CFD/FEA Package Data Part 2
Who is Using What Tool
In the last edition of CAD Spaghetti we looked at the growing number of companies using CAE tools, what packages they were using, and the database Business Advantage has been building. This has increased from 523 sites to 767 and is continuing to grow.
We thought it would be interesting to look a little deeper into the data, and look at who are using CAE tools – the type and size of organisation and which CAD/CAM software they also use.
When viewed at a deeper sector level, several differences are apparent in adoption of analysis tools. Thirty percent of sites using CAE tools in the Mechanical Engineering sector, where the uptake of CAE tools is highest, stated they were utilising Cosmos, representing the most used tool in this sector. The majority of sites using Cosmos in this sector (44%) were companies with between 26 and 100 employees and only 12% of sites with more than 250 employees stated they had adopted this tool. The chart below looks at the five most frequently used CAE tools in the Mechanical Engineering sector, by employee size:
Click to enlarge
The highest uptake in the Construction sector was the Ram Series tool, which was present at 14% of construction sites using CAE tools. The majority (55%) of sites using Ram Series in this sector were at companies with less than 25 employees and adoption of this tool is most prevalent amongst smaller companies with no sites with more than 100 employees currently utilising it.
The most used tool in the Electrical Engineering sector was revealed to be ANSYS, represented at 28% of sites covered by the research in this sector. No companies with less than 25 employees had currently adopted the tool; however, it is most prevalent at companies with 26 to 100 employees, representing 36% of all sites currently using ANSYS in Electrical Engineering.
Thirty six percent of sites in the Electronic Engineering sector were already using Cosmos as their tool, representing the most used within the sector, with 63% of Cosmos users at companies with less than 100 employees.
Within the Design/Consulting sector, Cosmos was again the most used tool represented at 21% of sites within the sector. As was to be expected in a sector mostly comprised of small to medium sized businesses, 73% of Cosmos users in the Design/Consulting sector were at companies with less than 25 employees.
Cosmos also proved to be the most used tool across all other sectors, represented at 45% of sites in these. The majority (70%) of Cosmos users in other sectors were present in companies with less than 101 employees.
We then turned our thoughts to which were the most popular CAD/CAM software packages within organisations using analysis tools. As a snapshot this showed us that 75% of all Cosmos sites were using SolidWorks, 31% Mechanical Desktop, 27% AutoCAD LT and 22% AutoCAD. 49% of sites having adopted ANSYS as their tool of preference were also using Inventor, with 36% Unigraphics, 28% each I-DEAS and SolidEdge and 22% MicroStation. Unsurprisingly, 42% of sites using Pro/MECHANICA were also utilising Pro/Engineer, with 36% of NE/Nastran users being at sites where CATIA was also present.
If you would like to know who is using CAE tools, or who uses CAD but DOESN’T use CAE tools, Business Advantage can help. The data is available for annual licence, including free updates for the first year, or rent for a one off campaign. Please contact Business Advantage for a data count and quotation – or just to discuss!