My husband wanted me to send a note out asking if anyone is familiar with what type of Autocad or CAD software the race teams use in designing and checking the stress on the _meta_l via the computer. He was interested in the Roush organization or any of the other top teams. Any ideas??

: My husband wanted me to send a note out asking if anyone is familiar with : what type of Autocad or CAD software the race teams use in designing and : checking the stress on the _meta_l via the computer. : He was interested in the Roush organization or any of the other top : teams. : Any ideas?? I recall seeing something about this somewhere(IWCR?).I recall that it was CATIA which is what lots of mfgs use to design airplanes (i was impressed that they had a real industrial strenght tool). Its full 3-D �and also has solid-modeling. Its a real CPU hog though. We used to run it on a IBM 3090 main_frame_. Maybe it runs on SG/Suns now. Then again I might be very wrong..any WC team lurkers out there can tell us for usre? � � � � � � � � � � � � ed who used to help build airplanes go #6, #94!!! #6 is #1 in '96!

My husband wanted me to send a note out asking if anyone is familiar with what type of Autocad or CAD software the race teams use in designing and checking the stress on the _meta_l via the computer. He was interested in the Roush organization or any of the other top teams. Any ideas?? AutoCad dwg files can be imported into many stress analysis programs. The drawings are made in 3-D mode, which is going to cost another thousand bucks on top of the 3,750 _base_ price. One of the finite element analysis (FEA) programs that gets advertized a lot is ANSYS. You can't pick up a copy of Machine Design, Design News, or even Automotive Engineering without getting hit with the ads. It is supposed to be a good tool, but the fact that they charge several hundred dollars just to sit through the presentation (which they call a school, and is taught by a programmer that knows computer code far better than stress analysis or kinematics), makes me decidedly indisposed to purchase it. Kelly Ray Caton, Senior Fellow The Velocity Institute Velocitas, Veritas, Validus