Welcome
What's New
View new features for Altair HyperWorks 2025.
Get Started
Learn the basics and discover the workspace.
Tutorials
Learn more about the Altair HyperWorks suite of products with interactive tutorials.
Startup Procedures and Customizations
Start and configure the applications.
Tool Finder
View a list of deprecated panels and their newer, equivalent workflows.
Manage Files and Data
Create, open, import, and save models.
Sessions and Report Templates
Set up sessions and create report templates.
Interface with External Products
Solver interfaces supported in HyperMesh.
Entities and Solver Interfaces
A solver interface is made up of a template and a FE-input reader.
Browsers
Browsers provide a structured view of model data, which you can use to review, modify, create, and manage the contents of a model. In addition to visualization, browsers offer features like search, filtering, and sorting, which enhance your ability to navigate and interact with the model data.
Sketching
Create and edit 2D parametric sketch geometry.
Topology
Create, edit, and cleanup geometry.
FE Geometry
FE geometry is topology on top of mesh, meaning CAD and mesh exist as a single entity. The purpose of FE geometry is to add vertices, edges, surfaces, and solids on FE models which have no CAD geometry.
Meshing and Elements
Explore the different types of mesh you can create in HyperMesh and create and edit 0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D elements.
Model Build and Assembly
Create, organize and manage parts and subsystems.
Composites
HyperMesh composites modeling.
Connectors
Create connections between parts of your model.
Morph
Rapidly change the shape of the FE mesh without severely sacrificing the mesh quality.
Skeleton Modeling
Create a reduced ordered model to facilitate optimization at the concept phase.
Design Space
Workflow to support topology optimization model build and setup.
Optimization
Setup an Optimization in HyperMesh.
Design Explorer
Multi-disciplinary design exploration and optimization tools.
Validate
Validate the model built before running solver analysis.
Analyze
Models require loads and boundary conditions in order to represent the various physics and/or physical equivalents to bench and in-use testing.
Axisymmetry
Reduce a full 3D model with axisymmetric surfaces while accounting for imperfections.
Concept Modeling
Tools and workflows that are dedicated to rapidly creating new parts for specific use cases, or amending existing parts. The current capabilities are focused on stiffening parts.
Crash and Safety
Tools used for crash and safety analysis.
Airbag
Use airbag folder utilities and export a resulting airbag in a Radioss deck.
Aerospace
Essential utility tools developed using HyperMesh-Tcl.
Aeroelasticity
Import an aeroelastic finite element model with Nastran Bulk Data format.
Certification
Framework to plug certification methods to assess margin of safety from the model and result information.
PhysicsAI
Use PhysicsAI to build fast predictive models from CAE data. PhysicsAI can be trained on data with any physics or remeshing and without design variables.
Results Data
Results data can be post-processed using both HyperMesh and HyperView.
- Results Data in HyperMesh
  Direct integration of native results readers into HyperMesh allows you to perform results visualization on the model.
  - Results Database
    A results database contains translated results files, which are read into HyperMesh for post-processing.
  - Import Result Files
    Import analysis result files to create plots, query results, and so on.
  - Results Browser
    Use the Results Browser to review and manage results and plots.
  - Create, Edit, and Display Contour Plots
    Use the Contour tool to visualize result data by coloring entities by value, allowing for easy identification of maximums and minimums throughout the model.
  - Create, Edit, and Display Vector Plots
    Use the Vector tool to draw arrows such that the direction in which the arrow points is the direction of the vector and the length of the arrow is its magnitude.
  - Create, Edit, and Display Tensor Plots
    Use the Tensor tool to show stress and strain directions and magnitudes for various solvers from elemental values.
  - Create, Edit, and Display Deformed Plots
    Use the Deformed tool to specify parameters for deformation display.
  - Create, Edit, and Display Marker Plots
    Use the Marker tool to visualize result data by adding text on entities by ID and value, allowing for easy reference of result values on selected entities.
  - Contour Beam Stress
    Use the Beam Stress tool to display a contour of stress distribution on a tessellation of a beam cross section.
  - Create, Edit, and Assign Custom Legends
    Use the Legend entity to create, edit and assign custom legends to any contour, vector and tensor or marker plot. Legends can be numeric, or category based. It can be copied or saved to an external file and imported for re-use.
  - Plot Results from Legend
    Change properties directly in the legend to drive result plotting and change data type, component, layer, averaging method, and so on. This is possible in contour, vector, tensor, and marker plot legends.
  - Create and Edit Charts Using Results
    Create charts using the data read from a results file by directly reading a result datatype, or by tabulating the data in the Matrix Browser.
  - Free Body Diagram (FBD)
    Calculate free-body forces, moments, displacements, and rotation.
    - FBD Create and Edit
      Use the Free-Body Create tool to create and edit free-body section entities.
    - Create, Edit, and Display Free Body Section Plot
      Use the Free Body Plot tool to visualize results of a collection of Free body sections.
    - FBD Manager
      Use the FBD Manager tool to export and import free-body sections, create summary tables and fields, and generate loads and enforced displacement.
    - FBD Panel Plot
      Display normal and shear loads of panel structural members.
    - FBD Bar Plot
      Display forces and moments acting on beam and bar elements.
    - FBD Potato/VMT Plots
      Potato plots are used to build load envelopes. VMT plots are used to build tensile, shear and bending moment diagrams.
  - Results Processing Tools in HyperMesh
    Seamlessly process solver native results in HyperMesh.
  - Matrix Browser
    Use the Matrix Browser to explore the HyperMesh and HyperView data entities and export the entities to external files for further analysis.
- Results Data in HyperView
  HyperView is a complete environment to visualize, query, and process results data.
Developer
The Developer ribbon contains tools for automation and customization.
Plot Data
HyperGraph is a data analysis and plotting tool with interfaces to many file formats.
Multibody Modeling
MotionView is a general pre-processor for Multibody Dynamics.
Media Files
MediaView plays video files, displays static images, tracks objects, and measures distances.
Tabulate Results
Use TableView to create an Excel-like spreadsheet.
Text Files
TextView math scripts reference vector data from HyperGraph windows to automate data processing and data summary.
Publishing and Reporting
Create, define, and export reports.

FBD Potato/VMT Plots

Potato plots are used to build load envelopes. VMT plots are used to build tensile, shear and bending moment diagrams.

From the menu bar, click Post > Plot > Free Body Selections Manager.

From the FBD Manager dialog, select an option from the Potato/VMT Table/Plot menu.

Summary tables, from the FBD Forces tool, are required to create Potato/VMT plots.

Potato/VMT plots are created using HyperGraph 2D. The Potato/VMT tool creates .fbd files that will be imported by HyperGraph 2D.

FBD Summary Table: Selects the summary table created by the FBD Forces tool.
Summation Points Coordinates: Defines the coordinate system used to write forces and moments.
FBD File: Defines where the .fbd file will be saved.