Oasys Ozone Newsletter, Issue 7, Spring 2005

Credit card processing

We are putting the finishing touches to our web based credit card transaction facility. The system is hosted by HSBC ensuring that Oasys neither see nor hold credit card details. We hope to be able to make the system live in June.

You are invited...

As a valued customer of Oasys, we would like to invite you to our first Oasys User Group Forum on Monday 4th July 2005 at 13 Fitzroy Street, London W1.

The event will focus on geotechnical topics in the morning (09:30 - 12:45) and structural topics in the afternoon (13:30 - 16:30). There will be opportunities to talk to the speakers and the Oasys program developers and to share your experiences with other users either formally or informally.

If you wish to give a short presentation of how you have used the software, please let us know when you register.

Featured Speakers include:

Dr Brian Simpson	Eurocode 7
Eleanor Patterson	Use of GS-Raft at Kings Place
Hoe-Chian Yeow	Numerical Modelling
Jeremy Edwards	Heathrow Terminal 5
Dr Kristina Shea	Computational Design + Optimization
Matthew Birchall	Fabric Structures

The event will be free-of-charge for all Oasys customers.

To register, please email oasys@arup.com or phone 0191 238 7559. Alternatively you can register online at http://www.oasys-software.com/ugforum/

Please State:

whether you wish to attend the morning (Geotechnics) and/or afternoon (Structural) sessions
if you wish to give a short presentation + details
whether you require lunch

New resellers for Oasys software

We have appointed two new resellers to our world wide network. They are A & X Maraveous from Greece and Geotechnical Engineering Modeling (GEMSOFT) in the USA.

Full details for all our resellers can be found on our website at http://www.oasys-software.com/resellers/.

Sales nearly double

Oasys have had a very good year with strong growth, nearly doubling our income over the last year. Mail Manager has proved to be just what many companies need to arrest control of email and bring project data all to one location.

Soil reinforcement in SLOPE and new releases of AdSec and the ADC suite have also created a flurry of interest.

CADrebar 1.6 expected mid-July

CADrebar 1.6 is currently undergoing final testing and it is expected to be ready for release in mid-July.

The following new features have been added:

Support for AutoCAD 2006
South African standard added
Shape 99 free dimension brackets
Variable range supports more than 44 bars
Support for lineweights - via the CADrebar.ini file

Various minor bugs have also been fixed

ADC 8.0 Release (incorporating AdCol)

Following extensive beta testing and review, ADC 8.0 has been released with the much requested AdCol which is included as an add-in to the ADC concrete design suite. In addition to multi span beams, ribbed and solid slabs, you can now analyse and design rectangular or circular (solid or hollow) columns to BS8110, Hong Kong Code of Practice, or the new Eurocode EC2.

The following column design functionality is new in ADC 8.0:

concrete analysis and design;
reinforcement detailing checks to BS8110 or Eurocode;
calculation of final design moments accounting for 2nd order and eccentricity effects according to BS8110 or Eurocode;
output of intermediate parameters used in determining design moments;
output of detailed design results in textual form;
output of summary design results in graphical form;
rectangular, circular and hollow circular sections;
reinforcement and concrete materials consistent with BS8110 and Eurocode standard grades;
printing of input data, section diagrams and results;
export to AdSec for more detailed analysis;
force-moment interaction graphs; and
Mx/My moment interaction graphs.

For full details of ADC, see http://www.oasys-software.com/adc/

Concrete design: it's as easy as ADC.

GSA 8.1 at Beta Status

GSA 8.1 has entered the final phase of its development cycle. Dozens of beta testers are putting it through its paces while the development team carries out final validation and verification in preparation for a full release.

Here are some of the new features in this version:

Steel Design – to AISC LRFD3
RC Slab Design – to: BS8110, Hong Kong Code of Practice, BS5400, EC2, ACI318, AS3600.
Conjugate Gradient Solver – New solver option for static analysis of large models.
Analysis Envelopes – Stored envelope results for faster processing of large envelopes.
Analysis Tasks – Reorganised task data to ease the editing of advanced analysis options.
Import and Export of GSA Data – To facilitate the transfer of data between models, including the merging of two models and the transfer of view settings between models.
Interface Enhancements:
- Undo View and Redo View
- Copy and Paste of View Settings
- Dynamically sized Lists toolbar
- Previous / Next Case and Display
Enhancements to Loading:
- Gravity loads applied to lists of elements
- Gravity loads displayed as equivalent beam loads.
- Sculpting of all load types.
- Load mapping across a surface of nodes or elements in terms of a geometric expression.
- Graphic animation by stepping through a list of cases.
COM interface – extended to enable 'getting' and 'setting' of data records and extraction of post-processed results.

The full release of GSA 8.1 is scheduled for the second quarter of 2005.

Structural Tips & Tricks

GSA Tip: Animated graphics

It's easy to animate graphics in GSA. Click the 'Animate' button and the current image is animated according to the settings specified in 'Graphic Settings | Animation Settings'. By default if the image is displayed deformed then the animation will animate the deformation otherwise the animation will simply rotate the image. The period of animation can be specified in the Animation Settings. You can zoom, pan and rotate the image while animation is in progress.

GSA Tip: Recording graphics movies to AVI

To record a graphics movie to an AVI file, first display the Recorder toolbar (using the Camera icon on the Graphic Display toolbar). Then click 'Start recording' on the Recorder toolbar. Each frame displayed in the Graphic View appears as a single frame in the AVI file. (Conversely, leaving the Graphic View open without changing the display while recording produces no additional frames in the AVI file.) 'Pause recording' may be used to avoid dialog boxes appearing in the recording, etc. 'Freeze recording' may be used to display a particular frame for longer than the default frame rate. The AVI data is saved to file when 'Stop recording' is clicked. The default frame rate and freeze time can be adjusted in the 'Preferences | Graphics | Saved Image Settings'. The screen dimensions of the AVI movie are determined by the size of the recorded Graphic View.

GSA Tip: Recording animations to AVI

When recording animated graphics to AVI it's preferable to start the recording before starting the animation. By doing this the internal process that sets up the animation knows that the animation is for recording to AVI file and therefore establishes the correct number of frames to suit the requested animation period and AVI frame rate. Otherwise the resulting AVI file will not necessarily display the animation at the requested period and the file size will probably be a lot larger than it need be. The methods for setting up animations and recording to AVI are described above.

GSA Tip: Using grid planes with Plane structures

Grid planes can be use for 'Plane' structure types. In the Current Grid Definition use the Grid Plane button to display the Grid Plane Definition dialog. In this dialog select "Y elevation" for the Grid axis and ensure that the grid elevation is 0. You then have a grid plane in the global XZ plane.

GSA Tip: A Saved View is not a JPEG

GSA offers options to save the Graphic View image to file using the 'Graphics | Save Image | Save WMF', '...PNG', '...JPEG' or 'DXF' commands. The use of these popular file formats is well established.

Also in GSA is the option to save the parameters that you have set to define the image that is currently displayed in the Graphic View. These view parameters include everything from the orientation and scale down to the numeric format of the annotation associated with each diagram that is displayed and the set of items to which this annotation is applied, - and everything in-between. Save the current view parameters by using the 'View | Save Graphic View' command. The view parameters are then entered as a record of data in the Saved Graphic Views module and will be saved with your model the next time you save.

Saved views may be accessed from the 'Views' tab on the Gateway. Double click on the required saved view (or 'right-click | Open') to display the view. Note that opening a saved view for a model that has changed since the saved view was saved will apply the view parameters to the model in its current state; - only the parameters that define the view are stored with the saved view, not the data that is displayed.

GSA Tip: Fabric material properties

Fabric material is an orthotropic material and five parameters are needed to describe its elastic property. They are E_x (warp direction Young's modulus), E_y (weft direction Young's modulus), v_yx (warp direction Poisson's ratio – warp direction strain generated by unit strain in weft direction), v_xy (weft direction Poisson's ratio – weft direction strain generated by unit strain in warp direction) and G (shear modulus). As there is dependency between the two Young's moduli and two Poisson's ratios, only one Poisson's ratio need be specified in GSA, v_yx. The other Poisson's ratio is calculated by GSA using the following relationship:

ADC (AdCol) Tip: Sorting column design results

Once design has been performed using AdCol, you can choose to view results in tabular form in the Output View as follows:

for all analysis cases or just for one analysis case;
for all sections (bar arrangements and sizes) or just for those that have adequate capacity; and
sorted by area of reinforcement, section reference, or by analysis case and area of reinforcement.

These options are available by selecting 'View | Output View' from the main menu, or by clicking the Output View button on the ADC toolbar. They assist in finding the optimum design solution.

AdSec Tip: Analysing for non-linear cross-sectional thermal gradients

In order to model non-linear cross sectional thermal gradients, break the section into a suitable number of strips/sections which are then compounded to make the overall section. You can then apply component strains to each in accordance with the thermal changes. This can be combined with the overall effects of axial forces and moments generated on the member by the end conditions; these will have to be derived independently. Ensure that each reinforcement bar/line/group exists wholly within a single section.

Table Tip: Copying cells in tables and incremental defaults

When editing data in a table you can enter the following operators instead of typing in values.

Copy operators

= to copy the value from the same cell in the preceding record.
=n to copy the value from the same cell in the record n.
== to copy the values from the same cell and all following cells in the preceding record.
==n to copy the values from the same cell and all following fields in record n.

Increment operators

The increment operators copy the value from the same cell in the preceding record and perform an operation on that. They apply to numeric fields only.

+=f to add f to the copied value.
-=f to subtract f from the copied value.
*=f to multiply the copied value by f.
/=f to divide the copied value by f.

If the increment, f, is omitted then the default value is used as the increment.

This functionality is available in all Oasys engineering programs, though the 'increment operators' are only available in recent releases.

GEO 18.1

GEO 18.1 was released in April. This included partial factors in FREW and soil reinforcement in SLOPE. Maintained GEO customers should have received notification of the release by email and can request their new licences at any time. Details of other changes can be found at http://www.oasys-software.com/product/geo/geo/whatsnew.shtml?link=geo

Drive to Beta Status

The DRIVE program, for analysis of ground movements during pile driving, has now been converted to Windows. It shares the same interface as the other GEO programs and now includes graphical output of the results, better selection of data for detailed output, and csv export of the selected results.

Drive graphical output - acceleration vs. time

The program is undergoing internal Beta testing before release. The expected release date is September 2005

Geotechnical Tips

SAFE tip - When is seepage steady state?

Checking the "Seepage analysis" box in the Global Data .. General Data dialog makes the entire problem a steady state seepage analysis ONLY. In this case, material stress-strain data is not required and you should enter permeabilities, water data and seepage restraints. One "dummy" vertical and horizontal restraint is required at a node. This is just a quirk due to the pre-analysis data checks.

Checking the "Steady state analysis" box in the Run Data .. Consolidation Data dialog makes that run only a steady state seepage run. This can be used, for example, after a number of consolidation runs.

So for time-dependent consolidation/seepage, leave both boxes blank.

SAFE 18.1

SAFE 18.1 is excluded from the general GEO build due to compatibility problems between the C++ and Fortran compilers. It will be released as soon as these problems have been resolved.

FREW

Code changes for automatic calculation of earth pressure coefficients have led to the default settings of Kac and Kpc being disabled for user-defined coefficients. This will be reinstated for the next release!

SLOPE reinforcement - some limitations

If an entire embankment is entered, the user should specify whether the required slips are in the increasing or decreasing x direction. The program will not draw the reinforcement correctly because it is only specified by level and offset from the slope surface.

Embedded reinforcement can be analysed, but only if it intersects the ground surface (on a line projected from the location of the reinforcement). The diagram below shows embedded reinforcement (in blue) - but if the level was entered as less than 0mOD, the program would not draw or analyse it.

Mail Manager is Proving to be Popular

Organising the mass of email we all send and receive, and being able to do it easily and in such a way that colleagues can find emails sent to each other without having to be recipients themselves seems like an impossible dream. Which is why Mail Manager is proving to be so popular. For many people the greatest benefit is that all data (documents, spreadsheets and emails) can be brought together.

UNIPAC

All Oasys software is provided free-of-charge to universities and other educational establishments.

Visit the Academic Zone of our website at http://www.oasys-software.com/academic/ for further information.

Training Courses

A wide range of training courses for new and existing users encompassing all of the products in our extensive suite of programs are available. Please contact us for details

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