Merry Christmas

A few days ago I had a result that look like a kind of Christmas star. Because I tried a few more things in Mecway. And I think it is one of the best free available FEM tools to work with real truss elements and beams (see also my bicycle example).

I had tried out how to build a geodetic dome. And then the axial force just happened to look like a colored star.

I am grateful for the past year, even if it was more difficult and some things will change next year. As a little thank you, here’s a tutorial on how to do it yourself in the Mecway free version. It is free.

The following steps are shown in the video:

1. Create nodes
2. Create node between nodes
3. Create elements (line2)
4. Move/Copy elements
5. Rotate/Copy elements
6. Definition of the geometric beam element shape
7. Add mechanical material data & density
8. Merge nearby nodes
9. Project nodes onto surface
10. Add fixed support boundary condition
11. Add gravity as load
12. Solve with internal solver
13. Displacement result contour plot
14. Add axial force result
15. Axial force result contour plot

I hope that some of you will like this giveaway. I wish everyone Merry Christmas.