Civil Engineering Association

mecheil.edwar,

I agree with what you are saying to some extent. If we look at a few basic elements that the an engineering applications might need (take a frame analysis package or something similar) then we need:

1) Display Window - We need to display the structure and any loads, boundary conditions and results. Often we want to do this in 3D which becomes a real head ache for anyone trying to write their code from scratch. Add the complication that we need to interest with mouse clicks etc with the window and things start to look like a rather big task.

2) Convenient way of imputing data - Most likely some sort of spreadsheet style form to display and allow data to be edited.

3) Not always required but maybe some utility to convert between different units easily so the user is not restricted to one particular measurement system.


These things are not really language specific challenges (ie there are already multiple languages out there that can do this) - The challenge is making these items available so that one person might be able to use them to write a frame analysis package just as easily as someone else wants to write a program for seepage in soils etc.


I think if enough people were interested, and maybe I will start a thread of my own to see who might be, then there are enough engineers with enough resources in this forum to start developing a toolkit for a popular programming language that other engineers can use and contribute to for doing such tasks. I think this would be a more useful tool instead of another GUI builder like VB because it would have been written specifically for engineering problems.

Displaying 3D structures is the biggest problem I have when writing my programs. I have only had success with this in one language, MATLAB and sharing your programs is near impossible if the next machine does not have a copy of MATLAB. Thats why I am so interested to see what a forum full of engineers could do to make life easier for such tasks :)

Quote:this is what I am saying now,
no need to build for each program a graphical user interface to draw lines, circles diagrams
if the developers of programing language develope one engineering language say E++ for example with this langauge the engineer does not need to write many codes to draw diagram and lines .. he just will use ready tools and build his own programs with very
friendly graphical user interface ...

yes it's possible if you're using,
- C++ and Python for base language programs
- OpenCascade or OpenGL for CAD
- QT or WxWidget for GUI's.
- FE solver: Frame3DD, OpenSees or CalculiX, Code_Aster.

are you had plan to developed? wow... it's a big plans. why don't you place and post your project in SourceForge.org? not in here i think.

i'm interested but i didn't promise to make a big contribution since i'm not graphics computer scientist or hardcore programmer, i'm just home programmer worked as engineer.

parhyang,

I to work as an engineer and just program at home to make my life easier for a few jobs. I do not have a "project" yet so to speak, but in my experience I have not come across an easy way to implement a flexible display window capable of displaying a 3D structure that allows the user to interact with. My point is that generally any decent engineering program needs this. The reason I have not looked to start something on source forge yet is I think there needs to be some previous interests in a well defined project in order for it to survive and make any significant contribution. Once again I am not a programmer so this is just my opinion. There seems to be a number of people in this forum with some degree of programming knowledge so it is possible.

elbarto_87,

Take a look in this thread. You will find a 3D class for NET Studio.

for BASIC programmers, this is may interested project. you can contribute by translate from Argentina languages to English, add enhancement, etc.



download directly for source code,

IGOR1234,

Thank you for the link you provided to "eyeshot". It is almost exactly what I was thinking of. Is there a similar package that is open source? I try to use open source technologies were possible as often I usually cannot afford the commercial packages and I do not use patched software for anything I intend to use for commercial gain or share with others as you have no write to put your own license on it governing the use of the software.

I have seen a number of interesting posts regarding VB .Net. Maybe it is time I picked up a new language.

elbarto_87,

As parhyang posted you should use:
C++, QT, OpenGL and OpenSees.
Then your application will work under Windows and Linux.

If you like I can test your application. I can build verification examples.
I hope you will manage to build such large application.

i spent a part of my career in a consultant office uses traditional design packages like sap, staad .....etc.
and i spent other part in a design firm uses full in-house programs

after experience with both ways, my opinion is the best way is the third (unused) one
which take the advantages (accuracy, GUI, multiple options) of traditional packages and complete its imperfections with in-house programs

that's my humble opinion

To elbarto_87:

Could you share any of your example applications written in python?