Finite-element software for conceptual design

Using finite-element analysis in conceptual design and teaching has quite different software requirements to that in engineering and research. In teaching and conceptual design the focus is on speed, interactivity and ease of use, whereas accuracy and precision are needed in engineering and research. Forcepad is an effort to provide a conceptual design and teaching tool in a finite-element software package. Forcepad is a two-dimensional finite-element application based on the same conceptual model as image editing applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Paint. Instead of using geometric modelling with polygons, curves and lines, modelling is accomplished by ‘painting' with pixels with varying stiffness properties. This makes the learning curve for finite-element analysis much shallower and also makes it available for a much wider audience. The software has been used with great success in teaching as well as in conceptual design environments such as architecture, industrial design and engineering. The addition of an optimisation algorithm and tablet PC support makes the software even more interesting as a tool for conceptual design.