If you have any ideas or thoughts on the Blender Addon project (discussed here) and a potential course on how to build them…drop them in this thread.
Cheers,
Seán
It will be the most interesting course in ES, and I hope that this course will be given priority over the two pending courses.
Waiting…
Hey @Hisham - that’s really interesting to hear. Thanks for your feedback. I’d be really curious to know, is there anything specifically you’d like the course to cover?
It’s looking good for the course - I’ve had really good interest so far so will most likely be moving ahead with it. I can’t speak to course priority yet though (I’ve already started working on the next course).
Cheers,
S
Not sure if it falls within the Blender Addon project, but I’d love to have a workflow for post-processing simulation results like stresses, strains, displacements, or even custom fields, and map them onto beam, shell or solid elements.
I am very interested in the course, I am sure it will include all the needed sections on how to build them step by step… So looking forward to taking the course.
It might of a better benefit to have one or two projects linked to the course. Found the projects very helpful, concise and helpful for quick check if one is building their own addon.
This will be a great course for ES. I will like the course to approach the design of all Reinforcement concrete elements ( beams, slabs, columns etc). This will be fantastic
Could you elaborate a little more on what you’re looking for?
S
When you say ‘projects linked to the course’, what do you mean? Like building multiple different addons in the same course? Or using the one addon to model/analyse different structures?
That’s a tall order 
I tried to say build more examples in the projects section on the engineering skills platform. Like the beam deflection calculator and others.
I find the project style helpful for a quick check if needed during our practice session since it has a concise juicy result of the course.
Of course the course will be the base of it and it is where we lay the foundation.
Ah, OK, I understand now 
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Hello Dr. Seán,
It’s a fantastic initiative. After all the Blender/Python courses, I think the add-on is an opportunity to consolidate all the knowledge, not only from the previous courses but also from the next ones. It will definitely be a very helpful tool for structural engineers.
Best regards,
Raphael
@Sean, I’m sorry for my late response, but I wanted my answer to be organized as much as possible, not just a string of words.
My answer suggests that the plan will be to build an add-on for the analysis of 2D truss structures, which could be generalized for other types of structures.
Blender Add-in Design for 2D Truss Analysis
- User Interface (UI):
Panel Integration: The add-in will appear as a panel in Blender’s side toolbar, under a dedicated “Structural Analysis” tab.
Layout Design: A clean, organized layout with sections for inputting and viewing data, results, and visualizations.
- Input Section:
Geometry Input: Options to select or create 2D truss geometry directly within Blender.
Material Properties: Fields to input material properties such as Young’s modulus, cross-sectional area, and density.
Load and Support Conditions: Dropdowns and fields to specify types of loads (point, distributed) and support conditions (fixed, roller, hinge).
Python Script Execution: A button to execute the Python script for analysis.
- Analysis Setup:
Solver Options: Options to choose the type of solver (e.g., linear, non-linear).
Boundary Conditions: GUI to define and apply boundary conditions to nodes and elements.
Mesh Generation: Tools to refine or modify the mesh of the truss structure.
- Result Visualization: It is preferable to be inside Blender because visualization in Jupyter is not that clear, especially for large structures)
Displacement View: Toggle to view the displacement of nodes in the structure.
Stress and Strain: Color-coded visualization of stress and strain in elements.
Reactions and Internal Forces: Display reaction forces at supports and internal forces in the truss members.
- Output and Reports:
Result Summary: A section to show summarized results of the analysis, including maximum displacement, stress, and critical loads.
Export Options: Ability to export results as a text file, CSV, or a graphical report (e.g., PDF).
Graphical Charts: Integration of simple charts (e.g., force-displacement curves) within the Blender interface. (this one may be a bit advanced, but could be considered for further development)
All great suggestions @Hisham - will do my best to work in as much of this into the initial course release as possible. Thanks for taking the time to provide this response.
Seán
I meant to take the results of a simulation from other software (i.e. Ansys, Calculix, OpenFOAM, …) and do the post-processing in Blender.
For instance, let’s say I have the displacements and stresses of a slab in the form of an array. I’d like to show the deformed shape and contour plots in Blender.
Oh I like this one a lot - that would be a really nice feature. It might not make it into earlier versions of the addon but definitely going on the list for later.
Thanks for that!
S
Hi Dr. Sean
It would be very interesting course. I’d like to work with geometry node too. There are not many contents about parametric structural design in blender. Parametrization of truss (for example) is very useful to quickly change the geometry. And also, my idea is I want to run python code or OpenSeespy , post-processing and instant visualization of analysis results inside the blender environment without using notebook.
Thanks
Yan
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