ReadMe

This ReadMe highlights important updates and known issues for the latest release of Helius PFA, including Advanced Material Exchange.

System Requirements

Refer to the System Requirements for a list of platform and minimum requirements.

Updates

This section identifies important updates to the product in the Helius PFA 2018, 2018.1, and 2018.2 releases.

• Advanced Material Exchange now supports Autodesk Nastran. Previously, Autodesk Nastran was only supported for continuous fiber composites.
• You can now select any temperature environment for your plastic material and Helius PFA will interpolate material properties using the available temperature environments. This allows you to run a structural simulation using material properties for the selected environment.
• You can turn off rupture predictions for a given step and re-enable rupture predictions for subsequent steps using the step-wise linearity functionality.
• Helius PFA now supports the continuum solid shell CSS8 element for Abaqus.
• Advanced Material Exchange now supports Moldflow Insight Ultimate 2018.
• Subscribers to Moldflow Insight Ultimate 2018 can now use their Moldflow license to run Helius PFA.
• A new Polynomial Stress rupture criterion has been added for Advanced Material Exchange.
• Nonlinear material characterization in Advanced Material Exchange has been improved for use with the Moldflow Rotational Diffusion fiber model.
• Helius PFA has added support for Autodesk Nastran 2018 for continuous fiber materials.
• Helius PFA has added support for Abaqus 2017 and ANSYS 17.2, 18.0, and 18.1. Versions of Abaqus prior to Abaqus 2016 are no longer supported. Versions of ANSYS prior to 17.0 are no longer supported.
• A number of improvements were implemented to resolve known issues with the software. This includes:
  • In localized installations, a handful of text strings were not translated properly. These issues have been resolved.
  • Previously, if you had Abaqus 2016 and either 2018 or 2018.1 installed, you may have received an error during installation of Helius PFA that indicated there was a problem creating the Autodesk directory for Abaqus. This issue has been resolved.
  • Previously, ANSYS Launcher would crash if you clicked OK when there was no supported version of ANSYS installed. This issue has been resolved.

Known Issues

The list below identifies the known issues in the latest release of Helius PFA, including Advanced Material Exchange. Please contact Autodesk Support with any questions.

• Abaqus/Viewer 2017 does not allow results for SDV12 to be displayed. Abaqus has been informed of the issue. As a workaround, you may download and use the Python script to transfer the SDV12 values to a new variable.
• Flattened input files are not supported for Abaqus 2017. As a workaround, you can use the flattened input file with Abaqus 2016 or use a full input file containing parts and assemblies.
• When the elastic-plastic material model is used to characterize a material that behaves linearly, the calculated Ramberg-Osgood parameters may vary each time the material is characterized. The Ramberg-Osgood parameters have little effect on materials that are linear in nature.
• Windows 8.1 user's must install the Windows updates provided here before installing Helius PFA. Follow the Install Instructions provided by Microsoft to ensure proper installation of these updates.
• The Minimum Projection method for mapping weld surfaces can project weld surfaces to adjacent elements when the elements are distorted. This only applies to 10-node quadratic tetrahedral elements (refer to the table of Supported Continuum Elements to see specific element types that could be affected). Use the Shepard's method for mapping weld surfaces if you use these element types. When the structural mesh is comparable to or smaller than the Moldflow mesh, the Shepard's method is recommended as it produces more accurate results.
• We recommend the following Abaqus hybrid elements are not used with Advanced Material Exchange:
  • C3D10H
  • C3D10M
  • C3D10MH
  • C3D15H
  • C3D15VH
  • C3D20H
  • C3D20RH
  • C3D27H
  • C3D27RH

  While these elements are supported by Advanced Material Exchange, Abaqus instructs that they are only used for incompressible, isotropic materials.

• While Mapping Results for large models, the dialog can stop responding without showing the progress bar. If this happens, just keep waiting. As long as the models are aligned correctly, results will be mapped.
• Advanced Material Exchange will only allow you to pair a Moldflow study to a single structural body. You must duplicate the study file to pair it to another structural body.
• Advanced Material Exchange cannot import multiple structural input files. You must unpair the selected structural file or start a new instance of AME to select a different structural input file.
• Jobs run with Abaqus 2016 on MPI report an 'RCP Copy Error' to the .log file after the analysis is complete. This error does not affect Helius PFA or Advanced Material Exchange simulations as it still occurs even with standard Abaqus materials. The error is a result of Abaqus attempting to copy the .msg file from the working directory of the slave node(s).
• Moldflow studies that have a short shot (< 99% fill) can cause Advanced Material Exchange to close unexpectedly. Re-run the Moldflow study to increase the % fill and try Advanced Material Exchange again.
• Fiber-filled materials must have fibers with an aspect ratio > 1. The aspect ratio is measured as L/D, where L is the fiber length and D is the fiber diameter.
• Moldflow Dual Domain elements are not supported. See the list of supported element types for more information.
• Nonlinear material data is only allowed for the standard test angles of 0, 90, and 45 degrees.
• Nonlinear material data must have at least 15 entries per angle or environment.
• At least one data point on the nonlinear stress-strain curve must lie in the material's elastic region.
• Advanced Material Exchange cannot map weld surfaces for unsupported elements. Use supported elements and avoid mixing solid and shell elements when mapping weld surface data.
• Abaqus models that contain shell elements must have at least five section points through the thickness.
• ANSYS models that contain shell elements must have at least seven section points through the thickness.
• You cannot save an Advanced Material Exchange project on a network server.