FEM Module

The Fem Workbench provides modern Finite Element Analysis (FEA) workflow for FreeCAD. Mainly this means all tools to make an Finite Element Analysis are combined in one GUI.



The steps to do a FEA in FreeCAD FEM Workbench GUI are:
 * Preprocessing
 * Modeling the geometry, in which FreeCAD is already a nearly full-grown software.
 * Create an Analysis:
 * Create an FEM Mesh out of the geometrical model.
 * Add Constraints such as loads and support fixes to the analysis model.
 * Add a Material to the analysis model
 * Solving
 * Solve the system of equations from within the FreeCAD GUI.
 * Postprocessing
 * View Results inside FreeCAD GUI.

The above mainly describes how a FEA analysis is done inside FreeCAD FEM Workbench. For further documentation refer to the GUI Tools described later here.

As of FreeCAD version 0.15 the FEM-Module can be used on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux platforms. Since FEM Workbench makes use of external software, the amount of manual intervention until the FEM workbench is ready to use will depend on the OS that you are using. Check out FEM Install.

Tutorials
Tutorial 1 FEM CalculiX Cantilever 3D

Tutorial 2 FEM Tutorial

Tutorial 3 FEM Tutorial Python

Coupled thermal mechanical analysis tutorials Zip file containing PDF's

Links
FEM Install for a detailed description how to set up a working FEM Module.

FEM Mesh for further Information about the FEM Mesh in FreeCAD

FEM CalculiX for further Information about the interface between FEM Module and the current Solver CalculiX

FEM Project for more detailed informations about the Units, Limitations and the Development of FEM Module.