OOF2: The Manual

In earlier versions of OOF2, modifications to a Skeleton were automatically propagated to any Meshes based on that Skeleton. Because doing that could invalidate time step data stored on a Mesh, OOF2 no longer automatically modifies Meshes. Instead, Meshes must be explicitly updated via the Rebuild command in the Mesh Operations pane in the FE Mesh page. If a Mesh's Skeleton has been modified, the Mesh Information pane will contain

	  Status: Out of sync with Skeleton
	  *** Mesh must be rebuilt! ***
	

and many Mesh operations will be prohibited until the Mesh has been rebuilt.

The sign convention for Neumann boundary conditions for vector fluxes (i.e, heat flux or polarization) has been changed for consistency with the other fluxes.

Previous versions allowed Materials to be assigned to Mesh elements, overriding the Materials inherited from the Microstructure. As of 2.1, Materials can be assigned to Skeleton element groups, but not Mesh elements. Meshes inherit the Materials from their Skeletons. Materials can be assigned and removed from element groups via buttons in the Element group operations pane in the Skeleton Selection page.

We're still working on interfacial material properties and related issues, such as field discontinuities along internal boundaries. These were available in a rudimentary form in version 2.0.5, but were never completed, which is why 2.0.5 was always an alpha version. The interfacial properties have been removed from 2.1.0, but will return when they're ready.

In old versions, you could give a name to a profile function that was used to define the variation of a boundary condition along the boundary. This was clumsy and overly complicated and has been removed. The only thing it was really good for was that it enabled you to use the same function in multiple boundary conditions. It's now possible to copy a boundary condition and then edit the copy, assigning it to a different boundary or different field component, which allows the profile function to be duplicated in a more natural way.

Peroidic boundary conditions are now always applied to all components of a Field. In old versions, you could make some Field components periodic and some aperiodic, which didn't make much sense, and made the periodicity of the out-of-plane components ambiguous. Now the out-of-plane components have the same periodicity as the other components.