User Area

Software Release History - Version 14

Index | Version 14.7  | Version 14.6  |  Version 14.5  |  Version 14.4  |  Version 14.3  |  Version 14.2  |  Version 14.1  | Version 14.0

Improvements and New Facilities in Version 14.2

LUSAS Bridge LT and LUSAS Civil & Structural LT software products are now available. LUSAS LT versions have a reduced set of menu options and simplified dialogs containing only those features and options required for linear static analysis of 2D/3D frames and grillages. These new versions allow for rapid prototyping and provide an effective way of servicing a variety of analysis and design requirements whilst requiring a minimum of training of engineers on a single system.

• LT versions can operate alongside other LUSAS software products on the same network with different numbers of users to suit project needs.
• Models created in LT can be opened in Standard and Plus versions if more advanced analysis is required to be carried out. 
• Models and results files created in other LUSAS products can be edited and viewed in LT versions provided the model contains only those elements supported by LUSAS LT.

A software option for modelling the heat of hydration of concrete is now provided. The heat of concrete hydration can be computed during a thermo-mechanical coupled analysis and the temperatures and degree of hydration can be read into a structural analysis. 

A new example involving staged construction modelling and analysis of a dam is provided to illustrate the use of this new facility.

Beam stresses can now be plotted on beams as opposed to having to calculate and plot stress resultants on beams as in previous releases, and contours of both beam stresses and stress resultants can now be plotted on deformed or undeformed fleshed beam cross-sections. 

These new facilities allow for plotting just line contours on top of fleshed beams; mixing fleshed contours on beams with bar contours; or plotting full solid contour fleshing with lines and labels. 

A new concept of ‘fibre locations’ is used to define the positions on a beam section at which stress results should be calculated and diagrams plotted. 

Supplied standard section library components include pre-defined fibre locations at the extreme positions for all sections.

Creating tapering beams is now much simpler. Selecting the Attributes > Geometric > Line menu item now displays an all-inclusive Geometric Properties dialog that allows for definition of beam properties by selecting a beam type from a section library location, or by manually entering properties. 

• A Tapering option lets you specify properties for each end of the beam. 
• Beam alignment options allow for specifying vertical and horizontal alignments of one end from an other and for offsetting the beam ends (defining an eccentricity) from a nodal position.

Changes made to the way that the OPENGL system is used by LUSAS Modeller now give faster display speeds and faster dynamic rotation of large models. 

A configuration utility allows you to choose whether Hardware or Microsoft software OpenGL drivers are used. This is in addition to the hardware acceleration choices that are available from the troubleshooting pages of the advanced display properties in Windows that allow you to manually control the level of hardware acceleration and performance of your graphics hardware.

Load combinations and envelopes can now be defined at the time of building a model as well as when results processing. As a result, when the first combination or envelope is created for a model a new Combinations and envelopes options object is added to the loadcase Treeview. Double clicking on this entry displays a dialog that allows specification of which combination and enveloped component results should be calculated automatically straight after the model has been solved. 

Combination and envelope results created in this manner are saved (cached) in a new Modeller Results File (.mrs). This means that results do not have to be calculated for the same results component every time a combination or envelope is set active (as was done in previous versions) and this helps to provide faster display of contour and results plots.

Changes have been made to the way in which influence attributes are defined for use with influence analysis. A new menu command Attributes > Influence creates an influence definition as an assignable attribute, rather than a utility item, and, as a result, influence definitions now appear in the Attributes Treeview for assigning to your model data using the standard drag and drop technique. On the model, more than one influence point can be chosen at any one time and the influence attribute can be assigned to all at once. There is no need to manually select break-away elements, instead LUSAS now automatically determines the break-away elements to be used. Influence point visualisation is now switched ‘on’ by default and can be displayed as nodes and arrows indicating the direction of break-away elements or by nodes and symbols representing the same thing. If mesh spacing is changed following the definition of influence points all defined influence points are retained in the Treeview. Influence points that still coincide with nodal points are graphically highlighted as such in the Utilities Treeview and others that no longer sit over nodal points are also identified but with a different 'unassigned' symbol. Unused influence points can be deleted if required, or, if left, and the mesh spacing is subsequently changed again resulting in coincident influence points and nodes again they will be highlighted as such in the Treeview.

The Single Tendon Prestress Wizard now includes a Solid analysis type option. With this option discrete loading values are calculated for a selected tendon (that must be defined as a spline) and are then applied to the solid mesh elements in the model as equivalent nodal loads. 

• A LUSAS model may contain many tendons and the single tendon prestress wizard can be used separately on each to derive equivalent nodal loading on the mesh for all the tendons used. 
• The lines representing the tendon are not included in the final analysis model.
• Tendon alignment / realignment is, very usefully, independent of the underlying mesh arrangement.
  

3D CEB-FIP and creep has been implemented in 2D, 3D continuum elements, shells, continuum composite elements, and in beam elements that support quadrilateral cross-sections. 

The uniaxial Chinese Creep law has been implemented for all elements supported by the CEB-FIP creep law. In the Chinese creep law, shrinkage and swelling are not considered but this implementation of shrinkage in LUSAS will allow CEB-FIP shrinkage to be combined with the Chinese creep law if necessary to satisfy the requirements for the creep analysis of 3D structures like dams.

The existing range of joint models has been extended to include a number of seismic isolator joints. Viscous dampers, lead rubber bearings and friction pendulum systems can now be modelled.

A new installation wizard simplifies the installation of LUSAS and the loading of subsequent updates. It also simplifies installation of network licence software and allows for a mix of any number and type of licences to be used. 

An enhanced LUSAS configuration utility allows for easy licence key input and licence type detection.

LUSAS also now supports mixed licence types on a network licence.

Faster model displays

Changes made to the way that the OPENGL system is used by LUSAS Modeller now give faster display speeds and faster dynamic rotation of large models. 

Easier manipulation of models

The way that a model is dynamically rotated has been changed to use the 'model ball' method. With this method, a model can be imagined to be surrounded by a sphere such that a mouse-click and a drag of the cursor on the screen represents clicking on the surface of the sphere and dragging to rotate it to a new position. In doing so, it is important to note that the model rotation is restrained to rotate only around the model's vertical axis (as defined on the Vertical Axis dialog) - unless any model viewing shortcuts are being used at the same time. The main benefit of this approach is that, no matter where on the screen you click to start the rotation of your model, if you return the mouse pointer to the same spot, (whilst you are dynamically rotating the model), the model will return to its original position and orientation on the screen.

Rotation, zoom and pan model manipulations are now applicable to all cursor input modes. This means that, for example, with the correct mouse button clicks, lines can be drawn from one point to another whilst dynamically panning, zooming or rotating the model.

View / Model axis

The view / model axis has been re-styled and colour-coded.

New facility: User-Defined Startup Templates

It is now possible to create customised startup templates by recording a sequence of commands such as setting default mesh divisions, materials, preferred screen colours etc. and saving them in an automatically generated VB script for re-use when using the New Model dialog.

Version 14.2 includes extended virtual memory settings for Modeller and Solver first made available for use in V14.1-2.

Country-specific enhancements