BETA.CAE.Systems.v18.1 BETA CAE Systems announces the release of version 18.1.0 of its software suite with brand new tools and capabilities. This first-point releae of v18x brings the software to a next level of maturity and functionality richness. We put a lot of effort to incorporate as many of your requirements as possible and paid a lot of attention to the software quality and performance. We are proud to make this new release of our software suite available to you, so that you begin the new year with a bigger potential. The most important enhancements implemented are listed below. Contents Enhancements in ANSA Enhancements in EPILYSIS Enhancements in META New Documentation Compatibility and Supported Platforms Download Enhancements in ANSA ANSA extends its collaboration capabilities with the implementation of the Sketch tool. With this tool you can highlight areas of interest on the model and add notes in the form of annotations, for further check/review. The Web Interface capabilities are also expanded to full ANSA Interface broadcasting. The new version, introduces a brand new methodology to facilitate the synthesis of modular assemblies. This new approach, powered by the marking capabilities of Assembly Points and Sets, the versatility of Bolts and Connectors, and the file management functionality of ANSA DM, brings a solution to many of the usual bottlenecks of model building process that are related to the interdependencies between the different subsystems. As a result, the maintenance of each subsystem becomes much easier, the assembly of the complete model is carried-out faster and the validation of the assembly after model changes comes at no cost for the analyst. A brand new Loadcase Manager for Abaqus brings loadcasing capabilities to a new dimension, in compliance with the support of distributions for Abaqus materials and multiple Step Managers in Abaqus deck. Functionality initially introduced with v18.0.0 is further improved. The Light Volume Representation has been enhanced with the addition of clipping planes. Solid elements can be extruded with minimum user interaction. The seat de-penetration functionality comes with the support of non-linear characteristics of the cushion material, and the Laminate Tool has been enriched with the parametric definition of Laminates and Composites, on top of the Template Layers. The introduction of the Octree entity allows you to create and preview the result of octree based algorithms, such as, Surface Wrapping, Hextreme, and Cavity meshing. This accelerates the overall generation process as it provides quick leak detection and cutting planes visualization tools, contour plots of mesh size distribution and more, extending the capabilities and performance in the CFD domain. Polyhedral mesh conversion has now improved speed and memory consumption and can produce ANSA Volume result or Light Volume representation result. Fixing quality for volume meshes has been accelerated and is now available also for polyhedral and Light Volume representation meshes. Significant enhancements have been made in the CFD solvers as well, such as speed enhancements in Fluent Output and improved handling of TGRID meshes with hanging nodes in Fluent Input, Light Volume Representation support for Baffle, CyclicACMI and multi-region in OpenFOAM, Thermal Links Wizard and El Temp Menu, displaying temperatures directly on the model, in TAI Therm. Implementations such as the material homogenization, the support of xMCF format and of new FEMSITE version, as well as updates in CGNS format (HDF5 I/O, Light Volume Representation I/O, Hybrid Output) are just representative cases of the vast developments that have taken place in v18.1.0.