Paul,
I know of two programs that are free and appear to be
fairly simple to use. One is called "Framework" and can
be found here: http://home.wanadoo.nl/wolsink/
snips....
Aubrey
I down loaded this one but the input is metric.
Looks pretty good. The user interface is a bit strange
but typical of foreign programs. It is amazing how
the programmers native language (Dutch) affects the look and
feel of a program's user interface.
I got hung up by this.
I need a few numbers in metric.
Density of steel? Kg/Meter^3
Modulus of elasticity of steel? Kn/Meter^2
Poisson ratio but as I recall that is dimensionless
and as I recall it is 3 but I could very well be wrong.
Here is a dxf of my test space frame.
The program loads and reads this file OK.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
Paul,
The metric density of steel is 7830 kg/m^3
and the elastic modulus is 207 Kn/meter^2 .
Poisson's ratio is about 0.3 for most metals.
Aubrey
Bingo! Those are the numbers I was looking for.
Thanks Aubrey.
I'll keep fooling with this Dutch program until I learn enough
about it to use it. It seems much more comprehensive than
the Java applet.
---------------------------------------------
I fooled with it some more and I now have it pretty well
figured out. The light lit when I looked at:
"Help" > "How it works."
It is way over kill for a simple properly designed
space frame such as the ACRE motor mounts and probably
not worth the effort.
Not so simple for a motor mount with bending loads in the
tubes. From the looks of it there are several hours work
inputing such things as the torsional stiffness of each
member. That is only one of half a dozen properties
required for each member. In a complicated motor mount
with eight or ten tubes of varying sizes it is a very
tedious process inputing all the data in metric numbers.
At least for me. There may be an inch mode which I have
not tried yet.
I am very impressed as it is so comprehensive for a free program.
It could be made easier by selecting properties from
a tree of menus.
Beam type: Tube, I-beam, box etc., etc..
OD:
Wall:
Material: Steel, aluminum, wood, etc., etc..
Max stress:
Fixation: welded, bolted, etc., etc., etc..
etc.:
etc.:
What do you think Aubrey?
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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