Introducing the newest release of…

IMAT | Interface between

MATLAB®, Analysis, & Test

ATA Engineering, Inc., is pleased to announce the availability of IMAT™ version 3.0.0 of the IMAT (Interface between MATLAB®, Analysis, and Test) family of software products. IMAT is a MATLAB interface designed for test and analysis engineers who need to work with large amounts of engineering data. IMAT provides a framework for easily importing finite element (FE) simulation data and measured test data into the MATLAB environment to leverage MATLAB’s versatile programming and mathematical strengths. ATA has spent more than a decade optimizing the methods used in IMAT to ensure that it is the most efficient and robust interface between MATLAB and your data.

Numerous methods within IMAT allow powerful and complex operations to be performed directly on test and simulation data while preserving the data’s native descriptive attributes. Function selection filters and coordinate traces make selecting, sorting, and filtering multiple functions straightforward. IMAT’s plotting utility, UIPLOT, offers enhanced function plotting and data processing.

IMAT contains several toolboxes which have been reorganized with this release according to specific engineering disciplines, greatly expanding IMAT's core capabilities for each area. The toolboxes include IMAT+FEA (formerly IMAT+), IMAT+Modal (formerly IMAT+Testkit), and IMAT+Signal (formerly IMAT+RTK), designed for simulation, modal, and signal processing data, respectively.

IMAT+FEA allows users to import simulation data from Nastran, I-deas®, Abaqus, or Femap, then operate on that data using the full capabilities of MATLAB. Nastran  users can read data directly from the binary result database (.op2), ASCII bulk data, or the ASCII result output punch (.pch) file. I-deas users can import associated data files (ADFs) or can read the I-deas Universal file format (.unv). Data from Abaqus simulations are read directly from the output database (.odb), allowing the user to process Abaqus results independent of Abaqus/Viewer. New with IMAT 3.0.0, Femap users can export to the Neutral file format or directly to a Femap session via COM. IMAT+FEA also provides a bi-directional interface to the Femap API, so MATLAB users can communicate directly with Femap via COM. Nastran users can also now write to Output2 (OP2) files. IMAT+FEA is a powerful extension to traditional CAE applications.

There are many additional enhancements to IMAT+FEA in version 3.0.0, including the ability to allow users to import results when no geometry is stored in the OP2 file in some cases, decreasing the OP2 file size and improving performance.

IMAT can display FEM geometry and animate mode shapes.

IMAT+Modal offers significant functionality that extends IMAT’s capabilities for the modal test engineer. IMAT+Modal is a collection of utilities that aids in test planning and postprocessing of test data. It includes methods for pretest analysis, allowing users to optimally select accelerometer locations for a modal test. It also provides procedures for reducing a full FEM down to the test-measured degrees of freedom, as well as curve-fitting routines for extracting shapes from the test data. The IMAT+Modal toolbox is comprised of several components including the Test-Analysis Model Toolkit (TAMKIT), the Genetic Algorithm (GA), and the Modal Test Kit (MTK), which includes the Alias-Free Polyreference (AFPoly™) curve fitter. The functionality provided by IMAT+Modal makes the entire modal test process more efficient.

 

The AFPoly interface has been completely overhauled for IMAT 3.0.0.

IMAT+Signal extends IMAT's functionality into signal processing, which involves processing data from the time domain into the frequency domain. IMAT+Signal provides two graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that greatly simplify the process of computing frequency response functions (FRF), filtering time domain data, and creating power spectral densities (PSD) and cross spectral densities (CSD) from time histories. The spFRF (signal processing for frequency response functions) GUI, new with IMAT v3.0.0, provides a fully functional GUI for converting time histories to FRF, and Rotational Test Kit (RTK) provides a GUI that facilitates the analysis of rotational events. The IMAT+Signal GUI controls are also provided as command-line functions such that any task can be easily scripted within MATLAB.

 

New with IMAT 3.0.0, the spFRF GUI converts time histories to FRF.

ATA provides new IMAT releases in conjunction with new MATLAB releases; IMAT v3.0.0 is designed to work with MATLAB R2009b (7.9). Additionally, IMAT v3.0.0 is compatible with MATLAB releases R2008a, R2008b, and R2009a. For details on the specific updates available in this release, please visit www.ata-imat.com.

DOWNLOAD IMAT v3.0.0:

IMAT v3.0.0 is available to any IMAT user who is current on their maintenance, enhancements, and support (ME&S), and there is no cost for conversion to v3.0.0. Customers can download the latest version from www.ata-imat.com. IMAT v3.0.0 no longer uses the ATAServer licensing mechanism; only the Sentinel RMS licensing is supported.

To upgrade your IMAT to version 3.0.0 or to learn more about these new features, please call Sherry at 858-480-2074, send an email to imat@ata-e.com, or visit www.ata-e.com.



IMAT, IMAT+FEA, IMAT+Modal, IMAT+Signal, and AFPoly are trademarks of ATA Engineering, Inc. MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. Sentinel is a trademark of SafeNet, Inc. Femap is a registered trademark of Siemens PLM Software Inc. Abaqus is a trademark of Dassault Systèmes.