FEM CalculiX Cantilever 3D

! DO NOT TRANSLATE AT THE MOMENT !

Introduction
This example is meant to show how a simple Finite Element Analysis in FreeCADs FEM_Module does look like and how the results can be visualized. Furthermore with this example file provided by any FreeCAD installation it is easy to check if the FEM module is set up properly.



Requirements

 * FCVersion=0.16.6377 or above.
 * This could be checked at the menu Help --> about FreeCAD --> Revisionnumber which has to be bigger than 6377
 * No external software is needed for loading the example file, viewing the mesh and geometry as well as for visualizing the results.

Load Start Workbench

 * 1) Start FreeCAD
 * 2) The Start Workbench should be loaded

Load the example file

 * 1) Go to the example projects and click on "Load an FEM analysis example"
 * 2) If due to further operations some geometry, constraints or the results are broken or deleted just repeat the steps above.



Activate the analysis container

 * 1) To work with an analysis the analysis has to be activated.
 * 2) In tree view right click on the analysis --> activate analysis



Analysis container and its objects

 * 1) If the analysis is activated FreeCAD itself will change to the FEM Workbench.
 * 2) There are at least the following 5 objects needed to make an static mechanical analysis:
 * 3) a solver
 * 4) a material
 * 5) a fixed constraint
 * 6) a force constraint
 * 7) a FEM mesh
 * 8) Since in the example here the results are included as well, there is a sixth object results.

Visualizing Results

 * 1) Be sure the analysis is activated !
 * 2) Be sure the analysis still contains the result object, if not just reload the example file.
 * 3) Select [[Image:Fem_Result.svg|32px]] Show result
 * 4) Choose z-Displacement. It shows -88.443 mm in negative z-Direction.
 * 5) This makes sence since the force is in negative z-Direction as well.
 * 6) Activate the check box befor Displacement show.
 * 7) The slider at the bottom can be used to alter the mesh to view the deformation in a simplified manner.
 * 8) Choose among the different Result types to view all in the GUI available result types.
 * 9) To remove the results select [[Image:Fem_PurgeResults.png|32px]] Purge results

Constraints
from here still ToDO
 * 1) What needed next is to add some fixed and force constraints to our model.

FEM Mesh

 * 1) The two possibilities by either the build in mesher Netgen and the external mesher GMSH will be shown in this tutorial. There are various

Netgen

 * 1)  Select the shape you wish to mesh, in this case our Cube and click on [[Image:Fem_FemMesh.svg|32px]] Create FEM mesh.

GMSH

 * 1) If FreeCADs build in mesher Netgen is not available the usage of Macro_GMSH is recommended, and is used for this example.

Running the Solver

 * 1) Select the solver object  [[Image:Fem_Solver.svg|32px]] of the analysis in tree view and press  [[Image:Fem_QuickAnalysis.svg|32px]] Quick Analysis from the icon tool bar
 * 2) The analysis will be made and the result object should be created.

We are now finished with the basic workflow for the FEM Module.