software substitution for engineering applications
 

Hi guys,
I haven't found a similar post, so I start this thread. Perhaps could be interesting a specific sub forum … something like: "software substitution".
I'm new to linux and I'd like to found replacement for commercial software used for engineering applications.
There aren't problems about office automation, I've already noticed that openoffice is a great replacement for MS Office and also for technical computing there are packages like Octave or Scilab that works as well as Matlab. These discoveries made me a real linux enthusiastic.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to find out something similar to Simulink, first disappointment. Anybody knows if such a kind of simulation software can be replaced?
Anyway, real troubles arises when one comes to CAD/CAE applications. Here I've found a desolate tract. Googling around I've found some packages but they all are very minimal compared to commercial software.
Well, I'm working with NX6 and Ansys that are considered at the leading edge and I didn't expect to find open sources competitors but at least something sufficient.
It's frustrating. Yesterday I've tried Salome-Meca with Code Aster (on a CAElinux live CD) for a simple linear structural analysis. Ho boy! It works … but it's byzantine! It's almost like Ansys … 15 years ago. Maybe I must just practice but the impression is that it's impossible to be effective and quick as required by today's industry using open source codes.
I would be pleased to hear opinions and experiences of engineers (especially mechanical engineers) involved in design end analysis of complex shapes and/or large structures and assemblies. As mentioned before I'm particularly interested in substitution of the following software:
Simulink
Siemens NX6
Ansys12

In my opinion, when it comes to specialized engineering applications (CAE/CAD) you may not be able to get away from the commercial applications. Luckily, many of the commercial CAE applications are supported on Linux. The cost varies greatly amongst the various vendors, so you may be able to find something that satisfies your needs for less than a competing product.

The CAD world may be more of a struggle to find a robust tool that even supports Linux, although I did find a list for you to start with on http://www.linux.org/apps/all/Graphics/CAD/CAM.html

Good Luck.

http://www.scicos.org/
http://www.opencascade.org/
http://www.salome-platform.org/

Catia was running under linux in 2007, but only in Dassault systèmes's offices....and we shouldn't know it
http://www.3ds.com/products/catia

regards,
glyj

deleted

Yes, this was also my conclusion.

Do you have experience with some of these? I know there are many small packages but I cannot try them all. I would appreciate even a short reviews based on your experience.
Thanks

Seems good! Thank you!

This is just a software development platform. I think that doesn't exist an open source front end application: am I right?

I described my experience with salome-meca in my first post:banghead:

brlcad
 

Hi,

I hunted round for quite while, and could'nt find much.

BRL-CAD is quite a well thought out solid modelling package,
and proved very useful to me in conjunction with other analysis
programs, and a bit of python scripting to do some transforms.

With a bit of extra work and some more add-ons it could
be the basis of a very good package. A tidy interface to a scripting
language such as python would make a very good start.

Hi,
I have to say that after a week of headaches I’ve changed my mind about Salome meca (code-aster): now I have the sense it’s quite powerful, I think that with a bit of practice I could even replace Ansys. Unfortunately it lacks of documentation so learning it takes time.

Hi forum,
I have the same aim of nicola-x, I'm just trying to learn how to use Salome-meca. It seems it's enough for my purposes, it' isn't as user friendly as Ansys Workbench but the Code-Aster, the solver, seems very powerful: you can found a lot of documentation (most in French) on www.code-aster.org
I'va also found an internet finite element resources here:
http://homepage.usask.ca/~ijm451/finite/fe_resources/
with a selection of public domain finite elements programs:
http://homepage.usask.ca/~ijm451/fin...s/node139.html
You see, there isn't a "desert tract" as said nicola-x, maybe there isn't lot of interests among engineers to try this software … maybe they consider more reliable proprietary software?
IMHO we should start using open source resources in order to push and sustain the developers, also with some donation (nothing compared to the prices of technical commercial software).

Unfortunately, this experience is quite typical. There are quite often very capable products with poor/incomplete/not-well-written documentation.

Even this situation isn't necessarily that much worse than some commercial products, but you can usually spend money for training for the commercial products, which helps with the initial learning curve. And getting going with complex products is difficult enough, the last thing that you need is for something like poor documentation making that problem more difficult.

And the other thing that often doesn't get enough attention is an easy-to-use user interface. All in all, it can be a frustrating experience if you just need to get something done in the short term.

On a somewhat related note, I'm also an ME. I'm in a slightly different situation because I am a Univeristy Student, so for the next 2 years I have access to ANSYS and ABAQUS licenses.

Would CAElinux be a good choice to run these? I'm trying to decide on a distro for these applications (mainly finite elements). Any thoughts on CAElinux?

Hello, I've never used commercial software on Linux, my company only trust Windows. However CAE Linux is basically Ubuntu with a series of engineering applications ready for use. I do not think is a bad choice, a matter of personal taste, will certainly be useful to perform a series of comparative tests with your commercial software without worrying about downloading and compiling sources. Consider that CAE Linux is available as live DVD so you can try it before install.