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Upcoming release

The next release of numgeo-GiD is the largest so far. Model definition moves out of the data tree and into a set of dedicated managers, two families of geometry generators are added, and the interface gains a toolbar of its own.

New managers

Eight managers replace the parts of the data tree that had grown too complex to edit there. Each opens from the numgeo toolbar or from numgeo → Manager.

Material manager

Continuum materials are defined once and assigned by name. The definition is spread over eight tabs — phase properties, mechanical model, permeability, hydraulic model, Bishop effective stress, Rayleigh damping, stabilization parameters, and a free-text tab.

Two are new in this release:

  • Bishop effective stress — the effective-stress method for unsaturated soil, with five formulations.
  • Stabilization parameters — minimum pressure, mechanical viscosity, phantom elasticity, hourglass stiffness and FPL stabilisation, each independently switchable.

Three tabs carry live plots that turn a number into something recognisable:

  • The permeability tab converts the intrinsic permeability into a hydraulic conductivity and marks it on the Terzaghi soil-classification scale.
  • The hydraulic tab plots the retention curve and can fit the van Genuchten parameters to measured suction–saturation data, reporting R² and RMSE.
  • The Rayleigh damping tab takes a frequency band and a target damping ratio, calibrates α and β from them, and plots the resulting damping curve.

New constitutive models: Hardening-Soil-MN-Bricks, and reducible strength cards for Mohr-Coulomb and Matsuoka-Nakai for use with strength reduction.

Truss/beam material manager

Truss and beam sections get their own manager. Properties can be entered in metres or millimetres, and a catalogue of IPE profiles from IPE 80 to IPE 450 fills the geometric properties automatically.

Interaction manager

Contact interactions are defined once and assigned to master/slave pairs by name, with normal contact, tangential friction and contact options on separate tabs.

Amplitude manager

A live preview redraws as parameters are typed. Four types — ramp, rising sine and cosine, periodic and tabular — and a measured time history can be pasted straight from a spreadsheet.

Load manager

Every load assignment of a step in one table, editable in place, with the option of carrying a change forward into all following steps.

Initial-condition manager

Initial conditions are assigned to groups from one window, with a Preview button that draws the selected groups in the viewport before assigning. State variables can now be initialised as a spatially varying random field or read from a spatial data file.

Step manager

The calculation sequence as a flow chart. Steps can be reordered by dragging, renamed and retyped in place, and switched in and out of the analysis; the timeline draws the execution path so that skipped steps are visible at a glance. The details panel follows the analysis type, showing time integration for static, transient and dynamic steps and factor-of-safety settings for reduction steps.

Dimension manager

Plane strain, axisymmetric or 3D, asked once when a project is created.

Geometry generators

Two toolbar buttons build geometry rather than requiring it to be drawn by hand.

Pile generator

  • 3D monopile — a half or full soil block with a solid or hollow pile extruded through it, in as many layers as required.
  • 2D axisymmetric pile — a planar r–z section, with six tip shapes and an optional zipper extension below the tip.

Both create named groups for the soil, the pile, each layer and the individual boundary and contact surfaces, ready for assignment.

Embedded anchor and pile generator

  • Grouted anchor — a tendon and grout body with multiple head locations, steel grade presets and automatic section properties.
  • Embedded pile — a circular embedded beam pile with shaft and toe interaction, interface stiffnesses estimated from soil stiffness, a physical base disk with elastic-plastic or hyperbolic mobilisation, and an optional elastic ghost zone.

Both write embedded region definitions, so members sit inside an existing soil mesh without the two meshes sharing nodes.

Running a calculation

The process monitor now plots convergence while the calculation runs: equilibrium iterations per increment, and the RHS and increment convergence ratios of the increment being solved, each with its criterion drawn on the plot. Together they show at a glance whether a slow calculation is progressing or stuck.

The status, message and log files can be read in the same window, and results open in ParaView from the toolbar.

Interface

numgeo toolbar — a vertical toolbar collecting every manager, generator and calculation action in the order a model is usually built.

Visualisation panel — a floating panel above the graphics window that toggles condition symbols and selects which step's conditions are drawn. Symbols are drawn on request, so opening a large saved project stays fast.

Data tree — with materials, amplitudes, dimensions and initial conditions moved into their managers, the tree holds only what is attached to geometry: element types, material assignment, embedded regions, contact and the calculation steps.

Improvements

  • Manager databases follow the project on Save as.
  • Definitions are stored with the project rather than globally, so two projects no longer interfere with one another.
  • Managers keep the selected row highlighted while editing and after saving.
  • Apply and Save combined into a single button across the managers.
  • Duplicate database reads avoided during project loading, so large projects open faster.

Fixes

  • Soil-mesh conformity near the pile tip.
  • Inverted tip-surface normals on shaped tips.
  • Full-model wrap-around arcs in the 3D pile generator.
  • GiD_Geometry create syntax corrected for GiD 17.0.6 compatibility.
  • Amplitude changes reflected immediately in the amplitude manager.
  • Layer-border depths validated as strictly increasing.