQUS preference now has support for inertial loading on 0D (point) elements using the
*DLOAD ABAQUS input entry. With this feature you can now apply inertial loading to lumped mass
elements for dynamic analysis.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 21
ABAQUS Preference Enhancements

Support for RBE2 and RBE3


The ABAQUS preference now has support for RBE2 and RBE3 equivalents using the ABAQUS
*KINEMATIC COUPLING and *DISTRIBUTING COUPLING entries.
22 Patran Release Guide
Auto Select Picking

2.9 Auto Select Picking


The Auto Select Feature on the LBC Application Region Form features an advanced entity picking
capability that will allows you to input criteria limiting the application region selected. For example, you
could select all horizontal faces in an area of your model.

In addition to this picking change the “Show Picking icons” toggle on the Preferences - Picking form is
now ON be default. This causes the “t” and “-” icons, which toggles between select/un-select, to show
up on the picking filter menu. This change was made because the right mouse button (RMB), which was
previously used to un-select entities, is now used to display the RMB menu used for model manipulation
and interaction. This toggle can be changed interactively and the status is saved/controlled by the
pick_mode_switch variable in settings.pcl.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 23
Shareware

2.10 Shareware
Shareware is found under the Utilities menu in Patran.

MechPat
Shareware to group geometric bodies in Patran and create Adams rigid bodies from them. Found under
Applications – Mechpat – Adams Rigid Body Builder.
24 Patran Release Guide
Shareware

FEM-Elements -Regular Cube Mesher 2


Support for loops has been added such that more elements can be created while using a smaller "Number
of Elements in Max Dim". This is beneficial for non-massive solids like hollow thick cylinders. Please
see the article in Simcompanion:
http://simcompanion.mscsoftware.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KB8018926
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 25
Shareware

Solid Sphere Mesher


Found in Shareware – Utilities - FEM-Elements -Create Solid Sphere and Hex Mesh By specifying a
radius and mesh seed, a Solid Sphere is created which is meshed with Hex8 elements. Please see the
article in Simcompanion:
http://simcompanion.mscsoftware.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KB8018925
26 Patran Release Guide
Shareware

Campbell Diagram Utility


The Campbell Diagram utility is found in the shareware under Utilities – Results – Campbell Diagram.
Chapter 2: General Enhancements 27
Customer Requests

2.11 Customer Requests


Many customer requests (CRs) were addressed in this release. These consist of defect corrections and
enhancement request. The following are significant customer requests or defects that were addressed that
may be of interest to users in addition to those that have already been referenced in previous
chapters/sections:

CR # Description
1-207017422 Results from only one of two subcases were being recognized when attaching a certain XDB file.
1-224541999 Patran was crashing when submitting a Marc contact analysis using a specific glued contact
configuration.
1-225675930 Stress results from SOL 400 Nastran job not loading into the database via an OP2 file.
1-214218661 SOL 400 auto detection of discontinuities option and feature angle not written to input file for
contact bodies.
1-209366561 Undefined TREF and GE values not written correctly on Nastran PCOMP entry - should be blank
and not zero.
1-73240931 No contact status results for glued contact visible from Master/DBALL file.
1-190723085 Setting the search order in glued contact table causes fatal Nastran error.
1-229666261 Initial load factor for adaptive load stepping not written correctly for Nastran NLAUTO entry.
1-201680911 PCL call ui_wid_get( file_id, "DIRNAME", dir_name ) failed for ui_file_create.
1-76537319 Nastran SOL 400, PCOMPLS - various problems corrected when writing this Nastran entry.
1-76524241
1-76524211
1-76524177
1-76524151
1-76524265
1-201681161 xplus_ideasp_env_setup.pm references incorrect Registry key and value for I-DEAS 12
1-201664504 Patran 64bit installer needs to install C++ redistributable run time for Windows 64 bit machines.
1-229241571 LS-DYNA3D translator failed on Windows 64 bit machines.
1-226511628
1-238894248 Large list boxes behaved differently on Unix where they are always shown in "Scrolled Down"
position. On Windows, the behavior is correct
1-78152616 After importing optimization results via OP2 file, unable to update the analysis model with new
optimized design varialbe data. This used to be available via modifying the design study,
selecting the design variable form, and then selecting the design cycle.
1-201184619 Patran crashed when reading in a certain bulk data files.
1-77732679 Cannot enter a negative non structural mass in Patran to adjust the mass.
1-51257236 Patran slow to plot stresses (when averaged by property).
1-201388666 Patran crashes when making graph vs. time of Abaqus ODB with multiple element types.
1-81107411 Patran can not plot stress tensor via Marc DRA (t16 file) access due to unsupported elements.
28 Patran Release Guide
Customer Requests

CR # Description
1-200507145 Patran higher then 2005r3 does not filter Load Cases for Loads/BCs Plot Contour.
1-204211401 Patran does not write weight constraint for topography optimization.
1-225741151 MSC.Explore update - support SOL 106 nonlinear results
1-226095761
1-228867342
1-239622301 In Patran 2009r1, the following PCL functions have been made available:
xy_window_location_get ( window_name, x, y )
xy_window_size_get( window_name, width, height )
First argument is a string and other arguments are reals.
1-79420181 Patran - External SE create - DMIGOP2 option not selectable.
1-21430771 Performance regression in ABAQUS input file reader.
23595 ABAQUS preference request to support inertia loads on 0D elements.
1-226510955 Patran Crashes extruding certain solids.
1-238125958 Switching to 3D:FullSpan beam display mode is very slow.
1-251149191 Patran - Tools/Properties Import appears not to work when attempting to create new properties.
1-252995071
1-251808281 Patran does not write NLMOTPS,TSHEAR,TSHEAR.
1-250846898 Regression in default values of T1/T2 fields of TEMPP1 Nastran entries.
1-252274151 Model disappears when displaying results under Design Study / Post Processing menu.
1-250623265 General Section (CBEAM) option writes out incorrect pin flags
1-253107416 sf_record PCL function in the PCL start up files causes duplicate session files.
1-250554091 Segmentation fault and traceback message after File-Quit Patran on some Linux configurations
(LX86).
1-251885801 Import bdf - Contact Distance Tolerance set to -9.9e+010 (should be blank)
1-250704310 Regression in reading certain ABAQUS fil result files.
39876 Save history lines disabled since Patran 2000r1 on Windows.
MSC.Fatigue Quick Start Guide

Index
Patran Release Guide

Numerics K
64 Bit Port, 4, 13 Key Highlights, 2

Index A L
ACIS, 6 LINUX, 5
AIX, 5 Load Steps, 2

C M
CAD Access, 2, 6 MD Nastran Preference, 3, 2
Catia V5, 2 Meshing, 4
InterOp, 2 MSC Nastran Preference, 3, 2
Parasolid, 2
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, 2 N
UG NX, 2 Nastran, 3, 2
CATIA V4, 6 Nonlinear Analysis, 3, 2
CATIA V5, 6
Customer Requests, 27
O
Operating systems, supported, 5
E
Enhancements, 2
P
Parasolid, 6
F patran help on the web, 4
File New/Open, 3 Platforms, supported, 5
Pro/ENGINEER, 6
G
GUI Skins, 4, 6 R
Red Hat, 5
H
Hardware, 5 S
Highlights, 2 SimManager Integration, 4, 16
HP, 5 Skins, 4, 6
SOL 400, 2
I Solaris, 5
IBM, 5 Steps, 2
I-DEAS, 6 Subcases, 2
Intel, 5 Sun, 5
Supported OS levels, 5
30 Patran Release Guide

Supported platforms, 5

U
Unigraphics, 6
Utilities, 4

W
Wildfire, 6
Windows, 5
Working Directory, 3

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