Questions about Salome & Code_Aster/CalculiX

[Zaz1920]

Hey guys,

This is my first time posting so I apologize if I'm breaking any rules. I've been doing a lot of research on free/low-cost FEA software. I'm working with some Solidworks models that have already been created so I'm not concerned about the modeling side of things, but I'm looking at trying to make meshes and run some static and thermal loading on parts. I'm pursuing working with Lisa/Mecway, but I had a few questions regarding these free software packages. A lot of the information I've found on Code_Aster/CalculiX was also several years old which makes me wonder what has been developed within the past few years. Here are a few questions I've come up with that I couldn't find answered:

-Can these solvers work with both static and thermal loads at the same time? I've seen that they can be run independently, but what about at the same time? I would like to be able to run an analysis with both types of loads, but if not I can work with independent tests.

-Do you need Linux to run Salome and these solvers? Most of the videos/sources I've seen used Linux but I also saw a video of it running in some form of 64-bit Windows. I ask because I don't have much experience with it and though I've been told it's not hard I'd rather not deal with it if I don't have to.

-On the Salome/Code_Aster website they had some training that covered a lot of the Python coding that's done for the command file, however in the few tutorial videos I saw they never coded anything. Is a working knowledge of Python required to use these?

For anyone that has experience with these programs, do you think they'll be able to do what I'm looking for?

As always, thanks for your help.

 

[mp87]

Hi,

I'll try to answers your questions, although please keep in mind that the last time I used Code_Aster was during my Master's thesis, some three years ago, and that I'm a materials engineer not a calculation expert.

Code_Aster is a FEM tool developed by EDF for the structural assessment of nuclear power plants, it allows to do wonderful things such as thermomechanical analyses, XFEM crack propagation studies and God only knows what else. A combined static/thermal analysis is quite a joke if you know where to put your hands in... Which is of course the most difficult task! The code in itself is written in FORTRAN 77, but rather than dealing with it directly you use a sort of "meta-code" (there is surely a more proper term for it) which is French-based (the commands sound like DETRUIRE, DEFI_NAPPE, etc.). This meta-code can be integrated nicely with Python scripting, so it is recommended to know it a bit in order to exploit its full potentiality.

The best sources for information are the official documentation and the related forum, both accessible at

http://www.code-aster.org.

In the download page there doesn't seem to be a Windows version, maybe what you have seen was an emulator of Linux environment. You can get good suggestions by posting in the forum, and have much easier replies if you write in French. Should you want to invest money in the attempt to improve your programming skills, I recommend you some courses organised by Dr.-Ing. Ackva and its German crew (

http://www.code-aster.de).