what sort of chassis designing software is there?

whats the one that you can test stresses etc?
are there any free copies of it?

really want to learn how to use it properly.
sketchup isn't up to the job

you can model a chassis in Solidworks.
You could just about test it with the inbuilt FEA part of Solidworks.
But, and I keep saying this, using FEA software is easy. Pick some restraints, apply some loads, mesh it then wait for the nice pretty picture at the end.
The hard part is knowing what you are doing. This is a very difficult thing to comprehend. I hardly ever use FEA as I know that unless you are 100% confident with all your data, its 100% worthless.

And I also keep saying this... FEA work should ONLY be used to back up your real world test data. if you have 20 designs, you use FEA to select the best 5 to build and test.

Only a fool would use FEA (and self taught FEA) to design a chassis. And thats not meant as a criticism at you.
You would be far better using 'common sense' and saying, yep that looks about right. I would put my faith in that.

A lecturer at my Uni once told me that out of every 10 people who claim to be FEA experts, 1 person is mustard, 2 are good, 2 could blag it on a good day and the other 5 are just plain dangerous.

My lecturer worked as a an FEA software developer for some big 3d modelling company apparantly.

I like solidworks personally.

all makes good sense thanks

yeah, i'm pretty good (i think) with knowing what looks right and doesn't look right. just thought it might be a good time to learn some new skills, but pen and paper's easier to control sometimes than 3D cad.
i'd love to be able to just go out and start building, but that won't happen soon lol.

if your designing cars and doing it properly the only software to use is msc adams. its what a lot of the manufacturers are using these days.

you can simulate road surfaces and real driving characteristics, chassis dynamics, fea etc etc.

Hello,

I'm no expert, electronics being what I do for a living, but if you want something cheap then I recommend LISA from http://www.lisa-fet.com/ which I have mentioned before here.

I have modelled a spaceframe, a monocoque using shell elements and also a solid piece. It does take time though.

The book 'Motor Vehicle Structures: Concepts and Fundamentals' by Jason C. Brown, A. John Robertson, Stan T. Serpento is worth a read and covers briefly loads, stiffness, chassis types and a much simplified monocoque analysis technique.

You'de probably get better results by just researching existing designs, seeing what works and following the basic rules of chassis design. Big triangles, well thought out load paths, straight tubes etc etc etc.

Unless you are trying to build a chassis that achives a specific torsional stiffness while saving every single gram then analysis software is a bit of a waste of time.