[Gmsh] GID Work Alike?

[Christophe Geuzaine]

Brenda Ellen Make wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Over a year ago, I've wanted to learn a FEA/FEM, and CFD, to learn how 
> to design better things, but it's been really hard to get programs 
> talking to another.
> 
> I've had some limited success with Impact, which appears to be built on 
> GID, which does not seem open. Impact has some potential,
> but I've not had success with tetrahedrons of a number that one would 
> use in an average part. Though the method in which loads and forces are 
> set is both intuitive and quick.
> http://impact.sourceforge.net/
> 
> As opposed to setting up Calculix, which is not easy,
> http://www.dhondt.de/
> 
> Often, programs have remained dormant for years, like OpenFlower,
> http://openflower.sourceforge.net/news.html
> 
> Or are too new and undocumented to use.
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/openfvm/]
> 
> Or their licensing is is restrictive, such as a Salome, which is built 
> on OpenCascade, which does not seem really open.
> http://www.salome-platform.org/forum/?groupid=12&forumid=13&thread=1053
> 
> Sadly, I've viewed Gmsh, as more or less a file converter, a stepping 
> stone toward a FEA or CFD program, but the more I look at the scene, the 
> more I appreciate what you have done with Gmsh, in fact Gmsh is probably 
> the most important open source engineering tool there is. Gmsh may have 
> begun as a simple meshing program, but I believe that it should be at 
> the center of engineering suite.
> 
> Could Gmsh please also evolve into a GID replacement, where loads, 
> materials, and stresses can be placed on nodes, and perhaps be able to 
> set conditions for CFD?
> Could also Gmsh work to encompass what existing FEA CFD software there 
> is, in an effort to have a workable open source FEA/FEM/CFD program for 
> students and researchers?
> 

Brenda - A more comprehensive solver interface (including boundary 
condition specification) is indeed one of the things we are currently 
thinking about. It's not going to happen overnight, but it's definitely 
one of the long terms goals.

Cheers,

Christophe

> Thank You,
> BrendaEM
> 
> P.S. I'm not a programmer, but I'm could make set of tool buttons, for 
> Gmsh in svg : )
> 
> 
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> 
> 
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> 


-- 
Prof. Christophe Geuzaine
University of Liege, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
http://www.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~geuzaine