[BrendaEM]

I wanted to post some links to some FEA/FEM, and visualization software.

(This post might be updated.)

Impact:
Homepage: http://impact.sourceforge.net/
Screenshot: http://impact.sourceforge.net/cup.jpg

Calculix:
Homepage: http://www.calculix.de/
Windows Free/Commercial Version: http://www.bconverged.com/calculix/
Docs:
http://www.dhondt.de/index.html
http://web.mit.edu/calculix_v1.6/Cal...c/ccx/ccx.html
Short Review:
http://imechanica.org/node/1628

FEA Linux Distribution:
Homepage: http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/

Salome Linux Meshing Program:
Homepage: http://www.salome-platform.org/home/...tion/overview/

Other Free FEA/FEM Software:
http://www.freefem.org/ff3d/
http://www.geuz.org/gmsh/
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2099/slffea.html

Strand7 (Commercial):
http://www.strand7.com/

Paraview Visualization for Most Platforms
http://www.paraview.org/New/index.html

[BrendaEM]

I am still in the "just looking" phase, but some of it looks quite good.

[BrendaEM]

Now, I'm doing some experimentation with Impact. There is a attempt at a GUI, which is more than some of these things have. It also has some facility for model creation.

I already have JAVA installed. So I unzipped Impact into a folder, created a shortcut, and changed the icon to the one provided.

As an experiment, I want to deform a simple, low poly--I mean low element mesh. I don't know if I am going to be able to figure this out, but I'm going to try.

This is what I have found so far:
Using Rhino 4, I find that I can convert a NURBS object into a nice mesh by adjusting the maximum length and mesh density in the advanced controls, but instead I'll make this cube : )

After saving the file, I can delete the original, (just to be sure, theres no NURBS in there) and export the cube as a text/ascii .stl file, which is labeled as a stereo lithograph model. I can see the model in the preprocessor, rotate it, change views.

Now I need to learn if it's valid, and how to apply forces to the nodes. I don't know if the mesh has to be a solid 3D mesh or just a surface mesh.

[BrendaEM]

I've ran a tutorial file, and viewed it. It took about 10 minutes to run the cup stamping setup.

By setting the slider control specifies the amount of processors/cores, making it go faster on a Core 2, or more if you have them.

[BrendaEM]

After experimentation, and asking for help, I seem to have had some luck importing geometry into the Impact. The nodes are now selectable. For some reason the direct .stl thing wasn't working.

I made a wrench and cube, which are downloadable from my webspace:
www.brendamake.com/temp/wrench_cube_v01.zip

This the workflow from Rhino:
Convert to Mesh and Export to .stl
Import into Gmsh (free) and Export as .msh

If .dxf wasn't such a flaky file format, I'd plead for an import filter.

I have to see if I can get this stressing.