NEiNastran 3

[JonET]

I'm looking into purchasing a seat of this software. Wondering if there is anyone out there that has a copy or has used a copy in the past that would like to share their opinion of the software, support, or anyhting else related. Good or Bad. Thanks, Jon

 

[GBor]

Good Software. Very Capable and hard to beat for Nastran software. Cost effective. Haven't really tested their support capabilities, but have heard good and bad. Haven't used it actively for about a year, but when I did use it, it was to run some non-linear problems, orthotropic materials, large displacement and some 2-D plain strain orthotropic materials. I was pleased with the results. Compared it to a few other software packages with close comparisons.

 

[fkmeyers]

I work for a major aerospace company (200,000 plus employees) and my group has been using NEiNastran for several years now. I can only say great things about this product and the company. The support we have gotten has been first rate and the best I have ever experienced from an FEA vendor (I have used a lot of different packages over the years). I went back to another thread under the Finite Element Forum and pulled this out which I think should help explain how we feel about this product:

I have used NEiNastran for the last 3 years and before that have used four other major software packages. Here is what I like about NEiNastran and Noran Engineering.

1. Support: They more responsive for support than any other FEA company I have ever dealt with. The support staff is very knowledgeable and they can answer questions that even the experts here with 30+ years playing with Nastran can not. My applications tend to be complicated. Lots of prestressed cables and pipes and they have been very good at supporting me. If can not get the model to run, they ask me to send it over. If I can, I do and they fix it and send it back. If I can not (proprietary, classified, etc.) they ask for details, they create a similar model and show me how they did it. I call and someone answers the phone and is ready to help. I email and someone emails back that day with a response I can use to fix the problem. I have never seen a company so dedicated to supporting customers. They seem to always be there and very willing to help.

2. Enhancements: They have been very good at putting in enhancements that we have requested (and others we should have requested). Again, we do very specialized types of analysis and have unique requirements. We suggest something and 4 weeks later it is in a beta we can try out. I could not believe this because in the past when dealing with another major vendor either it got ignored or it took 2 years or more and was not exactly what we needed (and no opportunity to try it our before it was in production). I know we are not the only customers they do this for. Of course not everything that we have asked for they put in immediately. Some of the more complicated things we know they are working on but will take longer. Other requests they say may not be possible in the next release. Overall I am very impressed, again as compared to other companies.

3. Cost: I would never have been able to sell this to management without making a cost justification. When we looked at what another major vendor’s costs and figured in maintenance for 3 years NE was about half the price. We know good support will save us time and money so we weighed this heavily. I have been burned in the past with other FEA companies on support. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to get a model to run when you are up against a deadline. Again see #1 above.

4. Great product: Their product (NEiNastran) is absolutely fantastic. I am able to run huge models in hours that would normally take days with other FEA products. I can use large parabolic tet meshes and not worry about mesh refinement and get answers fast with accuracy. I can get data quickly in the format I need it in to generate reports. The modeler supports the other CAE tools I use and the Editor is very helpful in making quick changes and performing trade studies. This product has doubled my productivity...simply put!

Frank

 

[dmacx]

We have several NENastran licenses as well. I also agree that NENastran is a outstanding product and echo what Frank is saying with his 4 points. We have had similar experiences. A great product supported by a great team.

 

[ttoole]

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.

 

[kellnerp]

I replaced Cosmos/M with NEiNastran. The only thing I miss is axisymmetric elements. Bit of a learning curve since I was not a Nastran user when I started. FEMAP is a big plus and can do just about anything.

Support is quite good. You get people who really know what they are doing.