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MA*V2010*Z*Z*Z*DC-REL
Contents
Marc and Mentat 2010 Release Guide
Contents
Contents 3
Overview 5
Demonstration Problems 18
Troubleshooting Tips 44
Important Notes 52
Security 56
4 Marc and Mentat 2010 Release Guide
Overview 5
Marc User’s Guide
Overview
The release of Marc 2010 family of products broadly encompasses the following objectives:
• Major new enhancements in several areas in both solver and User Interface capabilities
• Substantial increase in robustness of analysis
• Improvements in quality – several defects in the previous versions have been fixed
• Computational improvements
Marc Functionalities
New elements have been introduced that are compatible with the structural interface elements for either pure heat
transfer or coupled thermal-mechanical analysis.
Element Technology
Element Type 220 4-node planar quadrilateral heat transfer interface element
Element Type 221 8-node planar quadrilateral heat transfer interface element
Element Type 222 8-node brick heat transfer interface element
Element Type 223 20-node brick heat transfer interface element
Element Type 224 4-node axisymmetric quadrilateral heat transfer interface element
Element Type 225 8-node axisymmetric quadrilateral heat transfer interface element
Element Type 226 6-node pentahedral heat transfer interface element
Element Type 227 15-node pentahedral heat transfer interface element
The pentahedral (wedge) heat transfer elements type 137 and 203 can now support latent heat effects.
6 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Material Behavior
• User-defined material orientation may now be defined in the ORIENT2 user subroutine which is more
powerful that the older ORIENT user subroutine. The new routine provides more information.
• The COHESIVE THERMAL option allows the input of thermal cohesive material properties which can be a
function of the cohesive element opening displacement, the position, the temperature, and the user-defined
state variables. The UCOHESIVET user subroutine may also be used.
• A new model has been added for modeling powder material which utilizes an exponential cap model. This is
entered via the POWDER option. This capability includes the ability to use material curve fitting. This model
may also be used in conjunction with the SOIL option. The exponential cap model is shown in the figure
below. For additional information, see Marc Volume A: Theory and User Information. The TERMINATE
option has been enhanced such that the simulation stops when the material reaches a certain level of
compaction.
• The MOONEY option has been expanded to support the full 5th order generalized Mooney strain energy
function.
• There are additional tests to verify that temperature dependent elastic properties are stable.
• The density can now be a function of temperature.
• The emissivity and absorption can now be a function of time.
• Damping coefficients can now be a function of time.
• Pressure Cavity Loads are used in a variety of industries including automotive for hydrodynamic mounts and
air springs. This can now be done in conjunction with the TABLE INPUT option (which is now the default in
Mentat).
• The COIL CURRENT and EMWINDING options have been added to allow easier definition of the current
flowing through the electrical windings for many electrical devices in electromagnetic simulations.
• There is improved input to the BSQUEAL (brake squeal) option that is used in conjunction with Nastran SOL
600. A UBSQUEAL user subroutine is also available.
Procedures
Mesh Splitting
• User subroutine UDELAM has been added to be used in conjunction with the DELAMIN option. This provides
greater user control as to when a mesh should be split due to material delamination.
Curing
• Curing can now be used with shell elements.
Usability
• Nine new user subroutines have been added to provide additional flexibility as given below:
• When the DMIG-OUT option is used to output element matrices, it is now possible to give them all the same
name. This facilitates reading them in using K2GG, M2GG, etc.
• The MPCOUT option has been introduced to allow you to write out the constraint options associated with
glued contact in Nastran format.
8 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
• There are new post codes to support harmonic analysis for solid, shell, and beam elements.
• The GLOBALLOCAL option may now be used in conjunction with global adaptive meshing, as long as this
only occurs in the global analysis.
• Many of the user subroutines have an alternative format that is activated through the MATUDS or CONUDS
model definition options. These alternative formats are currently under development and once fully deployed
will allow the user to enter an arbitrary amount of data in the input which will subsequently be passed into the
user subroutine.
• In simulations which undergo large deformation such that rezoning/remeshing is required, it is often useful to
follow the behavior of a material particle. The particle tracking capability allows the user to choose a point
during the post processing phase and follow the motion and examine the material state.
• It is now possible to perform an uncoupled thermal-structural analysis where the heat transfer analysis utilizes
a different mesh than the structural analysis. The MAP TEMP option is utilized to map the temperatures from
the heat transfer mesh to the structural mesh. This only works for continuum elements in this release.
Note: In the previous Beta release, the MAP TEMP option was called PRETHERMAL.
• The user can decide that convergence is based upon the vector magnitude of the residual or incremental
displacement rather than the component values. This can be entered through the CONTROL option in Marc; it
is not yet available in Mentat.
• Convergence testing has been added to the out-of-place component when generalized plane strain elements
are used.
• Residual testing is improved when springs-to-ground are used.
List of Latest Functionalities 9
Marc Functionalities
Contact
• In the Marc 2010 release, the separation criteria is more flexible when linear and quadratic elements are
present. In previous versions, stress-based separation based on extrapolated and averaged integration point
stresses was the only option. This method is still necessary for bodies consisting of quadratic elements; bodies
consisting of linear elements can use stress-based separation based on forces divided by an equivalent area.
When both bodies consisting of linear elements and quadratic elements are present in one model and the latter
separation method has been selected, then for quadratic elements, there is an automatic switch to stress-based
separation based on extrapolated and averaged integration point stresses.
• There is a new TERMINATE criteria that will stop the analysis if no nodes are in contact with a body.
• Moment carrying glued contact is now supported for 2-D (axisymmetric) shell and beam elements.
Segment-to-segment contact
• A new procedure has been developed to improve the accuracy of contact using a method called segment-to-
segment contact (STS). This procedure incorporates two changes to the implementation of contact:
• The detection of new contact
• The implementation of the constraints after contact is detected.
The STS procedure is well-suited for contact between lower- and higher-order elements. Using this method,
there is no longer a concept of master nodes and slave nodes which is beneficial for many problems.
• In this release, the STS procedure activated through the CONTACT option is only available for
mechanical/structural simulations and cannot be used with friction. The STS procedure is restricted to small
sliding deformable-to-deformable contact; there are no restrictions on the amount of sliding for deformable-to-
rigid contact. The breaking glue option, local adaptive mesh refinement, and global adaptive meshing are not
supported in this release with the STS procedure.
• The user also has a choice on the augmentation procedure used to impose the contact constraint. The default of
no augmentation is generally recommended. This leads to a cost effective solution, but may show a minimal
amount of penetration inherent in the penalty method. If the penetration is not acceptable, the augmentation
procedure can be activated, which can be based on a constant or bilinear penetration field per contact segment.
The augmentation procedure based on a bilinear field is not recommended for lower-order elements. Note that
the augmentation procedure only affects contact between deformable bodies. If there is contact between a
deformable and a rigid body, the augmentation procedure is always applied. When the STS procedure is used,
separation is based upon absolute stress based separation.
• All of the previously available capabilities are still available using the node-to-segment (NTS) contact
procedure which remains the default in this release.
• The figures below are an example of glued contact of a cantilevered beam using the node-to-segment method
and segment-to-segment method. The bottom right figure shows the improved stress continuity using the
segment-to-segment method.
10 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Node-to-segment Segment-to-segment
Wear
• The Wear capability introduced in Marc 2008r1 release has been substantially improved and a new WEAR
model definition option has been introduced. The UWEAR user subroutine has been replaced with the
UWEARINDEX user subroutine. There are new nodal post codes associated with this option.
Adaptive Meshing
• DEACT GLUE is now available with global adaptive meshing.
• The EXCLUDE option can be used with global adaptive meshing by defining the nodes to be excluded in a set.
List of Latest Functionalities 11
Marc Functionalities
Multi-physics
• It is now possible to do a coupled magnetostatic- thermal analysis. See MAGNETOSTATIC and THERMAL
parameters.
• It is now possible to do a coupled magnetostatic-structural analysis. See MAGNETOSTATIC and
STRUCTURAL parameters. The Lorentz force between bodies is calculated using either the Virtual Work
Method or the Maxwell Stress Tensor. This is selected through the FORCE MAGNETOSTATIC history
definition option. The Lorentz force can be written to the post file.
• Contact can be included in magnetostatic simulations for handling edge effects for magnetic fields. When two
3-D bodies come into contact, the tangential components of the magnetic vector potential are constrained to be
continuous, while the normal component is allowed to be discontinuous. This allows the magnetic vector
potential and, consequently, the magnetic field to be accurately predicted at interfaces between two materials
of different permeabilities. For electromagnetic contact bodies, this is the default way of imposing contact
constraints. It is now possible to determine the inductance of conductors in a magnetostatic analysis. The
conductors are treated as different contact bodies, and the EMINDUC option is used to activate the calculation.
This computation requires the specification of the EMWINDING option.
• It is now possible to determine the losses associated with a ferromagnetic core consisting of laminations of
thin magnetic sheets. This is activated using the EMLAMIN option.
• The permeability and permittivity of a vacuum can now be defined on the PARAMETER option.
• Thermal flux to the environment now supports natural convection when using the CONTACT or THERMAL
CONTACT options.
• In a electromagnetic/thermal analysis (induction heating) applied currents are now also taken into account for
heat generation. Note that, as of Marc 2010, harmonic electromagnetic boundary conditions must be specified
as RMS (Root Mean Square) values.
lo
d
d
Primary winding
Wd = 0.05 meters
li
Secondary winding
‘C’ Core Transformer with a Primary and Secondary Winding Contour Plot of the Magnetic Induction B shown in the Magnetic Core Only
12 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Computational Performance
• The multi-frontal solver (Solver type 8) can now perform in parallel on SMP (Shared Memory Parallel)
architectures on Windows 32, Windows 64, Linux 32 and Linux 64 based machines. The -nthread option is
used to control the number of processors. This is quite advantageous on modern multicore processors.
• The Pardiso parallel solver has been introduced (Solver type 11), which is also applicable for SMP
architectures on Windows 32, Windows 64, Linux 32 and Linux 64 based machines. The -nthread option is
used to control the number of processors. This solver has shown to have better performance than the
multifrontal solver, but it can only be used in parallel for problems where the decomposed matrix will fit into
memory.
• The MUMPS parallel solver has been introduced (Solver type 12), which is applicable for DMP (Distributed
Memory Parallel) and can also be used for SMP. For SMP architectures, the Pardiso solver is more efficient.
This solver utilizes MPI similar to the DDM capability. The number of processors used is controlled by the -
nsolver option. It is also possible to use the MUMPS solver in conjunction with low level parallelization by
using both the -nsolver option and the -nthread option.
• Excluding SGI, the DDM option utilizes an iterative solution technique between the domains. In the Marc
2010 it is possible to use a parallel direct solution process. This works in conjunction with either the Pardiso
solver or the CASI solver. It should be noted that this results in increased memory utilization as a full stiffness
matrix is created. The -np or -nps commands are used to control the number of domains and either -
nthread or -nsolver is used to control the number of CPU used to decompose the global stiffness matrix.
• In the Marc 2010 release, as an “experimental” capability, it is possible to use the CASI iterative solver in
conjunction with DDM. While this has shown good performance in many simulations, it has not shown the
robustness for solving all problems. If one encounters problems when using DDM, one should either switch to
a different solver or deactivate DDM.
• It is now possible to use DDM with global adaptive meshing. The only restriction is that each body to be
remeshed must be in a single domain.
• The processing time associated with reading the input file and creating domains when using DDM, Single
Input File has been substantially reduced.
As an example of the performance improvements in Marc 2010, the results of a contact analysis involving rubber and
steel materials that has 50,000 nodes is shown below.
25719.12
30000
25000
20000
15000 9203.89
7873.72
10000
5000
0
2005r3 (Multi 2010 (Multi 2010 (Pardiso)
Frontal Solver) Frontal Solver)
List of Latest Functionalities 13
Mentat Functionalities
Input
• The input of material data and the convergence control data has been modified for multi-physics analysis. All
previous input files will continue to work. The new input is based upon putting the type of physics on the
ISOTROPIC, ORTHOTROPIC, CONTROL option, etc. It results in greater flexibility of the simulation
capabilities, increased readability of the input file and more streamlined documentation.
• The definition of electrical conductivity, electrical permittivity, and magnetic permeability has been
reorganized.
Mentat Functionalities
General
• A new menu item named BACKUP located in the SPEED menu enhances the support for UNDO by restricting
which commands (menu items) are backed up when the BACKUP option is set to partial. This is
particularly useful with large models where before the UNDO option had to be turned off to avoid unnecessary
database backups. See the command help (press middle mouse over the BACKUP button) for specific
information regarding what commands are not backed up when the partial option is enabled.
• A button ALL has been added in the SELECT NODES BY TRANSFORM menu which issues the new
command *select_all_nodes_transform. The command will select all nodes that have a transformation
• Shear loads on edges of shell elements and edge loads perpendicular to the midplane of shell elements. The
loads can be found in the BOUNDARY CONDITIONS>STRUCTURAL>EDGE LOAD menu.
• Creating restart files at the end of each loadcase or at a specific increment. See the JOBS>PROPERTIES>JOB
PARAMETERS>RESTART menu.
• Up to 16 viscoplastic parameters to be used in conjunction with user subroutine UVSCPL
• Damping data for COMPOSITE, MIXTURE, and REBAR material types
• The option to define whether deactivated elements must or must not appear on the post file. This writes the
“post” and “nopo” string on the DEACTIVATE option. Note that this currently can only be set for the job as a
whole.
Materials
The data structure that contains material data has been restructured, offering the following advantages:
• The material data in the data structures are retained even if the controlling option is deactivated.
• Inserting layers in the middle of a composite material is now achievable.
• Model files are smaller when using composite materials.
• Automatically generated material names are now consecutive (material1, material2, etc.).
• Data checking is greatly enhanced.
Backward compatibility of old model files and procedure files has been achieved to a great extent. If old procedure
files do not run correctly, insert the line
*prog_option compatibility:prog_version:ment2008
Preprocessing
• A menu now exists to enable multiple tables to be selected for plotting in the generalized XY plotter.
• The labels for plots when doing the COPY TO CLIPBOARD command have been enhanced to display the
individual curve labels.
List of Latest Functionalities 15
Mentat Functionalities
• New procedure functions were added (see the Marc Python Reference Manual for details):
• The node set for PARTICLE TRACKING is now automatically generated by Mentat. In previous versions, a
user set had to be created first, which then had to be referenced in the PARTICLE TRACKING menu. Now,
creation of a user set is not required anymore. Instead, two new commands have been added to the PARTICLE
TRACKING menu that allow adding and removing nodes. Backward compatibility in reading old model files
and running old procedure files has been ensured.
• For consistency, some automatically generated sets have been renamed:
• The domain decomposition method RECURSIVE COORDINATE BISECTION has been added.
• Convergence control options and parameters for MAGNETOSTATIC and ELECTROSTATIC loadcases have
been changed. For the MAGNETOSTATIC loadcase, the option “error” has been replaced by the option
“resid_current”, and the parameters “relcurrent” and “abscurrent” have been replaced by respectively
“current” and “maxcurrent”. For the ELECTROSTATIC loadcase, the submenus SOLUTION CONTROL and
CONVERGENCE TESTING have been added. Previously, no convergence testing could be flagged from
Mentat for this loadcase type. Note that old procedure files need to include the line *prog_option
compatibility:prog_version:ment2008 if
- an electrostatic loadcase is created
- the option “error” is set for a magnetostatic loadcase
16 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Post processing
• It is now possible to define a curve that is to be used for creating path plots that is independent of the nodes.
This can also be used in conjunction with global adaptive meshing.
• It is now possible to select material points to be tracked in a model using global adaptive meshing after the
analysis is completed. The motion of these material points may be tracked, including their values. It is also
possible to make a time history of quantities associated with these tracking points.
• A report writer is now available which will collect node and element values and write them to a data file. It is
in the RESULTS->MORE->REPORT WRITER menu.
• History collect has been improved for systems with slow I/O. In particular, if many values (many nodes, many
results variables on the post file) have to be read off the file, the history collect is significantly faster.
• The HISTORY PLOT menu has been redesigned. The SET NODES button has been renamed to SET
LOCATIONS and now accepts a mixed list of nodes and sample points. The latter are material points that can
be defined in postprocessed to investigate the solution at arbitrary locations in the model (see
RESULTS>SAMPLE POINTS menu). The COLLECT GLOBAL DATA and COLLECT DATA buttons have been
renamed to ALL INCS and INC RANGE, respectively.
• In the HISTORY PLOT CURVES menus (RESULTS>HISTORY PLOT>ADD CURVES), the ADD NODE button
has been renamed to ADD LOCATION and now accepts either a node or a sample point. Similarly, the ADD 2-
NODE CRV button has been rename to LOC1 vs. LOC2 and now accepts either two nodes, two sample points,
or a node and a sample point. The ADD 1-NODE CURVE button has been removed from the menu.
List of Latest Functionalities 17
Mentat Functionalities
Display
• It is now possible to run Mentat in the background, although on a Unix machine it is still necessary to have a
graphical device attached through the DISPLAY environment variable. The procedure file should end with the
*quit yes command and the program launched with the -bg command line option. Note that the
*image_save commands are not supported in this mode.
• The display of fonts on Microsoft Windows has been improved. The fonts that are not an ANSI character set
are filtered unless the following environment variables are set:
set MSC_ALL_RASTER_CHARSETS=1
set MSC_ALL_TT_CHARSETS=1
• Additional font types and sizes may be used on Microsoft Windows by setting the environment variables
FONT_NAME_LIST and FONT_SIZE_LIST to contain a list of valid font names and sizes. The names are
separated by either a comma or semicolon and the sizes may also be separated by a space. For example, to
create additional fonts of Arial and Times New Roman in font sizes of 14, 18, and 24, set the variables to:
set FONT_NAME_LIST=Arial;Times New Roman
set FONT_SIZE_LIST=14 18 24
Marc Reader
• SPRINGS IDs are now translated.
• The CONM1 and CONM2 options are now translated.
• Mixture materials are now translated.
• The RECEDING SURFACE option is now translated.
External Libraries
• The Patran meshers have been upgraded to version v16-107 on all platforms
• The DXF, IGES and VDAFS file translators have been upgraded to use PDElib v6.2 on all platforms
18 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Demonstration Problems
In addition to these latest functionalities the Marc User’s Guide, Marc Volume E: Demonstration Problems
demonstrates a wider set listed below. Cross-reference Tables in Chapter 1 of Volume E list the options used in these
new demonstration problems.
Chapter.
Problem Description
2.50 Added examples of user subroutines ORIENT, ANEXP, INITSV, and NEWSV using table input to
demonstrate thermal strains in anisotropic material.
2.60 Added example demonstrating semi-infinite elements.
2.81 Added examples of user subroutine GENSTR for a composite plate.
2.89 Demonstrates GRID FORCE, COORD SYSTEM, SERVO LINKS, REBARS.
2.91 Demonstrate Rebar element type 165.
2.92 Demonstrates user subroutine FORCEM for a variety of loading conditions.
3.46 Demonstrates user subroutine UDAMAGE_INDICATOR.
3.48 2-D Axisymmetric Compaction of a Powder Compact using the Generalized Exponential Cap Powder
Model.
3.49 3-D Compaction of a Flat-top Four-sided Pyramid under Compressive Loading - Benchmark with the
von Mises Case.
4.26 Added example of user subroutine UACTUAT.
7.14 Added example demonstrating user subroutine ELEVAR, UBGINC, UEDINC.
7.37 Demonstrate grain growth and user subroutine UGRAIN.
8.1 Demonstrate segment-to-segment contact.
8.29 Demonstrate new WEAR model and user subroutine UWEARINDEX.
8.31 Demonstrate user subroutine USIZEOUTL for global adaptive meshing.
8.32 Demonstrate user subroutine USPLIT for global adaptive meshing.
8.33 Demonstrate the use of user subroutines UENERG and UGROWRIGID for a rubber analysis.
8.44 Added a version that uses adaptive global meshing.
8.63 Added example of user subroutine UACOUS.
8.94 Demonstrate use of user subroutine USPLIT_MESH.
8.104 Analysis of a composite dome with user subroutine ORIENT2.
11.10 Add VCCT example.
12.15 Add example of user subroutine UEPS for anisotropic permittivity.
12.33 Add example of user subroutines UBGINC, UMU, and PLOTV to demonstrate anisotropic permeability.
12.35 Add example of user subroutine USIGMA to define anisotropic conductivity.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 19
Marc
Chapter.
Problem Description
12.45 Capacitance Matrix Computation of Two Parallel Circular Conducting Cylinders in Free Space using
2-D Electrostatic Analysis.
12.46 Self Inductance Computation using 2-D Axisymmetric Magnetostatic Analysis of a Single Turn
Circular Coil with Circular Cross-section.
12.47 Self and Mutual Inductance using 2-D Planar Magnetostatic Analysis of Two Parallel Pairs of
Infinitely Long Straight Wires of Circular Cross-section.
12.48 Self Inductance and Magnetic Induction Distribution using 2-D Axisymmetric Magnetostatic Analysis
of Cylindrically Wound Coil around an Air Core.
12.49 Magnetic Induction and Winding Current Distribution using 3-D Magnetostatic Analysis of a ‘C’ Core
Transformer.
12.50 Edge Effects and Magnetic Induction Distribution in Cylindrical Inductor with Highly Permeable Core
using 3-D Magnetostatic Analysis.
12.51 Magnetic Induction, Lamination Loss, and Temperature Distribution using 3-D Magnetostatic-
Thermal Analysis of a ‘C’ Core Transformer.
12.52 Coupled Magnetostatic Structural Analysis.
Documentation
The following improvements have been made to the documentation.
• Added cross referencing between Marc Volume C: Program Input and Marc Volume A: Theory and User
Information so that it is easier to find theoretical description of options.
• Added cross referencing between Marc Volume D: User Subroutines and Special Routines and Marc Volume
A: Theory and User Information so one can observe examples of the user subroutines.
Marc
Adaptive Meshing and Rezoning
1 Point tracking and flowlines were wrong if used in more than one deformable contact body.
2 The option of reading initial temperatures from the post file would go wrong if an increment after a remeshing
was requested. The number of elements would not match and the job stop.
3 The analysis could stop if multiple contact bodies were being remeshed and the bodies used different element
types or materials.
20 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
4 The use of the INSERT option together with remeshing could result in a program crash if the embedded part of
the model shares nodes with the remeshed body.
5 In a 3-D analysis with local adaptivity and mesh unrefinement, the post file was sometimes incorrectly written
so that the post processor could not read the post file.
6 The shell normals were sometimes flipped after remeshing. This was causing problems in cases of distributed
load or contact.
7 In some cases shell remeshing could produce an incorrect mesh. Part of shell mesh was lost during remeshing.
The code attempted to remove thin triangles by merging with neighbors and the tolerances for this were not set
properly.
8 The DELAM mesh split option did not work correctly with local adaptivity. This was also true for mesh splitting
via user subroutine USPLIT_MESH.
9 Shell global remeshing did not work correctly with the option to specify the target number of elements for the
remeshing. This is the case for the total Lagrange formulation. Updated Lagrange is working correctly.
10 Nodal boundary conditions applied directly to nodes went wrong after remeshing for shells. After remeshing
the boundary conditions were applied to the wrong nodes. A workaround for previous versions is to apply the
boundary conditions to geometric entities.
11 An analysis with local adaptivity and volume load could stop with an input error if the elements with the volume
load were not all part of a contact body. This restriction is for global remeshing but was incorrectly enforced
for local adaptivity as well.
12 The display of rigid bodies on the post file would be incorrect for the case of using 3-D rigid surface cylinder
if radius of top surface is negative and for sphere if radius is negative. For the sphere also, the contact behavior
was wrong. If analytical option is not used also, the contact behavior is wrong. Note that analytical for cylinders
can only be used if this is the only entity of the body.
13 In a 2-D contact analysis using stress based separation, the contact normal stress on the post file for touched
bodies consisting of linear elements is zero. Other analysis results are OK.
14 Added protection so the program ends cleanly when user tries to do remeshing or global adaptive analysis with
higher order elements.
15 Allow remeshing in a model that contains rebar elements, as long as the rebar elements themselves are not
remeshed.
16 An error occurred when user subroutine UADAP was used in a local adaptive analysis, when the user subroutine
calls the elmvar resulting in an Exit 9999.
17 Global adaptive meshing was losing FILM and QVECT boundary conditions.
18 For a welding job using adaptive meshing for weld filler elements, the job aborts if the number of weld filler
elements exceeded the maximum filler element count provided on the WELDING parameter. This restriction is
now removed -the max. filler element count on the WELDING parameter does not need to be specified.
19 Rezoning or global adaptive analysis was not available for viscoelastic material.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 21
Marc
Buckling
1 Error in linear buckling analysis (no LARGE DISP) with FOLLOW FORCE stiffness matrix switched on. This
happens if load is applied in increment 0. Workaround is to apply no load in increment zero and apply load in
increment 1, followed by the buckle estimation.
2 Error in buckling analysis if the structure has not been loaded. In this case, the case the initial stress stiffening
matrix is zero and unexpected results may occur in the eigenvalue extraction.
17 When a volumetric load was applied on a part of elements of a body and these elements were subdivided by
local adaptive all elements in the body would get this volumetric load.
18 Improvements have been made to the point load follower force option using automated style. The algorithm to
identify optimal tracking nodes for the follower force is enhanced. The updating algorithm for 3-D point
follower loads has also been fixed.
19 Output of user-defined boundary conditions was incorrect for some options when using Table Input; the results
were correct.
Contact
1 Friction coefficient with table dependent on temperature/body force/position/normal stress did not work for 3d
distributed friction.
2 Possible exit 2011 with 3-D contact in a model with user tyings, servo links or RBEs if a node touches multiple
deformable or load controlled bodies.
3 In rare cases the optimized contact constraints contact option would results in exit 2011. The last message seen
in the .out file is:
*** error - can not figure out contact priority
4 The case of a temperature varying with a table for rigid contact bodies and the environmental temperature did
not work correctly for 3-D. The 2-D case was correct.
5 In a coupled magnetostatics analysis the wrong contact constraint was set up for nodes with transformations.
6 The initial gap status for gap elements would be changed to open if there was no load in increment 0.
7 When a hex element is connected to two degenerated wedge elements the interface was not removed. These
remaining faces will be treated as external contact faces. This causes incorrect results in analysis and may cause
remeshing failure if hex mesh is to be converted to tet mesh through remeshing.
8 When a transformation is applied to a control or auxiliary node of a load controlled rigid body by the COORD
SYSTEM option, then the vector of the transformation axis was wrong. The deformable body would then not
touch the rigid body.
9 In a large rotation shell analysis, if a node came into contact and immediately after that was sliding off a sharp
edge, convergence was occasionally not obtained.
10 In glued contact using the options where the initial gap is not removed, the gap was not always correctly
maintained in an analysis with large rotations.
11 The following case in glued contact would produce incorrect results. A continuum element is touching a shell
element. There is an offset at the touched segment (due to shell offset, shell thickness or initial gap) and the
touched node has a transformation.
12 If in a 2-D analysis a small element is touching a large NURBS curve with a high curvature, a penetration of
the rigid curve could occur.
13 The thickness at the touching nodes was not taken into account in 2-D contact for the axisymmetric shell
elements and the 2-D beam elements 5 and 45.
14 A program crash could occur in a thermal or coupled contact analysis using shell elements with more than 3
thermal degrees of freedom per node.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 23
Marc
15 In glued contact the answers were slightly wrong if a transformed node is glued to a shell.
16 Possible wrong results if in a 3-D contact problem a node has a FIXED DISP and it touches both a Load
controlled body and a Velocity/Position controlled body.
17 The friction stress (nodal post code 36) on nodes of quadratic elements may be non-zero even if there is no
friction between the contact bodies involved. Since the friction stress is only calculated for post processing, this
does not affect the other analysis results.
18 When a shell element is almost perpendicular to another surface, it could happen that contact was missed if top
and bottom of the shell node were coming into contact with two different segments or rigid bodies.
19 Possible problem with stress free initial projection on symmetry surfaces if the symmetry surface is modelled
much smaller than the FE model (the symmetry face is automatically extended).
A workaround was to make the symmetry surface cover the whole FE model.
20 Only up to 99 contact bodies were allowed when the option of “load active in contact” was used.
21 Stress based separation does not work for composite continuum elements (types 149-154), use force based
separation instead.
22 Distributed friction is wrong for composite continuum elements (types 149-154), use nodal based friction
instead.
23 The APPROACH option with new style tables sometimes leads to Exit 40 (the rigid body during approach does
not contact any deformable after 1000 trials).
24 Force/area based separation might go wrong if a contact body of, e.g., brick elements is “plastered” with very
thin shell elements not belonging to any contact body.
25 The DEACT GLUE option of contact did not work with remeshing. There wasn’t any protection against this
combination and the program would give incorrect results or terminate.
26 Occasionally, in a coupled contact analysis with near thermal contact option activated, an Exit 1001 or program
abort would occur.
27 When a rigid was positioned exactly on the top of a deformable, it could lead to significant stresses at the
interface when no loading was present.
28 If top-bottom contact with ignore thickness is being used for nonshell bodies, separation is wrong.
29 The reported work done by friction forces is wrong for cases where the relative displacement of contacting
nodes follows from a moving rigid body (if a deformable body moves along a rigid body the work is correct,
but if a rigid body moves along a deformable body it is wrong). It should be noted that this work is only a post
processing quantity and does not affect other results; even the applied heat due to friction in a coupled thermal-
mechanical analysis is correct.
30 Occasionally, an infinite loop occurs due to penetration in a contact analysis.
31 Incorrect results may occur when collapsed linear quad patches are used in contact (coming from collapsed
brick elements, penta elements, tet elements or triangular shell elements) when nodes are sliding off the edges.
32 Repeated application of CHANGE RIGID may cause the program to terminate because of memory allocation
problems.
33 Error with defining a Cylindrical Surface using Geometry Type 10 to represent the surface, using NURB
surface is o.k.
24 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Convergence
1 Added convergence testing on out-of-plane behavior for generalized plane strain elements. The criteria chosen
used is the same as the rest of the model but it is only applied separately to the rest of the model.
2 Allow force associated with spring to ground to be used in residual/reaction force testing. If model had to fixed
displacements and only springs to ground using the previous procedure, convergence would not be obtained.
3 Convergence problems could occur in models using the material orientation option. Small angles in the
orientation transformation matrix were neglected, but this could in some cases cause convergence problems.
4 Fix PYROLYSIS based error criteria. The user tolerances were ignored.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 25
Marc
Dynamics
1 Harmonic analysis was giving wrong reaction forces if initial stress stiffness matrix was ignored or modified
(deviatoric or stress only).
2 On Windows XP64, generating an Adams MNF file may fail. If it fails, the analysis typically ends with Exit
3019
3 The initial velocity/Initial displacement/Initial acceleration cannot be given in Mentat for the extra nodes of
element types 155-156-157 in a dynamic analysis. If, in a dynamic analysis, the initial velocity/initial
displacement/initial acceleration is not defined for the extra nodes of element types 155, 156, and 157, Marc
will then calculate them based on the values in the corner nodes.
Electromagnetic
1 Defining a permanent magnet in a harmonic electromagnetic analysis was inconsistent to transient
electromagnetic and magnetostatic analyses. For harmonic electromagnetic, M0 was expected so that the
remanence was computed as Br=mu0*M0, where mu0 is the permeability of vacuum and is given on the
MATERIAL DATA option. In other cases, Br is simply read from the input card. The mu0 is now no longer used
from the material card. Note that mu0 is now available on the PARAMETERS option, but will not be used for
permanent magnets.
2 The Lorentz force was not correct for an electromagnetic harmonic or transient analysis.
3 The residual convergence method in magnetostatic analysis requires a large number of iterations for a nonlinear
magnetic material if a small value of convergence is used. A small value of convergence is required to obtain
an accurate solution. To overcome this problem, an additional energy convergence method is provided. This
requires fewer iterations for the same accuracy of the convergence tolerance.
Element Formulation
1 Allowing a maximum of seven layers for solid shell (element type 185) in coupled analysis is only needed for
noncomposite materials. Previously, all solid shell coupled analyses with SHELL SECT > 7 would end in exit
13.
2 The 6-noded pentahedral element was incorrect with distributed friction and thermal contact.
3 Thermal films coefficients for pentahedral elements was incorrect if old style (no table) input was used.
4 A Modal analysis with the solid shell element (element type 185) with more than one composite layer gave
wrong answers.
5 Face loads on tetrahedral element were in some cases incorrectly handled with the table driven input style for
Poisson type analyses (for instance heat transfer).
6 If the coordinates of nodes corresponding to element types 155, 156, or 157 are defined in a local coordinate
system, the analysis could prematurely abort with error code 13 (element inside out).
7 Mass matrix of tetra element type 134 and type 157 was under integrated.
Mass matrix of tria element type 155 and type 156 was under integrated.
Mass matrix of tria element type 124, type 125 and type 126 was under integrated.
This could lead to problems in eigenvalue analysis and initial conditions calculations in unconstrained models.
26 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
8 A singular operator matrix could occur in models using the pin-code option. Also, eigenvalue analysis would
sometimes go wrong.
9 For solid composites we would over allocate memory with an extra layer if there is an even number of layers.
Also, a job listing nonexisting elements would fail with exit 9999 as a consequence to inconsistencies due to
the over allocation.
10 Element type 63 (axisymmetric Fourier element) gives wrong answers for buckling.
11 Fix distributed load with element type 96 (axisymmetric element with bending).
12 Axisymmetric composite element types 152 and 154 and plane strain element types 151 and 153 give incorrect
results if layers use a nonzero ply orientation angle in the composite option. The transformations between
preferred and element coordinate systems ignore the shear terms that in the axisymmetric case or plane strain
case are identically zero. This approach is only valid if the total layer build-up assures axial symmetric behavior
or pure plane strain behavior globally.
13 Integration point coordinates may not be correct if both continuum and beam elements in model. This may
cause problems if pressure or material property is a function of integration point position
14 Improve accuracy / convergence of large rotation beams in total Lagrange framework.
15 Fix volume flux for element types 36 and 65.
16 Integration point coordinates were not correct for element type 125 and 155.
17 Fix mass matrix for element type 157.
18 The mass matrix for the torsional degrees of freedom was incorrect for beam element types 76 and 77.
19 The reduced integration elements 121 and 122 are not available for magnetostatic analysis. A protection has
been given for these elements and the analysis is stopped with exit number 13 if they are used incorrectly.
Fracture Mechanics
1 In a 3-D crack propagation analysis with VCCT, the crack would stop growing if any node of the crack front
reached a boundary. This was done by design. This has now been extended so that the crack continues to grow
until all nodes at the crack front have reached a boundary.
2 3-D VCCT calculation could go wrong if a crack front with a high curvature is used. If not enough elements
along the crack front were used, then the crack tip forces would be incorrectly calculated leading to incorrect
VCCT results. This only applies to the case that the crack face is curved. For a flat crack face, the problem
would not occur.
3 The program may terminate for 3-D VCCT crack propagation if part of the crack front reaches the boundary.
4 VCCT based fatigue did not show correct growth with the options of releasing constraints and grow along
element edges. The part of the given or calculated growth increment that could not be released is now added to
the next fatigue cycle.
5 VCCT crack propagation with glued contact could in certain cases select an incorrect node for the next crack
tip. A typical case where this happened was when a contact body is one element thick and is touched from both
sides.
6 Stress intensity factors with the Lorenzi option are incorrect if more than one crack is used. The J-integral
values are correct.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 27
Marc
21 There was an error in the cure rate calculation for the Lee, Loos, and Springer cure kinetics models when the
degree of cure was larger than the critical degree of cure.
22 If a CHANGE STATE boundary condition was specified on a group of elements in a body which is later
remeshed, then only the first element in the remeshed body would get this change.
23 If the INITIAL TEMP option with new style table input was used in a stress analysis to read nodal temperatures
from a post file, then the analysis aborted prematurely with exit number 13.
24 ABLATION, SURFACE ENERGY was incorrect when applied to the 4-1 face of a quadrilateral element.
18 Error in reading input file for fluid-thermal-solid if the solid material was orthotropic, previous version would
result in an Exit 13.
19 Reading of PIN CODES was incorrect very large element ids are used.
20 Integration point temperature output for thermal composite solid elements for layers greater than one is not
available on post file.
21 If, in a mechanical analysis, user-defined post codes between -300 and -521 are used, then the variable jpltcd
in the PLOTV user subroutine is incremented with 6 rather than 1. So jpltcd is passed to PLOTV with values
-300,-301,-307, -313,... instead of -300,-301,-302,-303,-304, -305,-306,...
22 Program would terminate if, for new table input, INITIAL DISP or INITIAL VEL is specified in a static analysis.
This should give Exit 13.
23 Fix case of Patran generated input which uses a single increment per loadcase and a ramp was used. Load was
not being applied based upon end of loadcase.
24 Output of stress in preferred direction was incorrect for anisotropic incompressible elasticity using Herrmann
element formulation. Results were correct.
25 Marc writes temperature in SDRC universal file format incorrectly with coupled analysis. Temperature is the
value at previous increment.
26 GRID FORCE output for a node with a fixed displacement was not consistent with Nastran output.
27 GRID FORCE output when used in conjunction with contact has been improved.
28 Elements deactivated due to the IO-DEACT parameter were still written to the post file.
29 Error/warning message not printed if IO-DEACT used and original mesh already has inside-out elements.
30 Input files with multiple INCLUDE files occasionally would terminate.
31 The use of the CYLINDRICAL option to define transformations for planar analyses was incorrect. It was correct
for 3-D simulations.
32 Problems when a Node with CORD2R transformation when it is located along the local z-axis, then Marc reset
its transformation to the global system. Actually, the r-axis is well defined. Only the theta- and phi-axis are not
well defined. Nastran and Mentat choose the theta-axis to be the y-axis and the phi-axis is defined accordingly.
This fix will reflect the consistency between Marc, Mentat, and Nastran.
33 The post file was incorrectly written if all elements in the model were deactivated. This resulted in problems
reading the post file.
34 A post file for a restart job using the deactivate option would be incorrect if it should be a continuous file from
a previous job.
35 Nodal printed output (output file, not post file) of fluid region in a fluid-solid mixed method or a fluid-thermal-
solid analysis was incorrect.
36 Improved accuracy of PRINT VMASS option output.
37 Fix access violation with PRINT NODE.
38 Fix elmvar utility with composite bricks.
39 Fix problem with SUMMARY and DDM.
30 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Material Behavior
1 When using the ORIENTATION option 3D LOCAL, a nonzero rotation about the first preferred direction axis
was not correctly taken into account thus leading to an incorrect orientation.
2 The total energy calculation for MIXTURE materials was wrong.
3 A MIXTURE material with a single component was incorrect.
4 The MIXTURE material with shell element types 22, 75, 138, 139, 140 had a small error in the drill stress.
5 MIXTURE material with coupled analysis and plastic heat generation was giving wrong results.
6 The plane stress case did not work correctly for nonlinear viscoelasticity. The stresses would be wrong.
7 The thickness strain for generalized plane strain elements was not calculated correctly for the updated Lagrange
formulation.
8 Element deactivation due to damage was not working in certain cases. If multiple materials with damage was
used and one was not using element deactivation the element, deactivation could fail.
9 If material data base is used (.mat file), a flag is updated if this information is not present in the ISOTROPIC
option (6th field). In a DDM (parallel) run, this information was not passed to other domains, leading to
incorrect material behavior.
10 In a curing analysis with isotropic material, the displacements could be zero even though the cure strain was
nonzero. The case of orthotropic material was correct.
11 The combination of the NLELAST option with large strain plasticity activated could lead to difficulties in
obtaining convergence.
12 For an ORTHOTROPIC material, the coefficient representing YRSHR1 of the Hill criterion or C3 of the Barlat
criterion is not correctly processed when it is not equal to one.
13 If multiple material databases were used and there was an error associated with one of them, the error flag was
overwritten and the input error not being detected.
14 The calculation of failure indices with the FAIL DATA option was not done correctly for isotropic material with
a material orientation used. The evaluation should be done in the preferred system (as defined by orientation)
which was not the case.
15 Results were incorrect in a heat transfer curing analysis in old style input with AUTO STEP. The curing flux
was not treated correctly. Results are correct with new style input.
16 An analysis using the T-T-T option would go wrong if more than two different materials was used.
17 The anisotropic plasticity options Hill and Barlat were giving incorrect results for isotropic materials with
orientations.
18 Incorrect material behavior has been observed with low tension material with Crushing Strain Limit in the
CRACK DATA option
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 31
Marc
19 In a creep analysis, where there are multiple element types or material types and the number of element for
checking stress change of AUTO CREEP option is greater than one, the wrong elements are checked.
20 Improve convergence and remove iteration sensitivity for unequal Austenite/Martensite moduli when using the
Auricchio shape memory model.
21 Fixed problems with the phase strain and Martensite volume fraction for unequal Austenite/Martensite moduli
when using the Auricchio shape memory model.
22 The thermo-mechanical shape memory material model was highly time-step dependent. For large changes in
stress/temperature, the transformation zones from Austenite-Martensite and vice-versa were incorrectly
tracked or missed altogether.
23 Possible material instability problems would occur for linear viscoelastic analysis because only the
instantaneous (short term) moduli were checked. A check was added on the stability of the long term stress
strain law for linear isotropic and orthotropic viscoelastic materials. Exit with number 13 when the long term
behavior is not positive definite.
24 Elastic strain energy was not correct when elasticity constants are temperature dependent.
25 Explicit creep with an elastic material would go wrong with the LARGE STRAIN option. There was an incorrect
switch to total Lagrange formulation for this case.
26 When Herrmann elements are present in the input, then the formulation is switched from additive to
multiplicative plasticity. This switch was not done correctly. Now, a job where this switch occurs will behave
just as if multiplicative plasticity was used in the input (large stra,2)
27 Cowper-Symonds strain rate model gives incorrect results when new style input is used and a table variation of
the coefficients is used.
28 Defining a material orientation with the CURVE option did not work well if the curve was a complex NURB
curve.
29 Using conventional elements with a Poisson ratio of exactly 0.5 may lead to a numerical error depending on
the accuracy of the computer. One should either reduce the value of the Poisson ratio, or use Herrmann elements
if a small strain incompressible elastic problem.
30 Thermal strains were incorrect with MIXTURE material.
31 Strain energies were wrong for mixture models 1 and 2. The displacements, stresses and strains were correct.
This would have a negative influence on the AUTO STEP option if the numerical damping was tied to the strain
energy.
32 The MIXTURE model was not available for elastic beam elements types 52 and 98.
33 Added protection for NLELAST models, in the case that at zero strain, the stress is not zero.
34 NLELAST – model 6 had some wrong output when reading in the data, the results were correct.
35 NLELAST was not using the proper material orientation.
36 Allow materials to have negative Poisson ratio as long as it is within the range of – 0.999 0.5 .
37 Using the fast integrated composite option would lead to incorrect results if used with solid shell element 185.
This option should be ignored for this element but this was not the case. As a work around, turn off the fast
integration option.
38 An Exit 1001 may occur in a delamination simulation with local remeshing.
32 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
39 Material orientation based upon cylindrical coordinate system was erroneous if shell and. continuum elements
were in the model
40 Fix Narayanaswamy time-temperature transformation model when user-defined state variables are used.
41 Mixture materials with shell element 75 – small error in drilling stress
42 Creep was not supported for Herrmann elements in Updated Lagrange framework. Now it is.
43 The NLELAST model with stress cut-off experienced converge problems in certain cases. This is now
improved.
44 Thermal strain is incorrect with implicit creep in table-driven format. The value is incremental temperature
even though it must be temperature at end of increment. This has now been corrected.
45 The thermo-mechanical shape memory model now allows the calculation of plastic strain tensor (post code
321), equivalent plastic strain in Austenite (post code 552) and equivalent plastic strain in Martensite (post code
553).
46 Fix possible problem when using ORIENTATION option based upon curves.
Multiphysics Analysis
1 Near thermal contact with flexible or heat transfer rigid bodies could, in some cases, be slightly wrong. The
temperature of the touched body would not be quite correct.
2 If in a coupled analysis the INITIAL PLASTIC STRAIN option is used with new-style table input, the job would
exit with error code 13.
3 When running a coupled thermal-stress analysis with version 11 style input, the output of the results of the
thermal pass are incorrect (actually the stress results are given instead of the thermal results).
4 Fluid-Thermal-Solid analysis did not work correctly for fixed time stepping algorithm using AUTO LOAD in
combination with TIME STEP.
5 Thermal near contact could produce incorrect results when used in the following cases: rigid mechanical
contact, remeshing, J-integral calculation (LORENZI option), VCCT, and super plastic forming.
6 If the UNEWTN user subroutine is used in a fluid analysis and the Newtonian viscosity model is chosen (e.g.
Bingham), the strain rate coming into this routine is filled with zeroes.
7 If, in a fluid-solid analysis, the CONTROL option is not completely filled in (no control cards for fluid region),
the job would still run with wrong controls instead of giving exit 13.
8 Coupled structural acoustic analysis now supports contact with higher order elements.
9 In an heat transfer analysis, fluxes coming from a film load on a surface are now added to the external nodal
fluxes on the post file.
10 In a electromagnetic/thermal analysis (induction heating) applied currents are now also taken into account for
heat generation. Note that as of Marc 2010 harmonic electromagnetic boundary conditions must be specified
as RMS (Root Mean Square) values.
11 Problems exist when using Joule heating in a coupled analysis when user defined state variables are used.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 33
Marc
Parallel Processing
1 On the Windows platform, it was not possible to run a parallel job in a directory with a space in the name.
2 The option of “load active in contact” did not work correctly in a parallel analysis.
3 Solver 10, the mixed direct–iterative solver, is not supported in parallel so it will switch to solver 8. This did
not work correctly so the job would stop.
4 A thermo-mechanically coupled analysis using Herrmann elements with single input file option could lead to
a program crash.
5 The single input file option did not work for the case that the CYLINDRICAL option refers to nodes which are
not part of any regular element, for instance spring nodes.
6 Relative stress based separation based upon Force/Area in a contact DDM analysis sometimes gave a different
contact separation threshold than the single processor job.
7 DDM single input file does not maintain the uppercase characters in original input. This gives problems with
material data base files (cannot find the files) and with e.g. setnames which are modified during the analysis.
Avoid using uppercase letters in filenames and setnames.
8 Marc may terminate upon restart and element deactivation with DDM.
9 DDM single input occasionally would terminate when decomposing the DDM single input occasionally would
terminate when decomposing the model.
10 There was a problem with single post file in DDM when there were springs in the model but the springs were
not in all domains.
11 When single post file is used in local adaptivity and DDM, the added elements do not show up with IDENTIFY
DOMAINS during post processing.
12 Switching off the option ‘Load active in Contact’ has no influence for a DDM job. Without DDM, this option
is effective.
13 Marc terminates with DDM with SOLVER option in history definition block and using the direct solver. Patran
always writes SOLVER option in the history definition block. Remove SOLVER option from history definition
and just place it in the model definition section.
14 There was a problem if a domain had no connection to another domain.
15 Slow convergence was observed with element type 75 and DDM.
16 Fix problem when the UPSTNO user routine is used with single file post option with DDM.
17 Fix memory overwrite in a single file POST option when number of distributed loads is zero in one domain
when using table input.
18 Support Post file format 13 with single file post option with DDM.
19 Abnormal termination in single post file when the number of element types is different in the domains.
20 Problems exist with single input file when load controlled contact occurs or springs are present.
21 DDM single input file did not support ISOTROPIC Thermal option with new table input format for
multiphysics problems.
22 In rare cases in contact analyses with displacement convergence testing, the job could exit prematurely with
an MPI related message. This has now been corrected.
34 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
23 Improve decomposer for single input file when tying is present in model.
24 Restart problem existed with DDM when deformable-deformable contact is used and solver type 8 is used.
25 Fix single input file problem when load controlled nodes are used.
26 Fix problem with DDM in coupled analysis with Herrmann elements.
27 Added support of reading from control file jid.cnt when using DDM and single input file method.
Procedure
1 Fix numerical damping in AUTO STEP with element types 14, 25, 76, 77, 78, and 79.
2 Large rotation DMIG in 3-D had error in rotation around the x-axis.
3 Error in large rotation DMIG for rotational degrees of freedom.
4 Error in DMIG if one of the nodes touches a velocity or position controlled body.
5 Linear elastic materials changed formulation to total Lagrange without reasonable option to stay in updated
Lagrange. Now a new option to LARGE STRAIN is available.
6 Limitation in global local analysis from shell to solid: the temperature was constant in shell thickness direction,
so the nodes along the thickness in 3-D local model had the same temperature. This limitation is removed in
the current release.
7 Fix substructures on IBM platforms, files were not flushed correctly.
Restart
1 Repeated usage of CHANGE RIGID/ADD RIGID with restart jobs could cause a program crash.
2 DDM jobs using contact in combination with CHANGE RIGID, ADD RIGID, or DEACTIVATION in combination
with RESTART could in some case result in a program crash.
3 If an analysis using the DELAMIN option is restarted at an increment where new nodes had been added due to
delamination, then a continuous post file generated during this restarted analysis would be corrupt.
4 Possible program crash with restart in combination with a model having CONTACT or THERMAL CONTACT
and JOULE or ELECTROSTATIC.
5 A program crash could occur if the restarted job had less number of boundary conditions than the original job.
6 Possible program crash in restart job of large models if some input (e.g., COORDINATES option) is omitted
from the restart input deck.
7 RESTART in combination with contact and shell elements including the shell edges gives Exit 4001.
8 An Exit 13 or termination may occur in a restart job if not all loaders of the first job are elected in the second
restart job. Workaround is to select all load ids in the first loadcase after restart and manually remove them from
the LOADCASE option before running
9 Possible problems with restart in conjunction with CONTACT or THERMAL CONTACT and JOULE or
ELECTROSTATICS.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 35
Marc
Solvers
1 Solver 4 had defect with out-of-core back substitution. Simulations like eigenvalue extraction would abort in
such cases.
2 Performance was slow when AUTOMSET is used and there are a lot of ties, RBEs and/or servolinks.
Table Input
1 If a table was used for the RIGID GROW option, then a warning message was output saying that table was
defined but not used. It did not influence the results, but was an erroneous message.
2 Fix POINT TEMP option when reading temperatures from post file with new table input.
3 AUTO STEP feature that allows tables to reach specified time instances for load tables is not being honored for
tables used to define WELD FLUX parameters.
4 Welding model would give different results for new style table usage compared to old style table usage. The
reference values that would get scaled in the quiet element method were different.
5 POINT TEMP reading from Post File with Table input gives Exit 13. Error on both Mentat writing input file
and Marc reading of input.
6 Applied temperature was incorrect by POINT TEMP when a table was used and the independent variable was
the coordinate.
7 Fix Pressure Cavity Loads with table input.
8 Fix Pressure Cavity Loads such that user can use CAVITY DEFINITION.
9 Fix output of boundary conditions when table input is used.
10 Potential problem if a table has two points with the same value of the independent variable, which may result
in a divide by zero.
Mentat
General
1 The program could crash due to a stack overflow on some platforms while picking items using the FLOOD
method in large models.
2 The computation of 3-D solid outline for curved quadratic faces was corrected.
3 Duplicate fonts are no longer listed in the SET FONT menu on Microsoft Windows platforms.
4 A database backup is no longer performed during a selection process even if UNDO is on.
5 The scripts on Microsoft Windows now support the PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 environment variable for
using the 64-bit version of Mentat.
6 The program could crash due to an integer overflow while backing up very large models (more than 7 million
hexahedral and tetrahedral elements, for instance) for UNDO.
7 Better protection against memory allocation problems. If there is insufficient memory to perform a command,
the program will now terminate the command, generate an error message and restore the backup model if that
is available.
8 When performing a graphical pick on a model of 3-D solid elements using either the Box Pick or the Polygon
Pick method, interior elements would not be picked.
9 Selecting a model or post file from Microsoft Windows Explorer in a directory containing spaces will now
successfully launch Mentat.
Preprocessing
1 Duplicating an RBE2 is now performed correctly.
2 New Patran meshing libraries are included which improves the mesh quality.
3 The MESH FILE method has been added to the 3D SHELL type of mesh adaptivity.
4 Entering a formula for moving nodes or points in the MESH GENERATION>MOVE menu that contained
function calls involving the variables x, y, or z (for example: sin(x)) would yield a “Bad float!” message.
Similarly, entering a formula for scaling the axes of tables in, for example the MATERIAL
PROPERTIES>TABLES menu, that contained function calls involving the variables v1, v2, v3, v4, or “(for
example: log(f)) would also yield a Bad float! message.
In both cases, the messages were harmless. The formula was accepted nevertheless, the move operations were
performed correctly and the axes of the tables were also scaled properly.
5 Orientation of type 3D LOCAL were not available for solid shell elements.
6 The graphical display of orientations of type 3D LOCAL was incorrect. The rotation angles were interpreted as
radians instead of degrees. The resulting Marc input file was correct though.
7 The ANGLE button in the ORIENTATION menu was not grayed out if the 3D LOCAL orientation type had been
selected.
8 The *copy_crack command (MODELING TOOLS>CRACKS menu) corrupted the model and could cause the
program to crash.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 37
Mentat
9 Writing out a Marc input file in old style input using explicit creep with piece-wise linear creep data will now
generate a warning message. In this case, there is an inconsistency between the Mentat menu and the creep data
that Marc expects. The CREEP PROPERTIES menu in Mentat requires the user to enter the creep strain rate,
while Marc (in old style input) needs the creep strain. The user should make sure that he has entered the creep
strain the Mentat menu, if he wants to use old style input.
The inconsistency has been removed with the new-style (table-driven) input, which is the default style.
10 The nodal quantities contact status and contacted body were missing in the CUSTOM section of the
JOBS>PROPERTIES>JOB RESULTS menu for job classes: THERMAL, CURRENT-THERMAL (Joule heating),
ELECTROSTATIC, MAGNETOSTATIC, ACOUSTIC-STRUCTURAL, DIFFUSION, DIFFUSION-
STRUCTURAL, MAGNETOSTATIC-STRUCTURAL.
11 The option to switch between GENUINE and LINEARIZED quadratic contact was missing in the ADVANCED
CONTACT CONTROL menus for MAGNETOSTATIC and ELECTROSTATIC jobs.
12 The *remove_current_contact_body command did not remove the contact body if they was still
referenced by, for example, a loadcase termination criterion.
13 RBE2s, RBE3s and RRODs could not be picked in combined duplicate, expand, move, or symmetry
operations.
14 In the NODE PROPERTIES menus, it was not possible to select a table for the components of a FULL DAMPING
MATRIX. The wrong command was issued.
15 Performing a surface mesh without assigning the curve divisions is now handled properly.
16 Selecting GEOMETRIC PROPERTIES via the EDIT menu is now correct. Previously a “command not found”
error was issued.
17 Element type “None” is no longer listed when all element types have been set.
18 The plotting of beam orientations for cbush elements was incorrect if the orientation was defined by a
coordinate system or an auxiliary node.
19 Mentat would crash when generating a ruled or a Coons surface if the length of the corresponding knot vector
of the resulting surface is greater than the sum of the number of points of the original curves. For example:
generation of a ruled surface from a 2nd order curve with 5 points and a 3rd order curve with 3 points.
20 It was not possible to select the job results element quantities “Lemaitre Damage Value” and “Relative Lemaitre
Damage” (post codes 178 and 179) during preprocessing
21 There was no button in the NODE PROPERTIES menu to access the TABLES menu.
22 The option to use the Marc database for the flow stress was not supported for ORTHOTROPIC and
ANISOTROPIC materials
23 Submitting a job with user subroutine would fail on Unix/Linux if the user subroutine name had been given
using a full path
24 SUBDIVIDE CURVES would subdivide curves in the parametric curve space instead of the real space, which
could lead to curves of unequal length. The SUBDIVIDE CURVES button now issues a new command
*subdivide_curves_real which performs the subdivision in real space. The old command
*subdivide_curves is still available for backward compatibility, but it is not available in the menus
38 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Marc Writer
1 After writing of a job containing a spectrum response loadcase, the option “response spectrum” would appear
in any input file written during that same Mentat session. This has been corrected.
2 When writing a Marc input file flux in new-style (table-driven) input, the preferred load type for a volumetric
flux (106) was not used, which could cause problems is conjunction with Marc versions older than Marc 2007.
3 For models with a thermo-rheologically simple viscoelastic material using a power series shift function, the
number of coefficients was written incorrectly to the Marc input file.
4 For models containing NODE PROPERTIES referencing tables or coordinate systems, the referenced tables
and coordinate systems would not be written to the CONM1/CONM2 option of the Marc input file.
5 For models containing NODE PROPERTIES with a FULL MASS MATRIX or a FULL DAMPING MATRIX, the
table ids of the matrix components would be written incorrectly to the CONM1/CONM2 option of the Marc
input file.
6 If a FACE SOURCE or HARMONIC FACE SOURCE boundary condition had been selected in a loadcase
and old-style (non table-driven) input was used, an incorrect input file would be created. Note that the problem
did not occur for the EDGE SOURCE and VOLUME SOURCE boundary condition types.
7 The value of the 2nd activation energy E2 in the LEE, LOOS AND SPRINGER model for CURING
properties is written incorrectly to the Marc input file
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 39
Mentat
8 An incorrect data file would be written for COUPLED ANNEAL and JOULE-MECHANICAL ANNEAL
loadcase types.
9 An incorrect data file would be written for COUPLED MOVE and JOULE-MECHANICAL MOVE loadcase
types.
10 The (time-dependent) length of actuator elements was not written correctly in table input style.
Postprocessing
1 The last two design variables on a post file resulting from a design optimization job were not available in the
list of global variables in the HISTORY PLOT menu.
2 The element thickness direction of solid composite and gasket elements are no longer displayed in
postprocessing, unless the user has created a geometric property for these elements in postprocessing. The
thickness direction of these elements is unknown to Mentat as the information is not stored on the post file.
3 The thickness direction of interface and solid shell elements is uniquely defined by the connectivity of the
elements and will still be displayed.
4 Selecting the post scalar “Reaction Heat due to Curing” would yield a “Bad float!” message. This has been
corrected.
5 The vector and scalar quantities Normal Strain and Shear Strain were derived incorrectly from strain tensors on
the post file
6 If in a contour bands plot the scalar value is constant over an element face and the value equals the lower bound
of the plotting range, sometimes the dark grey color was used which suggests that the scalar value on this face
is smaller than the lower bound
7 Plotting shells in EXPANDED mode was incorrect in postprocessing if DEF & ORIG mode was used. The
thickness of the original shape was always 2.
8 Principal values were incorrectly displayed in the TENSOR PLOT and VECTOR PLOT sections of the
RESULTS menu for tensors defined in the preferred coordinate system. For beam, shell, solid shell and
interface elements, the principal value plots were also incorrect, unless the tensor was defined in the global
coordinate system.
Both issues have been fixed. Principal values of tensors in preferred system will now be displayed correctly if
the preferred system orientation is available on the Marc post file. Please select the element quantities:
1st Element Orientation Vector
2nd Element Orientation Vector
Ply Angle
(Marc post codes 691-697) in the JOB RESULTS menu in pre-processing. The Ply Angle should be selected
for all layers of interest. If the preferred system is not stored on the Marc post file, the principal values of tensors
in preferred system will not be displayed.
For beam, shell, solid shell and interface elements, the principal values are not displayed by default, unless the
tensor is defined in either the global system or in the preferred system. For the latter, the preferred system
orientation must be available on the post file. The toggle TENSORS IN ELEM. COORD. SYSTEM in the
SETTINGS menus for TENSOR PLOT and VECTOR PLOT forces display of the principal values for these
elements, but the plots will be incorrect in general
40 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
IDEAS Reader
1 A file having lines with the CR/LF sequence is now read properly.
2 The text strings associated with entities 2437, 2470 and 2488 are now handled properly.
List of Corrected Defects in this Release 41
Mentat
IGES Reader
1 The online help for the IGES reader now lists the supported entity types.
Python
1 The Python time module can now be imported properly on Linux systems. Previously, it would report an
unresolved error about PyExt_IOError.
2 A Python module may now be run when it is not in the current directory. If s subsequent script is run and it is
not in the same directory, then a reset must be done using the *py_reset command.
42 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Contact
1 If contact bodies are present along the cyclic symmetry planes, then ALL elements must be part of a contact
body for cyclic symmetry to pick up all the faces. If this is not done then only those elements that are part of a
contact body will be handled as cyclically symmetric
2 MOVE and new style tables do not work, turning off new style tables is a work around.
3 Distributed friction should not be used in soil or powder material models, use nodal based friction instead.
Material Models
1 Prestate can not be used with damage or progressive failure. There is currently no way to map the damage
variable.
2 PLOTV user subroutine does not work with fast integrated composite shell elements.
3 The mixture model type 3 (for nonlinear behavior) is not available with an updated Lagrange analysis.
4 The mixture model type 3 is not available for beam elements.
5 The mixture model type 3 is not available for ADAPT GLOBAL or REZONING if it is used in the body that is
being remeshed.
Procedures
1 There is a problem in performing harmonic analysis with an updated Lagrange analysis. The results are not
correct.
2 It is not possible to use INITIAL STATE or CHANGE STATE over part of the model and INITIAL TEMP and
POINT TEMP over a different part.
List of Known Problems in this Release 43
Mentat Known Problems
3 Caution is advised when modeling edge effects in 3-D magnetostatic analysis. The used should ensure that the
normal of the contacted segment is accurate (e.g., use EXCLUDE SEGMENTS to avoid contact with unwanted
patches). Also, for touching contact, only the tangential components of A are made continuous which in turn
enforce continuity of the normal component of the magnetic flux B. The continuity of the tangential
components of the magnetic flux intensity H is not explicitly enforced. For elements at the interface which carry
current loads, this discontinuity of the tangential components of H can reduce the accuracy. A workaround to
reduce the inaccuracy is to not apply current loads on elements that lie on the interface of materials having
different magnetic properties.
4 Linear brick element with Assumed strain formulation in Total Lagrange does not provide accurate results for
large rotation deformation. To improve the accuracy, add FEATURE,10301 and preferably switch off the initial
stress stiffness matrix to get better results based on the co-rotational formulation.
Solver
1 The MUMPS solver does not work with the i8 versions.
Table Option
1 The table option does not yet support: Fourier, or Element types 31 (pipe elbow) and 51 (cable).
Parallel Processing
1 The GRID FORCE option does not work with DDM.
2 When global remeshing is used with DDM, a network license must be used. A nodelocked license will not work
for this case.
3 In a distributed environment, the install directories must be in the same structure or on a shared disk and the
4th column of the hostfile should be blank.
Preprocessing
1 If a coordinate system references another system and if the latter changes, the plotter will not update the
graphics.
2 No error message is given when the option LOAD ACTIVE IN CONTACT is off and old style (non-table-driven)
input is used. Switching this option off only works with new-style input.
3 If explicit creep with piece-wise linear creep data is used in old style input, then the creep data as defined in
the CREEP PROPERTIES menu will be interpreted by Marc as the creep strain, even though the menu
suggests that the creep strain rate must be entered as a function of time. The Marc writer will generate a warning
message in this case. The workaround is to switch to table input style
Postprocessing
1 The principal values are displayed incorrectly for solid composite and for solid shell elements, if the tensor is
defined in the preferred coordinate system and these elements do not have an orientation. The workaround is
to create an orientation for these elements
Marc Reader
1 Reading of Marc input file history definition is only possible for Marc input files using the new style table input.
A warning message will be issued in the Mentat dialog area if an old style Marc input file has been detected,
for which the history definition cannot be read.
2 Upon reading an input file containing the INCLUDE option, the contents of the included file are expanded.
Troubleshooting Tips
Marc Troubleshooting
1. New Style Tables
a. New style tables are now the default in Mentat and should a previous Mentat procedure file fail to run this
could be the cause.
b. You are encouraged to switch to the new style table format since by doing so Mentat will read the history
definition of the Marc input file.
1. Contact
a. If a previously running problem fails, check if there are hard wired values for contact parameters (e.g. contact
zone tolerance, separation force, etc.). In such cases, the defaults may work better.
Note: Under certain conditions, hard wiring of CONTACT parameters may be necessary to model
certain physics but if it is done solely for the purpose of making a job run then one could try
switching it to default values.
b. In case convergence is difficult to achieve, discarding initial stress stiffness (through CONTROL option)
matrix in elastomer analysis may help. Similarly, taking only the tensile part of the stiffness in shell analysis
involving high compressive stresses also can help (this should not be done for eigenvalue analysis).
Troubleshooting Tips 45
Marc Troubleshooting
c. Use a bias of equal or greater than 0.95 for contact problems involving rigid-to-deformable contact or
frictional contact may help in obtaining better results. This is now a default in Marc Mentat 2005 and beyond.
d. When a problem does not converge well with friction, it is advisable to first ensure that the problem is
running well without friction to rule out model set up problems. For problems with friction, the bilinear
friction model generally gives the best performance.
e. The nodal based friction in general provides better results (except for specific cases where deformation
involves large compressive stresses in forging applications). For the structural elements – beams, shells,
trusses and membranes, the nodal based friction must be used.
f. In a 2-D contact analysis, the default limit angle between adjacent segments of a contact body is 8.625
degrees, which may play a role if curved structures are modeled using relatively coarse mesh or patches. If
there is a significant amount of sliding such that nodes slide from one segment to another, this angle value
may cause the nodes to be temporarily stuck at the intersection of two adjacent segments. Sliding to a next
segment takes place after separating from the first, which can result in more iterations (or sometimes even
non-convergence) compared to smooth sliding. If this happens, increasing the default value of this angle (e.g.
to 20 degrees or higher) may speed up the analysis.
Occasionally, similar problem may happen for 3-D analysis and the angle should then be increased to higher
than the default value of 20 degrees.
g. When the default separation force/stress is used in a contact problem and the separation behavior is not as
expected, one should carefully review the solution to understand the reason. Since the default separation
force is set to the maximum residual force in each iteration, nodes not separating could be because the
maximum residuals are rather large in the solution. In this case, either specifying a smaller separation
threshold or allowing the residuals to become smaller through a tighter convergence tolerance could help.
On the flip side, too many nodes separating due to extremely small residuals could also be avoided by
providing a larger separation threshold.
h. When a load controlled rigid body is used in an analysis, it can be specified with one control node
(controlling translational motions only, with no rotations allowed), or with two control nodes (one
controlling the translational motions and the other controlling the rotational motions). Note that when the
load controlled rigid body is in contact with one or more deformable bodies, sufficient constraints (nodal
boundary conditions or springs or gluing) should be provided to the system of bodies such that the load
controlled body is free from rigid body translations and rotations. Without proper constraints, the analysis
will terminate prematurely with exit 2004 due to singular equations. Also note that degrees of freedom for
rotational nodes in the User Interface/ input deck should correspond to DOF 1 (in 2-D) and degrees of freedom
1, 2, and 3 (in 3-D).
i. APPROACH, SYNCHRONIZE options must be used cautiously in conjunction with position controlled rigid
bodies. When the position of the body is specified by the user and this position is abruptly modified during
the APPROACH loadcase, the body could revert back to the position specified by the user after the
APPROACH loadcase. The typical work-around is to use velocity controlled bodies.
j. A useful aid for trouble-shooting contact problems is to use PRINT,5 parameter in the input deck (in Marc
Mentat, it can be activated by JOBS-> MECHANICAL-> JOB RESULTS-> OUTPUT FILE-> CONTACT). This
provides contact related information about nodes touching, nodes separating, nodes moving from one patch
to another, etc. in the output file.
46 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
2. Load Stepping
a. For unstable quasi-static analyses, the load increments based on the damping strain rate, as defined using the
AUTO STEP option, is recommended. This can be activated by the button LOADCASES-> MECHANICAL->
STATIC-> ADAPTIVE MULTI-CRITERIA (PARAMETERS)-> DAMPING STRAIN RATE under NUMERICAL
CRITERIA. Usually, the default damping ratio of 2e-4 should provide an efficient and accurate solution. If
needed, additional user-defined criteria can be added to introduce other bounds on the applied load
increments.
b. Since temperature boundary conditions in heat transfer or thermally coupled analysis are applied
instantaneously, it may be sometimes difficult to satisfy the tolerance for allowable temperature change for
adaptive stepping procedures like TRANSIENT and AUTO STEP. This can be solved by either increasing the
tolerance for allowable temperature change, or by using a fixed stepping procedure like TRANSIENT NON
AUTO to ramp the applied temperature.
c. For dynamics problems using the Newmark-Beta or Single-Step Houbolt operators, AUTO STEP checks on
the time integration errors and suitably cuts the time step. For high frequency problems or problems with a
lot of numerical noise (for e.g. chattering nodes in contact analysis), these cutbacks could cause the time step
to be too small. In this case, the feature for checking on time integration errors can be turned off by setting
the 3rd field of the 3rd data block of AUTO STEP option in the input file to 1 or via the button TIME
INTEGRATION ERROR CHECK.
d. If the CHANGE STATE option using a thermal post file does not seem to work properly in conjunction with
AUTO STEP, make sure that the transient time in the thermal post file matches or is larger than that used for
the mechanical analysis.
e. When AUTO STEP procedure is used for adaptive load stepping and the analysis does not seem to be
increasing the time step sufficiently even though convergence seems to be okay, the desired number of
recycles could be increased from a value of 3 to a higher value, e.g. 5 (this is now a default since MSC.Marc
Mentat 2005). This is particularly useful for problems with displacement checking, where a minimum of 2
recycles is already used to establish convergence.
3. Materials
a. When tables are used to specify variations in material properties (e.g. Young's modulus, yield stress, etc.)
with analysis variables (e.g. temperatures and equivalent plastic strains, engineering strains), the data should
be provided over the entire range of analysis variables expected to be encountered in the analysis. Failure to
do so can cause the material data to be extrapolated to non-physical values resulting in analysis failures (this
is very often seen with elements turning inside out or node incorrectly projected on or sliding off the contact
surface message).
b. When the coefficient of thermal expansion is specified as a function of temperature, the instantaneous
coefficient of thermal expansion needs to be specified (refer to Chapter 6 of Marc Volume A: Theory and
User Information).
c. When rapid changes in elastic strains are encountered in an implicit creep analysis due to changes in loading,
bending, or other non steady-state conditions, there is a chance that, in conjunction with the secant tangent
scheme, the analysis may encounter a nonpositive definite system of equations in cycle 1 of the mechanical
pass. This is usually related to the fact that a large inelastic strain increment was predicted by a default steady
state creep formulation used in cycle 0 of the increment. This can usually be solved by either of the following
workarounds:
Troubleshooting Tips 47
Marc Troubleshooting
• flag a nonpositive-definite solution. This usually allows the solution to proceed without impacting the super
linear convergence characteristics of the scheme
• change the flag for the tangent scheme to 3 instead of 1 on the CREEP parameter. This undocumented flag
deactivates the steady-state creep predictor in cycle 0. While this avoids the nonpositive definite system, it
could impact the convergence characteristics of the solution.
4. Remeshing
a. If 3-D tet remeshing fails, check for:
• self contact: this can cause the mesher to fail. This is a current limitation.
• sharp angles in rigid body: the sharp angle can penetrate deformable body in such a great amount that the
new mesh’s nodes or elements may be created inside the rigid body. Try to avoid sharp angle or use small
elements in those areas, say, using the curvature control to place smaller elements in those area.
• very thin section and large penetration: this can also cause mesher failure as projection of new nodes to the
contact surfaces becomes difficult.
• deformable-to-deformable contact: try to use different mesh size for each contacting bodies such that the
lower numbered contact body has a denser mesh.
b. If there are questionable results:
• then avoid unnecessary remeshing – as remeshing needs to map data from old mesh to new mesh where
there is a big change in element size.
• due to data mapping, the results in the remeshing increment may show some discontinuity. This is normal.
c. Selection of appropriate meshers:
• In 2-D remeshing, do not use overlay mesher if there is self contact or if there is a hole inside the deformable
body. Use advancing front mesher in such situations.
• Triangular mesher can be useful if the geometry of the deformable body has or will have a sharp corner and
cannot be meshed properly by using the quad, or degenerated quadrilateral elements. The tape peeling user
guide example shows the capability of using the triangle remeshing. However, appropriate element type
must be chosen if the problem has large deformation.
5. Restart
a. If a restart analysis does not seem to be applying the applied boundary condition history correctly, you need
to make sure that the boundary condition history has been suitably modified to account for the fact that a
portion of the analysis has already been completed. There are three ways to accomplish this:
• switch to table driven input procedure
• shift the X-axis of tables in the User Interface and write out the portion that remains to be analyzed
• copy the original input file to a new location, set up the RESTART option and then delete the portion of the
analysis that is already completed.
b. If a restart analysis produces Exit 77 though nothing significant seems to have been changed, try inserting
the REAUTO option just below the RESTART option and 0,0,1 in the following data option. In Marc Mentat,
this can also be flagged by using the IMMEDIATE option under the JOBS-> MECHANICAL-> JOB
PARAMETERS-> RESTART-> COMPLETION OF UNFINISHED LOADCASE menu.
48 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
7. User subroutines
If there are problems in jobs with user subroutines, a variety of approaches are available for troubleshooting:
a. Debug and fine-tune a user subroutine on a small test model before applying it to the actual finite element
problem.
b. Run the user subroutine as a stand-alone program, provide a wide range of inputs to the program and make
sure that the outputs are stable numbers.
c. If division expressions are being used, make sure that the denominator cannot go to zero. Extra precaution
may be needed for increment 0 or 1, where many quantities are initialized.
8. OpenGL
If you run into display problems when running the OpenGL version of Marc Mentat, you may want to try the
following options:
a. mentat -glflush
b. mentat -ss off
Symptoms could be either the graphics will not be updated regularly, or you experience sluggishness when
selecting nodes or elements.
50 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Marc Platforms
FORTRAN C Also
Vendor OS Hardware Version Version Default MPI Works On
HP (64-bit) 4 HPUX 11.11 PA2.0 f90 3.1 A.03.73 HP MPI 2.0
HP (64-bit) 4 HPUX 11.23 Itanium 2 f90 3.3 A.06.20 HP MPI 2.2
IBM (64-bit)4 AIX 5.3 Power 6 xlf 11.1 cc 9.0.0 MPICH1
SGI (Altix 64-bit)2, 4, 10 Linux 2.6.5-7.139-sn2 Itanium 2 Intel 10.1 Intel 10.1 SGI MPT 1.11.1
(Propack 4.0)
Sun (64-bit)4, 10 Solaris 10 UltraSparc III f90 8.3 cc 5.9 MPICH1
Sun (64-bit)4, 10 Solaris 10 x86 f90 8.3 cc 5.9 SUN HPC 7.1
Linux (32-bit)8, 9 RedHat AS 4.5 Intel Pentium or Intel 10.1 Intel 10.1 HP MPI 2.35
equiv.
Linux (64 bit)4, 8 RedHat AS 4.5 Itanium 2 Intel 10.1 Intel 10.1 HP MPI 2.2.5.15
Linux (64-bit)4, 8 RedHat AS 4.5 Intel EM64T Intel 10.1 Intel 10.1 Intel MPI 3.16 AMD Opteron, SuSE 10,
RedHat 5
Intel (32-bit)8, 9 Windows XP SP3 Intel Pentium or Intel 10.111 Intel 10.1 Intel MPI 3.1 Vista 32, Windows 7,
equiv. Intel 11.0, Intel 11.112
Intel (64-bit)4, 8, 9 Windows Server Intel EM64T Intel 10.111 Intel 10.1 Intel MPI 3.17 Windows XP 64, Vista 64,
2003 x64 Windows 7, Intel 11.0,
Intel 11.112
1
Hardware MPI version also available (via maintain in /tools directory).
2 Supports Solver 6.
3
Supports multi-threading.
4
Supports true 64-bit version.
5 Supports the Intel MPI 3.1
6
Supports the HP MPI 2.3
7
Supports the Microsoft MPI 1.0 (SP1).
8 Supports the PARDISO Solver
9
Supports the MUMPS Solver
10
DMP (network DDM) is not supported
11
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 must be installed
12
Newer version of Intel Fortran Version 11.1 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is not supported
List of Build and Supported Platforms 51
Marc Mentat Platforms
OpenGL Compatibility
When running over a network, the following combinations of client machine (where Marc Mentat is running) and
graphical server (where the user is viewing the program) have been found to work properly using OpenGL:
Server
Client IBM SGI Sun Windows1 Linux2
HP y y3 y y y
IBM y y y y n
SGI y y y y n
Sun y y y y n
Microsoft Windows n n n y n
Linux y n y y y
1Requires additional software (see http://www.hummingbird.com or other vendor of X server software).
2
Requires MesaGL v3.4 or higher.
3
Some buffering problems may occur when changing workspaces.
52 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
Dropped Platforms
The following platforms and compilers will be dropped in the next release:
• SUN Solaris
• HP UX PA2.0 hardware
Important Notes
Marc Notes
1. The startup script for Marc (run_marc or run_marc.bat) runs the job in the directory where the command is
issued, even if a path to the input file is provided.
Example:
run_marc -j ../otherdir/job
The job runs in the current directory. All results files are created in the current directory. No files are created
in ../otherdir; only the input file is read from there.
Filename extensions are now allowed in the command line options.
Example:
run_marc -j job.dat -u usersub.f
A new option: -dir directory allows a different working directory to be specified. All created files, scratch
files, and results files except the log file and status file are created in the directory specified with this option.
This option is not supported through Marc Mentat.
2. When running any of the examples in the Marc User’s Guide or Marc Introductory Course, it is best to copy
all the files (.proc, .mfd, .mud, .t16, .t19, etc.) in the example directory to the current, local directory. This
is especially required for the examples where the procedure file uses the previously generated results file or
model file to demonstrate the example.
3. Hardware Vendor Provided Solver
The hardware vendor provided solvers (Solver 6) are available for parallel matrix solution. In a parallel run
using Domain Decomposition, this is utilized automatically. This feature can also be used in a serial run in
which case only the matrix solution will be performed in parallel. There are two ways to activate this feature:
a. Using the command line option -nthreads.
Example:
run_marc -v no -j test -nthreads 4
runs the job test.dat using four processors for the matrix solution. This is not available from within Marc
Mentat.
b. Using the environmental variable MARC_NUMBER_OF_THREADS. This variable is set to the number of
processors to be used. Note that it needs to be defined in the same window as the one in which the job is
Important Notes 53
Marc Notes
started. If the job is started from within Marc Mentat, the variable needs to be set before Marc Mentat is
started. If this variable is set and the -nthreads option is used, the value given by -nthreads will be used.
4. The parallel version of Marc is delivered with MPICH, INTEL-MPI, or HP-MPI for most Unix platforms. This
version can be used for both single multiprocessor machines as well as for separate machines connected over a
network. When running a job over the network a so-called host file should be used, see Installation and User
Notes for Network version from the Marc and Marc Mentat Installation and Operations Guide.
Note: The host file should not be used in a run on a single multiprocessor machine.
On most of the platforms using MPICH, it is possible to switch to hardware vendor MPI. Only analyses on
single multiprocessor machines are supported in the case of versions using hardware vendor provided MPI. An
exception to this are ports with HP-MPI which fully supports the network parallel analysis.
5. Installation related:
a. If you get an error message of f90 not found when running a job with a user subroutine and you know
there is a FORTRAN compiler on the machine, its path needs to be provided. A typical example would be
the Sun platform where the f90 compiler may live in the /opt/SUNWspro/bin directory. This path must be
added if you get the f90 error message.
b. On a rare occasion, a job can fail to run on certain platforms with a message; for example, on Sun machines
libsunmath.so.1 not found. These files with extensions of .so are shared objects and the error
message suggests that either the run time libraries are missing from the system or installed in a nonstandard
place. This problem can be fixed with one of the following procedures:
Try relinking the version first by executing the make_marc script in the marc2010/tools directory and
run the job with and without user subroutines.
If the problem persists, check if the .so file exists in the marc2010/lib/lib_shared directory. If it does
exist, uncomment the following two lines in the run_marc script under marc2010/tools directory:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH = $DIR/../lib/lib_shared:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
If the first line already exists and points to some other directory, replace it with the new line. Run the job
with and without user subroutines once again.
If the .so files do not exist in the marc2010/lib/lib_shared directory or if the lib_shared directory
does not exist, contact your system administrator to off load the necessary run time libraries from the system
CD.
6. When using the -host command line option to run a Marc job, the output is automatically written to the
directories specified in the hostfile. For instance, when running a four domain Marc job as follows:
run_marc -jid jobid -host hostfile -nprocd 4
the output will be written for each domain to the directories as specified in the hostfile. By default, Mentat
always will write the hostfile to contain the directory specifications.
However, the following exception applies to the default described above. On Unix systems using the IBM
cluster product POE or the Sun cluster product HPC, the -host command line option should never be used.
Instead, the -dir command line option can be used to customize the location of the output. The user notes can
be consulted for further information on how to use the -dir option.
54 Marc and Mentat Release Guide
7. The PLDUMP utility routines are explained in Marc Volume D: User Subroutines and Special Routines,
Chapter 9: Special Routines.
There are three subdirectories in the marc2010/pldump directory:
PLDUMP13 and PLDUMP2000 do not build on the true 64-bit (i*8) version of SGI IRIX in the Marc 2010
release. The existing PLDUMP13 and PLDUMP2000 programs in the true 64-bit version are copies of the
regular (i*4) version. If rebuilding is needed, please use the regular (i*4) version.
Vendor/OS Architecture
IA32 (RHEL 4.5) linux_ia32
AMD Opteron (SuSE 9) linux_amd64
Itanium 2 (RedHat AS 4.5) linux_ia64
EM64T (RedHat WS 4.5) linux_amd64
Security
Security Notes
The 2010 release requires the FlexLM 11.6 server version and stores the license manager (lmgrd) in the directory
MSC.Licensing\11.6 for Microsoft Windows and for Unix platforms it is flexlm/<platform>, where <platform> is
aix, hpux, irix, linux, solaris, or sun. The default location for the license file is flexlm/licenses.
The capabilities that require a license are given below with feature names as required in the license file.
1. MARC license required to run one single processor job or one instance of a multiple
processor (parallel) job.
2. MARC_Parallel license required per processor in a parallel run (for example, a four processor job
requires one MARC token and four MARC_Parallel tokens).
3. MARC_Mesh2D license required for each run requiring automatic 2-D remeshing feature in Marc.
4. MARC_Mesh3D license required for each run requiring automatic 3-D remeshing feature in Marc.
Security 57
Security Notes
5. MARC_ShapeMemory license required for each run using shape memory model.
6. MARC_MetalCutting license required for each run modeling metal cutting operation.
7. MARC_Electrical license required for Joule-Mechanical, Coupled Electrostatic- Structural, and
Piezoelectricity.
8. Mentat license required for each instance of Marc Mentat.
9. MARC_Hexmesh license required for each instance of Hexahedral mesher.
10. Mentat_ACIS license required for each instance of ACIS when working (import/export) with
ACIS based models.
11. Mentat_ITI_Access license required for each instance of, or exporting a file using the DXF, IGES, or
VDAFS translators.
12. Mentat_CMOLD license required for each instance of CMOLD when working (import/export) with
CMOLD based models.
MSC does not support the nodelock license for the Windows Server 2003 x64 edition in this release.