Inexpensive FEA software Smackdown! LISA vs Mecway - which is better? 2

[Mines Mech E]

So I am currently working at a small company. They recognize the need for FEA, but have a little sticker shock from the prices of the big boys. After a little poking around and researching, I've sort of narrowed it down to two contenders:

* LISA --

http://lisafea.com/

* Mecway --

http://www.mecway.com/

The two look suspiciously similar. Seeing as how I haven't paid for a business license yet, I'm comparing two limited versions. I'm hoping someone out there has tinkered enough with both of these to make a definitive call as to which deserves my boss's money.

It seems on the surface that Mecway can handle larger models (they claim a million nodes). What abut LISA? Does anyone out there use either of these regularly and would you recommend?

Is there another capable package for about the same price I am overlooking?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mines Mech E]

Funny . . . went to this list of FEA packages (including many "free" packages)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_finite_element_software_packages

LISA and Mecway aren't even on the list

 

[jhardy1]

There are literally dozens (probably hundreds?) of FEA packages which aren't on that list - both commercial and freeware.

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

 

[GregLocock]

Never tried Mecway, Lisa is good enough for me. It rather depends on what you need it for.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[jhardy1]

It seems that Mecway is a "fork" of the original LISA code, which may have seen some developments that have not yet come through in LISA:

It is my understanding that Victor worked for LISA. He left LISA and started Mecway. Mecway is essentially a fork of LISA. Mecway has some updates that LISA does not have.
...
Yes, that's right. Both businesses have an agreement to sell the product based on the same original code. A few of the additional features that Mecway has are:
...

http://mecway.com/forum/discussion/71/mecway-or-lisa

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

 

[whitwas]

Mecway developer here. That's correct what jhardy1 said. Mecway is now more advanced, not just allowing an order of magnitude larger models but also nonlinear analysis, CalculiX interop, units, more powerful boundary conditions, and more file formats, just off the top of my head.

These and a lot of applications are not on Wikipedia because of its strict referencing requirements.

For about 3 times the price, there's FEMDesigner, though I've never used it. For infrequent use, cloud services like SimScale might be economical. If you have time to learn the commands and hook up external meshers, CalculiX is quite powerful and free.

 

[Mines Mech E]

Thank you all!

I would say that is pretty definitive. Of the two, LISA vs Mecway, there is a clear winner then. Now to go ask the boss to crack his wallet ... wish me luck

 

[barrti]

Hi
I would recommend Mecway. Mecway certainly is a spinoff of Lisa but more advanced. They have a great forum. Victor (the Main Software guy I think) responds quickly and is very very helpful. I started with Lisa and then discovered Mecway. Amazingly, the Lisa guys gave me my money back with no hard feelings!

I have used several mainstream FEA packages and while they were perhaps powerful for things like impact and rotational dynamics, I put Mecway ahead in many respects. For example, in the work I formerly did commercially, which was mostly static linear fea of 3d assemblies/structures, Mecway would be easier to use and just as accurate. These days I am retired and use the Mecway version at home. It will handle unlimited nodes for about $150 Aussie dollars. If I used it commercially, about $350 AUD.

If you go to the Mecway website, im pretty sure you can download the manual and tutorials. You can get a limited node (1200?) demo which is very educational.

It readily imports STP, STL, IGES etc.

You can import stp assemblies but they have to be imported one component at a time. Once all the components are in the mecway model, you can go in and use glue joints or contact between the joints as you would with the big $ packages.
The GUI is great - simple to use and not deeply frustrating like some I can think of.

Mecway also can use Calculix as an alternative solver. You still use the excellent Mecway GUI to build the model but can easily switch to the Calculix solver for the more difficult analyses such as non-linear large strain, NL materials etc. For linear work the two solvers agree.

I think that Victor is steadily integrating more and more of the Calculix features within the Mecway GUI as the versions increment. I think if you are more adventurous than me and understand Calculix, you can use even more of the features that are currently integrated.

At home, I use sketchup or Freecad to build the models. Free cad is great for making the stp files for mecway. Mecway actually does a good job of meshing the stl files from sketchup as well.

I get very good results from 10 node tets in mecway. I don't waste my time on meshing with 20node brick elements.
Recently, I tested 10 node tets on thin plates and was amazed to see how well they performed. A few of us posted our results on the Mecway forum.

At the moment I am messing around with Mecway to build a spaceframe car chassis models which model the large deflections of the suspensions. So far so good altough NL large strain can't be used with the beam element - only tension/compression struts and 3d elements.

All the best with this.
Tim

 

[acar2]

I recently worked on a project where a third-party had used LISA for a beam vibration problem. I undertook a software verification test (

http://www.ramsay-maunder.co.uk/kno...overnance/verification/beam-element-in-lisa/)

to check that LISA was giving the correct solution. The problem you might find is that the software is too basic for your needs.

 

[barrti]

Update - with regard to my second last line in my post above:
I have recently found that Mecway will handle beam elements for NL large strain.