The Best Software for FEA Modeling and Analysis

most people suggest Ansys.

It will change which type of analaysis you want to make.

For example ansys, nastran and abaqus are best choosen for mechanics of material and Fluent and star cd for fluid dynamic etc. This examples decresing like but all FEA program has advantage and disadvantage opposed the other

The best FEA software is not always the best tool for modeling.

There has been a trend towards bundling 3D parametric engineering software with a separately developed FEA package and making the two interactive in real time.

The advantage being that each package is optimized for what it does best without as many compromises. With enough memory, you can have both packages running at the same time and edit changes on the fly rapidly and redo the analysis.

Solidworks purchased Structural Research a while ago and started offering the linear version of Cosmos in a Professional bundle. I have not tried it yet but frankly, it's difficult being impartial with a package that is so intuitive and cost effective.

I cut my teeth on Rasna (Razna?) back in the 90's while a Pro E user. Pro E was one tough package to get comfortable with back then and the added complexity of the FEA software made it matters even worse! Today's offerings are much, much better.

L.J.

If you want to do multiphysics modeling look at COMSOL.

how do i draw the human skull in 2D on comsol?

The question is not which is best, it should be which is best for you. This should take into account what you require from a FEA software package. I evaluated the available software last spring and came down to two systems FeMap and Ansys. Both said that they would handle the the solutions we required. While I believe Ansys to be a superior system in terms of abilities, you may not need all of the extra abilities. When it came down to a decision the powers that be went with FeMap on the grounds that it was approx 40% less expensive while still fulfilling our basic requirements. We did attempt to get a 1 month license for each to evaluate on our own, but neither company was interested in this idea on the grounds that they've had companies abuse this arrangement using the software for their project and not making a purchase. For what it's worth, when I was asking questions of both companies, the people from Ansys seemed much more receptive to detailed questioning and I got a better overall vibe from their company.

Best answer is: It depends...

1) What do you need to analyze?

2) Do you model outside of the CAE/FEA program and then import for analysis, or do you expect to model inside the CAE program?

If you're an Autodesk/Inventor user, Autodesk just bought Algor. It's a good package for lots of different types of CAE, including CFD. Expect to see it tightly integrated with Inventor in the near future.

Hooker