Welcomes to Z88

WELCOMES TO Z88 !

Z88 for UNIX and Windows is Freeware and is protected by the GNU General Public License, see next pages.

Z88 is compact and fast and was developed for PCs initially. Today, Z88 runs properly on LINUX and Windows (starting with Windows95) PCs, powerfull UNIX workstations and large vector computers, however. Simple to compile and to install. Handling is simple. Z88 comes with context sensitive online-help and a user- friendly command processor. Successfully proved by some hundreds of commercial installations and countless UNIX- and LINUX installations. For static calculations in mechanical engineering and building & construction industries. Absolutely transparent for the user as input and output are handled by text files.

What makes the new version 11.0 even better than the approved version 10.0 ?
· With the new OpenGL plot program Z88O the Z88 system enters new dimensions. You may illuminate a structure with three different light sources or plot with hidden lines, both the undeflected and the deflected structure. You may plot stresses and X, Y and Z deflections with a color range - like the expensive professional FEA programs. You may plot a limited range of nodal or element numbers - a nice feature especially for large structures. Of course, you may define your choice of colors, the light features and the fonts (for UNIX) in the parameter files Z88O.OGL (for Windows) and Z88.FCD (for UNIX). This is the main new feature in versions 11 but it took very tricky changes in the computations of stresses along with a lot of studies and experiments. The well-known plot program Z88P stays included in the Z88 system - so you have the choice between two plot programs.
· The COSMOS converter can now convert NASTRAN files in addition, however. This is important for the new Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire which does not support COSMOS files any longer.

Z88 has deliberately been designed as a compact and fast system. Thus, its use is restricted to static calculations. Z88 does not want to compete with professional FEA programs for workstation or mainframes which can do really everything, but are hardly payable and complicated to operate. While you are still puzzling about installation and start of some programs of this genre also in the PC class, you have already calculated the first examples with Z88. And the online-help is always only one keystroke or mouse click away. The Z88 system may operate with English or German language depending on your setting (ENGLISH or GERMAN) in the file Z88.DYN.

If you already have FEA experiences, you can start at once. If you are a beginner in this area, i would recommend secondary literature. Here are a few choices:

- Zienkiewicz, O.C.; Taylor, R.L.: The Finite Element Method, Volumes 1-3, 5th edition, Butterworth- Heinemann and John Wiley & Sons, 2000
- Bathe,K.J.: Finite Elemente Procedures. Prentice Hall, 1995
- Schwarz, H.R.: Methode der finiten Elemente. Teubner publishing house, 3rd edition, Stuttgart 1991 (in German language)
- Rieg,F.; Hackenschmidt, R.: Finite Elemente Analyse für Ingenieure. Hanser- Verlag, München Wien 2003, 2nd edition (in German language)

If you like programming, especially such technical programs as FEA or CAD programs you may want to consult the following book:

Rieg,F.; Hackenschmidt, R.: Softwaretechnik für Ingenieure. Hanser- Verlag, München Wien 2001 (in German language)

If you improve Z88 please give me your feedback. If you want to compile Z88 for UNIX any C compiler along with a Motif library should work fine - i've tested the GNU gcc and the C compilers from SGI and HP. If you want to compile Z88 for Windows any kind of C or C++ compiler should work fine - i've tested the free LCC and the C/C++ compilers from Microsoft, Borland and Watcom.

And because Z88 is bound to the GNU General Public License you are to present your improvements and modifications to the public including the source code - that's a point of honor. Promote the idea of the free software according to GNU-GPL !

Professor Dr. Frank Rieg

Lehrstuhl Konstruktionslehre und CAD

(Chair for Engineering Design and CAD)

University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany, May 2004

www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/konstruktionslehre

frank.rieg@uni-bayreuth.de

The Z88 Commander for Windows

The Z88 Commander for UNIX and LINUX