This post attempts to explain an issue when working with Femap and Nastran that might be helpful. If you have landed on this page from a search, then you have likely received the following message from Simcenter Nastran via Femap or by inspecting the f06 file on a failed solution…
TLDR: Compressive loads/stresses within any long, thin structure can cause structural instabilities known as buckling. Buckling occurs when deflections continue to increase even if load is not. This stability analysis is a key component of structural analysis. This article attempts to provide insight for the appropriate buckling factor of safety…
Most of the time you don’t want to model the minutia of bolts, washers, nuts, etc from your imported parts and assembly files. If the part names come across upon import, the labels “MS”/ “NAS”/ “AN” standard hardware may clue you into what to remove from Geometry under the Model…
Femap v2021.1 has been released as of 12/11/20. What’s New – here are some of the key changes after having read through the updates: If you import an invalid or incomplete Nastran file, the errors are handled differently, so that Femap won’t bind up for a period of time Faster…
I wanted to share a quick tip on creating sine/sinusoidal functions in Femap. Some people set these up in Excel first and paste them in from the clipboard, but this will explain how to avoid using that second program. We’ll be setting up functions to describe the time history of…
Femap v2020.2 has been released as of 5/28/20. After reading the “What’s New”, here’s what I think are the most notable program updates (on top of a more dramatic version of 2020.1’s splash screen): Connect>Automatic 3-5x faster, mesh sizing 2-3x faster on large models, many checking and listing commands are…
As always, you can read my recommended Femap upgrade process here. That page has been updated for v2019.1 to reflect the new location of the femap.ini settings file in the AppData folder instead of the Femap program files. New features are documented in the readme.pdf and New Features.pdf files under…
As of now, Siemens has released Femap version 12.0. This follows the latest subrelease of v11.4.2 in 12/2017 and major release of v11 in 1/2013. You can find my standard spiel accompanying each new release post here: my recommended upgrade process. That page has links to the appropriate Siemens PLM…
A somewhat confusing situation can occur when looking at the failure index of composite laminates with thermal loading. You may look at ply by ply strain results and compare that to the ply failure strain you provided on the laminate property entry (PCOMP). For a failure criteria such as Max…
Finally! After much waiting, Siemens has decided to offer a student version of Femap. Here is the brochure PDF on the Siemens website. Many other software companies have offered products this way and it is a successful practice in expanding the user-base and assisting with individual skills development for up…