'> is it worth spending $700 on a NASTRAN and/or ANSYS based FE course?' - I paraphrase. The advice which I include is probably worth a lot more than $700 - for free!
The link doesn't easily show the course and I can't be bothered hunting through their web site to find it.
Is ASME good? - yes, they won't lead you astray.
Is NASTRAN worth learning? Yes, because all aerospace companies use it, few others do.
Is learning NASTRAN a good introduction to FE? - Definitely not. It is an old 60's/70's code which has not been updated much. It is an assembly of '300' PhD projects for NASA which were packaged up as a product and then licenced to any US citizen/company for $100. It's development over the last 30 years has been minimal. Compared to more modern offerings it is quirky, buggy, and difficult to understand. The documentation is poor.
Is learning ANSYS a good introduction to FE? - Much better. A proper, designed product with much better documentation and program structure. It suffered in the 1990's from over-extension and resulting poor structure. It has since been teased apart and re-structured making the program flow and simulation flow much better. A serious contender for best FE.
ABAQUS is by far the best in terms of understanding, quality, documentation, learning about FE, functionality, etc. It is sadly nowhere near top of the list for getting a job. ANSYS and NASTRAN beat it hands down in this respect.
Next, it is VERY important to understand the difference between the FE package and the pre/post processor which you use to generate input for the analysis. I know many people who are expert with say PATRAN, and can use it to produce input files for NASTRAN which they never touch or understand, yet believe the results blindly. The same argument could also be levelled to a much lesser extent at ANSYS users where the pre/post processing and analysis are seamlessly integrated.......... ABAQUS similar although some people use ABAQUS/CAE blindly whereas others (like me) use it with PATRAN and edit the input files extensively.
If you want to get a good feel for FE you probably have to wait for your first job, which you got presumably for other qualifications. Once there you will be sent on courses or given the manual and stuck in student corner to play for a few months.
Most modern courses have FE in the university free to use - why are you not using this? It matters little which software you are using in the early days?
Regards,
Gwolf
