Running FEA Pre-Processing, Analysis and Post-Processing in One Design Environment 

Nastran, that robust, general purpose, and venerable finite element analysis (FEA) tool, has a 20 year heritage of providing some of the fastest and most accurate solvers on the market.

Now NEi Nastran and IronCAD, a provider of 3D design productivity solutions, have teamed up to offer NEi Nastran for IronCAD, an FEA solution designed to run inside the user interface of IRONCAD and INOVATE.

The solution allows product design teams to perform FEA pre-processing, analysis, and post-processing within the same associative design environment. Engineers can test product design before manufacturing, always a good idea.

There are a variety of benefits associated with providing FEA early in the design process and inside a single design environment. In addition to reducing errors, this approach also cuts product development costs, and shortens design and testing cycles and time to market. Engineers and researchers can use the synergistic power of the solution to quickly build and analyze products in order to cut down on the number of expensive physical prototypes required before commiting to production.

Users can download and run the software as a fully functional node-limited version within IRONCAD and INOVATE.

Capabilities include:
•    Linear static and steady-state seat transfer
•    Normal vodes, buckling, composites, and prestress
•    Advanced dynamics (transient response, frequency response)
•    Nonlinear analysis (nonlinear static and transient response)
•    Nonlinear transient heat transfer (static and transient)

According to Cary O’Connor, vice president of product marketing at IronCAD, "This partnership extends advance analysis capabilities beyond what is offered in the market to customers that need speed and flexibility in designing products which results in better products in a shorter time with greater return of investment."