Anaxsoft Products - F.A.Q.
Below is a list which answers a handful of the most common questions people have about our products.
This FAQ is designed to be helpful and informative.
If you have any questions or comments about our products, please feel free to contact us at sales@anaxsoft.com
What is FEEA SDK?
The Anaxsoft FEEA SDK 2010
is a computational engine that performs finite element analysis on the .NET framework.
A family of products, namely, the FEEA for Solids & Structures,
the FEEA for Framed Structures,
and the FEEA for Cross-Sections,
fuel the FEEA SDK.
Hence, FEEA is not an application; it consists of programming APIs, documentation, example models and sample programs.
It can be integrated into any .NET application.
Currently FEEA handles only linear structural analysis problems (both static and dynamic analysis),
but we are working to add more modules for other types of analyses.
For more information about the FEEA SDK 2010,
click here
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Who is FEEA SDK for?
It is for all the companies, organizations, or educational institutions
who want to integrate finite element analysis capabilities into their Windows .NET applications.
Whether you have existing applications, or you plan to create new applications,
FEEA SDK is the ideal solution. It releases you from handling the analysis details:
you just focus on your business, which you know better.
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How much time will it take me to come up to speed on FEEA SDK?
For experienced users, usually one week is enough for self-training.
The tutorial documentation comes with the product.
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Is FEEA associated with Win32/Native DLLs or COM objects?
FEEA SDK contains 100% "pure" .NET APIs.
All of our source code is written in C# and C++/CLI, and does not contain any native Windows DLLs or COM components.
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I only know to program in Fortran. Can I use FEEA SDK with my Fortran programs?
Yes, you can use Fortran with FEEA.
The only requirement is that your compiler must be "compatible" with the .NET framework,
i.e., must be able to generate code for the .NET framework.
Note that FEEA is a language-agnostic finite element coding technology.
You no longer have to restrict yourself, to use a specific programming language anymore,
in order to write finite element applications.
In fact, everyone can use the programming language of his choice.
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How do you test and ensure the accuracy of the results obtained from FEEA?
We have created our own library of test problems that conform to the theory
(books, published papers, verification/benchmark tests),
and we perform hundreds of software verification tests before we adopt a new feature in our product.
Whenever is possible, and for small problems, we compare our results with analytical/hand calculations.
Finally, we test our results against results produced by well established commercial finite element codes.
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I teach a finite element programming course. How can FEEA assist?
FEEA is an extensible and fully parametric finite element programming API, and as such,
it can be a valuable tool for faculty and staff members of schools, colleges and universities.
It is the ideal software to use for your experimental or theoretical research,
and can be a great teaching aid for your students to help them gain true insight, that no application can give,
into the mathematical model of the problem they study.
FEEA does not only offer formulations and options found in very expensive commercial finite element packages,
but also some unique features. One of them, worth a mention, is the capability to run multiple analyses in a single run.
During a linear analysis, for example, FEEA allows multiple analyses (procedures) in a single run:
you may have any number of static analyses (with unlimited load cases and/or loading case combinations),
along with some transient implicit/explicit analyses, mode superposition and response spectrum analyses,
and the frequencies/mode shapes calculation procedure which is needed by the later two types of procedures.
That is why we offer the FEEA academic subscription at a low price.
In fact, you may enroll to our special academic program and obtain our software for free!
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Do you have any rigid connection elements such as RBE2’s in Nastran, or rigid surface based constraint pair in Ansys?
Yes. In general, with FEEA you can define not only constraint equations, but also rigid links and rigid bodies.
In FEEA a rigid link element is defined between two nodes (like MPC184 element in Ansys),
while a rigid body is a variable node element.
The key feature is that every element can be specified as a rigid body in FEEA.
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Is it possible to get information from analysis only on selected nodes?
Yes, you can define sets of selected nodes/elements and obtain results (for any type of analysis)
only for these sets.
In general, FEEA is very flexible in the way it produces the results
and allows you to get only the information you want from an analysis.
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How FEApad differs from a symbolic mathematical interpreter, like scilab?
FEApad is not a symbolic interpreter. There are many differences between these two types of software.
The most important is that FEApad is dedicated to finite element analysis,
and its use does not imply programming skills or learning curve.
Another difference is that FEApad is a compiled code, and hence,
it does not impose restrictions, like those imposed by a symbolic interpreter (e.g. efficiency).
So you can use pretty large models.
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What is the difference between the SectionExpert 2010 and the FEEA SDK 2010 Cs Edition?
SectionExpert 2010 is an application which calculates the properties of arbitrary shaped/thin-walled cross-sections,
with target audience the professional engineers and students.
On the other hand, the Cs Edition of FEEA SDK 2010 is a programming framework, a computational engine,
which allows the integration of the capability to calculate the cross-section properties into any .NET application,
and which is used by software vendors.
We should also mention that SectionExpert 2010 is powered by the Cs Edition of FEEA SDK 2010.
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