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# Re: [femm] FE magnetics commercial ware

- To: femm@egroups.com
- Subject: Re: [femm] FE magnetics commercial ware
- From: David Meeker <dmeeker@foster-miller.com>
- Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 15:38:27 -0500
- Organization: Foster-Miller, Inc.
- References: <5b.fefc9e5.27823eac@aol.com> <000901c07451$cd9c00e0$52e78ec6@ibmbn145hv> <3A534275.E66BF094@foster-miller.com> <000901c075ce$f329f5a0$a2e78ec6@ibmbn145hv> <003b01c07678$9f0609a0$d18ecfa9@Pstretzsj> <3A541506.F5A5126E@plix.com> <002f01c076c7$1ae29400$c575cfa9@Pstretzsj>

    Well, my first run-in with Amperes was back in about 1996, where a guy that I
    worked with was running an old beta version of Amperes that some friend at IES
    had given him. It was slow, hard to use, and gave some pretty whacky results.
    However, the program has come along quite a bit in the last 5 or 6 years. At
    work, we have a copy of it, and I use it on occasion, mostly for "open core"
    problems where a 3-D program is really necessary.

    Anyhow, I've checked it in the past by modeling some relatively complicated
    axisymmetric geometries as 3D problems in Amperes, and then comparing to the
    results from femm. I have generally been satisfied by the level of accuracy in
    the recent versions of Amperes, although it's certainly not _impossible_ to give
    it a pathological geometry. The user interface is sort of unusual, but not too
    hard to use--it took me about a day of messing around with it to comfortably say
    that I knew how to run the program. On the down side, it can take a _long_ time
    run, and it can requires a really high-end machine to run it effectively. It is
    normal for it to make require multiple gigabytes free as swap space for
    relatively dense meshes. It can also take a long time to do the numerical
    integrations that are required to evaluate forces. And, of course, the program
    is licenses for on the order of $10K US per year (which seems like a lot, but
    it's not out of line for low sales volume scientific software).

    We also have multiple seats Ansoft's Flux 2D and Flux 3D. The program seems
    accurate enough, but the user interface looks like something from the early
    1980's. I've done a few sample problems on it, but it was such a drag to use
    that I didn't re-install it when I changed computers about 8 months ago.
    However, the version that I have is about 3 years old, so things might have
    improved since then.

    Some people that I work pretty closely with use Opera (Vector Fields) and Magnet
    (Infolytica). I've generally been pleased with the results of these two
    programs. Recently, I've been involved in designing some machines that really
    test the envelope of Infolytica's 3D abilities. We ran into some snags, but the
    Infolytica people have been particularly responsive in helping us out, for which
    they should be commended.

    Also, I've compiled a list of links to all of the commercial low-frequency
    magnetics codes that I could find, some 24 different sites. It's been hiding on
    the femm website for a while at: http://members.aol.com/GMagnetics/links.htm
    If I've missed any, let me know.

    "Steven Stretz" <stretzsj@execpc.com> wrote:
    > Dave, I don't know if you get enough praise and thanks for your work.
    > It would be, is, great to have an open source finite element program
    available.
    > It would also be nice if it were to develop like a "Netscape" and the
    magnetics
    > community could improve and expand it. But alas that is not an easy task. I
    > only wish I could contribute more but my expertise in the theory and math is
    > limited. Anyway thanks for your time, work, and creativity. Best of luck in
    2001.

    I've sort of been hoping to entice someone to help extend the program's
    capabilites in future versions. I've been getting bogged down with other stuff
    lately, and I haven't been able to devote lots of time to working on femm. The
    program's capabilities are roughly equal to that of a "low-end" commercial
    solver, but it still lacks a lot of the useful features of the "high-end"
    programs. Who knows--it might even be fun to take a stab at a 3D program....

    Dave.

    begin:vcard
    n:Meeker;David
    tel;fax:781-890-3489
    tel;work:781-684-4070
    x-mozilla-html:TRUE
    url:http://members.aol.com/dcm3c
    org:Foster-Miller, Inc.;Electrical and Electronic Systems Group
    version:2.1
    email;internet:dmeeker@foster-miller.com
    title:Senior Engineer
    adr;quoted-printable:;;350 Second Avenue=0D=0A;Waltham;MA;02451-1196;USA
    fn:David Meeker, Ph.D.
    end:vcard

- Follow-Ups:
  - Re: [femm] FE magnetics commercial ware
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- References:
  - Re: [femm] Re: Incorrect force direction
    - From: dcm3c@aol.com
  - Re: [femm] Re: Incorrect force direction
    - From: "Greg Watson" <gowatson@optusnet.com.au>
  - Re: [femm] Re: Incorrect force direction
    - From: David Meeker <dmeeker@foster-miller.com>
  - Re: [femm] Re: Incorrect force direction
    - From: "Greg Watson" <gowatson@optusnet.com.au>
  - Re: [femm] Re: Incorrect force direction
    - From: "Steven Stretz" <stretzsj@execpc.com>
  - Re: [femm] Re: Incorrect force direction
    - From: Dave Squires <djsquires@plix.com>
  - Re: [femm] Re: Incorrect force direction
    - From: "Steven Stretz" <stretzsj@execpc.com>

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