AutoFlex Manager for ADAMS/View

An AutoFlex Manager for automating the creation and replacement of an existing part in ADAMS/View is now available. Previously, similar functionality was available only in ADAMS/Car.

To access the AutoFlex Manager:

1. Load the ADAMS/AutoFlex plugin.

2. In ADAMS/View, from the Tools menu, select AutoFlex Manager.

Support for MSC.Nastran 2004

It is now possible to export a Nastran input file (BDF) that is compatible with MSC.Nastran 2004 for MNF generation.

Documentation Improvements

AutoFlex Documentation Improvement

The AutoFlex documentation was updated to explain the new features. The tutorials in the guide, Getting Started Using ADAMS/AutoFlex, were also updated to show the new option for Closest Number of Slave Nodes and the new method to replace a rigid body with a flexible body.

Overall Documentation Improvements

For MSC.ADAMS 2005, we've made improvements to the MSC.ADAMS help:

• Added global search so you can search across the entire set of MSC.ADAMS help. To access the global search, do one of the following:

  • At the top of the help, select Switch Products, and then select the Search tab.

  • In any product, select the Search tab, and then in the window that appears, select Global Search.

  Note that the global search does not include any .pdfs (including getting started guides and ADAMS/Driver).

• Removed any hardcoding of font sizes so you can scale the text of the help to any size. Please note that many of the equations do not scale because they are images, and the help looks the best when viewed with medium (or 100%). In addition, your browser will print the text the same size as it is displayed.

• Documented many of the environment variables for the products to help customize your session. The environment variables are for ADAMS/Controls, ADAMS/Durability, ADAMS/Flex, ADAMS/Solver, ADAMS/View, and the template-based products (ADAMS/Aircraft, ADAMS/Car, ADAMS/Driveline, ADAMS/Rail). For more information, see the Running and Configuring help.

Replace Part uses New Swap Rigid for Flexible Body Capability

The Replace Part capability in ADAMS/AutoFlex has been modified to use the new and improved feature of swapping a rigid body for a flexible body in ADAMS/View. Interface parts are no longer created at connections to the flexible body.

Truck Frame Builder Replacement

The Truck Frame Builder in ADAMS/Car has been replaced by the AutoFlex Assembler.

42958 - Submodel Name in Flex Body, MNF and MTX Names

The subsystem name prefix is no longer included in naming the flexible body when you replace a part using the AutoFlex Manager for vertical products. The subsystem name is included in the .mnf and .mtx file names to prevent file naming conflicts when a part template is referenced more than once in an assembly.

42960 - Strategy for Flexible Body Creation in Standard Interface Mode

All flexible bodies created in standard interface mode are saved in the vertical product database instead of the current working directory, and their names becomes simply fb[lrs]_<rigid_part_name>. A different strategy is used for naming the MNF to avoid conflicts between different subsystems. The MNF is named <subsystem_name>_fb[lrs]_<rigid_part_name>.

40618 - Support for Broken Symmetry in Vertical Products

Flexible body updates after parameter modifications now support a broken symmetry option in vertical products models.

40706 - Overwrite Check for MNF in Symmetric Models

When creating an MNF for symmetric models in vertical products such as ADAMS/Car, a check is performed for both left and right objects. If an existing file is found for either object, you only have the option to overwrite both objects.

28739, 45244, 43993, 41894 - Improved Mesh Generation of Shells and Solids

Mesh generation has been improved so that a higher success rate in flexible body generation is now possible for imported shell or solid geometry with some imperfections. Duplicate vertices, zero edge lengths or zero area facets are now handled correctly during mesh generation.

42038 - Ignore Design Points During Geometry Check

A check for valid part geometry for mesh generation now ignores polylines and design points. Previously, only outline geometry was being ignored.

45330 - Flexible Body Not Aligned with Geometry

In the case of a part with shell geometry that references a marker with an offset to the model origin, a flexible body is now generated in the correct position.

45331 - Ground and Attachments Are Not Found

The Find Attachments button now works for models with a ground part that is not named ground.

28996 - Selecting Many Mesh Nodes in Sphere or Cylinder Intersection

The performance of selecting many mesh nodes that intersect with a sphere or cylinder for attachment has been improved.

41228 - Lots More Nodes Retained for Flex Body on UNIX Platforms

A problem with retaining lots more nodes for a flexible body generated from ADAMS/Engine or ADAMS/View Parasolid geometry has been resolved. This problem resulted in significantly larger MNF file sizes. This was only a problem on UNIX platforms.