FEA Packages 4

[kreker]

I am a Mechanical Engineer involved in Machine Design. The company I work for is looking into FEA packages for doing mostly static deflection, static stress, assembies with surface contact (ie bolted joints, etc.), and possibly frequency response and fatigue. We would use the system to evaluate the general design and would not be getting into heavily detailed analysis. We use Autodesk Inventor to model our designs. What packages would you recommend and why? Thanks!

 

[johnhors]

You could consider either Roshaz (

http://www.roshaz.com)

or FemDesigner (

http://www.femdesigner.com)

both of which will offer very cost effective yet very capable solutions for what you require. Models can be imported into either using Iges files.

 

[SWComposites]

kreker - what makes you think that contact, frequency response and fatigue analyses are not "heavily detailed analyses"?? All of these require at least a reasonable level of FEA expertise.

 

[ahbugeye]

I am quite happy with ANSYS. The stucutral modual let's you do linear and non-linear analysis. There are several methods of importation available in ANSYS, including native CAD data.

 

[kreker]

Thank you all for the replies. I'm gathering information on your recommendations. I have used ANSYS Professional in the past to look at static deflections so I have some basic FEA knowledge. In my industry 90% of the problems involve knowing how the model will deflect, we are usually so far from over stressing things that it is not cost effective to look too closely at it. My current goal is to be somewhat unbiased and find a package that would give us accurate deflection results but be able to give us good stress information if we needed it, assuming the operators would have enough FEA knowledge to do it properly. There are several what I call "black box" type programs out there (ie., import the model, 10 clicks and you have answer) which I know enough to be fairly skeptical of.

Knowing I am mostly looking for deflection and would definately increase my expertise before attempting anything more, does anyone have any thoughts on ANSYS DesignSpace or ALGOR(the two I have samples of right now)? What things do I need to be aware of with these "black box" programs when it comes to deflection, stress, etc?

 

[rjw57]

I would wholeheartedly recommend NeNastran. I too use Autodesk Inventor generated models for the analysis I do. I also use FEMAP as the pre to NeNastran for modeling as well. I find that the interface between Inventor and FEMAP AND FEMAP and NeNastran to be seamless (Inventor translates to FEMAP via ACIS). The packages available from NeNastran will cover everything you are looking for (and more) with the exception of fatigue analysis. This would be a third party add-on. My advice to you is to stay away from Algor products. I do not beleive them to be as robust in capability as NeNastran or the other major FEA players. But please don't take my word on it. Get a demo from any company you are considering and "try before you buy." You won't regret it. I have no ability to compare NeNastran with Ansys, however, I'm very comfortable telling you that NeNastran seems to have an unspoken goal to take market share from MSC, a known leader in the FEA software business. Judging from the customer base NeNastran has, I would have to say they are on the mark. I also replied in another post earlier this year (Jan 11 2004, thread727-75458) regarding the question "How do MSC Nastran, nx Nastran, and NE Nastran compare?" You might want to look at this thread as well. You never mention support in your requirements, but I think that if you poll the majority of FEA users (or any scientific package user for that matter) support is the most important part of the package. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked as a secondary issue to price during the acquisition phase. I can say unequivocally that NeNastran support is second to none. This is not just my opinion, it appears to be the opinion of many of the people that have decided to purchase FEA from NeNastran. Also, check out nenastran.com and look at their support page "knowledge base center" for some great info on their product. You will have to "sign up," but don't fear, they are not sales hounds. You can also **download** (not request) a demo package there as well. I'm not sure if there is a 300-node limit or if this is fully functional, but I am sure that if you are serious, they can hook you up with a full unlimited demo pacakge. Lastly, if you need other opinions, when you go to the site, they have a new community forum, where I am sure that a number of people can answer any questions you may have even if it is comparisons to other packages. Hope this helps.

 

[gurmeet2003]

Kreker,

I have used ANSYS Designspace package for the kind of analysis described by you with lot of success. It is a lot more user friendly then the classical ANSYS interface. I think you may want to give it a try.

Thanks,
Gurmeet