NE/Nastran opinons

[craigj]

Group,

Does anyone here use NE/Nastran? We are thinking about buying a seat and wondering what kind of reputation they have compared to other "mid-priced" FEA programs. We have used Ansys, but this time we are not prepared to spend that much money on a license (Ansys can be upwards of 30k for a mechanical license)...So please if any comparisions are made please compare like priced SW.

Thanks,
CJ

 

[arnoldh]

Hi craig,

I am hoping you will get a lot of usefull replies. I have scheduled a benchmark of different programs in the next two months and NE/Nastran is on of the programs I sorted out. I hink this will be a very interesting benchmark, since I also sorted out MI/Nastran, NX/Nastran, Msc. Nastran and Cosmos designstar (they also sent me CosmosM, but this will be too much). Apart from Cosmos, I will use FEMAP as pre/post for the other ones, so I will get a nice comparison regarding calculation time, results etc. I will compare the results with Msc.Marc results, which we also have in our company. Can't wait to get the results

 

[craigj]

I hope you will post your results and methods of judgement when you are done. You should also try the Ansys WB product...I have found the Workbench interface to be extremely capable, robust and easy to use (I use SWx as my CAD interface).

Still looking for thoughts on NE/Nastran...anyone?

CJ

 

[chris9]

I'm also considering purchasing NE/Nastran, CosmosWorks, Cosmos DesignStar or ANSYS Workbench. I'm thinking of ruling out ANSYS Workbench because you can't do non-linear material and fatique. Anyone who can offer advice will be welcome.

 

[craigj]

You can get material nonlinearity and fatique in Workbench.

Really it depends on which version of Ansys you get. Workbench itself will let you write in any capibilities inherent in your license. For example to do material nonlinearity in WB you would need Ansys Structural...

BUT Ansys is much more expensive than NE/Nastran ;-)

CJ

 

[rjw57]

craigj

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have in regard to the software and the company, but my only comparison is with Algor. I would prefer to do it off line if possible. Let me know here and if you are still interested, we can attemept to arrange a follow-up.

rjw57

 

[FEMdude]

I purchased NE/Nastran about two months ago, and have been very pleased to it (leasing of complete modeler&engines). Compared to MSC/Patran-Nastran, which I am forced to use also by an aerospace industry customer, it is more user-friendly and modern, and of course, much cheaper. If you had no customers demanding "industry standard" softwares (=ansys or MSC), I cannot see any reason for paying the extra money.