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ALGOR InCAD Designer/SolidWorks
1 Jan, 2005 By: Joe GrecoFlexible FEA program supports mixed elements to speed up analysis.
ALGOR is older than most CAD companies, but at 25, it's just middle-aged in the CAE world. It released its first PC product way back in 1985, and the InCAD series debuted in 1999. Let's take a closer look at this product, now in its 16th release, and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of ALGOR's philosophy to upfront CAE.
Different Approach
ALGOR takes a different approach to upfront CAE when compared with a product like COSMOSWorks, which is fully integrated inside SolidWorks. InCAD Designer is clearly a separate product that communicates with SolidWorks using a process called DMIT (Direct Memory Image Transfer). Algor Incad designer/solidworks |
After installing the software for SolidWorks and then using that program's Add-in command, a new ALGOR menu appears in SolidWorks. It presents two choices: Feature Control and Mesh. The former is for eliminating model features not necessary for the analysis. The latter command transfers the model out of SolidWorks into InCAD Designer, using DMIT's direct CAD/CAE data exchange. This method takes just a few seconds and ensures an accurate model because no geometry translation is done.
According to ALGOR, by moving the model out of SolidWorks, the user gains access to a full suite of analysis tools and options, enabling more sophisticated simulations. For instance, different finite element types, such as bricks (solids), shells (plates) and beams (lines), can be used together to analyze the same model. This is important because when evaluating a pulley system, for instance, the cables should be meshed as beam elements and the pulleys as bricks. In addition to modeling flexibility, ALGOR claims its technique analyzes models much more quickly because often fewer finite elements are created.
COSMOSWorks representatives said that mixing finite elements is useful and they plan to incorporate mixed elements in all three levels of their COSMOSWorks products. Still, with today's computers, the addition of extra elements may not increase calculation time significantly.
Using InCAD Designer
COSMOSWorks' user interface advantage is that its FEA tools are available directly from the SolidWorks FeatureManager. This is nice because users remain in a familiar environment. ALGOR's answer to this is that it doesn't really matter once you spend about an hour to learn the InCAD Designer interface. I found this estimate of the learning curve to be accurate.1 2 3
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