Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. First create a developer account (it’s free, register here) then fill-out the trial license request form. You have to accept the Evaluation Software Agreement.
We’ll allow you to download from your developer account the evaluation package(s) (Windows 32-bit and 64-bit) and send your 45-day free evaluation key(s). You will have to rebuild the examples with MS Visual Studio. You are free to modify the examples.

The CM2 MeshTools Suite is a C++ library to be integrated in other applications, not a full program. There is no GUI in CM2 MeshTools. We have concentrated on algorithms to offer the best meshing tools possible. Input and output data are arrays (C++ matrix and vector classes).
To draw boundary lines, you have to bind it to an application with GUI or use a separated program for that and read the data from a file to feed the mesh generators. Another solution (but limited to simple domains) is to use the auxiliary functions of meshtools1d as described in the Tutorial & User’s Manual.

To get an evaluation license and to have access to the manuals, first create a developer account (it’s free, register here) then fill-out the trial license request form. You have to accept the Evaluation Software Agreement.

Bad meshes are due to bad boundaries. The meshers do not modify the boundary meshes (considered as hard entities).
For CM2 TriaMesh Iso and CM2 QuadMesh Iso, avoid long edges connected to small edges. You can use cm2::meshtools1d::remesh_lines (a function of CM2 MeshTools Core included with all licenses) to remesh/improve the line meshes (or only some of them) before runnning the plane mesher.
For CM2 TetraMesh Iso avoid bad high-aspect ratio boundary triangles. You can improve the quality of the surface boundary meshes with CM2 SurfRemesh T3 before running the solid mesher.
For more information please contact us.

Yes it is. All meshers in CM2 MeshTools are professional meshers. They are very fast, robust and generate high-quality meshes. The speed (number of generated elements per second) is nearly independent from the size of the models. On modern CPU, 50 000 regularized tets/s. is a common speed for CM2 TetraMesh Iso for instance. A one-million tet mesh is generated in less than 30 s.

To evaluate yourself CM2 TetraMesh Iso, first create a developer account (it’s free, register here) then fill-out the trial license request form. You have to accept the Evaluation Software Agreement.

Use the settings_type::target_metric parameter to specify a mesh size inside the domain (can be smaller or bigger than the size of the boundary elements). The mesher will smoothly adjust the elements size from the boundaries to this target mesh size (parameter settings_type::max_gradation is used to control the gradation of the mesh size). In 3-D models, savings on elements count can be massive.
For more information please contact us.

Yes. Intern (embedded) hard edges/faces are constrained (kept in the final mesh) just like boundary edges/faces. You can also set specific embedded nodes inside the domain (hard nodes).
For more information please contact us.

Yes. The second platform is charged only at 50%. The third is charged at 33%.
Please submit a quotation request form (a developer account required, it’s free, register here).

Yes. As the meshers share a common software basis, bundles are cheaper than individual products. Discounts are also granted for multi-platform licenses.
Please fill and submit a quotation request form (a developer account required, it’s free, register here).

Regular licensees (non academic) are allowed to incorporate our library to any number of applications of them at no additional cost and to sell any number of copies to third parties without any royalty.
For more information please read the Software License Agreement.

Of course. We are software professionals and new versions (minor and major) are regularly released (about one minor version every 6 months and one major version every 12-18 months). In addition, hot fix patches can be sent within a few days for customers facing a blocking issue.
The first 12 months of Support Services (E-mail support + any hot fixes + all new minor versions + all new major versions) are offered with your initial purchase. Support Services extensions (12-month, 24-month or 36-month) can be purchased together with your initial license or renewed later.
Please contact us for more information.

We have an Evaluation Software Agreement which covers Demo and Trial software.
Full-fledged licenses are covered by the Software License Agreement.

The core solver is based on a parallelized direct Crout factorization scheme (LDLt factorization), with several high-efficient DOF numbering algorithms (AMD, METIS…) A preconditioned conjugate gradient scheme is also used when multiple load cases have mixed Dirichlet/Neumann boundary conditions. Modal and buckling solvers use an hybrid Lanczös-subspace Iteration scheme. The non-linear solver uses a modified Newton-Raphson algorithm.
For more information please contact us.

This depends of the type of the models! Solid models take usually more time than plate/shell models with same number of DOFs, and plate/shell models more time than beam/rod models. Modal and non-linear analyses are also more time consuming than linear ones. On modern CPUs (4-core, 3.5GHz), computing the 100 lowest modes of a 300,000-DOF model made of plates and shells (2-floor building with vertical walls) takes less than 30 seconds.
For more information please contact us.

CM2 FEM has a built-in out-of-core memory management to handle large global matrices. The user can set a limit on the amount of incore RAM granted to CM2 FEM. The solvers will require disk space when necessary and manage the data swappings transparently and independantly from the OS. However some data cannot be swapped and must remain always incore. On a Win32 machine with 1Gb RAM granted for CM2 FEM and 4Gb on disk, the static solver can handle 200,000 DOF solid problems, 500,000 DOF 3-D plate/shell problems and 1M+ DOF 3-D beam/rod problems. But this is only an estimate and the limit depends heavily on the type and the topology of the model. On Win64 (or linux 64) systems, without the 4Gb limit, much bigger problems can be solved.
For more information please contact us.

All types of elements (beams, plates, shells, solids) have a full non-linear version taking large strains effects, large displacement/rotation effects, stress stiffening/softening into account. The buckling solver computes buckling critical loads and buckling shapes on initial or pre-stressed/pre-deformed structures. The Newton-Raphson solver can also be used to compute full non-linear critical loads.
For more information please contact us.

We have non-linear elastic spring laws (user-defined) and some elasto-plastic constitutive laws in CM2 FEM (perfect elasto-plastic, Ramberg-Osgood…)
For more information please contact us.

Yes. The second platform is charged only at 50%. The third is charged at 33%.
Please submit a quotation request form (a free-developer account is required, you can register here).

Regular licensees (non academic) are allowed to incorporate our library to any number of applications of them at no additional cost and to sell any number of copies to third parties without any royalty.
For more information please read the Software License Agreement.

Of course. We are software professionals and new versions (minor and major) are regularly released (about one minor version every 6 months and one major version every 12-18 months). In addition, hot fix patches can be sent within a few days for customers facing a blocking issue.
The first 12 months of Support Services (E-mail support + any hot fixes + all new minor versions + all new major versions) are offered with your initial purchase. Support Services extensions (12-month, 24-month or 36-month) can be purchased together with your initial license or renewed later.
Please contact us for more information.

CM2 FEM licenses are covered by the Software License Agreement.

Yes. We are ready to consider any specific request. Please contact us.