I am new to the use of Inventor after having used several drawing and simulation packages. The company I have started to work for is using FEMAP for drawings and simulation of parts of ships. Inventor 2010 is also available. I am trying to work out if it is faster to draw in Inventor and simulate in either Inventor or FEMAP.
I am not looking for the midplane option, as this would imply having to first draw solids - in the simulation only (2D) shells are simulated. I do think sheet metal is used for other types of structures as well. In this case it involves plates of the deck, hull and perpendicular stiffeners - all modelled as 2D plates/shells.
The Inventor examples I have found so far involve solids. Can anyone point me in the right direction for drawing in shells directly?
Many thanks in advance,
Richard