For non commercial use Jorg Panzer will give out a full student licence for ABEC/AKABAK and VACS which allows saving of everything. Much can still be done with the trial version but rerunning a 10 hour simulation isn't fun. ABEC is what I use and Don uses too. The latest version is AKABAK 3 which is more of a point and click system moving away from the script based input in ABEC. The learning curve is steep and time consuming but well worth it.
Yup, he’s great for that if you’ve got a valid non-commercial use for it. I’m very interested what you’re doing that takes ten hours to solve? It must be something that needs a super dense mesh size or accurate model of compression driver phase plug behaviour!
I’ve had great success with model and mesh optimisation, a current project I’m working on has reduced from 15 minute solves to just over a minute - on an AMD Ryzen 5600X - from a change of approach to my geometry and subdomain arrangement. Which is important for the next step…
I don’t think the learning curve is particularly steeper than any of the other tools either. Especially with the latest Akabak, which has a fairly intuitive GUI without restricting the scriptable flexibility of ABEC3.
Even if you’re only simulating things as a lumped element model, it’s a good option to look at due to the flexibility and lack of restrictions on segments.
I think people are perhaps put off by the concept and Akabak’s prior reputation? The example files and help file included are also very good, although I have considered putting together a ‘beginner’s guide’ that extends the great CAD to sim workflow videos for waveguides by Austin Mys on YouTube. With a bit of planning and the right tools, you can revise a mesh for a new sim fairly quickly. Especially for the price compared to a COMSOL license.