The following contact and connection enhancements were made at Release 2025 R2:
Contact Enhancements
Contact Region. The Contact Region object has two new options for the Type property:
Bonded, Initial: For this setting, the application models the bonded contact but maintains the contact detection for the initial state throughout the analysis. For a closed initial state, then contact remains attached during the analysis. For an open initial state, contact remains open, even if deformation brings the contact pair close together.
No Separation, Penetration Only: For this setting, separation of the geometries or gap is not allowed between the contact and target surfaces. The contact is established only when the surfaces are either touching or penetrated.
Modeling Option for Edge Contacts. The Contact Region object has a new scoping property: Modeling Option. This property is displayed for edge contacts when the Edge Contact Type property is set to Nodes on Edge or when the contact is scoped to a General Axisymmetric body. The Modeling Option displays the read-only value Force Based, that indicates that the contact condition is using the contact force-based computational model.
Contact Region Advanced Settings. The Projected, Uncoupled U to ROT option of the Constraint Type property has been renamed Mixed Assembly. The functionality of the option remains the same.
Connections Enhancements
Coincident Length Factor. A new property, Coincident Length Factor, is now available for remote points and certain remote boundary conditions when you set the Behavior property to Beam. You use this property to specify a factor to adjust the location of an internally generated node that the application creates in order to avoid a zero-length beam element. This application generated node affects the stiffness of the connection with the remote point when a mesh node and the pilot node of the remote point have coincident locations. Supported remote boundary conditions include:
Point Mass
Remote Points
Joints
Springs
Beams
Bearing
General Joint Type. The Rotations property for the General joint type has three new options: Free X and Free Y, Free Y and Free Z, and Free X and Free Z. These options enhance your ability to further constrain the rotational degrees of freedom of your model. With these new options, the application now enables you to constrain a body under rotation for all six degrees of freedom.
Connections Worksheet. The Connections Worksheet now provides filtering options. You use these options to specify the data displayed in the tables for the available Connections Information (Contact, Joint, Spring, Beam). You can activate and/or deactivate filtering options using the available check boxes or using the context (right-click) menu.