Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

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kkremitzki
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by kkremitzki »

I found something that might be interesting for a GSoC project and was hoping I could get some feedback.

FreeCAD, on the computer-aided engineering side, is still missing a good multi-body dynamics solution. I spent some time looking at potential C++ libraries; MBDyn was one of the first, but I was concerned with its ability to be cross-platform. I spent a few hours researching others and came across a really promising library:

Project Chrono, a C++ library for multibody dynamics simulations ( Homepage / BSD 3-clause license / github)

Features:
  • Rigid & deformable bodies modeling
  • Collision detection
  • A pre-built Python C++ wrapper, Chrono::PyEngine
  • A CASCADE module that can:
    • Load object shapes saved in STEP file format
    • Compute the center of mass, the mass, the inertia of shapes
    • Convert shapes in triangulated meshes for visualization
  • A pretty impressive list of testimonials and use cases
  • Tons more features than I can list; it's really, really richly featured
If this library is acceptable to use as a springboard, do y'all think it would be feasible to create a Dynamics Workbench using this library in the amount of time covered by the project? This is assuming a reasonable scope is defined; I'd say the objective is mainly to get the ball rolling on usable MBD in FreeCAD.
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looo
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by looo »

I think multi body is related to Assembly. So I don't know how useful this is at the moment.

Other topics on my list:
- python3 port :-) (I think there is still enough to do)
- general interaction nodes with pivy/coin (bspline, interaction)
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kkremitzki
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by kkremitzki »

looo wrote:I think multi body is related to Assembly. So I don't know how useful this is at the moment.

Other topics on my list:
- python3 port :-) (I think there is still enough to do)
- general interaction nodes with pivy/coin (bspline, interaction)
That's a good point, and from what I've been reading there isn't really a sort of "Body" object available in FreeCAD yet right? That seems like it'd be useful for implementing dynamics...
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Chris_G
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by Chris_G »

looo wrote:- general interaction nodes with pivy/coin (bspline, interaction)
Indeed, this one wood be very useful ( for my own needs, at least ).
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Kunda1
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by Kunda1 »

ickby wrote:Hello,

so things get rolling again and I will get in contact with the BRL-CAD guys today, let's see what they are up to. Kkremitzki is interested and Bernd/Howil have a potential student, so we should keep the possibility up till things get more detailed.

@kkremitzki nice to hear your interest. The project you mentioned is a nice one, but currently unfortunately of less priority for me this year and I can't commit on this for mentoring. Would you be also interested in other topics, like the mentioned PartDesign / FEM topics? Of course they are mainly c++ with only small percentage python.
@ickby any new developments on this ? ;)
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NormandC
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by NormandC »

kkremitzki wrote:from what I've been reading there isn't really a sort of "Body" object available in FreeCAD yet right?
A Body object was added in 0.17.
ickby
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by ickby »

BRL-CAD guys are in the process of deciding if they apply for GSoC, I think we should have a feedback in the next days.
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by bernd »

It seams we need to update the GSoC wiki page on FreeCAD wiki. I wonder if it makes sense to keep the pages for every Year like we do with the release notes. Means we could make a copy of the page and call it GSoC 2016 before we gone start to make the changes for 2017

Bernd
ickby
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by ickby »

Hello,

I received answer from BRL-CAD and they are going to register as umbrella organisation again
Hi Stefan,
I believe the finding was that there is enough interest to apply again across the various partner orgs, so I will be preparing an umbrella application this week. I’ll contact you via the gsocax list (or directly) if there are any questions, but I don’t anticipate needing much for that.
We already updated our ideas page and will ad a few more topics. So I think we are well prepared. Let's keep fingers crossed :)
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kkremitzki
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Re: Today GSOC 2017 officially started (they're accepting Org applications)

Post by kkremitzki »

Awesome! I see Elmer is on the projects page now, which is great. After research it seems like one of the best ways for FreeCAD to become more of a multi-physical modeler, especially in my interest area of dynamics. Check out the Table of Contents of the Elmer Models Manual to get an idea of just how many physical models it can support: http://www.nic.funet.fi/index/elmer/doc ... Manual.pdf

How will it work, applying as an umbrella organization? If this umbrella organization gets in, is there any guarantee that FreeCAD will get one of the student spots awarded?
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