engleski

Interfacing FEM and AutoCAD

This paper presents an approach to FEM (FInite Element Method) pre- and post- processing by means of CAD (Computer Aided Drawing) most popular program AutoCAD. Object oriented paradigm in defining structure geometry enables a high level of data abstraction in the pre-processing phase. Mesh generation, as well as generation of boundary conditions and loads which are defined over the geometrical entities, are performed using the so-called block mapping technique. A finite element mesh created in this way is well-conditioned and allows the use of different finite element types which is one of the best features of mapping technique. The wide open architecture of AutoCAD also enables fast definition of the input data. The work presented has produced two programs, one inside AutoCAD which converts a geometry model into its numerical correspondent and the other which generates the finite element mesh outside the AutoCAD based on the produced numerical model. Both programs are incorporated in the FEME (Finite Element Modelling Extension) programme package, whose performance is illustrated by a few examplkes.

finite element method; AutoCAD; interfacing; mesh generation; data processing

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