--- title: Inventor Nastran Reviews meta_title: 'Inventor Nastran Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 23 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Inventor Nastran works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.0 review_count: 23 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-07' parent_category: name: CAD & PLM url: https://www.g2.com/categories/cad-plm --- # Inventor Nastran Reviews **Vendor:** Autodesk **Category:** [Simulation & CAE Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/simulation-cae) **Average Rating:** 4.0/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 23 ## About Inventor Nastran Autodesk Inventor Nastran is a comprehensive finite element analysis (FEA) software integrated within the Autodesk Inventor environment, designed to assist engineers and analysts in predicting the physical behavior of products under various conditions. Leveraging the robust Autodesk Nastran solver, it offers a wide array of simulation capabilities, including linear and nonlinear stress analysis, dynamics, and heat transfer studies. Key Features and Functionality: - Linear Static Analysis: Evaluate stress, strain, and deformation resulting from static loads and constraints. - Nonlinear Analysis: Simulate complex material behaviors such as plasticity and hyperelasticity, accommodating large deformations and nonlinear contacts. - Dynamic Analysis: Assess structural responses to time-dependent loads, including transient and frequency response analyses. - Heat Transfer Analysis: Analyze thermal effects through conduction, convection, and radiation to predict temperature distributions and thermal stresses. - Fatigue Analysis: Determine the durability of structures under repeated loading, including low- and high-cycle fatigue. - Impact and Drop Test Simulation: Model and analyze the effects of impacts and drops to ensure product resilience. - Advanced Material Models: Utilize a variety of material models, including those for metals, rubber, and soft tissues, to achieve accurate simulation results. Primary Value and User Solutions: By integrating advanced simulation tools directly into the CAD environment, Inventor Nastran enables users to perform in-depth analyses without leaving their design workspace. This seamless integration facilitates early detection of potential design issues, reduces the reliance on physical prototypes, and accelerates the product development process. Ultimately, it empowers engineers to enhance product performance, ensure structural integrity, and bring innovative solutions to market more efficiently. ## Inventor Nastran Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users appreciate the **ease of use** of Inventor Nastran, allowing straightforward definition of parameters and seamless integration. (1 reviews) - Users value the **setup ease** of Inventor Nastran, allowing straightforward parameter definition and seamless integration with Inventor. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **flexible parameter customization** in Inventor Nastran, enhancing their simulation capabilities significantly. (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users find **assembly issues** prevalent in Inventor Nastran, lacking advanced features and recent updates for improved usability. (1 reviews) - Users find **meshing issues** due to lack of advanced features, making result interpretation less effective. (1 reviews) ## Inventor Nastran Reviews ### 1. Opensource CAE **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 01, 2018 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** First of all, the fact that it is open-source and completely available to anyone is what i like the most about it. And other than that, one can define solvers specific to his/her problem. **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** The complex GUI coupled with low visual sims as compared to its competitors (Workbench, Hypermesh, etc) The automesh function is not as good as that of Workbench **Recommendations to others considering Inventor Nastran:** If you have a good teacher for the software, its worth it. Or else you need to spend a lot of time figuring out the ins and outs of this software package **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used it for composite analysis of carbon fiber structures in our project ### 2. Calculated the damping coefficient of the Spacer Damper **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aravind S. | CAE Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** I like the meshing options available in the software, Once the model is done in the 3D CAD modeling software it is easier to mesh to desired mesh element based on the accuracy requirement for the given conditions. **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** I have faced compatibility issues with Nastran. It is best if we use all the products form Autodesk suite. If not more often than not there are issues. **Recommendations to others considering Inventor Nastran:** I recommend users to first try the software if it meets the organization needs and then buy the software. **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used Nastran to calculate the structural instability of the damper in high power energy distribution network. ### 3. analyzing in the most effective way **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mining & Metals | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** This product has been very useful is solving analysis and simulations easily. Thanks to the detailed documentation and tutorials, working with this software has been very smooth. Its automatic dynamic plot creation in some of the analysis is what i liked the most **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** It does not have a graphical interface and has few compatibility issues. If all the products being used are from Autodesk, it works fine. But otherwise, it does not run very smoothly **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** This product was used in our project for faster analysis of the different models under dynamic loads using finite elements ### 4. One of the best products from Autodesk **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** John S. | FEA Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 04, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** With autodesk providing CAD and CAE solutions the integration and compatibility issues would be vastly reduced. **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** The mesh control isn't advanced enough as compared to other software in the range. **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used Nastran for nonlinear transient heat transfer for the engine block. I able to maximize the cooling effect on the block by re-configuring the water coolant lines. ### 5. Another Autodesk product great for Analysis. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mark R. | CAE Engineer, Automotive, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 03, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** The user interface on this software is top of the class among all other CAE software. When compared to other solvers the debugging tool for a model deck is very easy. **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** The restrictions for boundary condition management and the dependence on other pre processing tools is a setback. **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have mainly used for tubing structures for stress analysis. ### 6. Tool for NVH and static analysis **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 01, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** Nastran user interface is very easy to handle and debugging the deck of the solution for any error is very easy compared to other solvers like abaqus and LS dyna. post processing for a nastran file is also easily readable **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** Biggest disadvantage is we cant change or edit any model in nastran as we cant give any loading conditions or we can any boundary conditions which seems very difficult . **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used this tool to do NVH analysis and static analysis of cross car beam and differential axle of car ### 7. Analysis of Static load components **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 01, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** This solver is very user friendly and used for solving mostly static load conditions for CAE of automobiles. Debugging of nastran is quite easy compared to other solver **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** Unlike other solvers here we cannot give load conditions in nastran . Its just a solver but in abaqus and LS dyna we can give load conditions **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** When we have done pre processing using hyperworks for static components and so many contacts. Nastran will be useful to solve the model and get good results with less effort compared to other solvers ### 8. Nastran is the best CAE software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Raja Aravind Reddy M. | BIW Design engineer-II, Automotive, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** The user interface is slick and the mesh options are adequate for the tasks that I usually face. **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** I face a lot of compatibility issues in **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used Nastran to conduct stress analysis on floor assembly. ### 9. Solving a vibrational analysis model **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** We can easily solve vibrational analysis and static of any automobile or air craft parts by using input HM model **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** We cannot give any kind of loading and boundary conditions in this tool when compared to other solvers **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used to conduct vibrational analysis of prototype air craft wing for different velocities ### 10. SOLVING A STATIC MODEL **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 18, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** interface is very simple to understand and debugging a model is very simple compared to other softwares **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** We cannot give any kind of load conditions in this tool unlike LS dyna and abaqus **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used to solve a static analysis of die casting component for different pressing loads and formability ### 11. Solving a NVH model from HM file **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Aviation & Aerospace | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** Interface is quite simple and we can easily handle with error debugging by just playing with the deck cards **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** We cannot give loading and boundary conditions here unlike other solvers **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used this tool to generate vibrationals analysis of a aircraft wing for different drag ratios and velocities ### 12. Solving thermal and static analysis **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 02, 2017 **What do you like best about Inventor Nastran?** User interface is very easy to understand and its very simple. Debugging of a model deck is very easy compared to other solvers **What do you dislike about Inventor Nastran?** Here we cant give any load conditions or boundary conditions and also we have to depend on other tool for preprocessing **What problems is Inventor Nastran solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solving thermal analysis of piping structures and also solved stress analysis of pressure vessels ## Inventor Nastran Discussions - [What is Inventor Nastran used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-inventor-nastran-used-for) - [View Inventor Nastran pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/inventor-nastran/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=4§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-14+11%3A11%3A29+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=6b6eae44-ffa2-4009-930a-80923f25b369&secure%5Btoken%5D=f8ba772e0af8e415c18963f793a468f1c7bbbecbd5d19d1fcb6e36f3bb319d1e&format=llm_user) ## Inventor Nastran Features **Design** - 3D/solid modeling Tools - Drawing Tools - Editing Tools - Rendering tools - Stochastic Modeling - Presentation Tools **Tools** - Fluid analysis - Finite element analysis - Multibody dynamics - Design Analysis **Work** - Discrete event modeling - Continuous event modeling - Mechanical event simulation - Manufacturing process simulation - Integrate - Turbulence Modeling - Motion Modeling - Dynamic Modeling - Mathematical Modeling - Agent-Based Modeling - Monte Carlo Simulation **Environment** - Hardware support - Task - Manage Multiple Profiles - Command Clarity **Additional Functionality** - Activity Dashboard - Configurable Workflow - API - Data Verification - Data Visualization - Generative AI - 3D Imaging - Projections - Data Import/Export - Design Management - Drag & Drop - Real-Time Monitoring - Version Control - Visual Analytics - Third-Party Integrations - Access Controls/Permissions - Workflow Management - Direct Manipulation - Scenario Planning - Product Data Management - Predictive Analytics - Change Management - Process Control - Customization - Content Library - Document Management - Real-Time Data - Reporting & Statistics - Rules-Based Workflow - File Management - Compliance Management - Policy Management - Graphical Data Presentation - Customizable Reports - Graphical Workflow Editor - Reporting/Analytics - Industry Specific Database - Project Workflow - AI Copilot - Performance Management ## Top Inventor Nastran Alternatives - [Ansys Fluent](https://www.g2.com/products/ansys-fluent/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (117 reviews) - [Ansys Mechanical](https://www.g2.com/products/ansys-mechanical/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (89 reviews) - [SolidWorks Simulation](https://www.g2.com/products/dassault-systemes-solidworks-simulation/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (58 reviews)