Orcina news

We are very pleased to announce the release of OrcaFlex version 11.5. The software was finalised and built on 12^th December. All clients with up-to-date MUS contracts will receive, in the next few days, an e-mail with instructions on how to download and install the new version.

Update: These e-mails were all sent on 13^th December.

Version 11.5 introduces much new functionality, including:

OrcaFlex

• Features for modelling buried and covered lines, upheaval buckling, pipe ratcheting etc.
• Support for the modelling of synthetic ropes with rate-dependent stiffness
• Turbine initial rotor angular velocity, turbine runtime performance improvements
• Frequency domain enhancements
• Data forms can now be modeless, meaning that you can view, and interact with, multiple data forms simultaneously

OrcaWave

• Time domain panel pressure results
• Spring/dampers: simple connections between two points in the model that pull the points together, or hold them apart
• Mesh validation performance has been improved, primarily through multi-threading

These are the most significant developments, in our opinion. As always there are more enhancements that are not listed here. All new features are fully documented in the what’s new topics:

• OrcaFlex
• OrcaWave

Continue reading “OrcaFlex 11.5 released”

We have just released a minor upgrade to OrcaFlex, version 11.4e. Version 11.4e fixes a number of bugs and adds some minor functionality, including:

• Support has been added for SHEAR7 version 4.12b, specifically by capturing the new curvature time history files which SHEAR7 can now export.
• Python external functions, post calculation actions and user defined results now support the latest version of Python, version 3.13.
• The frequency domain solver now supports lines using a constant expansion factor.

Full details of the changes are described in the documentation:

• OrcaFlex
• OrcaWave

We intend for this to be the final release of 11.4 because version 11.5 will be released later this month.

On the 7th November 2024 a staff member’s email account was compromised and unfortunately this has resulted in phishing emails being sent to some of our customers. We were aware of the breach within minutes of it occurring and were able to quickly secure the account to prevent further malicious actions. We have investigated activity on this account and are sure this was limited to the online email account and no more.

The email sent had the subject line Emma Johnston shared “Orcina Ltd Project Report” with you, and the email contained an attachment. In many cases this will have been quarantined by your email system but if you see this email in your inbox then please delete it, do not click on any links within the email or attempt to open the attachment.

We apologize for any inconvenience and confusion this may have caused. It is embarrassing for us that this has occurred as we take security very seriously. We are consequently reviewing our security configuration.

We have just released a minor upgrade to OrcaFlex, version 11.4d. Version 11.4d fixes a number of bugs. Full details of the changes are described in the documentation:

• OrcaFlex
• OrcaWave

We recommend that all users of 11.4 upgrade to 11.4d.

To upgrade to OrcaFlex 11.4d from any previous version, download the install program from your company’s Orcina software download page. A link to this page was sent to your software administration contact when we released 11.4a. If you do not have access to this page, please contact us.

We have just released a minor upgrade to OrcaFlex, version 11.4c. Version 11.4c fixes a number of bugs. Full details of the changes are described in the documentation:

• OrcaFlex
• OrcaWave

We recommend that all users of 11.4 upgrade to 11.4c.

To upgrade to OrcaFlex 11.4c from any previous version, download the install program from your company’s Orcina software download page. A link to this page was sent to your software administration contact when we released 11.4a. If you do not have access to this page, please contact us.

We have just released Distributed OrcaFlex 8.0b which you can download from the Distributed OrcaFlex page.

This is a minor update which fixes a number of bugs in 8.0a.

We have just released a minor upgrade to OrcaFlex, version 11.4b. Version 11.4b introduces some minor new functionality and fixes a number of bugs. Full details of the changes are described in the documentation:

• OrcaFlex
• OrcaWave

We recommend that all users of 11.4 upgrade to 11.4b.

To upgrade to OrcaFlex 11.4b from any previous version, download the install program from your company’s Orcina software download page. A link to this page was sent to your software administration contact when we released 11.4a. If you do not have access to this page, please contact us.

We are very pleased to announce the release of OrcaFlex version 11.4. The software was finalised and built on 22^nd November. All clients with up-to-date MUS contracts will receive, in the week starting 27^th November, an e-mail with instructions on how to download and install the new version.

Version 11.4 introduces much new functionality, including:

OrcaFlex

• Indirect constraints and double-sided connections
• Jacobian perturbation factor
• Turbine rotation sense, tower shadow models, downwind turbines
• Wind modelling improvements
• Tabular current velocity & acceleration
• Line/seabed contact properties can vary with arc length

OrcaWave

• Sectional bodies
• Mean drift loads via momentum conservation
• Automatic mesh generation
• Detection of field points inside a body
• External stiffness for rigidly connected bodies now calculated by OrcaWave

These are the most significant developments, in our opinion. As always there are more enhancements that are not listed here. All new features are fully documented in the what’s new topics:

• OrcaFlex
• OrcaWave

Continue reading “OrcaFlex 11.4 released”

Following the release of OrcaFlex 11.4, we can now announce our OrcaFlex 11.4 user group meetings. Once again, we are running these as virtual webinars.

These webinars will cover all the new features introduced in version 11.4 of OrcaFlex and OrcaWave. We will split the content into two separate webinars, one for OrcaFlex and one for OrcaWave. Each webinar will be delivered twice in the same day to give users in different time zones the opportunity to attend.

We anticipate that each webinar will be around one hour in duration, and attendees will be able to ask questions. Recordings of the webinars will be available on our website shortly after they have taken place.

We are running the webinars over Zoom. You will need to register, using the links below, for whichever webinars you wish to attend, using the links below. Zoom webinars can be attended using the Zoom client, or directly from the browser if you do not have the Zoom client.

We look forward to catching up with our regular user group attendees, and hopefully some first timers too!

OrcaFlex new features

This webinar will introduce the new features in OrcaFlex.

OrcaWave new features

This webinar will introduce the new features in OrcaWave, our diffraction analysis program

We have just released a minor upgrade to OrcaFlex, version 11.3g. Version 11.3g fixes a number of bugs and adds some minor functionality, including:

• Support has been added for SHEAR7 version 4.12.
• Python external functions, post calculation actions and user defined results now support the latest version of Python, version 3.12.

Full details of the changes are described in the documentation:

• OrcaFlex
• OrcaWave

We intend for this to be the final release of 11.3 because version 11.4 will be released later this month.