[Gmsh] GID Work Alike?

Brenda Ellen Make brendieellen at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 11 19:37:46 CEST 2008


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?

Thank You,
BrendaEM

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