CosmosWorks 2003 provides the model for easier design analysis. (Software).

The latest software package from SRAC is a user-friendly tool for testing designs at the conceptual stage, pre-empting the need for costly changes later on in the production process.

FOR MANY years, finite element analysis was shrouded in mystery--the realm of the 'rocket scientist', rather than the average design engineer.

But during the past decade, there have been many attempts to provide the design engineering community with simple tools for finite element analysis - the process of creating a mathematical simulation of a part or assembly for stress and load testing. Today, powerful PCs and more user friendly graphics software and operating systems are opening up the arcane world of the stress engineer to the average design engineer.

This new openness has given rise to the concept of design analysis, as an addition to more rigorous and traditional finite element analysis. Today's design analysis software packages are quick, affordable and easy to use by non-specialist engineers.

A number of companies, most publicly Rolls-Royce and Ford, have conducted studies to evaluate the expense of design changes at various points in the design process. The overwhelming conclusion has been that the expense increases by several orders of magnitude as a design moves through its various development stages; it is far cheaper to make changes at the conceptual stage than during the production phase.

The need to minimise the number of engineering changes requires engineers to get it right early on--which is where design analysis software can help.

Supporters of design analysis are at pains to point out that it is an additional segment of computer aided engineering, and has been developed to assist more rigorous analysis, rather than to replace more expensive, specialist or sophisticated applications.