CosmoWorks Advanced Professional

[rlara]

Hi all:

Has anyone used CosmoWorks advanaced professional?. This packedge includes CosmoWorks and GeoStar. I currently use CosmoWorks but have the need to do Linear Dynamic analysis (e.g. Frequency response, random vibration analysis, etc.)for this I would have to up grade to Advance professional. I am trying to decide between upgrading or buying other software like Algor...

Any thoughts

Thanks

 

[duners]

Geostar is an excellent package for completing advanced dynamic analyses. I currently use it to complete random vibration, harmonics, and time response analyses on electronics hardware.
However, all programs have strengths and weaknesses which may help or completely hinder your analysis. Determine your needs and then try out evaluation or demo software. You could then work analytical problems that are similar to your needs and evaluate the results.

Steve

 

[rlara]

Duners:

One of the big concerns with fea software is learning curve. Cosmoworks is very user friendly, it does not take long to get used to it, it’s all done using your mouse. From what I have heard Geostar has a command interface, the question is how long will it take to make this transition. Algor has a similar interface as cosmoworks, and offers a lot more options than Cosmoworks. I got a trial version from Algor and tried it out. There support team was very helpful, a lot better that the support at cosmos. They also offer web-training courses, which would be very helpful. I asked cosmos for a trial version but was told that they could not supply one, they offered to do a Webcast demo. I don’t think doing a webcast will really show me how the program works.

Price wise upgrading to geostar is a bit cheaper, but considering support, training and ease of use I might end up going for algor.

Anyone had any experience using algor?

Thanks for your opinions

 

[jamesh8448]

Your SolidWorks reseller should be able to provide you with a time limited demo license file that will work for any of the Cosmos products without needing a dongle. The programs can be downloaded from the CosmosM website.

I know this is true because I had one for a few weeks, and it worked on any computer I chose.

It's true that Geostar is command line driven. Some of the commands are logical (PT for point, CR for curve), but others are quite cryptic. There would be a considerable learning curve. There are a lot of options in the Geostar commands, but no one seems to know exactly what many of them do. I think the plan is to replace Geostar with DesignStar in the near future.

I used Geostar up until it was ported to Windows in the mid 90's. At that time I changed jobs and quit using CosmosM, and started using Algor. They have steadily improved the interface, and now it is very easy to use with the addition of the FEA editor. They also offer excellent tech support. The webcasts are great also.

I changed jobs again about a year ago, and now I am back to using CosmosWorks and Geostar! I was amazed to see that even though it looks prettier now, Geostar hasn't changed much. CosmosWorks has its limitations, and Geostar is frustrating. I find myself wishing I had Algor again.

 

[rlara]

Jamessh8448

Thanks for your response,

There has been three responses to my posting, two of them saying to stay with cosmos and one (yours) to go for Algor.

We have decided to go for algor, at the beginning they offered great support, and also there will be some one coming over for tranning. I have only used algor for about two weeks and i have seen a lot of features that Cosmoworks did not have. It all comes down to learning one sofware and using it, lets hope this works out to be good choice.

Thanks

 

[quietcom1]

GEOSTAR is nice for several reasons - much bigger element library than the /WORKS side of SRAC products. With that comes a much bigger range of problem types that can be solved, gap elements, random vibration, etc.

I have used this product for ~10 yrs and it is much better now with SOLIDWORKS, (nice to be able to build, and quickly mesh a SW model) One feature I like about GEOSTAR is that there is a file created (.SES) that records every keystroke of each analysis session. It is great to edit this to change a model or correct an error.

Dr. Steinert