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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?"
Haven't looked at this much, but I remember when someone was asking about the same sort of thing this link came up and looked fairly interesting. http://brlcad.org/
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As an aside, are there any thoughts on why the engineering applications appear to be so overlooked by the open source community?
Because they're really really hard.
How we know is more important than what we know.
In a similar manner, look at http://www.geda.seul.org/
But these are electrical engineering tools. The original article seemed to be more about mechanical engineering tools. My guess is that people write what they need and what interestes them. Mechanical engineers might not have as much software skill as other diciplines. Mechanical engineering seems more "physical" and likely appeals to a different type of person than electrical engineering and computer engineering. Of course, I could just be a biased EE.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
For fluids, you really can't beat Overflow and its associated tools. Written by some of the guys at AMES, its open source and comes with decent grid generation tools. I am not a structures guy, but isn't NASTRAN an industry standard NASA FEA tool?
http://octave.org/ i suggest you get the cvs version. most matlab scripts will just work, unless they're mex files (in which case you're s.o.l.). that makes a lot of the packages you mentioned at least possible.
as for the meat of your question, i suggest you try to write one of the pieces of software you mentioned --- the exact reasons for why they're hard to find in general will become apparent pretty quickly.
http://www.opencascade.org/
It is a big package far more capable that most commercial apps and is open source.
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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.
Actually, the only app I've had real problems replacing is MS Project, ironically I need it for my Software engineering degree; You'd think developers had no need for project management tools. Maybe I should submit an ask slashdot? ;)
Have you looked at http://www.openworkbench.org/? It's a formerly commercial PM package that went opensource a while back.
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig
Scilab is free as in beer, but not free as in libre. It runs on Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, and Windows. It's pretty similar to Matlab, as best I recall. It also includes links to Maple and PVM.
Another possibility (again, not libre, but free) is LyME for the Palm Pilot. LyME is a matlab-like environment good enough for simple what-if scenarios.
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As an aside, are there any thoughts on why the engineering applications appear to be so overlooked by the open source community?
In general open source programmers scratch an itch.
Programmers don't always make good engineers.
Engineers don't always make good programmers.
If you really love programming, you'll typically want to spend more time programming than, say, engineering. Therefore you may not ever have the desire to write an engineering program unless an engineer challenges you.
If you really love engineering, you'll typically want to spend more time engineering..ing than, say, programming. Therefore you'll likely never write your own tools if there's something available that you can use out of the box. Especially if it's an industry standard and can get your better employment.
Programmers make programs that make them more efficient. You don't see many open source knitting programs. Same for cat breeding and many other areas where programming doesn't naturally flow.
If anything, however, engineering is one of the closest disciplines to programming, and there is a lot of OS engineering software out there.
-Adam
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.
the more accurate the calculations became, the more the concepts tended to vanish into thin air. R. S. Mulliken