News

August 09, 2010

A new version of PLAXIS 3D has become available. Please visit the software updates section under the Support menu to download the latest version.

New and improved features

PLAXIS 3D 2010.01 contains improved features compared to the previous version (2010, 30-06-2010):

• Several improvements in the rectangle selection tool.
• Some speed-ups in the intersection routines for particular cases.
• PackProject is now available, utilizing two industry-standard algorithms (7-zip and zip).
• The array command generates better sequential names, making it easier to define staged construction for segmented geometries. This change does affect the results you get when playing back existing log files that create multiple copies per dimension of multiple objects of the same type. An example: two node to node anchor lines are arrayed along a pair of walls, one on the left and one on the right. In the old case, the anchors on the left would have consecutive names and the anchors on the right had consecutive names, which meant that Anchor_5 could find itself opposite of Anchor_23. In the new situation, opposite anchors will have sequential names.

Fixed bugs

• Fixed the initialization of water conditions in staged construction. It is however still necessary to always check using the Preview function that the generated pore pressures are as expected, also to guard against user errors.
• Using particular units no longer leads to problems on systems using the comma as decimal separator.
• If a previously defined soil model of type "User-defined" is switched to some other type of model, this new model is now always saved correctly.
• User-defined water levels can be deleted with the Delete button.
• Estimated end time for phases is now always correct.
• It's now possible to snap during the drawing of polygons even after the third point has been created.
• When the K0 procedure is used with overconsolidated materials using the Modified Cam-Clay soil model, the p_p value is now correctly initialized. The K0 procedure can therefore now be used with the Modified Cam-Clay soil model.
• Fixed many sources of crashes.

Known issues

• See the remarks regarding the array command above for information on compatibility changes. 
• User-defined prescribed displacements/fixities always 'win' from automatically defined fixities. This means that if a prescribed surface displacement is placed on the top surface and this surface displacement shares an edge with the side surface of the model (e.g. in the modelling of a symmetrical smooth footing), there will be no horizontal fixity on the shared edge. In this case, add a line prescribed displacement along this edge and assign the proper fixity conditions to it.
• If the Disclaimer shown at startup is not accepted, the application may hang. In this case, kill the Plaxis3DInput.exe process using the Windows Task Manager (press Ctrl+Alt+Del, then select the "Start Task Manager" option).
• If your CodeMeter key has an expired 3D Foundation or 3D Tunnel licence, it is not possible to start PLAXIS 3D. Our Sales department can provide you with an update for your key in this case.
• It is not possible to use file names that contain characters outside the Latin-1 character set (e.g. Chinese or Russian).