Release Notes

HyperX Version 2024.1.10 Released June 2024

New Features

New Scripting API Capabilities

Ability to execute the database compare tool
Ability to package and unpackage projects

Allow sizing/analysis without FEA results files if forces have already been imported
Ability to include additional files in HyperX project packages

Bug Fixes

Changed crippling calculation of Fc,axial stress allowable to remove over-conservative bending dependence
Allow user to re-connect to license server if connection is lost rather than closing software
Improve memory performance of analysis and sizing when using filtered design cases
Improved support for MSC Nastran element sets
Fix analysis of hybrid composite materials with Bearing-Bypass correction factors
Clarified analysis detail reporting for Max Principal Stress failure analysis

Older Releases

HyperX Version 2024.1.9 Released April 2024

HyperXpert™ and Batch Runs

New Features

HyperXpert provides new workflows to study tradeoffs of weight and producibility
- HyperXpert generates Design of Experiment (DOE) data on all feasible designs within your defined design space
- Plotting tools allow you to identify structural designs that are low-weight with reduced design variability zone-to-zone
New tool for executing many sizing runs in batch with the HyperXpert tool or for upload to the HyperX Cloud Dashboard

Database Comparison Tool

New Features

A new tool to generate comprehensive comparisons between two databases (and projects). Identifies differences in model definition, settings, sizing results, materials, design/load/analysis properties, and more.

Structure Tree

New Features

Ability to organize structures, sets, and section cuts into user-created folders. The folders may be nested with as many layers as desired.

Materials, Laminates, Fasteners, and Rivets

New Features

Ability to link many materials at once during structure creation (via Excel)
New library and picker forms that show material metadata such as density, family, and FEM ID

Enhancements

Ability to copy fasteners and rivets
Warning messages are produced when attempting to modify materials, laminates, etc. that are in use in other projects in a database

Scripting API

New Features

Ability to setup and execute HyperFEA
Ability to create and edit laminates
Ability to import FEA results
Ability to retrieve sizing results for zones and joints

Enhancements

Ability to return zones to unused FEM
Ability to edit zone settings in bulk which can substantially speed up these operations when processing many zones

Design Loads Overrides

Enhancements

Zone-specific overrides of analysis temperature, limit, ultimate, help, and hurt factors are now managed in HyperX and stored in the database rather than in separate CSV files
Generation and application of filtered design cases per-zone are managed through this same process
Important: Existing CSV and CLC files will not be automatically migrated. Users must import these lists into the software to continue to use them.

CAD

New Features

Ability to generate and export to-scale CAD geometry for beam results
Ability to generate and export to-scale CAD for smeared grid-stiffened concepts

Enhancements

Ability to configure the fidelity of CAD rendering (e.g. how faceted circles and curved edges appear)
Ability to generate midsurface stiffeners
Options to include skin offset when generated smeared or discrete stiffener CAD

Legend

New Features

Ability to create legend color palettes to span a range of colors automatically

Enhancements

Usability improvements to the color palette manager

Visualization

New Features

Ability to view grid-stiffened cross sections in 3D (for smeared concepts)

Enhancements

Additional model shading modes (ambient occlusion and drop shadow)

Performance Improvements

Enhancements

User FEA load form when many rows are present
Structure creation (especially when dealing with joints)
Overall application startup and model load
Several scripting API functions

Miscellaneous

New Features

Ability to place a scale reference human in the viewport
Ability to import and export CATIA plybook from Ply Manager

Enhancements

Improved behavior of section cuts when perfectly aligned with mesh boundaries
FEA loads import is now automatically initiated when appropriate rather than warning the user it had not been done
FEA loads import and peak load processing are now cancellable
Support for HyperMesh long format property names
Support for multi-material laminates for bearing-bypass analysis

HyperX Version 2023.2.6 Released August 2023

Laminates and Laminate Families

New Features

New picker forms with metadata for laminates / laminate families
Ability to pick individual laminates from a laminate family for designs and overrides
Ability to create orphan (not in laminate-family) laminates for skins and stiffeners
Ability to create and edit stiffener laminate families manually
Ability to select a new laminate for a zone when viewing its design results
Overhauled stiffener laminate (and family) workflows, now specifying a stiffener profile during creation
Ability to automatically generate traditional “quad” (0/+-45/90) and double-double laminate families by specifying angle targets
Ability to automatically create a laminate family based on a structure’s plies

Enhancements

Significant performance improvements working in databases with many laminates / families

CAD

New Features

Basic CAD creation (points, lines, curves)
Ability to generate parallel offset curves
Ability to generate stiffener profiles (2D and 3D) for smeared and discretely-stiffened panels and export these entities for use in CAD packages

FEM/FEA

New Features

Support for HDF5 output files from MSC Nastran and Altair OptiStruct

Enhancements

Significant performance improvements importing FEA forces in some situations

Projects

New Features

Project packaging & unpackaging tool – quickly collect all files needed to share a project between computers or users

Enhancements

Working folders are now unique per project per database, allowing multiple projects with the same name on a single machine
Additional options are provided to the user when copying projects to control whether design/analysis/load properties are shared, etc.

Legend

New Features

Ability to create, edit, and delete legend color palettes

Enhancements

Data outside of user-defined min and max bounds can now be assigned a custom color
Ability to sort discrete data (controlling design case, controlling criterion, etc.) by count

Section Cuts

New Features

New tabular form to edit many section cuts simultaneously

Enhancements

Measuring tool in section cut form 2D cross-section viewer

Analysis

New Features

Added a method to assess column buckling of panels

Enhancements

Can now apply beam load properties (i.e. P/V/M) to panels
Enabled interlaminar shear analysis for web and cap beams
Enabled Effective Laminate analysis for cap beams
Laminate family design study can now be run with detailed sizing (support for plugins, required margins, etc.)
Can now specify interaction exponent for bonded joints analyzed with VCCT power law criterion
Provide additional analysis details when running bearing-bypass joint analysis

Scripting API

New Features

Ability to export updated FEM
Support for section cuts (retrieval of properties/loads, creation, editing of inputs, etc.)
Ability to retrieve ply information for a structure, and import / export in CSV format
Ability to import and edit discrete fields, including in VCP format

Miscellaneous

Enhancements

Ability to name load scenarios in user FEA load properties
Increased the permissible number of points for laminate allowables to 100
Added an option to create non-FEA panel rather than non-FEA beam from section cut loads
Ability to create fewer designs (using overrides) when importing laminate designs from a FEM during structure creation
Laminates created from FEA (e.g. PCOMPs) are now read-only for traceability and their FEM usage is now shown in the property tree
Added button to trees to expand collapsed nodes incrementally

HyperX Version 2023.1.3 Released March 2023

Miscellaneous

New Features

Training material is now installed with the software and available from the start screen
Ability to access help system offline

Enhancements

Improved forms and workflows for modifying element material directions

Notable Bug Fixes

Element based margin display now properly includes required margins
Design Overrides forms now properly show only selected zones when launched from the ribbon
Analysis properties are now sorted by name in the property tree rather than creation order
Fixed issue sequencing core plies
Fixed several issues using the stiffener laminate family form
Fixed several issues creating section cuts

Analysis

New Features

Enabled Column Buckling criterion for panels

Scripting

New Features

Ability to retrieve the project working folder path
Ability to export FEM

HyperX Version 2023.1.1 Released February 2023

Composites

New Features

Added ability to manage ply transitions for sequencing, including displaying them in the viewport
Added ability to specify maximum transition width to limit the number of plies dropped or added across a transition
Support for analyzing with true fiber directions (TFD) based on discrete fields
Ability to import/export plies with HDF5 formats, as well as HyperX-format CSV

Scripting

New Features

New Script Runner feature that allows users to manage and execute scripts from within the HyperX interface (new button on the Run tab)
Added API functions to upload to the HyperX Dashboard
Added API functions to manipulate design properties (tooling constraint selections and values, and detailed sizing inputs)

Legend

New Features

Ability to plot non-structural mass (added weight)
Ability to plot which zones have overrides for sizing and analysis
Ability to plot many additional zone settings (reference plane, offset, etc.)
Ability to plot string discrete fields (formerly known as custom data)
Ability to plot stiffener and skin weights separately (also available in structure tree data)

Design Properties

Enhancements

New tabbed layout for design properties to allow easy access to both sizing and analysis inputs

Structure Creation

Enhancements

Import of Non-Structural Mass (NSM) is now optional on a structure-by-structure basis (controlled by structure creation form)

Joints

Enhancements

Added analysis details for connector ID, fastener temperature, individual correction factors, and missing bolt information for some analyses

Miscellaneous

Enhancements

Significant performance improvements for: design loads form, zone overrides form, model load time, design property assignment, and others
Element-based analysis results are now imported when using the group database manager (“enterprise workflow”)
Effective laminates are updated when constituent composite material properties change

HyperX Version 2022.2.8 Released October 2022

Section Cuts

New Features

Ability to create many section cuts simultaneously
Ability to “heal” section cut cross-sections by connecting nodes that were detected as disconnected

Enhancements

Closed cells are shaded gray to show where they were automatically detected

Analysis

New Features

Important: “Size” and “Analyze” are now distinct operations for panels and beams, maintaining separate “Sizing Inputs” and “Analysis Inputs”. See this link.
Plugin user constants are now handled as settings in Analysis Properties for improved transparency and management
Added “true average” option to Average load properties
Ability to specify preferred analysis ID from plugins (rather than HyperX automatically assigning them)

General

New Features

Added ability to renumber zones (individually and through the zone settings table)

Enhancements

Ability to number zones created by the split-up utility by minimum element ID

FEM / FEA Import

New Features

Added support for relative FEM and FEA file paths
Added support for macro paths using {DATA_FOLDER} and {INSTALL_FOLDER}
Added ability to create designs from FEM properties as a standalone process

Enhancements

Added a toggle option on the FEA import option to control whether or not iterated loads (_i files from HyperFEA) are used

Composites

New Features

Added support for all panel concepts (skins and facesheets only) in the laminate family trade study
Added ability to create “core plies” and manage them alongside composite plies

Enhancements

Modified ply sequence and name logic to improve handoff to CAD and other composites design software

Watch Window

Enhancements

Simplified workflow for creating plots from watch window data, and allow saving and loading or templates
Can now add element forces, moments and margins of safety to the watch window

Viewport

New Features

Added “Saved Views” to store camera location, legend plotting options, etc.
Added coordinate systems and rigid elements to the FEM tree and viewport

Non-FEA

New Features

Added non-FEA joints

Enhancements

Added optional indicators for non-FEA zone orientations
Non-FEA Beams and Unstiffened panels optionally show to-scale dimensions

Tree

Enhancements

Property tree now shows ply materials nested under design properties using laminates or laminate families, and fasteners and material under joint design properties
Tree data (weights, margin of safety, etc.) that was being shown is now saved when the application closes and restored on re-opening

Materials

Enhancements

Improved copy-paste behavior on material form data grids

Scripting

New Features

Ability to pipe status updates from the API to the calling script (for long-running operations like sizing)
Ability to create databases
Ability to create, copy, and delete projects
Ability to view and change rundecks for a project and set FEM units
Ability to create new zones and edit membership of existing ones
Ability to view, create, and edit panel segments
Ability to renumber zones

Miscellaneous

New Features

Added ability to open a database without loading a project (for management of materials, properties, etc.)
Added setting to show reserve factor instead of margins of safety (controlled through Viewport Settings form)

Enhancements

Overhauled custom data import form and renamed as “discrete fields” stored in a library in the property tree and easily exported, imported or edited after import.

HyperX Version 2022.1.7 Released May 2022

CAD

New Features

Ability to import and export CAD files through IGES and STEP files. CAD files are imported and stored in the HyperX database and managed through the CAD tree.

Plies

New Features

The ply manager is a new tool for working with composite plies efficiently. Add, remove, and modify plies individually or together; adjust stacking sequence; import plies using CATIA XML format.
Create plies using CAD curves, with automatic mapping to FEM elements
Import plies from CAD and analyze in HyperX
Create CAD curves from plies and export them to CAD tools such as CATIA, 3DX, or Creo

Section Cuts

New Features

Ability to calculate built up section forces and moments for each load case, including Excel reports
Ability to constrain the position of the stiffness-weighted centroid, shear center, and angle of the principal bending axes during sizing
Ability to automatically create a non-FEA beam with user loads corresponding to the computed section cut forces and moments

Enhancements

Enhanced algorithms for sizing section cut to stiffness requirements (EI, GJ), including user-customizable preference for smooth stiffness distributions vs. targeted
Section cut stiffness requirements are now managed separately from user-defined panel stiffness requirements for improved transparency
Section cuts remain visible in the viewport even when they do not intersect any elements
Ability to define section cut origin location by picking a grid point

Non-FEA

New Features

User loads for rapid sizing, detailed sizing, and final analysis
Ability to create and analyze/size non-FEA zones with user loads

Scripting

New Features

Retrieve and assign designs, load properties, and analysis properties to zones and joints
Retrieve margins of safety and associated information for zones and joints
Retrieve weights for zones
Create and manage the membership of structures

Materials

New Features

New node in property tree and form for viewing effective laminates and their properties, including ability to modify constituent materials or ply percentages
When editing a composite material’s properties, changes will automatically be reflected in any effective laminates using that material without having to regenerate them
New node in property tree and form for viewing adhesive materials and their properties

Enhancements

Support for polynomial laminate allowables for composites
Ability to plot laminate allowable curves

Analysis

New Features

Peak element load processing for discretely-stiffened models (DSM)

Enhancements

Rapid sizing, element sizing, and design studies now fully support temperature-dependent properties during sizing

FEM Import

New Features

Support for Abaqus 2022

Enhancements

Users can now edit paths directly in the FEM import form
Improved consistency of unused FEM loading when toggling it on in the FEM tree

Legend / Watch Window

Enhancements

Can now plot assigned design, load, and analysis properties from legend / watch window
Can now plot weight from the legend / watch window
Added additional color pallets for plotting from the legend

Plugins

New Features

Plugins can now prescribe QuickHelp information to be displayed on the failure mode forms, including multiple sections and figures

Performance

Enhancements

Improved performance in selecting FEM tree nodes
Improved performance of structure creation
Improved performance of model load and FEM import
Improved performance of hiding and showing entities in the viewport
Improved performance of plotting data from the legend

Miscellaneous

Enhancements

Search tool (Ctrl+H) now includes all primary materials, properties, and entities
Selection from the FEM tree is now more powerful when the selected entities are in-use in structures
Improved accuracy of automatically-calculated buckling spans, curvature directions, and centroids for panels
Feature (“surface”) selection is enabled for unused FEM
Ability to enter values in various forms in scientific notation (e.g. 5e4 instead of 50000)

HyperX Version 2022.0.0 Released February 2022

Sample Projects

New Features

Quickly create sample projects for simple use cases to review supported modeling approaches and use cases

Section Cuts

Enhancements

Indicators for centroid, shear center, etc. on the section cut form
Improved form usability for calculated properties

Bearing Bypass Joint Analysis

New Features

Support for analysis of effective laminates

Enhancements

Clearer behavior when correction factors and allowables are “out of bounds”
Improvements to overall robustness

Aerospace Structural Analysis and Design Optimization