Structural design software for airplanes What are the main structural design software packages that are used by the most of the aircraft manufacturers. There are a number of software packages but which one is widely accepted and used for the structural design of the aeroplane.
There are many package available for structural analysis, but I know that NASTRAN/PATRAN are used extensively in aerospace engineering.

The software was originally developed for NASA in the sixties and has been expanded with a suite of problem solvers for various structural problems including fatigue and acoustics.