SonoAnalyzer Pro support packages

To make use of the new Pro models with direct access to the finite-element analysis, SonoAnalyzer Pro must connect to a separate a finite-element program. The recommended one is CalculiX, a free, open-source program created by Guido Dhondt. Special packages of this along with other open-source software have been prepared for the convenience of SonoAnalyzer users. Note that CalculiX, like most open-source software, comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. These packages, along with all the software contained within, are free software, and you are welcome to use, modify and redistribute them under the terms of the Gnu General Public License, or other open-source licenses which may be applicable to individual items. For full details please view the license terms included with each item of software included in these packages.

SonoAnalyzer version 2.x adds extra functionality - the ability to import and export geometry in STEP format. To support these functions two more open-source packages have been added alongside CalculiX: Netgen / NGSolve and FreeCAD (which incorporates OpenCascade).

Hosted options:

All users of SonoAnalyzer Pro with a current license have access to a cloud-based analysis server exclusively for their use, giving full SonoAnalyzer Pro functions without the need to install any extra software on the local PC. Details will be sent automatically to your SonoAnalyzer Pro application and will appear in the list of Pro FEA servers as something like "Cloud1-Singapore" (location will be chosen based on your order address). This option is selected by default on initial installation and no further setup on the local PC is necessary. A fast, direct internet connection is required (recommended minimum 20Mbit/s).

Standalone options:

To create a standalone system with all processing on the same PC, you will need to install at least one of the packages described below. If you're not sure which to choose, start with the first one (Cygwin).

Note that all standalone packages require a 64-bit Windows operating system. To verify your system meets this requirement, go to Computer -> System Properties and check that it shows "System type: 64-bit Operating System". If not (even if the computer runs on 64-bit hardware) then you will need to find another computer to run any of these finite-element packages. There are no plans to create 32-bit versions - Finite Element analysis is computationally demanding and running it on a 32-bit system is not recommended.

Packages currently available:

Latest releases for SonoAnalyzer version 2: FEAServer

FEAServer setup.exe version 2.02 - Cygwin + Cygwin/X + CalculiX + FreeCAD + Gmsh + NetGen (SonoAnalyzer v2 ONLY)

Cygwin is a collection of tools for running programs under MS Windows that were originally intended for Linux / Unix-style computers. This package contains new versions of CalculiX (compiled under Cygwin) and Cygwin/X, the X11 server used by CalculiX cgx to display graphics. In addition the download contains binary distributions of recent releases of FreeCAD and NetGen, used by SonoAnalyzer version 2 for exporting and importing STEP-format geometry files.
More information - Download (570MB)

FEAServer setup.exe version 3 - Cygwin + CalculiX + FreeCAD + Gmsh (SonoAnalyzer v2.3 on)

Cygwin is a collection of tools for running programs under MS Windows that were originally intended for Linux / Unix-style computers. This package contains new versions of CalculiX cgx (compiled under Cygwin) and a binary distribution of FreeCAD (including Gmsh and CalculiX ccx), indended for use by SonoAnalyzer version 2.3 onward.
More information - Download (628MB)

VirtualBox image: Ubuntu 18.04 + CalculiX + FreeCAD + NetGen (SonoAnalyzer v2 ONLY)

This is a full Gnu/Linux server operating system.This package contains new versions of CalculiX (compiled under Cygwin) and Cygwin/X, the X11 server used by CalculiX cgx to display graphics. In addition the download contains binary distributions of recent releases of FreeCAD and NetGen installed through the Ubuntu package manager. These are used by SonoAnalyzer version 2 for exporting and importing STEP-format geometry files. (Note: very large file - 3GB)
More information - Download (3000MB)

Note: Earlier releases for SonoAnalyzer version 1.x.x are now obsolete and have been removed.