New Compensator Functionalities and Improvements

Version 2008.1 introduces the following enhancements to the Compensator commands.

• Computation in mirror mode
• New curvature (G2) constraint available in Preserving Curves
• New Check Symmetry command
• New Extract Small Curvature-Radius Zones command
• New Load Mesh command
• New measurement tool to compute distances between two entities
• Enhancements in the Extract Points command

Computation in mirror mode

In the Process Compensator and Identify Displacement Field commands, you can now work based on the displacement field symmetry.

• If a symmetry is there, by selecting the displacement field symmetry option you are ensured the final Global Model deformation will be a symmetric one.
• You can also set the symmetry option to run the computation on either half or on the entire displacement field and be sure to obtain the result relative to the entire displacement field.
• A check tool is available to detect symmetries in meshes (see "New Check Symmetry command"). Once a symmetry is detected, you can use the symmetry option to ensure the result is symmetric.

To activate the symmetry method, select the Symmetry check box.
 

New curvature (G2) constraint available in Preserving Curves

In the Process Compensator and Identify Displacement Field commands, you can now manage also curvature (G2) continuity along groups of curves to be preserved. Once the Preserving Curves check box is selected, in the Constraint drop-down list you can now select one of the following:

• Keep position (G0)
• Keep position + tangent (G1)
• Keep position + tangent + curvature (G2).

New Check Symmetry command

The new Check Symmetry command (  ) enables you to detect symmetry conditions in a selected mesh entity. Once a symmetry condition has been detected, the use of the Process Compensator and Identify Displacement Field commands can ensure a symmetric computation along with symmetric results (see "Computation in mirror mode"). See the command description in the online help for further details.

New Extract Small Curvature-Radius Zones command

The Extract Small Curvature-Radius Zones command (  ) enables you to clean the displacement fields so as to retain only areas with small radius of curvature.

The results of the command, on applying it, are two ASCII files named "extractCurvRadius_driving_thr_num.pt and "extractCurvRadius_depending_thr_num.pt in the temporary folder of your machine (thr is the current value of the Min. Curvature Radius Threshold and num is a progressive number for successive save operations. The files contain the coordinates of the extracted points.
See the online help for a complete description.

New Load Mesh command

The Load Mesh command (  ) enables you to load mesh entities from Finite Element Analysis files that can be selected in a specific file selection box. Once loaded using this command, meshes can be used in Compensator commands.

The supported FEM file formats are the following:

• Nastran^TM (".nas")
• Autoform (".af").

New measurement tool to compute distances between two entities

The new Two-Entity Distance Map command (ToolsInfoTwo-Entity Distance Map) is now available. It enables you to compute the distance between two entities that can be meshes, surfaces and curves, providing result in form of a graph and of a color map. See the online help for details.

Enhancements in the Extract Points command

Starting from this version the Extract Points command applies also to meshes. In the Points drop-down list you can select: