How approachable is the FEM development if starting from zero?

About the development of the FEM module/workbench.

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mviljamaa_
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How approachable is the FEM development if starting from zero?

Post by mviljamaa_ »

I have a fairly strong interest in developing the FEM module since I'm specializing professionally in computational (engineering) modelling, but
it seems that most commercial CAD packages already have what they need and FreeCAD seems like a better platform because it's open (thus open for experimentation).

However, I'm wondering how approachable is the FEM module. Is there a good documentation on how to extend it?
jmaustpc
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Re: How approachable is the FEM development if starting from zero?

Post by jmaustpc »

The wiki page is here
http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... _Workbench
but is not complete.

It would be great if you wanted to work on improving the FEM workbench. :)
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PrzemoF
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Re: How approachable is the FEM development if starting from zero?

Post by PrzemoF »

It would be great to have another person working on the FEM workbench :-)
What version of FreeCAD do you use?

P.S. I was starting from zero without C++ knowledge 5 moths ago and FEM wb should be much easier to approach now that it was when I was starting :)
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bernd
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Re: How approachable is the FEM development if starting from zero?

Post by bernd »

mviljamaa_ Welcome to the FreeCAD forum !
PrzemoF wrote:It would be great to have another person working on the FEM workbench :-)
+1

I have started to work with FEM somehow a year or a year and a half ago. I only know python. As a start or to do some small development this is fairly enough but since a lot of FEM Module is written in C++ you should know C++ or konsider to learn C++ if you really would like to to do much development in this regard. As a start I would recommend to have look at src/Mod/Fem/TestFem.py ( https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/blob ... TestFem.py ) There you can see how to perform a FEA in FreeCAD by python only. You will get an overview on how things work.

What are your aims ? In which fiels is your development intended to go ?
PrzemoF wrote: ... FEM wb should be much easier to approach now that it was when I was starting :)
Yes it is :D
mviljamaa_
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Re: How approachable is the FEM development if starting from zero?

Post by mviljamaa_ »

I have about 3 months of C++ behind now so that shouldn't be that much of a problem.
I'm still trying to get my head around the FEM method, but was thinking of perhaps upgrading it to a NURBS based one.
Or develop new constructs, in the sense of being able to model things that aren't currently modeled in any software.

I'm not very experienced yet, but as this is pretty much my field, then I'm willing to go pretty far in said development. I.e. trying to create something novel.
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makkemal
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Re: How approachable is the FEM development if starting from zero?

Post by makkemal »

Hi mviljamaa

Personally I had No C++ experience, I have plenty of fortran/Matlab etc.
I do however have plenty of FEA experience and know what features will be very useful etc.
I have spent about 30 hours on my implementation over the last three months. (most of the time reading programming tutorials)
I have learnt allot even though I have not submitted any code yet. I have managed to get some basic functions working.
But I am of the opinion that a person with very little programming experience can get involved and contribute.
It is all about learning !

Regards
Michael
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PrzemoF
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Re: How approachable is the FEM development if starting from zero?

Post by PrzemoF »

I see that we'll have a fantastic team to work on the FEM wb :-)
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