finite-element-analysis

I am trying to write a little unwrapper for meshes. This uses a finite-element-method to solve for minimal linear stress between flattened and the raw surface. At the moment there are some vertices pinned to get a result. Without this the triangles are rotated and translated randomly... But as this pinning isn't necessary for the problem, the better solution would be to directly solve the singular matrix. Petsc does provide some methodes to solve a singular system by providing some information on the nullspace. http://www.mcs.anl.gov/petsc/petsc-current/docs/manual.pdf#section.4.6 I wonder if

I'm wondering if any of you use matplotlib for your python codes that are coupled with ABAQUS. I really want to load matplotlib onto the abaqus-python interface. I'm using ABAQUS 6.12, which has python 2.6. Also, I'm using Windows 64 bit. However, when I download the matplotlib for python 2.6, it fails to install and says that "Python 2.6 required, which is not found in the Registry." Could anyone help me out? Does anyone know of a step-by-step way to install matplotlib such that it works for Abaqus 6.12? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks Note: For those unfamiliar with FEA Software, the

I would like to optimize a design by having an optimizer make changes to a CAD file, which is then analyzed in FEM, and the results fed back into the optimizer to make changes on the design based on the FEM, until the solution converges to an optimum (mass, stiffness, else). This is what I envision: create a blueprint of the part in a CAD software (e.g. CATIA). run an optimizer code (e.g. fmincon) from within a programming language (e.g. Python). The parameters of the optimizer are parameters of the CAD model (angles, lengths, thicknesses, etc.). the optimizer evaluates a certain design

Using Numpy/Scipy or any other library, I am interested in solving 2D and 3D frame analysis problems. So far I came across sfepy . Although, it is a fully functioning FEM package, I was wondering if there are any alternatives? To the best of my knowledge the most commonly used Python Finite Element library is FiPy . I use this library frequently, and i recommend it highly. It is a mature, stable project (current stable version is 2.1.2), currently maintained by its creator, the Materials Measurement Library of the US Government Institute, NIST.The documentation and (working) sample code are