What's New for I-DEAS 10

This document describes some of the new features of I-DEAS 10. To learn about the rest of the new features, select the topic you're interested in from the table of contents on the left.
  
Note: If you don't see a table of contents, select the User's Guide icon at the top of this page. That will display the table of contents.
  
Dynamic Display Switching
Now when you switch from one type of display to another type (for example, from a line display to a shaded display), the redisplay performance is much faster. This should be especially noticeable for medium to large assemblies.

Design Highlights
  
Enhancements to Design include the following:
  
Component Features
In I-DEAS 10 you can create modular features, called "components." Used in combination with the new enhanced Feature Copy, components provide a very useful tool for creating and structuring parts.
  
The new component features combine the associativity of a "viney" tree structure with the performance advantages of a "bushy" tree structure. You can copy and reuse the components, even across "sub-trees" within the same part structure. When you make changes to the source part, the component features update as well.
  
You can:
  
replace the entire component with another component without losing positioning relationships  
  
roll back to the node below the component node to add features  
  
extract a component, make changes to it, and then replace it, without losing relationships, thus making bushy tree modeling easier, and allowing you to divide work on the same part between members of a team.

Construction (Boolean) Operators
Now you can perform more operations directly from the Construct form. You can modify the type of construction operator, preview results, diagnose your part, and more. And, because the diagnostic information is more robust than in the past, it's much easier to repair surfaces.

Part Diagnostics
Part diagnostics have been improved.  
  
Diagnostics are now provided for a range of questionable geometry, and the I-DEAS Validity Check has been improved to identify and highlight invalid geometry types.  
The user interface has been redesigned to make it easier to use and interpret.  
User-friendly messages have been added to the Part Diagnostics Browser, where your results are displayed.

History Access
  
The history tree's performance has been improved, and it has new features that make it easier to use.
  
In addition to quicker initial displays and when zooming and panning large parts and assemblies, the History Access form gives you:
  
more flexibility in retaining results for certain node types and for history tree branches  
  
higher visibility for problem nodes (warning, error, and partial results)  
the ability to update a part or assembly without dismissing the form  
  
color-coded display of associative feature copy dependencies

Spanning Configurations
  
With the new Span Config icon, you can simultaneously control attributes (hide, suppress, or abstract), orientations, and dimensions for multiple (or all) configurations of the top level assembly. This feature saves considerable time for assemblies that have dozens or even hundreds of configurations, such as complex animations or mechanisms.

Simulation Highlights
Enhancements to Simulation include the following:
  
Model Checking
You can use the new model checking capability to visually validate aspects of your model, such as element quality and certain types of boundary conditions. For most display types, when you turn model checking on, the software colors the elements in your model based on the type of display and criteria you select. When you turn model checking off, the software displays elements in their original colors. For example, you can use the Element Thickness option to color elements based on their average, minimum, or maximum thickness as defined by data surface/surface thicknesses or by physical property table values.
  
In previous releases, you had to use a combination of techniques to validate your model. Model checking is more comprehensive and lets you validate your model from within the Meshing task.

New FEM Area Connector Entity for Modeling Adhesive Connections
In this release, you can now define FEM area connectors to model adhesive connections between the mating flanges of components. With FEM area connectors, the software uses a series of either linear brick or wedge elements to define the adhesive. The centroid of the brick or wedge element is located at the mid-point between the two flanges. The bricks or wedges are then connected to the meshes on the flanges using I-DEAS constraint elements (Nastran RBE3 elements) and/or rigid elements (Nastran RBE2 elements).

Ability to Define Mapped Meshes Around Inner Loops
  
In this release, you can now create locally mapped (structured) meshes around inner loops and interior boundaries. This also allows you to create a locally structured mesh around key interior boundaries of interest within the context of an overall free mesh, which can improve the accuracy of local stress calculations.
  
Notice the difference between the meshes around the holes in the following figure. In (A), the meshes around the interior holes are free. In (B), mapped meshes have been defined locally around the interior holes.