ADINA 2026 Release Notes


Release Date: March 2026

Major Version: ADINA 2026

Version Number: 26.00.00.383

Download and Installation Instructions

Installation files for current and past ADINA releases can be downloaded from the Bentley Software Downloads page. After signing-in, the ADINA installers can be located by searching for ADINA. Windows and Linux installers are listed separately. 

Table of Supported Platforms

Platform  Operating system  Fortran compiler  Intel MKL lib. 
Windows  Windows 10, 11  Intel oneAPI - Fortran (ifx) version 2024.2.1 Intel oneAPI - C\C++ (icx, icpx), version 2024.2.1  Intel oneAPI - MKL 2024.2.1 
Linux  Linux kernel 5.4 and higher, glibc 2.31 and higher  Intel oneAPI - Fortran (ifx) version 2024.2.1 Intel oneAPI - C\C++ (icx, icpx), version 2024.2.1  Intel oneAPI - MKL 2024.2.1 

 

  1. All program versions are 64-bit, using the x86_64 architecture. The Intel 64 and AMD64 implementations of the x86-64 architecture are supported. 
  2. The CPU must support the AVX extensions to the x86_64 instruction set architecture. Most Intel and AMD CPUs released after 2011 contain these extensions. 
  3. The following Linux distros comply with the minimum operating system requirements for Linux:

Distros earlier than the above cannot be used with ADINA 2026

  1. The Linux computer must have Firefox and libssl.so.1.1 installed, otherwise the Linux installation will be aborted. Firefox and libssl.so.1.1 are used for Linux licensing. Instructions for installing Firefox and libssl.so.1.1 are distro dependent. libssl.so.1.1 is a system library used with OpenSSL 1.1.1.

Security Advisory

Bentley is committed to continuously investigating and rectifying security vulnerabilities affecting its products and services. Regular checks and updates are a part of our release process. There were no security related changes required for ADINA 2026.

New and Updated Features

This section lists the new and updated features and corrections available in ADINA 2026 compared to ADINA 2025. 

ADINA User interface Features

Ribbon bar improvements (Windows)

An option to customize the Ribbon menu has been added to the program. Access the customization from the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) drop down or right-click anywhere in the Ribbon menu and choose Customize. This enables adding commands to QAT and to the larger Ribbon menu tabs.

 

To add a new item to the QAT select the command from the list on the left and click Add>> Then adjust the position of the new command using the up or down arrows.

 

 

To add commands to a new menu or tab select Customize Ribbon Tabs and add a New Tab. Click once on the New Table label and then type over it to rename the tab. Then select New Panel to create one or more new panels or command groups under that new tab. Rename each panel in the same way as tabs. Finally add specific commands to the panels and adjust the order as needed.

 

 

 

The original installed tabs cannot be modified. To revert to the original configuration of all modules click Reset.

Each mode in the Program Module drop-down list (ADINA Structures, ADINA Thermal, ADINA CFD, ADINA EM, and Post Processing) has an independent ribbon menu configuration. If you want the same commands to appear in both Structures and Post-Processing modules, for example, repeat the same steps for each mode.

Ribbon menu customizations are saved in the Windows registry and user data file folder for the current user.

The legacy “toolbar mode” is no longer supported in ADINA 2026.

 

ADINA Structures Features

Spring Defined over Line or Surface/Face

The existing 'Define Spring Elements' feature has been extended to more geometries and improved with the ability to assign individual spring element parameters using generated tributary lengths/areas and spatial factors.

In addition to Points, Lines, and Node Sets, Spring elements can now be defined on Edges, Surfaces, Faces, Element Face Sets, and Element Edge Sets. Tributary values are calculated using the shape functions of the base elements that the springs are applied to including Shell, Beam, 3D Solid, and 2D Solid elements. Tributary values are then applied in combination with assigned Spring Properties to compute elemental stiffness, damping, and mass values in the solver.

Primer 77 introduces area springs for a raft foundation.

 

Cloud Analysis (Technical Preview)

The ADINA Cloud Service for managing ADINA structural simulation jobs through the Bentley Analysis Cloud Service has been added. This feature allows the user to analyze an ADINA data file using the ADINA Structures solver on a virtual machine hosted by Bentley Systems. The user can free up local system resources using ADINA Cloud. Solution progress can be checked along the way, and the full results download after completion. Additionally, users can select from a list of supported versions if ADINA to use. Future versions will be added as they become available. Currently the service is available to any ADINA users on maintenance. Only ADINA Structures problems can be solved using the Could analysis at this time, but TMC and FSI Cloud solutions will be considered for the future. For details on using this feature select the Help button within the ADINA Cloud Solution dialog.

 

Edge Glueing

General Glue Meshing has been enhanced to allow a line or edge of a shell to be glued to a surface or face without a matching mesh. Refer to the Theory and Modeling Guide – Solids and Structures, Edge-to-surface glue-meshes for details. This follows the principles of general meshes in the preceding section. The edge segment can be derived from a line, element edge or shell edge commonly.  In edge-to-surface (ETS) glueing, the edge is the master, and the surface is the slave. Because the glue-mesh acts upon a one-dimensional entity, proper orientation with respect to the face segment is necessary. AUI will apply a guidance vector normal to the surface unless specified by the user. Rotation-to-rotation coupling is not considered. For conditions where rotation of the edge should force equal rotation in the surface it is recommended to use a model with coincident meshing instead.

Primer 75 introduces the basic concepts of edge glueing.

 

Tapered beam

The tapered beam, whose cross-section varies linearly in size along its length, is a newly added option to the standard beam solution. It supports Rectangular, Pipe, Box, and I-type cross sections. When an elastic material is selected, a flexibility-based element formulation is employed, resulting in exact stiffness terms in the absence of internal loading and shear offset. For plastic materials, a displacement-based beam formulation is used. In addition, a new subdivision scheme has been developed in which each subdivided segment remains continuously tapered, efficiently improving the accuracy of plastic tapered beam analyses.

Primer 76 introduces elastic tapered beams and verification problem B138 is for a plastic tapered beam.

 

Rayleigh Damping calculation

The Rayleigh damping feature has been enhanced to allow users to plot the frequency (Hz)–damping ratio curve. The curve is generated directly from the specified alpha (mass-proportional) and beta (stiffness) values. In addition, users can now define two frequencies along with their corresponding damping ratio percentages. Based on these inputs, the program can compute the updated alpha and beta values, and it can plot the corresponding frequency–damping ratio curve.

 

NASTRAN & OP2 Output

OP2 RBE3 and 2D stress output improvements.

The RBE3 elements are now added to ADINA OP2 file. If an ADINA model contains RBE3 elements, and the geometry information is included in the OP2 file (OP2-OPTIONS GEOM=YES), the RBE3 elements can be visualized in Simcenter3D once the OP2 file is loaded.

 

OP2 2D stress output control. The stress output for 2D solid elements in nonlinear analysis has been improved. When working with a 2D nonlinear model directly created in ADINA in the YZ or XY plane, the two existing OP2 options can now be utilized:

 

Minor Enhancements & Corrections

ADINA User Interface

Band plots did not work for some stress strain quantities on LINK element group. The mesh plot database was updated so that link elements now work with band plots in stress and strain.

 

AUI crashed when deleting an initial condition that has been applied to meshed geometry containing more than 10,000 nodes. The crash is prevented in this version.

ADINA Structures

Memory corruption in shell elements with matrix saving enabled. When matrix saving (stiffness, damping, or mass matrix in sparse equation or nodal form) was enabled for shell elements in an implicit dynamics analysis, the solution stopped due to memory corruption leading to a fatal error running the solution. The memory error is fixed in this version.

 

Fortran run time error for models with link elements of the same material, but different lengths, used in the same set. An additional inhomogeneous property was added to support this.

 

Default settings for distributed plasticity (DP) material could lead to non-convergence. Fixed inconsistent maximum-iteration setting for DP material to represent softening and fixed the default behavior (peak=no) to match classical plasticity for better convergence.

 

For a model that applies internal pressure to a pipe element, but does not converge, a run time error could occur. This only affected how the program exited the solution when convergence was not reached.

 

With Thermal Plastic Fracturing (PF) concrete usage, an 'input format error' occurs leading to a crash. Fixed reading of material properties from 2D table data of thermal PF-concrete.

 

In the use of the Data Fitted (DF) concrete model with a temperature-dependent case, the crack information for plots was missing. The missing crack information is now included in the list of results.

 

ADINA CFD or FSI

In direct FSI simulations, some coupling contributions may have been randomly missed when multiple FSI boundaries were defined. This could result in missing fluid forces on portions of the interface. The complete fluid forces are now included.

 

NASTRAN Interface

AUI crashed when duplicated segments defined in BEDGE NASTRAN command. AUI now presents an error message.

 

Available Documentation

The following documents are installed with ADINA. Updates were made for the new and updated commands throughout the manuals. Titles noted with an asterisk (*) have been converted from pdf into an html style document for hosting on the Bentley Documentation website and for better searchability.

ADINA Handbook

No changes.

ADINA User Interface Command Reference Manual (CRM)

Updates are made for the new and updated commands throughout. 

ADINA Primer*

The primer problems have also been updated to reference commands in the default ribbon menu tabs.

Theory and Modeling Guide (TMG)

Updates were made to describe the new features and the theory behind them primarily in the Solids & Structures manual. 

ADINA Verification Manual*

New verification problems B138 added for plastic tapered beam.

ADINA-Nastran Interface Manual

No changes.

TRANSOR for FEMAP Users Guide

Updates for the latest version of FEMAP.