There may be a number of things you repeat every time you create a new model, like creating a material or defining a number of standard beam sections. It's tedious work and prone to error, but you don't have to. You can simply have a simple Python script (which you can record as a macro) […]

CAD files like this Creo (ProE) file often contain defects that leave the geometry useless for FEA purposes. Such defects normally manifest as failed geometry edits or meshing operations, and then the reason for the failed action is seldom known and near impossible to correct. In this 3 min video, I will show you how […]

What follows is a tried and tested method to create a Parasolid from an STL file using Mentat and MSC Apex. Summary of steps: 1) Import the STL into Mentat using the FEM option (Target Entities) 2) Export a BDF file 3) Import the BDF into MSC Apex 4) Using the "Geometry from Mesh" option, […]

Cleaning or simplifying geometry for analysis is an art (and if you don't think so, you've been doing it for too long!). There are few set rules and the tricks of the trade you normally learn by mistake or by looking over someone else's shoulder. With this blog (and possibly more), I do NOT imply […]

Winning Awards Its no secret that I love working with MSC Apex, but I am not alone. Winning 14(!) prestigious product awards (since only 2014) means MSC Apex is officially the latest and greatest CAE technology available on the market today. Apart from winning 14 product awards, MSC Software also managed to submit no less […]

In this article I will put a compelling argument forward why glued meshes (with a gap) are a much better option that the more traditional stitched mesh approach for modelling thin plate structures with 2D shell elements. The Compromise FEA analysts still often represent thin solid parts using 2D (shell) elements with a thickness property […]

The power and cost saving aspect of using Computational Parts can be seen in this quick test. In a quick comparison, a second assembly analysis of 8 parts took only 63% of the time compared to the initial analysis. This was made possible by the computational parts that MSC Apex creates automatically when solving assemblies. […]