Development of Abaqus Software

[aamirmub]

I would like to know the opinion of other Abaqus users regarding the recent releases of Abaqus. The development of functionality seems to have slowed down. On a year release cycle, new releases have relatively small number of new features. They have not been able to incorporate progressive element activation in Abaqus/CAE even after two years. From what I have seen online, 2018 release doesn't have many exciting things. Developments like welding interface are offered as separate plugins rather than being incorporated into Abaqus. Seems most of the effort is going into the development of 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

 

[IceBreakerSours]

I feel like Dassault Systemes has done a good job of ruining Abaqus by making them focus so heavily on 3DEXPERIENCE.

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[Dave442]

Last time I spoke to my local rep they confirmed that almost all internal development is focused on the 3DExperience. Certain features, like the CFD solvers, have even been removed in recent CAE releases.

 

[Mustaine3]

Afaik continues the solver development (Std & Xpl) as before, since they are also used in 3DExperience. But A/CAE seems to have no long time perspective and they are just adding minor enhancement into it each year. The kernel of A/CAE is nearly 20 years old. I guess it would require a huge effort to make it fast enough to handle the model sizes that we will see in the next years.

 

[IceBreakerSours]

Based on what I have heard multiple users say, it is not just the development that has suffered, the support system is not much you can count on any longer. Many times you get pointed to the documentation, for instance. Other times, one has to force your way in to talking to a more experienced support rep. Take the license cost in to account and you get a pretty good argument for not putting all your eggs in one basket.

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[aamirmub]

In terms of support, they do not provide much to academic customers. No access to the knowledge base or learning resources comes with the licenses. Training courses are really expensive. Access to learning resources is now offered by other major software developers with their licenses. Considering the cost of Abaqus licenses and lack of resources from the developer, its becoming unattractive for research and academic use. I see many fellow academics turning to alternative software.

 

[IceBreakerSours]

I have personally conveyed all of this and a lot more to the Abaqus reps (and higher ups) for a few years with no change. As soon as I reduced my token count did they start paying attention (not that that changed much). I just think they have little control: DS calls the shots. And, in the DS universe, SolidWorks/CATIA likely rake in a lot more cash than Abaqus.

Academia doesn't have to pay top dollar so, in return, you do not get much technical support. However, some labs have good relationships with developers so there may be some benefits.

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