Open Source Engineering Tools?

ThosLives asks: "It seems to be the case that most open source projects fall into the software development, business, and desktop realms. I have done a bit of unfruitful searching for good FOSS engineering tools. By this I mean: 3D CAD/CAM, FEA, fluids, and math simulation tools. I have been able to find various 'academic quality' FEA, fluids, and math sim tools; those are, however, not sufficient for even hobby-level production work because they: have a lacking interface; don't have a standard file formats; and are not standalone products (i.e., they require Matlab or some other expensive package). If you were going to set up an engineering shop to design and produce mechanical devices, what FOSS software tools, if any, are available and recommended? Commercial options are out of the question for the hobbyist, when even basic 3D CAD functionality typically costs more than $100 (and typically run over $500), and 'consumer-level' analysis packages are practically nonexistent. If there are no free options, what could be done with a budget of $500 or $1000? As an aside, are there any thoughts on why the engineering applications appear to be so overlooked by the open source community?"

Comments

Re:Same reason classical music is often overlooked

[idommp]

Humorous but true. I've spent 25 years writing engineering (and other scientific applications) software. The development cycle is LONG because the problems being addressed are complex. Most any idiot can program a text processor. Programming a complex mathematical analysis that guarantees the bridge won't fall down in a stiff wind is a bit harder. It requires a bit of skill and esoteric knowledge. Having that knowledge, I whore my services out to the highest bidder. Companies pay me to design programs that make their engineers more efficient. Why would they want to share that knowledge with the competition?

There is also liability involved when doing engineering software.

But OpenSource is alive and well in this arena. http://www.opendwg.org/ is just one example.

Re:Ask Slashdot Template

[Frumious Wombat]

Molecular Physicists/Computational Chemists have made available through a variety of open licenses, including GPL, highly complex, well-developed, robust simulation codes. We're undoubtedly a smaller niche than MechE's, but we have a good couple dozen solid production codes to choose from (if you mix the quantum people and the classical MD people), for between Free (beer/speech) to Freeish (moderate license fee, or restrictions on code redistribution).

Maybe the problem is cultural: people who can write such software, write it for money. There isn't enough money in electronic structure packages, so at least half of them remain free. The money that's charged is frequently to cover duplication costs, and to chase off dilettants.

Maybe the bigger problem is the parent poster is expecting a level of user-obsequiousness from his software. Most of my community's free codes are somewhere between User-Indifferent to User-Surly, but you get used to the ones that are relevant to your own work rather quickly.

However, I would list Octave http://www.octave.org/ and OpenDX http://www.opendx.org/ as good starting places for tools. That will get you a good programming environment, and an absolutely killer visualization framework.