Try contacting LMS, they'll probably let you borrow it for a month if you are a serious customer.
As to what it is, well, if you don't know why do you want to evaluate it? It is a powerful signal acquisition and analysis suite, widely used in the automotive industry, for things like modal analysis, rotating machinery analysis, noise path analysis etc etc etc.
I would add that it is probably the most expensive of the alternatives, and the annual licensing fees are in due proportion. On the other hand it definitely works, is stable, easy to use (though frankly if you've used one of these programs there is not much difficulty in using another) and is powerful, at least under Unix. Cheers
I had to struggle agains LMS software as well, and I agree with Greg in saying that user-friendly software has nothing to do with LINK, SCADAS or PIMENTO. In terms of results they are anyway the state-of-the-art.
By the way, anybody knows about cheaper softwares/systems for general purpose dynamic analyses? Thanks, bye.
It is a lot easier to customise then the LMS stuff, and the support costs are less unbearable, and the aftersales support is excellent. It still costs a fair bit if you want a high end analysis system with all the bells and whistles. Their demo works on a normal PC.
Another option would be the latest B&K incarnation (Pulse/Artemis, I think). We use B&K transducers into Prosig a/d direct to laptop, then analyse the data on Prosig or dump it to the Unix boxes and use LMS for the advanced stuff. Our modal analysis is all done on the LMS boxes.
I run LMS CADA-X (the data acquisition and analysis part of the LMS family) on four separate SCADAS acquisition systems in our laboratory (a total of over 80 aquisition channels). We run courses on modal analysis using LMS. I agree that as a multi-channel fft analyser, it is probably no better than any other system, but the analysis side of it is far in advance of anything else. There are plenty of additional toolboxes as well. The scripting abilities mean that you can tailor it to your individual needs. We have developed several applications with it to impliment novel system identification methods and force reconstruction techniques. I suspect that the majority of LMS users don't go much further than basic single exciter testing and modal analysis.
Bear in mind that it only supports "top end" acquisition hardware and that costs money! User support it excellent.
The other excellent piece of the LMS suite that we use is the transfer path analysis. Although the idea is simple enough, in practice it was always too difficult to keep track of all the data. The LMS module to do this is excellent, we probably have one of these in progress 50% of the time. Again, we actually take the data (32-64 channels, typically) on the Prosig system, then upload it to the LMS.
DSPT Siglab/Matlab platform are a good compromise for versatility at reduced costs but it comes with reduced stability as well...A lot of people have developped codes under the Matlab environment making similar things as what you can find on LMS (NPA)...I use it with STAR systems for modal or ODS and it works. This is useful for onsite diagnosis but it does not have the number of channel and consequent stability that you will find on LMS...Another powerful system is MTS (Ideas Test).
I ahve seen much discussion about the testing side(Data acquisation and analysis), what about the CAE side?
LMS is having High end CAE modules for Vibro-acoustic modeling & analysis. Sound radiation from structures,scattering of sound waves and transmission of sound waves along the structures can be predicted at the design stage itself.We can get wide variety results such as acoustic pressure distribution,particle velocity,sound intensity,sound power,etc.And also structural & acoustic modal parameters,modal participation fators,panel contribution can be calculated in much better manner.
I think LMS is the only comapny involved in both testing & CAE software.
Hear to the sound at the design stage itself.
But it is a numerical tool to be used with caution, understanding it's capabilities & limitations.
