Thermo-Calc Software 2026b – CALPHAD Thermodynamic & Materials Design Platform

Description

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🔬 Thermo-Calc Software 2026b — The CALPHAD Engine for Materials Design

Thermo-Calc 2026b is the latest generation of the world’s most widely used CALPHAD software for thermodynamic calculation, phase-diagram prediction, and computational materials design. Released on 24 June 2026 (build 2026.2.201356-265), it is the single platform that drives Thermo-Calc, the Diffusion Module (DICTRA), the Precipitation Module (TC-PRISMA), the Additive Manufacturing Module, the Process Metallurgy Module, TC-Python, TQ-Interface, and TC-Toolbox for MATLAB.

If you design steels, nickel or cobalt superalloys, aluminium, magnesium, titanium, copper alloys, high-entropy alloys, oxides, molten salts, or ultra-high-temperature ceramics, Thermo-Calc software turns chemistry + temperature + process route into quantitative property data—so you run fewer experiments and make better alloy and process decisions.

✅ Trusted by 2,000+ organisations in 60+ countries
✅ 50,000+ scientific citations
✅ Two official releases every year (a = January, b = June)
✅ 40+ critically assessed CALPHAD databases in one installer

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🚀 Why Upgrade to Thermo-Calc 2026b?

2026b is not a cosmetic patch. It changes how you start a calculation, how fast projects open, how additive manufacturing composition is predicted, how precipitation sequences are modelled, and how far the flagship superalloy database can go (Ni and Co, plus hydrogen).

• 🧭 Property Navigator — pick material + process + target property; the software configures the model.
• ⚡ 2.2× faster opening of templates and saved projects versus 2025b.
• 🖨️ AM evaporation — predict printed composition after volatile-element loss.
• 🔁 TC-PRISMA matrix switch and nucleation on existing precipitates.
• 🧪 Nine new databases and four free subscriber updates.
• 💪 Titanium flow-stress model (UTS, modulus, full σ–ε curve, martensite option).
• 🐍 Cleaner TC-Python Property Model API + TQ-Interface on GES6.
• 🖥️ Windows 10 support officially ends with this release — plan the OS move now.

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✨ New Functions & Highlights in Detail

🧭 1. Property Navigator (flagship UX change)

Choosing the right Property Model used to mean reading help pages and inspecting empty plots. In 2026b you open the Navigator from the home screen / My Project window and answer three questions:

1. Material category (General, Steel, Nickel, Titanium, Noble metals)
2. Process route — Casting / welding / AM · Annealing, quench & temper · Annealing with freeze-in temperature · Isothermal treatment · Heating or cooling
3. Quantities you actually care about (strength, hardness, phase fractions, transformation temperatures, …)

Thermo-Calc then selects compatible models and databases and builds calculators + plot renderers when you click Finish. You can still edit every node afterwards. General models are included for all users. Material-specific libraries need the matching thermodynamic + mobility databases and a current Maintenance & Support Subscription.

📌 Note: Steel CCT / TTT / Bainite / Ferrite / Pearlite templates stay on their dedicated Steel templates — they are not driven by the Navigator.

⚡ 2. Project and template loading — 2.2× faster

Internal benchmarks show an average 2.2× reduction in time to open a saved project or start from a template (the gain varies by calculation type). The project tree no longer paints node-by-node; a progress bar runs, then the full tree appears. Functionality is unchanged — only perceived speed and UI behaviour.

💪 3. Titanium Model Library — full flow stress

Alloy Strength – Ti used to stop at hardness and yield strength. In 2026b it is a complete flow-stress model, aligned with last year’s martensitic-steel work:

• True / engineering stress–strain
• Yield strength, UTS, fracture strength
• Uniform elongation and elongation at fracture
• Young’s modulus and hardness
• Optional α′ / α′′ martensite with a quench temperature (plus the existing annealing temperature)
• Default Ramberg–Osgood model, or user-tuned Voce parameters

New example: PM_Ti_03_Flow_stress_Ti_base_alloys.tcu.

🖨️ 4. Additive Manufacturing Module — evaporation + calibration upgrades

When laser or electron-beam heat is too aggressive, light elements leave the melt. The new calculation type Evaporation with Steady-state simulates multi-track / multi-layer builds and reports:

• Average printed composition of each track
• Average composition of the finished part
• Evaporated gas composition
• A dedicated Composition History tab, plus table export

Also in 2026b AM:

• Include fluid flow inside heat-source calibrations
• Switch 3D plot rendering between CPU and GPU
• GUI example AM_16_Composition_Change_Evaporation.tcu and TC-Python example pyex_AM_13_Composition_change.py

Use case: keep IN939 (and similar) inside specification after 200+ tracks, instead of discovering chemistry drift after the build.

❄️ 5. Precipitation Module (TC-PRISMA) — more realistic heat treatments

Matrix phase switch. A heat-treatment cycle can change the parent phase (austenite → ferrite, etc.). Enable Allow for matrix switch, pick two phases, and trigger the change by temperature or thermodynamic driving force. Example: P_18_Tool_Steel_Matrix_Switch.tcu (~30 min runtime).

Nucleation on another precipitate. Sites are no longer limited to bulk, grain boundaries, edges, corners, or dislocations. Existing particles can nucleate the next phase. That unlocks:

• Inoculation (a dispersion seeds a new precipitate)
• Approximate GP-zone → precipitate transitions
• Complex Al and Mg metastable sequences (e.g. β″ → β′)
• Co-precipitation such as γ″ on γ′ in Ni superalloys

TC-Python method: .set_nucleation_upon_precipitates(...). Examples: P_17_Precipitation_Upon_Precipitate.tcu and pyex_P_17_Precipitation_Upon_Precipitate.py.

🐍 6. TC-Python & MATLAB toolbox

• New factory class PropertyModelSelection — no more fragile magic strings.
• A Property Model Definitions directory documents every legal input (better editor autocomplete).
• AM evaporation and precipitate-on-precipitate APIs are exposed in Python.
• TC-Toolbox for MATLAB still supports MATLAB 2021b through 2026a (Windows only).

🔌 7. TQ-Interface on GES6 + new licensing path

TQ can now talk to Gibbs Energy System 6, so Fortran/C clients can request GES6-only quantities such as surface tension and elastic moduli. Default remains GES5; switch with TQSET_GES_VERSION (5 or 6) or via Tools → Options. Single-user node-lock (SUNLL) customers can migrate to LicenseSpring user-credential licensing. Network licences are scheduled to follow in 2027a.

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📚 Nine New Databases + Four Maintenance Updates

Thermo-Calc is only as good as the database behind the calculation. 2026b is one of the largest data drops in recent years.

🥇 TCNI14 + MOBNI7 — Nickel and Cobalt superalloys

The former Ni-only database is renamed TCS Nickel and Cobalt-based Superalloys Database. You can now predict transformation temperatures, γ′ / secondary-phase fractions, partition coefficients, molar volume, resistivity, thermal conductivity, elastic constants, liquid surface tension and viscosity for both Ni- and Co-based γ/γ′ alloys.

• ➕ New element: Hydrogen (H) → equilibrium H solubility + lattice expansion
• MOBNI7 adds H and extra FCC_A1 binaries/ternaries → diffusion with hydrogen

🥈 TCAL11 — Aluminium-based alloys

• 4 new binaries (317 total), 12 new ternaries (135), 1 new quaternary (15)
• Phases consolidated to 723
• ✨ Elastic properties for BCC (A2/B2), FCC (A1/L12), HCP (A3)

🥉 TCMG9 — Magnesium-based alloys

Focus of the release: a rebuilt Gd–Mg description that matches new experimental phase boundaries and the metastable phases seen in ageing — so TC-PRISMA age-hardening simulations become trustworthy. Ca–Mg–Zn, Ce–Mg–Zn and Nd–Mg–Zn were reassessed. Elastic constants added for cubic and hexagonal phases. 27 new phases (602 total).

🌈 TCHEA9 — High-entropy alloys

Significant improvement of the Heusler phase, on top of the oxygen and elastic-property work from 2025b. 27 elements, hundreds of assessed systems, compatible with the AM Module and MOBHEA4.

🔶 TCCU7 + MOBCU6 — Copper alloys

• New elements S and Ta (34 total) — S for copper production and functional sulphides; Ta for high-temperature Cu alloys
• 53 new phases; 26 new binaries; 15 new ternaries
• MOBCU6 adds BCC_A2/B2, HCP, and GAMMA_D82/D83 for brass kinetics and reactive diffusion

🔥 TCUHTM3 — Ultra-high-temperature materials

Aimed at hypersonic, aerospace and extreme environments. New elements Al, Cr, Nb, Ti, V (13 total). 120 new phases, 50 new binaries, 59 new ternaries. FCC_A1 and FCC_B1 merged for better solubilities. Now models MAX phases (211, 312, 413) — layered carbides/nitrides that mix metallic and ceramic behaviour.

🧂 TCSALT3 — Molten salts

Adds C, N, Nd, S (16 elements). Use cases: sulfate / carbonate / nitrate / nitrite salts as heat-transfer and thermal-storage fluids, and Nd molten-salt electrolysis (chloride and fluoride systems).

🆓 Free updates if you already own the parent database + M&SS

• TCOX15.1 — metal oxide solutions
• TCMG8.1 — previous Mg generation
• TCFE14.1 and TCFE15.1 — steels / Fe-alloys

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🛠️ Bug Fixes & Quality Work You Will Actually Feel

2026b ships a long official fix list. The practical ones:

🖥️ Graphical Mode

• ✅ Equilibrium Calculator (Advanced): missing axis conditions restored; freeze on custom conditions gone.
• ✅ Educational Aqueous Calculator: solution electron Ze no longer eats the 3-element limit — a simple Fe Pourbaix diagram is possible in the educational install (updated example T_21a).
• ✅ Chinese / Korean / Japanese UI fonts render correctly on My Project.
• ✅ Thermodynamic Factor axis unit is now J/mol (it was wrongly labelled m²/s).
• ✅ Plot titles keep the formatting saved in the project file even when a global plot theme is applied.
• ✅ Property Model heat maps no longer show garbage cells after interpolation.
• ✅ User databases work again inside Binary and Ternary Calculators.

⌨️ Console + both modes

• ✅ Clearer errors when the application environment is wrong.
• ✅ Equilibria used for plot labels time out instead of hanging the UI.
• ✅ Ternary-module crashes (including some macOS paths) fixed.

📐 Property Models

• ✅ Yield Strength: solid-solution and grain-boundary strengthening on by default; Total yield strength is the default Y quantity; precipitate volume fraction shown when it is a matrix composition set.
• ✅ Scheil: solute trapping no longer requires a mobility database.
• ✅ Martensitic steel / flow-stress family: UTS and uniform elongation correctly remap to fracture strength / elongation at fracture when necking is not predicted; high-strain engineering-stress conversion corrected.
• ✅ Ti Alloy Strength: grain-boundary strengthening on by default.

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💻 System Requirements for Thermo-Calc 2026b

Component	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	16 GB	32 GB (add 2–6 GB per extra parallel calculation)
Disk	10 GB free	50 GB SSD — Process Metallurgy and TC-Python caching want fast, large disks
CPU	64-bit with SSSE3 (mandatory since 2017b)
Windows	Windows 11 only. ⛔ Windows 10 support dropped in 2026b
Linux	RHEL 9, RHEL 10, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, openSUSE Leap 15.6 (X11 needed for GUI installer / DICTRA plots)
macOS	Sequoia 15.x and Tahoe 26.x. TQ-Interface and MATLAB toolbox are not available on Mac
TC-Python	Python 3.11 or newer
TQ-Interface	Fortran toolchain; vendor tests VS 2019 + Intel oneAPI 2024.0 (Windows)
TC-Toolbox for MATLAB	MATLAB 2021b – 2026a, Windows, valid MATLAB licence

⛔ Already discontinued: Windows 7/8 (since 2021b), all 32-bit OS (since 2018a). Older Thermo-Calc 2020b–2024b need a vendor patch to run on macOS 15.1; 2026b runs natively on Sequoia/Tahoe.

🔎 Confirm your build under Help → About. Anything below 2026.2.201356-265 is not current.

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📦 What Is Included in the Thermo-Calc 2026b Suite?

Product	Role in 2026b
Thermo-Calc (core)	Equilibria, phase & property diagrams, Scheil, aqueous / Pourbaix, Property Models, Navigator
DICTRA	Diffusion-controlled transformations
TC-PRISMA	Nucleation, growth, coarsening; matrix switch; nucleation on precipitates
Additive Manufacturing Module	Melt pool, printability, EBM (from 2026a), evaporation (new in 2026b)
Process Metallurgy Module	Steel + slag process calculations (needs TCOX8+ and M&SS for full use)
TC-Python	Automate everything above in Python 3.11+
TQ-Interface	Embed Thermo-Calc in Fortran/C codes; now GES6-capable
TC-Toolbox for MATLAB	Same calculations inside MATLAB 2021b–2026a

You buy the core platform once, then add only the modules and databases your team needs. All of them install into one working environment.

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🧠 Interesting Facts (great for “People also ask” and rich snippets)

• 🕰️ Development of Thermo-Calc started in 1977. The first working program existed in 1981 — more than forty years of CALPHAD software history.
• 📡 DICTRA (diffusion) launched in 1994. TC-PRISMA (precipitation) in 2011. The unified Thermo-Calc platform that wraps every tool arrived in 2013.
• 📅 Since spring 2015, version numbers are the calendar year plus a or b. There is no “Thermo-Calc 27.0” — 2026b is the second drop of 2026.
• 🌍 Vendor figures: 2,000+ customer organisations, 60+ countries, used at a large fraction of top materials-science universities and by many of the world’s largest aerospace and manufacturing companies.
• 📈 2026b is the first release that refuses Windows 10, timed with Microsoft’s end-of-support announcement.
• 🔬 TCNI14 is the first time the flagship superalloy database is openly positioned for Co-based γ/γ′ alloys and hydrogen in the same framework as Ni-based grades.
• 🧱 TCUHTM3 now includes MAX phases — a materials family that is electrically conductive like a metal and stiff like a ceramic, relevant to hypersonics and extreme environments.
• 🧂 TCSALT3 is not just “another metal database”: it targets thermal-energy storage salts and neodymium electrolysis — energy and rare-earth process metallurgy.
• 🎓 The educational edition still cannot do unlimited aqueous chemistry, but 2026b finally lets students add one extra element besides O, H and Ze so a real Fe-Pourbaix teaching example runs.

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🎯 Who Is Thermo-Calc 2026b For?

• 🧲 Alloy designers screening thousands of compositions before casting a heat
• 🔥 Heat-treatment and precipitation engineers who need full thermal cycles, not a single isothermal hold
• 🖨️ Metal AM teams qualifying laser / EBM parameters and chemistry loss
• 🏭 Process metallurgists coupling slag, steel and oxides
• 🛡️ Corrosion specialists building Pourbaix and aqueous diagrams
• 🤖 ICME / digital-twin groups feeding CALPHAD data into FE, phase-field, or machine-learning models via TC-Python or TQ

🛒 How to Specify the Product on Your PO

Write: Thermo-Calc Software Package 2026b (build 2026.2.201356-265), plus the add-on modules and databases you need (example: TCNI14 + MOBNI7 + TC-PRISMA + AM Module). Databases are licensed separately from the GUI. Maintenance & Support Subscription is required for material-specific Property Model libraries and for the free 14.1 / 15.1 / 8.1 / 15.1 database patches listed above.

❓ Short FAQ

Is 2026b compatible with my 2025b project files?
Yes — open them in 2026b. Expect a one-time faster load and a different progress-bar behaviour; calculation settings are preserved.

Do I need every new database?
No. Buy the alloy family you work on. TCNI14 is the headline if you do superalloys; TCAL11 / TCMG9 / TCHEA9 / TCCU7 / TCUHTM3 / TCSALT3 are independent choices.

Can I stay on Windows 10?
Not with an official 2026b install. Migrate to Windows 11 or use a supported Linux / macOS build.

What changed since 2026a (January)?
2026a introduced the Graphical Aqueous Calculator and electron-beam melting in the AM Module. 2026b adds Navigator, speed, evaporation, precipitation realism, Ti flow stress, and the nine-database wave.

Where do I see the exact version?
Help → About. Target: 2026.2.201356-265.

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Senior materials engineer · Aerospace alloys

Thermo-Calc 2026b is still the CALPHAD tool I open every week. The new Property Navigator finally cuts the “which model do I pick?” guesswork, projects load more than twice as fast as 2025b, and TCNI14 covering both Ni- and Co-superalloys plus hydrogen is a real upgrade for our design loop. TC-PRISMA’s matrix-phase switch and nucleation-on-precipitate options make heat-treatment simulations look like the plant, not a textbook isothermal hold. AM evaporation tracking is the first time I could flag chemistry drift before a build, not after. Steep licence cost and Windows 10 being dropped are the only caveats—if your team already lives in CALPHAD, this is the release to standardise on.

— R&D Metallurgist, 8 years on Thermo-Calc