Section Properties - Simple & Flexible Software

[StressTheGame]

Hi!

I have been looking for a simple software that would allow me to calculate Section Properties (Ix, Ixy, Area, etc) for a wide variety of cross sections.

At Boeing we had a program called Section Analysis which was very good for stress analysts. You could choose from "primitive building blocks" (i.e., rectangles, circles, semi-circles, radii segments, angles, etc.) and join them together to compute their total cross sectional properties.

The best one I've seen (based upon what I'm looking for) is MDSolids; however, it is very limited in the number of sections one can analyze.

I've tried others such as: Cbeam200, Atlas, Framework, beamby22, and points.

AutoCAD and other cad programs could do this for me but I'm after a simple tool that I could use to quickly solve in-service – 1-off – problems.

Any suggestions?

 

[swearingen]

Go here

http://yakpol.net/

and download SectProp. It's a great little Excel spreadsheet that I've used.

 

[epeus]

you have named all the ones we use!, MDsolids (I use an older version which works well) which is great for simple quick sections, any more than that I move to AutoCAD or Pro/E, both of which are very quick once your used to it, although that said, AutoCAD is a bit painful with the region and massprop commands! I find myself using Pro/E for anything more that then what is available in the sections module of MDsolids. It gives weights and sectional data and can work for more complex sections like spar cap buildups with assemblies etc.

 

[StressTheGame]

epeus,

thanks for your feedback. I agree MDSolids is quite a useful tool. I will give the one swearingen recommended a spin. I wonder if there's anything out there that you can easily build complex shapes out of basic "building blocks". Will let you know if I find something.

 

[Sparweb]

Can't see the problem with AutoCAD. Draw the section to scale, call REGION, then MASSPROP, move the centroid to the origin (or move the origin to the centroid, if necessary), and you've got it. Output to a text file that you can keep for future reference (or butt-covering), plus save a separe, small, drawing file, too.

No need to create a parametric solid, just to draw a plane through it and take properties from that.

There are tricks that allow you to account for different material properties, in the same cross-section, too.



Steven Fahey, CET

 

[RPstress]

Can any of these systems can do an analysis with applied moments and axial load the way Boeing's SA can?

The FEMAP preprocessor also has a good section properties analyser. PATRAN does too, but it's a bit crude. Their open section torsional properties seem quite accurate.

 

[StressTheGame]

Sparweb

Thx 4 ur feedback.

My problem is that I try to stay away from CAD software )

At Boeing I got spoiled with SA and found it very! quick and easy to drive and run - not only for section properties but also for local compressive instability (crippling) checks.

I was hoping someone would know of a similar product available for purchase .

Rgds

 

[StressTheGame]

RPstress
You can apply loads to most of the ones I mentioned in my initial post. MDSolids is quite nice for that purpose. My only gripe with MDSolids is that it's not flexible enough from modeling of cross-sections point of view as you are restricted to a finite set of shapes.
Cheers!