Autodesk Nastran in CAD

by Clint Brown

Autodesk Nastran in CAD is the latest Simulation tool from Autodesk. But what does this mean for the average FEA user? Nastran has been the industry standard Solver for FEA since the very early days of FEA, and was used extensively by NASA during the development of the Apollo spacecraft.

That being said, Nastran has moved on and evolved, and with Autodesk’s acquisition of NEI Nastran, we now have another set of very powerful, credible tools for FEA that analysis and designers alike will enjoy using. Autodesk Nastran in CAD gives Inventor (and Solidworks) uses a seamless FEA environment on top of their native design application.

I have assembled a collection of video’s showcasing the capabilities below. Be sure to check out the Develop 3D article at the bottom of this post for more details on the Nastran acquisition.

Thermal Analysis:

Bolted Connections:

Buckling Analysis:

Fatigue Analysis:

Nonlinear Static Analysis:

 Also see the Develop 3D comments from twitter and their blog:

Former NASA tool could make big changes to @Autodesk's #simulation tools: http://www.develop3d.com/blog/2014/08/autodesk-brings-nastran-into-the-fold-simulation-moldflow-siemens-dassault … #CAD #engineering pic.twitter.com/inDY6eSChy