SIMTEQ Newsletter February 2024

Introduction
Events
Product of the month
The art of engineering
New releases
Tips & Training

When we started sending out monthly newsletters as SIMTEQ Engineering five years ago, it seemed like a straightforward task. Sending only one newsletter a month with highlights and useful information to our users. In reality, so much occurs daily that it has become a genuine challenge to select just the highlights for you!

Unfortunately, registrations for our annual Go-kart Day are now closed. However, if you've registered to attend, we're eagerly anticipating seeing you on the race track on the 16th of March 2024. Spectators are still welcome, so get in touch if you'd like to join us, witness some rubber burning and enjoy some good old-fashioned team rivalry.

This month, we feature "Romax Concept", your go-to for designing any gearbox or driveline system. If you think it's easier with Excel, you haven't tried Romax Concept yet. Moreover, Excel can't determine the anticipated lifespan, efficiency or vibration characteristics of your concept.

With the 2024 Formula 1 season kicking off, we thought it fitting to stick to the topic of speed in our Art of Engineering feature. We cover how students managed to build the world's fastest acceleration car, achieving 0 to 100 km/h in 0.956 seconds! For reference, an F1 car does that in 2.5 seconds. Let that sink in!

Don't forget about the new software releases of this month (Digimat, FTI FormingSuite, MSC Nastran, MSC Apex, MSC Apex Generative Design and Adams Modeler). Also, check out the next scheduled training courses (Cradle CFD, Adams, Apex CAD Cleanup) and our ever-popular MSC Apex trick of the month.

See you on the race track!

Please take a few minutes to complete our online form to attend as a Spectator.

Regards
Managing Director

Our Annual Go-kart Day

SIMTEQ Engineering hosts an Annual Go-kart Day. since 2022 In the past, lucky draws from our Users Conference determined the grid.

This year, we have opened it up for everyone who is interested in adrenaline and a little bit of good competition. 

It is also an excellent event to catch-up and network with fellow engineers outside of the office. This year's event will happen on the 16th of March at Kartzone, Zwartkops.

See you in the pits!
Benefit from our industry-leading experts, ensuring training from the top professionals in the field and hands-on experience with superior engineering simulation software and CAE tools.

Our team offers technical support across diverse sectors, ensuring optimal training, from aerospace to consumer goods. Our courses accommodates both students and professionals aiming to excel in Finite Element Analysis and the analysis of practical systems.

Seize the opportunity to accelerate your engineering career into the next level.

On Campus Training

Romax Concept

With a new drivetrain design, where do you start? How do you evaluate all the options and possibilities within an acceptable timeframe? The answer is simple: Romax Concept.

Romax Concept allows you to quickly generate and simulate drivetrain models to anticipate factors such as lifespan, efficiency, vibration, cost, dimensions, and weight, enabling informed decision-making and optimal design selection in the early stages of the development of your drivetrain.
Conventional methods traditionally used for calculations in the concept phase can be cumbersome and prone to errors. They also struggle or are incapable of conveying the intricate kinematics associated with a design. This is where Romax Concept comes in.

Romax Concept gives you access to a range of analyses to perform on your design. As with all Romax products, Romax Concept considers the complete system holistically, not just one component at a time. This allows the complex interactions between all the components, be those deflections, loads, stresses and/or misalignments to be taken into account during calculations.

Some of the analyses offered by Romax Concept are:

• Bearing stiffness calculations
• Durability rating calculations
    o ISO 6336 for spur and helical gear load capacity,
    o ISO 281 for rolling element bearing life,
• Noise, vibration and harshness
• Efficiency assessment
• Cost calculations

Once you have completed your design iteration process with Romax Concept you can move on to the rest of the Romax portfolio, which will give you more in-depth capability for design, durability, NVH and efficiency.

Anything is possible!

Students develop and build a car that does 0-100 in 0.956 seconds.

“This car does 0-100 km/h in  0.956 seconds! A Formula 1 car does it in about 2.5 seconds while the fastest production car, the Rimac Nevera, will do it in 1.7 seconds.”

With the 2024 Formula 1 season kicking off in the month of February we saw it fitting to stick to the topic of speed!

A group of students from the Swiss university, ETH Zurich, used a plethora of simulation and optimization tools to build the fastest accelerating car the earth has ever seen… In the following video one of the students responsible for designing this pocket-rocket, Eloi Roset, elaborates on how the team went about building a car that has enough power to propel the car to record-setting speeds, enough traction to transfer the burst of power to the wheels and a chassis that is strong enough to handle the immense loads and torque produced when accelerating at more than 27 m/s².

Digimat 2023.4

Digimat 2023.4 is now available at the Software Download Center.

Key highlights from this release include:

  • A refreshed platform that offers a direct access to our suite, encompassing Digimat tools and solutions, Nexus platform and Material apps.
  • Digimat-MS to perform Multiscale Simulations in a unique environment, including workflows for mapping and generating interface files as Digimat-MAP and Digimat-CAE are withdrawn from the platform.
  • An extensive set of capabilities to increase the modelling accuracy and understanding of cemented carbides in Digimat-FE. 

Click here to learn about What’s New in Digimat 2023.4.

 

Forming Suite 2023.4

FormingSuite 2023.4 is now available at the Software Download Center.

Some of the FTI FormingSuite 2023.4 highlights include the following:

Improved Regeneration for Line Die Plan Workflow

  • What is it? Improved regeneration for Lie Die Plan workflow when minor changes are made.
  • What is in it for you? Regeneration will no longer update to automatic settings, keeping user edits.  Users will no longer have to edit the process after minor changes.

Symmetry Option in Create Addendum Function

  • What is it? A new symmetry option has been added within the blank definition workbench for partial addendum creation.
  • What is in it for you? This option allows users to quickly and efficiently add partial addendum to model the true manufacturing process improving cost estimates.

Hole & Notch Filling/Unfilling for Intermediate Geometry

  • What is it? Added hole and notch filling/unfilling function to intermediate geometry.
  • What is in it for you? Improves accuracy for process planning and costing by improving the users’ ability to model the true manufacturing process.

Option To Include or Exclude Stresses/Strains in Result Export Files

  • What is it? Stresses and strains from forming, springback, and incremental results can be exported in ARC and MOD files.
  • What is in it for you? CAE results can be exported for use in downstream simulations.

Line Die Plan in Automated Costing System (ACS)

  • What is it? Line Die Plan (LDP) has been introduced into ACS enabling automated tool costing for transfer and tandem dies.
  • What is in it for you? Automated tool costing is now available for transfer and tandem dies.

Click here to learn about What’s New in Forming Suite 2023.4.

 

MSC Nastran 2023.4

The newest version of MSC Nastran is now available in the Software Download Center.

Click here to learn about What’s New in MSC Nastran 2023.4.

You won’t want to miss MSC Nastran 2023.4, which introduces new capabilities and high-performance computing updates to improve your productivity and speed up analysis times.

Here’s an overview of what you can look forward to in MSC Nastran 2023.4

Virtual SEA

  • Now you can account for fluid cavities in addition to structures when analysing high frequencies with Virtual SEA.

Rotordynamics

  • SOL 128 adds robustness improvements that make it easier to certify products for engine blade-out and windmilling

High-performance computing enhancements

  • Take advantage of ACMS performance improvements for improved runtimes and reduced memory requirements
  • Use MUMPS for SOL 105 buckling analysis and SOL 103 Normal Modes
  • Leverage the latest MUMPS version with the newest version of MSC Nastran
  • Get improved performance for real coupled modes

Productivity improvements

  • Improved performance in the presence of large RBE3 elements
  • Automatically add 456 degrees of freedom to the RBE3 reference grid
  • Enhanced ACMODL coupling algorithm for more accurate results 

Download MSC Nastran 2023.4 to take advantage of these improvements. Want to check out past updates or find documentation? Visit our SimCompanion page.

MSC Apex 2023.3

MSC Apex 2023.3 is now available at the Software Download Center.

You won’t want to miss MSC Apex 2023.3, which introduces shrink-wrap meshing capabilities and tighter integration with MSC Nastran to improve your productivity.

Here’s an overview of what you can look forward to in MSC Apex 2023.3

User interface and meshing enhancements

  • Use shrink-wrap for acoustic purposes, meshing to generate a mesh across an assembly of parts.

Additional MSC Nastran pre-processing capabilities

  • Visualise MSC Nastran property assignments with the property view

MSC Nastran post-processing enhancements

  • Attach MSC Nastran H5 for better performance over importing
  • Support additional MSC Nastran outputs for existing solution sequences

Automation and Customisation

  • Minor automation and customisation improvements enhance productivity and workflow efficiency

Click here to learn about What’s New in MSC Apex 2023.3.

 

MSC Apex Generative Design 2023.3

MSC Apex Generative Design 2023.3 is now available at the Software Download Center.

Here are the key highlights, you can find more details in the What’s New information

  • Optimize first eigenfrequency
    • MSC Apex Generative Design can now also optimize for the first eigenfrequency to increase it above a certain threshold while generating an optimized lightweight design at the same time. In this context, point masses are also supported.(Additional MSC Nastran installation and license required)
  • Minimum thickness
    • This feature is currently only available via Advanced User Settings and allows for stating a minimum thickness of the generated structures.
  • New support reduction strategy
    • Given Supervoxel technology and the reworked optimization algorithm, the support reduction for additive manufacturing was also entirely overhauled and improved.
  • Reworked optimization algorithm
    • The completely reworked optimization algorithm makes use of our new Supervoxel technology and enables design rules for other manufacturing technologies in future. Stay tuned!
  • Backend: Supervoxel technology
    • The development of our new backend technology “Supervoxel” combines high resolution geometry representation with reasonable FE complexity. Supervoxel is now activated and automatically used by the software as a standard technology.

Update to MSC Apex Generative Design 2023.3 and benefit from the new features that improve your daily work!

Click here to learn about What’s New in MSC Apex Generative Design 2023.3.

Adams Modeler 2023.4

Adams Modeler 2023.4 is now available at the Software Download Center.

Click here to learn about What’s New in Adams 2023.4.

Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence is pleased to announce that Adams Modeler 2023.4 will soon be available for download. The Adams Modeler 2023.4 release provides the follow key features:

Animations of Force Vectors

Ability to display component force vectors in post environment and animate over time

Vector Direction Toggle

For objects definitions that require orientation vectors, provide the ability to flip the direction relative to the feature selected.

Import density with CAD data

For imported CAD parts that contain a density setting, apply density to Motion parts.

Enhanced Simulation Script Window

Adjustable windows size, and colorized terms for a more an improved user experience.

Model Verify Shortcut in Simulation Menu

Provide the Model Verify shortcut on the Simulation Menu

Visualize solver object IDs in Model Browser

Display underlying Adams Solver IDs for Parts, Joints, Force, Interfaces, etc in the model browser.

Change the MNF file path!

Provide the ability to adjust the location of where an external MNF resides on disk (from Flex body properties area).

SIMTEQ Engineering Webinar
Contact and Everything That you Need to Know About it
7 October 2022
11:30 - 12:30

Contact and Everything
That you Need to Know About it

Registration
MSC Apex Tip
Have you ever entered a mesh size and realized that you’ve requested a 1mm mesh for a 10m structure?
Adding insult to injury, this usually happens under an increased workload and you have to wait a significant amount of time for the part to be meshed.

Only to delete/undo it all again, MSC Apex can help you to avoid that.
When meshing a new part in MSC Apex, it is useful to know that you can enter a 0 (zero) in the “Mesh Size” dialogue box.

Don’t worry - entering 0 mm will not provide you with an infinite number of elements.
However, it will provide the user with a descent size mesh to start with from which you can elaborate.

Once this automatic mesh size is created, you can review the mesh size by hovering over the part and pressing <Space Bar>.

This will open a dialogue box which will show the current mesh size and can also be used to modify it to your preference and mesh quality.

Seasoned FEA engineers always find the fine balance between a quality mesh and the number of finite elements. Always remember that the quality of your mesh has a significant impact and influence on your results.

Contact us for more information and tricks on MSC Apex and FEA applications.
Training

ADM701 - Complete Multibody Dynamics Analysis with Adams
- 6 Days

Software Package: Adams View

Price: R 23 100.00/p excl VAT (A 25% discount applies if attendance is online)

Students and lecturers: R 23 100.00/p excl VAT

Date: 09 April - 24 April 2024

Duration: 5 Days

CPD Accredited: Yes

More Information
Registration

APX101 - MSC Apex CAD Cleanup & Meshing - 3 Days

Software Package: Apex

Price: R 11 500.00/p excl VAT (A 25% discount applies if attendance is online)

Students and lecturers: R 1 150.00/p excl VAT

Date: 17 April - 19 April 2024

Duration: 3 Days

CPD Accredited: Yes

Registration

FEA101 - Finite Element Analysis Fundamentals
- 6 Days

Software Package: MSC Apex

Price: R 23 100.00/p excl VAT (A 25% discount applies if attendance is online)

Students and lecturers: R 2 310.00/p excl VAT

Date: 07 May - 08 May 2024

Duration: 5 Days

CPD Accredited: Yes

More Information
Registration

STU701 - Structural Mechanics
- 2 Days

Price: R 7 700.00/p excl VAT (A 25% discount applies if attendance is online)

Students and lecturers:R 7 700.00/p excl VAT

Date: 28 May - 29 May 2024

Duration: 2 Days

CPD Accredited: Yes

More Information
Registration
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