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What is a good vehicle design software?

3K views 35 replies 29 participants last post by  alex_bgnet 
#1 ·
I'm talking kinematic CAD program for modeling of suspension, steering, etc. If there's a good free one, let me know, but if there aren't any good free ones, I'd like to know what paid ones are good. Extra special bonus points if there's a good one that likes to give educational versions to university students/programs.
 
#15 ·
Yep, Catia or NX covers all the surfacing for just about all the OEMs out there, but that's not what you asked about. Neither of those are the best at kinematic stuff and the learning curve is really steep for Catia, but it looks like you do get a pretty good selection of workbenches in the student edition including the Kinematic Simulator if you want to give it a go.
 
#14 ·
Seems like a good opportunity to threadjack...

Engineers unite! What's everyone do?

I'm a Mech.E by degree (Go Huskies!) but work for a small consulting firm in Manhattan doing structural FEA with ANSYS for fatigue life and fracture mechanics calculations.

I'm also an autocrosser so I don't care what you have to say. ;)
 
#16 ·
I loved using ANSYS in college, but now I don't use it. The only program I see now is Solidworks. They are getting better and better with simulation stuff. I can remember in 2006-08 when I was using it in school the flow simulation in Solidworks were not all that great.

I work at a R&D facility for a big US based company in Grand Island, NY (near Buffalo). I design components for digital printing ink systems and a few other areas for these printers. We don't just use regular ink anymore as it is being phased out naturally by technology. But we are dabbling in RFID attennas, batteries and a few other things that are being printed with digital heads and special inks. :thumbup:
 
#22 · (Edited)
None of the traditional 3D CAD programs can perform a kinematic multi-physics analysis. You can animate components and make them move together, but you are not going to simulate the real dynamic response of something like a suspension. The load path from the road to say, the suspension mounting points on the chassis goes through several components, each with their own non-linear stiffness curves.

That isn't to say that simply animating the components has no benefit. You can check the sizes of all of your components and look for interferences. Most of the 3D CAD programs are available with FEA plug-ins (or ship with it standard) but it is very watered down code and is only useful for simple static structural work. Autodesk Inventor (free for students) and Solidworks (probably free) can handle this just fine. I'd stay away from CATIA or NX; these are the most expensive, most complex packages with steep learning curves that will get in the way and their extra capability will offer you no benefit. CATIA and NX have their place - for example, complex surface modeling or enormous multi-part assemblies - but it's not the right tool for this job.

The only dynamic analysis that my career has required thus far has been for things like dropped object protection design, hydraulic systems, simple moving components... so I can't recommend a software package to handle a suspension analysis. ANSYS LS-DYNA technically may be able to do it but it cant be the best tool for this job.

I'm a mechanical engineer; I develop subsea oil and gas equipment.
 
#31 ·
All true. I'd probably start by going through the programs mentioned in this thread and see what you can get for free/student price or what's available to you on your school's lab workstations. No need to learn the complex surfacing programs if you have no desire to get a job designing in the future.

Whatever you do. Don't use NX. I use it daily. :laugh:
I can't recommend NX for this purpose either.

For design...the OEMs use Catia or NX, as others have said.

Catia's UI is atrocious...looks like it hasn't been updated wince the 80's...and they still don't take full advantage of a mouse with a mouse wheel. I hate using that software with a passion, but don't doubt it's usefulness.

I use Solidworks which (IMO) is MUCH more user friendly than Catia. No experience with NX.

(I'm a product development engineer and work with people who design parts for the OEMs).
Yeah, Catia's UI is rough. It's really bad about telling the user what it needs from you next. And the error messages and help documentation are worse than useless. I've also got a 3d mouse with a bunch of programmable buttons, so I don't feel the effects of the clunky UI, but I agree it's silly that you have to add that just to have decent output.

NX is much more user friendly IMO. It directs you step by step a lot better, but that also reduces your freedom a bit.
 
#30 ·
For design...the OEMs use Catia or NX, as others have said.

Catia's UI is atrocious...looks like it hasn't been updated wince the 80's...and they still don't take full advantage of a mouse with a mouse wheel. I hate using that software with a passion, but don't doubt it's usefulness.

I use Solidworks which (IMO) is MUCH more user friendly than Catia. No experience with NX.

(I'm a product development engineer and work with people who design parts for the OEMs).
 
#32 ·
Wow, I kinda forgot about this thread. Yeah, our school has a license with AutoCAD and our Formula team has a license with SolidWorks. We use SolidWorks for the car, but I didn't know it had those kind of capabilities. I'm going to have to learn SolidWorks a bit better.

I had heard of MSC/Adams from a YouTube video so I looked into it. I don't know anything about it's user interface or capabilities, just that they're willing to give us a license on a sponsorship deal.

I had also heard of Optimum K from other FSAE teams. Apparently a lot of teams use Optimum K.

I'm looking for something with an easy enough user interface. I don't need it to be super powerful, but able to model at least suspension/steering design and simulate simple dynamic situations/loads.

If SolidWorks can do that, then I'll just use it.

Thanks for all the input. It sounds like knowledge of Catia would help if I wanted a job with an auto manufacturer (which I do), but I don't have the time to learn the interface if it's going to be difficult.
 
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