2006-08-20 New version
0.7.1
Bugs and features:
- More than 1000% faster node sorting during
initialization
- 25% faster solution speed for the solver
- Axis also in OpenGL view. Always positioned on
rotation center.
- Selected filenames shown in window header.
- Impact remembers the directory from latest session.
- Spline curve now fits properly to points (if this
option is selected)
- Improved nodal distribution on curve
Please submit any new bugs on the wiki.
Impact will attend the SIMDI06
conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. Meet us there!
2006-07-10 New version
0.7.0
Several bugs fixed in this
release:
- The start/stop of solutions from the GUI should now
work much better
- The optimizing features are now back in the GUI
again, but on a separate tab
- Vastly improved error handling.
- A surface can now be created from mixed arc &
spline curves
- The preset view buttons work in the OpenGL
accelerated view
- General cleanup of code
The Wiki
has been updated by Al'be:do and Jonas. There is a new chapter on
time step control which has been requested by several users since this
is the most common source of errors.
The bugfix parade will continue for another release so keep sending in
bugs. You can report them here. It is really
easy and requires no log in or registration.
2006-06-25 New version
0.6.9
Several bugs fixed in this
release:
- Models does now display properly in the solver
window (GL accelerated)
- Mesh quality for the unstructured mesh has been
improved
- Corrected tooltips
- The use of ClusterGUI has been depreciated due to
issues with JavaParty on windows as well as compilation issues. Use
command line Cluster.sh and Cluster.bat instead if you want to solve in
a cluster.
- For computers with several cores or CPU:s, the SMP
model now works again. Selecting 2 or more CPU:s should improve
solution time.
- The Zoom All button works correctly now
and the selection model has been improved.
- Solver has reduced priority to make GUI run better
when a solution is in progress.
A new wiki has been
set
up where you Impact users can add your tips and documentation.
Some very nice tutorials have been designed by Kumar and al'be:do. Many
thanks gentlemen!
http://www.caelinux.com hosts a complete distribution with open source
finite element software. Impact is included and there is a forum for
discussing the Impact program there.
In addition, you are most welcome to join in the discussion of file
format standardisation there. Impact will add interfaces to read and
export to this format when the discussion concludes.
Bugfix will now contunue for the next release. Let us know if you find
any.
Enjoy!
2006-05-27 New version
0.6.8
This release took some time,
but it involves a new stage for Impact.
By using hardware bindings from the JoGL project
(http://jogl.dev.java.net), the graphics will now be much faster
providing you have a graphics card which supports OpenGL.
The release is not complete, there is more to be done and some
functions are not implemented yet, but it would be appreciated if you
try it out and give us some feedback.
Start the new graphics by running the ImpactGL.sh file (for Unix and
Apple) or ImpactGL.bat (for Windows). The release includes support for
these three platforms but more is available. Contact us if you have
special needs.
The documentation has been updated for the English version.
Finally, Yuriy is working on the optimizer. We have disabled that part
of the solver in this release and will enable it again when his new
code arrives.
Enjoy!
2006-04-02 Reshuffling of
version contents
First of all, thanks
for the feedback on the UNA solver!
We are approaching the end of 0.6 branch and it is clear that some
focus is needed on stabilization and bug fixing of the code rather than
adding more features at this point. Therefore some changes including
speed optimization has been moved to another branch.
I had the opportunity of using Impact for a real world case and
although the modelling, solving and analysis went well, several bugs
revealed themselves in the GUI which was quite annoying.
/Jonas
2006-03-28 Finding the
UNA solver
I recieved a mail
regarding another FE code (UNA). If there is anyone of you Impact users
who know about this code and where to obtain a version of it or how to
contact any of the authors, please mail me (Jonas) and I will forward
this information to the sender of the mail.
Thanks
2006-03-25 Bugs in
ImpactOpt
Excellent user
feedback by Jens Bomholt has
highlighted issues with the ImpactOpt
feature.
We are on it. Please be patient. There will be a bugfix release.
/Jonas
2006-03-21 Impact
0.6.7
released
This release is
dedicated to a new module that Yuriy has written. ImpactOpt will enable
you to optimize the geometry of your design. The picture below says it
all:
You can run the optimization from the GUI (new module added to the
solver part) or from the command line as follows:
java -Xmx1000m -cp .;doc;bin;Impact.jar run.ImpactOpt
steps=20
ignore.stress(i)=35 examples/optimization.in
Some of the icons are not operational at this stage but will come later.
Enjoy!
2006-02-28 Impact
0.6.6
released
Several new commands
and goodies in this
release.
- The cluster
solver is now back again. It can only
be run from the command line at this time (cluster.sh).
- Improved icons
in preprocessor
- Project point
onto curve or surface orthogonal
- Project point
onto curve or surface in vector direction
- The spline can
fit the curve to the selected points
- Tetrahedron
4-node solid element can be defined and viewed
- Bug fixes in
loading .impact files
Remeber to give us
some feedback if you find any bugs.
While you are here, why not give us a rating?
Keep well!
2006-02-11 Impact
0.6.5.mca
released
This is not a full
release due to a number of reasons, but still we release it for your
pleasure :-)
The recent changed revealed a weakness in the build process for the
cluster version meaning that this release does not contain a working cluster version.
For this, we recommend you stay with the 0.6.5 release.
- Solver now
parses large problems much faster and with progress feedback
- A new material
TermoelastoPlastic has been added
- stl function has
been improved
- File menus are
improved for all GUI parts
- Documentation
update
- Bugfixes when
writing .in file from preprocessor
Finally, there is a
possibility that Impact will be included in Software Developer's Journal
CD, so keep your eyes open and buy a copy if you get a chance.
Enjoy!
2006-01-20 Impact
0.6.5
released
This release contains
mainy contributions from Yuriy and his team.
- Examples are now
summarized in a web page (in the examples section) - thanks Galina
- Spash screen
- stl function has
been reviewed and improved
- Points can be
generated by intersecting curves or a curve with a surface
Enjoy!
2006-01-05 Impact
0.6.4.mca
released
Not at 0.6.5, but I
thought a mid cycle action was needed.
This release contains
many bugfixes and speedups:
- Selection is now
multitudes faster since the tree does not expand automatically.
- The boundary
button now supplies all boundary curves on a surface
- Delaunay
triangulation mesh of surfaces is slightly improved (still not OK)
- Objects selected
in the tree can easily be erased with the delete button
- Clearer visual
of selected objects
- Triangle
surfaces now possible including rotated surfaces
- Reversed
direction option when creating some of the surfaces
There is a video (3MB)
of how to use the preprocessor available for download.
It shows some of the features as well as the principle on how to create
geometry and mesh. For some reason the quality is really bad, so please
overlook this.
Should anyone be interested in creating a video for Impact users, let
me know (or just send one in).
Finally, a team member has reported susipcios results using the
Shell_C0_3 element. Be careful when using it in your models until we
have this sorted out!
Keep well!
2005-12-20 Impact 0.6.4
released
I had a chat with
Santa and he urged me to get a new release out before christmas. I
guess it could be concidered a present to someone :-)
It is far from perfect and I suspect you will find quite a few bugs in
it but please - let me know and I'll have a look at it. The release
includes:
- Bugfixes in the
GUI (Rotation, Pan etc now works on OSX)
- A new Coons
patch surface. Very powerful
- Delaunay
triangulation mesh of surfaces
- Extraction of
boundaries (points or curves)
- Faster rotation
if you put stuff away in hide
Please don't blame me
for the new ugly Icons. I don't have the skill on this like Yuriy.
Hopefully we'll get this sorted out when Yuriy returns in the game.
A really - really merry christmas to you all Impact users across the
globe!!
/Jonas
2005-10-18 Slow progress
Impact development is
currently very slow. In effect, Jonas is the only active developer at
this time and his available time for Impact is at a minimum.
If you want faster progress, please concider joining the team as a
developer. There are many areas open for improvement.
Welcome!
2005-09-23 Impact 0.6.3
released
Lots of bugfixes and
additional features in this one including:
- Bugfixes in the
GUI
- A new show/hide
feature
- Bugfixes in the
solver rod_2 inertia calculation
- GUI reshuffle
& cleanup
- Faster box
select on large models
- Zoom all through
middle mouse button
Enjoy!
2005-09-04 Impact goes
public
Impact will
participate in SIMDI - Simulation
and Data Intensive Fair, Gothenburg, Sweden
We will be present with a poster and personnel will be on place on
Wednesday afternoon. Poster material available here and here.
2005-08-25 Version 0.6.2
released
Work on the
preprocessor continues but also a sleigh of bugfixes in this release.
Much of it based on input from you users. Thanks - keep the tips coming
in!
- Extrusion and
Revolve commands now produce more accurate geometry when arcs are used
(further improvements to come later)
- Pictures can now
be written from the postprocessor on ALL platforms (not only windows).
PNG picture format are used instead of JPEG which was used previously.
Thanks to catcode
for the library.
- Collapsed quad
elements generated by the preprocessor are automatically converted to
triangles
- Faster mesh
generation when adding a curve or surface in preprocessor
The GUI was tested by
users and got very bad reviews. Therefore a significant effort has been
made in trying to improve user friendliness. Windows standard has been
implemented:
- Rotation is now made with Right Mouse Button
in combination with SHIFT and CTRL keys
- CTRL selection of elements
- Box selection of elements
- Auto fill-in of selection in fields
The GUI should now
have better user friendliness. Please give us feedback on this
new approach!
In addition - a few
more tweaks are made on the GUI. You figure out where :-)
al'be:do is planning to
contribute a useful tool to Impact:
"I'm working on a python
script for fast and easy commandline tool with
textfile output of periodic properties (forces, accelerations,
movements etc.).
The goal is that you can simply
define the properties and the mode of
periodicity (sinusodial, sawtooth, impulse etc.) at a given precision
(time and space and the program produces a plain text file with the
result. Now you don't have to hack in complicated movements or force
changes manually any more. Simply cut and paste the text string into
your *.in-file ans start the calculation.
If you have any suggestions,
just tell me.
Planned waveform cycle
modes: sinus/cosinus, saw rising, saw falling,
square with definable ratio, triangle, white noise
Planned one shot modes: square
pulse, sin^2, soft pulse"
A first version of the program is available for download here.
Impact team has been extended with further personnel
Ahmet Alper Parker who will act as a
scientific advicer. Ahmet is currently in a thesis stage of an
Earthquake engineering master.
Richard Horton has joined the team as an official tester. This brings
important feedback on "sharp case" use of Impact.
Welcome Richard and Ahmet!
2005-07-21 Version 0.6.1
released
Releasing this version
due to vacation - i.e. no work for a while.
Some bugs remain in the works with the most noticeable being that
extrusion of arcs are not 100% correct. It is however quite usable
apart from this. The release includes:
- Selection now
possible by picking directly on the geometry!
- Extrusion is
more accurate - rotating the section according to spine tangent
- Bugs in the move
and rotate command has been fixed
Overall, the
preprocessor is now starting to feel good. Much more to come in the
near future.
Have a nice summer!
2005-07-12 Version 0.6.0
released
First version of the
0.6 branch is a final cleanup of the 0.5 branch. The stage is now set
for further optimization and creating a simple but robust preprocessor.
This release includes:
- Center of
rotation of the view can be set
- The model can be
rebuilt with a simple button press
- Objects in the
preprocessor model can be duplicated
- The Arc command
now accepts negative angles
- The solver has
been verified
The team has been
joined by Tjepke Heeringa who will contribute as a developer.
Welcome Thepke!
Have a nice summer!
2005-07-05 Version 0.5.9
released
More bug fixing in
this release but also some new features. The pre-processor is now
restored to it's previous state before the new nurbs-engine and simple
models can now be created. Here are the highlights:
- A surface can
now be ruled between two curves (of any shape)
- Saving of models
(.impact) now works again (broken from 0.5.7).
- Line, Pline and
Spline has been combined into a single powerful curve command.
- Many different
bug fixes in the pre-processor (many introduced in 0.5.7)
An upgrade is well
recommended.
2005-06-16 Version 0.5.8
released
This release has
concentrated on bug fixing. The following has been updated:
- Element fracture
& deletion now works in example 3.in (and other problems with C0_3
elements)
- .in export of
models from the preprocessor has been restored (broken in 0.5.7)
- Revolved surface
from a cuve around an axis has been re-implemented
- Nodes can be
merged before export of .in file is made
- A few error
messages has been corrected
- Beautification
and bug correction on some pre-processor menus
A requested prevention
of tree reset when using modification commands in the preprocessor has
been noted but proved more difficult to implement than initally
assumed. Concider this work in progress for now :-)
An upgrade is
recommended. Let us know if you find more bugs.
Keep well
2005-06-06 Version 0.5.7
now released
A redesign was made of
the pre-processor internals. This will enable more complex CAD and mesh
features in the future. At the moment, not all commands have been
re-implemented but this will be fixed before 0.6 branch starts. A new
Arc command has also been added to the preprocessor.
Documentation has been updated regarding the cluster version of the
solver.
No other changes in this release.
Work now continues with several bugfixes supplied by the users. Thanks!
You are helping in creating a better Impact.
Keep well!
2005-05-09 A brief note
Summer is approaching.
Spending more time outside is a good thing for all of us but with the
disadvantage of slower development pace for Impact.
Just a brief note to let you know that develoment of an Arc command is
in progress. The prototype showed that the current NURBS engine was not
enough for this, so a complete rewrite is underway. This explains the
delay but will enable a very powerful graphical preprocessor when
finished.
Keep well!
2005-04-24 Version 0.5.6
now released
This was a cleanup
release. The cluster version can now be run from the GUI. Just start
the GUI with the ClusterGUI.sh (or .bat) file and it should work. The
printout will appear in the terminal window (to be sorted out later).
In the prevous few releases, a bug caused the solutions to be
unstoppable from the GUI. This is now fixed and runs should terminate
properly. Startup script bugs has also been fixed.
The Postprocessor now has a possibility of adjusting the max and min
levels of the colour plot.
The Grapher has a range of new functions for result plotting.
The Impact team has been joined by a new member. Paul Ipe will
help out with the optimizations for 0.6 branch. Welcome Paul.
2005-03-30 A little bug
A user submitted a bug
report on 0.5.5. The ImpactGUI cannot be started under Windows XP. The
fix is quite easy. Just open the ImpactGUI.bat file and replace the :
with a ;
The bug will be fixed in the next release.
2005-03-20 Version 0.5.5
available
Improvements on the
cluster solver continues. The updates include:
- Fractured elements now work in the cluster version of the
solver
- Variable distribution of elements in relation to each
cluster client speed
- Improved scaling through reduced network traffic when
trackers are not used
- Documentation has been moved to a separate directory (doc)
- reducing download size to 3.5Mb
- Some updates to the GUI Pre- and Postprocessor
Some benchmarking
for this new version is provided in the picture. The scaling behaviour
has clearly improved enabling up to 10 clients to give positive
contributions. Models with heavy contact situation should be even
better in this respect.
The variable
distribution of elements is quite useful in a home or office network
where computers of different strength are connected. The algorithm uses
the initialization process duration to benchmark each client speed and
then distributes the model accordingly. If your network fits this
description, a significant improvement in performance can be expected
with this version.
When trackers
(special commands which measure things in the model) is not used, the
amount of data that has to be shipped across the network can be much
smaller. This version takes this into account to reduce traffic which
in turn improves performance when many computers are involved in
solving the same problem.
Note that Impact
evolves in parallel with JavaParty. This version requires an update of
the JP release. It has been updated and is available from the links
below.
Enjoy!
2005-03-15 Why are the
simple solutions the most difficult to find?
With oodles of help
from Bernhard and Claus, the cluster solver has been rewritten 4 times
now. The current solution is much simpler than the prevous designs,
memory efficient and consequently much faster as well. All contact
models can be used and the work remaining now is to get fractured
element capability included. This is currently switched off for cluster
solving.
The new
design has been bechmarked on up to 13 CPU:s (thanks to Bernhard
for access to the cluster) with poor scaling results. Work is in
progress to improve this but since the current design has no
partitioning scheme, the results are understandable
Still, if you have
an extra computer or two in your office network, solution speed can at
least be doubled on the cluster version.
A new element has
been added, called solid_iso_4 which is a tetrahedron element. The
interface to GiD and Gmsh has been updated to include this element.
Since this is a collapsed hex element, the post processor cannot
yet accurately show the element and it may look a bit odd. Note also
that
the autostep algorithm has not been updated to handle this element yet.
Therefore, solutions
involving this
element will only work with a defined timestep!
The beam_spring_2 element contained a range of bugs
and has been simplified and rewritten. It is now a simple 6 degree of
freedom spring element and works in the global coordinate system at all
times (ie. no local coordinate systems to be concerned about).
If you are interested in trying the cluster version, you will need the
latest 1.09 version of JavaParty. Version is alpha and inofficial.
Installation instructions are the same as for the standard version.
Read more below under Download&Installation
Finally, dont forget to join the new mailing
list. Get updated on the latest Impact discussion!
Enjoy!
2005-02-18 Version
0.5.3 available
This release
certainly took its time. Reason being that the solver engine was
re-written about three times trying to find the simplest - most
efficient way of expanding impact into cluster computing. Turns out
that the work done by Claus Wonnemann and Bernard Haumacher was the
best way to go in the first place. Thanks to JavaParty, only one
additional class was required as well as a recompile. Very elegant -
hats off to the JavaParty team for their excellent API!
A first version of
the cluster solver is now included in Impact. At the moment, it can
only be run from the command line and it is painfully slow since the
internal structure is not optimized. The cluster
version should not be used to anything other than testing your setup
and running a few examples at this stage.
Should you want to
use Impact on a network cluster you have to set up a JavaParty
environment first. To do this, you should visit the JavaParty webpage and
download the latest version from here
This release
contains a pre-build cluster version but in the coming releases in
order to keep
the download size down on Impact, the cluster version .class files will
not be included. You will need to compile the version yourself from
scratch.
Thankfully, a build file is written to help you with this. Just use ANT for this and type ant
compile_cluster. This should be enough. You can then start
impact from the Impact directory with bash
Cluster.sh
../examples/Ver_12.in
As usual, Yuriy has
contributed with a new version of the GUI where the search&replace
functions now are implemented and some more details have been worked on.
On the
administrative side, the users forums have been closed and replaced by
a mailing
list instead. Just join the discussion or ask a question by
clicking one of the links to the left on this page.
As usual, enjoy!
2004-11-17 Version 0.5.2
available
A few bugfixes
starts off this release with the Shell_BT_4 element now determining its
surface normal more accurate (thanks Rodrigo); especially for large
deformations. The Nastran importer has also been fixed. Please note
that if you are trying to import nastran geometry, read the users
manual first because there might be some editing required to get the
stuff through the parser.
The solver has been
slightly rewritten to enable a larger part of the cycle to run in
parallel including nodal sort although this is yet to be implemented.
Yuriy and team has updated the preprocessor to read .in files.
As usual, enjoy!
2004-10-17 Version 0.5.1
available
Large updates on
the preprocessor in this release. Yuiriy and his team are storming
ahead at frantic pace, getting all of the bits together. This is the
first release where the complete chain of development (making a model,
applying boundary conditions, generating indatafile, solving and
postprocessing) can be done all within Impact!
The updates
include:
- Complete setup of different materials predefined
- Predefined boundary conditions
- Most of the commands in the preprocessor works
- Generation of .in files possible!
In working on the
parallel solver (SMP), I bought a book about programming threads in
Java. It is an easy read and is recommended for those interested in
this subject. Title: "Java Thread Programming" Author: "Paul Hyde" It
is top on the list at Amazon.
One reason that the
results from earlier test runs showed none or small improvements could
be that any second processor will automatically be assigned to handle
the garbage collection in Java. Since Impact is generating garbage at a
tremendous rate, the second processor on my machine is normally fully
occupied with this, which means a default speed increase compared to a
single processor machine. I expect that the real benefit with the SMP
solver would show up on a machine with more than two processors. Should
any of you faithful users have tried Impact on such a machine, please
share the results with us. It would be very interesting feedback indeed!
Finally, check out
the still incomplete but impressive tutorial in the russian
documentation (under the help tab).
Let us know what
you think!