Dr. Zagkas, founding partner of SimFWD Engineering Services, is a naval architect and marine engineer with over 15 years of experience. In this article he comments on different aspects of midas NFX.
Pre-Processor
midas NFX has a natural interface that one can easily handle after getting familiar with the basics. The pre-processor is strong and robust in a way that it makes the analysis work easy to pick up and begin to work on. Some examples are provided below:
NFX provides a number of dedicated tools to repair the geometry. After importing the geometry, the engineer usually needs to correct minor problems: joining edges, removing holes, merging surfaces, etc. NFX has the exact tools for these tasks. Some advanced operations are also readily available such as using “Boolean Operation”, where I can easily abstract the hull’s imprint from the water domain within several clicks.
The meshing ability is very powerful too. Unlike other software packages which only support auto-meshing functions, NFX has the flexibility to support manual mesh creation and correction. This is especially useful in complex design processes, such as in ship designing, where multiple software packages are used and meshes need to be adjusted after being imported from another platform. Mesh quality and topology, connectivity, and contacts between different parts can also be checked using dedicated tools. These tools contribute to more reliable final results.
In addition, it’s very convenient to handle the model in a way that simplifies your work, such as displaying a specific area of the model, locating elements with unmerged nodes, selecting the parts in accordance with certain conditions, etc.
Analysis Capacity
NFX offers exceptional analysis capabilities (linear, nonlinear, dynamic, CFD, optimization, etc.) In fact, I personally think very few FE-codes can boast about having such a complete package, needless to say that many different types of analyses can be performed on one single platform in NFX. The licensing structure (pre/post processor + optional modules) makes it a very convenient tool for the current market as well.
Post Processing
The visualization aspect of the software is advanced as NFX provides an array of useful tools to visualize and interpret the results. For example, there are functions which can map the requested pressure forces directly on the hull body and If needed you can extract the requested results at any time step on any part of the model.
The auto-generation of the report is a useful function as well, as it saves me a great deal of time when making a report, and lets me concentrate more on the analysis at hand.
Price
NFX’s pricing structure is very competitive amongst the other high level CAE solutions and, as opposed to many other FE-codes, in midas NFX the license pricing is not charged per core, so a user can use all available cores on his local machine and still benefit from only requiring a single license.
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