ABAQUS/CAE vs FEMAP

[ThomasH]

Hi all

One department at the company I'm working at is in the process of evaluating which pre/post processor to primarily use in the future. I have a lot of experience with FEMAP but some people want to go with ABAQUS since that will probably be the solver.

My question is: Can anybody compare FEMAP and ABAQUS/CAE?
Primarily we will create models and run them, there is no import/export to other softwares today.

How "good" is the API in CAE compared to the one in FEMAP, any ideas?

Also: The "old" software ABAQUS/Pre and ABAQUS/Post, have they been made redundant by ABAQUS/CAE or do they coexist?

Any input is appreciated

Regards

 

[annebai]

ThomasH,
Is there any particular reason you are only considering FEMAP and ABAQUS ?
I realize I am throwing a wild card so I won't name what I am using but what I currently use has great PRE, POST-processing capabilities and a really good API. It has a comprehensive set of solvers and is reasonnably priced.
A.

 

[ThomasH]

The reason for my question is to get an idea about how strong ABAQUS/CAE is for pre/post. Why I mentioned FEMAP is because I have long experience with FEMAP. So it's a simple reference for me. I have other references as well but the main question at hand is really how "good" ABAQUS/CAE is compared to others.

If you have experience with ABAQUS/CAE but another or no reference your input would still be appreciated.

 

[corus]

Abaqus CAE is written for running Abaqus jobs and has therefore a much greater advantage over general pre-processors. I found that using general pre-processors in the past was more trouble than it was worth as they generally involved a great deal of editing of the input file, sometimes involving having to develop my own software in order to correctly prepare an input file. If you have several different kinds of FE packages then using a general pre-processor to prepare the input file would have an advantage, taking everything into account, otherwise CAE is a very robust package for Abaqus.

corus

 

[johnhors]

To answer ThomasH, Abaqus Pre and Post are dead, they do not coexist with Abaqus/CAE or Abaqus/View (which is just the post module of CAE).

As far as Abaqus/CAE integration with the solver goes it compares very poorly with other self contained pre/solve/post packages, a lot of non-linear options available within the solver cannot be setup in the preprocessor. The vast majority of Abaqus users, use either Patran or Femap to pre and post process their models. CAE has improved (a lot!) from it's initial release, it at last has a native windows interface, thus dumping the truly awfull X windows emulation of previous versions, whereas Femap has always been windows based. CAE has always struggled with complex 3D geometry, especially from Catia.

I think you will be very disappointed with CAE after using Femap. I know a lot of experienced Abaqus users and without exception, they all manually edit their data decks for non-linear analyses.

 

[ThomasH]

Thank you for your input.

I think I now have an idea about the pros and cons of CAE based on your input as well as others. We will make a serious evaluation before we decide anyting as was the original plan.

Thanks again

 

[krolleken]

Hi there,
you can't really compare FEMAP and ABAQUS because they do not have the same features.
Femap is very user friendly but relies on a good solver to do give the 'correct answer' to the numerical question.
The pre and post is indeed a lot easier (especially CAE) in Femap but the latest Abaqus version has a lot of new and userfriendly features as well. Talking about the algorythms and stability I really don't think that a lot of other software can handle the things Abaqus can...going from implicit to explicit, coupled...with the same level of reliability.

 

[ThomasH]

krolleken

I may be wrong here but I think that comparing ABAQUS/CAE with FEMAP is fair. I'm not trying to compare the entire ABAQUS package with FEMAP, only the pre/post-processing capabilities.

So far I have only very limited insights in ABACUS/CAE but it seems to me that FEMAP is much stronger in the pre/post-department. Then again, I have spent much more time with FEMAP than with CAE so that probably explains some of the experienced limitations in CAE.