Patran vs Nastran: What are the differences?...

[george_ionita52KAC]

Hi,

What are the main differences between Patran vs Nastran?

Do they work together?

Thank you!

[John_Holtz · Accepted solution]

Hi @george_ionita52KAC 

According to Google, "Patran is the world's most widely used pre/post-processing software for Finite Element Analysis (FEA), providing solid modeling, meshing, analysis setup and post-processing for multiple solvers".

In other words, Patran is an alternative to the Inventor Nastran environment inside Inventor.

When someone mentions Nastran, they generally mean the solver that calculates the results of an analysis. Those are two separate things. You create the model using (fill in the blank), solve the analysis using Nastran, then view the results using (fill in the blank).

So, what is your (fill in the blank)? Are you using Inventor and the Inventor Nastran environment, or are you using Patran?

John

[george_ionita52KAC]

John, thanks for your reply.

Please, excuse my ignorance:

- What did you mean by "(fill in the blank)"?.....................

[John_Holtz · Accepted solution]

"fill in the blank" means that you replace those words with the program you are using to create the analysis. I do not know what software you are using to create the analysis. Are you using Inventor Nastran? Patran? Something else?

Because you asked about Patran, that makes me think you are using Patran to create the model and Inventor Nastran to run the analysis.

John

[george_ionita52KAC]

I use Autodesk Inventor 2025.......