The tables below show the minimum, budget and high-end system and hardware requirements for workstations and laptops necessary to achieve maximum performance with Autodesk Nastran In-CAD. There are no special hardware requirements for Autodesk Nastran In-CAD beyond those imposed by Windows.
The
Autodesk Nastran In-CAD 2016 Subscription Advantage Pack (SAP) released in
September 2015 can also be installed on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit and Windows 10.
Workstations:
| Minimum Workstation | Budget Workstation | High-End Workstation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 7 SP1 64-bit | Windows 7 SP1 Professional 64-bit, or Windows 8 Professional 64-bit | Windows 7 SP1 Professional 64-bit, Windows 8 Professional 64-bit, or Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit |
| Computer, CPU | Intel Pentium or AMD based | Intel Core i5/i7 – Dual or Quad Core at high clock speed | Dual Intel Xeon Quad-core CPUs at high clock speed (3.5+GHz). or single Xeon 8-core CPU at high clock speed (2.8+GHz) |
| Memory, RAM | 2GB | 8GB | 32GB+ |
| Graphics Card | 256MB workstation video card | 1GB dedicated video card | 2+GB NVIDIA Quadro K4000 or similar |
| Hard Disk | 40GB free space | 1TB SATA 7200RPM and 256GB SSD for temp files | 2TB 7200 SATA for file storage and 512GB SSD for temp files
Note: High write speed is critical (at least 400MB/sec is good) |
| Network Card | Required for network installation with FlexLM licensing | Required for network installation with FlexLM licensing | Required for network installation with FlexLM licensing |
Laptops:
| Minimum Laptop | Budget Laptop | High-End Laptop | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 7 SP1 64-bit | Windows 7 SP1 Professional 64-bit, or Windows 8 Professional 64-bit | Windows 7 SP1 Professional 64-bit, Windows 8 Professional 64-bit, or Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit |
| Computer, CPU | Intel Pentium or AMD based | Intel Core i5 – Dual or Quad Core at high clock speed | Intel Core i7 – Dual or Quad Core at high clock speed |
| Memory, RAM | 2GB | 4GB | 16GB+ |
| Graphics Card | 256MB workstation video card | 1GB dedicated video card | 2+GB NVIDIA or equivalent ATI |
| Hard Disk | 40GB free space | 1TB SATA 7200RPM | 512GB or 1TB SSD
Note: High write speed is critical (at least 400MB/sec is good) |
| Network Card | Required for network installation with FlexLM licensing | Required for network installation with FlexLM licensing | Required for network installation with FlexLM licensing |
There are many types of hardware that will allow you to use Autodesk Nastran In-CAD. Proper choice of hardware, however, can often make the difference between frustration and productivity. Here are a few suggestions:
- Add more memory (RAM) above the minimum configuration. This will allow you to specify more memory for the Autodesk Nastran In-CAD and reduce the likelihood of memory thrashing (excessive paging of virtual memory to disk).
- Required hard disk space is difficult to estimate, but in general you will never have enough. This is especially true when running large models. If you are continuously running out of disk space, you may want to invest in a larger and faster hard disk. Disk compression software may also help, but may also degrade performance.
- Purchase or upgrade to the latest versions of Windows. The improvements in performance and reliability will more than outweigh the initial cost - even if you only use Autodesk Nastran In-CAD occasionally.