HW does not start up today (why I will not use HyperWorks in the classroom)

Petr Krysl

Yesterday I installed HW and played with it. Today I can't get HW to open.  Neither the desktop nor the HW 2022 will start!?

How does one debug something like this?

Jason_Craanen

Petr Krysl said:

Jason, do you know where to find the model files for the tutorials at https://web.altair.com/altair-for-simlab-learning-center-trls? There is no description... D_wheelasy* is the first one. No clue where to look for it.

 

With most of our tools you can access the help directly within the application

You should be able to download these directly for each tutorial

Petr Krysl

It just would not start. I had to completely remove it and reinstall. Uf.

Marine_Racollet

Hello,
If I understand well it is working now, right?

Regards,

Marine

Jason_Craanen

Petr Krysl said:

It just would not start. I had to completely remove it and reinstall. Uf.

Here is an article for some debugging recommendations

https://community.altair.com/community/en/altair-simulation-2022-hardware-and-system-requirements?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0119809

For your issue, it sounded like a incomplete installation perhaps? Verifying the CHECKSUM prior to installation could be something to check.

Petr Krysl

It was working, before I deleted everything. I noticed that the documentation for HyperWorks/HyperMesh was mostly useless as it was significantly out of date relative to the software. I can't have the students deal with this mess.

Jason_Craanen

Petr Krysl said:

It was working, before I deleted everything. I noticed that the documentation for HyperWorks/HyperMesh was mostly useless as it was significantly out of date relative to the software. I can't have the students deal with this mess.

Hello Petr,

Could you please be a bit more detailed so we can more efficiently support you?

"It was working, before I deleted everything"

What did you delete?

"I noticed that the documentation for HyperWorks/HyperMesh was mostly useless as it was significantly out of date relative to the software."

Documentation from where and pertaining to what?

"I can't have the students deal with this mess."

Please detail what the actual issue was. You mention it would not start. Were there any messages? What was the behavior. 

"It just would not start. I had to completely remove it and reinstall. Uf."

Does it work now? If not share the relevant details.

In order to help you and diagnose the issue, you will need to be more detailed.

Also, is this a production or student version?

thanks

jason

 

Petr Krysl

Sorry for being vague.

I'm about to teach a finite element course. In the past students practiced analysis using Abaqus. However from time to time some would be interested in learning about other packages. Hence I decided to evaluate a few, including the offerings from Altair.

I installed HyperWorks, it worked one day, the second day it wouldn't start. I had to reinstall from scratch. Then it worked.

I found HyperWorks to be powerful but unintuitive. I have quite a bit of experience with Abaqus, Comsol, Ansys, Nastran (Autodesk InCAD). So I knew what was going on when I saw the acronyms/abbreviations MAT1, PSHELL, SPC ... and references to "IMAGE CARDS", but this would be terribly confusing to newbies (viz my students).

It took me a while to set up a load case: the dialogue to create one didn't seem to allow me to pick the loading and the supports. After a while I figured out that I needed to edit this in the tree: not straightforward at all.

So, as could be expected, I tried to see if the documentation was going to help. I actually needed help myself, with that load case dialogue, and obviously the students would need it too. The documentation was not up to snuff: Constant references to things that I couldn't find in the software itself. Finally I figured out that the user interface is about to change and documentation hasn't caught up yet (Disconnect between the tutorial and the software I have - HyperWorks - Altair Products - Altair Community).  Not to mention that the documentation essentially assumes that the user is familiar with Nastran!!!

So, I saw that HyperWorks was going to be a poor choice, I deleted everything, and now I'm looking into SimLab. That seems to be marginally more suitable. But I'm having a lot of trouble too. For instance, it would not start on one of my computers, I had to switch to a different one. The documentation is pretty sparse, ... 

Jason_Craanen

Petr Krysl said:

Sorry for being vague.

I'm about to teach a finite element course. In the past students practiced analysis using Abaqus. However from time to time some would be interested in learning about other packages. Hence I decided to evaluate a few, including the offerings from Altair.

I installed HyperWorks, it worked one day, the second day it wouldn't start. I had to reinstall from scratch. Then it worked.

I found HyperWorks to be powerful but unintuitive. I have quite a bit of experience with Abaqus, Comsol, Ansys, Nastran (Autodesk InCAD). So I knew what was going on when I saw the acronyms/abbreviations MAT1, PSHELL, SPC ... and references to "IMAGE CARDS", but this would be terribly confusing to newbies (viz my students).

It took me a while to set up a load case: the dialogue to create one didn't seem to allow me to pick the loading and the supports. After a while I figured out that I needed to edit this in the tree: not straightforward at all.

So, as could be expected, I tried to see if the documentation was going to help. I actually needed help myself, with that load case dialogue, and obviously the students would need it too. The documentation was not up to snuff: Constant references to things that I couldn't find in the software itself. Finally I figured out that the user interface is about to change and documentation hasn't caught up yet (Disconnect between the tutorial and the software I have - HyperWorks - Altair Products - Altair Community).  Not to mention that the documentation essentially assumes that the user is familiar with Nastran!!!

So, I saw that HyperWorks was going to be a poor choice, I deleted everything, and now I'm looking into SimLab. That seems to be marginally more suitable. But I'm having a lot of trouble too. For instance, it would not start on one of my computers, I had to switch to a different one. The documentation is pretty sparse, ... 

Hello Petr,

Thank you, that helps clear things up.

First off, yes Hypermesh has undergone a interface change. I think it will be more intuitive for your students.

And yes for now Hypermesh relies on the users knowledge of the particular solver that the user is using. Eventually we hope to get more "Engineering Term" based workflow, but for now that is a bit of a requirement.

Here is a link to resources I recommend you look into. This will have links to other useful topics for getting started.

https://web.altair.com/new-hyperworks-experience

Specifically you might find the self-paced training to be of benefit.

https://learn.altair.com/local/altair_learning_plan/plan_overview.php?id=2

The documentation and resources I linked to above will all be focussed on the new interface and workflow (help documentation is as well)

Please let me know if you need more help and information

Thank you

jason

 

Petr Krysl

Thank you, Jason. At the moment I am only considering SimLab (HyperWorks maybe after it's been cleaned up). Would you have resources for SimLab as well? Basic tutorials, mainly (I do need some help with supporting the students...).

Thanks!

Jason_Craanen

Petr Krysl said:

Thank you, Jason. At the moment I am only considering SimLab (HyperWorks maybe after it's been cleaned up). Would you have resources for SimLab as well? Basic tutorials, mainly (I do need some help with supporting the students...).

Thanks!

Give a search in the Community

https://community.altair.com/community?id=search&spa=1&t=blogFacet&q=simlab&blog_product=str:0744add61b9d0c50a028542d1e4bcb6c

Check out the learning center

https://web.altair.com/altair-for-simlab-learning-center-trls

and youtube should have some as well

https://www.youtube.com/@AltairHowTo/search?query=simlab

Petr Krysl

https://web.altair.com/altair-for-simlab-learning-center-trls: This is the goods! Thanks.

It is surprisingly difficult to find useful documentation. I wonder why? I did a "simlab" search on https://learn.altair.com/totara/catalog/index.php?cfp_multiselect_deliverytypedel_c8eb2[]=eLearning&orderbykey=text&itemstyle=narrow. There was one hit: some tutorial in Korean.

Petr Krysl

Jason, do you know where to find the model files for the tutorials at https://web.altair.com/altair-for-simlab-learning-center-trls? There is no description... D_wheelasy* is the first one. No clue where to look for it.

 

Jason_Craanen

Petr Krysl said:

Jason, do you know where to find the model files for the tutorials at https://web.altair.com/altair-for-simlab-learning-center-trls? There is no description... D_wheelasy* is the first one. No clue where to look for it.

 

With most of our tools you can access the help directly within the application

You should be able to download these directly for each tutorial

Petr Krysl

I see! Much obliged.

Petr Krysl

I can't open the database!? 

 

AlessioLibrandi

Petr Krysl said:

I can't open the database!? 

 

Hello,

it looks like you are trying to open a  a file which was created in a commercial version with a Student Edition - what is not supported.

The message formulation is quite misleading, I will ask the SimLab devs to reformulate it.

"Database saved in student edition can only be opened"

should be

"Only Database saved in student edition can be opened"

Thanks, Alessio

Petr Krysl

Alessio Librandi_21203 said:

Hello,

it looks like you are trying to open a  a file which was created in a commercial version with a Student Edition - what is not supported.

The message formulation is quite misleading, I will ask the SimLab devs to reformulate it.

"Database saved in student edition can only be opened"

should be

"Only Database saved in student edition can be opened"

Thanks, Alessio

Thank you. That would be a good first step. But, more importantly, this file is part of the SimLab tutorial series. These model databases need to be saved in a way that allows every user, commercial or not, to open it!