MSC Software Corporation announced the seventh release of MSC Apex, the company's award winning next generation Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) platform.

Structures such as large cranes, ship hulls, or shipyard ramps are typically massive assemblies often including 1000s of parts welded together and present unique challenges to finite element modeling, model validation, and simulation. Due to the sheer number of parts, users need weeks to months to build finite element models (if at all possible), and often struggle to run simulation for more than a few design iterations. As a result, engineers often rely on more approximate methods to evaluate these large fabricated structures.

With its latest release, Grizzly, MSC Apex delivers a unique solution to expedite modeling and validation tasks in an integrated and generative workflow for rapidly iterating on the design to validate stiffness, strength, and stability of large assemblies.

Modeling productivity - The release introduces new geometry clean-up and de-featuring tool to eliminate manual rework and allow the user to automate model preparation tasks. A new implementation of glue and tie connections speeds-up assembly creation from hours to minutes, and allows users to create large assemblies of parts using mesh dependent connections while preserving the product structure.

Complete structural analysis - The release expends on the application structural analysis capabilities with support for multi-events buckling analysis allowing the user to manage multiple load cases. Grizzly also features new dynamics capabilities with integrated Fast Fourier Transform allowing users to enter time dependent dynamic data. Finally, results processing has been enhanced with section and connection forces processing to support load path analysis.

Integrated and Generative - Beyond modeling productivity and structural analysis completeness, with Grizzly, MSC Apex continues to build on its integrated and generative framework with brand new analysis readiness remedy tools and user experience for scenario set-up, model validation, and simulation execution which facilitated incremental validation, and rapidly iterating on design alternatives.

MSC Apex Grizzly also features a Macro record/replay capability to help users develop python scripts to automate geometry modeling, meshing and scenario set-up tasks.