Existing Nastran Users

The NEi Nastran Advantage

As a Nastran user, you have come to appreciate the accuracy, power, and proven capability that has made Nastran the definitive and dominant finite analysis code in the aerospace, automotive, maritime, medical and consumer product industries over the last two decades. However, new technical and business realities are demanding that analysts, engineers and CAE managers examine their existing Nastran software to find ways to overcome significant cost of ownership issues, improve technical support, and get a voice in software development that results in enhancements and capabilities that address their analysis environment. Below, NEi Software suggests 10 reasons to consider NEi Nastran over other Nastran versions. Plus, you can view technical highlights with the Key Features of NEi Nastran.

10 Reasons to Consider NEi Nastran Over Other Nastran Versions

Lower Cost

Controlling software costs is a major concern for corporations. Managers are under constant pressure to get the most out of their software budget. This issue is reflected across all functional groups in a company and continues to gain in visibility. Both large and small companies have major opportunities for cost savings by using NEi Nastran. Specific examples include:

•	NEi Nastran is used in a network installation to augment another Nastran product allowing significant savings. Eventually all licenses were switched to NEi Nastran. [more]
•	Some companies have chosen NEi Nastran for all new product development projects while maintaining one existing Nastran license for legacy analysis.
•	Other companies have chosen NEi Nastran to perform more analyses while freeing license tokens for use with Patran thus increasing productivity.
•	One company was able to realize major savings in operating costs by having a custom element written into NEi Nastran for them. [more]

NEi Software’s business is structured solely around FEA software. Selling is direct and marketing is limited to product awareness. You don’t pay for large corporate overhead. You pay for FEA software.

Better Support.

There is nothing more frustrating to an FEA user than non-responsive and ineffective technical support. You are in the midst of a critical project and you find your telephone calls and emails to technical support go unanswered for days. When you do get an “answer”, do you often find it is of limited value or simply does not solve “your” problem?

Technical support is a critical component of any FEA software package. Consider whether the expert and responsive support offered by NEi Software would make a difference in your organization. [more]

At NEi Software support is geared toward the individual engineer with quick turnaround on all requests. Plus, we offer thorough training, mentoring, and consulting programs that you can access in a way that is convenient and effective for you. Whether your preference is to attend a training class at our facility, take part in an online course, or obtain custom on site training for the staff at your facility, NEi Software makes your software investment work for you by backing it up with the help you need when you need it.

We treat our customers as we would want to be treated and understand deadlines and how important it is not just get back to a customer but to get back with their problem solved quickly. See what our customers have to say. [more]

The DMAP Alternative.

DMAP is an acronym for Direct Matrix Abstraction Process. Companies using certain Nastran codes, in particular MSC.Nastran, used DMAP as a way to add certain classes of custom enhancements and features to their analysis software. This gave them the ability to tailor their analysis software for specific in house needs. However, increasingly these companies are now looking for an alternate to DMAP to develop needed enhancements and features for these projects. The reasons are many. However, most are related to time and cost to develop, implement, and maintain DMAP.

DMAP was developed at a time when computer memory and related hardware were very expensive. So, a code written in low level language was needed to efficiently manipulate matrices and do numerical analysis. Companies built up a support organization of code writers and analysts that specialized in DMAP and over the years have become used to the limitations and burdens it imposes. The skills needed to write and understand the coding language and the implementation in Nastran are extremely demanding. DMAP is incomprehensible to the casual user and a severe struggle even to advanced analysts. Most DMAP is essentially shareware. It is not production code. As such, there is no guarantee it will be supported in the future. MSC and NX Nastran DMAP are only compatible up to 2001 version. Anything afterwards is unsupported. Plus, with each version change in MSC.Nastran or NX Nastran requires any external DMAP to be re-written!

NEi Software offers a better alternative to DMAP. The contemporary architecture of the NEi Nastran program makes it easy to add enhancements and upgrades. For those Nastran users who like and need the flexibility of DMAP we offer two alternatives:

•	NEi will provide the requested enhancement in a special version before the next release.
•	NEi will provide the necessary access to the NEi Nastran database and COM (Component Object Model) services so that the user can write their own applications that directly interact with NEi Nastran while it is running. This level of interaction goes beyond what DMAP can offer since the user can control Nastran operations real time while the program is executing.

Note that once the routine is written, there is no need to re-write it for subsequent releases of NEi Nastran It will always be compatible. Write once and forget. Plus, the use of a high level language makes code writing much easier and accessible. This level of partnership goes beyond the standard support found by other Nastran FEA vendors. [more]

The NEi Nastran Editor.

If you are an existing Nastran user, you are probably familiar with the concept of editing a Nastran model input file (Bulk Data File). NEi Nastran includes a fully integrated and customizable Nastran Editor for controlling program operation, model editing, trade study generation, and results analysis. Click on the demo to see a few of the many uses of this tool which will save you time and frustration in setting up solutions and boost your productivity. [more]

Help Designed to Help.

Cryptic and obscure error messages can stifle productivity and abruptly stop a project. NEi Nastran’s Cause, Action, Remarks formatted error and warning message help is designed to make it easy to diagnose and correct model errors quickly. All Nastran documentation is provided in both context sensitive Windows help and Adobe PDF file format.

Industry Specific Productivity Features.

Industry General. NEi Nastran has special productivity features not found in other Nastran versions.

•	Better accuracy using special hybrid quad and hex elements that are significantly more accurate for coarser mesh densities than the equivalent elements found in other Nastran versions. [more]
•	High performance processing including advanced parallel PCG iterative, sparse direct, and block Lanczos solvers which allow solutions to large-scale models over 10 million degrees of freedom on inexpensive 32-bit Windows workstations as well as high end 64-bit Linux clusters. [more]
•	Robust contact capability using a 3D surface contact method which easily handles dissimilar meshes between components including frictional effects and provides a surface-to-surface weld and bi-directional slide capability. [more]
•	Fully integrated and customizable Nastran Editor for controlling program operation, model editing, trade study generation, and results analysis. [more]

Nastran for Aerospace.

•	Specialized nonlinear elements such as tension-only shell elements are very useful in modeling semimonocoque structures where skin panels have a limited compressive load carrying capability. Tension-only cable elements are useful in modeling flight controls and cargo tie downs. [more]
•	Load and boundary condition interpolation, allows easy mapping of thermal and CFD output from specialized heat transfer and fluid dynamic models to the structural model for load and boundary condition definition.
•	Extensive composite material support including, 2D orthotropic, 3D orthotropic, general anisotropic, laminate lay-up definitions, and a wide range of failure criteria including the new NASA LaRC02 criteria and sandwich facesheet stability analysis. [more]

Nastran for Automotive.

•	Specialized industry-proven element technologies including hybrid quad and hex elements, surface and spot weld elements, and dissimilar mesh interpolation elements.
•	Support for standard manufacturing process effects such as casting induced warpage and residual stress and strain.

Nastran for Maritime.

•	Specialized solution sequences that do not require tedious DMAP programming including Design Dynamic Analysis Method (DDAM), integration with Anteon’s Underwater Shock Analysis (USA) program, and compatibility with MAESTRO from Proteus Engineering.
•	Special modal filtering and database restart tools for performing DDAM and dynamic response solutions increase productivity by allowing a modal database to be altered and reused without rerunning an eigenvalue extraction analysis. [more]

High Performance.

NEi Nastran has multiple high-performance sparse direct and iterative solvers built in. The PCGLSS solver is typically the fastest and is especially fast for large parabolic tetrahedron element (CTETRA) models which are common with most solid meshing modelers. In addition to speed, the iterative mode of the PCGLSS can efficiently handle models over 7 million degrees of freedom on a standard Pentium computer. NEi Nastran was the first to implement PCGLSS solver technology in a Nastran product. [more]

Advanced Nonlinear without the High Price.

NEi Nastran has many of the advanced features found in dedicated nonlinear analysis tools such as ABAQUS. One such feature is support for true 3D surface contact which is not only very easy to setup but extremely robust. Click on the demo to see an example of how straight forward surface contact is to setup.
[more]

Integrated CAD FEA.

NEi Works provides SolidWorks users with an embedded, state-of-the-art finite element modeling tool. It features the familiar SolidWorks look and feel for all menus and functions, as well as an automatic mesh updating feature and FEA entity to geometry associativity. Support is provided for all Nastran versions including MSC.Nastran and NX Nastran. Other integrated CAD products will be released later this year. [more]

10.

NEi Nastran for Windows.

NEi Nastran for Windows is a combined FEA modeler (Femap) and Nastran solver (NEi Nastran) designed to run in Windows. Unlike other Nastran for Windows versions, the solver is not locked into the modeler and can be run either inside or outside of the modeler environment providing greater flexibility and allowing batch and remote processing of models. NEi Nastran is compatible with MSC.Nastran and will run most MSC.Nastran Bulk Data files as well as produce results files compatible with most post processors. Additionally, full model editing and post processing is available in the NEi Nastran Editor. TMG-Flow, TMG-Thermal, and NEi Advanced Fatigue are all integrated using the same Femap Modeler making it easier to perform CFD, Advanced Heat Transfer, and Fatigue analysis.
[more]

[Key Features of NEi Nastran]

	[View FEA Buyers Guide]

	[View Product-Feature Matrix]