Anybody enjoying ALG/Nastran?
Anybody enjoying ALG/Nastran?
(OP)
I was wondering if anyone uses ALG/Nastran? I heard it was just Algor with a Nastran translator. Does anyone know how it compares to MSC, NX, NEi Nastran? I am not sure if this is the correct forum or the Algor one for this question.





RE: Anybody enjoying ALG/Nastran?
As for the "Nastran" term in ALG/Nastran, it raises the question of what "Nastran" really is anymore. MSC is clearly based on the original NASA code. Cosmic Nastran, may it rest in peace, would likely also be considered the "true" Nastran based on the NASA code with nearly 40 years of development. Are newer codes still using the 1970 solver? If not, are they really Nastran? If they are, is it still efficient? If they're not, does the "Nastran" label allow them some illegitimate confidence?
I'm not a developer, so smarter people than I will have to respond, but I think the term "Nastran" is over-rated and I hope engineers are validating the software and their use of it. If utilized properly, NEiNastran, Algor, and others, I'm sure, are excellent software packages. They all have their bugs that must be worked out.
My 2 cents
RE: Anybody enjoying ALG/Nastran?
NASTRAN file translation
thread810-129702
We used to use Algor with ALG/Nastran and have since switched for several reasons, this product being one of them. If you do any serious analysis and require true Nastran compatibility do not buy this product. What Algor is selling is their solver with a Nastran translator to write out a bulk data file. They are pushing this as a viable Nastran solver. It is not. What we found is that for basic models with simple elements, loads, and boundary conditions, it translates out the correct bulk data. If you go the other way and read in a typical Nastran file it will miss or skip a lot of entries. This is very dangerous.
RE: Anybody enjoying ALG/Nastran?
I would say that the "Nastran" name or label is not neccessarily overrated but very missused. ALG/Nastran and NEiNastran (as far as I know) use the Nastran bulkdata format and have their own solver, not based on NASA's code, to do the numbercrunching. MSC.Nastran and NX Nastran are based on the original code and a lot of development.
I thing that in some respects using the name and not the code is marketing and nothing else. It doesn't mean that the procuct is bad. But the sales department doesn't seem to think that it can sell "alone".
RE: Anybody enjoying ALG/Nastran?
RE: Anybody enjoying ALG/Nastran?
Not to be argumentative, but I don't understand:
followed by
Sounds like there really are no true Nastran's at this point, so what does marketing repackaging matter? If the answer is right, it's right. If it's wrong, we need to make sure as analysts that we are properly using the product. If we are and it's STILL wrong...then there is a serious problem.
I agree that NEiNastran is a great product and MSC is living off old glory. I haven't used NXNastran or any other flavor, and I'm not really concerned with what Algor has done with ALG/Nastran, but haven't all of these packages basically ?
RE: Anybody enjoying ALG/Nastran?