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What's New

2026

2025

2024

ZWSim-Structural 2026

  • Analysis Types

    Analysis Types

    ●Added harmonic response analysis based on the direct method, which avoids errors potentially caused by modal truncation in the mode superposition method.  

  • Element Types

    Element Types

    ●Added reduced integration element algorithms, supporting both the stiffness method and the enhanced strain method;

    ●Added membrane element type for simulating thin-walled structures.

  • Nonlinear Analysis

    Nonlinear Analysis

    ●Enhanced geometric nonlinear analysis for Timoshenko beams and enabling plastic beam analysis for rectangular and circular cross-sections; 

    ●Added auto-stabilization feature to effectively improve convergence issues caused by numerical instability.

  • Various Contact Functions

    Various Contact Functions

    ●Added general contact functionality, allowing selection of all potential contact surfaces at a time, eliminating the need for manual definition of specific contact pairs; 

    ●Added a contact studio feature, providing clearer batch management of contact pairs.

     

  • Connection

    Connection

    ●Added five weld types: single-sided fillet weld, double-sided fillet weld, lap fillet weld, single-sided groove weld, and double-sided groove weld;

    ●Added five bolt connection types: countersunk bolts, standard screws, countersunk screws, foundation bolts, and machine screws. 

  • Material

    Material

    ●Drop test analysis now supports hyperelastic materials; 

    ●Added temperature-dependent materials, allowing users to define temperature-dependent curves for key material parameters such as elastic modulus, Poisson's ratio;

    ●Added viscoelastic material type for accurately describing time-dependent mechanical response characteristics of materials.

     

  • Constraints & Loads

    Constraints & Loads

    ●Added cyclic symmetry constraint for handling geometries with cyclically symmetric characteristics;

    ●Added hydrostatic pressure load for simulating pressure loads exerted by liquids in a gravitational field on structural surfaces. 

  • Geometry Simplification

    Geometry Simplification

    ●Added "Regard as Beam" feature, allowing users to automatically simplify geometric parts with complex cross-sections into beam element models;

    ●Added batch bolt identification and creation function. 

     

  • Geometry Repair

    Geometry Repair

    ●Added automatic face extension function. The software automatically searches the model for other geometric faces adjacent to and within tolerance of the base face boundary. 

     

  • Mesh Tools

    Mesh Tools

    ●Added multiple mesh editing functions, including mesh translation, rotation, scaling, mirroring, projection, positioning, placing nodes, moving nodes, and remapping nodes. 

  • Data Management

    Data Management

    ●Added beam section manager function, supporting sharing and reuse of section properties;

    ●Added standard function to automatically create response spectra, power spectral density, and pulse functions. 

  • Result Visualization

    Result Visualization

    ●Added symmetric display function, supporting cyclic symmetry expansion and mirror symmetry display of analysis results;

    ●Added mesh plane clipping function, allowing visualization of smooth cross-sectional results. 

     

  • Result Diagnostic

    Result Diagnostic

    ●Added edge weld diagnostic function, supporting inspection of required weld dimensions in postprocessing;

    ●Added bolt strength check function, supporting viewing of bolt strength check results in postprocessing;

    ●Added stress linearization function, decomposing complex stress states into equivalent membrane stress, bending stress, and peak stress components. 

  • Result Calculation

    Result Calculation

    ●Added reaction moment calculation function, supporting direct viewing of total reaction forces and reaction moments at selected constraint points in postprocessing;

    ●Added dynamic stiffness calculator function, enabling convenient calculation of structural dynamic stiffness curves and key metric values;

    ●Enhanced XY plotting functionality, supporting more flexible calculation expressions and adding new functions for minimum/ maximum/ average/ summation/ root calculations. 

  • File Import/Export

    File Import/Export

    ●Optimized INP import/export functionality for more accurate parsing of INP file syntax and structure;

    ●Optimized pressure load import, adding support for tabular input in the format of "mesh face - pressure value". 

ZWSim-Structural 2025

  • Analysis Types

    Analysis Types

    ●Added Multi-Step Analysis, Multi-Load Case Analysis, and General Explicit Dynamics Analysis, significantly expanding coverage for a wider range of simulation scenarios.

     

  • Element Types

    Element Types

    ●Added Timoshenko beam elements considering transverse shear deformation;

    ●Composite laminate elements support strength evaluation and local failure assessment based on the Hashin failure criterion.

     

  • Nonlinear Analysis

    Nonlinear Analysis

    ●Added Arc-Length method for complex post-buckling analysis;

    ●Enhanced large deformation analysis for first-order shell element.

  • Various Contact Functions

    Various Contact Functions

    ●Added face-to-face contact algorithm for bonded contacts;

    ●Supports progressive interference and adjustable penalty parameters for contact.

  • Connection

    Connection

    ●Added rigid body definition to simplify models and improve simulation efficiency.

  • Material

    Material

    ●Added six hyperelastic models (Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden, Neo-Hookean, Polynomial Form, Arruda-Boyce, Yeoh) and HyperFoam support;

    ●Added material fitting tool, fitting parameters from tension, compression, and shear test data.

  • Constraints & Loads

    Constraints & Loads

    ●Added bolt pretension capability in multi-step analysis;

    ●Added Inertial Release function simulates dynamic responses in unconstrained models.

  • Geometric Simplification

    Geometric Simplification

    ●Added automatic mid-surface and beam extraction for slender bars and thin-walled structures;

    ●Automatically assigns beam/shell properties and detects connectivity between adjacent beams.

     

  • Mesh Repair

    Mesh Repair

    ●Added virtual topology to merge faces and suppress edges without changing the original geometry, reducing small-feature impact and enabling high-quality meshes;

     

  • Mesh Tools

    Mesh Tools

    ●Added mesh extrusion , element renumbering and order changing;

    ●Enhanced mesh selection tools with selection by plane, element type and connectivity domain;

    ●Enhanced box selection to pick only surface meshes and to choose elements inside, outside or intersecting the selection box;

  • Data Management

    Data Management

    ●Added Material Manager for batch viewing and editing of material parameters and colors;

    ●Added Job Monitor for job submission, real-time progress tracking and quick access to post-processing;

    ●Supports creating boundary conditions based on reference sets.

  • Post-processing

    Post-processing

    ●Added an independent post-processing environment separated from pre-processing.

  • Result Visualization

    Result Visualization

    ●Added discrete contour plots, step/frame-based contour switching and deformed/undeformed comparison views;

    ●Added 2D plotting of each step's maximum/minimum value;

    ●Added a post-processing calculator.

     

  • Result Export

    Result Export

    ●Supports export of deformed meshes and GIF animation results;

    ●Enhanced automated report export for more professional, detailed reports.

     

  • File Import/Export

    File Import/Export

    ●Added import and export of Abaqus solver input files (.INP), including models using millimeter–ton unit systems;

    ●Greatly improved performance for importing and exporting large BDF files.

     

ZWSim-Structural 2024

  • Analysis Types

    Analysis Types

    • Added random vibration analysis;

    • Added fatigue analysis (constant amplitude, variable amplitude, harmonics, time steps, random vibration); 

    • Added drop test; 

    • Added MoldFlow mapping result analysis.

  • Element Type

    Element Type

    • Added beam and shell offset functions;

    • Added cable element.

  • Nonlinear Analysis

    Nonlinear Analysis

    • Added large displacement analysis of beam element;

    • Added large strain analysis of solid element;

    • Added large deformation analysis of new dynamic rigid element; 

    • Supports non-coordinated hexahedral element algorithm and load stiffness calculation; 

    • Supports viewing real-time convergence curves and energy curves.

  • Various Contact Functions

    Various Contact Functions

    • Added small slip and large slip contact functions;

    • Added friction contact function;

    • Added thermal resistance contact function.

  • Connection

    Connection

    • Added bolt connections, rigid rod connections, spot welding connections, and pin connections;

    • Added symmetrical constraints and elastic supports.

  • Material Types

    Material Types

    • Added linear elastic orthotropic material;

    • Added linear elastic anisotropic material.

  • Load

    Load

    • Added thermal effect load;
    • Added internal heat generation;
    • Added enforce motion.

  • Geometric Simplification

    Geometric Simplification

    • Supports automatic identification and repair of narrow surfaces, self-intersection surfaces, small surfaces, small edges, and open edges;

    • Supports automatic identification and simplification of holes, cylindrical surfaces, and logos;

    • Added automatic identification and simplification of holes, cylindrical surfaces, and logos.

  • Mesh Repair

    Mesh Repair

    • Supports repair 2D and 3D intersecting elements;

    • Supports fill 3D mesh through 2D mesh;

    • Supports repair the direction of 2D elements;

    • Supports repair 2D narrow elements.

  • Mesh Edit

    Mesh Edit

    • Added mesh translation, rotation, and sweeping functions;

    • Supports manual creation of elements;

    • Added node merging function.

  • Post-Processing

    Post-Processing

    • Support results display along the path;

    • Supports viewing mode quality participation factors and frequency response charts; 

    • Supports result feature line display and wireframe display.

  • Large-Scale Simulation

    Large-Scale Simulation

    • Optimized the memory consumption of large-scale constraint equations;

    • Improved the calculation efficiency of large-scale model matrices; 

    • Improved the efficiency of importing and exporting large-scale BDF files.

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