Release Notes for SIMPACK 9.3.

2
New Features
Element: Input Function
25406 - [Documentation, Post] - Exporter for binary .if2 Input Function Files (same as 25295)
Binary .if2 SIMPACK Input Function files can now be exported from
SIMPACK Post.

Automotive
25450 - Scripting method for applying vehicle velocities (see 25451)
A SIMPACK scripting method for applying the vehicle velocities to the
model was added which triggers the same functionality as the button
"Apply vehicle velocities" in the actions menu of SIMPACK Pre:
Spck.Slv.vehicleVelocities(modelObject)

Documentation
25406 - Exporter for binary .if2 Input Function Files (same as 25295)
Binary .if2 SIMPACK Input Function files can now be exported from
SIMPACK Post.

Rail
25450 - Scripting method for applying vehicle velocities (see 25451)
A SIMPACK scripting method for applying the vehicle velocities to the
model was added which triggers the same functionality as the button
"Apply vehicle velocities" in the actions menu of SIMPACK Pre:
Spck.Slv.vehicleVelocities(modelObject)

Scripting
25450 - Scripting method for applying vehicle velocities (see 25451)
A SIMPACK scripting method for applying the vehicle velocities to the
model was added which triggers the same functionality as the button
"Apply vehicle velocities" in the actions menu of SIMPACK Pre:
Spck.Slv.vehicleVelocities(modelObject)

Fixed Bugs
Element: Subvar
25499 - Wizard - Performance of applying SubVar changes dependent on number of changes (same as 25491)
The time for updating the model to changes of SubVar values in SIMPACK
Wizard was dependent on the number of SubVars changed and took longer
the more SubVars were changed. Now updating the model for many SubVars
is as fast as if only one SubVar was changed.

1/18

25502 - Wizard - Invisible SubVars accidentially stored in .par.spck file in Wizard (same as 25489)
When switching components or when resetting parameters to their default
in the Wizard, SubVars marked as invisible were accidentially stored in
the according par.spck files. Fixed now.

Solver: Measurements
25535 - Solver - SubVars representing text, element names and file names incorrect in sbr file (same as 25524)
When generating sbr files that contain Subvars, the SubVars of type
- character string
- element name
- filename
where exported as numbers instead of with their according (text) value.
Now all SubVars have the same value as in SIMPACK Pre in the result
file and SIMPACK Post.

Scripting
25401 - Very poor scripting performance when assigning many Expressions to many Yout or Result Elements (same as 25339)
When assigning many elements to parameters of other elements in sjs
scripting, e.g. assigning Expressions to result elements, then the
performance was very poor. Fixed now.
25403 - sjs Scripting argDec not working properly (same as 24532)
The scripting function String.argDec() which can be used for formatting
number output returned NaN instead of a properly formatted number when
used in SIMPACK sjs scripting. Fixed now.

Release Notes for SIMPACK 9.3.1

New Features
Documentation
25282 - Possibly inconsistent Abaqus sim files used for fbi file
When generating the super element in ABAQUS and creating the according
Abaqus .sim file which is used for generating a SIMPACK fbi file the
.sim file can be inconsistent depending on the ABAQUS options used for
generating the .sim file. This is a known issue in ABAQUS and is
scheduled to be fixed by Abaqus for Abaqus 6.13.
For ensuring the problem does not occur when generating .sim files in
Abaqus 6.12 the command "*RETAINED NODAL DOFS,SORTED=YES" must be used
when specifying the list of retained nodes for a substructure that
should be converted into an .fbi file. The parameter "SORTED=NO" will
lead to inconsistent data in the substructure's .sim file. When using
such a corrupt .sim file for the .fbi file generation and assigning the
resulting .fbi file to a flexible body then the MBS model will yield
wrong and unexpected simulation results. "SORTED=YES" is the
save choice for all Abaqus versions.

2/18

The examples and the description in the SIMPACK documentation have

been adapted accordingly.

Fixed Bugs
Element: Body flexible
25116 - [LOADS, Solver] - Forces/Torques applied on Moved Markers are not considered by LOADS (same as 25084)
Forces and torques which were applied onto a Flexible Body by a Moved
Marker were not properly considered by LOADS. Fixed now.
25286 - Pre - Poor GUI performance when using Flexible Bodies (same as 25289)
With SIMPACK 9.3 scaling of Flexible Bodies was introduced. The scaling
unfortuantely triggered a recomputation of the Flexible Body cache
each time the model was changed even if it was not required.
This slowed down the GUI dramatically. Fixed now.

Element: Expression
24315 - Solver - Expression to access u-Vector uses wrong index if unused elements are in the u-Vector
If u-Vector elements were accessed from Expressions, a wrong element
would be evaluated if unused elements were in the u-Vector. Fixed now.

Element: Force
25150 - Engine - Force Element 69 'Piston-Liner Contact': Wrong Interaction with Liner Body (same as 25147)
Forces computed by the Force Element 69 'Piston-Liner Contact' were
applied incorrectly to the line Body. Fixed now.

Element: Marker
24950 - Solver - PQR-Marker: Orientation of Reference Marker not ignored (same as 24899)
For the Marker type 4 'PQR-Orientation' the orientation of the Reference
Marker was wrongly added to the orientation specified by the PQR
parameters. This is not desired/expected when modeling with PQR
orientation and was hence fixed so that in this case the orientation of
the Reference Marker is ignored.

Element: Tyre
24890 - Automotive - Ftire Realtime mode (same as 24925)
FTire realtime co-simulation is available now.

PostProcessor: Animation
25090 - LOADS - Angular velocities not considdered properly during stress calculation in SIMPACK Post (same as 25088)
When displaying stesses in SIMPACK Post the rotational velocities were
not transformed into the BRF which lead to wrong stresses. Fixed now.
25192 - Post - Reload of result files with many SubVars very slow (same as 25203)

3/18

Reloading result files containing many SubVars was very slow. This has
been sped up significantly so that reloading a result file with 100000
SubVars is now a matter of a few seconds instead of many minutes. The
problem was especially visible when comparing reload times for result
files generated by SIMPACK classic and SIMPACK 9 where the legacy
converterd SIMPACK 9 model contained many more SubVars than the original
SIMPACK classic model.

PostProcessor: Plot
25192 - Post - Reload of result files with many SubVars very slow (same as 25203)
Reloading result files containing many SubVars was very slow. This has
been sped up significantly so that reloading a result file with 100000
SubVars is now a matter of a few seconds instead of many minutes. The
problem was especially visible when comparing reload times for result
files generated by SIMPACK classic and SIMPACK 9 where the legacy
converterd SIMPACK 9 model contained many more SubVars than the original
SIMPACK classic model.

Contact / Flex-Contact
25094 - RBE connected Marker not working within LOADS process (same as 25080)
The LOADS stress channels of the body nodal forces/torques were created
for Markers of Flexible Type RBE, but their values were always zero.
Fixed now.

Engine
25298 - IST "Tower Shell" not starting if install dir contains blanks (same as 25290)
The IST Tower Shell would not start if SIMPACK was installed into a
directory that contains blanks.
This is fixed now.

Licensing
24888 - Parallel solver licensing incorrect for 13-16 threads (same as 24820)
The parallel solver would accidentially use 5 sets of licenses when
using 13 to 16 cores. Now it correclty uses 4 sets of licenses for
9 to 16 cores.

LOADS
25094 - RBE connected Marker not working within LOADS process (same as 25080)
The LOADS stress channels of the body nodal forces/torques were created
for Markers of Flexible Type RBE, but their values were always zero.
Fixed now.
24986 - Spurious Measurement crash if Loads enabled and hydrodynamic bushing used (same as 24984)
A crash would occur during measurements if export of Loads data is
enabled and a Marker was both used as From or To Marker of a Force

4/18

Element or Constraint and for applying forces generated by an EHD

Force Element. Fixed now.
25195 - Conversion of .op2 to .stress file failing with shell elements
Converting NASTRAN .op2 files to SIMPACK stress files would fail if the
NASTRAN model contained shell elements. Fixed now.
25241 - Wrong Load scaling factors in FEMFAT export (same as 25239)
During the Loads process for FEMFAT the modes have to be mapped and
scaled so that SIMPACK computed modes and FE computed mode match.
This mapping was accidentially done twice so that it did not have an
effect. Since the modal coordinates are scaled accordingly already
when exported to FEMFAT the scaling factors in the ..._channel.max
files must be set to 1.0. This is now correclty implemented.

25251 - Mapping of eigenmodes fails in LOADS if master nodes with <6 DOF present (same as 25249)
The mapping of eigenmodes in the SIMAPCK Loads process would be
incorrect when there are master nodes with <6 DOF in the original
.fbi file used by a Flexible Body. Fixed now.

Rail
24965 - Wrong parameter indices for rail-wheel tangential force user routines (same as 24963)
The parameter indices of the rail-wheel tangential force User Routines
were accidentally shifted by an index of 1. Thus, the parameters entered
by the user were not transferred as expected to the User Routine.

SIMPACK RT
25050 - SIMPACK RT logging and CPU core assignment (same as 25065)
A new solver task "--rt-logger" was introduced for logging of all state
frames sent by an RT simulation.
For specifying which CPU cores the SIMPACK RT solver should use a new
command line option "--cpus" was added:
--cpus=1,2,4-6,8-7 to assign cpu cores to the simpack solver threads
in given the order (1,2,4,5,6,8,7)
This option is supported for all targets except Concurrent Simulation
Workbench.
This is important on computers with hyperthreading enabled to make sure
the threads are on different physical cores (BIOS CPU layout dependant).
Please note that the SIMPACK RT solver needs an additional core for
asynchronous tasks like licensing. This core is auto assigned by the
operating system.

Release Notes for SIMPACK 9.3

New Features
5/18

CAD: CatSIM (V4/V5)

24079 - CAD Interfaces - Update CATSIM for CATIA V5R21 and SIMPACK 9
CatSIM V5 was updated to generate native SIMPACK 9 .spck models.
Additionally CATIA V5, R21 is now supported.

Element: Body flexible

24277 - PostProcessor - Exporter for deformation of Flexible Bodies
Deformations of Flexible Bodies can now be exported from SIMPACK Post.
Time histories for both positions and velocities can be exported for
a single or multiple nodes to an ASCII file. This file can also be
read into SIMPACK Post to display plots of the deformation components.
Exported components are x,y,z, angle X, angle Y, angle Z, ABS.
24293 - FlexModal - Mass and stiffness scaling of Flexible Bodies
Scaling of both, the entire mass matrix and stiffness matrix of Flexible
Bodies was added. This enables users to check the influence of the
overall mass and stiffness of the Body on the simulation results
without the need to reiterate through a reduction and export process
on the FE side.

Element: Force
24393 - [Solver, Rail, Control] - Force 78 "Rail-Wheel interface" availability of -Q and -Y output value for Control Elements
To enable using the Force Element Output Values 1 and 2 (-Q and -Y) of
Force Element 78 in control loops these two Output Values are now also
computed during the time integration and not only during measurements.
The other Output Values, which are only used for force arrows, are only
computed during measurements.
24610 - Contact / Flex-Contact - Enhanced error message for Force 69 'Piston-Liner'
The error messages for the Force 69 'Piston-Liner' were greatly improved
to help the user identifying the cause of the error and hint how to
resolve the problem indicated by the message.

Element: Input Function

23757 - Input Functions to optionally use interpolation settings from file
It is now possible to specify whether the inter- and extrapolation
settings for an Input Function should be used from the file from
which the values are read or should be defined locally in the model.
24306 - Input Function scaling
Input Functions can now be scaled in the x, y and z direction. The
scaling is specified and performed separately for each axis. In the
Input Function plot the points are displayed unscaled and the plotted
curve uses the scaling.

Element: Joint

6/18

24460 - Automotive - New track joint rotational sequence yaw(z), roll(x), pitch(y)
The Joint type 19 'Automotive Track Joint' was expanded to support a
new DOF sequence: s-y-z-psi-phi-gamma

Element: Rail Wheel Contact

18630 - Rail - Rail Roller Rig support
The modelling of roller rigs has been enabled for Rail. Instead of being
inertia-fixed or mounted on a moving ballast mass, the rail profile may
now also be on a rotating Body. The Hertzian contact geometry also
considers the roller curvature in longitudinal direction.
19958 - Rail - Support for v=0 in rail-wheel contact for equilibrium calculations
The vehicle velocity can now be set to zero (v=0) in rail vehicle
equilibrium calculations. The Equilibrium solver will detect this and
switch the rail-wheel tangential force calculation off. This eases
bringing the vehicle into an equilibrium in standstill.
24036 - Rail - Improved update of linear rail-wheel profiles in GUI
If linear rail-wheel profiles are active and changes are made in the
Rail-Wheel Pair or Track Pair dialogs, then the user is now asked if
the linear rail-wheel profiles should be updated. Previously the
user had to navigate to the Vehicle Globals dialog and actively
trigger the update in these cases.
24393 - [Solver, Rail, Control] - Force 78 "Rail-Wheel interface" availability of -Q and -Y output value for Control Elements
To enable using the Force Element Output Values 1 and 2 (-Q and -Y) of
Force Element 78 in control loops these two Output Values are now also
computed during the time integration and not only during measurements.
The other Output Values, which are only used for force arrows, are only
computed during measurements.

Solver: Static Equilibrium

19958 - Rail - Support for v=0 in rail-wheel contact for equilibrium calculations
The vehicle velocity can now be set to zero (v=0) in rail vehicle
equilibrium calculations. The Equilibrium solver will detect this and
switch the rail-wheel tangential force calculation off. This eases
bringing the vehicle into an equilibrium in standstill.
24462 - Access Function for setting accelerations during equilibrium calculation
The functionality of the User Routine Access Function spck_ds_JointSt
was expanded so that setting of Joint state accelerations is now allowed
during equilibrium solver tasks.

Automotive
24380 - Vehicle Globals handling improvement
The Vehicle Globals dialog was inconsistent and confusing. This dialog

7/18

has been redesigned to now show the standard "Cancel", "OK" and "Apply"
buttons, where OK and Apply will only apply the settings to the keywords
and do not trigger the propagation of the values to the translational
and rotational velocities of the Joint states.
To achieve the latter, a new button "Apply to vehicle now" was added
which is only enabled when no changes have been made to the settings in
the dialog or after Apply was clicked. This button triggers assigning
oft the velocities to the respective Joint states.

Documentation
23443 - New MatSIM tutorial
A new tutorial was added which describes working with MatSIM.
24422 - Start Menu entry for SIMPACK Documentation
A start menu entry is now generated for the SIMPACK Assistant when
installing SIMPACK on Windows.

FlexModal
23812 - Support for ABAQUS 6.12 .sim file interface
SIMPACK now supports results and models generated with ABAQUS 6.12. This
includes support for the .sim file FE results.
24437 - Flexible Bodies with reduced meshes
To be able to increase graphics performance it is now possible to
use a simplified geometry for the Flexible Body. To achieve this,
an existing .fbi file and an additional mesh file are passed to the
.fbi file generator. The geometry from the mesh file will then replace
the graphics in the .fbi file. The mesh file to be used has to be
generated outside of SIMPACK.
24444 - Support for ANSYS 14.5
SIMPACK now fully supports FE result and models generated by ANSYS 14.5.

Infrastructure
24216 - Performance improvements for model loading
The performance of loading substructured models was significantly
improved.

LOADS
23812 - Support for ABAQUS 6.12 .sim file interface
SIMPACK now supports results and models generated with ABAQUS 6.12. This
includes support for the .sim file FE results.

PostProcessor
24514 - SIMPACK file extensions registered with Windows

8/18

The following SIMPACK file extensions are now registered with Windows
during the SIMPACK installation so that the respective executable is
started by a double click on a file with these extensions:
.spck, .buspck, .pspck
.sjs

-> simpack-gui.exe

-> simpack-slv.exe (with arg -s)

.qs, .qsa

-> simpack-post.exe (with arg -s)

.spf, .sbr

-> simpack-post.exe

PreProcessor
24514 - SIMPACK file extensions registered with Windows
The following SIMPACK file extensions are now registered with Windows
during the SIMPACK installation so that the respective executable is
started by a double click on a file with these extensions:
.spck, .buspck, .pspck
.sjs

-> simpack-gui.exe

-> simpack-slv.exe (with arg -s)

.qs, .qsa

-> simpack-post.exe (with arg -s)

.spf, .sbr

-> simpack-post.exe

Rail
24380 - Vehicle Globals handling improvement
The Vehicle Globals dialog was inconsistent and confusing. This dialog
has been redesigned to now show the standard "Cancel", "OK" and "Apply"
buttons, where OK and Apply will only apply the settings to the keywords
and do not trigger the propagation of the values to the translational
and rotational velocities of the Joint states.
To achieve the latter, a new button "Apply to vehicle now" was added
which is only enabled when no changes have been made to the settings in
the dialog or after Apply was clicked. This button triggers assigning
oft the velocities to the respective Joint states.

Scripting
24506 - Scripting unit string access for SubVars and origin access for all elements
Accessing the unit string of SubVars (e.g. N for forces) is enabled via
the new Scripting SubVar attribute:
mySubVar.SIUnitString // read only, returns unit string of this subvar
// in coherent SI units, e.g. N for force
Also script accessing the origin of all elements was enabled via:
myElement.origin

// read only, returns file and dir as string in

// which this Element is defined

24516 - Scripting support for File.flush()
A new method was added to the Scripting File object for being able to
explicitly flush files while they are written. The method is called
File.flush()

9/18

and is available for SIMPACK and QSA scripting.

Solver
24353 - New Realtime module SIMPACK RT
A new product for realtime simulations was added to SIMPACK, SIMPACK RT.
SIMPACK RT enables realtime simulations without the need to export and
compile a model for a specific target platform. SIMPACK RT supports all
modelling elements of SIMPACK. SIMPACK RT also comes with realtime
animation capabilities and runs on all RT enabled Linux systems.

Wizard
24359 - Wizard database, model structure and GUI refinement
The SIMPACK wizard database and project structure was refined to enable
clean save handling and also to enable using the same component with the
same parametrization more than once.
Also the Wizard GUI was streamlined.

Fixed Bugs
Element: Body flexible
24311 - FlexModal - Flex Marker prints availability with INFO Log level
For Markers on Flexible Bodies the connection info of each Marker is now
printed in message log when the model is loaded if the log level INFO is
selected.
24404 - FlexModal - Force distributing constraints of ANSYS incorrectly handled by Loads
Force Distributing Constraints of ANSYS models were not handled
correctly by LOADS Stress&Strain. This has been fixed.
24413 - LOADS - Errors when generating NASTRAN input decks
The generation of NASTRAN input decks failed when IRM modes were used
for the flexible Body. This has been fixed. Also the handling of
centrifugal loads was corrected.
24546 - Wind - Rotorblades generated with mass matrix not depending on deformation
Rotorblades are now generated with the Flexible Body setting set to
mass matrix not depending on deformation.
24675 - FlexModal - Consideration of geometric stiffening terms due to the reference motion
The geometric stiffening terms due to inertia loads were not considered
in previous SIMPACK releases. This has been fixed now.
24805 - Improved flexible Body visualization for certain graphics cards
For the visualization of flexible Bodies, SIMPACK uses an OpenGL feature
called two-sided lighting. Two-sided lighting is hardware accelerated by
the recommended NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics cards series. For graphics
cards which do not offer hardware acceleration for two-sided lighting,

10/18

such as the NVIDIA Geforce series, this can lead to very poor graphics
performance. To improve the performance for these graphic cards, a
special software emulation was added. This software emulation can be
activated in the Extras->Options->Graphics tab by checking the box
"Disable hardware accelerated two-sided lighting". Performance gains
can be orders of magnitudes. Please note that checking this option when
using graphics cards with hardware accelerated two-sided lighting, will
lead to a decrease in visualization performance.
24821 - LOADS - NASTRAN models with CBEAM elements rejected for stress computation
If a NASTRAN model contained CBEAM elements then SIMPACK would not
create the SIMPACK stress file. Thus no stresses could be computed and
displayed for such models. Now the CBEAM statements are simply ignored
when generating the stress file. Consequently SIMPACK can now compute
and display stresses for such models.

Element: Control Element

24174 - [Solver, Control] - Sporadic instability of Control Elements when printing to message log
Control Elements 116, 117, 143, 148, 154, 155 would sometimes trigger
an abort of the SIMPACK solver while printing information to the
message log area. This has been fixed now.
24186 - Control - Missing codepage handling in FMI and wrong loading of the dependent DLLs
Control Element 238 'FMI 1.0 import' did not properly handle different
codepages used in the .fmu file. Also it did not properly load DLLs that
were required by the main fmu DLL. Both problems have been fixed.

Element: Force
23454 - Solver - FEL 87 'Joint Force/Torque' using "To BRF" instead of "From Marker"
Force Element type 87 "Joint Force/Torque" was using the "To" Body BRF
for returning the Joint constrained forces and torques. This was not
desired by the user in many cases. Now the default is to output these
forces/torques in the From Marker of the according Joint. Additionally
the user can now specify the Marker which should be used for returning
the force/torque components.
24251 - Solver - Floating Point Exception in Force Element Type 225 'Gear Pair'
In some rare circumstances the Force element 225 'Gear pair' would
trigger a floating point exception which lead to the abortion of the
solver run. This has been fixed now.
24316 - Solver - Wrong damping used when clearance defined for FEL 5 'Spring-Damper parallel cmp'
When for a Force Element of type 5 'Spring-Damper parallel cmp' a
clearance in z is defined, SIMPACK incorrectly used the y-damping value
for the damping in the z direction. This has been corrected.
24423 - Contact / Flex-Contact - Error in FEL 69 'Piston-Liner Contact' in case of interpolated Markers on Flexible Body (liner)
For the Force Element 69 'Piston-Liner Contact' if Markers on the

11/18

Flexible body (liner) are defined as RBE or interpolated, the following

error message appeared and the simulation was not successful:
"Cannot set transient flexible Body node position"
This has been fixed.
24588 - PreProcessor - Error when editing Forces of type 47 'Multi Point Bearing axial'
When editing a Force of type 47 'Multi Point Bearing axial' in SIMPACK
Pre, then the following error occurred and the model could not be saved:
ERROR: Error: Error retrieving properties
Fixed now.

Element: Marker Moved

24252 - Contact / Flex-Contact - Corrected legacy conversion for Marker 96 "Curve-Curve 2D-Contact"
The legacy conversion for Marker 96 "Curve-Curve 2D-Contact" previously
converted mirrored Markers (marker.par(7:9) incorrectly. Since mirrored
Markers are not supported the legacy conversion now exits with an error
message in these cases. To properly load such a model into SIMPACK 9,
the model must be adapted manually in SIMPACK classic (see the legacy
conversion documentation).
24258 - PreProcessor - Legacy conversion for Marker 87 overwritten states causing crash
If a SIMPACK classic (.sys-file) model containing a Marker of type 87
"Surface-surface 3D contact" is used as a submodel and if the algebraic
states of the Marker are overwritten in the main model, then SIMPACK
would crash during the legacy conversion of the model. Fixed now.
24376 - Contact / Flex-Contact - Incorrect legacy conversion of rotated 2D contour contact
3D contact Moved Marker 87 in SIMPACK Classic models was not correctly
legacy converted when using a contact surface from a rotated 2D contour:
In SIMPACK 9.2, Primitive 43 'Surface' would be used for representing
the contact surface. This was not correct because Primitive 7
'Rotational Body' is the appropriate Primitive for this kind of
surface geometries. Now Primitive 7 is used when legacy converting
SIMPACK Classic models.
Attention: SIMPACK 9.2 models using Primitive 43 will not be
automatically converted. The Primitive must be switched from type 43
to type 7 by hand.
24479 - PreProcessor - Marker 100 'Spherial Buffer Contact' not working
If a model containing Marker 100 'Spherial Buffer Contact' was loaded
or if such a Marker was newly created, a solver error message appeared
and the model could not be used. This has been fixed now.

Element: Primitive
23451 - PostProcessor - Primitive 19 'Point-To-Point' not properly deformed on Flexible Body in Post
If a Primitive of type 19 'Point to Point' uses Markers on Flexible
Bodies, it was not properly "deformed" during animation in SIMPACK Post.
However it was properly deformed in SIMPACK Pre. Now it is properly

12/18

deformed both in Pre and Post.

24372 - [Contact / Flex-Contact, Other] - Improvements and Fixes in Surface Primitive 43
The parameter texts for surface Primtive 43 were greatly improved and
superfluous parameters were removed. Also now unit information is read
from csv files for the surface type "deformed cylinder"
24480 - PostProcessor - Mirroring of Primitive type 39 incorrect in SIMPACK Post
If a Primitive is mirrored in the model and the results are loaded into
SIMPACK Post, the mirroring in y and z was ignored whereas mirroring in
the x direction worked properly. Now mirroring in all directions is
working correctly.

Element: Rail Wheel Contact

24449 - Rail - Solver crash if a Track Pair refers to only one Rail-Wheel Pair
If a Track Pair references only one Rail-Wheel Pair SIMPACK would crash.
This has been fixed.

Element: Reference Frame

24129 - Solver - Solver tuning option for merging Reference Systems
A new solver tuning option was added which allows merging reference
systems. This option is enabled per default and can be disabled via the
Global Settings in a model. Utilizing this option speeds up the solver
for models with many Reference systems, e.g. models with many
Substructures.

Element: Result
24463 - PreProcessor - Malfunction if a disabled Result Element "Container" is enabled again
If a Result Element type "Container" is disabled all minor tree elements
of this Result Element are disabled as well. If the Result Element is
enabled again, the minor tree elements were not enabled again.
This has been fixed.
24472 - User Routines - Result Element parameter dimension sometimes still restricted to 32
The number of Result Element and result channel parameters was still
restricted to 32 in some cases. Now the maximum number of result
parameters and result channel parameters is 130. Even though the
parameters are set using an Access Function it is currently not possible
to use more than 130 parameters.
This will be fully addressed in a later SIMPACK release.

Element: Substructure
24053 - PreProcessor - Wrong behaviour if additional SubVar file is loaded for a Substructure
If an additional SubVar file is loaded for a Substructure and one or
more of the SubVar names in this file were already used in the submodel
and one SubVar references another SubVar from the submodel this

13/18

reference was not updated properly. The name prefix was missing in the
formula string. This has been fixed.

Element: Subvar
24067 - PreProcessor - Changing of SubVar type not properly working in some cases
If a SubVar type is changed, e.g. from "0" to "$J_X", an error occurred
if this SubVar is referenced in a location that the expects the type to
be e.g. Joint. When switching the definition from e.g. "$J_X" to "0",
no error would occur in this case. Now both cases work properly.
24548 - PreProcessor - SUBSTR_ID returning wrong result for grouped SubVars
When a Substructure SubVar was contained in a group and the SUBSTR_ID
access function was used for the definition of that SubVar, then the
wrong value was returned for SUBSTR_ID. If the SubVar was not grouped
then the correct value was returned. Now the correct value is returned
in both cases.

Element: Track
24431 - PreProcessor - Default fade-in length manipulating measured track data
If a Track is defined by measured Track data via a .trm file (curvature
dpsi/ds), the curvature always started with an initial value of zero
even if the .trm file contained a different initial value. Fixed now.
24451 - [Automotive, Rail] - Internal error and instability of SIMPACK Pre after adding Cartographic Track segments
SIMPACK Pre generated an internal error when a superelevation or
vertical Cartographic Track segment was added, the model was saved and
then the Track dialog was re-opened. This has been fixed.
24656 - [Automotive, Rail] - Vertical CIR transitions ignored for SIMPACK format Cartographic Track files
When Cartographic Track files in he SIMPACK format were read, then the
vertical CIR transitions were not read properly. Fixed now.

Element: u-vector
24453 - PreProcessor - Error when loading .sys main model with .spck submodel when using u-Vector Elements
When loading a .sys main model and a .spck submodel already exists an
error occurred during u-Vector Element assignment. This has been fixed.

Solver: Nominal Forces

24151 - [All, PreProcessor] - Multi-edit not working properly in Preload Dialog
The multi-edit functionality in the Preload dialog has been improved.
It allows now to define "relate to" settings directly in the multi-edit
dialog. A number of additional checks has also been added to the dialog
to prevent circular relationships and other logical mistakes.

PostProcessor: Animation
24160 - PostProcessor - Improved FEMFAT export

14/18

The following improvements were added to the FEMFAT exporter:

- corrected formulas for computing the values which are exported
- ensured scaling factors are properly used
- enabled batch exporting via QSA Scripting
- ensured casing of file names is preserved correctly
24303 - PostProcessor - Error during animation if no modes available for Flexible Body Primitive
SIMPACK Post would not animate results if the model contained a Flexible
Body Primitive but the according Body did not have any modes.
This has been fixed and the behaviour is now as follows:
- no error message or warning appears
- if body is rigid, flex Primitive does not appear in the animation
- if Body is Flexible (but without any modes), flex Primitive appears
undeformed in the animation
24327 - PostProcessor - Substructure Isys objects not ignored for view refit and bounding box
In SIMPACK Post, when for an animation the flag is set to
"Exclude Isys fixed objects", the Objects attached to substructure Isys'
were still considered. This lead to a situation where views could not be
successfully modified and a refit did not work as expected if e.g. the
road or track was attached to a Substructure Reference System. This has
been fixed now such that also Geometry attached to a reference system on
a Substructure are ignored if the "Exclude Isys fixed objects" is set.
24404 - FlexModal - Force distributing constraints of ANSYS incorrectly handled by Loads
Force Distributing Constraints of ANSYS models were not handled
correctly by LOADS Stress&Strain. This has been fixed.
24545 - PostProcessor - PtP Primitive not displayed if non ASCII character used in Marker name
If a Primitive of type 19 'Point-To-Point' referenced a Marker which
had a non ASCII character in its name (such as a German Umlaut), then
SIMPACK Post would not properly display that Primitive. Fixed now.

PostProcessor: Plot
24467 - Scripting - Scripting and GUI malfunctions with text frames in SIMPACK Post
It was not possible to add more than one text or bitmap frame to a cell
via QSA Scripting. Also when adding a text frame via scripting and the
fitFrameToText option was set, then the size wasn't computed correctly
if the script was executed in batch mode. Both issued have been fixed.

Documentation
24344 - Release Notes of previous versions
The SIMPACK documentation now contains the release notes not only of the
current release but also for all previous releases. This allows easy
catching up when releases have been skipped.

Engine

15/18

24031 - Standalone model missing MBF file for .SID based Flexible Bodies
When generating a standalone model which references an .MBF file this
.MBF file was not included thus making the model not working correctly
if it relied on the .MBF file e.g. for an EHD simulation. This situation
only occured when working with .SID file based flexibly Bodies where the
.MBF file is implicitly referenced. Now in such cases the .MBF file is
added to the standalone model.

FlexModal
24278 - Incorrect conversion of .fbi-files from SIMPACK classic
.fbi-files that have been generated with SIMPACK Classic could sometimes
not be converted into the SIMPACK 9 .fbi format. The conversion could
fail for two reasons:
- an error occurred when reading the version of the classic .fbi file.
- the unit conversion has not been applied to the geometric stiffening
terms.
Both issues have been fixed.
24279 - Empty matrices in .fbi-files when writing with poor network connectivity
When writing .fbi files to a file system on a network with poor network
connectivity or small file system cache, then sporadically .fbi files
with empty matrices were generated. The .fbi writing were adapted so
that they can successfully write fbi files to drives with limited
resources. Also the error messages for these cases were improved.

LOADS
24314 - ANSYS input deck incorrect when eigenmodes max. frequency specified
If for a Flexible Body in the Loads tab a maximum frequency is specified
for the eigenmodes, then the ANSYS input deck for the stress recovery
was generated incorrectly. The number of eigenmodes to be extracted was
set to zero in this case which lead to errors during the ANSYS run.
This has been fixed now.

PostProcessor
24542 - Spurious crashes of SIMPACK Pre
Spurious crashes occurred in SIMPACK Pre in different situations. These
crashes were triggered by a bug in the underlying GUI toolkit Qt. The
Qt bug is now fixed and the spurious crashes are no longer occurring.
24658 - SIMPACK Post crash after second .sbr reload
If an sbr file was modified and reloaded more than once while it was
loaded in SIMPACK Post, then SIMPACK Post would crash. Fixed now.
24840 - SIMPACK Post sporadically writing garbage to .spf file
On Linux SIMPACK Post would sporadically write garbage to .spf file when
saving a project. These .spf are then no longer loadable. It is ensured
now, that no garbage is written to the project files anymore.

16/18

24255 - Concole window visible when SIMPACK Post executed

When launching SIMPACK Post on Windows either from the desktop icon or
via the start menu entry, a console window would appear and stay until
SIMPACK Post was closed again. Now the console window properly
disappears once SIMPACK Post is visible.

PreProcessor
24443 - Single quote in 2D Page block diagram annotation leads to unreadable file
Block diagram annotations containing a single quote, would be saved
incorrectly leading to an unreadable .spck files. This has been fixed.
24542 - Spurious crashes of SIMPACK Pre
Spurious crashes occurred in SIMPACK Pre in different situations. These
crashes were triggered by a bug in the underlying GUI toolkit Qt. The
Qt bug is now fixed and the spurious crashes are no longer occurring.
24072 - CG and I-Tensor visualization settings not saved to ini file
The CG and I-Tensor visualization settings were not saved to the SIMPACK
ini file. Now this works properly.
24106 - Improved table handling: speed and small bugs
Throughout the SIMPACK GUI the performance of tables was greatly
improved especially for inserting large numbers of rows and columns,
for pasting large amounts of data from the clipboard and for
displaying large tables. Also the interactions in tables via the
icons were streamlined.
24180 - Improved performance of online solver
For online solver modes that use a 3D animation, such as online
integration, online kinematics and online eigenmodes, the performance
was greatly improved.
24486 - Multi-edit failing for Combo Box parameters
When multi-editing elements that have parameters represented by
Combo Boxes, then the Combo Box parameters were changed without
user action. This has been fixed so that parameters are no longer
unintentionally modified during multi-edit.
24499 - Crash when modifying submodel if main model also open in SIMPACK Pre
If a model contains to levels of Substructure and a submodel from a
Substructure on the second level is opened and modified while the main
model is also loaded, SIMPACK Pre would crash. This has been fixed.

Solver
24127 - Improved Solver performance
The overall solver performance was improved by internal optimizations
of the SIMPACK formalism. For the single thread solver a speedup of up

17/18

to 10% was realized and for the parallel solver the speedup is up to
25% in a six thread scenario (speedup was measured compared to parallel
solver with six threads with the previous SIMPACK version).

General
23945 - Crash when switching additional SubVar file
When exchanging additional SubVar files used for a Substructure a crash
would sometimes occur. This has been fixed.

18/18