Altair HyperWorks vs. Simcenter STAR-CCM+

Engineering firms and companies with needs for multiple disciplines of analysis capabilities on a regular basis will benefit from HyperWorks. Companies with short term engineering needs (less than 6 months) or who only need a particular analysis/simulation discipline may be better off using a consultant (who likely uses HyperWorks).

Incentivized

A case where you are interested in modeling various physics such as
Aerodynamics,
Hydrodynamics, Heat Transfer & Thermal Management, Multiphase Flow, Fluid-Structure
Interaction (FSI), Combustion & Reacting Flows, Aeroacoustics, Electrochemistry, and Electromagnetics. STARCCM+ is recommended. But if your interest is complex Structural dynamics, durability, or Motion analysis, etc. better to go with other tools.

Incentivized

• All-inclusive software suite
• Wide breadth of capabilities and custom scripting
• Highly efficient and scalable solvers/computation

Incentivized

• Meshing is very easy to do in STAR CCM+
• Post-processing results is also very intuitive, making extracting results very enjoyable and easy to use.
• The Advanced rendering options that are available in STAR CCM+ can really help make very well-generated videos that can make the simulation easy to visualize, share with non-technical engineers, and showcase the study done.

Incentivized

• User interface is improving, but not always intuitive; varies across tools
• Steep learning curve
• Cost may be out of reach for some, but relatively inexpensive if you need all the tools it includes (vs. paying for each tool individually)

Incentivized

• Maybe a little bit on the automation side and if you want to script something, if you want to automate procedures, that happens through every simulation round that you have. That part could be a little bit cumbersome right now, depending on the operating system that you use.
• Introducing the software on other platforms like Mac OSS.

Incentivized

Great single window GUI

Incentivized

STAR CCM+ technical support was very quick to respond when a ticket was raised for issues. For support in setting up a test case for the Lagrangian particle tracking technique, a support assist agent was assigned immediately, and after having a detailed discussion, my problem was understood by them, and a suitable test case was shared, which I was able to understand and use to build my case.

Incentivized

It is super easy when it comes to implementing it.

Incentivized

Because HyperWorks, HyperMesh is best

Competitive tools, both Fluent and STARCCM+, but the user interface and ease of learning, along with everything in a single interface, and a wide variety of proven physics capabilities, along with good scalability and automation, made the choice easy for me. Also, the user guide and tutorials available to explore various kinds of Physics capability, and A single license for access to all physics, also made it easy.

Incentivized

• An all in one solution keeps costs down if you need multiple analysis capabilities (FEA, CFD, MBD, etc.)
• Analysis work supports our other engineering/design work we wouldn't otherwise receive
• Fast and efficient solvers leads to higher throughput

Incentivized

• Time saved in creating a inhouse code, tens and tens of hours.
• Time saved in experimental setup, tens of hours.
• Does add some time in testing to confirm star is doing what you think it's doing, but an overall net gain in productivity.