What are CosmosDesignStar limitations 1

DesignStar is a very good package, primarily used for analyzing CAD files produced by programs other than SolidWorks. It comes in 3 versions with increasingly sophisticated capablility. The Designer package deals with Linear problems, but not frequency, buckling, fatigue,composites or problems with time varying inputs. The Professional package can do all but not NonLinear problems, time varying problems or composites. Advanced Professional can do the NonLinear and time varying but it does it through another package called Geostar. With CosmosWorks Advanced Professional GeoStar is an additional fee, I'm not sure about DesignStar. The version I have used needs the GeoStar interface to do dynamics or time varying inputs

I have found DesignStar to be easy to use. Like the other programs though it comes "packages" each with more features and more cost. It pays to consider the type of analysis you plan to do.

Thanks for the reply, some interesting information, I have been using CosmosDesignstar for a few weeks on a trial license and found it pretty good. What I really wanted to know was what is "better" in the more expensive packages (if anything), as if it is only extra functions like electromagnetics or fsi that we probably aren't going to use, then there would appear to be no reason to select a more expensive package than Designstar.

Hi,
well, no, what you find in the "Hi-end" packages is A LOT more control even on the "basic" things. More control / options in the mesher, more control / options in the element formulations, more control / options in the materials' constitutive laws, more control / options on the solver's algorythms, more control / options in the post-processing of data (as you know, colourful plots are good for the customer's reports, but they are completely useless if you can't get exactly the numerical data you need in the exact places you need). On the other hand, these systems will most probably be much less "user-friendly" than DesignStar.
Behind the curtain, I'm making a parallel here between Ansys and DS.
But be careful: you don't necessarily need to go for the Hi-end if you find out that the "upper-midrange" is sufficient for you. My advice is to take the time to try and try and try comparatively two or three "opponents" for a couple of months on "real" projects you have, and each minute ask yourself: is there anything I'd like to do and I can't find a way to? Then make lists of the "wishes" and submit that to the customer supports: in fact, when you are new to a software you may "miss" some functionalities.

BTW, for the same features, the price between "hi-end" and "midrange" is not "exactly" the same, also!...

Regards

Thanks for the response, I am currently getting trial licenses for Ansys and Altair Hyperworks to compare with the Designstar, so hopefully in a month or so I'll have a pretty good idea of what we really need (plus my CV will be looking pretty impressive!)