Enhancements include license commuting, improved function and shape plotting, and more

ATA Engineering, Inc., (ATA) is pleased to announce the availability of version 3.2.0 of the IMAT™ (Interface between MATLAB®, Analysis, and Test) family of software products. IMAT is a MATLAB interface designed for test and analysis engineers who work with large engineering data sets. IMAT provides a framework for easily importing finite element analysis (FEA) simulation data and measured test data into the MATLAB environment to leverage MATLAB’s versatile programming, mathematical, and graphical strengths. ATA has spent over a decade expanding the methods built into IMAT to make IMAT an efficient and robust interface between MATLAB and your data.

Committed to providing new IMAT releases in conjunction with new MATLAB releases, ATA Engineering has designed IMAT v3.2.0 to work with MATLAB R2010b, as well as with previous releases R2010a, R2009b, R2009a, R2008b, and R2008a.

ATA is continually improving IMAT based upon customer feedback and recommendations as well as ATA’s growing needs for added functionality. IMAT v3.2.0 has several new capabilities, along with many customer-driven enhancements.

NEW CAPABILITIES:

• Check out and take licenses off network.
• Allows you to take your computer into the field.

• Read SORT2-formatted results from OP2 files.
• Store data as a function within MATLAB.

• Cycle through shapes in an animation to display transient data.
• Format function plot styles interactively through a graphical interface.

OTHER ENHANCEMENTS:

The genetic algorithm (GA) in IMAT+Modal now provides users with an accelerometer selection form that allows the user to interactively adjust the GA-selected degrees of freedom (DOF) to examine the effects on the test/analysis model’s cost as well as on any other result metric. We have also added the ability to rank degrees of freedom based on their importance.

Our Alias-Free Polyreference (AFPoly) curve-fitting GUI has been improved to include a number of new capabilities for plotting and documenting test data. For more convenient plotting, an option for fixed- or auto-scaling y-limits when plotting frequency response functions (FRFs) has been added. For faster postprocessing we have added default axes panning options and the ability to pick poles directly from the “Poles” module.

Similar improvements have been made to our signal processing frequency response function (SPFRF) GUI, as shown below. Users can now set the time range to axis limits, and clear lower and upper frequencies to axis limits from the right-click context menu. Users can now also easily pan through plots and set default panning, legend orientation, and location options.

The resizable window (gray rectangle in the upper plot) in the SPFRF GUI allows the test user to immediately see the effects of their sampling parameters on the output before processing the entire dataset. Drag the window across your data to see the frequency content of the selection.

We encourage customers to continue to send enhancement requests, as these help to make our product better.

IMAT PACKAGES:

• IMAT: Base product, which provides capability to import and export I-deas, Universal, and associated data files into MATLAB for further processing. It also includes all of the data types used by the IMAT family.
• IMAT+FEA: Allows user to import simulation data.
  NASTRAN – Read OP2, Bulk Data, and PCH files directly.
  ABAQUS – Read results from ODB files.
  FEMAP – Read neutral files and connect bi-directionally to FEMAP via COM.
• IMAT+Modal: Aids in test planning and postprocessing of test data. This includes our genetic algorithm for accelerometer selection and the patent-pending AFPoly modal curve-fitter.
• IMAT+Signal: Extends IMAT’s functionality into signal processing, which encompasses processing time domain data into the frequency domain. It also provides capabilities for analyzing rotating-equipment data using Vold-Kalman filtering.

SHORT ON MATLAB LICENSES?

ATA also offers a sister product to IMAT called IMAT4XL. IMAT4XL combines the plotting and math functions of IMAT with the extensive import and export capabilities of IMAT+FEA into an easy-toIMAT Logo-use, graphical interface that does not require MATLAB to run. This standalone executable provides many of the same benefits as IMAT and connects directly to Microsoft Excel® for further data processing. Check out IMAT4XL and other ATA software at www.ata-e.com/software.

DOWNLOAD IMAT v3.2.0:

IMAT v3.2.0 is available to any IMAT user who is current on maintenance, enhancements, and support (ME&S). There is no cost for upgrading to v3.2.0. Customers can download the latest version at http://www.ata-e.com/software/imat/.

To upgrade your IMAT to version 3.2.0 or to learn more about these new features, please call Sherry at 858-480-2074, send an email to imat@ata-e.com, or visit www.ata-e.com.