Ansys Granta EduPack

ANSYS Granta EduPack is a materials education platform designed to help students and engineers learn materials selection and materials science principles in engineering design. Developed by Ansys, the platform provides curated materials databases and interactive tools used in engineering education across universities and technical training programs worldwide.

The software is widely used to teach how material properties influence product performance, manufacturability, cost, and environmental impact throughout the design process.

Granta EduPack includes structured datasets covering a broad range of materials including metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, and natural materials. These datasets are paired with visualization tools that help users explore relationships between properties such as strength, density, stiffness, thermal performance, and cost.

One of the platform's most recognized features is its Ashby materials selection charts, which allow users to compare materials visually and understand trade-offs between competing design requirements using the same graphical methodology used in professional engineering practice.

Because of its curriculum-ready structure and tiered database progression, Granta EduPack is widely used in materials engineering courses, mechanical engineering programs, and product design education from introductory undergraduate instruction through advanced capstone and postgraduate work.

Key Features

• Three-tiered database progression with Level 1 for introductory teaching, Level 2 for undergraduate engineering, and Level 3 for advanced study and capstone projects
• Ashby property charts that use identical graphical selection methodology as Granta Selector, giving students direct exposure to the workflow used in professional materials selection practice
• Eco Audit tool for lifecycle carbon and energy impact analysis integrated into the materials selection process for sustainability-led design coursework
• Social Impact Audit Tool for supply chain social lifecycle assessment, supporting engineering ethics and responsible material selection instruction
• Hybrid materials modeler for predicting properties of composite and hybrid configurations and comparing them with conventional materials and part cost estimates
• Industry-standard supplementary databases at Level 3 matching professional-grade material coverage for capstone projects and postgraduate research
• Instructor resource library of lectures, exercises, case studies, and active teaching packages built around the Ashby methodology
• EduPack Introductory version providing a subset of data and tools for institutions teaching introductory courses without requiring the full database breadth
• Reference material and nearness settings for finding similar materials and viewing comparison tables for guided student exploration
• Cost modeling within lifecycle comparisons for evaluating economic and environmental trade-offs within a single analysis framework

Best For

University and college materials educators in mechanical engineering, materials science, industrial design, chemical engineering, and sustainable development who want to teach Professor Ashby's systematic materials selection methodology with the same graphical tools and property chart framework used in industry. Particularly well suited to programs that need curriculum-ready teaching resources and a tiered database structure that scales from introductory coursework through advanced capstone work within a single platform.

Who It's Not For

Working engineers in commercial organizations. EduPack is licensed for educational teaching purposes only and cannot be used for research or commercial applications.

Organizations that need production engineering-grade simulation property export, enterprise private database integration, international standards cross-reference at depth, or advanced FEA material card output belong in Granta Selector or Granta MI rather than EduPack. The teaching resource layer that makes EduPack valuable in the classroom adds overhead in a commercial engineering environment where it serves no functional purpose.

Platform

Windows desktop only with no Mac or Linux support. A 39 GB disk space requirement applies to the full installation. Network license server deployment is available for institutional multi-seat access across university computer labs.

No browser-based version is available for the core application.

Ansys Workbench integration is available for institutions connecting EduPack to simulation coursework.

Pricing

Annual institutional subscription licensing, priced for educational deployment rather than per individual commercial user.

Two versions are available: Granta EduPack covering the full database and all tools, and Granta EduPack Introductory covering a subset for introductory courses.

Licensed per user with permission to run on any number of computers for exclusive educational use. Commercial and research uses are not permitted under the educational license.

University site licenses and network configurations are available for multi-seat lab deployment.

Contact Ansys Academic or an authorized educational reseller for current institutional pricing by version and user count.

Free student access is available through the Ansys Academic program at participating institutions.

Pros

• Three-tier progression structure maps directly to the engineering curriculum arc from introductory coursework through postgraduate capstone
• Identical Ashby methodology and property chart tools as Granta Selector mean students graduate already fluent in the professional selection workflow
• Eco Audit and Social Impact Audit tools teach sustainability and social lifecycle assessment as first-class parts of materials decision-making rather than supplementary topics
• Instructor resource library of lectures, case studies, and exercises reduces curriculum preparation overhead significantly for educators adopting the Ashby framework
• 2025 R1 additions of processing, synthesis, and characterization data reflect active investment in pedagogical relevance rather than a maintained legacy product
• Free student access through the Ansys Academic program extends the platform's reach beyond institutions with standalone EduPack budgets

Cons

• Windows only with no Mac or Linux support, which is a meaningful constraint for institutions whose computing infrastructure is not Windows-standardized
• Educational use only licensing, which makes institutional deployment affordable but prohibits commercial use entirely and creates a hard boundary that frustrates industry-partnered research workflows
• Not a replacement for Granta Selector in production engineering contexts where simulation export, enterprise integration, and commercial materials database depth require the professional-tier product
• 39 GB installation footprint is substantial for network-deployed lab environments with constrained storage per machine
• Instructor resource library adds value only for educators who engage with it directly rather than using EduPack purely as a database lookup tool, requiring faculty familiarity with the Ashby curriculum framework to use effectively

Rating

⭐ 4.5 / 5

Editorial Take

ANSYS Granta EduPack is one of the most widely used platforms for teaching materials selection in engineering education. By pairing curated materials datasets with the same Ashby property chart methodology used in industry, it gives students practical exposure to professional materials decision-making within a curriculum-structured environment.

Alternatives

Ansys Granta Selector, MatWeb, Total Materia, Cambridge Engineering Selector, ASM Handbook Online, Knovel Engineering

Used In

• Undergraduate materials science and engineering courses

• Mechanical engineering materials selection coursework

• Industrial design sustainability teaching

• Chemical engineering process material selection

• Capstone and senior design projects

• Postgraduate materials research

• K-12 and pre-university STEM materials introduction

• Sustainable product design curriculum

Founded

1994 (Granta Design, Cambridge); acquired by Ansys 2019