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New Hardware Design Software

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hard-hardware-design-made-easy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "AScribe is reporting that mechanical engineers from Purdue University have developed software they claim will increase the efficiency of creating a wide range of industrial parts. From the article: 'The new approach integrates the design and analysis processes, which are now carried out separately. Currently, the geometry of a part is first created using computer-aided design, or CAD, software. This geometry is then converted into a mesh of simple shapes, such as triangles or rectangles, which, when analyzed using a computer, indicates the part's strength and other characteristics. The painstaking procedure, called finite-element analysis, is extensively used in industry.'"

3 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Making a 2 stage process into a 1 stage process by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Informative

    The gist of it is that when one polygon in a mesh is changed, that the entire mesh does not need to be redesigned. The updated polygon only affects the polygons it is connected to, so on the fly analysis of the design can be performed without the need for a separate analyst.

    It's kind of appropriate that a Chinese guy and an Indian guy are the ones coming up with ways to eliminate jobs.

  2. This is nothing new at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I am a Mechanical Engineering studnet in my last semester and I have to say that this is nothing new. There has been a program for years called Pro-Engineer with the add on Pro-Mechanica that does this more or less just as described and ive personally used to design lightweight parts for a racecar.

  3. It's NURBS for stress analysis. Here's the paper. by Animats · · Score: 2, Informative
    Here's the technical paper: Constructive solid analysis: a hierarchical, geometry-based meshless analysis procedure for integrated design and analysis. This extends finite element analysis from rectangular cells to elements defined by NURBS surfaces. Difficult mathematically, but if you set up the problem that way, fewer cells and less number-crunching is required. Very nice.

    This may have applications for soft-body physics in games.