Hi all,

I've been building a desktop front end for Elmer, the open-source multiphysics FEM solver from CSC. Elmer is very capable, but setting up a case still means writing .sif files by hand or using ElmerGUI, which is showing its age. I wanted the workflow I knew from COMSOL: a model tree, settings windows, parameters with units, and results you can explore without exporting to ParaView first.

What it does today:

• Geometry (gmsh/OpenCASCADE): primitives, work planes, extrude/revolve, booleans, fillets, STEP/IGES import
• Mesh: gmsh, or ElmerGrid for structured block layouts; size controls, mapped meshes, 2D boundary layers
• Physics: heat transfer, solid mechanics (static, transient, eigenfrequency, frequency response with Rayleigh damping), electrostatics, electric currents, 2D magnetic fields, laminar flow, pressure acoustics, diluted species transport, secondary/tertiary current distribution, coefficient-form PDE. Couplings for Joule heating, thermal expansion and non-isothermal flow
• Studies: stationary, time dependent, eigenfrequency, frequency domain, parametric sweeps
• Results: surface/slice/isosurface/streamline/arrow plots, line graphs, integrals and averages, probes that update while a transient runs, GIF animation, CSV/VTU export
• A Python scripting API under the GUI, and you can always look at or export the .sif it generates
• An optional OpenFOAM backend for laminar flow and conduction on simple block geometries

Each physics interface is checked against closed-form solutions in the test suite (Poiseuille flow, Lamé's rotating disc, Newman's disc electrode, a rod driven through its first resonance, and more). CI runs on all three platforms.

Elmer itself isn't bundled; the docs explain how to install it on each platform.

Not there yet: 3D magnetics, turbulence, contact, adaptive meshing, and plenty of smaller things. The docs have a known-limitations page so you know before you try.

Where I'd love help:

• Try it on a problem you know the answer to, and tell me where it's wrong or awkward
• Open issues for bugs, crashes or features you actually need
• PRs are very welcome: new physics features, packaging, tutorials, docs

The best place to start is the documentation (installation, quick start, tutorials, full settings reference): https://altelmer.github.io/ElmerStudio/

Source and issue tracker: https://github.com/AltElmer/ElmerStudio

It's an independent project, not affiliated with COMSOL.

Does anyone else find Ansys’ software support has near-vanished? We are a small user going through an Ansys channel partner and currently have 3 different major software bugs with Ansys Electronic Desktop and more specifically HFSS that have stalled our work for near 3 months. These include RSM issues, licensing errors taking more than selected with a Windows environment variable error, and multipaction being awful.

Please let me know if you have any advice for my situation.

Hey everyone! I’m looking to connect with other engineers and makers to collaborate on a mechanical design/FEA project.

I'm comfortable tackling static, modal, harmonic, and buckling analyses (and always down to research new methods if a project needs it).

​This isn't for business—just looking to share experiences, build something cool together, and learn from each other. If you've got an open-source project, a personal build, or an idea you're working on and need an extra set of hands for the design/simulation side, DM!

Pardon me if this is the wrong place to ask questions.

I have fabricated a sandwich composite, consisting of 8 layers of 300gsm E glass Mats and with particle rubber reinforced epoxy matrix by vacuum resin infusion as a part of my undergraduate project. Due to some circumstances, I will not be able to perform tensile test, charpy test and flexural test.

Which software can I use to perform simulations of above tests on this composite? The only software I am familiar with is Mechanical APDL.
The questions I have is:

1. Which is a more appropriate software for this kind of purpose? (CSM Mat has random directions of fiber, so is ACP really necessary)
2. Should this be two step process like
   1. first simulate particle rubber and epoxy properties
   2. then simulate the sandwich composite properties
3. Is mori-tanaka a better choice than halpin tsai model for elastic properties in my case?

4. Beginner resources to get started (if the ABAQUS, digimat or Ansys Workbench is only possible)

   Thanks in advance

Hello, I am currently looking for a commercial software for my company. I know abaqus very well and I worked with ansys in the past. From my research I learned that in my field the standard fea package is nastran. I would like to ask about your experience and what software you can recommend. I am looking for one package offering decent pre and post capabilities, for linear analyses, vibration, nonlinear and if possible optimization (topology, doe). I don't know anything about this packages so if you would share your experience and opinion I would be grateful.

Do I need to know everything about Functional Analysis, Sobolev Spaces to work with intrusive ROMs and what do I absolutely need to know about to work with them?

I already read some papers about several Order Reduction Techniques, mostly POD-Galerkin, but have not actually implemented / used the method.

Currently I‘m working with non-Intrusive ROMs using Machine Learning, but i want to Benchmark them against established intrusive methods.

It would be great if someone could share their experience and if not reading up on the Fundamentals on Sobolev Spaces and Functional Analysis could maybe bite me in the ass later on. Also, what things do I definitely need to read up about?

A 2D truss analysis is a fairly classic engineering student project — so I used mine to experiment a little with how the results are presented.

The web application uses a simple Python data model and linear FEM solver on the backend, with Matplotlib-based visualizations of deformation and stress. The goal was to create lightweight, understandable diagrams that could help bridge the step from classical engineering mechanics to a first understanding of FEM, and I ended up enjoying the visualization part more than expected.

Now I’m curious what other approaches I may have missed: are there any Python- or web-oriented open-source projects you use for lightweight structural-mechanics visualization?

(The screenshots are from the app and show what I mean by a lightweight visualization aimed at beginners.)

hello guys , which keywords do you use for implicit analysis ?, especially when you do an springback analysis on a dynain file. i use implicit_auto / implicit_general /Implicit_solution/Implicit_solver.

Hi everyone!

I am a senior mechanical engineering student and am doing my final year project on a quad auxetic metamaterial domain. So far, I have built some geometry using C++ and now want to test it in a simulation under real-life conditions. During the construction of the geometry, I only considered the self-weight, so, not sure whether these structures stand up to critical real-life conditions. So, now, can anyone tell me or suggest which C++ library I should be using for analyzing the structures under real-world conditions?

Hi,guys I made a plugin for transition meshing inAbaqus
https://github.com/IY724/TransitionMesh
if you like it,give me a star really thanks

Hi, I made a set of 4 Core Tutorials for MSC Apex and MSC Nastran. Upon completing these 4 tutorials, you will be able to use the essentials of MSC Apex and figure out the rest from the documentation based on your needs.
 
I just released the first tutorial as a YouTube video here:
https://youtu.be/vl1Xd9NCjb4?si=HUIogEcxR--jJIGt
Also, all 4 tutorials are available here in PDF format with part files:
https://simcompanion.hexagon.com/customers/s/article/MSC-Apex-Core-Tutorials
 
Expect more videos in the future. I’m an engineer at MSC, which is now a part of Cadence. If you’re a student or instructor, I’d especially like to hear from you.

Hello, I found these two books:

Introduction to Finite Element Analysis Using Creo Simulate 11.0

and

Introduction to Finite Element Analysis Using Creo Simulate 12.0.

Is there a big difference in versions 11 and 12?

Hello,

I currently have over three years of experience in the oil and gas industry, with expertise in performing linear, non-linear, buckling, and fatigue analysis using ANSYS Workbench in accordance with ASME Section VIII, Division 2, Part 5.

I am currently seeking opportunities within the field of Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Please inform me if you are aware of any available positions.

Thank you.

Everything is open (code MIT, data/CAD/reports CC BY 4.0): https://github.com/Shass27/curiosity-perseverance-wheel-fea

We're a team of four engineering students, and we've been looking at the wheel-skin damage on NASA/JPL's Curiosity rover as project for our Solid Mechanics course: the thin aluminium skin cracked and punctured on sharp rocks. Perseverance went to a thicker skin and a different grouser pattern, so we tried to put numbers on how much that actually helps and a develop a surrogate fea model for academic purposes

What we did

• Hand calc vs FEA: a flat skin segment between two grousers, modelled as a fixed stepped beam with a Peterson Kt, compared against an Ansys solid model along a surface path.
• Batch FEA: 458 linear-static Ansys 2025 R1 cases on a curved R250 wheel panel (Al 7075-T7351, ends fixed). The rock is a 300 N pressure load on a circular patch. We swept 5 grouser patterns, 2 skin thicknesses (2 / 7.5 mm), 3 grouser angles, 3 fillet radii and 5 patch radii. The whole batch was driven by a Workbench journal script.
• ML surrogate: each stress/strain field is gridded onto a common map, compressed with PCA (40 modes) and learnt with Gaussian-process regression, plus a separate GP for the peak value with a 95% band. It's wrapped in a MATLAB GUI that shows the nearest real FEA case side by side.

Results

• Full write-ups: Failure analysis (PDF) · Surrogate model (PDF)
• ML model: on fully unseen geometries, 3.1% median peak-stress error, R² = 0.993, and 94% coverage by the 95% band.
• GUI: pick a feature, thickness, angle, fillet, rock size and load, and it shows the predicted stress/strain maps next to the nearest real FEA case. Every input is flagged as sampled, interpolated or out of range. It warns at the fatigue limit, failure strain and yield, and exports the predicted field in the same format as the Ansys output.

Why we're posting

We'd like to write this up as a paper, and we'd value any critique before we do: modelling assumptions, what a reviewer would attack first, missing validation, or whether the surrogate approach is reasonable for ~440 cases. Feel free to criticise or give feedback

Everything is open (code MIT, data/CAD/reports CC BY 4.0): https://github.com/Shass27/curiosity-perseverance-wheel-fea

Both reports are linked as PDFs in the README.

FEA

Hello, I would like to ask how do you keep order in each FEA project?

Currently i feel like when Iam starting project i try to document everything, but later in Iam all over the place. Hundreds tabs open in browser, Multiple result files from each sensitivity study with odd meaning (after week you have no idea what that means)

I would like to become better at documenting my steps (for example, currently looking for materials) create material library for all materials with sources.

Are you using some special tool for this or just properly structured Excel with links to folders?

Thank you

hello guys , recently for better use of ls dyna i downloaded the manual, it`s very massive over 4000 pages (the vol I). My intention is create a sistem ai based where you can load the manual and after that you can ask how to do the task, a sort of tailored tutorial. it's a good idea ? i think i start to a project on claude . maybe there is a better system . If you have any insights, they would be appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I’m comparing a Python analytical global buckling model with an Abaqus shell FE model of a composite stiffened panel, as part of a sensitivity study covering different geometries and layups.

The FE model often produces many local skin or stringer buckling modes before a global panel mode appears. The global mode’s index changes between cases, so I can’t consistently compare the same numbered mode. Manually inspecting every mode across the entire study would also be quite time-consuming.

How do others handle this? Is there an established way to identify and track global buckling modes automatically, especially when local and global deformations are mixed?

Any practical experience, Abaqus workflows, or relevant references would be appreciated!