[georgebarr]

What is the best FEA (Finite Element Analysis) software for solidworks? I want to measure the structural strength and vibration handling of my design.
Thanks,

[griffithbuilt]

cosmos works will do both of those i believe, and it is a direct add in for solidworks.

jason

[stupidog]

CosmosWorks comes with the newer versions of SWX so it is very well integrated. Unfortunatley it only works on models, not assemblies. You can buy the full-blown package to run out of SWX but it's expensive.

[Kingz]

As they said Cosmos is a direct plug-in for SW, and the upgrade package is even better!,,, but they do have the problem with Assemblies, which I hope they fix.

[Inventthis]

Cosmosworks is great. I can run the analysis for you if the model is not too large. Have cosmosworks on my PC.

[JerryFlyGuy]

CosmosDesigner comes w/ SolidWorks 2006 Office Premium, if you only have SWorks 06 Office you only have ComosExpress, this is only a part based FEA program. ComsosWorks is another step above CosmosDesigner and can do everything the others can plus Harmonics and buckling as well as many other little touches. The CosmosExpress can be made to do assemblys if you make the assemblies into 1 part and they aren't to large, however you loose some 'believability' of the results [ you have to make some assumptions to do it and get workable results] CosmosDesigner is what is concidered the middle of the road system. You can use it the same as Express yet it will do assemblies and things w/ a bit better meshing and results than from Express. My 2 cents..
JerryFlyGuy

[huckster06]

Just my humble opinion (and its only an opinion), but I think that NE/Nastran is superior to all version of Cosmos. While Cosmos is a very good FEA package, and very capable it seems to lack important features such as gap elements, and the node manipulation capabilities of Nastran. I realize that these may be minor details, but if I am to pay the price these companies ask for licenses I might as well get everything that is available.

[posix]

I thought cosmos only does motion simulation, no FEA

[JerryFlyGuy]

Posix, you are right in a way.. Cosmos does do motion, however it also does FEA, CFD and Kinematics http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/analysis.html is the link for what it can do. They Are called Cosmos Works, Cosmos FlowWorks, and Cosmos Motion.
As far as comparing it to Nastran, Huckster, I really couldn't offer my opinion, I don't know anything about it. I have been told by others that there are better programs, however few are as intergrated into Solidworks as Cosmos, not to mention the price tag w/ way more numbers behind the dollar sign ( For Nastran).

JerryFlyGuy

[posix]

sorry I was thinking about cosmosmotion rather than the whole cosmosworks.