3D Stress Simulation Service from STL (Free)

[IntactSolutions]

We are looking for feedback on an easy-to-use online stress simulation service we are working on thanks to a grant from the (US) National Science Foundation. The service operates on STL models uploaded to the cloud and requires a WebGL-capable browser such as Chrome or Internet Explorer 11.

This short video demonstrates its operation. You can also just jump right in. (Be patient, it may take a few seconds for the dynos to wind up.)

Please try it out and let us know what you would like, don't like, or would like to see added.

Thank you,
Michael
Intact Solutions, Inc.

[DBFIU]

This is wonderful!

I used to simulate turbine blades and vanes in aerospace, I did mostly heat transfer and CFD but structural folks would love this too. This is really cool!

I havent signed up yet but I definitely will.

Can you give me a quick run down on how you plan on meshing the STL geometry, as well as inspecting the mesh, modifying it (if at all) and then applying boundary conditions and post process viewing? Sorry for all the questions, I did not sign up yet so maybe all of them can be answered, but can you answer them for me first before I get into it?

Thank you,

- D

[Marm]

Whoa....

This will help a lot of my designs. I've been making prototypes and testing to failure. Now I can eliminate at least a few iterations.

One question though, the files as described as "In our inventory". To me that implies you guys acquire some rights to the files. Do you do anything with the files or do we retain all rights to them?

[Marm]

One immediate comment, It'd be really nice if the pan/tilt mouse control was not the same as the face select mouse control. In attempting to spin the model, I end up selecting faces I don't want.

Suggestion: Leave mouse wheel as Zoom, but change pan/tilt to mouse wheel click.


And another suggestion, some sort of pop-up that notifies you that the simulation is completed. I waited 10 minutes before hitting refresh, and it was done.

Also, the ability to edit previous simulations. As in, instead of having to select various faces again, I can just alter the amount of force.

[Hugues]

...
And another suggestion, some sort of pop-up that notifies you that the simulation is completed. I waited 10 minutes before hitting refresh, and it was done.

Also, the ability to edit previous simulations. As in, instead of having to select various faces again, I can just alter the amount of force.

+1
and i was struggling a bit to select faces to apply loads.

Great tool !

[IntactSolutions]

This is wonderful!

I used to simulate turbine blades and vanes in aerospace, I did mostly heat transfer and CFD but structural folks would love this too. This is really cool!

I havent signed up yet but I definitely will.

Can you give me a quick run down on how you plan on meshing the STL geometry, as well as inspecting the mesh, modifying it (if at all) and then applying boundary conditions and post process viewing? Sorry for all the questions, I did not sign up yet so maybe all of them can be answered, but can you answer them for me first before I get into it?

Thank you,

- D

We don't mesh. Instead the geometry is embedded in a grid of basis functions that are used to represent the solution field while all geometric computations (integration and visualization) take place over the STL geometry. The resolution of the basis functions is controlled on the simulation setup page. Boundary conditions are applied to facets of the STL model.

An overview of the technology can be found on this page where there is also a link to a white paper with more details.

Thanks for your interest.

~Michael

[IntactSolutions]

Thank you for all the suggestions. We are compiling a list of items to improve, among them mouse interaction on the face selection page - that one is particularly annoying. Oh, and the ability to edit previous simulations... would you want this operation to make a duplicate on which you could operate without overwriting the original?
~Michael

[IntactSolutions]

Whoa....

This will help a lot of my designs. I've been making prototypes and testing to failure. Now I can eliminate at least a few iterations.

One question though, the files as described as "In our inventory". To me that implies you guys acquire some rights to the files. Do you do anything with the files or do we retain all rights to them?

Hmmm... I hope it doesn't say "our inventory" anywhere. It is YOUR model inventory. The models and associated solutions just reside on our instance of Amazon Web Services S3.

Is retention of the original geometry a big concern? To be clear, I'm not arguing here... I ask because we are considering techniques where we never actually hold onto users' models.
~Michael

[Bassna]

Any chance we are going to be able to upload file's larger than 3MB? :P

[Marm]

Watch the video you linked. Pretty sure it says "Our Inventory".