cad software

[mp4/19]

guys,
i wanted to know wat r the softwares u use for designing

[mp4/19]

guys,
i wanted to know wat r the softwares u use for designing

[Mi_Ko]

At the moment: SolidWorks

I wish I could use ProE

2002/03 University of MARIBOR - Team Member

[Ben Beacock]

for CAD/FEM:
I-deas 9 (would have had 10 but we had already started with 9)

for intake/engine:
Ricardo WAVE and Fluent

for suspension:
Performance Trends suspension analyzer

Ben Beacock
Co-Manager
2004 Gryphon Racing - University of Guelph (http://www.soe.uoguelph.ca/uogracing)

[Angry Joe]

Funding is a little short this year so we use etch-e-sketch. Suspension is done with the little cut-outs from "Tune to Win"



Lehigh Formula SAE Alumni
Team Captain 2002-2003

www.lehigh.edu/~insae/formula (http://www.lehigh.edu/~insae/formula)

[Sam]

Solid Edge
Cosmos
Strand
bunch of others

Sam Graham
Engine Group Leader 2003
UQ Racing

[Marc Jaxa-Rozen]

We use CATIA v5 for modelling and FEA, and ADAMS 12 for the suspension. I'm currently toying around with Matlab for some custom stuff.

I didn't manage to get either WAVE or Fluent (arranging an educational license in our situation is a bitch), but I suspect we would've spent more time trying to decipher the programs than actually doing something useful. Besides, we're neither running an aerodynamic package nor a dyno-backed engine development program, so those apps would probably only yield very limited benefits for us.

Marc
École Nationale d'Aérotechnique

[gug]

mainly solid edge v12, a bit of solid works (they both use the same software engine, so converting the files from one format to another is pretty easy), trying to use fluent & gambit but having problems getting it running at the moment, cant remember the name of the suspension geometry but its a text based little program. ANSYS for FEA, which is about as fun as slamming your head against a wall.

- the problem with the world is stupidity. i'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety lables off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

[Denny Trimble]

SolidWorks, Cosmos/Works for most of our FEA, ANSYS for the composites stuff, FloWorks for CFD, and 3dsmax for nice renderings of the SolidWorks models.

We have access to catia and pro/e, but everybody here learns solidworks and it's the easiest to use, so that's what we go with.

Almost every single part gets FEA because it's so damn easy with COSMOS/Works. I think we learn more about FEA in this design competition than we do in the FEA class, which is mostly about the math going on in the background.

University of Washington Formula SAE ('98, '99, '03, '04)

[Dave Riley]

Solid Edge v11 - easy to use but a bit buggy and not really that flexible. Will upgrade to v15 soonish given that the local distributor LOVES us!

ANSYS Workbench is good for most FEA, not for composites modelling but it works for most bits. Really really easy to use (compared with ANSYS Classic) - it uses the DesignSpace Interface - although maybe I still have a few questions about its accuracy. Should do physical testing on everything if possible anyway...

A bit of Fluent too for intake design.

Also we've come up with a custom app in Excel which will optimise designs automatically using Solid Edge and ANSYS subject to user defined parameters. Still in its infancy but it works OK.

We also installed the BIGGEST drawing board you've ever seen in our office although it's never been used...

www.motorsport.uwa.edu.au (http://www.motorsport.uwa.edu.au)

[Denny Trimble]

Dave,
How well is your optimization routine working? COSMOS/Works has an optimization package, but I've found it doesn't give satisfactory results. It will optimize a simple design, but most of what we do is just too complicated. But I haven't used it in over a year, maybe I should try again.

By the way, we use VBA and Excel to manipulate SolidWorks assemblies, for designing our shock mechanisms etc. We're also working on a custom 3D suspension kinematics package using Excel and SolidWorks.

University of Washington Formula SAE ('98, '99, '03, '04)

[Dave Riley]

All the optimiser is is a simple, flexible algorithm incorporated in an Excel workbook which can link with Solid Edge to control the dimensions of the part to be optimised, and retrieve values for mass etc from SE. ANSYS is used to provide constraint values for stresses and deflections, and while I was hoping to control ANSYS using the VBA routine it hasn't happened yet - the user must press the 'update' button in ANSYS, redo the analysis, and enter values for whatever they're measuring into the Excel app.

The link with SE was easy enough though - SE documentation has examples of VBA code which you can use to access information with SE, and a 'variable table' facility which allows the user to link dimensions to an Excel sheet.

It works OK - I've tried it on our wheel centres (see the 'UWAM launch' thread) - and the actual optimision works well. Problem is that it's difficult to constrain uncontrolled variables (Solid Edge can do some strange things with a complicated file), and that without fully automating the process it's really really slow - ANSYS takes about 5 minutes to update and you need to do lots of updating, with a user sitting there with it. If the automated link worked we could set a complicated design running overnight. Simpler parts worked quite well though.

ANSYS too has its own optimisation routine - but I don't think it's flexible enough, although I havn't really explored it properly.

We haven't actually used the app for any real design yet - I wrote my thesis on it this year and it wasn't ready in time. With a bit more development maybe next year's team will...

Cheers
Dave

www.motorsport.uwa.edu.au (http://www.motorsport.uwa.edu.au)

[ben]

We use CATIA V5R12 for design and some solid FE where the generative meshing is OK.

Thanks to MSC we have ADAMS, Patran, Nastran and Laminate Modeller for all our chassis work.

We use Ricardo Wave for engine, and some custom stuff in Matlab as well.

BTW, we also have a full cockpit ergonomics buck made out of old desks and door, just in case any judges we warming up the too much CAE argument:-)

Ben

University of Birmingham
www.ubracing.co.uk (http://www.ubracing.co.uk)

[Didier Beaudoin]

Oh damn, we're outdated! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif we use V5R11... :P

Didier Beaudoin
Team Leader -
École Nationale d'Aérotechnique