Also, what image do you want to send to your perspective customers? You dont want to scare off potential customers with unproven, no-name software.Īrgonne National Laboratory RE: Price of FEA software? IRstuff (Aerospace) 2 Sep 14 15:37įEA is used in specific portions of the design cycle it's therefore generally difficult to keep an FEA expert sufficiently busy, and up-to-date. Ansys aint bad, but Abaqus has a better nonlinear solver.ĥ. This is supposed to be why Abaqus is better than Ansys. From what I've heard, the Algor solver runs slowly and suffers convergence issues when running nonlinear. Not a lot of fun when you change computers or operating system, etc.Ĥ.

You also don't get tech support, error reports, new releases, etc. If they are using Nastran, for instance, you have a better chance to get that work if you are also using Nastran.Ģ. He may go outside to consultants to get through a period of peak demand. The customer does not always have enough analysts and licenses to do all the work in the allotted time. I see that Autodesk recently acquired NEI-Nastran, so apparently they agree.Īrgonne National Laboratory RE: Price of FEA software? bongirs (Mechanical)ġ. I've have not heard good things about it for anything other than linear static.

Autodesk Simulation is the old Algor program and is pretty low end (sorry Vince) and I would be surprised if anybody big in Detroit uses it. Of course, you can add ANSYS/LS-Dyna to an Ansys bundle. LS_Dyna used to be free from Livermore, but you needed a pre/post package like Femap. You will likely not be able to afford or master every CAD system out there, so Design Modeler will fill that gap. Also, Ansys Design Modeler is great for fixing mutant geometry from various customers. Multiphysics was about 45k$ for a perpetual license, + an annual tech support fee. You could start with Structural, then upgrade to Mechanical to get heat transfer, then upgrade to Multiphysics if the need arises nad your income stream improves. I believe ABAQUS is only available as a lease and it is very spendy. Do a good job with that and they may give you complete projects. That way you position yourself to take on routine overflow work where you build the model, run the analysis, and then transfer all the files to the customer and he takes it from there. Find out what software your intended customers are using and acquire that.

Ansys 15 price