FAQ

This is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) for FEAP users.

General

What is FEAP?

FEAP is a general purpose finite element analysis program which is designed for research and educational use on Windows, LINUX or Mac OS X systems.

What is the latest version of FEAP?

The latest version is FEAP 8.5 (now on minor release 8.5.2g October 17, 2017).

Where can I find FEAP manuals?

FEAP Manuals are available at the FEAP project page and on the Manuals page.

Installation and Licensing

Is FEAP free to use? If not, how can I obtain the FEAP license?

FEAP is open source but not free, see the Obtaining FEAP and the FEAP License FAQ pages. However, a personal version of FEAP with fewer capabilities called FEAPpv is free to use, you can find more information about it on the FEAPpv project page. Trying out FEAPpv is a good way to determine if FEAP is for you.

FEAPpv

FEAPpv is the free personal version of FEAP. It is quite a bit like FEAP but missing some of its more sophisticated capabilities. The project page for FEAPpv is found at FEAPpv. The most up-to-date source code, including development versions, for FEAPpv is located at GitHub.

How can I install FEAP on my computer?

See the Installation page.

Programming

Can I use Fortran 90/95 for programming user subroutines?

In general, there should be no problem with compiling user subroutines written in Fortran 90/95 on Windows machine with Intel Fortran Compiler and a Visual Studio shell. For Linux machines, Fortran 90/95 is supported in the Makefile since FEAP 8.5.2f released in October 2017.

Is it possible to use a user material subroutine written for another FEA program like Abaqus in FEAP?

In general, this is not possible because the interface of the subroutine in FEAP could be different from that of other programs. Also, the tangent moduli (elasticity tensor) required in Abaqus UMAT subroutine is different from that in FEAP.

How could I call FEAP within MATLAB?

Prof. David Bindel has developed an interface program called MATFEAP for FEAP and MATLAB. Check his website at http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~bindel/sw/matfeap/ or his Github repository at https://github.com/dbindel/matfeap for more information. It is also possible to call MATLAB routines from within FEAP using the MATLAB Engine

Parallel Computing

Do I have to install Parallel FEAP in order to run part of my code parallel?

This is not necessary. For example, if you only have a for- or do-loop in your code which is time-consuming, then you could also use techniques like OpenMP to parallelize only that part of your code without installation of Parallel FEAP.