The integrated analysis capability described here has been built around software that was already in use by many designers and analysts at various NASA centers, and in some industries and academia. As currently implemented at LaRC, we use Pro/Engineer® for design, MSC/PATRAN® for model building and results visualization, MSC/NASTRAN® for structural analysis, PATRAN Thermal and Thermal Desktop® for thermal analysis, Thermal Desktop's RadCAD module for orbital analysis, ZeMAX and TracePRO for optical analysis, MSC/ProCor for modal correlation, and SHAPB (COTS code modified in-house at LaRC) for aerodynamic effects. At the present time, the only analysis models that must be built manually are the optical models -- all other analysis models can be established by importing the Pro/Engineer design geometry in some manner. To get the geometry into SHABP from Pro/Engineer there is extensive manual work to create the modeling grid. The results from the structural analyses can be exported from NASTRAN to ZeMAX to produce deflected optical analysis predictions. OrCAD electronic designs can now be imported into the Pro/Engineer design tool and into PATRAN for analysis (see detailed ORCAD Pro/ECAD notes). Most of these integration and interface steps are also possible with other design and analysis packages, although some of the translators (links) employed here were developed or modified for use with these specific software packages.
Electronic import of the model geometry eliminates the repetitive steps of geometry input to develop each analysis model. Paths or links are also established in most cases for the incorporation of results from one analysis (e.g., thermal results or aerodynamic loading) as an input to another analysis code (e.g., thermal and aerodynamic effects as input to NASTRAN for production of thermal or mechanical stresses).
We welcome your comments and suggestions.