This page lists the changes in the commands for PLAXIS 2D and its parameters per version.

PLAXIS 2D 2024.1

Input

Calculation type

The following calculation types have changed names, with the addition of letter "s" in the word.

Tunnel Designer object updates

The tunnel object properties for reinforcements have been updated. The introduction of combined reinforcements in Tunnel Designer allows to define up to two (2) parts consisting of different structural elements. For more information, check our Reference manual and Command reference, under Help menu.

Below you can see the differences in the Reinforcements object properties between the versions:

• About .Length for reinforcements
  • 2D 2023.2: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.Length
  • 2D 2024.1: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.Parts[<part-index>].Length
  • 2D 2024.1: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.TotalLength # read-only property

• About .AppyStrengthReduction for reinforcements
  • 2D 2023.2: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.ApplyStrengthReduction
  • 2D 2024.1: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.Parts[<part-index>].ApplyStrengthReduction

• About .ElementType for reinforcements
  • 2D 2023.2: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.ElementType
  • 2D 2024.1: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.Parts[<part-index>].<element-type-properties>.ElementType
    • <element-type-properties> can be: AnchorProperties, CableProperties, RockBoltProperties

• About .Material for reinforcements
  • 2D 2023.2: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.Material
  • 2D 2024.1: echo Tunnel_1.SlicePolycurveChains[<index>].Reinforcements.Parts[<part-index>].<element-type-properties>.Material
    • <element-type-properties> can be: AnchorProperties, CableProperties, RockBoltProperties

Output

Structural result types

For cables, embedded beams, fixed-end anchors, geogrids, node-to-node anchors and plates the following result types have been updated:

PLAXIS 2D 2023.2

Cable elements

All references commands and objects, captions and tools for the "Cable bolt element" have been renamed to "Cable element" in line with the introduction of the Cable element in PLAXIS 3D.

Specifically for the PLAXIS commands:

Specifically for the PLAXIS objects:

PLAXIS 2D 2023.1

Soil/Rock

For soil/rock material definition the reference elevation on the vertical axis above which the Young's modulus is equal to the reference value have been updated to follow the CamelCase formatting.

Import command parameters

Two parameters of the import command in PLAXIS Input were updated to reflect the functionality in the GUI. For more information check the Commands reference, under the Help menu. They are the following:

For example:

import "C:\PLAXIS2D\geometry_file.dxf" "ImportType" "structures" "ScalingVector" (1 1) "Offset" (0 0) "PDRProjectionDistance" 0.005

SoilMat interfaces parameter

The property referring to the interfaces strength determination of the SoilMat object was updated to reflect the name in the GUI:

PLAXIS 2D CONNECT Edition V22.02

Plates

For plate material definition the unit weight and the thickness properties have been updated.

User-Defined Soil Models

The enumerated value for a User-Defined Soil Model (UDSM) type is now again in V22.02. This was reverted back from the value in V22.00.

For command logs and Python scripting you are recommended to use the string-based property value instead: "User-defined"

_set SoilMat_1.SoilModel "User-defined"

PLAXIS 2D CONNECT Edition V22

Material definition

The material definition for soil/rock and structures has been enhanced. The changes concern:

• new categories and updated structure in the material data set window (GUI)
• updated property names (GUI and command line)
• material definition requires property name-property value pairs (command line)
• live material definition validation on the side panel (GUI)

For material properties changes, i.e., on objects and commands, check the Commands reference under the Help menu in both Input and Output.

Embedded beams

The structural element is now called Embedded beam, instead of embedded beam row.
The following commands are removed from PLAXIS 2D:

• embeddedpilerow
• embeddedpilemat

Instead, to create an embedded beam structural element and its material the following commands can be used:

• embeddedbeam
• embeddedbeammat

The following command will be deprecated in favour of the embeddedbeam command:

• embeddedbeamrow

Undrained behaviour is renamed to Excess pore pressure calculation

The soil material category has been updated to better describe the group of properties that can simulate an incompressible soil by selecting the determination of the excess pore pressures to be based on a v-undrained definition, Skempton B based or following the Biot effective stress concept (αBiot).

PLAXIS 2D 2018.00

Output

Commands using curve points

Following the support for an unlimited number of points for curves in Output, the following examples show the commands that have been updated:

• getcurveresults
  • 2D 2017: getcurveresults Node_A Phase_5 ResultTypes.Soil.Ux
  • 2D 2018: getcurveresults CN_1 Phase_5 ResultTypes.Soil.Ux

• getsingleresult
  • 2D 2017: getsingleresult Phases[4] ResultTypes.Soil.Ux Node_A
  • 2D 2018: getsingleresult Phases[4] ResultTypes.Soil.Ux CN_1

• getcurveresultspath
  • 2D 2017: getcurveresultspath Node_A Phases[0] Phases[3] ResultTypes.Soil.Ux
  • 2D 2018: getcurveresultspath CN_1 Phases[0] Phases[3] ResultTypes.Soil.Ux

Note that for all commands you can also use Curvepoints.Nodes[0] instead of CN_1 to retrieve the results for the first selected node.

Phase/Step object compatibility

For more information on the changes in the properties for Phase and Step objects in PLAXIS Output program see PLAXIS Output Phase/Step object compatibility for details.

PLAXIS 2D 2017.00

Input

Select points for curves

The command __selectcurvepoints is no longer available. Instead, the following commands can be used:

selectmeshpoints
/output addcurvepoint "Node" (x y z)
/output addcurvepoint "StressPoint" (x y z)
/output update

For more information, you can check the article Select points for curves prior to calculation directly in Input.

Phases object updates

The phases object in Input has been updated. Below you can see the differences in properties between the versions:

PLAXIS 2D 2016.00

Input

Switch to Flow conditions mode

The gotowater command is pending deprecation in favour of the gotoflow command

Tunnel designer

In the tunnel designer a few things changed such that older command logs might not properly work:

• the order of generated elements in Tunnel Designer has changed so this will not generate proper geometry or correct references when assigning e.g. plates, interfaces and line loads to these when using old command logs;
• Names of the generated properties in Tunnel Designer (e.g. lineloads, plates) changed as well, for instance in the tunnel designer a line load was called Lineload_x while now is called TCS_x_LineLoad_x

Phases - dynamics

The time stepping settings for dynamic calculations has changed: we can now choose a new time step determination: "Semi-automatic" which behaves the same as the "Automatic" setting of PLAXIS 2D 2015. The "Automatic" setting is now fully automatic and should choose an appropriate number of dynamic substeps AND number of additional steps.

Output

Phase info inconsistencies with Input

We found a few inconsistencies between Input and Output for some parameter names from the Phase and Step info. Of course we would like to have consistency between the two programs to make sure that the parameters are easy to use and to make sure any scripting/Python programming is easier to make and understand.

The changed parameter names are:

Soil results

In 2D2015, there was a typo in the soil result objects related permeability. These have been now fixed:

• ResultTypes.Soil.RelPermeability
• ResultTypes.Soil.ActualPermeabilityX
• ResultTypes.Soil.ActualPermeabilityY

PLAXIS 2D 2015.00

Embedded pile row changes to embedded beam row

The embedded pile row has been changed into embedded beam row to make clear this embedded beam can be used for more than just piles, e.g. grout anchors.

To create a new embedded beam row:
    embeddedbeamrow (x1 y1) (x2 y2)

To create a new embedded beam row material dataset:
    embeddedbeammat

Note: in this version the old commands for the embedded pile rows will be supported, but may become deprecated in later versions

Naming of cutobjects (staged construction)

Due to an issue in the sorting routine of the cut objects (i.e. the intersected result of soils, polygons, lines), and the fact that the source of a cut objects was not clear in its naming, the automatic naming of items in the intersected geometry (mesh mode, flow conditions mode, staged construction) has been changed. This also involves removing the prefix CS_ for these items, see this example:

• PLAXIS 2D AE: CS_Line_1
• PLAXIS 2D 2015: Line_1_1

Multiplier on vector based features

The name for the multiplier userfeature has been changed. For point loads and point prescribed displacements, this userfeature name has been changed from .Multiplier_x/_y/_z to .MultiplierFx/Fy/Fz. To set a LoadMultiplier for a dynamic point load using the command line:

• 2D AE: set DynLineLoad_1_1.Multiplier_x Phase_1 LoadMultiplier_1
• 2D 2015: set DynPointLoad_1_1.MultiplierFx Phase_1 LoadMultiplier_1

For line loads, this userfeature name has been changed from .Multiplier_x/_y_z to .Multiplierx/y/z, and this would be the command line:

• 2D AE: _set DynLineLoad_1_1.Multiplier_x Phase_1 LoadMultiplier_1
• 2D2015: _set DynLineLoad_1_1.Multiplierx Phase_1 LoadMultiplier_1

Linear boundary conditions for head, inflow and outflow

Linear boundary conditions for head, inflow, outflow had inconsistent settings. Now the behaviour can be chosen more explicitely and more consistently by offering these options:

• "Vertical increment"
• "Horizontal increment"
• "Start/end values"

The option Linear is deprecated in 2D 2015, and replaced by the above mentioned options.

PLAXIS 2D AE.02

This page contains an overview of the changes in commands.

Bending moment

Since PLAXIS 2D AE.02, the parameter for the Point Load's bending moment has been changed from BendingMoment to simply M

Interface side

By fixing the issue called Local axis may flip with overlapping lines in PLAXIS 2D AE. the positive and negative interfaces may be on the opposite side of the line (and plate) compared to command log files created in PLAXIS 2D AE.00 or PLAXIS 2D AE.01. This could influence the replaying of these command log files.