MXDigimat Manual

Part VI
Digimat-MX
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Digimat-MX VI.1
Overview
VI.1.1
General description
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Figure VI.1.1: Digimat-MX workflow.
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VI.1.1
Overview
General description
The use of Digimat requires material data for each phase of the composite as well as micro-structure data in
terms of constituents and morphology. Digimat Material eXpert whose schematic view is given on Figure
VI.1.2 has been introduced to fulfill these needs. With its integrated database system, Digimat-MX allows
an easy access to Digimat Analysis and Material data. Thanks to its expert tools, it offers a way to enhance
model adequacy with experimental data.
Figure VI.1.2: Digimat-MX schema.
You will find more information

On the known limitations of Digimat-MX in appendix XIII.5
Some guidelines for the usage of Digimat-MX can be found in appendix XIV.4
In the examples & tutorials of appendix XV.5
Digimat-MX VI.2
Graphical user interface
VI.2.1
Database Connection dialog . . . . .
Database Connection Dialog Description
VI.2.2
Database Tools . . . . . . . . . . .
Database(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
User(s) and Group(s) . . . . . . . . . .
VI.2.3
MX GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.2.4
Menu bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Disclaimers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.2.5
Quick filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Data type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.2.6
Main window - how to access data .
Interaction in the GUI . . . . . . . . . .
Digimat Analysis File(s) . . . . . . . . .
Digimat Material File(s) . . . . . . . .
Digimat Experimental File(s) . . . . . .
VI.2.7
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Database Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . .
(Advanced) Filter . . . . . . . . . . . .
Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Reverse Engineering . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.2.8
Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Plot TAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Digimat-MX
VI.2.1
Database Connection dialog
When starting Digimat-MX from the platform, the first displayed Graphical User Interface is the connection
dialog window illustrated on Figure VI.2.1. It is the starting point to connect to a database (see Section
VI.5.1) and open Digimat-MX main window (see Section VI.2.3). It is also from that window that you will be
able to manage the database (see Chapter VI.4).
Figure VI.2.1: Database Connection Dialog Window.
Database Connection Dialog Description
The connection dialog box is the first displayed window by Digimat-MX, even when called by another Digimat product. This is thus the starting point of any operation.
In order to connect to a database (see Section VI.5.1), the following fields have to be filled in:
User name,
Password,
Database.
In the database field, either the database name or its address (IP address or localhost) can be specified.
Password is not checked when connecting to a local database.
Actions available into the connection dialog box are:
Connect connects to the server and opens Digimat-MX main window (see Section VI.2.3)
Database Tools opens Digimat-MX Database Tools windows to manage databases.
Cancel closes the dialog box and hence, closes Digimat-MX.
If the connection to the database is successful, its location (IP address) into automatically added into Digimat settings file (.ini) as well as in the list of Connected databases.
When Remember me is checked, after a successful connection, the user name, password and database are
stored in a setting file located in current Windows user application data folder. If connection information has
been stored, connection dialog box is prefilled with it. Note that only one set of connection information data
can be stored.
VI.2.2. Database Tools
VI.2.2
509
Database Tools
Database tools window is accessed from the connection dialog box (See Section VI.2.1). This window as
shown in Figure VI.2.2 allows the management of databases (See Chapter VI.4):
Database(s)
Sharing
User(s) and Group(s)
Figure VI.2.2: Database Tools Menu Window.
Database(s)
Database(s) window allows to manage accessed database(s) and created database(s).

Accessed database(s)
Accessed database(s) as shown on Figure VI.2.3 lists databases accessed by current Windows user. Displayed
information is stored in Digimat-MX application data folder of current Windows user.
Accessed database(s) list consists in a list of database location (IP address or localhost) with their associated
name. The database location is under brackets. When connecting to a new database location, it is added to
this list and the associated name is by default the same as the location.
Available actions are:
Add adds a database location and associated name to the accessed database list. Note that the database
location is not checked.
Rename allows to modify the name associated to a given database location.
Delete removes the database location and its associated name from current Windows user list of accessed
database(s).
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Digimat-MX
Figure VI.2.3: Accessed databases.
Created database(s)
Created database(s) as shown on Figure VI.2.4 lists databases created on current machine whose information is
stored in Digimat-MX program data folder (See Subsection VI.4.1 for more information). Created database(s)
list consists in a list of server name and corresponding database folder location under brackets.
Figure VI.2.4: Created databases.
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New
Create displays Database Creation (See Database Creation) to specify required information and
hence, create a new database.
From backup creates a database from a backup file (See Subsection VI.4.6).
From 4.1.2 existing DB upgrades an existing database created with a previous version of DigimatMX using the database scheme version Digimat-MX 4.2.1. To know the database scheme version
use the Help menu in the MX GUI(See Subsection VI.2.4).
Server
Status displays information about the server: server running status, access configuration, creation
date and creator, service information and backup information.
Start starts the server (See Subsection VI.4.2).
Stop stops the server (See Subsection VI.4.2). Administrative rights are required for this action.
Who is online connects to the server and shows other users connected to the same server as
shown on Figure VI.2.5. If you are the only user connected to the database, message box shown
on Figure VI.2.6 is displayed. Checking who is online is useful before stopping a server running on
a database. Administrative rights are required for this action.
Backup
Create creates a backup file (See Subsection VI.4.6). Administrative rights are required for this
action.
List lists existing backup files (See Subsection VI.4.6). Administrative rights are required for this
action.
Restore restores a database to a previously backup status (See Subsection VI.4.6). Administrative
rights are required for this action.
Service
Status returns the status (existing, running or not) of the service (See Subsection VI.4.3).
Create registers a service to handle the start and stop of a server (See Subsection VI.4.3).
Start starts the service (See Subsection VI.4.3).
Stop stops the service (See Subsection VI.4.3).
Delete deletes the service (See Subsection VI.4.3).
Delete deletes selected created database(s) (See Subsection VI.4.1).
Figure VI.2.5: Who is connected?
Database Creation Database Creation frame is displayed when creating a database. All information fields
required to the database creation (See Section VI.4.1) are specified via this frame as shown in Figure VI.2.7.
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Digimat-MX
Figure VI.2.6: A lone user.
Figure VI.2.7: Database creation.
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Sharing
To access Sharing, an administration connection dialog is issued to check administrative rights and hence,
allow actions based on those rights.
Sharing allows to easily modify the groups with which grades are shared (See Section VI.5.6). Only grades in
shared data are displayed, i.e., it is not possible to start to share a private data grade of a user in Sharing.
To modify the sharing status of a grade with a given group, you can double-click on the corresponding cell.
Then, to effectively modify the status, you have to click on Save button.
The status can be modified for several cells at a time by selecting them and clicking on Share or Do NOT
share buttons.
Figure VI.2.8: Sharing.
Share sets the sharing status of selected cells to shared.

Do NOT share sets the sharing status of selected cells to not shared.
Reset resets all sharing status to their actual state in the database.
Save modifies and saves in the database the sharing status as displayed. Once changes are saved into
the database, there is no functionality to revert those changes.
Notes that Share, Do NOT share and Revert do not modify the sharing status in the database, only Save
modifies the database.
User(s) and Group(s)
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Digimat-MX
To access User(s) and Group(s), an administration connection dialog is issued to check administrative rights
and hence, allow actions based on those rights (See Subsection VI.4.4). If a user with no administrative rights
connects, s/he will only be able to change her/his password.
User(s)
User(s) as shown on Figure VI.2.9 lists all users that can be modified by connected user. As an administrator,
all users are listed. For a power user, all users that are members of her/his groups are listed.
Figure VI.2.9: User(s).

Add opens a window to specify the properties of the user (See User properties) to be created (See
Subsection VI.4.4).
Properties opens a window where the properties of the selected user are displayed. Enabled properties
can be modified (See Subsection VI.4.4). In particular, users password can be modified.
Delete deletes selected user(s) (See Subsection VI.4.4)
User properties User property window as shown in Figure VI.2.10 is used to specify user properties at user
creation or to modify the properties of an existing user. Based on current user administrative rights, fields
that cannot be modified are greyed out.
Group(s)
Group(s) as shown on Figure VI.2.11 lists all groups that can be modified by connected user. As an administrator, all groups are listed. For a power user, all groups which s/he belongs to are listed. Only administrators
can delete or create a group. A simple user without administrative rights does not have access to Group(s).
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Figure VI.2.10: User properties.
Figure VI.2.11: Group(s).
Add opens a window to specify the properties of the group (See Group properties) to be created (See
Subsection VI.4.5).
Properties opens a window where the properties of the selected group are displayed (See Group properties). Enabled properties can be modified (See Subsection VI.4.5).
Delete deletes selected group(s) (See Subsection VI.4.5)
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Digimat-MX
Group properties Group property window as shown on Figure VI.2.12 is used to specify group properties at
group creation or to modify the properties of an existing group.
Figure VI.2.12: Group properties.
VI.2.3. MX GUI
VI.2.3
517
MX GUI
This document explains Digimat-MX Graphical User Interface (GUI) architecture. Figure VI.2.13 illustrates
the Digimat-MX main window.
Figure VI.2.13: Digimat-MX + main window.
Upon login, Digimat-MX displays the list of grades stored in the database that as been accessed. The relative
size of the frames can be changed by moving the split lines. The Digimat-MX GUI is separated in four principle
areas of usage:
Menu
Convert:
Quick Filter
Main Window
Tools
All functionalities to be performed on the database can be accessed via the menu and/or via the icon tool
bar. The icons represent the available tools to work on the database or database entries. The menu offers
the complete set of Digimat-MX functionalities whereas the tools section gives direct access only to the most
important tools for data manipulation. The quick filter on the left side of the GUI enables easy and quick
navigation through the full list of available grades. The main window is used to display database entries on
different levels of depth of information. The "Grades" TAB represents the highest level of information which
is thus most general. Once a deeper level is entered (e.g., by right-clicking a grade and choosing to show a
Digimat Analysis stored in the database), the next level of information will be displayed in a separate TAB.
The "Home" button can be used to close all TABs showing additional information and bring the user quickly
back to the "Grades" level.
In the following, the single parts of the Digimat-MX GUI will be described in more depth.
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Digimat-MX
VI.2.4
Menu bar
The menu bar is by default located at the top of the main window. It may be docked or undocked, allowing
you to move it to any area of the screen. Five parts are available in the menu:
Database
Tools
Settings
Help
Disclaimers
These parts are more closely described hereafter.
Database
The "Database" menu contains the following commands:

Home displays the starting Material Explorer of the database.
Who is connected allows to see other users connected to the same database as you.
Save saves all changes made to the current database since last save or cancel or connection. Note:
When working on a shared database, this will make your changes visible to other connected users. It may
be useful in such case to make sure that your changes will not interact with their work before saving.
Cancel cancels changes made to the current database since last cancel or save or connection. This may
be useful if your connection status is set to error.
Clean database removes expired encrypted files that are stored into the current database.
Material Data Center opens the homepage of the MBASE Material Data Center in a separate browser
window. Users can log-in and export grades that can be fed to MX database in a subsequent step.
Quit quits and closes Digimat-MX.
Tools
The "Tools" offers access to the following database tools:

(Advanced) filter
Import
Reverse engineering
The usage of these tools are described in more details further down below.
Settings
The "Settings" menu allows to change settings for Digimat-MX. Available are:
VI.2.4. Menu bar
519
Delete History to delete all temporary files created by Digimat-MX.

CSV Delimiter to define the delimiter used for the .csv format ("," or ";" can be chosen). This is the
delimiter that is used by Export All and when importing data from a .csv file.
Comments column to switch the display of the comments for each grade on or off.
Units system to define user define units system.
Help
In "Help", submenus are:

Help opens the Digimat-MX documentation.
About Digimat-MX shows Digimat-MX version and revision numbers.
Digimat-MX Database Version gets database version and Digimat-MF version used to check DigimatMX Public data.
e-Xstream web site opens www.e-xstream.com web site in your default web browser.
Disclaimers
The following commands are available:

e-Xstream disclaimer shows e-Xstream disclaimer that you accepted at the first opening of DigimatMX.
Supplier disclaimer shows disclaimer of suppliers that provided Digimat-MX Public data.
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Digimat-MX
VI.2.5
Quick filter
The quick filter enables easy and quick navigation through the full list of available grades. It offers to filter
for different types of information. The display can be triggered by double-clicking on the writing in the filter
or by using the "Edit" option after right-clicking the writing. Right-clicking and choosing the "Clear" option
will clear the filter setting for the respective attribute.
Figure VI.2.14: Quick filter
Data type
The type of data can be used to selectively display database entries. The three available options for filtering
are
Private data
Data belonging exclusively to the individual user and thus cannot be seen by any other user
Shared data
Data shared among groups
Public data
Data shared by material suppliers or others which is delivered with each version of Digimat-MX
VI.2.5. Quick filter
521
Grade
Grades can be searched by common attributes that are found in the database. For doing so, double-click
the attribute of interest to open the dialog window which is used to further specify the search. Also parts of
names can be searched for (e.g., in Trade name using "*plastic*" will return all grades with this wording in
the associated name).
Quick filter of grades is available for the following attributes:
Trade Name
Here the trade name can directly be searched.
Supplier
Grades can be filtered by supplier - a dropdown list of suppliers is available for the public database
included in Digimat-MX.
Type
Types can either be "composite" or "homogeneous" material.
Matrix
Grades can be filtered by matrix material - the material can be chosen from a dropdown list.
Filler
Grades can be filtered by filler material - the material can be chosen from a dropdown list.
Fiber Amount
Grades can be filtered by the amount of filler in the material.
Content
It is also possible to filter via the content of the data stored in the database. For doing so, double-click to
open the dialog window which is used to further specify the search.
Three different types can be accessed, all associated to Digimat file formats:
DAF
Digimat Analysis Files
DMF
Digimat Material Files
DEF
Digimat Experimental Files
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Digimat-MX
VI.2.6
Main window - how to access data
The main window provides the starting point of Digimat-MX database visualization. It contains a table which
lists available grades, i.e., all grades in the current database or those satisfying the search requirement after
using the filter functionalities. Each row represents a material or grade.
For each grade, the following information fields are listed in the columns:
Trade Name
Data type
Author
Type
Matrix
Filler
Mass Fraction
Volume Fraction
Supplier
Comments, which can be displayed or not
Numbers of Digimat Analysis Files
Numbers of Experimental Data Files
Numbers of Digimat Material Files
Date Created
Date Modified
See Digimat-MX data documentation in Subsection VI.3.1 for more information about these information fields.
Figure VI.2.15: Navigate through stored data by right-clicking the grade in the list.
Shared and public data are distinghished from private data by a specific icon in the trade name column.
Furthermore, the following actions are possible on the table of grades:
Sort the rows by clicking on the column header with respect to which we want to sort the rows. An up
or down arrow is added to the column header to specify which column was used for sorting and which
order was used.
Highlight a row by clicking on the row header or a cell of the row we want to highlight.
Right-clicking on a row highlights it and shows a pop-up menu with further options.
VI.2.6. Main window - how to access data
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Interaction in the GUI
In the Digimat-MX GUI right-clicking allows for direct access to manipulation and information concerning one
or more database entries (see Figure VI.2.15).
The direct actions that can be performed are
Show... (information about entries)
Edit... (database entries)
Share... (database entries)
Furthermore, entries can be accessed in deeper levels of information. These levels distinguish between
Show Digimat Analysis File(s)...
Show Digimat Material File(s)...
Show Experimental Data File(s)...
The three commands will open a corresponding additional TAB and show all available data for the highlighted
grade. These commands are enabled if a grade is highlighted and if it has corresponding data. Note that
when a grade has associated Digimat Analysis data, it is considered to have associated Digimat Material data
even if they may be not directly available, e.g., when Digimat Analysis data is encrypted or to be requested.
In the following the listed functionalities are described in more details.
Show...
Figure VI.2.16: Two different kinds of showing data details are available.
Two different kinds of showing data details are available (see Figures VI.2.17 and VI.2.18):
Information shows all grade related data for one single or a multiple selection of grades. In the latter
case this function is especially helpful to quickly compare the content of the chosen grades.
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Digimat-MX
Figure VI.2.17: Information shows all grade related data for one single or a multiple selection of grades.
Figure VI.2.18: History shows the full history of a single grade in a separate pop-up window.
History shows the full history of a single grade in a separate pop-up window. This history is a summary
of all changes the entry was prone to since its creation. This functionality is very helpful to get an
immediate overview over the status of sharing.
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Edit...
Figure VI.2.19: Three actions are available for editing databse entries.
Three actions are available:

Copy / Delete
The "Copy" and "Delete" functionalities are used to quickly duplicate or remove entries in the
database.
Modify
Modifications on an existing entry can be performed via the "Modify" functionality in a separate
pop-up window.
For more information about data editing, please also refer to section VI.5.5
Share...
The sharing functionality is easily accessed via right-clicking on a grade. When sharing is started, a separate
pop-up window allows to choose a single or multiple set of groups the entry will be shared with. Read, write
and delete permissions for the shared grade(s) are handled according to the privileges which were pre-defined
in the set-p of the user group(s).
For more information about data sharing, please also refer to section VI.5.6
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Figure VI.2.20: Modifications on an existing entry can be performed via the "Modify" functionality in a separate pop-up
window.
Figure VI.2.21: The sharing functionality is easily accessed via right-clicking on a grade.
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Figure VI.2.22: When sharing is started, a separate pop-up window allows to choose a single or multiple set of groups
the entry will be shared with.
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Digimat Analysis File(s)
The following information fields are associated to a Digimat Analysis File:
Trade Name
Matrix Model
Temperature
RH - Relative Humidity
RE - Reverse Engineered
Date Created
Comments
Units
Date Modified
Date Accessed
FI - Failure Indicator
For more information about information fields associated to each kind of data, the reader is referred to
Digimat-MX Data information (See Section VI.3.1).
Figure VI.2.23 shows the TAB for Digimat Analysis File(s).
Figure VI.2.23: TAB that opens to show details of the Digimat Analysis File(s) associated to a specific grade.
The following commands are available upon right-click on the database entries, arranged into separate submenus:
View...
File (see Figure VI.2.24)
RE report (see Figure VI.2.25)
Plot...
Plot (see Figure VI.2.26)
Add plot (adds a new plot to an existing one in the plot TAB)
Export...
Export (see Figure VI.2.27)
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Data Sheet (see Figure VI.2.28)

Open In...
Digimat-MF (opens chosen Analysis File in the Digimat-MF module)
Digimat-CAE (opens chosen Analysis File in the Digimat-CAE module)
Select
Selects the chosen analysis file for the purpose of reverse engineering
Edit...
Modify (see Figure VI.2.29)
Delete (remove entry from the database)
Failure (show failure for the chosen Analysis file)
Add failure (add failure to the chosen analysis file)
Convert
Convert the model from a unit system to another. (see Figure VI.2.30)
Request data
For greyed out entries the Digimat Analysis file is available on demand only. Via Request data and
automated request can be generated and send to the material supplier (see Figure VI.2.31)
Encrypt
With a Digimat-MX + license, Digimat Analysis files can be encrypted and exchanged with other
users (see Figure VI.2.32)
The following figures show the listed capabilities in more details. The figure captions will give a brief explanation
of each feature.
Figure VI.2.24: File information is given in a separate TAB for the chosen Analysis File.
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Figure VI.2.25: The RE report is created in html format and opens up on demand in the standard browser.
Figure VI.2.26: In the Plot TAB the stress/strain curve associated with the ANalysis File can be shown. Additional
graphs can easily be added to the plot by using the "Add plot" functionality.
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Figure VI.2.27: The Export functionality allows to store the .daf file externally on your computer.
Figure VI.2.28: The Export functionality also allows to store the Digimat model as data sheet in PDF format.
Figure VI.2.29: Modify allows for changes of the database entry.
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Figure VI.2.30: Convert allows to change the unit system to another.
Figure VI.2.31: Request data is available for greyed out entries in the database. In these cases the Digimat Analysis
files are available on demand only. An automated request email is generated and can be send to the
material supplier.
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Figure VI.2.32: Encryption is available with a Digimat-MX + license. Digimat Analysis files can be encrypted and
exchanged with other users under protection of intellectual property.
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Digimat Material File(s)
The following fields are associated to a Digimat Material File:
Class
Model
Temperature
RH
RE
Date Created
Comments
Units
Date Modified
Date Accessed
Analogous to the Digimat Analysis File(s) TAB (see also VI.2.6)the following commands are available upon
right-click on the database entries:
View...
File
RE report
Failure
Plot...
Plot
Add plot
Export...
Export
Data Sheet
Open In...
Digimat-MF
Digimat-CAE
Select
Edit...
Modify
Delete
Failure
Add failure
Request data
Encrypt
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Digimat Experimental File(s)
The following information fields are associated to an Experimental Data File:
Temperature
RH
Strain Rate
Loading Angle
Loading
Norm
X
Y
Units
Date Created
Comment
Date Modified
Date Accessed
Test comment
Failure
The Digimat Experimental File(s) TAB only allows for a subset of the functionalities available for Analysis
File(s) (see also VI.2.6). The following commands are available upon right-click on the database entries:
View...
File
Plot...
Plot
Add plot
Export...
Export
Data Sheet
Select
Edit...
Modify
Delete
Failure
Add failure
Convert
Convert data from a unit system to another.
Request data
Encrypt
Especially helpful in this context is the multiple selection of experimental entries that can directly be plotted
in the Plot TAB. This functionality for example allows for a very quick overview over the experimental data
behind a stored and reverse engineered Digimat Analysis File.
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VI.2.7
Tools
Tools can be easily accessed by clicking on the Toolbar icons (see Figure VI.2.33). The following tools are
available:
Home
Database Statistics
Advanced Filter
Import Data
Reverse Engineering
The separate functions are described more closely in the following.
Figure VI.2.33: Tools can be easily accessed by clicking on the Toolbar icons.
Home
The home button will close "second level" TABs, which are
Digimat Analysis File(s)
Digimat Experimental File(s)
Upon closing, the main window in the GUI returns to the upper "Grades" level of the GUI main window display.
Database Statistics
The database statistics tool gives a quick overview over the content of the MX database (see Figure VI.2.34).
It displays the general content of private, shared and public data. In addition, information is given about the
contribution of material suppliers to the public database.
VI.2.7. Tools
Figure VI.2.34: The Database Statistics tool gives a quick overview over the content of the MX database.
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(Advanced) Filter
Figure VI.2.35: The "Advanced Filter" GUI separates in two sub-windows. The left side allows filtering data globally
on the grade level. This part remains static whereas the right side behaves dynamically. Here filtering
the details on the Grade, the Digimat Analysis, the Digimat Material or the Experimental Data level is
possible.
The "Advanced Filter" tool is split in two sub-windows (see Figure VI.2.35). On the left side, material
information can be filtered on grade level. All types of general information are available. This side of the
window will remain static in all queries performed. The right side of the GUI changes dynamically. Filtering
can be carried out on different levels of the database entries. This is, on the level of the:
Grade (see Figure VI.2.36, upper left)

Digimat Analysis (see Figure VI.2.36, upper right)
Digimat Material (see Figure VI.2.36, lower left)
Experimental Data (see Figure VI.2.36, lower right)
For more information on the available data, please refer to section VI.3.1.
The filter is activated by inserting the required values in the GUI and clicking on the "Search button". The
"Clear" button allows to reset the filter tool to its original status. The GUI tool will remain opened until closed
buy the user ("Close" button).
For more information about data query, please also refer to section VI.5.4.
VI.2.7. Tools
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Figure VI.2.36: Filtering can be carried out on different levels and depths: grade, Digimat analysis, Digimat material
or experimental data.
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Import
The "Import" GUI allows importing data into the database on three levels:
Digimat Analysis files (see Figure VI.2.37, upper left)
Digimat Material files (see Figure VI.2.37, upper right)
Experimental Data files (see Figure VI.2.37, lower left)
Via a fourth option, also full database entries can directly be imported (see Figure VI.2.37, lower right). Here
three formats can be read:
Digimat-MX (.csv)
Material Data Center (.xml)
Matereality (.xml)
For more information on the latter two formats and concerning the interfaces to external databases, please
refer to section VI.7.
To import data, set the tool to the required level, point to the file to import and give the appropriate information
to be stored in the database. The import process is triggered by using the "Import" button. To facilitate easy
import of multiple entries, the default behavior is that the GUI tool remains opened until closed by the user.
The GUI tool can be closed using the "Close" button.
For more information on data import, please refer also to section VI.5.3.
VI.2.7. Tools
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Figure VI.2.37: The "Import" GUI allows importing data on three levels: Digimat Analysis, Digimat Material or the
Experimental Data files. Via a fourth optinon, also full database entries can directly be imported.
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Reverse Engineering
This section highlights the usage of the "Reverse Engineering" tool by going tstep-by-step through an applied
example of a reverse engineering analysis (see also Chapter VI.8). The first part of this how to details how
to import the data used in this tutorial as well as how to prepare the working selection. Then the Reverse
Engineering process is described from the analysis definition to the results storage into the database.
For more information on Reverse Engineering, please read also
The dedicated RE chapter VI.8
Some guidelines for the usage of the RE GUI tool in the appendix XIV.4.4
Import of experimental and analysis data

To perform a reverse engineering analysis, experimental stress-strain curves and a Digimat Analysis or Digimat Material file are needed. These data are either already into Digimat-MX databases or have to be imported.
The aim of this document is to explain how to reverse engineer the parameters of an elasto-viscoplastic
material. To do so, three stress-strain curves at different strain rates are fitted. These experimental database
entries could for example be available in a .csv file. Also the starting Digimat Analysis database entries could
be available in .csv file format. For more information on how to import these files, please refert to subsection
VI.2.7.
Once both .cvs files are imported, the Digimat-MX GUI lists three Experimental Data entries and two Digimat Analysis entries under the same grade (e.g., PA matrix reinforced with 30% in mass fraction of glass
fibers).
In the GUI, highlighting the grade and clicking on Show Experimental Data File(s) will give access to
information fields relative to the experimental data. In our case, we have experimental tensile data for three
different strain rates: 0.001s-1 , 1 s-1 and 10s-1 represented by their engineering strain vs. engineering stress
curves. Plotting these experimental curves can be done by highlight the three experimental data sets and
(right-)clicking on Plot so that the three stress-strain curves are plotted in Plot(s) TAB of the GUI.
To add the stress-strain curves corresponding to the starting Digimat Analysis, you have to retrieve the database
entry. Again, highlight the desired entry in the "Grades" TAB. Then, clicking on Show Digimat Analysis
File(s) button in Material Explorer displays two Digimat Analysis database entries in a new TAB. In our
example, we would then proceed by highlight the database entry with a J2 -viscoplasticity matrix model and
(right-)clicking on Add Plot so that the e11-s11 curve from that Digimat Analysis File is added to Plot(s).
Figure VI.2.38 represents the three experimental stress-strain curves on which the Reverse Engineering will be
performed as well as the starting Digimat Analysis e11-s11 curve.
Note that the starting Digimat Analysis matches the quasi-static experimental curve but nothing guaranties
that it is also the case at the other strain rates. To obtain a good match between the Digimat Analysis results
and the three experimental data and hence, have an adequate Digimat Analysis model, a reverse engineering
analysis will be performed.
Preparation of the working selection

To perform a reverse engineering analysis, the working selection needs first to be prepared. Basically, this
consists in selecting data you will use to carry out your analysis. Data selection is a general feature of the
"Digimat Analysis File(s)" TAB (VI.2.6) and the "Experimental Data File(s)" TAB (VI.2.6).
VI.2.7. Tools
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Figure VI.2.38: Plot of the experimental stress-strain curves at different strain rates and the starting Digimat Analysis
stress-strain curves.
To be able to carry out the reverse engineering analysis in this example, our working selection now contains
one Digimat Analysis and three Experimental data entries. Before starteing the Reverse Engineering GUI tool,
always assure that the "Selected Data" TAB contains entries similar to the depiction in Figure VI.2.39.
Figure VI.2.39: Visualization of the selection in Digimat-MX.
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Reverse engineering process

Once the working selection is prepared, the reverse engineering analysis can be defined. To do that, the user
has to start the Reverse Engineering GUI tool. This can either be done via the menu or by clicking on the
respective icon on the toolbar.
The Reverse Engineering GUI tool is opened seperately of Digimat-MX. It is dedicated to the reverse engineering
process. The GUI presents five tabs, where the reverse engineering analysis is defined step-by-step:
Method
Experimental data
Digimat model
Microstructure
Parameters
The content of these tabs is described in the following sections.

Method tab
In the method tab, shown in Figure VI.2.40, you can choose the reverse engineering method you want to apply.
See Chapter VI.8 for a description of the capabilities of each method.
Figure VI.2.40: Method tab of the Reverse engineering window.
Two checkboxes allow you to choose whether you want or not reverse engineer the material parameters,
and whether or not you want to reverse engineer failure criteria for your material. For each choice, a short
description of the method is presented in the right panel of the window.
In this example, the material parameters of the matrix phase will be reverse engineered using the Tensile
method (see Section VI.8.3).
Experimental data tab
In this tab, you can select the experimental curves you want to use for the reverse engineering analysis. If
no experimental files are selected, a button suggests to go back to the main window, and to select suitable
VI.2.7. Tools
545
experimental files. The reverse engineering window will update automatically to take the files you have selected
into account.
For each file, we provide the following pieces of information, that are loading parameters:
whether the curve corresponds to a test on an homogeneous or composite material

the temperature of the test
the strain rate of the test
the angle of the loading
These information are loading parameters, i.e., during the reverse engineering process, these parameters will
be adapted in the Digimat Analysis File to fit those of the experimental curve considered.
For each file, you can specify an end strain, which is by default its failure strain if defined or its last point
strain. Only the part of the curve with strain lower than the end strain will be taken into account in the reverse
engineering analysis.
You can also specify an objective function weight.
If you let the mouse pointer over the description of the experimental curve, the plot is updated to highlight
this curve.
Warning and errors are automatically updated depending on all the parameters of the reverse engineering, and
displayed below the curve description if the message is specific to a single curve, or after all curve description
if the message is about inconsistency between curves.
In this example, you only have three experimental files in your selection, and all of them will be used. You
need not to change anything in the experimental data tab.
Figure VI.2.41 shows the Experimental tab of the Reverse Engineering window.
Figure VI.2.41: Experimental tab of the Reverse Engineering window.
Digimat model tab

In the Digimat model tab, you can specify the Digimat Analysis File or Digimat Material File you want to use
for the reverse engineering analysis, among the files you have already put into your selection.
You can also define the phase whose parameters will be reverse engineered.
As in the Experimental Data tab, warning and errors are displayed inline, and automatically updated when you
change something in the graphical user interface.
Figure VI.2.42 shows the Digimat Model tab of the Reverse Engineering window.
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Figure VI.2.42: Digimat Model tab of the Reverse Engineering window.
In this example, reverse engineering will be done by adjusting parameters of the elasto-visco-plastic matrix of
the composite material, so we need to select the corresponding Digimat Analysis File, and choose the Matrix
phase.
Microstructure tab
Microstructure tab allows to surdefine Digimat Analysis microstructure for each experimental curve as explained
in Section VI.8.10.
Microstructure tab contains two main parts:
Information about the microstructure of the starting Digimat Analysis in Reference microstructure. If
the reference microstructure can be surdefined, it is possible to modify it and use it for all experimental
data by checking Use for all experiments.
In Experimental data, for each experimental data curve, you can modify the loading angle. Moreover,
if the reference microstructure can be surdefined, a specific orientation tensor can be entered for each
experimental curve. If you let the mouse pointer over the description of the experimental curve, the plot
on the right hand side is updated to highlight this curve.
In this example, the microstructure orientation cannot be surdefined since it is not described by an orientation
tensor but as random 2D. The information is written inline as shown in Figure VI.2.43.
Parameters tab
In the Parameters tab, you can specify the parameters that will be used for the reverse engineering analysis.
In the Material Parameters box, you can specify which material parameter you want to reverse engineer, and
the bounds (lower and upper, or mean and range in %) in which these parameters can vary. In addition to
material parameters of the selected phase, you can also reverse engineer the aspect ratio of the first inclusion
phase of the composite, if it exists. If needed, you can specify constant parameters used by some reverse
engineering methods. All these parameters are associated with the selected file in the Digimat Model tab. If
you choose another file, and then choose back the original file, you will find the parameters you filled initially.
In the Analysis Parameters box, you can specify parameters for the optimization solver:
Maximum number of function evaluations: maximum number of function evaluations in DIRECT optimization algorithm.
VI.2.7. Tools
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Figure VI.2.43: Microstructure tab of the Reverse Engineering window.
Minimum boxsize: the minimum boxsize searched by DIRECT algorithm is equal to this parameter
multiplied by the initial box size defined by the design variable ranges.
In this box, there are three action buttons:
Run analysis: start the reverse engineering analysis if possible, or launch a pop up explaining why the
analysis cannot be started.
Stop analysis: stop the analysis that is currently running, if any.
Show status: open an HTML document with the details of the selected files and all parameters currently
set in the graphical user interface.
Figure VI.2.44 shows the Parameters tab of the Reverse Engineering window, before launching the analysis.
At all time, there is a traffic light button at the bottom of the window, telling whether the analysis can run,
the analysis can run but there are warnings, or the analysis cannot run. Clicking on this button open a pop-up
message with the details of the errors and warnings.
In this example, the user can select which parameters of the J2 -viscoplastic matrix phase will be modified by
the reverse engineering process. As illustrated in Figure VI.2.44, the following parameters will be adjusted in
a range defined by a Lower Bound and an Upper Bound:
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
Young modulus will vary in the range [2324.07, 3000] MPa

yield stress will vary in the range [10, 35] MPa
hardening modulus will vary in the range [5, 50] MPa
hardening exponent will vary in the range [5, 200]
creep coefficient will vary in the range [1, 10] MPa
creep exponent will vary in the range[1, 10] MPa
creep coefficient2 will vary in the range [5, 50] MPa
To proceed with the example, you can now click on the Run analysis button.
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Figure VI.2.44: Parameters tab of the Reverse Engineering window, before launching the analysis.
When the analysis is running, most of the Reverse Engineering GUI is locked. You can still see all the options
you selected in all tabs, but you cannot modify them.
In the list of Material parameters, the column Optimized Value is updated in real time to show the best values
found until now.
In the right panel of the Parameters tab, you see the residual evolution graph, see Figure VI.2.45. This graph
provide information about the evolution of the residual, i.e., the global objective function, in function of number
of evaluation of this objective function. During the analysis, you can also look in the Stress/strain curve tab of
the right panel, that displays in dashed the best curves found until now, along with the experimental curves.
Figure VI.2.45: The Reverse Engineering window while the analysis is running, with the Residual graph.
Once the analysis is finished, the GUI is unlocked, and the results of the analysis are displayed in the Reverse
Engineering Results box, see Figure VI.2.46.
VI.2.7. Tools
549
The user can visualize the set of parameters in the matrix phase that lead to a good match of the experimental
curves and the value of the Global Objective Function. This value is important to check the quality of the
reverse engineered set of parameters in the matrix phase. Typically a value lower than 1.e-2 leads to good fit
quality. If this value is greater than 1.e-02, a new reverse engineering process could be done by changing the
Material parameters for the matrix phase, or the Analysis parameters.
The qualitative result of the reverse engineering process is presented in the right pane of Figure VI.2.46.
In this figure are plotted the three experimental stress-strain (continuous lines) curves and the stress-strain
curves coming from the Digimat Analysis file after the reverse engineering process (dashed line). As previously
mentioned regarding the Global Objective Function value, a good agreement is observed between the
experimental data and the Digimat Analysis.
The Reverse Engineering box features three buttons:
Show report: opens the HTML Reverse Engineering report, containing the data of the status report and
the results of the analysis.
Import results: opens the import window and let the user import the result of the analysis in the database.
Plot results: plot again the results of the analysis, useful if you did modify the plot and want to cancel
your modifications .
Figure VI.2.46: The Parameters tab of the Reverse Engineering window, after the successful end of the analysis.
If the analysis is not successful, a pop-up message provide this information, and the user has access to the
Analysis log tab of the right panel, with the detailed information of the analysis.
In our example, we want to import the results, so we click on the Import results button, and obtain the window
shown in Figure VI.2.47.
In this window, you can choose the Trade Name, the temperature and relative humidity that corresponds to
the results of this reverse engineering analysis, and you can add a comment. To process to the import, click
on the Import button.
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Figure VI.2.47: Import results window launched after a successful reverse engineering analysis
VI.2.8. Plotting
VI.2.8
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Plotting
When plotting curve(s) by using Plot command, Digimat-MX creates a plot with default options. Legends,
title and axis names are also automatically written. An example of such plot is illustrated on Figure VI.2.48.
These default values may not suite you; this is why Digimat-MX provides plot tools which can be used to
modify generated plots. The content of Plot(s) tab of Visualization can be modified or exported via its context
menu. It is also possible to interactively zoom on Plot(s) as explained hereafter.
Figure VI.2.48: Digimat-MX Plot(s) tab.
The Plot TAB
Plot(s) tab of Visualization is where Digimat-MX plots curves and of course this also where you can modify
them. First, the interactive scaling of the plot area is explained. Then, all commands provided in Plot(s)
context menu are detailed.
Zooming plot
Digimat-MX automatically scales the axes of plots. It is possible to specify both the minimum and the
maximum limits for both axes via the context menu. You can also use your mouse to interactively scale
the plot area. Using your mouse wheel will scale the plot area. However the scaling behavior depends on
your cursor position on the plot area. The plot area is divided into 9 parts as illustrated on Figure VI.2.49.
Depending on where you are some axis limits are fixed. For example, if your cursor is located on the left
bottom corner of the plot area, the minimum limit of X and Y axes (Xmin and Ymin) will be fixed and moving
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your mouse wheel will not affect these values. Moving upwards you mouse wheel proportionally decreases the
non-fixed limits of the axes so that curves are zoomed in. And inversely, moving downwards you mouse wheels
proportionally increases the non-fixed limits of the axes so that curves are zoomed out.
By a left double-click, the plot area auto-scales itself.
Warning: You might inadvertently magnify an area in which there are no curves at all. This results in an
empty graphic display. In that case, a left double-click might be useful.
Figure VI.2.49: Scaling division of plot area.
Plot(s) context menu

Right-clicking on Plot(s) tab shows its context menu as shown on Figure 3. The available commands are
described hereafter.
Clear: It clears the plot area and resets default values (ranges, legend size,..) except for plot option values.
Initial Zoom: auto-scales the plot area. It has the same action as a left double-click on Plot(s). This
command is also available in the range dialog.
Hide legend: if checked, the legend text is hidden. This action is also available from the modification legend
dialog.
Display line: if checked, all curves are plotted with line. Display line option is a plot option and is therefore
available in the plot option dialog.
Axis Title. . . : opens a dialog box to change X and Y axis labels as well as the title. If you plot a curve
after edition, Digimat-MX will anyway change the title and axis labels to their default values.
Log X axis: If checked, X axis is set to a logarithmic scale.
Log Y axis: If checked, Y axis is set to a logarithmic scale.
Modify legend. . . : opens the legend modification dialog shown on Figure VI.2.51. It allows the modification
of the legend position and size. Moving the cursor will interactively modify the legend position on Plot(s).
Legend position values are relative values with respect to the plot dimension. The legend can also be hidden
VI.2.8. Plotting
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Figure VI.2.50: Plot(s) context menu.
as via the hide legend command of Plot(s) context menu. The legend text edition is done via the modify curve
command.
Figure VI.2.51: Legend modification dialog.
Modify curve. . . : opens curve modification dialog shown on Figure VI.2.52. This allows the change of the
symbol, line style, thickness and color of each plotted curve as well as its legend text. To modify the properties
of a curve, first, select it on the upper part of the dialog box. To modify the color of a curve, double-click
on its color button and the color dialog shown on Figure VI.2.53 will open up. The modification is interactive
and the change can be canceled only for the color by clicking on Cancel of color dialog. Note that editing the
legend may change the legend font size.
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Figure VI.2.52: Curve modification dialog.
Plot option. . . : opens plot option dialog shown on Figure VI.2.54. The line thickness can be modified. The
line thickness is an absolute value in pt, whose default value is 1. The Display line command on Plot option
dialog is the same as the context menu command. Log X and Y axis command are the same as the context
menu commands. If Display grid is ticked on, a grid is displayed on the plot. Ticking on Axes cross at origin
forces the axes to cross at origin. When clearing Plot(s), the plot options are not reinitialized. Hence, if for
example, you changed the display line option off and then, cleared Plot(s), next curve plotted by DigimatMX will be plotted without displaying a line and the plot area may seem empty if the curve has no symbol
associated. Reset default settings button reset to default settings, i.e., lines and grid are displayed, lines
thickness is set to 1 pt and axes cross at origin and are linear.
Set range. . . : opens set range dialog shown on Figure VI.2.55. This allows the modification of the minimum
and maximum limits of both axes by entering numerical value. Modifying a numeric value does not modify
interactively the display, you need to click on OK to change the display. Reset button auto-scales the plot as
Initial Zoom command of the context menu or a double-click on Plot frame.
VI.2.8. Plotting
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Figure VI.2.53: Color dialog.
Figure VI.2.54: Plot option dialog.
Export. . . : opens an export as file browser to choose the file type and location where to export Plot(s)
content. Available export formats are Bitmap, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PostScript and ASCII. Export format is
based on the file filter of export as. If the extension of the file name does not correspond to the file filter,
the first extension associated to the file filter is appended to the name of file.
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Figure VI.2.55: Set range dialog
If the file filter is set to all, the export format is based on the extension. If the extension is not specified or
unknown, a message is issued which asks you if you want to export the file as an ASCII file. In that case, if
there is an extension, it will not be modified and if there is no extension, .txt is added to the file name.
Digimat-MX VI.3
Basics about databases
VI.3.1
Data structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Grade information . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Raw Experimental data . . . . . . . . . . .
Digimats material law parameters . . . . .
Digimat micromechanical material model . .
VI.3.2
Abbreviated terms . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.3.3
Unit systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.3.4
Digimat Experimental file . . . . . . . .
Digimat Experimental file format . . . . . .
VI.3.5
Failure information . . . . . . . . . . . .
Digimat Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Experimental Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.3.6
Database entries . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The database entries file format . . . . . . .
VI.3.7
The Digimat-MX data exchange format
Digimat-MX database entries file columns .
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558
Digimat-MX
VI.3.1
Data structure
Digimat-MX database intended use is to store data useful for composite modeling into Digimat. To fulfill that
requirement, Digimat-MX databases are built following the architecture shown on Figure VI.3.1. Under grade
information, three kinds of files can be stored:
Raw experimental data for the material constituent(s) or for the composite
Digimat material law parameters (.dmf)and their idendification information if any.
Digimat-MF micromechanical material model (.daf) and their reverse engineering information if any.
These files are stored as large objects into the database and predefined information fields are associated to
each file. Each kind of file has its own predefined associated information fields which are described hereafter.
Figure VI.3.1: Digimat-MX data types.
Grade information
In Digimat-MX, a grade has the following associated information fields:

Trade name: the trade name of the grade that has to be unique into the current database.
Data type: There exist three data types:
Private data are only accessible by the owner of the data.
Shared data are accessible to a given set of groups of users.
Public data are Digimat-MX common data, accessible by all users. Public data are maintained by
e-Xstream engineering and is released with each release of Digimat-MX. Material suppliers supply
the material data to be included into Digimat-MX public data. Those data are readable-only,
which means that you cannot delete or modify an existing entry as well as you cannot import a
new entry. However, you can access data and use them in Digimat-MX but also in Digimat-MF and
Digimat-CAE. Some public database entries may have no attached file. They appear in grey in
File Data Explorer. This means that the data is available from the supplier. You can contact the
VI.3.1. Data structure
559
supplier by e-mail via Request Data button in File Data Explorer. Figure VI.3.2 illustrates the data
flow between suppliers and end users through Digimat-MX. To answer to a data request from an
end user, a supplier may choose to send encrypted and licensed data. The user will be able to use
these data but wont be allowed to read the content. See data encryption and licensing for more
information.
Author: The author is the name of the user who created the grade. When a grade is copied, its original
author remains the author.
Type: composite or homogeneous.
Matrix: the abbreviated name of the matrix of the grade. A predefined list which follows norm ISO-1043
for plastics symbol and abbreviated terms is available in Digimat-MX. It is recommended to use a value
of that list whenever possible. Note that you can list several matrices for one grade by providing a
comma separated list of matrix names but you have to know that only the first matrix name will be
queried.
Filler: the abbreviated name of the filler(s) of the grade. A predefined list based on norm ISO-1043
is provided in Digimat-MX. Use name from that list whenever possible. If your grade contains several
kinds of filler, Filler will be the comma separated list of the fillers.
Filler amount: is the mass fraction absolute value of the fillers. It is thus between 0 and 1. If a grade
contains several kinds of filler, Filler amount will be the comma separated list of the mass fractions of
the fillers.
Supplier: is the name of the supplier.
Comments: any useful comments relative to the grade.
Number of Digimat Analysis File(s): number of database entries of that kind.
Number of Experimental Data File(s): number of database entries of that kind.
Number of Digimat Material File(s): number of database entries of that kind. Note that the Digimat Material entries extracted from a DIGNIMAT Analysis are not numbered.
Date Created: date of the creation of the grade database entry.
Date Modified: date of last modification of the grade database entry or of one of its file database entry.
Owner: the name of the user who owns the grade. For private data, the owner is the connected user.
For shared and public data, the owner is the name of the user who originally stared the grade.
Modifier: the name of the user who last modified the grade database entry or one of its file database
entry.
Shared status.
These information fields are displayed into Material Explorer and Grade Information. Most of them can be
specified into a search profile where querying for data.
Figure VI.3.2: Digimat-MX data flow
560
Digimat-MX
Raw Experimental data
Digimat-MX experimental data which are typically associated to .def (Digimat experimental file) file extension
are currently limited to stress-strain curves and creep curves, i.e., time evolution of strain. These files are ASCII
files with 2 columns of numbers separated by space(s) and/or tab(s). Digimat-MX allows the specification of
the following information fields for each Experimental Data entry associated to a grade:
Temperature: the temperature at which the test has been carried out. For Public data, temperatures
are expressed in degree Celsius.
Relative Humidity: the relative humidity at which the test has been carried out. It is expressed in
percents.
Strain Rate: the strain rate at which the test has been carried out. It is expressed in 1/s. For creep
data, this information field is replaced by the stress level.
Loading angle: It is the angle between the loading direction and axis 1 in plane (1,2) in the axis system
of the RVE. Axis 1 should be defined as the flow direction of your composite but you can choose any
definition you want to. However, you have to remain consistent and hence, express the orientation of the
inclusions and loading condition with respect to the same reference axis. This loading angle is used when
carrying out a reverse engineering analysis. The orientation tensors of the reference Digimat Analysis
file are rotated in plane (1,2) whit an angle equal to the loading angle and then, the applied strain is in
direction 1.
Loading: Currently, the only supported values for the type of loading are tensile and creep.
Norm type and number: the norm type and number relative to the test. The norm type and number
are separated by _ in the norm information field. Hence, the norm writes normType_normNumber.
Note that the number has not to be strictly a number. For example, the norm can be ASTM_D638.
Data type x: the data type of x column; currently supported values are engineering stain, true strain
and time.
Data type y: the data type of y column; currently supported values are engineering stress, true stress
and strain.
Units: the unit system; different unit systems are supported.
Date created: data at which the database entry has been created into the database.
Comments about the file: any comments to be associated to the file.
Date modified: last date at which the database entry has been modified into the database.
Date accesses: last date at which the file content has be accessed, i.e., viewed, plotted, exported or
opened in Digimat.
Comment about the test conditions: any comments you would like to add about the test conditions.
Failure: indicates if there is failure information associated to the experimental data. If yes, the strain
failure value and its type can be visualized.
Digimats material law parameters
Two types of database entries relative to Digimat Materials law parameter files exists in Digimat-MX database:
the directly imported from a Digimat Material file into Digimat-MX and those extracted from a Digimat Analysis File (.daf). Their query is the same and their associated information fields are the same:
Class: the abbreviated name of the class of the material, e.g., PA66GF30.
Model: the model type of the material law. See available models in Digimat-MF documentation.
Temperature: the temperature expressed in degree Celsius at which the model parameters are adequate
Relative humidity: the relative humidity in percent at which the model parameters are adequate.
RE: indicates if the parameters have been obtained by reverse engineering or identification. If it is the
case, the identification or reverse engineering report can be associated to that entry.
VI.3.1. Data structure
561
Date created: date at which the database entry has been created.
Comments: any comments about the file, for extracted DIGMAT Material, extracted from Digimat Analysis is automatically added to the comments field.
Date accessed: last date at which the file content has be accessed, i.e., viewed, plotted, exported or
opened in Digimat.
The extracted and imported Digimat Material entries differ in their edition: modification or deletion. To
modify or delete an extracted Digimat Material entry, the modification or deletion has to be done on its parent
Digimat Analysis entry. Moreover they are differently numbered into a grades number of files. Only the
imported ones are numbered under the grade information.
Digimat micromechanical material model
Digimat-MX databases can store Digimat micromechanical material model which actually are Digimat Analysis
file (.daf) for Digimat-MF. The associated information fields to a Digimat Analysis database entry are:
Matrix model: the model type of the material law of the matrix. See available models in DigimatMF documentation.
Temperature: the temperature expressed in degree Celsius at which the model parameters are adequate
Relative humidity: the relative humidity in percent at which the model parameters are adequate.
RE: indicates if the parameters have been obtained by reverse engineering. If it is the case, a reverse
engineering report can be associated to that entry.
Date created: date at which the database entry has been created.
Comments: any comments about the file.
Date accessed: last date at which the file content has be accessed, i.e., viewed, plotted, exported or
opened in Digimat.
FI: indicates if one or several failure indicators are active or not in the Digimat Analysis. If the FI is
equal to YES, the failure information fields can be visualized.
Note that the associated file to a Digimat Analysis entry can be encrypted. In that case, the limit date is also
added to its comments field.
562
Digimat-MX
VI.3.2
Abbreviated terms
For the defintion of grades, Digimat-MX encourages the use of ISO-1043 abbreviated terms for
Matrix material: refer to table VI.3.1 for details

Filler material: refer to table VI.3.5 for details
Abbreviation
(E/P)
(EVAC)
(MBS)
ABS
AEPDS
ASA
C
COC
EP
LCP
MABS
MF
Polymer description
Ethylene - propylene
Ethylene - vinyl acetate
Methacrylate - butadiene - styrene
Acrylonitrile - butadiene - styrene
Acrylonitrile-(ethylene-propylene-diene)-styrene
Acrylonitrile - styrene - acrylate
Cellulose polymers
Cycloolefincopolymer
Epoxide
Liquid - crystalline polymer
Methyl methacrylate - acrylonitrile - butadiene - styrene
Melamine - formaldehyde
MPF
Melamine - phenol - formaldehyde
PA11
Polyamide 11
PA12
Polyamide 12
PA12/MACMI
Copolyamide based on omega-aminododecanoic acid (laurolactame) and 3,3-dimethyl-4,4-diaminodicyclohexylmethane and

isophthalic acid
PA46
Polyamide 46
PA6
Polyamide 6
PA6/6T
Copolyamide based on e-caprolactam, hexamethylenediamine and

terephthalic acid
PA610
Polyamide 610
PA612
Polyamide 612
Table VI.3.1: Matrix abbreviated names.
VI.3.2. Abbreviated terms
Abbreviation
PA66
PA66/6T
PA666
563
Polymer description
Polyamide 66
Copolyamide 66/6T
Copolyamide 666
PA6I/6T
Copolyamide based on hexamethylenediamine, isophthalic and

terephthalic acid
PA6T/66
Copolyamide based on hexamethylenediamine, terephthalic acid

and adipic acid
PA6T/6I
Copolyamide based on hexamethylenediamine, terephthalic and

isophthalic acid
PA6T/XT
PAEK
PAI
PAIND/INDT
PAMACM12
PAMXD6
PAPACM12
Polyamide 6=hexamethylene diamine T=terephthalic

X=different co-monomers T=terephtalic acid
Polyaryletherketone
Polyamidimide
Polyamide NDT/INDT
Homopolyamide
based
on
3,3-dimethyl
diaminodicyclohexylmethane and dodecandioic acid
PBT
Poly(butylene terephthalate)
PCT
4,4-
Homopolyamide based on Bis(p-aminocyclohexyl)methane and dodecandioic acid

Unclassified polyamide, not grouped above
PCCE
Poly-M-Xylylenadipamid
PA*
PC
acid
Polycarbonate
Poly(cyclohexylene dimethylene cyclohexanedicarboxylate), glycol
and acid comonomer
Poly(cyclohexylene dimethylene terephtalate)
Table VI.3.2: Matrix abbreviated names (continued).
564
Digimat-MX
Abbreviation
Polymer description
PE-HD
Polyethylene, high density
PE-LD
Polyethylene, low density
PE-LLD
Polyethylene, linear low density
PE-MD
Polyethylene, medium density
PE-UHMW
PE-VLD
PEEK
PEI
Polyethylene, ultra high molecular weight

Polyethylene, very low density
Polyetheretherketone
Polyetherimide
PEN
Polyethylenenaphthalate
PES
Polyethersulfone
PET
Poly(ethylene terephthalate)
PETG
Poly(ethylene terephthalate), glycol
PF
Phenol - formaldehyde
PI
Polyimide
PK
Polyketone
PMMA
Poly(methyl methacrylate)
PMMI
Polymethylmethyacrylimide
POM
PP
Poly(oxymethylene)
Polypropylene
PPE
Poly(phenylene ether)
PPS
Poly(phenylene sulfide)
VI.3.2. Abbreviated terms
Abbreviation
PPSU
PS
PS-SY
PSU
PTFE
565
Polymer description
Poly(phenylene sulfone)
Polystyrene
Syndiotactic Polystyrene
Polysulfone
Polytetrafluoroethylene
PUR
Polyurethane
PVC
Poly(vinyl chloride)
PVDF
Poly(vinylidene fluoride)
SAN
Styrene acrylonitrile
SB
Styrene - butadiene
SMAH
Styrene - maleic anhydride
TPA
Polyamide thermoplastic elastomer
TPC
Copolyester thermoplastic elastomer
TPO
Olefinic thermoplastic elastomer
TPS
Styrenic thermoplastic elastomer
TPU
Urethane thermoplastic elastomer
TPV
Thermoplastic rubber vulcanisate
TPZ
Unclassified thermoplastic elastomer, not grouped above
UP
Unsaturated polyester
566
Digimat-MX
Abbreviation
Filler description
CF
carbon fibre
CD
carbon fines, powder
GF
glass fibre
GB
glass beads, spheres, balls
GD
glass fines, powder
GX
glass not specified
calcium carbonate
MF(x)
metal fibre
MD(x)
metal fines, powder
MF
mineral fibre
MD
mineral fines, powder
MX
mineral not specified
NF
natural organic fibre
mica
silica
RF
aramid fibre
talcum
not specified
others not included in this list
Table VI.3.5: Filler abbreviated names.
VI.3.3. Unit systems
VI.3.3
567
Unit systems
Digimat manages different unit systems. Before to detail the capabilities of unit system management, we
introduce some definitions:
Base dimension: A measurable entity of interest, including Length[L], mass[M], time[T], temperature
[theta], current intensity [I].
Base unit: Represents a specific measure of a base dimension. The meter is a concrete base unit of
length.
Derived unit:A set of base units raised to rational exponents, e.g. m/s, kg m/s2
Unit System:A unit system is a collection of base units. For example, the SI units defines 7 base
units length ([L]) in meters, mass ([M]) in kilograms, time ([T]) in seconds, current ([I]) in amperes,
temperature ([theta]) in kelvin, amount ([N]) in moles, and luminous intensity ([J]) in candelas. All
measurable entities within the SI system can be represented as products of various integer or rational
powers of these seven base units.
Coherent/Incoherent Unit System:The coherent system is a unit system, an incoherent system is a
set of units for which some of entities cannot be represented as products of integer or rational powers
of this set. For example, the set of 4 units, mass in kilograms, length in meter, time in seconds and
stress in MPa (=106 N/m2) is an incoherent system because the dimension of a stress is [M]/(LT2) and
if we replace [M],[L] and [T] by the units defined (kg,m,s), we found kg/(ms2)=Pa and not MPa. Only
coherent unit system must be used when a mechanical solver is used.
Material Unit System: A material unit system is a coherent unit system associated to Digimat file.
Different unit systems are supported in Digimat, 7 predefined and 2 user defined. The list of available unit
systems is accessible by the file menu Settings-Unit Systems (see Figure VI.3.3).
Figure VI.3.3: List of available unit systems, 7 predefined and 2 users defined.
Each unit system is defined by a name (Pa,MPa,SI,...) and the unit used for the mass, the length, the time,
the temperature. The unit for the force, the stress and the energy are deduced from the basis units. Pa, MPa
and CGS (centimeter, gram, second) are 3 metric systems, SI is the International System of units, FPS, psi
and ksi are 3 imperial systems.
It is possible to defined 2 user defined metric systems. The name of the unit system can be choose. The
user defined unit systems must be used with caution. Indeed, when you decide to define a user defined unit
568
Digimat-MX
Abbreviation
Description
lbm
pound mass
lbf
pound force = lbm . g
ft
foot
in
inch
slinch
lbf s2/in
dyn
dyne (10e-5N)
pdl
poundal (lbm ft/s2)
ba
barye (1e-1Pa)
psi
lbf/in2
ksi
10e+3psi
Table VI.3.6: Unit abbreviated names.
system to import Digimat files in MX, you must take care to avoid to change the definition of this unit system.
Because if you change the definition of user defined unit system, there are no automatic conversions of Digimat
files associated with this unit system. It is why the modification of the user defined unit systems required
administrator rights.
The operations associated to unit systems are:
Import: During the import of Digimat analysis files or experimental files, you must choose the unit
system. this unit system will be associated to the file.
Convert: Digimat analysis model and experimental data can be convert from the associated unit system
to another unit system. This convert operation can export in a file on the disk or insert a new entry in
the DB.
Export and Quit: When Digimat-MX is open from Digimat-MF or Digimat-CAE, it is possible to
convert the model before to export.
When using a Digimat Model in a finite element model, remember to be consistent, it is your responsability
to be consistent. Following table expresses the unit of parameters of models that are available for reverse
engineering or identification into Digimat-MX:
Elastic
Viscoelastic
Elasto-plastic
Elasto-viscoplastic
For other models, refer to Digimat-MF manual.
VI.3.3. Unit systems
569
Name
Acronym
Units - M,L,T,,A - (PaSI)
(MPaSI)
Density
ML-3 (kg/m3 )
(kg/mm3 )
Youngs modulus
ML-1 T-2 (Pa =N/m2 )
(MPa=N/mm2)
Poissons ratio
1 (1)
(1)
Table VI.3.7: Elastic material parameters units.
Name
Acronym
Units - M,L,T,,A - (PaSI)
(MPaSI)
Shear modulus
ML-1 T-2 (Pa =N/m2 )
(MPa=N/mm2)
Bulk modulus
ML-1 T-2 (Pa = N/m2 )
(MPa=N/mm2)
Prony weight
wi
1 (1)
(1)
Relaxation time
T (s)
(s)
Table VI.3.8: Viscoelastic material parameters units.
Name
Acronym
Units -M,L,T,,A- (PaSI)
(MPaSI)
Yield stress
ML-1 T-2 (Pa = N/m2 )
(MPa=N/mm2)
Hardening modulus
ML-1 T-2 (Pa = N/m2 )
(MPa=N/mm2)
Hardening exponent
1 (1)
(1)
Hardening modulus 2
ML-1 T-2 (Pa = N/m2 )
(MPa=N/mm2)
Table VI.3.9: Elasto-plastic material parameters units.
Name
Acronym
Units - M,L,T,,A- (PaSI)
(MPaSI)
Creep coefficient
ML-1 T-1 (Pa.s = N/m2 .s)
(MPa.s=N/mm2.s)
Creep exponent
1 (1)
(1)
Creep coefficient 2
ML-1 T-2 (Pa = N/m2 )
(MPa=N/mm2)
Table VI.3.10: Elasto-viscoplastic material parameters units.
570
Digimat-MX
VI.3.4
Digimat Experimental file
This section describes the format of Digimat Experimental file (.def).
Digimat Experimental file format
A Digimat Experimental file is an ASCII file from which two columns of doubles can be extracted. Currently, Digimat Experimental files are used to represent stress-strain curves and creep curves into DigimatMX databases.
Comment lines can be inserted at the beginning of the file by using #.
Each row can be considered as a data point with a (x,y) pair, currently (strain,stress) pair or (time,strain)
pair. On each row, the x and y values must be separated by white space (one or more blanks or tabs). This
white space divides each row into columns. The x value will be the first column value and the y value will
be the second column value. Value may be written in exponential format with the exponent preceded by the
letter e or E. If a value is not a numeric value, it will be considered equal to zero.
VI.3.5. Failure information
VI.3.5
571
Failure information
Failure information can be added for two types of data file, Digimat Analysis and Experimental Data. For
each type, different failure information fields are associated to the database entry. These different information
fields are reviewed for each type:
Digimat Analysis
Experimental Data
Digimat Analysis
For each active failure indicator of the Digimat Analysis, failure indicator information fields listed in Table
VI.3.11 are fulfilled. These information fields are automatically extracted from the Digimat Analysis file
content at import. It is therefore not possible to edit or modify these values since there are directly linked to
the content of the Digimat Analysis file.
Property
Type
Import value type
Failure Indicator type
Text
Automatic
Failure Indicator level
Text
Automatic
Date
Date
Automatic
Table VI.3.11: Failure indicator information fields for Digimat Analysis.
Failure Indicator type is the type of the failure indicator, e.g., maximum_stress. See Digimat-MF manual for
all supported failure indicator types. If the failure indicator is assigned using a First Pseudo Grain Failure,
FPGF_ is prepended to the failure indiactor type.
Failure Indicator level is the highest level at which the failure indicator is applied:
Composite
Matrix
Inclusion
In Digimat-MF, failure indicators are applied on materials and/or at the composite level. If the failure indicator
is applied at the composite level, the level field will be composite. If the failure indicator is applied on the
matrix material, the level field will be matrix even if the failure indicator is also applied on a material that is
used for an inclusion phase. Finally, if the failure indicator is applied on a material that is used for an inclusion
phase, the level field will be inclusion.
The date field corresponds to the import date.
Experimental Data
572
Digimat-MX
The failure information fields associated to Experimental Data database entry are listed in Table VI.3.12.
These information fields have to be provided by the user. They are requested at import and can be edited
afterwards.
Property
Type
Import value type
Failure strain type
Text
Required
Failure strain
Numeric
Required (Automatic)
Date
Date
Automatic
Table VI.3.12: Failure indicator information fields for Experimental data.
First, the failure strain type has to be selected between Specified, Last Point and Maximum Stress. Then,
based on the failure strain type, the failure strain is either automatically obtained or has to be provided by the
user. If the failure strain type is Specified, the failure strain value has to be given by the user. If the failure
strain type is set to Last Point, the failure strain will be the strain of the last point of experimental curve. If
the failure strain type is Maximum Stress, the failure strain will be the strain of the maximum stress point of
the experimental curve.
The date corresponds to the last modification date. It is automatically updated when the failure information
is edited.
VI.3.6. Database entries
VI.3.6
573
Database entries
Keywords: csv file, Export all, Import database entries.

Several database entries can be imported into a database via a database entries file as explained in Section
VI.3.7. This file may be edited manually in Excel for example. It is also used for transfer of data between
databases. This section describes the format of database entries files (.csv).
The database entries file format
Database entries files are csv files in which the delimiter can be "," or ";".
The first part of the file contains information fields about the data:
The first line is the header line which contains keywords used to fill the database information fields. To
each keyword, corresponds a column. The order of these columns has no importance. Each row represents a
database entry and list the value of the information fields for that database entry. To each database entry,
is associated a file. That file can be provided into the .csv file itself via a number in column loid_file. The
actual content of these files is written in the second part of the csv file between its value of loid_file. The
other option is to specify in path_to_file command a relative path to the file from the csv file location or the
absolute path to the file.
The second part lists the content of the files between their loid_file number.
Note that all columns are not necessarily used at import for more information refer to Section VI.3.7.
574
Digimat-MX
VI.3.7
The Digimat-MX data exchange format
A several database entries can be imported into a database via a database entries file in Digimat-MX format.
This file is a.csv file whose format is explained in Section VI.3.6.
Digimat-MX database entries file columns
The grade and data information fields are listed in the file as well as a reference to the file. The file may be
stored into the .csv file itself or in a separated file. Each row of the file represents a database entry to be
created and Digimat-MX will loop over the .csv file rows.
The information required to create the grade as explained in Subsection VI.5.3 is obtained from the value of
the following columns:
trade_name
type
matrix_class
inclusion_class
inclusion_proportion
supplier
comment_material
If one of these columns does not exist, an error message is issued and the import will be aborted.
If the trade name already exists into the current database, the data are added under that existing trade name
but it will not be checked that the corresponding grade definitions (matrix name, filler name, supplier,. . . ) are
the same between the .csv entry and the existing database entry.
The file content is referred by the column loid_file or path_to_file. If loid_file is used, the file content is
written in the second part of the csv part. Else if path_to_file is used, the file content is written in the file
whose path is given in path_to_file column.
For all data file types, the following columns are required:
temperature
rh
system
strain_rate
type_file
comment_file
Then depending on the file_type column value which specifies the data file type to import, other columns are
required. The file_type values correspond to the data file types as follows:
1: Digimat Analysis
2: Digimat Material
3: Experimental Data
For a Digimat Material data file type, class column is also required.
If one of the database entries to import is of Experimental Data type, the following columns are required:
strain_rate
VI.3.7. The Digimat-MX data exchange format
575
loading_angle
loading_type
data_type_x
data_type_y
norm
comment_test_condition
The norm value has to be written using this convention: [NormName]_[NormNumber].

Columns failure_type and failure_strain may also be added. If they do not exist, the failure information field
will be set to no.
For a Digimat Analysis file or Digimat Material file, re_id or fit_id column may be added to specify if the file
has been obtained by a reverse engineering. An integer value different from zero means that the file has been
obtained by reverse engineering. However, no reverse engineering report will be associated to the file.
The database entry information fields are used as when importing a single database entry at a time as explained
in VI.5.3. However, when importing from a database entries file, file checks are not carried out. It can be
specified in the GUI that Digimat Analysis have to be checked but by default, they are not.
Digimat-MX VI.4
Managing databases
VI.4.1
Database creation . . . . . . . . .
Access configuration . . . . . . . . . .
Server configuration . . . . . . . . . .
Connection information . . . . . . . .
Template database directory . . . . . .
Traceability of created databases . . .
Deletion of a created database . . . .
VI.4.2
Server management . . . . . . . .
Starting the server . . . . . . . . . . .
Monitoring the server . . . . . . . . .
Stopping the server . . . . . . . . . .
Start error troubleshooting . . . . . . .
Stop error troubleshooting . . . . . . .
VI.4.3
Server service . . . . . . . . . . .
Service registration . . . . . . . . . . .
Service start and stop . . . . . . . . .
Service status . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Service deletion . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.4.4
User management . . . . . . . . .
Default users . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
User Types and Privileges . . . . . . .
User Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . .
User Modification . . . . . . . . . . .
User Deletion . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.4.5
Group management . . . . . . . .
Group permissions . . . . . . . . . . .
Group creation . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Group modification . . . . . . . . . . .
Group deletion . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.4.6
Database backup . . . . . . . . . .
Backup creation . . . . . . . . . . . .
List of existing backups . . . . . . . .
Recover a database from a backup . .
Creation of a database from a backup
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578
Digimat-MX
VI.4.1
Managing databases
Database creation
To work with Digimat-MX, an access to a database is required. Therefore, the first step is to create a database
storage area on disk. A database is managed by a single instance of a running database server. In file system
terms, a database will consist in a single directory in which all data will be stored. This directory is called the
database directory. When creating a database, its access and server can also be configured.
To create a database, Digimat-MX copies the template database directory without its attribute in the database
directory, configure the access, start the server to connect to the database and hence, change managers
password and finally, stop the server. Finally, the created database information is written in Digimat-MX file
directory.
Access configuration
A database access can be configured to be either local or remote:

When a database access is configured to be local, it means that the server running on it only accepts
connections from the machine on which the server is running.
When a database access is configured to be remote, the server running on it accepts connections from
machines whose IP addresses are into the list specified at its creation. This means that the server can
run on a given machine and that the remote database can be accessed from a remote machine whose IP
was listed at creation. A remote database should only be installed on machine with a fixed IP address.
For remote configuration, the list of accepted clients will be added to the configuration file of the server, i.e.,
listen_adresses of postgres.conf will be set to the coma separated list of specified IPv4 addresses. Password
connections will be used for all users, all other connections, including local connections, will be rejected, i.e.,
pg_hba.conf will be edited accordingly.
Server configuration
At creation, a service can be defined to manage the server. Note that neither the server nor the service are
started after the database creation, i.e., after database creation, there is no server running on it.
Connection information
The default user manager is created at the same time as the database. However, the password of the manager
is modified after its creation. Therefore, the new password has to be specified.
By default, trust connection is used on database with local access so that users password is not checked at
connection. However, for remote database, it is important to remember managers password because it will
be required to perform the first administrative tasks such as to create other users.
VI.4.1. Database creation
579
When connecting to a database, the database address or name has to be specified. By default, the database
name is set to the database address. For a remote database, its address is its IP address and for a local
database, its address is localhost. To each database address, a name can be associated. Therefore, if the
name MyDB has been associated to localhost address, when a new local database is created, the field database
name is greyed out and set to MyDB since the address of the new created database is localhost.
Template database directory
At installation, a template database directory is created into Digimat-MX executables directory. The template
database directory is used when creating a local or remote database and should not be used for working. The
template database is in its structure a local database.
Traceability of created databases
Digimat-MX has an Windows application data folder in which all created databases history is stored. mxcreateserverlist.conf file lists all created databases with their name and their directory. The name is specified
at creation and can be considered as a unique identifier of the created database. Then for each created
database, a configuration file, named by the unique database name, is created. This file contains the following
information:
Windows user name who created the database,

Creation date,
Last time server was started,
Last time server was stopped,
The database directory path,
The fact that a service exists or not,
Version of Digimat-MX,
If adequate the service name,
Last time a backup has been performed.
Note: For users of previous Digimat-MX versions, listDatabase.txt file does no more exist and is replaced by
mxcreateserverlist.conf file.
Deletion of a created database
A created database can be deleted. When deleted a database, its database directory is deleted as well as its
traceability file. The corresponding entry is also removed from the created database list file.
580
Digimat-MX
VI.4.2
Managing databases
Server management
Digimat-MX databases are managed by using PostgreSQL database system. Therefore before anyone can
access a database, a server has to be started. This section explains how to start, monitor and stop the server
in a database. The common error messages related to server start-up and shut-down failures are also reported
in this document as well as their cause(s) and resolution.
Starting the server
One server instance always manages the data of exactly one database. A database is a collection of data that
is stored at a common file system location (the database directory). More than one server instance can run
on a system at one time, so long as they use different database directories and different communication ports.
In particular, Digimat-MX allows to run one local and one remote servers on one single machine at one time
so long as they use different database directories.
In order to start a PostgreSQL server, you have to specify the location of the data to be used. The available
data locations, i.e., database cluster directories, are listed into an ASCII file, i.e., mxcreatedserverlist.conf
which is located into Digimat-MX Windows application data directory. Each time a new database is created,
its location is added to that list.
When starting the server, the program waits 10 seconds for the start to complete. The starting information is
written into an ASCII file named logfile.txt and located in the database directory. The start will be successful
if a successful connection can be made to the database cluster. For this connection attempt, PostgreSQL will
listen for connection on the default TCP/IP port, i.e., 5432. To change this default value, use the environment
variable PGPORT.
If the start fails, an error will be issued. VI.4.2 explains the possible causes and how to resolve the problem.
Monitoring the server
While the server is running, its PID is stored in the file postmaster.pid in the database directory. This is used
to prevent multiple server instances from running in the same database directory and can also be used for
shutting down the server. If you delete that file, you wont be able to cleanly stop the server.
Log information is also collected into files in pg_log directory within the running database directory. These
files, one for each day and new started session, relate the errors that occurred but also information about the
connections and disconnections.
While a server is running on your machine, at least one postgres.exe instance is running on your machine, i.e.,
it is listed in your task manager processes.
Stopping the server
VI.4.2. Server management
581
To shut down a server, the database cluster directory in which the server to shut down is running is first
specified. As already stated in VI.4.2, the available database directories are listed in a file.
Digimat-MX uses two stop modes depending on if there are users connected to the database on which the
server is running.
If there is no connected user, the smart stop mode is used.
If there are other connected users, the server stop may be enforced after the user confirmation.
Thus, the first action carried out by the program when a stop is requested is to connect to the database
cluster and check that there is no other user. Then, the server is stopped using the adequate mode. Finally,
a successful shutdown is indicated by the removal of the PID file.
Smart stop mode
This means that before stopping the server, it waits for all the clients to disconnect. Since it was checked that
there were no connected user before stopping the server, the server stop should be immediate unless users
connected between the check end and the stop command.
Enforced stop mode
If the server stop was enforced, Digimat-MX will send a message to all connected users to warn them that
the server will stop in five minutes. This is to allow the users to save their work before the actual server
stop. The Starting/Stopping Server dialog will display a progression bar. Before actually stopping the server,
all connected users will get a last notification confirming that the server is actually stopping. Within one
minute, the server will be stopped and all users will therefore be disconnected. The status bar will show a
NOK connection status.
Start error troubleshooting

When the server start fails, 5 different error messages can be issued. Below table lists these messages as well
as from where they are issued.
For each error listed in previous table, known causes are listed as well as tips to identify the cause. Resolution
is also provided.
Error 1.1 is issued because a postmaster.pid already exists in locationServer. Usually if a postmaster.pid
exists, it means that a server is already running on that directory. However sometimes the corresponding server
may stop running without deleting its postmaster.pid.
The resolutions of this problem are:
If a server is actually running, work with that server or stop it.
If a server is not running (check that there is no postgres.exe process with PID given in postmaster.pid
running on your system), delete the file and try restarting the server.
Error 1.2 is issued because locationServer does not exist. This means that your listDatabase.txt has been
corrupted or that the directory has been deleted or renamed on your machine. Edit it so that all listed
directories exist.
Error 1.3 occurs when:
Another server is running on your system. Then, if it is the case, in your Digimat-MX command prompt
and log file, you should have this message: ERROR: Server has to stop because FATAL: could not
create any TCP/IP sockets occurred. HINT: is another server running on your machine? To solve
that, stop the other server before restarting the current server.
582
Digimat-MX
Managing databases
Error number
Error message
Issued in
1.1
Could not start server at locationServer

because another server is already running.
GUI, log file, command

prompt
1.2
Could not start server at locationServer

because that folder does not exist.

prompt
1.3
Could not start server at locationServer.

prompt
1.4
The file listing the name and location of the

available database cluster(s) could not be
found.
HINT: does file filePath exist?

prompt
1.5
Error while reading the list of existing

databases.
HINT: is file filePath correctly formated?

prompt
Table VI.4.1
locationServer is not a database cluster data directory compatible with PostgreSQL. Either the directory or created database list file has been corrupted.
Error 1.4 occurs if Digimat-MX cannot find the created database list file. Check if it exists.
Error 1.5 occurs if the file containing the list of created databases is not correctly formatted, i.e., if it does
not contain lines such as Unique_ Database_Name = pathToClusteDatabaseDirectory.
Stop error troubleshooting
When stop fails, the following error message is issued in GUI, log file and command prompt: Could not
stop server at locationServer. This can be because there is no server running in locationServer. Check
that there is postmaster.pid in that folder. If it is not the case, because it has been accidentally deleted, the
program wont be able to stop the server. The only way to stop a server for which the PID file has been
deleted is to kill it.
Another cause may be that the server has been started via a service. In which case, to stop the server, the
service has to be stopped.
VI.4.3. Server service
VI.4.3
583
Server service
To connect to a database, a server has to be running on the database directory. Server can be managed
using Digimat-MX start and stop functionalities as explained in Section VI.4.2. By registering a Windows
service, the start and stop of the server is automatically performed at boot and shut down of the operating
system. Therefore the server runs in the background as long as Windows is running. The service can also
manually started or stopped when required. All service actions are performed by a dedicated executable, named
digimatMXService, that is located in Digimat-MX executable directory.
Service registration
For each created database, it is possible to register a Windows service to manage the server. This can be
done at the creation or afterwards. The registration of a service requires Windows administrative rights, this
is why a User Account Control is issued to run digimatMXService executable. The service name is the name
of the server . The service is not started at creation.
Service start and stop
The service is by default configured to start and stop at the operating system start and shut down but it can be
started or stopped manually when required. Starting and stopping a service requires Windows administrative
rights, this is why a User Account Control is issued to run digimatMXService executable. Service start or
stop problems are generally linked to classic server start and stop problems (See VI.4.2 and VI.4.2). A service
cannot be started (stopped) if a server is (not) already running in the database directory. Note that it is not
possible to stop a server that has been started via a service by stopping it directly. To stop a server that has
been started by a service, the service has to be stopped.
Service status
When a service has been registered for a created database, its status can be requested. Basically, this allows
to know if the service is running or not. Requesting a service status requires Windows administrative rights,
this is why a User Account Control is issued to run digimatMXService executable. Note that a service status
can also be checked via Windows Service Administrative Tools.
Service deletion
584
Digimat-MX
Managing databases
When deleting a service that is running, the service is first stopped before its deletion. Service deletion
requires Windows administrative rights, this is why a User Account Control is issued to run digimatMXService
executable.
VI.4.4. User management
VI.4.4
585
User management
When connecting to Digimat-MX, you need to give your user name and password. By default at creation,
default users are created. This section explains the different user types and their privileges. User creation,
modification and deletion are also exposed.
Default users
When creating a database, two users are also created:

manager is the default user of Digimat-MX. This user is an administrator and can therefore be used to
create other users.
postgres is the default user that postgresql automatically creates when creating a database. In DigimatMX, that user is the only super user.
User Types and Privileges
There exist 4 different types of users which different privileges:

Super user: There is only one super user, named postgres, which is created when creating the database.
It is not possible to create another superuser. postgres is the default user that postgresql automatically
creates when creating a database. In Digimat-MX, that user has all privileges and is used in background
when performing high level administrative tasks such as upgrading a database or updating DigimatMX public data. It is not allowed to connect to Digimat-MX with that user since with such high
privileges, it would be possible to corrupt the database.
Administrators have privileges to create, modify and delete any user and group. Only administrators
can create or delete a group.
Power users have privileges to create, modify and delete simple users belonging to their groups. They
can also modify the groups they are members of. Power users can be considered as administrators of
groups they belong to.
Simple users can only modify their password. Simple users do not have administrative rights.
Administrative rights are required to perform the following database maintenance tasks:
Display of all connected users,

Backup of a database,
Restore of a database backup,
Display of the list of database backups,
Server stop.
586
Digimat-MX
Managing databases
User Creation
Administrators and power users can create other users but only administrators can create power users. This
is why before creating a new user, an administrative connection is required. This means that a server has to
be running on the database for which you want to create a new user. If you cannot connect to that database
as an administrator or a power user, you wont be able to create a new user. When creating a new user, the
following information is requested:
user name,
user type,
user password
list of groups to which the new user will belong.
If the user is not associated to any group, s/he will not be able to share data with others. Note that a power
user can only associate the new user to groups s/he belongs to. There is no limit on the number of users that
can be created.
User Modification
Administrators can change the password and user name of any other user as well as the groups to which
s/he belongs. Administrators can also modify the type of a user. Power users can change the user name and
password of simple users belonging to theirs groups. They can also modify group membership within their
groups. Simple users can only change their password.
Password change
To change a user password, you first need to successfully connect to the database as a user with adequate
privileges. Then, once connected, you can provide the new password for that user on the current database
and its confirmation. If you forget your password, contact a user with more privileges than you to reset a new
one. If you forgot all administrator passwords, contact support@e-xstream.com to reset a new one.
User Deletion
Administrators and power users can delete users. Note that power users cannot delete another power user and
moreover, they can only delete a user blonging to theirs groups. At deletion, the user is deleted as well as
her/his private data. Therefore, those data have to be transfered before deleting the user. A warning message
is issued to inform the user that private data will be deleted.
VI.4.5. Group management
VI.4.5
587
Group management
Data sharing is managed via groups of users. Indeed, when a user shares data, s/he has to specify the group(s)
the data will be shared with.
Group permissions
Three types of permissions exist

Read: This permission is always enabled, i.e., if a grade is shared with a group, all members of the group
can read the grade data,
Write: This permission allows to modify shared data entries,
Delete: This permission allows to delete shared data entries.
Members of a group have permission of the group on shared grades.
Group creation
Only Administrators can create groups. When creating a group, the following information fields are specified:
Group name,
Group permissions,
Group members, i.e., users who will belong to the group.
Group modification
Any of the group information fields can be modified by Administrators. Power users can modify theirs groups.
When group members are modified, the shared data that can be accessed by the modified group members
may also change. Indeed, if a user A has access to shared data because s/he is a member of group G and if
user A is removed from the members of group G, user A will no more have shared data in her/his data.
Group deletion
Only Administrators can delete a group. When deleting a group, the users are not deleted. Therefore, after
deleting a group, it may happen that a user is without any group, i.e., has no more access to any shared data.
Therefore, due to the deletion of a group, the shared data to which members of that group had access may
have changed.
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VI.4.6
Managing databases
Database backup
Digimat-MX provides tools to backup and restore created databases as explained in this section.
When performing a backup action, administrative rights are required. Therefore, the server has to be running
on the database to create a backup, list its existing backup and restore it to a backup. Of course, when
creating a new database from a backup, the administrative rights are not checked.
Backup creation
When creating a backup, a ZIP archive is created which contains the following information:
Configuration files of the server,
Information about the users and groups,
Data content.
For each created backup file, its path is added to the backup list file of the database. Note that it is not
possible to plan an automatic backup. It is the user reponsibility to backup the database.
List of existing backups
In Digimat-MX Windows Application directory exists a file listing the backup files that have been performed
for each created database. This file is named as the created database name and its extension is .backup. Note
that if the backup file is deleted or moved, the backup list file is not automatically updated. However, the list
displayed in Digimat-MX GUI contains only existing files.
Recover a database from a backup
This may be useful if you modified or deleted data and want to restore those data. First step consists in the
extraction of the files from the archive file. Then, the server is stopped and its configuration files are restored.
The server is then restarted with in the restored configuration. Finally, the users and the data are restored.
Creation of a database from a backup
This can be used to transfer a database from one disk to another for example. First step consists in the
extraction of the files from the archive file. Then an empty database is initiated. The server is then configured
according to the backup files. Finally, users and data are created from backup files.
Digimat-MX VI.5
Working in databases
VI.5.1
Connection to a database . . . .
Connection information . . . . . . .
Database version check at connection
Connection status . . . . . . . . . .
Connection error troubleshooting . .
VI.5.2
Database scheme upgrade . . . .
Database upgrade rights . . . . . . .
Database upgrade steps . . . . . . .
VI.5.3
Data import . . . . . . . . . . .
Grade creation . . . . . . . . . . . .
Digimat Material import . . . . . .
Digimat analysis import . . . . . . .
Experimental data import . . . . . .
Several database entries . . . . . . .
VI.5.4
Data query . . . . . . . . . . . .
Grade query . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Data query . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Failure Indicator Query . . . . . . .
VI.5.5
Data editing . . . . . . . . . . .
Grade database entry copy . . . . . .
Grade database entry modification .
Data Database entry edition . . . . .
Data edition rights . . . . . . . . . .
VI.5.6
Data sharing . . . . . . . . . . .
Start sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stop sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Traceability . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Digimat-MX
VI.5.1
Connection to a database
Before working into a database, you have to connect to it. This document explains what is the required
information to connect to a database, how to check your connection status and solve connection problems.
Connection information
To connect to a database, the database name or address must be specified as well as your user name and
password. If you want to connect to a server running on a local database on your machine, the database
address is localhost. To connect to a remote database, the database address is the IP address of the
machine on which the server is running even if it is your machine.
To each database address, the user can associate a name. The list of accessed databases with their address
and associated name can be viewed in Databases of Database Tools. By default, when connecting to a new
database address, the associated name is the address itself. This can be modified using Database Tools.
On a local database, the password is not checked at connection. On a remote database, the connection is
password protected. At database creation, the only existing user is manager but other users can easily be
created (See VI.4.4 for more information). The password for each user is stored into the global data system
folder.
Note that when you access Digimat-MX database from another Digimat product, you have also to provide
the user name and password.
Database version check at connection
Once the connection to the database is successful, Digimat-MX checks that the version of the database is
compatible with its version. If Digimat-MX version is higher than the database version, an error message is
issued. That error message will be issued until the database is upgraded (See Section VI.5.2).
Optimal performances are obtained by using matching version of Digimat-MX and databases.
Connection status
When connected to a database, Digimat-MX returns the status of the connection in its status bar. Every 60
seconds, Digimat-MX checks the connection status. Three states are possible:
OK: connection is OK
ERROR: an error occurred and commands will be ignored until the end of the transaction block.
NOK: connection is not ok, check your server status.
If your connection status is ERROR, you need to end your transaction block. When connecting, DigimatMX starts a transaction block. All transactions are committed and visible to other users when saving changes.
VI.5.1. Connection to a database
591
This also ends the transaction block and starts a new one. Cancelling changes ends also the transaction
block and starts a new one. Hence, if an error occurred during a transaction block, the only way to end the
transaction block and hence to recover a working status is to cancel changes. Of course, you will lose all
changes made since last start of a transaction block.
Connection error troubleshooting
When connection fails, an error message is issued. Table VI.5.1 lists the most common error messages.
Error number
Error message
Issued in
2.1
Could not connect to server: Connection refused (0x0000274D/10061)

Is the server running on host IPaddress
and accepting TCP/IP connections on port
xxxx
GUI, log file, command prompt
2.2
FATAL: password authentication failed for

user userName
2.3
Could not connect to server: Connection

timed out (0x0000274C/10060)
xxxx
2.4
Could not connect to server: Network is unreachable (0x00002743/10051)

xxxx
2.5
FATAL: role username does not exist
Table VI.5.1: Most common error messages.
Error 2.1 is the generic I couldnt find a server to talk to failure and has several causes:
The first cause is that the server is not running. See Server management VI.4.2 for more information.
This can also happen if you are trying to connect from an unknown machine to a remote database
cluster. Check that the IP address of your client is listed into the server configuration files. Contact the
support for more information.
Another common mistake is to forget to configure the server to allow TCP/IP connections. By default,
Digimat-MX configures the server to allow TCP/IP connections. However, the configuration may have
been modified unintentionally. If so check postgres.conf file in your database cluster directory. Contact
the support for more information.
Error 2.2 is either due because the password you provided for user username is incorrect or user username
does not exist. Contact your database manager if you cannot retrieve your username and password.
Errors 2.3 and 2.4 typically occur when you cannot access the specified IP address. Check that you can
access the machine on which the server is running. Check that postgres or port 5432 is not blocked by your
firewall.
592
Digimat-MX
Error 2.5 occurs when user username does not exist. Contact your database manager if you cannot retrieve
your username.
VI.5.2. Database scheme upgrade
VI.5.2
593
Database scheme upgrade
The database scheme evolves with the Digimat version, the current database scheme is Digimat-MX 4.2.1. If
you have an old database using the database scheme Digimat-MX 4.1.2, you can upgrade it (See Subsection
VI.5.2). When connecting to a database, it is checked that Digimat-MX version is compatible with the database
version. If not, an error message is issued and it is possible to upgrade the database to Digimat-MX version.
When you install a database you get a set of public grades, the number of public grades evolves with the
Digimat version. After, an installation of a new Digimat-MX version when you start an existing database, you
have the capability to upgrade your databse with new public grades (see Figure VI.5.1). It is recommended
to update your database.
You must be careful to distinguish between a database scheme upgrade and an upgrade of public grades. The
remainder of this section relates to the database scheme upgrade.
Figure VI.5.1: Update the public database.
Database upgrade rights
All databases of a database cluster are not upgraded simultaneously. Each user may upgrade its WDB but
only the manager can upgrade the shared databases.
594
Digimat-MX
Therefore, when connecting to her/his WDB, a user will first get an error message if Digimat-MX version is
not compatible with the database. Then, s/he will get the opportunity to update her/his working database.
If connecting to a shared database as a simple user, i.e., not as manager, the error message will be issued in
case of a version incompatibility and connection will be refused until manager upgrades the shared databases.
If connecting as manager to a database with an older version than Digimat-MX one, an error message will be
issued and it will be asked to upgrade managers WDB and the shared databases.
Database upgrade steps
Database upgrade consists in several steps and may take some time:
First action performed by Digimat-MX when upgrading a database is to backup that database.
Then it is checked that there is no other user connected to the database. If it is the case, all other users
have their login privilege removed to prevent any connection during the upgrade. Else, the database
upgrade is aborted.
Then the database scheme is modified to account for failure information.
The writing privileges of all users are modified to match the new database scheme.
The database content is upgraded:
Failure indicator information of all Digimat Analysis data entries are extracted from their file
content and the corresponding extracted Digimat Material entries are modified to include the
Failure Indicator section.
Note that for Digimat Experimental entries the failure information field is set to no. It is the user
responsibility to update those entries to reflect correct failure information.
The version is updated.
Login privilege is reset to all users.
Note that information about the different steps is written in the log file. If an error should occur during the
upgrade process, consult the log file to know which steps failed and contact the support to retrieve your data
from the backup database.
VI.5.3. Data import
VI.5.3
595
Data import
When connected to a database, you can import data into the current database. You can import data file
one by one or import several database entries at a time. Any imported data is relative to a grade definition.
Therefore, if the grade to which the data is associated does not yet exist into the private data, the grade
definition has first to be created.
Grade creation
Multi-matrix or/and multi-filler grade definition
When importing data one by one, the data file type is first to be specified:
DIGIMAT Material
Digimat Analysis
Experimental Data
Or several database entries can be imported at a time.
Grade creation
To each trade name is associated one and only one grade definition for each data type. When importing data
the trade name of the grade to which the data will be associated is requested, if the trade name already exists
in the current database private data, the data is simply added under that grade definition. But if the trade
name does not exist, information fields to create the grade definition are requested. Table VI.5.2 sums up the
properties associated to a grade definition. Dates are automatically set to the date of the creation. Trade
name and type have to be specified. Depending upon the value of type, matrix name, filler name and filler
amount are optional or not. If the type is composite, all these properties are required and the filler amount
has to be between 0 and 1. If the type is homogeneous, only one of the two matrix name or filler name has
to be provided and the filler amount is set to 0.
Multi-matrix or/and multi-filler grade definition
If you want to define a multi-matrix grade, you can provide for the matrix name a comma separated list of
abbreviated names. However, you have to be aware that only the first matrix name component will be used
in queries.
To define a multi-filler grade, a comma separated list has to be supplied for the filler name. The filler amount
is the total mass fraction of the fillers. However, you have to be aware of the query limitations on multi-filler
grades.
596
Digimat-MX
Property
Type
Creation value type
Trade Name
text
Required
Author
text
Automatic
Data type
text
Automatic
Supplier
text
Required
Type
text
Required
Matrix name
text
Dependent
Filler name
text
Dependent
Filler amount
numeric
Dependent
Comments
text
Optional
Date Created
Date
Automatic
Date Modified
Date
Automatic
Owner
text
Automatic
Modifier
text
Automatic
Shared information
text
Automatic
Table VI.5.2: Usage of grade definition properties at import.
Digimat Material import
This section explains how works the import of Digimat Material files. Hence, it does not discuss about the
extraction of Digimat Material data. This subject is detailed in Digimat Analysis import section.
When importing a Digimat Material file, first, several checks are carried out. It is checked that the file exists
and is not in use. Then, its extension is checked. If the extension is not .dmf, a warning message is issued and
is up to the user to choose to continue or not. Finally, it is checked that if the Digimat Material is integrated
into a default homogeneous Digimat Analysis, Digimat-MF pre-processor does not issue an error and that the
current Digimat-MF version is not anterior to 4.0.1. If this check is not successful, a warning message is issued
and you can choose to continue anyway.
After these file checks, the import process can begin. If the trade name already exists in the database, the
Digimat Material is added to its files, else the trade name database entry is first created. As shown on
next table, Digimat Material information fields are not all filled by the user. Some are automatically filled
by Digimat-MX. Among those to be provided by the user, the only compulsory information field is the unit
system.
The Class name is taken from the grade definition and is set to the abbreviated name of the grade, e.g.,
PA66GF30. Note that if afterwards the grade definition gets modified, the modification will not affect the
class name of its existing Digimat Material database entries. The dates are set to the current one. The model
type is extracted from the file.
If Identification information field is set to yes, the user can decide to add one file containing information about
the identification process. This may be a picture file or a text file. There is no limitation about the type of
VI.5.3. Data import
597
Property
Type
Import value type
Class name
Text
Automatic
Model type
Text
Automatic
Temperature
Numeric
Optional
Relative Humidity
Numeric
Optional
Identified
Boolean
Optional
Date of creation
Date
Automatic
Comments
Text
Optional
Units
Text
Required
Date Modified
Date
Automatic
Date Accessed
Date
Automatic
Table VI.5.3: Usage of Digimat material law data information fields at import.
the file. The only limitation is that only one file will be imported and associated to the data database entry.
Hence, for example, if you specify a file with references to external files, e.g., htm file with figures, these
external files will not be imported.
In order to avoid multiple large objects containing the same information into one database, when a Digimat Material is imported, it is checked that a large object containing the same information does not already
exist. If it exists, the new database entry is linked to the existing large object. Therefore, several database
entries can reference to a single large object.
Digimat analysis import
When importing a Digimat Analysis file, several file checks are carried out.
It is checked that the file exists and is not in use. Then, its extension is checked. If the extension is not
.mat or .daf, a warning message is issued and it is up to the user to choose to continue or not.
Moreover it is checked that there is no external references that would be lost once stored into the
database. If it is not the case, a warning message will warn you that you may lose information and reverse
engineering capability will be forbidden on that file. This would happen if you import a Digimat Analysis
file in which the orientation of an inclusion is defined from a file. If the file is encrypted, you will get a
warning telling you that the ANALYSIS section could not be found in the file and that the file may be
encrypted, confirm that warning to run a Digimat-MF analysis on it and check that you can use it.
Finally, it is checked that if the Digimat Analysis does not issue errors in Digimat-MF and that the
current Digimat-MF version is not anterior to 4.0.1. If these checks are not successful, an error message
is issued and the import is aborted. If they are successful, the version of Digimat-MF is added into file
to import. If the file is encrypted but cannot be decrypted for use because you are not the targeted user
or the file expired, its where the import will be aborted.
After these file checks, the import process begins. If the trade name already exists in the database, the
Digimat Analysis file and any extracted Digimat Material files are added to its files; else the trade name
598
Digimat-MX
database entry is first created. As shown on next table, Digimat Analysis information fields are not all filled by
the user. Some are automatically filled by Digimat-MX and among those to be provided by the user, the only
compulsory information field is the unit system. Dates are automatically set to the current date and matrix
model is obtained from the Digimat Analysis content.
If at least one failure indicator is active in the Digimat Analysis, the Failure Indicator field is set to yes and its
information fields (See Subsection VI.3.5) are automatically filled based on the Digimat Analysis content.
If Reverse Engineered information field is set to yes, the user can decide to add one file containing information
about the reverse engineering process. This may be a picture file or a text file. There is no limitation about
the type of the file. The only limitation is that only one file will be imported and associated to the data
database entry. Hence, for example, if you specify a file with references to external files, e.g., htm file with
figures, these external files will not be imported.
If the file is encrypted, encrypted is appended to the comments as well as the limit date. Note that the
limit date is obtained from the actual limit date which is enclosed in the encrypted part and not the readable
limit date that can be easily edited. If the file is encrypted, no Digimat Material is extracted and hence, no
consistent check between the grade definition and the content of the Digimat Analysis is carried out. Moreover,
Failure Indicator field is set to NO even if file content contains active failure indicator(s).
Digimat Material extraction
Unless the file is encrypted, Digimat Material database entries are extracted from the Digimat Analysis. If the
file contains one matrix and one inclusion and that the grade is defined with one filler, the Digimat Materials
corresponding to matrix and the inclusion are extracted and stored with their information fields. In any
other case, only the matrix Digimat Material is extracted. Note that a Digimat Analysis file which is not
homogeneous cannot be associated to a homogeneous grade but inversely a homogeneous Digimat Analysis
can be associated to a composite grade. Another consistency checks is made on the grade filler amount and
the mass fraction of 2-phases Digimat Analysis file.
The information fields of the extracted Digimat Material are filled as follows:
The temperature, relative humidity, identification, dates and units are equal to those of the parent
Digimat Analysis file.
The comments field is the Digimat Analysis one appended with extracted from Digimat Analysis.
The model is extracted from the Digimat Material content.
The class name is set to:
The grade matrix name (even if it is a multi-matrix grade) for extracted matrix Digimat Material
from a multi-phase Digimat Analysis.
The filler matrix name for an extracted inclusion Digimat Material.
The abbreviated name of the grade for extracted matrix Digimat material from a homogeneous
Digimat Analysis.
VI.5.3. Data import
599
Property
Type
Import value type
Matrix model
Text
Automatic
Temperature
Numeric
Optional
Relative Humidity
Numeric
Optional
Reverse Engineered
Boolean
Optional
Date of creation
Date
Automatic
Comments
Text
Optional
Units
Text
Required
Date Modified
Date
Automatic
Date Accessed
Date
Automatic
FI
Boolean
Automatic
Table VI.5.4: Usage of Digimat analysis data information fields at import.
Experimental data import
When importing an Experimental Data file, first, several checks are carried out. It is checked that the file
exists and is not in use. Then, its extension is checked. If the extension is not .def or .txt, a warning message
is issued and it is up to the user to choose to continue or not. Finally, it is checked if the file is correctly
formatted, i.e., that 2 vectors of double can be extracted from the file. If this check is not successful, an error
message is issued and the import is aborted. If the largest value of the first column, i.e., the strain column, is
largest than 0.5, a warning message is issued asking you if you are sure that your strain column is not expressed
in percent instead of absolute value.
If the file checks succeed, the file will be imported with its associated information fields. If the trade name
already exists in the database, the Experimental Data file is added to its files; else the trade name database
entry is first created. As shown in Table VI.5.5, all information fields are not required at import. Dates are
set to the current data at import. Loading type, X and Y data type and Units are required information fields
to be provided by the user. Even if the loading angle and strain rate are optional information fields, default
value of 0 will be considered when carrying out a reverse engineering or identification analysis if they were not
specified.
If Failure Indicator is set to yes, the failure information (See Subsection VI.3.5) fields have to be provided. If
the failure strain value is directly entered by the user, it is checked that the value is not equal to the strain of
the last point strain or of the maximum stress point. If so, the type of failure strain is automatically changed
to the corresponding value. It is also checked that the failure strain is not negative or larger than the last
point strain. If so, an error message is issued and the import is aborted.
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Digimat-MX
Property
Type
Import value type
Temperature
Numeric
Optional
Relative humidity
Numeric
Optional
Strain rate
Numeric
Optional
Loading angle
Numeric
Optional
Loading type
Text
Required
Norm type and number of test
Text
Optional
Type of X data
Text
Required
Type of Y data
Text
Required
Unit system
Text
Required
Date created
Date
Automatic
Comments
Text
Optional
Date Modified
Date
Automatic
Date Accessed
Date
Automatic
Comments about test conditions
Text
Optional
Failure
Boolean
Optional
Table VI.5.5: Usage of Experimental data information fields at import.
Several database entries
Several database entries can be imported at a time using either a Digimat-MX database entries (See Section
VI.3.7) file, the Material Data Center Digimat (See Section VI.7.2) interface or Matereality interface (See
Section VI.7.3).
VI.5.4. Data query
VI.5.4
601
Data query
Digimat-MX allows the definition of a search profile by specifying the value of information fields of the database
entry you are looking for. This document explains which information field can be specified into the search
profile. As shown in Section VI.3.1, the data are stored hierarchically. The same hierarchy is thus followed
when searching for data of a given type into one database:
Grade query
Multi-matrix or/and multi-filler grade query
Data query
Experimental data query
Digimat material law data
Digimat analysis data
Grade query
When connected to a database, you can search for grades to which data of a given type (DAF, DMF or DEF)
are associated or for any grades whatever their content. A set of criteria of grade properties can be defined as
search requirement. These properties are listed in the following table as well as the special search they accept.
Property
Type
Special search
Trade Name
text
aA, *
Supplier
text
aA, *
hline Type
text
selected
Matrix name
text
aA, *
Filler name
text
aA, *
Filler amount
numeric
NA
Comments
text
aA, *
Table VI.5.6: Grade query properties (aA: case insensitive, *: wildcard character search, selected: select value in a
predefined list).
See Digimat-MX data definition in Section VI.3.1 for more information about these properties.
Wildcard characters (*) can be used to search for grades whose text properties include a specified part in their
name. Wildcard search is available for the trade name, supplier, matrix name, filler name and comments. The
query on these properties is also case insensitive. When specifying the comments in your search profile, the
query will return the grades whose comments contain the specified value, i.e., there is no need to add wildcard
characters at the beginning and at the end of the value in the search profile.
The type is a text property selected into a predefined list.
The filler amount is a numeric value between 0 and 1. The query returns grades whose filler amount is equal
to the specified value.
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Digimat-MX
When searching for grades with Digimat material law data, the query will return grades with extracted as
well as directly imported Digimat material law data. Digimat-MX considers that if a grade has associated
Digimat analysis data entries, it also contains Digimat material law data entries. However, since no distinction
is made if the Digimat analysis data is encrypted or with no associated file, your query results may lists grades
that dont have explicit Digimat material law data (they may be hidden in the encrypted or to-be requested
Digimat analysis data entry). Therefore some grades may disappear from the result list when carrying out the
search at the data level.
Multi-matrix or/and multi-filler grade query

If the current database contains multi-matrix grades and the matrix name is specified in the search profile,
only the grades whose first defined matrix satisfies the search requirement will be returned. This means that
it is not possible to have a search requirement mentioning multi-matrix names except the name of the first
listed matrix component.
If the current database contains multi-filler grades and the filler amount is specified in the search profile, only
the grades whose one of the filler amount is equal to the specified value will be returned. Therefore, it is not
possible to search on the total filler amount of a multi-filler grade. As well as when searching for multi-filler
grades, you cannot specify that you are searching for grade containing a given amount of a specific filler. The
filler amount cannot be associated to a filler name.
If the current database contains multi-filler grades and a single filler name is specified in the search profiles, the
query will return grades whose one of the fillers satisfy the search requirements. If the search profile specifies a
multi filler name (comma separated filler name list), the search will be case sensitive and no wildcard character
can be used. The query will return the grades which contain all the specified fillers.
Data query
Different predefined information fields are associated to each kind of data (DAF, DMF or DEF) and can
therefore be specified to define a search profile.
Experimental data query

The following table lists the information fields that can be specified into a search profile in addition to grade
properties when searching for raw experimental data into one database.
Query will return the experimental data satisfying the search requirement. If the date of creation is specified
in the search profile, experimental data created (i.e., entered into the database) on or after the specified date.
If the comments field is filled in the search profile, the query will return all database entries whose comments
field contains the specified value, i.e., comments fields behave as if wildcard characters were at the begin and
the end of the specified value.
For the temperature, relative humidity or strain rate, one can search data whose corresponding field have a
value greater (smaller) or equal to the specified value.
The loading angle is a numeric value and query results have a loading angle equal to the specified value.
The X and Y data type, unit system and failure fields are text fields which are selected into a predefined list.
If failure is left empty, all Experimental data with and without failure information will be returned. If it is
set to YES, only Experimental data with failure information will be returned. To search Experimental data
without failure information, set failure to NO.
VI.5.4. Data query
603
Property
Type
Special search
Temperature
Numeric
><
Relative humidity
Numeric
><
Date of creation
Date
NA
Comments about the data
Text
aA, *
Unit system
Text
Selected
Strain rate
Numeric
><
Loading angle wrt flow direction
Numeric
NA
Loading type
Text
Selected
Norm type of test
Text
aA, *
Norm number of test
Text
aA, *
Type of X data
Text
Selected
Type of Y data
Text
Selected
Text
aA, *
Failure
Text
Selected
Table VI.5.7: Experimental data query information fields (aA: case insensitive, *: wildcard character search, selected:
select value in a predefined list, ><: search for value larger or greater than).
Digimat material law data

properties when searching for Digimat material law data into one database.
Property
Type
Special search
Model type
Text
Selected
Temperature
Numeric
><
Relative Humidity
Numeric
><
Date of creation
Date
NA
Text
aA, *
Unit system
Text
Selected
Identified
Boolean
NA
Class name
Text
aA, *
Table VI.5.8: Digimat material law data query information fields (aA: case insensitive, *: wildcard character search,
selected: select value in a predefined list, >< : search for value larger or greater than)
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Digimat-MX
The query fields relative to Digimat material law data are the same as those relative to Digimat analysis data
except that Reverse engineered is replaced by Identified information field and that class name is added.
When checking identified information field in search profile, the query will return all Digimat material law data
that were obtained by identification or tagged as being so as well as the Digimat material law data extracted
from Digimat analysis data tagged as being obtained from a reverse engineering analysis.
The class name field accepts wildcard characters and is case insensitive.
Digimat analysis data
properties when searching for Digimat analysis data into one database.
Property
Type
Special search
Model type
Text
Selected
Temperature
Numeric
><
Relative Humidity
Numeric
><
Date of creation
Date
NA
Text
aA, *
Unit system
Text
Selected
Reverse Engineered
Boolean
NA
FI
Complex
Selected
Table VI.5.9: Digimat analysis data query information fields (aA: case insensitive, *: wildcard character search, selected:
select value in a predefined list, >< : search for value larger or greater than).
Query will return the Digimat analysis data satisfying the search requirement. If the date of creation is specified
in the search profile, Digimat analysis data created (i.e., entered into the database) on or after the specified
date.
For the temperature and/or relative humidity, we can specify in the search profile that we want the query to
return data characterized by a temperature and/or relative humidity greater (smaller) or equal to the specified
value.
To specify the model type in the search profile, it has to be selected into the list of all available model type
of the current database.
If the comments field is filled in the search profile, the query will return all database entries whose comments
field contains the specified value.
The unit system is selected into a predefined list.
If reverse engineered is checked into the search profile, the query will return all Digimat analysis data that
were obtained by reverse engineering or tagged as being so. However, when no checked, the query will return
all Digimat analysis data, reverse engineered or not.
If Failure Indicator is left empty, the query will return all Digimat analysis data, with and without active failure
indicator. If it is set to NO, only Digimat Analysis without active failure indicator will be returned. If Failure
Indicator is set to YES, only database entries with active failure indicator will be returned and it is possible to
add specific failure indicator information fields (See Section VI.5.4).
VI.5.4. Data query
605
Failure Indicator Query
When Failure Indicator is set to YES in Digimat Analysis (See VI.5.4) search profile, query fields specific to
failure indicator can be specified.
Failure Indicator query fields
First, the FPGF query field can left empty, set to YES or NO. If it is left empty, query will return Digimat Analysis database entries with failure indicator, applied using the First Pseudo Grain Failure or not. If it is set to
YES, only Digimat Analysis database entries with failure indicator applied using the First Pseudo Grain Failure
are returned. If it is set to NO, only Digimat Analysis database entries with failure indicator applied using the
standard approach are returned.
Up to 4 additional combination of failure indicator level and type can be added to the search profile. Both fields
have to be selected in a predefined list. One of the fields can be left empty. If you have several combinations
that are equal, the query results will be exactly as if you only defined once that combination in the search
profile.
Example
You can find an applied example of database query with failure indicators in appendix XV.5.1.
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Digimat-MX
VI.5.5
Data editing
Once a database entry has been created, you may need to modify the information fields relative to the grade
or the data of that database entry. On data for which you have writing privileges, modifications are allowed
on given information fields. It is also possible to delete data or grade database entries if you have deletion
privileges on them. This document lists the information fields that are modifiable and to which extend.
Grade database entry copy

A grade database entry and all its content can be copied. The copied grade trade name is set to "Copy of "
appended by the original grade trade name. A number under parentheses is appended to the trade name to
make it unique if required. The author and date of creation are those of the original grade entry. The copied
grade is always stored as a private data. The modification date and user are updated to the copy date and
user.
Grade database entry modification

Yon can modify information fields of a grade database entry or delete a grade database entry if you have
enough rights to do it. Note that you cannot edit a grade database entry when one of its data database
entries is in your current working selection, i.e., Material tree(s).
Grade database entry deletion
When deleting a grade database entry, first, it is checked if that grade database entry contains data database
entries. If it is the case, the user has to confirm the grade database entry deletion. The grade database entry
and all its content, included all associated files and their information fields, will be removed from the database.
Grade database entry modification
Below table lists grade properties that are modifiable. The trade name, supplier, matrix name, filler name and
comments can be modified whatever the type of data associated to the grade. The modification of the type
and filler amount is restricted to grade without Digimat Analysis. If you really need to modify the definition of
a grade with associated Digimat Analysis, you should successively carry out the following actions: export all
Digimat Analysis database entries of that grade, delete them, modify the grade definition and finally, re-import
the database entries so that the checks on Digimat Analysis content can be carried out.
Of course, if the type is modified from composite to homogeneous, either the matrix name or the filler name
has to be deleted and the filler amount has to be set to 0, and inversely.
The trade name has to be unique into the current database. Hence, if the modified trade name is the same
as an existing trade name except for the case, it is the grade definition with the existing trade name that will
be modified and not the grade definition from which you started.
When a grade definition is modified, its modified date is updated.
VI.5.5. Data editing
607
Property
Type
Modifiable
Trade Name
text
Yes
Supplier
text
Yes
Type
text
Restricted
Matrix name
text
Yes
Filler name
text
Yes
Filler amount
numeric
Restricted
Comments
text
Yes
Table VI.5.10: Modifiable grade properties.
Data Database entry edition
According to the writing rights you have on a grade entry, you can modify information fields of its data
database entries or delete them. Note that you cannot edit a database entry when it is in your current working
selection, i.e., Material tree(s).
Data database entry deletion
When deleting a database entry, all associated information, including the actual file, is removed from the
current database and cannot be retrieved. When deleting a Digimat Analysis, the extracted Digimat Materials
are also deleted. An extracted Digimat Material cannot be deleted alone, its parent Digimat Analysis has to
be deleted.
When a data database entry is deleted, the modified date of the grade to which it was associated is updated.
Data database entry modification
The modifiable information fields depend on the type of the data database entry. Table VI.5.11 lists modifiable
data information fields common to all types of data. Table VI.5.12 lists modifiable data information fields
specific to Experimental Data entries.
When modifying a Digimat Analysis, the extracted Digimat Material information fields are also modified.
Information fields of an extracted Digimat Material cannot be directly modified, the modification has to be
done at the level of its parent Digimat Analysis.
When a data database entry is modified, its modified date as well as its grade modified date are updated.
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Digimat-MX
Property
Type
Modifiable
Temperature
Numeric
Yes
Relative Humidity
Numeric
Yes
Text
Yes
Unit system
Text
Yes
Table VI.5.11: Modifiable information fields for all data types.
Property
Type
Modifiable
Strain rate
Numeric
Yes
Loading angle wrt flow direction
Numeric
Yes
Norm type of test
Text
Yes
Norm number of test
Text
Yes
Text
Yes
Failure Information
Complex
Yes
Table VI.5.12: Modifiable information fields specific to experimental data.
Data edition rights
Data edition rights depends on the data type:

Public data are not editable.
Private data are fully editable.
For shared data, the edition rights are managed by users groups rights (See Subsection VI.4.5).
VI.5.6. Data sharing
VI.5.6
609
Data sharing
Digimat-MX allows to share data between groups of users. Data owner may decide to start or stop sharing
them with her/his group(s) as explained in this section. Once data are shared, traceability information is
available. Sharing of data is performed at grade level. It is not possible to share only one file database entry
of a grade.
Start sharing
The owner can only share data with groups s/he is a member of. Once the data is shared, the owner has the
rights of the group(s). For example, if the owner shares data with a group without writing rights, s/he will no
more be allowed to edit the shared data. S/he will have to stop sharing the data to edit it. Similarly, if data
are shared with a group with writing/deletion privileges, all members of the group will be able to edit/delete
the data. Therefore, before sharing data, it may be useful to copy them.
Once shared, the grade and its content are considered as shared data and their sharing status can be managed
via Sharing functionality (See Subsection VI.2.2) of Database tools. Administrators can share any shared data
with any group, while power users can share any shared data with theirs groups. For example, if user U is a
member of group G and share a grade with G, an administrator may decide to share that grade with another
existing group whose U is not a member of.
Stop sharing
When stopping to share data, the data are no more shared and are then considered as private data of the
owner.
Administrators can also stop to share any data via the Sharing functionality (See Subsection VI.2.2) of Database
tools with any group, while power users can stop to share any data with their groups. When the sharing is
stopped via the Sharing functionality, only the access is removed but the data is still considered as a shared
data. For example, if user U has shared a grade with group G, a administrator may decide to stop that sharing.
That grade will remain as a shared data but group G will no more have access to it.
Traceability
For shared data, Digimat-MX stores the history of the following actions:
Start of data sharing,

Modification,
Copy of the data,
End of data sharing.
For each of those actions, the user name and date is stored. However, there is no possibility to undo those
actions. Therefore, it is advised to perform regular backups.
Digimat-MX VI.6
Digimat-MX +
VI.6.1
What is Digimat-MX +? . . .
Differences between Digimat-MX +
VI.6.2
Encryption/Decryption . . . .
Encryption basics . . . . . . . . .
Encryption scheme . . . . . . . . .
Decryption scheme . . . . . . . . .
VI.6.3
Encrypted file . . . . . . . . .
Encryted file content . . . . . . . .
Usage of encrypted file . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
and Digimat-MX
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
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Digimat-MX
VI.6.1
Digimat-MX +
What is Digimat-MX +?
Digimat-MX + is Digimat-MX with some additional features. The motivation behind Digimat-MX + is to
offer a solution to material suppliers for communicating and sharing information about their materials with
their customers in a secured way. To reach this aim, Digimat-MX + GUI is slightly different from Digimat-MX.
Differences between Digimat-MX + and Digimat-MX
Two features distinguish Digimat-MX + GUI from Digimat-MX GUI. First, a + is added to the title bar of
the GUI. Secondly, the Digimat-MX GUI offers an encryption frame shown on Figure VI.6.1.
Figure VI.6.1: Digimat-MX + encryption frame.
By entering the user ID and the date of expiration of the encrypted file (See Section VI.6.3 for more information
on encrypte files), the file corresponding to the highlighted data row(s) in Data Explorer will be encrypted (See
Section VI.6.2 for more information on encryption) and the database entry information fields will be added
as comments in the generated file. This will ease the user to load the file into her/his database. In several
entries are highlighted when clicking on encrypt, the user has to specify the folder where encrypted files will be
created and the naming of the encrypted files will be automatic. Numbers under parentheses will be appended
to the default name if required to ensure unique file name.
A date of expiration of 00/00/0000 means that the use of the encrypted file is not time-limited.
The user ID is available from the request data e-mail that you should have received from your customer. User
ID EVERYONE can be used to encrypt a file to be decryptable by anyone.
Note that it is not possible to encrypt files corresponding Experimental Data and Digimat Material, only
encrypted Digimat Analysis files are usable.
VI.6.2. Encryption/Decryption
VI.6.2
613
Encryption/Decryption
Encryption is a feature of Digimat-MX + (See Section VI.6.1). The motivation behind this feature is the
following scenario:
Lets say that supplier S wants to send data to user U and S wants that
the data cannot be read by anyone
the data can be use only by U and optionally only until a given date
Thus the purpose of encrypted files is to fulfill above request. Therefore, a decryption feature has also been
integrated to Digimat software suite. Hence, as a user of Digimat, you may one day faces the use of an
encrypted file and may want to know more about the encryption/decryption scheme used by Digimat.
Encryption basics
Digimat-MX + encryption scheme and hence Digimat decryption scheme mixes the two main different kind of
encryption/decryption algorithm: the symmetric and asymmetric encryption/decryption algorithms. In short,
the major differences between the two algorithms:
Symmetric encryption algorithm:
One key is used for encryption and decryption
The key can be considered as a password
Anybody knowing the password can have access to the information
Asymmetric encryption algorithm:
Uses private and public keys which are generated together (see Figure VI.6.2)
To each private key is associated a public key
The private key is used to decrypt
The public key is used to encrypt
Each user has his own private key that he has to keep secrete.
All public keys can be available by everybody.
Figure VI.6.3 illustrates the principle of a private/public key encryption/decryption scheme. Lets say that
Bob wants to send encrypted data to Alice. To encrypt data, Bob needs the public key of Alice. Alice has her
own public and private keys generated as illustrated on Figure VI.6.2. Alice will keep her private key secret
and transmit her public key to Bob. By keeping her private key secret, Alice will make sure that she is the
only one to be able to read the encrypted data as the private key associated to the public key used to encrypt
the data is needed to decrypt those data. Note that if Bob wants that Alice is the only one to use its data, he
has to make sure that Alice does not transmit her private key to anyone. To ensure the non transmissibility
of private keys, Digimat encryption/decryption scheme mixes symmetric and asymmetric algorithms and links
private keys to the license information. In practice, for public/private key encryption/decryption, Digimat uses
the RSA algorithm from Crypto++.
Public/private key management

Public/private keys are generated by e-Xstream. Public keys are integrated into Digimat-MX database and
are thus accessible to anyone who has Digimat-MX. To each Digimat user, a unique user id is associated.
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Digimat-MX +
Figure VI.6.2: Public-private key generation.
Therefore, knowing the user id of a user, Digimat-MX + can retrieve his/her associated public key and thus
encrypt data for her/his exclusive use. The private key of a user is delivered through his/her Digimat license
file. In practice, the actual private key is encrypted by a password derived from the SIGN of Digimat-CRYPT
feature and the password encrypted private key is written as the vendor_info of Digimat-CRYPT in license.
Doing this prevents to a given extend the transmissibility of private keys.
Moreover, a pair of public/private keys have been reserved to encrypt data to be decrypted by anyone. This
means that everyone has access to that specific private key via the licence file. When the user ID is set to
EVERYONE, Digimat-MX + uses the corresponding public key to encrypt the data.
Figure VI.6.3: Public/private key encryption/decryption.
Encryption scheme
By specifying the user id of the targeted user and the optional expiration data, i.e., the date from which
the analysis file wont be usable in Digimat suite, Digimat-MX + creates an encrypted file from a given
Digimat Analysis database entry.
Figure VI.6.4 explains how Digimat-MX + encrypts data:
User U requests data to supplier S by using Request Data feature of Digimat-MX. In the sent e-mail,
the user id of U is written.
VI.6.2. Encryption/Decryption
615
Supplier S highlights in the GUI the Digimat Analysis database entry to be encrypted and sent to U.
S supplies to Digimat-MX + the user id and expiration date. (00/00/0000 means that there is no
expiration date).
Digimat-MX + gets the public key corresponding to the user id, adds the expiration date to the data to
be encrypted and encrypts the data
S sends the data to U by e-mail for example.
Figure VI.6.4: Encryption scheme.
Decryption scheme
616
Digimat-MX
Digimat-MX +
Decryption feature is integrated in Digimat suite so that you can work with encrypted files (See Section VI.6.3)
in Digimat. This feature is generically called Digimat-CRYPT. Basically when a Digimat software faces an
encrypted file, it calls Digimat-CRYPT. The scheme followed when Digimat-CRYPT decrypts data is:
It
It
It
It
It
gets the SIGN and encrypted private key from the license.
decrypts the encrypted private key.
decrypts the encrypted data by using the private key
checks that the data are not expired
returns the decrypted data to the calling Digimat software so that it can use the data.
Figure VI.6.5: Decryption scheme.
VI.6.3. Encrypted file
VI.6.3
617
Encrypted file
Encrypted files are generated using Digimat-MX + (See Section VI.6.1) using an encryption scheme explained
in Subsection VI.6.2 but you can have to use them without having Digimat-MX + since these files are usable
in Digimat-MF, Digimat-CAE and Digimat-MX using a decryption scheme explained in Subsection VI.6.2.
The motivation behind the introduction of encrypted files for Digimat was to have non-readable time-limited
usable files. This means that you can run analyses with encrypted files while they dont expire but you cannot
know the details of the analysis definition. The objective of this section is to describe:
The content of an encrypted file.
What can be done with an encrypted file.
The limitations relative to an encrypted file.
Encryted file content
When you open an encrypted file in a text editor, you immediately see that it contains two parts:
One that you can read and understand.
One that is composed of alphanumeric characters which are not interpretable by a common human,
hereafter called the encrypted part of an encrypted file.
The two first lines are database entry information fields corresponding to the associated Digimat Analysis File
that is encrypted.
Digimat-MX version used to generate the encrypted file is also written as well as Digimat-MF version used at
the import of the Digimat Analysis File into the database from which the file was extracted to be encrypted.
Therefore you are certain that your encrypted file will run in Digimat-MF whose version is newer than the
written version.
The user id and expiration date are also written for information purpose. This means that the actual expiration
date thats checked is not that one but is into the encrypted part. The user id is there only for traceability
and is not used.
Since 4.3.1 Release, an additional section with keywords in clear is added when modifying parameters in
Digimat-MF or Digimat-CAE graphical user interfaces. The encrypted part is not modified, so that removing
this additional section allows to recover the original encrypted file. Only a subset of options can be modified
in this way. These options are available when opening the encrypted file in Digimat-MF or Digimat-CAE GUI.
Usage of encrypted file
In most case, you will receive encrypted files from your material supplier. This section answers the question
What can I do with an encrypted file?
First, you can import it in Digimat-MX databases. By doing this, you will make sure that you dont edit the
encrypted part of the file and hence, do not loose important information. When importing an encrypted file,
no Digimat Material data will be extracted. If the encrypted file has an expiration date, once expired, it will
618
Digimat-MX
Digimat-MX +
be automatically removed from your database when cleaning your database. You cannot carry out a Reverse
Engineering analysis with an encrypted file but you can use it in Digimat-MF and in Digimat-CAE.
In Digimat-MF and Digimat-CAE, you can change the integration parameters as well as the loading and the
failure indicators (if the encrypted file already contains failure indicators, you cannot modify them, but you
can disable them). In Digimat-CAE, you can also redefine the orientation of the inclusion.
Digimat-MX VI.7
Interfaces
VI.7.1
Internal communication with Digimat modules . . .
VI.7.2
Material Data Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Export data from Material Data Center . . . . . . . . . .
Import data from Material Data Center into Digimat-MX
VI.7.3
Matereality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Export data from Matereality database . . . . . . . . . .
Import data from Matereality database into Digimat-MX
619
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Digimat-MX
VI.7.1
Interfaces
Internal communication with Digimat modules
The MX data query offers a way to internally communicate between its modules and Digimat-MX. DigimatMX data can be filtered in order to load analyses or materials stored in its database directly into
Digimat-MF
Digimat-FE
Digimat-CAE
The query of Digimat-MX databases can also be accessed either from within the other Digimat modules. Full
analyses or materials can be imported easily by
1. Right-clicking the analysis tree at start-up
2. Using the menue bar
3. Right-click when defining materials
See also Figure VI.7.1 on how to access the available Digimat-MX interfaces. Upon request the DigimatMX module opens up as usual, the user logs in, filters and selects his data. Upon closing the module, the
selected material or analysis will atomatically be loaded into the module where the request started from.
For more information about the idea of interoperability within the Digimat platform please also refer to section
III.2.1.
VI.7.1. Internal communication with Digimat modules
621
Figure VI.7.1: Access to Digimat-MX from within Digimat GUI: (1) right-click the analysis tree at start-up (2) use the
menue bar (3) right-click when defining materials
622
Digimat-MX
VI.7.2
Interfaces
Material Data Center
Digimat-MX offers the possibility to get experimental data from Material Data Center via its Digimat interface.
Export data from Material Data Center
First, go to Material Data Center website (www.materialdatacenter.com ). Then, in Toolbox menu, go

to Digimat interface. If Digimat interface is not available, this may be because it has no yet been released
or you need to have credentials from Material Data Center. For more information, please contact support@exstream.com.
Figure VI.7.2: Material Data Center Digimat interface.
In Digimat interface, you can search for a product that matches your criteria. Once, you have found the
product for which you want to export data, select it and click on Export button as shown on Figure VI.7.2.
Then, select Save option to save the product data in a xml file. Figure VI.7.3 shows how to do it with Internet
Explorer. Please refer to your web browser help to know how to change the folder where the file is saved.
VI.7.2. Material Data Center
623
Figure VI.7.3: Save process in Internet Explorer.
Import data from Material Data Center into Digimat-MX
If not yet done, first, export data to be imported from Material Data Center Digimat interface. Then use
the Digimat-MX tools ("Import") to directly import the optained data file into Digimat-MX (see subsection
VI.2.7). In this tool, under "Database entries" the option Material Data Center must be chosen.
Note: Only Stress-strain curves are imported into Digimat-MX database!
If a grade with the same tradename already exists, the stress-strain curves are added to the existing grade
without checking that the grade information fields are the same as those into the xml file. In the comment
of the grade, it is written: From MDC interface version [version], [materialtype], Moisture [in]dependent,
where [] denotes that it depends on the content of the xml file.
For each stress-strain curve, the temperature field is obtained from the xml file. The humidity is set to
0% for dry state curve and to 50% for conditioned state curve for moisture dependent grade. For moisture
independent grades, RH field is not filled.
The comment of the file is automatically filled with From MDC interface version [version], exported on
[exportDate], issued on [producerDate], where [] values are obtained from xml file content. The norm is set
to ISO_527 and the test condition field is filled with Campus standard.. The strain rate is set to the mean
strain rate obtained using Campus testing standard, i.e., 7.5E-4 s-1 .
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Digimat-MX
VI.7.3
Interfaces
Matereality
Digimat-MX offers the possibility to get experimental data from Matereality via its Digimat interface.
Export data from Matereality database
First, go to Matereality website www.matereality.com and log in. Then, select the Global Data Center, your
workgroup or your own database depending on which data you want to export. Then select Digimat interface
as CAE Modeler. Once data have been located, select them and Digimat Calibration as shown in Figure VI.7.4
opens up. By clicking on Start conversion, information about fillers and orientation is requested to the user
as shown on Figure VI.7.5. Finally, click on Download to export the data as a xml file.
Figure VI.7.4: Matereality Digimat Interface Start conversion
VI.7.3. Matereality
625
Figure VI.7.5: Matereality Digimat Interface Information Request
Import data from Matereality database into Digimat-MX
If not yet done, first, export data to be imported from Materieality Digimat interface. Then use the DigimatMX tools ("Import") to directly import the optained data file into Digimat-MX (see subsection VI.2.7). In
this tool, under "Database entries" the option Matereality must be chosen.
Then, the path of the xml file to import is entered in the file field. Finally, the experimental stress-strain curves
contained in xml file are checked when clicking on Import button. For each curve, the user may confirm or
not its import in the Import window. Import window as shown on Figure VI.7.6 displays information extracted
from xml file. The user may modify the information or complete missing information before importing the file
by clicking on Import button. By clicking on skip, the user chose to not import the curve. This may be useful
if the user does not want to import all curves contained in xml file.
Only Stress-strain curves are imported into Digimat-MX database.
If a grade with the same tradename already exists, the material information is filled in with information
corresponding to the grade existing in the database. If it is different from the information extracted from the
xml file, a warning message is appended at the bottom of the window. The user may then decide to edit the
trade name and associated information to have information in agreement with xml file content.
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Digimat-MX
Interfaces
Figure VI.7.6: Import window to confirm import of data.
Digimat-MX VI.8
Reverse Engineering
VI.8.1
Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Digimat-MX Reverse Engineering basics . . .
Digimat-MX Reverse Engineering capabilities
Uniqueness of the solution . . . . . . . . . . .
Result post-processing . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.8.2
Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Direct identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Iterative identification . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.8.3
Direct Tensile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Direct Tensile principle . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Optimization problem formulation . . . . . . .
Optimization method . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.8.4
Temperature Dependence . . . . . . . . .
Temperature dependence principles . . . . . .
VI.8.5
Virtual Relaxation . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.8.6
Aspect ratio reverse engineering . . . . . .
Aspect ratio as a CDV . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.8.7
Failure criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Failure Criterion Design Variables . . . . . . .
Reverse Engineering Procedure . . . . . . . .
VI.8.8
Strength objective . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Strength objective computation . . . . . . . .
VI.8.9
Strain limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Strain limit definition . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VI.8.10 Microstructure Surdefinition . . . . . . . .
Microstructure specification . . . . . . . . . .
VI.8.11 Output optimization . . . . . . . . . . . .
OUTPUT section modification . . . . . . . .
VI.8.12 Reverse engineering report . . . . . . . . .
Reverse engineering report content . . . . . .
627
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Digimat-MX
VI.8.1
Reverse Engineering
Basics
Reverse engineering (RE) is an iterative optimization process aiming at finding the optimal values of design
variables (e.g., material law parameters) which minimize the differences between model prediction(s) and
experimental measurement(s). To minimize the differences, an optimization algorithm is used. Therefore,
when doing a reverse engineering analysis, the first step is to formulate the optimization problem and then to
choose the optimization algorithm to solve it.
Digimat-MX Reverse Engineering basics
Digimat-MX reverse engineering aims at finding model parameters that will minimize the difference between
the Digimat Analysis and experimental results. Hence, starting from a complete Digimat Analysis, DigimatMX iterates over model parameters that are defined as Continuous Design Variables to get a good match
between Digimat-MF results and experimental ones where Digimat Analysis is modified to take into account
some loading parameters. Digimat Analysis is also modified to efficiently use the OUTPUT section as explained
in Section VI.8.11.
Continuous Design Variables
Design variables are those variables which are modified for the purposes of computing an optimal design.
These variables may be continuous (real-valued) or discrete (integer-valued). Digmat-MX only considers Continuous Design Variables (CDV). This is the most common type of design variables encountered in engineering
applications are of the continuous type. These variables may assume any real value (e.g., 12.34, -1.735e+07)
within their bounds. CDVs values are modified by using an optimization method from DAKOTA to find the
minimum of the objective function.
Loading parameters
As previously explained, Digimat-MX reverse engineering is based on a Digimat Analysis. However, some parameters of the analysis can be modified automatically so that the analysis is comparable to the experimental
conditions. For each experimental curve, a Digimat-MF analysis is carried out. The corresponding Digimat Analysis file is updated so that the loading conditions correspond as much as possible to the experimental
ones.
Digimat-MX Reverse Engineering capabilities
Digimat-MX provides out-of-the-box solution to reverse engineer the model parameters of one phase material:
The Direct Tensile explained in Section VI.8.3 method is the basic reverse engineering method.
The Virtual Relaxation explained in Section VI.8.5 method provides a specific method for viscoelastic
material model parameter determination.
The temperature dependence in Section VI.8.4 method allows the determination of the temperature
dependence of material model parameters.
VI.8.1. Basics
629
Moreover, the aspect ratio can also be reverse engineering, separately or in conjunction with material model
parameters as explained in Section VI.8.6.
Once the material behavior is correctly modeled, failure criterion can be reverse engineering as explained in
Section VI.8.7.
Uniqueness of the solution
The solution obtained from a Reverse engineering is not unique. It is the solution of the optimization problem
but depending on your optimization problem you may find different solutions. Modifying the ranges of your
CDVs may change the results. The reverse engineered material law parameters also depend upon the hypotheses
inherent to the Digimat Analysis. For example, reverse engineered parameters will be different if you modify
the homogenization order. Never forget that reverse engineering is based on modeling. If your model is false,
reverse engineering may find parameters that fit your experimental data but this does not prove the correctness
of your model. For example, if you fit an elasto-plastic model on elastic experimental data, you will find a
solution but this is a non-sense problem. The bottom line is that reverse engineering is a nice tool but it is
YOUR job to make sure that obtained model make sense.
Result post-processing
Reverse engineered parameters are the continuous design variables which minimize the global error estimator.
The result of the reverse engineering can be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed. By plotting the reference
and computed curves and comparing them, a qualitative check of the results is made. The quantitative assessment is performed via the numeric values of the global error estimator and error estimator(s) corresponding
to each reference curve. Note that due to the optimization problem formulation, it is possible to find different
sets of continuous design variables that give the same qualitative results but different quantitative results. The
reverse engineering report gives both quantitative and qualitative results.
630
Digimat-MX
VI.8.2
Reverse Engineering
Identification
Digimat-MX identification aims at finding material law parameters of a homogeneous material that will minimize the difference between the strain-stress curve obtained by the homogeneous Digimat Material and
experimental results. Depending on the material model, the identification strategy is different:
Direct identification
Iterative identification
Direct identification
Direct identification is when material law parameters are identified on the experimental curve without running
any Digimat-MF analysis in background. It can only be performed for isotropic elastic models.
The linear part of the experimental curve is identified by using an ordinary linear regression. Knowing that the
slope A of the line with point (0,0) which minimizes the least square error
n
i=0
(Axi yi )
(VI.8.1)
of a given set of n data points (x i ,y i ) is given by
qn
xi yi
A = qi=0
n
2 .
i=0 xi
(VI.8.2)
The elastic part of an experimental curve is determined as follows:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Elastic tolerance is specified. Its default value is 0.002.

n=1
The slope An of the n first points of the experimental curve is computed.
Residual strain e n is defined as (x n -y n )/An
If e n is smaller than the elastic tolerance, n=n+1 and go to point 2.
Else, point (x n ,y n ) is the limit of the elastic part of the experimental curve and An is the identified
Youngs modulus for the specified elastic tolerance.
Iterative identification
In iterative identification, Digimat-MX iterates over material law parameters to get a good match between
Digimat results and experimental ones. Basically, iterative identification is the same as reverse engineering
except that is done on a homogeneous material.
In practice, starting from a Digimat Material, a homogeneous Digimat Analysis will be defined and a reverse
engineering analysis is performed using that homogeneous Digimat Analysis. Since the Digimat Analysis is
homogeneous in iterative identification and the available material models are isotropic, the loading angle
relative to targeted experimental data will not be considered as a reverse engineering loading parameter. The
VI.8.2. Identification
631
type of the grade of the targeted experimental data also will not be taken into account as by default in
identification the analysis is homogeneous. Strain rate and peak strain will still be used as in classical reverse
engineering analysis.
Iterative identification is available for the following material models:
J2 -plasticity
J2 -viscoplasticity
Viscoelastic assuming an independence of Poissons ratio on strain rate.
Moreover when the modified spectral isotropic extraction method is used, the plastic strain multiplier can also
be identified.
632
Digimat-MX
VI.8.3
Reverse Engineering
Direct Tensile
Digimat-MX direct tensile reverse engineering aims at finding material law parameters of one material that will
minimize the difference between the tensile strain-stress curves obtained by Digimat Analysis and experimental
results. Hence, starting from a complete Digimat Analysis, Digimat-MX iterates over material law parameters
to get a good match between Digimat-MF results and experimental ones.
Direct Tensile principle
Figure VI.8.1 illustrates a classical direct tensile reverse engineering application in Digimat-MX. An experimental tensile strain-stress curve of a 2-phase composite is available. The inclusion material behavior of the
composite is well known and the microstructure of the composite has been characterized. Hence, the remaining
unknown in your Digimat Analysis is the matrix material behavior. Once the material model of your matrix
selected, its parameters will be reverse engineered so that Digimat Analysis tensile strain-stress curve matches
the experimental one.
Material models
Digimat-MX provides out-of-the-box solution to reverse engineer the parameters of the following material
models available in Digimat-MF:
Isotropic elastic
J2 -plasticity model
J2 -viscoplasticity model
Viscoelastic assuming an independence of Poissons ratio on strain rate.
More over when the modified spectral isotropic extraction method is used, the plastic strain multiplier can
also be reverse engineered.
The aspect ratio of the inclusion phase might be added to the reverse engineering problem as explained in
Section VI.8.6.
Experimental data
Reverse engineering can be based on several experimental curves, i.e., Digimat-MX will target several experimental curves at the same time. The inherent optimization problem will thus become a multi-objective
optimization problem. The more experimental curves, the more determined will be the inherent optimization
problem. If your model is adequate, reverse engineering should converge to a valuable solution. Here are
some ways to improve the completeness and quality of a reverse engineering problem by providing several
experimental curves:
When reverse engineering the parameters of strain rate dependent material model, provide several curves
at different strain rates.
When reverse engineering the parameters of a material which is a constituent of a composite whose
inclusion orientation is defined using orientation tensors, provide several curves at different loading
angles. Make use of microstructure surdefinition explained in Section VI.8.10 if required.
VI.8.3. Direct Tensile
633
Figure VI.8.1: Digimat-MX Reverse Engineering principle.
When reverse engineering the parameters of the matrix material law of a composite, provide also the
experimental behavior of the homogeneous material corresponding to the matrix. By using different
objective function weights, you can put less importance to the homogeneous material to take into
account that the in-situ matrix material does not exactly behave as its bulk homogeneous form.
When required by the problem, do not hesitate to mix the different kinds of experimental curves. For example, if
youre working on the reverse engineering of elasto-viscoplastic model parameters of the matrix of a composite
whose micro-structure is modeled with orientation tensors, you should provide curves at different strain rates
for the matrix material and composite, and at different loading angles for the composite.
Optimization problem formulation
634
Digimat-MX
Reverse Engineering
Optimization problem formulation consists in mathematically expressing the quantity thats to minimized, this
quantity is hereafter called the error estimator. When fitting a curve to a reference curve, the aim is to
minimize the difference between these two curves. If the reference curve is defined as a set of n (X r ,Y r )
points, the error estimator is defined as the relative error between the reference and computed curves:
qn
2
(Yc (i)/Yr (i) 1)
(VI.8.3)
e = i=1
n
where Y c (i) is the interpolated value of Y-ordinate of the computed curve at X-ordinate equals to X r (i).
If Y r (i)=0, the corresponding term in the sum is replaced by the absolute error:
When several reference curves (lets say m curves) are provided, the optimization problem becomes a multiobjective optimization problem. This multi-objective optimization problem is transformed to a single objective
problem by using objective function weights, w j . The global error estimator is then defined as the weighted
sum of the error estimators:
e=
wj ej
(VI.8.4)
j=1
The objective function weight can be equal to whatever you want. By tuning their relative importance, you
can give more or less importance to some experimental curves.
Continuous Design Variables
In Direct Tensile method, CDVs are relative to material law parameters. Digimat-MF material law parameter
keywords that can be defined as a CDV in Digimat-MX are the following:
Young
Poisson
yield_stress
hardening_modulus
hardening_exponent
hardening_modulus2
plastic_strain_multiplier
creep_coefficient
creep_exponent
creep_coefficient2
initial_shear
shear_relaxation_time
shear_weight
Viscoelastic CDVs
Note that for isotropic viscoelastic model parameters, only keywords relative to the shear are recognized. This
is due to the assumption of Poissons ratio independence upon the viscous effects. This means that only
Youngs modulus is strain rate dependent. Hence, the bulk modulus is proportional to the shear modulus at
any time of a relaxation test. The relaxation time and weight pairs are thus the same for the bulk and shear
moduli and the initial bulk modulus K o is computed from the initial shear modulus G o and Poissons ratio
as follows:
2(1 + )
Ko
=
(VI.8.5)
Go
3(1 2)
The number of Pronys series terms has to be specified and cannot be considered as a CDV. Note that it is
limited to 4 in Digimat-MX GUI. Poissons ratio cannot be a CDV. It is a fixed value that is defined by the
user or extracted from the ratio of the initial bulk and shear moduli of the starting Digimat Analysis.
Note that if the sum of the Prony series terms weights is not smaller than 1, Digmat-MF analysis is not run
and the error estimator is set to 1e15 times the sum.
VI.8.3. Direct Tensile
635
Loading parameters
As previously explained, Digimat-MX reverse engineering is based on a Digimat Analysis. However, some parameters of the analysis can be modified automatically so that the analysis is comparable to the experimental
conditions. For each experimental curve, a Digimat-MF analysis is carried out. The corresponding Digimat Analysis file is updated so that the loading conditions correspond as much as possible to the experimental
ones.
The first parameter thats automatically adapted to the experimental curve is the peak strain. If a strain
limit (see Section VI.8.9) is not specified, the peak strain is set to the last point strain. There is no
reason to compute points that cannot be compared to experimental ones. When reverse engineering
viscoelastic material law parameters, the peak strain is set to the value identified from the experimental
curve as the elastic strain so that only the linear part of the experimental curve is compared with the
computed curve.
The final time is also modified so that the ratio of the peak strain over the final time is equal to the
strain rate of the experimental data.
If the loading angle of the experimental data is different from 0, all orientation tensors and fixed orientation are rotated by the loading angle.
If the experimental data are relative to a grade defined as homogeneous, the homogenization is set to
off and the computed strain-stress curve will represent the behavior of the matrix material.
Optimization method
Optimization method used in Digimat-MX is the DIRECT method from the COLINY methods available in
DAKOTA.
The DIviding RECTangles (DIRECT) optimization algorithm is a derivative free global optimization method
that balances local search in promising regions of the design space with global search in unexplored regions. As
shown in Figure VI.8.2, DIRECT adaptively subdivides the space of feasible design points so as to guarantee
that iterates are generated in the neighborhood of a global minimum in finitely many iterations.
In practice, DIRECT has proven an effective heuristic for engineering design applications, for which it is able
to quickly identify candidate solutions that can be further refined with fast local optimizers.
First, the design space has to be defined. This is done by specifying a search range for each CDV. Each
CDV search space is bounded by a lower bound and upper bound. In Digimat-MX, DIRECT simultaneously
subdivides each subregion of the search space in all dimensions until one of the following criteria is satisfied:
If the number of evaluations is larger than the parameter specified for the maximum function evaluations. Each time the global error estimator is computed is considered as a function evaluation. By
default, the maximum number of function evaluations is set 1000.
Each subregion considered by DIRECT has a size, which corresponds to the longest diagonal of the
subregion. If the size of the smallest subregion falls below the threshold defined as the minimum box
size. In practice, this latter specification is likely to be more effective at limiting DIRECTs search. The
default value for that threshold is 0.01 times the size of the design space.
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Figure VI.8.2: Design space partitioning with DIRECT.
VI.8.4. Temperature Dependence
VI.8.4
637
Temperature Dependence
Digimat-MF allows to model material whose properties depend on the temperature. From stress-strain curves
at different temperatures, Digimat-MX reverse engineers material properties at each temperature and hence,
returns a temperature dependent model of the material behavior.
The Temperature Dependence reverse engineering is detailed in the following sections.
Temperature dependence principles
When reverse engineering mode is set to temperature dependence, Digimat-MX returns a set of material
properties for each experimental temperature and writes a thermal dependent Digimat Analysis based on these
reverse engineered properties.
Temperature dependence mode is available for the following J2 -plasticity material models:
elasto-plasticity,
elasto-viscoplasticity,
thermo-elasto-plasticity,
thermo-elasto-viscoplasticity.
The parameters that can be considered as CDVs are the same as for the classical material model reverse
engineering.
First, the experimental data are classified by temperature in increasing order. For each temperature, a classical
material model reverse engineering is carried out with some additional steps if the starting Digimat analysis is
a thermo-mechanical one. In that case, the thermal loading will be changed to a constant temperature loading
with the temperature equal to the considered experimental temperature. If in the starting Digimat analysis,
a parameter that is considered as a CDV was defined using a thermo-dependent function, this function is
commented out. Note that existing thermo-dependent functions are not commented out if they are not
relative to parameters considered as CDVs.
Once all reverse engineering analyses are completed, the thermo-dependent function of each CDV is written
in the Digimat Analysis to be stored in the database.
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Digimat-MX
VI.8.5
Reverse Engineering
Virtual Relaxation
Viscoelastic behavior is modeled using Prony series (see Section IV.6.8). Creep and relaxation tests are
most commonly used to characterize the viscoelastic material properties and there exist numerous methods for
determining the Prony series coefficients from these experimental data. However, most of the time, viscoelastic
behavior of a composite is highlighted when tensile tests exhibit a strain-rate dependent tensile modulus. Using
the direct tensile method explained in Section VI.8.3, it is very difficult to specify a priori adequate ranges
for Prony series coefficients. This is why the virtual relaxation method has been developed. The basic idea
of this method is to first identify an equivalent homogeneous viscoelastic material based on tensile curves at
different strain rates and then, to use this material to perform a virtual relaxation test on which Prony series
coefficients of the matrix will be reverse engineered.
Theory
Identification of an equivalent isotropic homogeneous material

Based on the stress-strain curves at different strain rates, an isotropic homogeneous material is first identified.
For a linear viscoelastic material, since the stress is linearly related to strain, the stress history ij (t) resulting
from an arbitrary strain history ij (t) can be computed by appropriately superposing the step response:
ij (t) =
4
t
1
2G(t ) ij kk ij d +
K(t )kk d
3
0
3
(VI.8.6)
where G and K are the shear and bulk modulus.

By assuming that Poissons ratio is strain rate independent as in the Direct tensile method, bulk modulus over
shear modulus ratio is time independent (see Viscoelastic CDVs for more information). Under this assumption,
the material behavior is described by its Poissons ratio and its Youngs modulus which is expressed by a Prony
series:
C
E(t) = Eo 1
i=1
wi 1 e
(VI.8.7)
where E o is the initial Youngs modulus, w i and i are the relaxation weight and time of the ith Prony series
term and n is the number of Prony series terms.
If the tensile test is carried out at a constant strain rate, the time evolution of the tensile stress becomes:
11 (t) = Eo 11
CA
i=1
wi
t+
i=1
wi i 1 e
(VI.8.8)
According to this equation, the tensile stress-strain curve is a straight line when:
Time t is negligible with respect to all relaxation times. Thus, at high strain rates, Youngs modulus
tends to its initial value, E o.
Time t is large compare to all relaxation times. At low strain rates, Youngs modulus tends to its
quasi-static value:
VI.8.5. Virtual Relaxation
639
Eend = Eo
wi
i=1
(VI.8.9)
Based on these equations, an identification procedure is employed to determine Youngs modulus Prony series
relaxation times and weights based on stress-strain curves at different constant strain rate.
Note that Poissons ratio cannot be identified from stress-strain curves in one direction. It is therefore an
input parameter.
The identification process begins with the identification of the quasi-static and initial Youngs modulus:
1. The elastic domain of each curve is identified using the elastic direct identification method explained in
Section VI.8.2.
2. Then, the elastic domain, i.e., points of the curve whose strain is smaller than the elastic strain limit, is
extracted from the experimental curves. For each curve, nexp experimental points, equally spaced in
strain, are extracted. By extracting a fixed number of points, we ensure that each experimental curve
provides the same amount of information into the optimization problem.
3. The initial Youngs modulus is identified from the stress-strain curve at the highest strain rate. The
equivalent homogeneous initial Youngs modulus is taken as the tangent of the highest strain rate stressstrain curve at point (0,0) multiplied by a factor larger than 1, the Initial Tensile Modulus Factor.
4. The quasi-static Youngs modulus is identified from the stress-strain curve at the lowest strain rate.
The equivalent homogeneous quasi-static Youngs modulus is taken as the tangent of the lowest strain
rate stress-strain curve at point (0,0) multiplied by a factor smaller than 1, the Quasi-static Tensile
Modulus Factor.
5. Once E o and E end are determined, the sum of the relaxation weights is known since it is given by
i=1
wi = 1
Eend
Eo
(VI.8.10)
First, we will discuss on the number of Prony series terms, n, that can be identified with a good confidence.
A good rule of thumb should be to have one Prony series term per stress-strain curves. If Eend has been directly
identified on the lowest strain rate curve, i.e., Quasi-static Tensile Modulus Factor equals 1, this curve is
no more available to identify Prony series terms. If E0 has been directly identified on the highest strain rate
curve, i.e., Initial Tensile Modulus Factor equals 1, this curve has also to be removed from the curves to
identify Prony series terms.
Then, an optimization problem is formulated to find the relaxation times and weights. The aim is, for each
tensile curve, to minimize the difference between the experimental stress and the stress at the experimental strain computed using the time evolution of the tensile stress where time t is obtained by dividing the
experimental strain by the strain rate. The optimization problem is thus formulated as follows:
minW,
2
qncurve qniexp 1 (exp
,W, )jexp 2
j
j=1
i=1
jexp
with
qn
i=1
wi = 1
(VI.8.11)
Eend
Eo
It is solved by using a least mean square method solved by a Gauss-Newton algorithm.

Since Gauss-Newton finds a local solution, the starting point has to be correctly chosen. Moreover, this
method also supports lower and upper bounds. A good strategy to find starting points and hence, ranges that
lead to a global minimum is to determine for each curve its main relaxation time, i.e., the relaxation time
that would give the same computed and experimental stresses at the end of the curve if the material was
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Reverse Engineering
modeled by a one term Prony series. To find the main relaxation time corresponding to experimental curve j,
the following equation has to be solved:
Eo 11
C3
Eend
Eo
texp,j
last
Eend
+ 1
Eo
1e
exp,j
t
last
j
BD
exp,j
= last
(VI.8.12)
This equation is solved by using a minimization procedure for each experimental curve. The starting points of
the relaxation times are the solutions of above equations. The lower and upper bound of the relaxation
times are set so that the ranges cannot overlap.
The relaxation weights can also be approximated for each curve but it does not significantly reduces the
computation time and more importantly, it does not affect the response and their ranges are easy to approximate
since the relaxation weights have to be between 0 and 1. The lower and upper bounds of the relaxation
weights are thus set to 0 and 1. The most important point about the relaxation weights is that their sum is
known and constitutes a constraint for the optimization problem. Note that if the constraint is given as an
equality constraint the optimizer targets solutions that strictly satisfy the constraint. This is why the equality
constraint is replaced by the following inequality constraint:
n
Eend
wi 1
tol
Eo
i=1
tol
(VI.8.13)
where tol is set to 1E-5. The starting points of the relaxation weights are all equal to their sum divided
by the number of Prony series terms.
Gauss-Newton method is a gradient based method. The derivatives of the stress with respect to the relaxation
time and weight are analytically computed:
5
6
t tj
d
t
j
e
= Eo 11 wj 1 e
dwj
j
(VI.8.14)
1
2
d
t
= Eo 11 t + j 1 e j
dwj
(VI.8.15)
as well as those of the constraint which are equal to one with respect to the relaxation weight and 0 with
respect to the relaxation time.
Finally, the equivalent isotropic homogeneous viscoelastic material is used to carry out the tensile test corresponding to the experimental data. If the difference between the computed and experimental curves is larger
than the Equivalent Homogeneous Tolerance, the reverse engineering process stops. Else, the reverse
engineering of matrix parameters based on virtual relaxation data begins.
Reverse Engineering of matrix parameters based on a relaxation test
A virtual relaxation test is carried with the equivalent homogeneous material, giving the target curve of the
time evolution of Youngs modulus. To do so, a constant strain of 0.02 is applied.
The relaxation times of the matrix material and the equivalent homogeneous material are considered to be
the same since the virtual relaxation method is only valid for composite whose inclusion properties do not
vary with time. The initial Youngs modulus, Eo of the matrix is determined from an iterative process. It
is varied until the initial Youngs modulus given by Digimat-MF for the composite is equal to the equivalent
homogeneous initial Youngs modulus for a given virtual relaxation test.
At this point, the relaxation weights are the only unknowns that need to be fitted. For each Prony series term,
a virtual relaxation test is carried out with the equivalent homogeneous material to have points spanning from
one decade before to one decade after the considered relaxation time. For example, if the relaxation time is
equal to 1E-3 s, the final time should be at least 1E-2 s and the minimal time step should be smaller than
1E-4 s. The same loading is applied to the composite material and the relaxation weights are tuned to fit
VI.8.5. Virtual Relaxation
641
the evolution of the Youngs modulus with respect to time where the time evolution of Youngs modulus is
expressed in a log time scale. The optimization problem is multi-objective since there is one objective function
per Prony series term. All objective functions have the same weight. The objective functions are the relative
error between the reference and computed Youngs modulus time variation corresponding to each relaxation
time. The optimization problem is solved using the forward difference Gauss-Newtown algorithm which leads
to a local optimum. The starting points are the relaxation weights of the equivalent homogeneous material
multiplied by a correction factor:
f=
Eoh
Eom
(VI.8.16)
where superscripts m and h refers to the matrix and equivalent homogeneous material, respectively. The
gradients are numerically computed using a forward difference scheme with a default relative step of 1E-3.
Finally, the reverse engineered matrix material is used to perform tensile tests corresponding to the experimental
data. The sum of the differences between the computed and the experimental curves is the global objective
function.
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Digimat-MX
VI.8.6
Reverse Engineering
Aspect ratio reverse engineering
Digimat-MX provides an out-of-the-box solution to reverse engineer the aspect ratio of the first active inclusion
phase based on tensile stress-strain performed on a composite material.
Aspect ratio as a CDV
The aspect ratio can be reverse engineered alone or at the same time as the material parameters even if they
correspond to the matrix phase. The aspect ratio of the first active inclusion phase is listed in the Parameters
tab when Material reverse engineering has been activated. Then, you have to specify its lower and upper limits
as for material model CDVs. The aspect ratio CDV is handled as any other material model parameter CDV.
VI.8.7. Failure criterion
VI.8.7
643
Failure criterion
Failure can be modeled using various failure criteria in Digimat-MF. This section explains how from experimental tensile break points, Digimat-MX determines the strengths of one failure criterion so that DigimatMF analysis gives failure points corresponding to experimental ones.
Failure Criterion Design Variables
Digimat-MX provides out-of-the-box solutions to reverse engineer the parameters of the following failure criteria
available in Digimat-MF:
Maximum stress
Maximum strain
Tsai-Hill 2D
Tsai-Hill 2D in strain
Tsai-Wu 2D
Tsai-Wu 2D in strain
Azzi-Tsai-Hill 2D
Hashin Rotem 2D
Hashin 2D
Tsai-Hill 3D transversely isotropic
Tsai-Hill 3D transversely isotropic in strain
Since only tensile break points can be specified as experimental data, some assumptions are made about
compressive and shear strengths. For each failure criterion, the strengths that can be considered as a continuous
design variable (CDV) are listed hereafter.
Maximum stress
The arguments of the maximum stress failure criterion are the component of the stress tensor used in the
indicators, the tensile and compressive strengths. It is assumed that the compressive strength is equal to the
tensile strength. There is thus one CDV per component: the tensile strength.
Tensile failure at different loading angles may be caused by three components in the local axis system: 11, 22
and 12.
Maximum strain
The arguments of the maximum strain failure criterion are the component of the strain tensor used in the
indicators, the tensile and compressive strengths. It is assumed that the compressive strength is equal to the
tensile strength. There is thus one CDV per component: the tensile strength.
Tensile failure at different loading angles may be caused by three components in the local axis system: 11, 22
and 12.
Tsai-Hill 2D
Tsai-Hill 2D failure criterion has five arguments. By assuming that the compressive strengths are equal to
the tensile strengths, this failure criterion has three CDVs: the axial and in-plane tensile strengths and the
transverse shear strength.
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Tsai-Hill 2D in strain
Tsai-Hill 2D failure criterion has five arguments. By assuming that the compressive strengths are equal to
the tensile strengths, this failure criterion has three CDVs: the axial and in-plane tensile strengths and the
Tsai-Wu 2D
Tsai-Wu 2D failure criterion has six arguments. By assuming that the compressive strengths are equal to the
tensile strengths, Tsai-Wu 2D failure indicator becomes:
fA =
2
2
2
11
22
12
+
+
+ 2F 11 22
X2
Y2
S2
(VI.8.17)
By assuming that the failure criterion is a von Mises criterion, the axial/in-plane strength, F, is expressed in
terms of the tensile and compressive strengths as follows:
1
F =
2 Xt Xc Yc YT
(VI.8.18)
which becomes
F =
1
2XY
(VI.8.19)
Tsai-Wu 2D criterion has thus three CDVs: the axial and in-plane tensile strengths and the transverse shear
strength.
Tsai-Wu 2D in strain
Based on the same assumptions as the Tsai-Wu 2D failure criterion expressed in stress, Tsai-Wu 2D criterion
expressed in strain has three CDVs: the axial and in-plane tensile strengths and the transverse shear strength.
Azzi-Tsai-Hill 2D
Azzi-Tsai-Hill 2D failure criterion has five arguments. By assuming that the compressive strengths are equal
to the tensile strengths, this failure criterion has three CDVs: the axial and in-plane tensile strengths and the
Hashin Rotem 2D
Hashin-Rotem 2D failure criterion has five arguments. By assuming that the compressive strengths are equal
to the tensile strengths, this failure criterion has three CDVs: the axial and in-plane tensile strengths and the
Hashin 2D
Hashin 2D failure criterion has six arguments. By assuming that the compressive strengths are equal to the
tensile strengths and that the in-plane shear strength is equal to transverse one, this failure criterion has three
CDVs: the axial and in-plane tensile strengths and the transverse shear strength.
645
Tsai-Hill 3D transversely isotropic

Tsai-Hill 3D transversely isotropic failure criterion has three arguments. By assuming that the compressive
strengths are equal to the tensile strengths, this failure criterion has three CDVs: the axial (X) and in-plane
(Y) tensile strengths and the transverse shear strength (S). To be valid, the parameters X and Y must satisfy
the relation: Y < 2X. This relation ensure that the material failure surface is forming a closed envelope.
Tsai-Hill 3D transversely isotropic in strain
Tsai-Hill 3D transversely isotropic strain-based failure criterion has three arguments. By assuming that the
compressive strains are equal to the tensile strains, this failure criterion has three CDVs: the axial (X) and
in-plane (Y) maximum strains and the transverse shear strain (S). To be valid, the parameters X and Y
must satisfy the relation: Y < 2X. This relation ensure that the material failure surface is forming a closed
envelope.
Reverse Engineering Procedure
The aim of failure criterion reverse engineering is to determine the strengths of one failure criterion based on
tensile break curves performed on the composite material with different loading angles. To do so, two different
methods are available:
Adding a new failure criterion whose parameters are identified
Varying the strengths of a given failure criterion
Note that the failure criterion reverse engineering assumes that the material response matches the experimental
data. If it is not the case, it is recommended to first, reverse engineer material parameters. Before beginning
the failure criterion reverse engineering process, Digimat-MX checks the quality of the material response with
respect to the experimental stress-strain curves. A Digimat-MF analysis is performed for each experimental
curve and the material objective function is computed. If the global objective function of the fit between
the computed and experimental strain-stress curves is larger than the Correlation check, the failure criterion
reverse engineering will abort.
Failure criterion strength identification
Failure criterion strengths are identified based on experimental tensile failure points at different loading angles.
Since Digimat-MX rotates inclusion phases by the loading angle in Digimat-MF analysis to compare modeled
and experimental data, the axis system in which the stress (strain) components are expressed to compute the
failure indicator is the local one. Therefore, failure criterion reverse engineering is only available for 2-phase
composites.
First, the assignment level is specified by the user among the following levels:
Composite level,
Matrix material level,
Inclusion material level.
The failure criterion is also specified by the user among those supported.
Then, for each experimental failure point, a Digimat-MF analysis is performed where the inclusions are rotated
by the corresponding loading angle and the strain peak is set to the corresponding failure strain. Depending
on the assignment level, the corresponding result file is read and the stress (strain) state corresponding to
the experimental failure strain is extracted. These stress (strain) components, once expressed in the local
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Digimat-MX
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axis system, are those for which the failure indicator should reach its critical value. This means that each
experimental failure point gives one equation with the CDVs as unknowns. However, it is not because you have
as many experimental failure points as CDVs that your problem is correctly defined. Indeed, if all experimental
failure points are due to stress (strain) component 11, they will only characterize one CDV: the tensile strength.
Therefore, the problem is correctly defined, if for each CDV, there is a failure point due to the corresponding
stress (strain) component. Basically, each CDV can be associated to one stress (strain) component:
The axial tensile strength is linked to component 11,
The in-plane tensile strength is linked to component 22,
The transverse shear strength is linked to component 12.
Based on these facts, Digimat-MX automatically selects the CDVs. For each experimental failure point, the
direction of the dominant stress (strain) component is determined and its associated CDV is added to the
optimization problem and its starting value is set to the stress (strain) component value. Remaining CDVs,
if any, are set to a default value of 1E12 multiplied by the maximum over all failure points of the associated
stress (strain) component if it is larger than 1. Then, a local optimization solver is used to find CDVs that
gives failure indicators equal to 1. For each experimental point, the objective function is the square of the
difference of failure indicator value and one.
Using the results of the optimization, the obtained failure indicator section is added to Digimat analysis file.
For each experimental failure point, a Digimat-MF analysis is performed where the inclusions are rotated by
the corresponding loading angle and the strain peak is set to 1.1 times the corresponding failure strain. The
strength objective detailed in Section VI.8.8 is then returned as final result.
Failure criterion strength reverse engineering
With this method, strength CDVs are iteratively varied within ranges specified by the user to minimize the
strength objective (see Section VI.8.8) for each experimental failure points using DIRECT method.
First, if there are several failure indicators in the starting Digimat Analysis, the user has to specify which one
is to be reverse engineered. All the other failure indicators will be removed. Then, the range for each CDV
has to be specified by the user.
Since Digimat-MX rotates inclusion phases by the loading angle in Digimat-MF analysis to compare modeled
and experimental data, the axis system in which the stress (strain) components are expressed to compute
the failure indicator is the local one. If the selected failure indicator is expressed in another axis system,
Digimat-MX will automatically change it.
When the selected failure indicator is applied using the First Pseudo-Grain Failure (FPGF) model (see Section
IV.9.4), there are two more parameters that influence the failure mechanism, the failure initiator either PGA
or PGC and its critical value.
Recommended value for the critical fraction of failed pseudo grains is around 0.8 and around 0.95 for the
critical mean failure indicator value. Contrarily to PGA, PGC will propose a continuous evolution of the best
solution with the change of its critical value.
Reverse engineering for Tsai-Hill 3D transversely isotropic
Tsai-Hill 3D transversely isotropic failure indicator reverse engineering is possible. In the case of this failure
indicator, the reverse engineering is followed by a post analysis. The objective of this post analysis is to study
the sensibility of strength with respect to the fiber orientation and different loadings. To perform this post
analysis, a new material is built from the material obtained at the end of the reverse engineering process by
replacing the original orientation tensor by different specific orientation tensors. In a case of a multilayer, the
RVE is modified in order to get a single layer with a perfectly aligned tensor.
For the tensile test, four cases are calculated:
Along represented by an orientation tensor a11=1.00, a22=0.00 and a33=0.00
647
Transverse represented by an orientation tensor a11=0.00, a22=0.00 and a33=1.00

ISO527 represented by an orientation tensor a11=0.80, a22=0.15 and a33=0.05
Random2D represented by an orientation tensor a11=0.50, a22=0.50 and a33=0.00
Random3D represented by an orientation tensor a11=0.33, a22=0.33 and a33=0.33
For the shear test, the orientation tensor is aligned(a11=1,a22=0,a33=0) and 2 loadings are defined:
Longitudinal shear (a shear stress in the (1,2)-plane or (1,3)-plane).
Transverse shear (a shear stress in the (2,3)-plane).
The strain-stress curves for these loadings are displayed in 2 new sub-tabs in the Parameters tab of the Reverse
engineering window. The first called Post Processor Tensile displays results for tensile tests and the second
named Post Processor Shear shows results for the shear tests.
The maximum strength, and the corresponding loading, is written in the Analysis log sub-tab in the Parameters
tab of the Reverse engineering window.
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VI.8.8
Reverse Engineering
Strength objective
When reverse engineering failure criterion strengths as explained in Section VI.8.7, the optimization process
minimizes an objective function, called the strength objective.
Strength objective computation
First, the strength objective function has to account for effective failure. The first step in the strength
objective computation is to check that failure effectively occurs, i.e., that the last stress-strain macroscopic
point returned by Digimat-MF is a failure point. In Digimat-MF, there are two kinds of failure indicator output
to check to determine if failure happens. First, if the indicator criterion is assigned using the standard method,
failure happens when one failure indicator reaches its critical value, which by default is automatically set to
one by Digimat-MX. Second, if the indicator criterion is applied using FPGF model, failure happens when
PGA output reaches its critical fraction. The first step in strength objective computation is to compare the
failure indicator output, FI, to its critical failure value, CFV. If failure does not occur, the strength objective
function f is set to its non-failure value:
f = |CF V max(F I)|k
if max(F I) < CF V
(VI.8.20)
where k is the non-failure coefficient equal to 1E6 by default.

If failure happens, the strength objective can be computed using two formulations:
A geometric one based on the relative square distance between the computed and experimental failure
points
An algebraic one based on the algebraic fit of the computed and experimental failure points.
The geometric strength objective f is given by:
22 1
22
exp
comp
exp
comp
f
f
f
f
f=
1
22 1
22
exp
exp
f
+ f
1
if max(F I) CF V
(VI.8.21)
Since stain and stress are not of the same order of magnitude, this objective function will most of the time
gives good results in terms of stress fit but will reduce the importance of strain difference. This objective
function will give poor results if failure occurs on the plastic plateau of an elasto-plastic material.
The algebraic strength objective f gives the same weight to the stress and strain fits:
1
comp
exp
f
f
f=
1
22
exp
f
22
fcomp fexp
+
1
22
fexp
22
if max(F I) CF V
(VI.8.22)
VI.8.9. Strain limit
VI.8.9
649
Strain limit
Digimat-MX allows the specification of a strain limit for each experimental curve in the reverse engineering
analysis.
How the strain limit is taken into account is detailed in the following section.
Strain limit definition
For each experimental stress-strain curve, a upper strain limit can be specified. This is done in Experimental
tab of the reverse engineering analysis definition. By default, the strain limit is set to the last point strain or
the failure strain if it is defined.
For each experimental curve, its reverse engineering objective function is computed for experimental points
whose strain is lower than the strain limit. Digimat-MF analysis strain peak is still set to the last point strain.
This mean that the curve will be computed/plotted up to the last experimental point strain but that the
reverse engineering objective function only compares points whose strain is lower than the strain limit. The
stain limit can be clearly visualized in reverse engineering result plots. Since the strain limit is represented by
a vertical line on the reverse engineering plot as well as in Digimat-MX plot.
650
Digimat-MX
VI.8.10
Reverse Engineering
Microstructure Surdefinition
By default, when performing a reverse engineering over different experimental curves, the microstructure of
the starting Digimat Analysis file is rotated by the loading angle corresponding to each experimental curve.
However, experimental data may be measured on various dumbbells having different microstructures. This is
why Digimat-MX allows the specification of the microstructure per experimental curve.
Microstructure specification
If the microstructure defined in the starting Digimat Analysis file is a classical microstructure composed of
a matrix phase reinforced by one inclusion phase whose orientation is described by an orientation tensor,
the orientation tensor of the inclusion tensor can be specified for each experimental curve. Therefore, the
microstructure surdefinition feature is not available for:
multilayer RVE
classical microstructure with more than 3 phases
2-phase microstructure whose inclusion phase orientation is not defined by an orientation tensor.
For each experimental curve, the orientation tensor can be specified as well as a rotation angle to apply on
that orientation tensor. The example in Subsection XV.5.1 illustrates this feature usage.
VI.8.11. Output optimization
VI.8.11
651
Output optimization
When reverse engineering a multi layer material or even a 2-phase material, a lot of data which are not used
by Digimat-MX are printed out by Digimat-MF. Since Digimat-MF allows the specification of variables to be
printed out via the OUTPUT section. Digimat-MX will write an optimized OUTPUT section when performing
reverse engineering.
How Digimat-MX changes the OUTPUT section of Digimat Analysis to reduce time and disk space usage of
reverse engineering is discussed in the following sections.
OUTPUT section modification
Before changing the OUTPUT section, Digimat-MX checks that Digimat-MF version used for reverse engineering supports that feature. If there already exists an OUTPUT section in the starting Digimat Analysis, it
will be deactivated and replaced by the optimized one during the reverse engineering process. After the reverse
engineering analysis, the optimized OUTPUT will be removed and the previously existing OUTPUT section
will be reset in the result file that will be stored into the database. In other words, the optimized OUTPUT
section is only used during the reverse engineering process and it is not saved into the result file.
Depending on the reverse engineering type, different outputs are requested by the optimized OUTPUT section.
For example, when performing a direct tensile reverse engineering, component 11 of the macroscopic stress
and strain are the only requested outputs. When performing a failure indicator reverse engineering, the failure
indicator output is of interest as well as the stress (strain) components corresponding to the failure indicator
assignment level. In a virtual relaxation reverse engineering, the time variation of component 11 of the
macroscopic stress is also one of the optimized outputs.

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Part VI

Figure VI.1.1: Digimat-MX workflow.

Figure VI.1.2: Digimat-MX schema.

You will find more information

Graphical user interface

Database Connection dialog

Figure VI.2.1: Database Connection Dialog Window.

Database Connection Dialog Description

VI.2.2. Database Tools

Figure VI.2.2: Database Tools Menu Window.

Database(s) window allows to manage accessed database(s) and created database(s).

Graphical user interface

Figure VI.2.3: Accessed databases.

Figure VI.2.4: Created databases.

VI.2.2. Database Tools

Available actions are:

Figure VI.2.5: Who is connected?

Graphical user interface

Figure VI.2.6: A lone user.

Figure VI.2.7: Database creation.

VI.2.2. Database Tools

Figure VI.2.8: Sharing.

Available actions are:

Share sets the sharing status of selected cells to shared.

User(s) and Group(s)

Graphical user interface

Figure VI.2.9: User(s).

Available actions are:

VI.2.2. Database Tools

Figure VI.2.10: User properties.

Figure VI.2.11: Group(s).

Graphical user interface

Figure VI.2.12: Group properties.

Figure VI.2.13: Digimat-MX + main window.

Graphical user interface

These parts are more closely described hereafter.

The "Database" menu contains the following commands:

The "Tools" offers access to the following database tools:

VI.2.4. Menu bar

Delete History to delete all temporary files created by Digimat-MX.

In "Help", submenus are:

The following commands are available:

Graphical user interface

Figure VI.2.14: Quick filter

VI.2.5. Quick filter

Graphical user interface

Main window - how to access data

VI.2.6. Main window - how to access data

Interaction in the GUI

Graphical user interface

VI.2.6. Main window - how to access data

Three actions are available:

Graphical user interface

VI.2.6. Main window - how to access data

Graphical user interface

Digimat Analysis File(s)

The following information fields are associated to a Digimat Analysis File:

VI.2.6. Main window - how to access data

Data Sheet (see Figure VI.2.28)

Graphical user interface

VI.2.6. Main window - how to access data

Figure VI.2.29: Modify allows for changes of the database entry.

Graphical user interface

Figure VI.2.30: Convert allows to change the unit system to another.