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AtomFem? Open source Fem - based on devDept Eyeshot V10

stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
I want to create an easy to use and learn Fem application with Alibre support. I'm not an engineer. As a structural designer I've learned a little but not enough to know what features it should have. The FemDemo is attached to try the features devDept Eyeshot 10 has. I don't know if it's crap or has tools engineers can use, but the goal is a free Fem tool for AD. I can't promise anything, I'll need an engineer able to contribute and help me understand what features to add and why. I would prefer if someone could lead the engineering side while I tackle the code. Open to anything.
1713464508668.png


devDept is awesome! The support and documentation is top notch. As a novice starting with V9 it was very inspiring.

Welcome to devDept | devDept

www.devdept.com www.devdept.com
 
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stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
The devDept CAD component handles the heavy lifting, so which features to add and determining the AD integration are the core questions.
github.com

GitHub - Testbed-for-Alibre-Design/FemDemo: FemDemo

FemDemo. Contribute to Testbed-for-Alibre-Design/FemDemo development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
github.com

Releases · Testbed-for-Alibre-Design/FemDemo

FemDemo. Contribute to Testbed-for-Alibre-Design/FemDemo development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

The first simulation software I played with was SolidWorks Simulation Xpress.

Overview of SolidWorks SimulationXpress - 2014 - SOLIDWORKS Help

help.solidworks.com help.solidworks.com

My plan is to work on GitHub Actions and study FreeCAD's FEM workbench.

FEM Workbench - FreeCAD Documentation

wiki.freecad.org wiki.freecad.org

FEM Tutorial Python - FreeCAD Documentation

wiki.freecad.org wiki.freecad.org

As with all my Alibre work the project is free and open source hosted on GitHub.

The UI component control vendor is Syncfusion.
www.syncfusion.com

.NET, Xamarin, JavaScript, Angular UI components | Syncfusion

Syncfusion provides the best third-party UI components for Blazor, .NET MAUI, Flutter, Xamarin, Angular, JavaScript, React, Vue, WinForms, WPF, WinUI, and more.
www.syncfusion.com

This is a weekend project that's been on my to-do list for years.

Is there anything I can learn from FEMDesigner? I don't see any recent threads. I should mention that this project is a standalone application. Integration can be an add-on, but Alibre is not required. There are no licensing or machine installation limits. These details will be formalized and documented. I have other posts in a similar style, so I'll continue. I understand this forum is typically geared towards other use cases, certainly not open source. I prefer to share even if the ideas are not well defined, and adjust over time for open source work. Some ideas are more thought out than others.

More resources:

List of finite element software packages - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org


Eyeshot V2 - V10 Features - https://www.devdept.com/Products/Roadmap#releaseHistory
donetoolkit.notion.site

Eyeshot V2 - V10 Features - https://www.devdept.com/Products/Roadmap#releaseHistory | Notion

BRep Booleans: allow building and exporting Manifold BRep solids with the same accuracy and topology of mainstream 3D CAD systems. Assembly environment, set component as current or isolate it, change assembly selection mode between branch and leaf and zoom fit a specific component in the...
donetoolkit.notion.site donetoolkit.notion.site

Most of my work was created for Eyeshot V10. I'm currently updating to Eyeshot 2024 Ultimate. 2024 is a major update and it will take years to update everything. It includes more FEM updates, which I'll check out. https://www.devdept.com/Products/Eyeshot?edition=fem

Sources:
FEM with Alibre support
github.com

GitHub - Testbed-for-Alibre-Design/FEM

Contribute to Testbed-for-Alibre-Design/FEM development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
My work related to FEM for CAD design and development. This is research learned from Houdini applied to CAD.
github.com

GitHub - stephensmitchell/FEMTestbed: FEM CLI Utilities for CAD Design and Development

FEM CLI Utilities for CAD Design and Development. Contribute to stephensmitchell/FEMTestbed development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

About finite elements

www.sidefx.com www.sidefx.com
 
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stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
I will only answer questions in this thread from this point forward and post updates as a development log so you can follow the progress. Please feel free to ask me anything.
 
DavidJ

DavidJ

Administrator
Staff member
I would only comment that there are lots of FEA tools available - some technically excellent ones are even free (and open source).

Biggest issues that I have come across with just about all those I've tried are

* non-obvious workflows (often combined with limited examples/documentation)
* poor to non existent guidance on meshing - especially when default settings result in failure to mesh
* tend to be produced by and for experienced FEA analysts - result, awful for a beginner to achieve anything, because the documentation is impossible to fathom (lots of jargon and assumed knowledge)
* for some even the installation process is obscure and badly explained
* historic 'workarounds' (like fiddling component temperatures to model shrink/interference fits, rather than allowing models at true sizes to be used)

In summary - most FEA tools concentrate more on capability than they do on ease of use and robustness. A tool is of no value if I cannot work out / find out how to use it, nor if it routinely fails to mesh or solve.

I've lost count of the number of FEA programs that I've looked at and abandoned.
 
stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
DavidJ said:
I would only comment that there are lots of FEA tools available - some technically excellent ones are even free (and open source).

Biggest issues that I have come across with just about all those I've tried are

* non-obvious workflows (often combined with limited examples/documentation)
* poor to non existent guidance on meshing - especially when default settings result in failure to mesh
* tend to be produced by and for experienced FEA analysts - result, awful for a beginner to achieve anything, because the documentation is impossible to fathom (lots of jargon and assumed knowledge)
* for some even the installation process is obscure and badly explained
* historic 'workarounds' (like fiddling component temperatures to model shrink/interference fits, rather than allowing models at true sizes to be used)

In summary - most FEA tools concentrate more on capability than they do on ease of use and robustness. A tool is of no value if I cannot work out / find out how to use it, nor if it routinely fails to mesh or solve.

I've lost count of the number of FEA programs that I've looked at and abandoned.
Click to expand...
The wizard interface of SolidWorks SimXpress is helping me understand the process.
1713516094388.png
 
stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
DavidJ said:
In summary - most FEA tools concentrate more on capability than they do on ease of use and robustness. A tool is of no value if I cannot work out / find out how to use it, nor if it routinely fails to mesh or solve.
Click to expand...
I can build one feature at a time, but I don't know where to start. This is an ease of use and robustness project. The Mesher is likely feature #1.
1713519057560.png
 
stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
DavidJ said:
* non-obvious workflows (often combined with limited examples/documentation)
* poor to non existent guidance on meshing - especially when default settings result in failure to mesh
* tend to be produced by and for experienced FEA analysts - result, awful for a beginner to achieve anything, because the documentation is impossible to fathom (lots of jargon and assumed knowledge)
* for some even the installation process is obscure and badly explained
* historic 'workarounds' (like fiddling component temperatures to model shrink/interference fits, rather than allowing models at true sizes to be used)
Click to expand...
This is why I want to build something simple that is designed to work with AD. Simple and easy to use. I don't want to clone existing software.

Only 3 day remaining.:( When you forget you're on a trial version and start the program.

1713520749255.png
Thanks for the comments.
 
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stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
DavidJ said:
I would only comment that there are lots of FEA tools available - some technically excellent ones are even free (and open source).

Biggest issues that I have come across with just about all those I've tried are

* non-obvious workflows (often combined with limited examples/documentation)
* poor to non existent guidance on meshing - especially when default settings result in failure to mesh
* tend to be produced by and for experienced FEA analysts - result, awful for a beginner to achieve anything, because the documentation is impossible to fathom (lots of jargon and assumed knowledge)
* for some even the installation process is obscure and badly explained
* historic 'workarounds' (like fiddling component temperatures to model shrink/interference fits, rather than allowing models at true sizes to be used)

In summary - most FEA tools concentrate more on capability than they do on ease of use and robustness. A tool is of no value if I cannot work out / find out how to use it, nor if it routinely fails to mesh or solve.

I've lost count of the number of FEA programs that I've looked at and abandoned.
Click to expand...
The forum is awesome but the search is not. I found a great thread from 2012 where you provided even more useful info:

Opinions on FEA for home/hobby user

I use Alibre to design small parts and assemblies for motorcycles and other home projects and was wondering about using FEA to optimise designs for things like frame structures to get an idea of stress areas before actually making them, trying different shapes of gusset, tube and hole placement...
www.alibre.com
 
S

SergioP.

Member
That´s very interesting project. Can I ask you what mesher and solvers will you use?

Today there are very good FEA programs well stablished, but there is a "new" very powerfull solver that lacks of a usefull/easy to use prepostprocessor, and maybe if you start from scratch you could choose it and catch a lot of attention. The solver is Open Radioss, and if you manage to make a simple windows interface you will get a lot of people happy.
 
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stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
SergioP. said:
Open Radioss
Click to expand...
I'll research it, I don't follow FEA tools. If it's a CLI and the license works with MIT then yes.

github.com

OpenRadioss

Powerful, industry-proven finite element solver for dynamic event analysis - OpenRadioss
github.com github.com

Community - OpenRadioss

Key Features Scalability, Quality & Robustness Industry-proven, class leading scalability from single core to HPC (High Performance Computing), with repeatability regardless of CPU count, optimized for all modern CPU processors Innovative Element Formulations Fast & accurate solutions from under...
openradioss.org openradioss.org
 
S

SergioP.

Member
Most of the available open source FEA solver are well suited for static or thermal analysis, some of them incorporate modal and dynamic procedures as well, but I don´t know any that can do impact or crash simulations in the same way as OpenRadioss, that´s why it would be interesting.
 
stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
SergioP. said:
Most of the available open source FEA solver are well suited for static or thermal analysis, some of them incorporate modal and dynamic procedures as well, but I don´t know any that can do impact or crash simulations in the same way as OpenRadioss, that´s why it would be interesting.
Click to expand...
I'm not an engineer and am not creating this project to engineer real world products or projects personally. My role is application developer. I'm not licensed/qualified to comment on the specifics of FEM/FEA for real world professional engineering. I could hire an engineer to review and sign off on the engineering side. I'd perfer someone with AD experience. I hired ChatGPT, starting in two weeks the interview examples were mostly correct. lol I'll do what I can to build the app, but I cannot comment on engineering real world products.

Thanks for the info. It has a commercial use license, AGPL. I might change the project license to AGPL for other reasons. I'll work through the documentation and examples this weekend. Another benefit of OpenRadioss is that they provide Windows builds and develop it with the latest tech on GitHub.

Can you recommend any static or thermal projects?
 
stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
stepalibre said:
I'm not an engineer and am not creating this project to engineer real world products or projects personally. My role is application developer. I'm not licensed/qualified to comment on the specifics of FEM/FEA for real world professional engineering. I could hire an engineer to review and sign off on the engineering side. I'd perfer someone with AD experience. I hired ChatGPT, starting in two weeks the interview examples were mostly correct. lol I'll do what I can to build the app, but I cannot comment on engineering real world products.
Click to expand...
After research into FreeCAD's FEM workbench, I don't need an FEM/FEA engineer to be part of the creation of the app or features. It would be ideal to have one, but it is not a requirement. Having subject matter experts on projects is always preferred.

Online services such as fiverr is an option:


 
T

tyc

Member
I would suggest you to evaluate PrePoMax software which provides GUI for Calculix solver. If you could program a connector/integrator for Alibre where users could directly export their models into the PrePoMax, I think it would be really nice.
In my opinion, trying to create the FEM from scratch would be a tedious and time consuming job.
 
stepalibre

stepalibre

Alibre Super User
tyc said:
I would suggest you to evaluate PrePoMax software which provides GUI for Calculix solver. If you could program a connector/integrator for Alibre where users could directly export their models into the PrePoMax, I think it would be really nice.
In my opinion, trying to create the FEM from scratch would be a tedious and time consuming job.
Click to expand...
Do you have experience using PrePoMax?
 
T

tyc

Member
stepalibre said:
Do you have experience using PrePoMax?
Click to expand...
Not much of an experience with it, however I did watch their playlist on Youtube to get its gist and to have general understanding of its workflow. There is plenty of material to start out there. I guess it is open source software led by academists.
 
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