Sorry, I know this one has been done to death but I have read the previous postings and can't find the answers I need.
I have a project to evaluate FEA software for use in determining the long term performance of plastic products. Products contain complex surfaces; a typical example would be a highly styled fuel tank. The loads would be uniform forces and pressures at slightly elevated general temperature with some localised non-steady state temperatures.
The material is known for its poor creep performance (and we don't have an alternative we can use in our manufacturing process) so I cannot make a linear behaviour assumption and yield results that mean anything.
The obvious choice for a SolidWorks user would be CosmosWorks or DesignStar because of the integration with Solidworks models and assemblies, and the ease of use because of the familiar interface, but I doubt either is capable of the analysis we require. Does anyone have experience of this type of problem and if so what software do they use, does it yield really useable results, and is it fairly easy to get to grips with?
The other issue is cost, would I be able to get results from something in the $10,000 - 15,000 range or do I need to spend $50,000 +. If the latter then we would outsource but who to?
Too many questions!