First, HyperSizer works VERY well with MSC.Nastran for Windows. It also works fine with the new “NXNastran with FEMAP” product. We have been using that product for years with no problems.
HyperSizer also works with FEMAP, so no limitation there.
What doesn’t work with FEMAP or “MSC.Nastran for Windows” is HyperFEA.
Second, the traditional MSC/Nastran is a product that can run on Windows or Unix. This product is a finite element solver that does not have a pre or post processor. It can be run from a Windows DOS or Unix command line in batch mode. This is the product that most corporate customers are going to have, some on Unix, some on Windows. It is not the same thing as “MSC.Nastran for Windows”.
“MSC.Nastran for Windows” is a limited and much less expensive product aimed at small business customers. The limitation of MSC.Nastran for Windows is that you cannot submit a Nastran job without pulling up the FEMAP post-processor. This is what makes it difficult and non-robust to call from a program like HyperFEA which is trying to do a batch (non-user interactive) process of alternatively calling HyperSizer then Nastran. In order to call the Nastran part from the automated procedure, HyperFEA would have to start up the FEMAP interface (assuming that the user has FEMAP and that they are logged in to the machine where he wants to run Nastran). It is very clunky and unrobust and that is why it is not supported in HyperFEA.
Most customers are going to be running the full Nastran rather than the limited product that requires FEMAP. For that reason, I do not expect other customers to have a problem with this restriction.
