Rhinoceros

I started my professional career at a construction site in 1952 and ten years later I graduated from university. Around 1972 I first got involved with the finite element method (FEM) for the first time and since 1975 I work with this method almost every day. I have carried out several thousand finite element analyses (FEA) using more than five different programs and I have presented more than ten papers at national and international conferences. In 1986 I started presenting a course 'The Application of the Finite Element Method in Practice', which ran for 25 full days and I have presented this course at least once a year since then. In 1996 the course was compressed to an intensive 5-day course which made it more accessible for delegates and it also made it possible for me to present more courses in a year (five courses in 2004). In November 2000 I attended an introductory course on the FE program Strand7 and I was immediately impressed by this software system. Strand7 has been written by professionals for engineering problems in the fields of civil, structural and mechanical engineering, as well as shipbuilding and aviation. The predecessor of the Windows based Strand7 was the DOS based Strand6, which was used successfully for more than five years in the engineering industry. Strand7 is easy to use, the help facility is excellent, the manuals are immaculate and the support is superfast and superb. With the new sparse solver the processing speed has been increased dramatically. An analysis of a structure with over 500,000 degrees of freedom, that took more than 11 hours with the skyline solver can now be completed on the same machine in less than six minutes with the new solver. To find out more about the capabilities of Strand7 visit their website at www.Strand7.com. You shall find there many prominent structures that were analysed using the program: The roof structure for the main stadium for this year's Olympic Games in Athens, the innovative roof for the swimming pool for the 2008 Beijing Games, a ground-effect vehicle that can only fly at a height of one to two metres above water. I have used Strand7 for several hundred analyses. One of them was a transient non-linear dynamic analysis of the structure of a big birdcage (dimensions 100m x 200m, columns up to 45m high) which is presently under construction near Plettenberg Bay on the Indian Ocean. Strand7 has been written with dedication to excellence and it is a pleasure to work with the software. Roland Prukl, Dipl.-Ing., Pr.Eng., FSAICE, AIStructE P.O.Box 4175, Honeydew 2040, Republic of South Africa mftcomputing@global.co.za www.FiniteElements.Net

I began a Finite Element Analysis course during my fourth year at Technikon. The course involved a basic theoretical background into the method, along with the practical use of a FEA system. The course suddenly became quite complicated due to the system being used and the lecturer could not provide adequate support for the basic operating functions of the software. This immediately lead me to begin an extensive search of the Internet for an alternate more user-friendly system that I could use for the remainder of the course. My search lead me to a finite element analysis system known as Strand7. The system is developed in Sydney, Australia by G+D Computing and includes fully-integrated pre & post-processors, along with a complete suite of solvers for linear, non-linear and dynamic analysis. I had urgent assignments to do for the course and I was struggling, so I decided to download the demo version of Strand7. I began to learn the system with the included tutorials and found that I was solving dynamic problems within a matter of hours! I was so relieved I had found a system I could use for my studies. The system allowed me to work on my assignments in a very manageable and efficient way, thus allowing me to concentrate on the problem at hand. I purchased a copy for use during the remainder of course due to the system's affordability and the effective support provided. I have been using the Strand7 FEA System for more than three years now for problems ranging from simple linear static problems, right through to the most complex dynamic problem and I can positively say that it is extremely user-friendly and its ability to import IGES files generated by Rhino and other systems, is a very big plus in my opinion. I would recommend Strand7 to any Engineer involved in analysis and design. The software allows the rapid generation of models, thus freeing up time for the engineer to interpret the results and therefore develop better products.

I have started a career in the facade industry as a Designer five years ago and Lead a couple of projects here in Pasig with developments at Rockwell, Philippines. I also had experience on pioneering works related to schematic, detailed designs and construction documentation designs of single cable, net cable and tension bars for Forum66 project in Shenyang, China. I am very satisfied on how easy to use and learn the interface. I must admit that I was initially clueless on how to draw the first nodes and beams, and it seems more efficient to start with a pre-modeled 3D dxf (for fish tail cable design, complex elliptical canopies and curving facades) from another CAD drafting software. But, STRAND7 stands strong on how to segregate and organize structural members as well as give a personal taste to it wherein you can customize colors, member colors and have a number of display options. A good feature was that of viewing the orientation of the plate members, I was able to use it to trace an error with a sloped glass or corner glazing cases that I modeled using 25mm mesh. You can also use the load patch tool to load plates and have it converted to distributed loads on the members supporting it. You'll just need to input the pressure load in plate local axis and be converted to distributed loads on beam members just like magic! The display options comes handy when you want to focus to a specific structural element. You can turn on/off the members based on properties, groupings or ID numbers. I am also glad to hear that an option to have ID numbers on nodes has been added. This saves time selecting hundreds of nodes in order to change temperature or support conditions. Take note that you can also do this in post processing, the results will also follow suit in the indicated display. For example, in solving cables along with steel structure, you can right click on the screen and turn off the display of the cable and see the maximum stress or deflection for the steel structure. This is useful to make impressive visual reports. I believe that the developers can maximize this in future developments by giving options to make multiple page reports. Finally, the analysis engine is fast. Glass analysis with 25mm mesh can be finished in few seconds time. In comparison to STAAD it is also faster analyzing glass fin systems. Using nonlinear analysis with cut-off bars and/or cable members is also a breeze (just input properly the required parameters like length and tension/ compression limits). Errors and warnings gives you a clue on what member and variables needed to be inspected. Even the results viewer can be customized so you'll only see the warning or the error in consideration. The documentation (help file) is well written with links to related topics as well. The properties and principles behind FEA are introduced as well as few formulas, diagrams and examples. My mentor is practically happy that he is not much disturbed since most of my general questions are already answered by through the help file. The developers of Strand7 are making a very good job enhancing my user experience and I am looking forward a more fruitful and productive career in my office especially now that I have moved to the Structural Engineering Department.

My name is David Beneke from Cardno Consulting Engineers. I have 15 years experience in finite element analysis, I am a Registered Analyst (Advanced) with NAFEMS and run our Engineering Analysis group with 4 full time analysts. We run 3 seats of Strand7 and a seat of Nastran 4w 2004. We use Strand7 for the majority of analytical work and I am very pleased with its performance overall. Like all sofware it has its strengths and weaknesses however given that I have reasonable experience with both Strand7 (15 years) and Nastran 4w (2 years) I feel that I can provide a reasonable view of Strand7's performance. Strengths * Strand7 operates predominantly on element based meshing and its pre-processor is well suited to this. Selecting elements based on element region is excellent whilst changing element attributes is straight forward as well. * Applying plate element pressures and especially tractions for example is more advanced than Nastran 4W. * The 2D and 3D automesher works quite well and so long as it is used appropriately can generally deliver meshes which have only minor amounts of element distortion. The geometry healing option which you use to use the automeshing tool is really good. * The post processor is excellent and in my opinion is more flexible than Nastran 4w. This is especially the case for presentation of multiple output vectors on all element types at one time. Normalised jumps is an output vector automatically generated which is something which has to be done manually in Nastran 4w. Graphing results and data is another strong point. * Strand7 is generally quite intuative and is good for graduate analysts first getting into analysis work. Weaknesses * Strand7 does not have the capbility to create the geometry from scratch. This is a big issue especially in the case where you may be analysing a complex plate mesh or solid in which you need to change the geometry but the loads and constraints remain the same. With Strand7 you cannot create new geometry so you are forced to re-import revised geometry, re-mesh the new geometry, re-establish connectivity with the unaffected areas of the mesh and then re-establish loads and constraints on the new section of mesh. Nastran 4w wins hands down here as the geometry is used to define the loads and constrants. You just simply create the new geometry and re-mesh. Simple. * When automeshing on imported geometry, Strand7 is quite clunky in its approach for introducing mesh refinement. Its point based rather than curve based which means you are not quie sure on what mesh density you will get. Other than the above, I beleive that Strand7 is reasonable priced at around AUS$6K per seat for what you get. The equivalent in Nastran is around AUS$20 (advanced modeller + implicit non-linear). We have used Strand7 for both linear and non-linear implicit analyses for models up to 1.5 million DOF with no problem. Whilst Strand7 does not give you access to explicit solvers and 3D contact solvers that Nastran 4w can, Strand7 is by far the most cost-effective for a consulting engineering business and hence it is the programe that we use in the majority. Notwithstanding the above, the FEA software that you use is only as good as the person using it - without adequate checking of input data and benchmarking you can have the best software in the world but the results will be useless. Regards David Beneke Principal for Cardno

I would firstly like to establish my credibility. I am the principal engineer in a large international engineering firm, and have been using Strand for more than 15 years now, as my main everyday software package. I use it for both structural and mechanical engineering applications, with a large range of analysis types including elastic analysis, elastic buckling, large displacement, non-linear stress-strain, dynamic analyses, and to a lesser extent thermal analyses. I have had ongoing contact with G+D (the developers) during that time, and have been on a number of their courses over the years. We have a number of copies of Strand in different offices, and I know that my comments would be echoed by the other users. This program is a pleasure to use. It does what I expect and want it to do. It is all but bug free. There are usually a few bugs when they have a major update, but they fix them straight away. It is very stable. It does not crash or misbehave even after long hours of use. The interface is very good, very consistent, and has a lot of simple user adjustable control. When there are features that I would like or that I think should be changed, I let G+D know, and they are very receptive. If I get stuck with a problem, I phone G+D and get great help. Sometimes, I will send them a model and they will sort out the problem and send it back. I have trained many people to use Strand over the years. It is simple to learn, so that I would normally expect to only spend 1-2 hrs to get someone started on their first analysis. At the same time, it has lots of features that I have barely touched. I have had exposure to a number of other FEA packages over the years, as well as frame analysis packages, and CAD packages. I think also of Word and Excel which I also use regularly, and Strand stands out ahead of them all in my eyes. I speak very highly of G+D and of Strand, and would happily recommend Strand to anyone.

I am Chief Civil/Structural Engineer in the Brisbane office of Worley Pty Ltd. Worley uses a variety of FEA systems, including Strand7, Ansys and Abaqus. I am of the view that Strand7 represents outstanding value for money and ease of use. The cost of initial purchase and annual support and maintenance is significantly lower than other FEA systems. The capabilities of the basic package are more comprehensive than most comparable systems. Features such as non-linear analysis (including non-linear geometry, non-linear materials, buckling, etc), transient dynamic analysis, laminar composites, rubber materials, steady-state and transient thermal analysis, etc, are all included in the base package. Add-ons are pretty much limited to CAD Import and Auto-meshing, a Sparse Solver (very useful for large models), and the API (for software developers). All of these options are very reasonably priced. The integrated graphic pre- and post-processor means that you really only need access to the one software package for most normal analysis. If you opt for the CAD Import an Auto-mesher tool, you can also import solid and surface models from pretty well any CAD package. The resulting FEA model is not linked dynamically to the CAD model, so any changes to the CAD model mean the FEA model must be re-imported and rebuilt. This is a bit of an issue if you are doing a lot of “design development” (“tweaking” the geometry of a mechanical part, for example), so you might want to look for an integrated CAD/FEA solution if this is the main kind of work you do. (Good luck at finding an integrated CAD/FEA system with non-linear capabilities at the price of Strand7 – if you find one, let me know!) I believe the user interface of Strand7 is second to none. Ease of use, access to features, user control of graphics, formatting of hard copy output, etc, are all very well implemented. In terms of limitations, we find that Strand7 copes with just about anything we can throw at it. Strand7 does not have an explicit solver option, nor an automatic surface-to-surface contact capability, so I would baulk at using it as my primary tool for highly non-linear analysis or extreme transient events (eg motor vehicle crash analysis), for which other FEA systems would be more appropriate. Also, there is no “multi-physics” option (e.g. integrated CFD/FEA). However, for most typical engineering applications, it is well worth a look. Anyone who has an interest in acquiring and developing a finite element capability should download the free demo for the Strand7 web site (www.strand7.com.au), and judge for themselves whether the package has the features and capabilities they need.

I own a composites company that manufactures epoxy, prepreg, carbon components and structures for the aerospace, automotive and medical industries. Three years ago my company became involved with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to develop large composite antenna structures. To fulfill the contract, we required in depth FEA analyses. We evaluated MSC Nastran, NE Nastran, Algor and Ansys and bought one of them. The software proved cumbersome to use and in fact, couldn’t address the required solves we needed. We then discovered and immediately purchased Strand7. We have been extremely pleased with its ease of use, solving speed, results presentation and particularly its ability to address complex laminate structures. Strand7 is reasonably priced and they don’t nickel and dime you for features beyond the basics. The software is sold as a complete package, including solvers, the competition sells as options. We have since gained other dish contracts (most of which are extremely complex composite structures with many surfaces) and one thing that may be not be apparent to most users, is the precision Strand7 provides in its meshing, where other packages fail. Because we are concerned about the RMS of a dish structure under various load conditions, we run 3D best-fit regressions against the displaced nodes, which means you want your undisplaced nodes to be as accurate to the designed shape as possible. When running RMS calculations, we consistently find the undisplaced mesh to be better than e-6 inches, with very, very few outliers. The composites module is flat out - great. Developing the laminate (at times – greater than 60 plys), setting plate orientations and offsets is quick and simple. We even use the laminate presentations provided in Strand7 on the shop floor. We own various CAD programs, but our CAD program most widely used by far is Rhinoceros, due to its 3D precision and ability to import and export most other CAD programs. Our customers normally use various other CAD programs including ProE, SolidWorks, AutoCad and Catia and we easily import their work in Rhino, clean it up, and then export an iges for importation to Strand7. The show free edge function in Strand7 makes any questionable surface interfaces quickly apparent, that can then be tweaked in Rhino and then quickly re-imported. Another feature that deserves mentioning is the - free to download - Strand7 viewer. This has proven invaluable, where our customers can review a complete analysis that we have created on their project. We are a US company and at the time we purchased the software, there was no US representation and only a limited number of US users. This has changed and there is now a US company distributing and providing support for Strand7, as well as also being a reseller of Rhino. In my opinion – the perfect combination. I am not one prone to write reviews on software that we have purchased, but after reading Mr. Neoconardis’s strange and negative review on this site, I find myself with no choice. Because I personally, as well as my company, use Strand7 almost every day, I have to wonder what motivates such an individual. In conclusion, Strand7 has proven to be one of the best software investments my company has made. Why? It’s a great software tool that has paid for itself many times over and has provided us the ability to efficiently and effectively design and analyze very complex composite structures, which more often than not, evolve into manufacturing contracts. Phil Herting President Beaufort Composite Technologies, Inc.

Having used most of the big FEA packages I must say I find Strand refreshingly simple to use but incedibly poewerful too. From a simple quick space frame built on nodes and elements to a complex nonlinear analysis composite of concrete and steel, Strand has proven simple fast and accurate. I love it and I import solids from Rhino very easily. It does have some reasonable modeling tools but it's easier to create the model in Rhino. Right now I'm analyzing optimal spherical cavities in light weight reinforced concrete structures for a post-grad thesis, Strand is the only package we tried that has actually worked for this, within the solid you can create steel within the concrete matrix fully attached. I'm amazed it is not used more as in my opinion it is a better product than most of it's more expensive competitors. Probably you are not paying for the high end marketing ! I have never had it crash and the post processor is a dream to use. Cheers Lyndon

I would not buy this program. Written by non-professional programmers. Interface is totally illogical, program HANGS regularly, I/O is sub-standard. For the same money you can buy a professional, mainstream product such as ALGOR, CADRE or NASTRAN.

I have been using Strand7 for about 5 years and based on my experience of Strand7, Mr Neoconardis could not possibly have reviewed the same program that I use. One of Strand7's major strengths is its interface - it is extremely well thought out, very logically laid out and very easy to use - much easier than other FEA packages, and I have used almost all of them. I also do not share Mr Neoconardis hanging experience. I find Strand7 is extremely stable and very reliable. Based on my experience, the other products Mr Noeconardis mentions are significantly more expensive than Strand7.