Mechanica has a great interface but PTC has done little with it over the years. The solver is limited. I think it is a solid application for designers doing preliminary design work. What is OK about Algor is the FEMPRO preprocessor but I have had some serious accuracy issues with the solver...
All 3 softwares are old and none of them have the direct interface to CAD that I would like to see. The current Patran version goes back 16 years and since then has changed little. The code is dead and will soon be replaced by MSC. It was never designed to be a Windows application which is...
This issue is addressed also on the Algor forum
NASTRAN file translation
thread810-129702
We used to use Algor with ALG/Nastran and have since switched for several reasons, this product being one of them. If you do any serious analysis and require true Nastran compatibility do not buy this...
We are also evaluating this product and find it to be very accurate and fast. We have been having trouble with our existing FEA and plan to replace it with NEiNastran. So far the support from noran has been good. No complaints.
I am not in your database because the organisation I work for purchased the licenses, not me personally. My management has consulted our legal counsel and has decided not to allow me to send in anything because evidently Algor has sued customers in the past that have posted negative remarks on...
We will provide all models in our report to each vendor when we complete our testing. You will have an opportunity to response then.
The specifics of my computer are in the beginning of this thread. I assumed you read the entire thread.
We have some specific benchmark models that are not in...
Thanks Sam. I am not sure there is really anything to "discuss" on these models. We started comparing Algor results to other solvers because a company we work with questioned some of our results they obtained using ANSYS and ABAQUS and found some large differences. Garland suggested we evaluate...
I got a hold of an evaluation copy of NENastran and have run comparisons to Algor, ABAQUS against NAFEMS. The warping test cases show good agreement between NENastran and ABAQUS with NAFEMS with both agreeing within 3% of NAFEMS. Algor is over 100 times this error in one test case and I have...
Thanks Garland. I am going to check out NENastran and get back to you. I see the accuracy claims on their website and plan on getting an evaluation copy to compare with ABAQUS and NAFEMS as well as Algor. I know one fix for the shell warping would be to split the highly warped quads into...
There should be no discussion. It is either right or wrong. I understand the element formulations and how to use them just fine. My test cases were quad and hex element benchmarks that assess how robust an element is by considering element initial distortion, warping, skew, etc. Any program does...
I am using ABAQUS Standard to compare to Algor's latest solver version. The speed issue, though very significant, is not as much of a problem as the accuracy one. In several NAFEMS benchmarks (included in ABAQUS and omitted in Algor) we are seeing considerably poor results. I am not sure if we...
I have run this model also in another FEA program on the same exact machine which is a P4 with 512MB of RAM and it took less than 35 minutes. The algor run took 3 days to finish. The results are similar.
The plate accuracy issue is mostly 2d so I can not see how that missing dof is an issue...
I am having some problems running a large linear static model in Algor. The model is 500,000 dof and has been running for 2 days now. Any ideas?
Also, has anyone done there own benchmarking of the 4 node plate element? I am experiencing some accuracy issues with another model when the solution...
Garland,
Thanks! When you say FEMAP interpreting the output, do you mean reading in the nastran input file or bulk data deck? The companies we deal with have nastran with FEMAP or PATRAN and expect the models to import without a hitch. I was considering getting a license of FEMAP so we can...
Thanks Garland,
Is there any special steps to handling thin-walled structures? Are you saying export surface geometry over solid geometry?
What version of NEiWorks do you have? They claim to have added a lot of new features to their latest release.
I agree with gohj with regard to meshing thin walled structures in Algor. We have had a lot of difficulty with importing surface geometry and meshing it. We are looking at some other products for this purpose now including NEiWorks which seems to be a very attractive alternative to...
I have had similar issues with this. Our company has purchased this add-on as well. The biggest issue was that anything from NASTRAN that was complex (MPCs, RBE3 elements, temperature dependance, composites, etc.) read into Algor produces a model that would often not run or would give a much...
