Does anyone use ANSYS FEA?

Ed - I've no info for you regarding the ansys fea, but if you do install it, I'd certainly like to hear how you liked it.

Hul

Ed Huntress wrote:

OK, Phil. I'll give a report. If you check out their website, you'll see there are three student versions. I'll start with the newest and simplest one, "Discovery Live Student." It includes their new 3D CAD component.

No, but if you need to know something about NASTRAN..

--sp

I'll keep it in mind. I did have some time to get started and I learned some things that WON'T work. I'll give a report soon.

I started with (and only have) LisaFEA

The reason is that the tutorials looked right, they did make sense, and with no tutor and no-one to show me anything, I was able to depart upwards-and-onwards from the tutorials and start modelling things from my experience. Becoming ever more complex as I got the hang of it.

It enables me to model steel structurals. What it indicates aligns with cases I know about "in real life", and sometimes it shows things where I realise "That's why you see {such-and-such-thing-happen} in real life!" - you've seen something and pondered, and the FEA shows why it happens.

(eg - ripples at the edges of a beam web when a vertical column intersects it with nothing underneath to steady it).

I suspect the big-name FEA's do more more things. I think Lisa-FEA is linear-elastic only, re. structural modelling.

So I am otherwise neutral in commenting...

Rich Smith

After 30 some years I broke down and took a NASTAN/PATRAN class the company gives off hours. I just finished modeling a Al channel.

If you do big complex structures where one builds up plates and beams NASTRAN is a contender. Modeling small parts with a ton of contacts I would look elsewhere.

Dan