List of finite element software packages

This is a list of software packages that implement the finite element method for solving partial differential equations.

SoftwareFeaturesDeveloperVersionReleasedLicensePricePlatform
Agros2DMultiplatform open source application for the solution of physical problems based on the Hermes libraryUniversity of West Bohemia3.22014-03-03GNU GPLFreeLinux, Windows
CalculiXIt is an Open Source FEA project. The solver uses a partially compatible ABAQUS file format. The pre/post-processor generates input data for many FEA and CFD applicationsGuido Dhondt, Klaus Wittig2.162019-11-24GNU GPLFreeLinux, Windows
DIANA FEAGeneral purpose finite element package utilised by civil, structural and geotechnical engineers.DIANA FEA BV, The Netherlands10.12016-11-14Proprietary commercial softwarePaidWindows, Linux
deal.IIComprehensive set of tools for finite element codes, scaling from laptops to clusters with 10,000+ cores. Written in C++.Wolfgang Bangerth, Timo Heister, Guido Kanschat, Matthias Maier et al.9.02018-05-12LGPLFreeLinux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows
DUNEDistributed and Unified Numerics Environment, written in C++DUNE Developer team2.4.12016-02-29GPL Version 2 with Run-Time ExceptionFreeLinux, Unix, Mac OS X
ElmerOpen source multiphysical simulation software developed by Finnish Ministry of Education's CSC, written primarily in Fortran (written in Fortran90, C and C++)CSC8.22016-03-15GPLFreeLinux, Mac OS X, Windows
FEBioFinite Elements for BiomechanicsUniversity of Utah (MRL), Columbia University (MBL)2.7April, 2018CustomFreeLinux, Mac OS X, Windows
FEniCS ProjectSoftware package developed by American and European researchers with the goal to enable automated solution of differential equationsFEniCS Team1.6.02015-07-29LGPL (Core) & GPL/LGPL (Non-Core)[1]FreeLinux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows
FEATool MultiphysicsMATLAB FEM and PDE multiphysics simulation toolboxPrecise Simulation1.102019-05-17Proprietary EULAFree for personal use[2]Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Unix
FreeFEM[3]FreeFEM is a free and open-source parallel FEA software for multiphysics simulations. The problems are defined in terms of their variational formulation and can be easily implemented using FreeFEM language. Written in C++.Sorbonne University[4] and Jacques-Louis Lions Laboratory[5]4.2.12019-06-06LGPLFreeLinux, MacOS, Windows, Solaris
GOMA GOMA is an open-source, parallel, and scalable multiphysics software package for modeling and simulation of real-life physical processes, with a basis in computational fluid dynamics for problems with evolving geometry. Sandia National Laboratories, University of New Mexico 6.1Aug 28, 2015GPL Version 2FreeLinux
GetFEM++A generic finite element library written in C++ with interfaces for Python, Matlab and Scilab. It focuses on modeling of contact mechanics and discontinuities (e.g. cracks).Yves Renard, Julien Pommier5.02015-07LGPLFreeUnix, Mac OS X, Windows
Hermes ProjectModular C/C++ library for rapid development of space- and space-time adaptive hp-FEM solvershp-FEM group3.02014-03-01LGPLFreeLinux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows
Mathematica[6]General purpose computation software.Wolfram Research12.2 (December 16, 2020 (2020-12-16)) [±][7]RegularlyProprietaryLinux, Mac OS X, Windows, Raspbian, Online service.
MATLAB Partial Differential Equation ToolboxMATLAB Toolbox for solving structural, thermal, electromagnetics, and other general PDEsMathWorks3.3 (R2019b)2019-09-11Proprietary commercial softwareLinux, Mac OS X, Windows
MFEM MFEM is a free, lightweight, scalable C++ library for finite element methods that features arbitrary high-order finite element meshes and spaces, support for a wide variety of discretizations, and emphasis on usability, generality, and high-performance computing efficiency. MFEM team 4.2 2020-10-30 BSD Free Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows
MoFEM JosePHMesh Oriented hp-FE code, written in C++University of Glasgow0.6.82017-11-16LGPLFreeUnix, Mac OS X
MOOSEObject Oriented FE framework, written in C++Idaho National LaboratoryregularlyLGPLFreeUnix, Mac OS X
OOFEMObject Oriented Finite EleMent solver, written in C++Bořek Patzák2.42016-02-15GPL Version 2FreeUnix, Windows
OpenSeesOpen System for Earthquake Engineering SimulationNon CommercialFreeUnix, Linux, Windows
SESAM (FEM)Software suite for structural and hydrodynamic analysis of ships and offshore structuresDNV GLregularlyProprietary, SaaSWindows, Web browser
Range SoftwareMultiphysics Finite Element Analysis SoftwareTomáš Šoltys3.02018-04-30GPLFreeLinux, Windows
Z88/Z88AuroraFreeware finite element package; The present version Z88Aurora V4 offers, in addition to static strength analysis modules such as non-linear strength calculations (large displacements), simulations with non-linear materials, natural frequency, static thermal analysis and a contact module.Frank RiegZ88 V15, Z88Aurora V52017-07-17, 2019-04-01GNU GPL, CustomFreeLinux, Windows, Mac OS X
AbaqusAdvanced Franco-USA software from SIMULIA, owned by Dassault SystemesAbaqus Inc.20192019-12Proprietary commercial softwareLinux, Windows
CONSELFCAE simulation from your browserCONSELF SRL2.92015-10SaaSFreemiumWeb browser
FreeCADParametric 3D modeler with a FEM workbench allowing it to use external solvers like CalculiX, Z88, Elmer, and OpenFoamFreeCAD Team0.1812 March 2019LGPL 2FreeLinux, Windows, Mac OS X
ADINAFinite element software for structural, fluid, heat transfer, electromagnetic, and multiphysics problems, including fluid-structure interaction and thermo-mechanical couplingAdina R&DProprietary commercial software
Advance DesignBIM software for FEM structural analysis, including international design eurocodesGRAITEC20142013-09Proprietary commercial software
Autodesk SimulationFinite Element software of AutodeskAutodeskProprietary commercial softwareWindows
ANSYSUS-based and -developed full CAE software packageAnsys Inc.19.22018-09-18Proprietary commercial softwareFree student version available, up to 32,000 nodes/elements[8]Windows, Linux
COMSOL MultiphysicsCOMSOL Multiphysics Finite Element Analysis Software (formerly FEMLAB)COMSOL Inc.5.52019-11-14Proprietary EULALinux, Mac OS X, Windows, Web browser
CosmosWorksPart of SolidWorksDassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp.Proprietary commercial softwareWindows
QuickfieldEM, Heat Transfer and Stress Analysis [9]Tera Analysis Ltd6.4 [10]2020-04-17Proprietary EULAFree Student Edition available[11]Windows
Pam Crash Best used for explicit dynamics / crash analysis ESI 15.5.1 2020-03-05 Proprietary commercial software Linux, Windows
LS-DYNABest known for explicit dynamics / crash analysisLSTC - Livermore Software Technology CorporationR8.02015-03Proprietary commercial softwareLinux, Windows
Midas CivilFinite element software for bridge structural modeling, analysis and designMIDAS IT - MIDAS Information Technology2020 v3.22001-11Proprietary commercial softwareWindows, Linux
NastranOriginally developed for NASA, now available commercially from several software companiesMSC NASTRAN, Siemens PLM NX Nastran[12]20142014Proprietary EULALinux, Mac OS X, Windows
RFEM3D finite element analysis softwareDlubal Software5.062016-02Proprietary commercial softwareFree student license available[13]Windows
SimScaleGerman 100% web-based CAE platformSimScale GmbH142013-07SaaSFree community version available[14]Web browser
VisualFEAFinite element software for structural, geotechnical, heat transfer and seepage analysisIntuition Software5.112016-01Proprietary softwareFree educational version available[15]Mac OS X, Windows
JCMsuiteFinite element software for the analysis of electromagnetic waves, elasticity and heat conductionJCMwave GmbH3.6.12017-01-27Proprietary EULALinux, Windows
JMAG2D and 3D finite element analysis software for electromagnetic field, thermal, structuralJSOL18.12019-06Proprietary commercial softwareEducation pack availableLinux, Windows, Web browser
StressCheckFinite element analysis software based on hp-FEM with a focus on solid mechanics applicationsESRD, Inc.10.52019-06-06Proprietary commercial softwareWindows
SDC Verifier An extension for Ansys Mechanical, Femap and Simcenter with out of the box predefined standards on fatigue, stiffener and plate buckling, beam member checks, joint checks and weld. Such as AISC 360-10, API 2A RP, ISO 19902, Norsok N004, DIN15018, Eurocode 3, FEM 1.001, ABS 2004, ABS 2014, DNV RP-C201 2010, DNV CN30/1995, FKM etc. SDC Verifier 5.3.1 2020-03 Proprietary commercial software Student version available Windows

Feature comparison

This table is contributed by a FEA-compare[16] project, which provides an alternative view of this table with the first row and Feature column being fixed for ease of table exploration.

Feature COMSOL Multiphysics MFEM GetFEM++ deal.II Range Software Elmer MOOSE FEniCS Project FEATool Multiphysics
license: Proprietary BSD LGPL LGPL GPL GNU (L)GPL LGPL GNU GPL\LGPL Proprietary
GUI: Yes No No No Yes Yes, partial functionality Yes Postprocessing only Matlab and Octave GUI
Documentation: User guides, reference manuals, API documentation, application libraries with solved examples, online tutorials examples, miniapps, Doxygen, online documentation User doc, tutorials, demos, developer's guide tutorials, video lectures, Doxygen user manual, tutorials ElmerSolver Manual, Elmer Models Manual, ElmerGUI Tutorials, etc. LaTeX documentation available in PDFs Doxygen, Markdown, example codes, test inputs Tutorial, demos, book Online FEATool documentation, tutorials, and model examples
Mesh
mesh elements: Intervals (1D); triangles, quadrilaterals (2D and 3D boundaries); tetrahedra, pyramids, prisms, hexahedra (3d) segments, triangles, quadrilaterals, tetrahedra, hexahedra, prisms intervals, triangles, tetrahedra, quads, hexes, prisms, some 4D elements, easily extensible. intervals (1d), quads (2d), and hexes (3d) only points(0d), segments (1d), triangles, quadrilaterals (2d), tetrahedra, hexahedra (3d) intervals (1d), triangles, quadrilaterals (2d), tetrahedra, pyramids, wedges, hexahedra (3d) Tria, Quad, Tetra, Prism, etc. intervals, triangles, tetrahedra (quads, hexes - work in progress) intervals, triangles, tetrahedra, quads, hexes
mesh high-order mapping: Any? Second-order is the default for most cases. arbitrary-order meshes and NURBS meshes any order Yes, for Lagrange elements (Any - work in progress)
mesh generation: Built-in meshing miniapps and target-matrix mesh optimization Experimental in any dimension + predefined shapes + Extrusion. external+predefined shapes Yes (TetGen) Limited own meshing capabilities with ElmerGrid and netgen/tetgen APIs. Internal extrusion and mesh multiplication on parallel level. Built-in Yes, Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) supported via mshr (CGAL and Tetgen used as backends) Integrated DistMesh, Gmsh, and Triangle GUI and CLI interfaces
mesh adaptive-refinement: Yes, full adaptive mesh refinement (h-refinement); no p-refinement but several higher-order elements are included. Mesh adaptation on the whole or parts of the geometry, for stationary, eigenvalue, and time-dependent simulations and by rebuilding the entire mesh or refining chosen mesh elements. conforming and non-conforming adaptive refinement for tensor product and simplex meshes Only h h, p, and hp for CG and DG h-refinement for selected equations h, p, mached hp, singular hp Only h
mesh input\output: STL, PLY, NASTRAN, 3MF, VRML (import only), native format VTK, Gmsh, CUBIT, NETGEN, TrueGrid, and MFEM format gmsh, GiD, Ansys rbm, stl ExodusII, Nemesis, Abaqus, Ensight, Gmsh, GMV, OFF, TecPlot TetGen, etc. XDMF (and FEniCS XML) FeatFlow, FEniCS XML, GiD, Gmsh, GMV, Triangle
mesh check: Avoids inverted and degenerated elements; various mesh quality measures ? limited features (double nodes, degenerated elements, intersected elements) intersections (collision testing)
CAD files support: STEP, IGES, others. No IGES, STEP (with OpenCascade wrapper) Yes (stl) Limited support via OpenCASCADE in ElmerGUI
mesh operation: Merge, copy, refine; convert; boundary layers; extrude, revolve, sweep, loft for 3D geometies Extrude, rotate, translation, refine Extrude, rotate, translation, refine Merge, join, extrude, modular mesh modifier system Merge, join, extrude, and revolve operations
Parallel possibilities
automatic mesh partitioning: METIS and space-filling curve partitioning Yes (METIS) yes, shared (METIS/Parmetis) and distributed (p4est) No partitioning with ElmerGrid using Metis or geometric division, internal partitioning in ElmerSolver using Zoltan Metis, Parmetis, Hilbert (shared and distributed meshes) Yes (ParMETIS and SCOTCH)
MPI: Yes Yes Yes Yes (up to 147k processes) No Yes Yes Yes
threads: Supports multithreading Using OpenMP, RAJA, or OCCA backends Threading Build Blocks Yes threadsafe, some modules threaded and vectorized. Yes
OpenMP: Yes Yes Yes Yes (vectorization only) Yes Yes, partially Yes
OpenCL: No Through OCCA backends No No No No
CUDA: No Yes No since 9.1, see step-64 for matrix-free GPU+MPI example No Preliminary API for sparse linear algebra
Solver
Dimension: 0D, 1D, 2D, 3D (can coexist) 1D/2D/3D Any, possibility to mix and couple problem of different dimension 1/2/3D 0D/1D/2D/3D (dimensions may coexist) 1D/2D/3D (dimensions may coexist) 1/2/3D 1/2/3D 1/2/3D
FE: Lagrange (order 1-7), Hermite (order 3-7), discontinuous Lagrange (order 0-7), bubble, Gauss point, serendipity, Nedelec Arbitrary-order Lagrange elements (continuous and discontinuous), Bernstein basis, Nedelec and Raviart-Thomas elements, support for NURBS spaces (IGA) Continuous and discontinuous Lagrange, Hermite, Argyris, Morley, Nedelec, Raviart-Thomas, composite elements (HCT, FVS), Hierarchical elements, Xfem, easily extensible. Lagrange elements of any order, continuous and discontinuous; Nedelec and Raviart-Thomas elements of any order; BDM and Bernstein; elements composed of other elements. Lagrange elements Lagrange elements, p-elements up to 10th order, Hcurl conforming elements (linear and quadratic) for Lagrange, Hierarchic, Discontinuous Monomials, Nedelec Lagrange, BDM, RT, Nedelic, Crouzeix-Raviart, all simplex elements in the Periodic Table (femtable.org), any Lagrange (1st-5th order), Crouzeix-Raviart, Hermite
Quadrature: Gauss-Legendre, Gauss-Lobatto, and uniform quadrature rules. Gauss-Legendre, Gauss-Lobatto, midpoint, trapezoidal, Simpson, Milne and Weddle (closed Newton-Cotes for 4 and 7 order polinomials), Gauss quadrature with logarithmic or 1/R weighting function, Telles quadrature of arbitrary order. Gauss-Legendre (1D and tensor product rules in 2D and 3D) tabulated up to 44th-order to high precision, best available rules for triangles and tetrahedra to very high order, best available monomial rules for quadrilaterals and hexahedra.
Transient problems: Yes, BDF, Runge-Kutta (RK34, Cash-Karp 5, Dormand-Prince 5), and generalized alpha time stepping Runge-Kutta, SSP, SDIRK, Adams-Bashforth, Adams-Moulton, Symplectic Integration Algorithm, Newmark method, Generalized-alpha method Any user implemented and/or from a set of predifined. Explicit methods: forward Euler, 3rd and 4th order Runge-Kutta. Implicit methods: backward Euler, implicit Midpoint, Crank-Nicolson, SDIRK. Embedded explicit methods: Heun-Euler, Bogacki-Shampine, Dopri, Fehlberg, Cash-Karp. Yes implicit-euler explicit-euler crank-nicolson bdf2 explicit-midpoint dirk explicit-tvd-rk-2 newmark-beta BE, CN, and Fractional-Step-Theta schemes
Predifined equations: Incompressible Navier-Stokes, heat transfer, convection-diffusion-reaction, linear elasticity, electromagnetics, pressure acoustics, Darcys law, and support for custom PDE equations Miniapps and examples for Laplace, elasticity, Maxwell, Darcy, advection, Euler, Helmholtz, and others Laplace? Yes (Incompressible Navier-Stokes, Heat transfer (convection-conduction-radiation), Stress analysis, Soft body dynamics, Modal analysis, Electrostatics, Magnetostatics ) Around 50 predefined solvers Phase Field, Solid Mechanics, Navier-Stokes, Porous Flow, Level Set, Chemical Reactions, Heat Conduction, support for custom PDEs Incompressible Navier-Stokes, Heat transfer, convection-diffusion-reaction, linear elasticity, electromagnetics, Darcy's, Brinkman equations, and support for custom PDE equations
Automated assembly: Yes Yes Yes Yes
Visualization: Built-in In situ visualization with GLVis. Export to VisIt and ParaView. External or with the Scilab/Matlab/Python interface. Possibility to perform complex slices. External (export to *.vtk and many others) GUI (built-in) ElmerGUI comes VTK based visualization tool (but Paraview is recommended) Yes, VTK-based GUI, Python visualizatuion library Buil-in simple plotting + External Built-in with optional Plotly and GMV export
Output format: Text and unstructured VTK-file for data.BMP,PNG, GIF, TIFF, JPEG, glTF, Windows clipboard, Microsoft PowerPoint (for images). GIF, Flash, AVI, WebM (for animatios). Touchstone data (for networks). VisIt, ParaView (VTU), GLVis format vtk, gmsh, OpenDX. *.dx *.ucd *.gnuplot *.povray *.eps *.gmv *.tecplot *.tecplot_binary *.vtk *.vtu *.svg *.hdf5 Several output formats (VTU, gmsh,...) ExodusII, Xdr, etc. VTK(.pvd, .vtu) and XDMF/HDF5 GMV and Plotly
Boundary elements solver: Yes No Yes Existing but without multipole acceleration (not usable for large problems) No
Use multiple meshes: Yes including different dimensions and taking account of any transformation. Yes, autorefined from same initial mesh for each variable of a coupled problem Continuity of non-conforming interfaces ensured by mortar finite elements Yes, including non-matching meshes
Linear algebra
Used libs: MUMPS, PARDISO, SPOOLES; ARPACK, BLAS, BLIS, Intel MKL, LAPACK Built-in and integrated with hypre. Optional integrations with PETSc, Ginkgo, SuperLU, Suite Sparse, libCEED, and more SuperLU, MUMPS, Built-in. Built-in + Trilinos, PETSc, and SLEPc No Built-in, Hypre, Trilinos, umfpack, MUMPS, Pardiso, etc. (optional) PETSc, Trilinos, LASPack, SLEPc PETSc, Trilinos/TPetra, Eigen. Matlab/Octave built-in (Umfpack), supports integration with the FEniCS and FeatFlow solvers
Iterative matrix solvers: GMRES, FGMRES, BiCGStab, conjugate gradients, TFQMR, or any precoditioner. Algebraic and geometric multigrid. Domain decomponsition (Schwarz, Schur) Krylov methods (CG, MINRES, GMRES, BiCGStab) All Krylov All Krylov (CG, Minres, GMRES, BiCGStab, QMRS) GMRES, CG Built-in Krylov solvers, Krylov and multigrid solvers from external libraries LASPack serial, PETSc parallel Matlab/Octave built-in
Preconditioners: Direct preconditioner, Krylov, SOR, SSOR, SORU, SOR line, SOR gauge, SOR vector, Jacobi, incomplete and hierarchical LU, SAI, SCGS, Vanka, AMS Algebraic, Geometric, and p-multigrid. Block ILU preconditioning. Support for hypre's AMS and ADS preconditioners for H(curl) and H(div). Basic ones (ILU, ILUT) Many, including algebraic multigrid (via Hypre and ML) and geometric multigrid ILU, Jacobi Built-in preconditioners (ILU, diagonal, vanka, block) and LASPack serial, PETSc parallel, algebraic multigrid (via Hypre) Matlab/Octave built-in
Matrix-free
matrix-free: Yes Yes No Yes No Experimental implementation
matrix-free save memory: Yes No Yes No
matrix-free speed-up: Yes No Yes No
Used language
Native language: Primarily C++ and Java C++ C++ C++ C++ Fortran (2008 standard) C++ C++ Matlab / Octave
Bindings to language: Full API for Java and Matlab (the latter via add-on product) PyMFEM Python, Scilab or Matlab No No Python
Other
Predefined equations: Yes, many predefined physics and multiphysics interfaces in COMSOL Multiphysics and its add-ons. A large number of Bilinear and Linear forms Model bricks: Laplace, linear and nonlinear elasticity, Helmholtz, plasticity, Mindlin and K.L. plates, boundary conditions including contact with friction.
Coupled nonlinear problems: Yes Yes Yes
Binary: Windows, Linux, macOS Yes, via OpenHPC. Also available as part of Spack, xSDK, E4S, FASTMath, RADIUSS and CEED. Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) Linux, Windows (work in progress), Mac Windows, Linux (launchpad: Debian/Ubuntu), Mac (homebrew) (all with MPI) Linux (Debian\Ubuntu), Mac Windows, Linux, Mac
fullname: Elmer finite element software
Testing: Comprehensive unit and regression tests. Continuous integration through Travis CI 3500+ tests More than 700 consistency tests ensuring backward compatibility 4300+ tests, Testing as a service for derived applications
scripting: Full API for Java and, through add-on product, Matlab Runtime parsed mathematical expression in input files Fully scriptable in as m-file Matlab scripts and the GUI supports exporting models in script format
automatic differentiation: Yes Forward-mode for Jacobian computation, symbolic differentiation capabilities
multiphysics: Yes, full custom and predefined multiphysics couplings between all kinds of physics Arbitrary multiphysics couplings are supported Arbitrary multiphysics couplings are supported Arbitrary multiphysics couplings are supported
Optimization Solvers: With the Optimization Module add-on: Coorinate search, Nelder-Mead, Monte Carlo, BOBYQA, COBYLA, SNOPT, MMA, Levenberg-Marquardt Integration with HiOp. Built-in SLBQP optimizer Support for TAO- and nlopt-based constrained optimization solvers incorporating gradient and Hessian information.
HIP: Yes
Symbolic derivation of the tangent system for nonlinear problems: Yes
Support for fictitious domain methods: Yes

References

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  2. "FEATool Multiphysics - Product Information". Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  3. "FreeFem++". freefem.org. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  4. "Sorbonne Université | Lettres, Médecine, Sciences". www.sorbonne-universite.fr. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  5. Curie, UPMC - Université Pierre et Marie. "Jacques-Louis Lions Laboratory (LJLL) - UMR 7598 - SCIENCE". sciences.sorbonne-universite.fr. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
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  8. "Student Products - Free Simulation Software". Ansys.com. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  9. http://quickfield.com/pack.htm
  10. http://quickfield.com/allnews/qf64.htm
  11. http://www.quickfield.com/free_soft.htm
  12. "NX Nastran: Siemens PLM Software". Plm.automation.siemens.com. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  13. "Free Student License | Dlubal Software". Dlubal.com. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  14. "Plans & Pricing - SimScale Simulation Platform". Simscale.com. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  15. "Browsing VisualFEA (Finite Element Analysis) by Title". Ecommons.cornell.edu. 2016-03-01. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  16. GitHub For ease of maintenance of this table, please, first consider to contribute changes directly to the project instead of editing the table below, however, direct wiki edits are also valid and will be backported
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