I've decided to take the leap and buy an FEA package for in-house analysis. We currently sub-contract and are regularly taken to the cleaners by our supplier. I've been looking at a few packages and Algor and NEiNastran stand out for me.
PITTSBURGH, PA - November 13, 2008 - ALGOR, Inc., a leading provider of design, analysis and simulation software, announced that its latest, major finite element analysis (FEA) software release, ALGOR V23, significantly upgrades the computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools that ALGOR users worldwide rely on for design and analysis of their products. ALGOR V23 upgrades CAE tools that ALGOR users worldwide rely on for design and analysis of their products. Increased capabilities exist for modeling, analysis, results evaluation, and presentation.
NEiNastran gave a limited node demo version which is good for getting to grips with the software. Algor won't give me a demo, other than one of their on-line sessions. This was good, but obviously it's better to get time on your own with the software. Despite this, I am leaning towards Algor. I'm involved with the design of high temperature pressure vessel / heat exchanger internals.
Our sub-contractor used Abaqus / Patran but this seems to be for hard core fea types. The 2 packages I've looked at seem to be learnable.although time will tell.
Any advice out there? Have I missed any packages?
I've looked at Strand7 and Cosmos, but haven't looked at these in detail. I am an experienced Mechanical engineer and have worked for close to 20 years in pressure systems type work. I've done a lot of axi-symmetric analysis using the FAST 1 package and some fundemental FEA.but this was only as part of a design by analysis course. Advice would be much appreciated.
Sbb RE: Is Algor the best FEA package for me? (Mechanical) 25 Oct 05 12:33. I'm a strong proponent of Algor with about 10 years of experience using it. I've also used NEiNastran off and on for the last few years. Both are very good packages for the price. They produce similar results.
![Al gor fea price Al gor fea price](http://download.autodesk.com/us/algor/userguides/images/GUID-ED7FA69B-8398-47A6-A525-8233136939A3-low.png)
NEiNastran will tell you a great deal about how much more accurate they are than anything else on the market, but FEA is only about +/- 10% considering the inaccuracies of the modeling, the inputs, the boundary conditions, etc. Algor will generally work with you much more than they are apparently showing and they've been around since the early 80's. I think you will be happy with either package. I do think Algor is easier to learn, but that may be because of my long-term use of the product.
Since you are doing pressure vessels and heat exchangers, you may want to look for Paulin Research's software (). They do a lot of work in the pressure vessel area and I think their software is probably a little less expensive than some of these general FEA packages. If Pat LaLonde is still working for Paulin, tell him 'Garland' suggested them.he may still remember me. If you want a demo of Algor, contact Ed Simmons at 800-482-5467 and tell him that you really need a 60-day license or you may have to purchase NENastran.
Algor and Noran Engineering were looking at possibly merging some aspects of their software at one time. The deal went poorly and now they are BITTER rivals. You can generally get a violent reaction out of one by mentioning the other.not sure how vendictive you are. Borowski, PE Borowski Engineering & Analytical Services, Inc.
RE: Is Algor the best FEA package for me? Garland Thanks very much for that. Sounds like I'm on the right track.
![Fea Fea](http://www.algor.com/news_pub/tech_reports/2000/need2know/CRANK.jpg)
NEi Nastran is marketed in the uk by epsilon structural analysis and they are offering (what seems like) a very good deal. To be fair, Algor seem quite keen to do business and they are helpful, but epsilon are throwing in the 4 day training package free. Which means the L1-5 package + training for less than £10k. (approx $17k) I'm sure this may be negotiated down further. I don't know about being vindictive.but a little healthy competition never hurt anyone.especially when you're paying! After playing around a little with NEiNastran I could start to generate some very basic models fairly easily, but I did find it a little long winded in the way you have to go about it. This would obviously get better with practice, but perhaps the Algor package will be better for me.