OOF Newsletter #7  February 2001

Contents:
   OOF Workshops at NIST
   OOF2ABAQUS conversion program
   New versions of OOF and PPM2OOF (including thermal diffusion and PostScript)
   Changes to OOF and PPM2OOF

Dear Colleagues --

The OOF team and the OOF project are both growing.  Andrew Reid joined
us in December and is working on the infrastructure for OOF2.  OOF2
will do what OOF1 does, only more so.  It will be a more powerful and
flexible finite element platform, designed for materials scientists.
Now is the time for your input into the design process.  Therefore...

** WORKSHOPS ** WORKSHOPS ** WORKSHOPS **

We will be holding an OOF workshop at NIST in the late spring or early
summer. The workshop has several goals, one of which is planning the
future development of OOF.  We hope to get input from you, the users,
about how OOF fits into your research and development strategies, and
what kind of enhancements you would like to see.  In addition, we will
have presentations from users (ie you) on current uses of OOF.

In addition, we hope to hold a tutorial workshop sometime this summer.
Stay tuned for more announcements.

** OOF2ABAQUS ** OOF2ABAQUS ** OOF2ABAQUS **

By popular demand, a new program is available for converting OOF
output files into ABAQUS input files.  (ABAQUS is a commercial finite
element program, not affiliated with or endorsed by NIST.)  Go to
        http://www.ctcms.nist.gov/oof/download/oof2abaqus.html
for more details and to download the program.

** NEW VERSIONS **

oof 1.1.9 and ppm2oof 1.1.11 are now available on the OOF web page,
        http://www.ctcms.nist.gov/oof/download/.

The biggest change since the last newsletter is that there is now a
THERMAL OOF that solves coupled heat diffusion and elasticity
problems.  For technical reasons that won't be resolved until OOF2 is
out, the user interface in the thermal version is inelegant (menus are
too long, etc) and the two versions of oof have incompatible data
files.  Many thanks to Edwin Garcia at MIT for his help in adapting
OOF for thermal calculations.

** CHANGES **

Major changes since the last newsletter include:

 * New versions of OOF and PPM2OOF for addressing thermal conductivity
   problems. 

 * New material types have been added:

   twissel: isotropic with a temperature independent stress free
             strain (named for Doug Twisselmann, who requested it)

   gas: isotropic thermal conductivity but no elasticity (only in the
             thermal oof, obviously)

   cubic_crack: a mutable element ala griffith2, but with cubic
             symmetry.

 * Both oof and ppm2oof will can now produce PostScript output from the
   "Save" button on the graphics windows.  When asked, enter a file
   name ending in ".ps" or ".eps".  All other file names will produce
   images in ppm format.

 * The "-start" command line option is now available in both ppm2oof
   and in oof, although it's redundant with the "-file" option in
   oof. It has been enhanced in both programs -- its argument can now
   be a comma separated list of command files to read or commands to
   execute. See the OOF Change History page for details, since the
   Manual is out of date...
   http://www.ctcms.nist.gov/oof/download/oofchanges.html

Additional changes to OOF include:

 * Changes to the node enslavement algorithm.  The program now behaves
   correctly when a degree of freedom is enslaved via two or more
   nodegroups.  The actual enslavement or emancipation is not
   performed until absolutely necessary, or until the "bc/apply"
   command is issued. This allows for efficient multiple enslavements,
   when mimicking periodic boundary conditions, for example.

 * Changes to the way in which boundary conditions and distortions are
   stored in the .goof files.  The new program can read the old files,
   but old programs cannot read the new files.  Required for compatibility
   with the new enslavement algorithm.

 * New commands:
     select/nodes/nearest         for selecting nodes in scripts
     select/nodes/rectangle       ditto
     output/position/group        average position of a node group
     bc/emancipate/all            emancipate all enslaved node groups
     bc/apply                     apply boundary conditions (see above)
     output/comment               allows annotation in output/tee files

Additional changes to PPM2OOF include:

 * Numerous small bug fixes, the most interesting of which is that in
   the adaptive mesh, elements at the border of an area of empty
   elements could have had the wrong material type assigned.

As always, your feedback is welcome.  We can be reached at
oof_manager@ctcms.nist.gov. 

The OOF team,
   Steve Langer
   Andrew Reid
   Ed Fuller
   Andy Roosen
   Craig Carter