A newly revitalised Femap has built on its reputation as a rock-solid pre/post processor, and has taken a prominent position in UGS' analysis and simulation offerings.

If you have not come across it before, Femap is a Finite Element Analysis pre and post processing application. What this means is that it is the gateway between the user and the solver code that calculates the results of your analysis study. This is how all analysis studies used to work in the days before FEA/CAD integration. You would use an application such as Femap to create the core studies for FEA work, including the element mesh, loads and restraints and other loading conditions within a common application. That study would then be sent to the solver for calculation (whether that’s NX Nastran, MSC.Nastran, Abaqus, Ansys, MSC.Marc, LS-DYNA, SINDA or TMG). Once the solver had done its work, the data would be read back into the post processing application (again, in this case, Femap) and the results would then be inspected, visualised and reported on.

Femap’s concentration has not really shifted, but what has changed is both the look and feel of the application and how it is integrated into UGS’ analysis and simulation products. Those readers that follow FEA will be aware that UGS now offers its own flavouring of the Nastran solver, named NX Nastran and this is the core technology behind much of the analysis technology found in both Solid Edge and NX. It means that UGS can now supply a bundled solution with Femap tightly integrated with NX Nastran. If you have not seen Femap before or are familiar with an older version, the system has had a major overhaul in the last few releases, and the latest 9.2 release includes the adoption of all the current thinking in technical software interface design.

As you would expect from a system with the pedigree of Femap, it supports the two key ways of working explored below.

Pre processing

You can start using imported CAD geometry as the base for your mesh. If you are using Solid Edge or NX then the data translation process is pretty much seamless, as Femap reads the data directly. For other applications the system can use Parasolid and CAOCIS, there are a number of direct translators for other CAD applications and it also supports IGES, STEP and VDA. Alternatively, you can make use of the extensive built-in modelling tools that allow the user to construct models from scratch.

The system also has a number of tools that act as a bridge between the two ways of working. For example, if you are analysing sheet metal or composite parts, it is more efficient to use shell elements – two dimensional elements with thickness applied – rather than trying to mesh a very thin 3D model with solid elements. To support this, Femap includes a number of tools to extract the mid-surface from that 3D model so you can get the best of both worlds. Elsewhere, the system includes a wide range of abstraction tools that allow you to take the often overly complex 3D CAD geometry and remove complex features (such as non-critical fillets, holes and other small features) that do not have a major effect on the results but make the analysis process more efficient by decreasing the mesh complexity.

Boundary conditions are another major factor, as these control the accuracy of results. Femap holds an extensive set of element and constraint types for each major solver, so rather than defining things generally, you can use specific entities – making the process more efficient. Yes, the system is now tailored towards working with UGS’ NX Nastran solver, which is set as default, but a simple switch will present you with a raft of loads for all the others.

Post processing

Femap includes a massive arsenal of results inspection and visualisation tools, allowing you to read in the results datasets from the various solves and go to work on the results output. This includes 3D visualisation with the fringe and shaded plots for deformations, animations, stress/strain concentration, as well as vector displays for conducting fluid flow analysis. All of the good stuff is here with the ability to visualise single or multi-load step animations, filled colour contours and criteria display as well as Iso-surface and cutting planes that allow you to see exactly what is going on both externally and internally within parts and assemblies.

In conclusion

In relation to Velocity Series, Femap takes its place as the core analysis and simulation component of that increasingly well rounded offering. As a standalone system, it presents a pretty compelling argument for a gateway to analysis and simulation. But when tightly integrated with Solid Edge, it is sure to represent the future of the industry in terms of volume adoption and seat sales. What many organisations really need is a system that combines the benefits of integration, such as robust data import and associativity between CAD, mesh and boundary conditions – as well as the ability to dive in and construct/edit the mesh data using manual tools for the more knowledgeable user.

Femap is a functionally rich application that has been built to deliver a specific set of tools to a wide range of users - from the design engineer looking to gain a better understanding of how products behave under operating conditions, through to the advanced analyst looking for an efficient method of creating FEA data for reuse on multiple solver codes. And it serves both ends of the market equally well. Combined with the lower than expected price, it is a worthy application in any toolkit – and deserves to be investigated by anyone with even the most transitory interest in analysis and simulation.