Question: FEM Roadmap?

About the development of the FEM module/workbench.

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francescoclementi_
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Question: FEM Roadmap?

Post by francescoclementi_ »

Hello, just a general question;
do we have somewhere a timeplan of the coming improvements to FEM module?
If I am not wrong, at now two parts with contact cannot be simulated ( as two parts with 2 different materials, as example).
Thanks for help
Francesco
Last edited by Kunda1 on Fri May 06, 2022 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Updated thread title to be less generic
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NewJoker
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Re: FEM improvement

Post by NewJoker »

There's no such plan. Currently, we lack devs for this module and any help with coding is appreciated. There are a few features that would significantly improve the FEM workbench. In my opinion, those are (starting from the most crucial one):
1. Rigid body constraint
2. Support for multiple meshes and thus possibility to define contact between touching (not separated) faces - that's likely what you meant
3. Beams with arbitrary cross-section
4. Keyword editor
5. Simple creation of node and element sets
Jee-Bee
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Re: FEM improvement

Post by Jee-Bee »

NewJoker wrote: Thu May 05, 2022 6:36 pm 1. Rigid body constraint
I have a few times thought about implementing this feature. But my main problem is that i have only one time and to many thinks i want to do. I think(i'm not sure) that if you look at the material implementation there are some parts that can be borrowed from the material selecion(is this everything?: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/blob ... _common.py)
NewJoker wrote: Thu May 05, 2022 6:36 pm 5. Simple creation of node and element sets
This one is also on my short list of relatively easy features(at least if i understand what you meant). But i was also doubting if it would work out to extend this feature that it is also possible to add a custom input field where the corresponding Input deck ... can be added(Basically the calculix name)
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NewJoker
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Re: FEM improvement

Post by NewJoker »

Jee-Bee wrote: Fri May 06, 2022 3:21 pm I have a few times thought about implementing this feature. But my main problem is that i have only one time and to many thinks i want to do. I think(i'm not sure) that if you look at the material implementation there are some parts that can be borrowed from the material selecion(is this everything?: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/blob ... _common.py)
There was a discussion about the implementation of this feature here: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=60892

In terms of CalculiX syntax, we just have to provide a node set or element set (those are already used by other features) plus a reference point. The latter can be a bit more problematic but I suggested a solution that minimizes the necessary changes (see a scheme of rigid body constraint GUI attached to one of the posts in the linked forum thread).

Jee-Bee wrote: Fri May 06, 2022 3:21 pm This one is also on my short list of relatively easy features(at least if i understand what you meant). But i was also doubting if it would work out to extend this feature that it is also possible to add a custom input field where the corresponding Input deck ... can be added(Basically the calculix name)
Theoretically, there is a feature to define node sets but I'm not sure if it works correctly. And even if it does, it's far from user-friendliness I would expect in this case. I admit that with current (highly limited) selection tools in FreeCAD it can be difficult to make a simple tool for node set creation. Still, I think that we could make it simpler.

There's no tool for element set creation so this is also on the list of important missing features.
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