Extrusion International 5-2023-USA

33 Extrusion International 3/2022 ed to accurately satisfy symmetry including the change in extrudate shape due to non-uniform exit velocity as well as due to cooling shrinkage. Results Along Non-Coordinate Cut Planes Besides plotting the results along the cut planes parallel to XY, YZ and XZ planes, in the new version of po - lyXtrue results can also be plotted on cut planes along other cut-plane orientations. The ability to calculate the flow rate through a quadrilateral or an annulus on a cut plane has also been implemented for non-coordi- nate cut planes. Expanded Material Database New materials have been added to the polyXtrue material database. The material database in the new version has more than twice the number of materials available in the last release. The newly added mate- rials include the structural analysis parameters required for an accurate prediction of extrudate shrinkage. These structural analysis parameters have also been added for many of the previously existing materials in the database. Improved User Experience The graphical user interface (GUI) of the software has also been up- dated with new features to make the software more effective and even more user friendly. Some of the newly added features to the polyXtrue GUI: • A Command Bar with shortcut buttons for common or useful fea- tures has been added to the User Interface. • The default save location can be set according to "File Extension" or "By Last Save". • The ability to move a company's material database to a shared net- work drive has been added. This shared material database feature allows every user in a company ac- cess to all material files generated by anyone in the company, and ensures everyone is using the same version of the material files. • The ability to shift and rotate a calibrator profile has been added. This ability allows the user to adjust the calibrator location and orienta- tion if the calibrator DXF file does not line up properly with the die exit. • The ability to generate a locally refined mesh and boundary layer mesh around a Vertex has been added. • A new exit "Curved Faces" feature has been added to the lo- cal meshing dialog. This feature adds the die wall faces adjacent to smaller fillets along the die exit to the local mesh table and ensures that the fillet curves are captured accurately in the predicted extru- date profile. • Option to hide "Post-Die Re - sults" has been added to the Display Controls panel. This feature allows a close examination of the die results near the exit without interference from the post-die results in the ex- trudate. • The "Visualize Die Results" and "Visualize Interface Results" dialogs have been merged into one dia- log to facilitate switching back and forth. • A "Cross flow" option has been added to the "Velocity" results to view the velocity perpendicular to the flow at the exit. • Streamline generation has been separated from "Results" plotting. This allows the user to plot results without waiting for streamline gen- eration to complete. •Point Thickness, the thickness cal - culated at points on the die or extru- date by holding down the SHIFT key while clicking the right mouse but- ton, can be saved to a CSV file and imported into a spreadsheet for fur- ther analysis. • The Point Thickness feature now also reports the thickness of each polymer layer at the clicked point in a coextrusion simulation. Layer thickness is shown in the polyXtrue Status Window. Plastic Flow, LLC 920 WWater Street, Suite 307, Hancock, MI 49930, USA www.plasticflow.com Pressure Layer Structure Pressure and Layer Structure in a Window Profile Die Predicted by polyXtrue