Python application discussion 2

[Celt83]

creating a thread for app discussion so I can stop derailing other peoples threads and give a better place to ask questions and discuss my or any python apps.

Open Source Structural Applications:

https://github.com/buddyd16/Structural-Engineering

 

[Shotzie]

Great idea. Thanks for making this thread. Do you have any resources that you'd recommend to start with for someone looking to get into python coding in general for structural? My programming knowledge is pretty limited, just first year computer science in university.

 

[Celt83]

Shotzie:
I had a basic C++ course in college. For python I started here Automate the Boring Stuff. I find a lot of the design stuff is handled with simple if...else.. statements, but if you need anything advanced there are two modules I use scipy and numpy both have great documentation here and are freely available.




Open Source Structural Applications:

https://github.com/buddyd16/Structural-Engineering

 

[JG2828]

Shotzie,

A great place to start learning Python syntax is CodeCademy.com.
Their Python 2 course is free if you want to give it a try.
That is where I learned the basics of Python 3-4 years ago. It was very helpful.
They also offer a bunch of other languages and courses but you have to buy a pro membership at $20/month

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python

 

[IRstuff]

It seems to me that someone would need to create a set of canonical "test cases" that can be readily checked and verified through other means, be they FEA, Matlab, or Mathcad. Otherwise, your code, while open-source, is still a black-box, and few people have the time or energy or resources to individually create test cases, run them on your software and run them on their own software and then compare results. While the GUI for imputting geometries, etc., seems like the way to go, taking the graphical data and running it into something like Mathcad or SMath makes more sense to me for the downstream math crunching, as the equations are in their symbolic forms and readily inspectable and testable.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[Celt83]

IRstuff:

Yes verification problems/test cases are certainly the way to go to ensure proper implementation in the back end code. Agree at run-time it's still a black box but that's the case with any graphical interface with the open source code available if you/anyone so chooses you can open up the black box and see what is being done within your understanding of the code language used by the author. I would liken it to a cell formula in excel whereby I enter a value in one cell and another changes that is a black box until I decide to click on the result cell and read the formula used.

on the MathCAD and Smath front your still relying on the black box of their symbolic interpreter to perform your calculation as intended. I/anyone can just as easily show the full graphical formula and each variable value in the graphical interface and show the result of said calculation.

At the end of the day every piece of software we choose to use is a black box that requires some due diligence to verify the end result is correct.

Edit: My intention of this thread is not to advocate for use of my or other open source programs it was more meant for just general discussion on python programming or just programming ideas in general to get those discussion out of threads where they wouldn't be on topic.

Open Source Structural Applications:

https://github.com/buddyd16/Structural-Engineering

 

[GregLocock]

Every new release of the main software I use where I work is checked on a suite of standard inputs to make sure that it gives the same (or I suppose better in some known way) results as the previous version. Since a large part of my work is on tests that have to be correlated with real world tests for legal reasons, that means we end up with improving our simulations over time, as we find more anomalies in predicted results and sort them out. The disadvantage is that this takes time so we are typically running on 3 years out of date software.

FEA programs used to come with a set of standard inputs that you could run.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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