FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS PACKAGES FOR PERSONAL COMPUTERS

As long as finite element analysis was done only on large computers, the applications found in mechanical engineering were necessarily limited. Today there are a number of finite element packages, several of them are discussed in this article, that run on personal computers. By bringing this capability to the desk of virtually every engineer, these packages open the way to much more widespread employment of finite element techniques. More important, they challenge the inventiveness of engineers to find new uses for these techniques in tackling design problems. Software packages for finite-element analysis discussed are: Gifts, SAP-80, Finite/GP, CAE pipe, CAE frame, Frame 2D, Libra, Images 2D and 3D, MSC/pal, Supersap, SAP86, and Safe.