What's new in QuickField 5.1

Release date: December 2003

QuickField - the popular program for FEA analysis of electromagnetic, heat transfer and stress problems simply becomes better, and we are about to change the current version number to 5.1. This means that many new features implemented in 5.0 are achieving completeness and maturity. We are sure that the new features will be appreciated by existent and prospective QuickField customers. Here is the brief list of changes:

Automatic time step control

In transient problem analysis QuickField is now able to automatically adjust the time integration step.

Initial value of the time step is evaluated with using of characteristic times of the media and minimal space step of the finite element mesh. This parameter is then adjusted by the adaptive algorithm.

Time step adjustment procedure is highly effective and may extend the step value for 3-4 order without the loss of accuracy. This drastically accelerates the transient problem solving without risk of "losing" of short-term variations of the physical processes.

Time-dependent Dirichlet boundary conditions

The list of time-dependent boundary conditions, available for transient problem formulating is now expanded.

In addition to Neumann boundary conditions and field sources, those could be time-dependent since 5.0 now you may define Dirichlet conditions as a time-dependent formula.

Coordinate - dependent boundary conditions and field sources

Brand new feature of the version 5.1 is possibility to describe the field sources and boundary conditions of any kind with coordinate-dependent formulae.

Previously the initial field in the transient problems could be only uniform block-wise. Now it is possible to define non-uniform initial field distribution by proper formula for Dirichlet boundary condition, without splitting the region into smaller areas with uniform field inside. Neumann boundary conditions, convective and radiation heat transfer also may be coordinate - dependent.

Periodic Boundary Conditions

Special flags Even Periodic / Odd Periodic allow to define periodic boundary conditions on the model edges. It is important that there is no necessity to maintain identity of the finite element discretization in the regions adjacent to these edges.

Usage of these boundary conditions allows to seriously decrease the size of the analysis area. For example for electrical machine design it is possible to deal with one pole pitch instead of the full cross section.

COM Add-ins

New Tools menu allows usage of additional modules made as COM-objects in the DLL form.

A simple add-in for adding to rectangles, circles and ellipses to a geometric model is included

Moreover, any user may write his own add-ins based on ActiveField technology using Visual Basic, Visual C++, Delphi or other programming system with COM technology support.

Fast Mesh Removing

Mesh removal is now done significantly faster than in previous QuickField versions. For example, a finite element mesh containing million nodes is removed approximately 50 times faster than before.

New copy-protection system

New copy-protection system is now based on modern keys supporting LPT or USB interface according to the customer choice. These keys are smaller and better fit to laptop size restrictions.

Updated ActiveField API

The new version of ActiveField library is compatible with Borland Delphi. Besides that, this version contains new properties and methods allowing to access formula-defined data.

The complete list of new features in ActiveField library can be found in ActiveField Help.