FEA Workstation
FEA Workstation
(OP)
Is it possible to setup an engineering server on network and run SolidWorks(with FEA)? We have engineers in several locations and wish to setup a powerful server to share. My VAR is telling me that SolidWorks is not supporting server architecture at all. If so, how do you deal with it? In your company, do you have a designated "special/powerful" workstation for that purpose?
Alphad
Alphad






RE: FEA Workstation
Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion
RE: FEA Workstation
Alphad
RE: FEA Workstation
When I used to run FEA at my last company, we let it run overnight, or lunch for small parts. A 6-8 hour run was typical for our bigger designs, on a quad-core.
Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion
RE: FEA Workstation
BAck when I used MSC NASTRAN, I had a second disk drive installed on my workstation. That drive was used only for FEA data files (those generated during the actual analysis). That way, the data read/write did not interfere with the normal system processes that needed to read/write the C: drive.
I'm not sure how the above would apply to COSMOS. Might help.
If FEA is taking time away from a design workstation, maybe get a separate workstation for FEA. Even if it is older and slower, at least it is not stopping your workday.
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com-SolidWorks API VB programming help
RE: FEA Workstation
RE: FEA Workstation
SolidWorks can be installed and run on servers, correct?
Depending on network/server setup, the performance varies. If the data read/write during FEA number crunching occurs on the server (not your local hard disk) configured with high-speed RAID 5 hard disk array with 2X minimum quad-core CPU and plus the other proper configuration, the overall performance should be better than a typical engineering workstation.
I hope I read it correctly and understood correctly.
Anyone out there actually running SolidWorks on a network server? I want to confirm what I've been told by VAR is wrong. Thank you very much for your response.
Alphad
RE: FEA Workstation
Performance is based on hardware, etc.
Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion
RE: FEA Workstation
http://www
eDrawings and the SNL is supported on a Windows Server OS.
Maybe I'm mis-interpreting your intentions. If the server is running a regular non-server Windows OS, then yes you will be able to install and run SW locally on that server computer.
However, there is a big difference between running SW locally on a server, and installing and running SW on a server for the purpose of accessing SW across a network on client computers.
Also, if people are accessing the server during the analysis, both the analysis and the remote accessing will be slower. Possibly even slower than a 'typical' engineering workstation.
In summary, a workstation dedicated for FEA would be best.
RE: FEA Workstation
Eric
RE: FEA Workstation
This is a opportunity to save a significant amount of money for your company though. If you have more than 1 person who is going to be running the simulation it would make sense to by 1 super workstation (not server) with 64bit windows and have everyone run their simulations remotely. Otherwise you will need to get a lot of 64bit workstation for the individuals to run the simulations. I was constantly fighting with simplifying simulations so though would run on my old 32bit workstation with 3GB of useable RAM.
If you are using a network license you will not use anymore licenses also. The remote machine will not check out a license. Only the license on the machine you are sitting at would pull a license.
RE: FEA Workstation
Scott Baugh, CSWP![[pc2] pc2](https://www.tipmaster.com/images/pc2.gif)
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policieswww.scottjbaugh.com
RE: FEA Workstation