[Plugin] Frame3DD Sketchup Interface

oyil · 8 Jul 2012, 04:18

First things first. I am oyil. Yes, the one who created and uploaded sketchup models of ROTA rims into 3D Warehouse. I have been a silent sketchup user since version 5. As I am a car freak, even though i dont own one, I pretty much, adore things with connection to cars... which now includes designing my very own using sketchup. I realized i needed several different cad programs to do chassis design for strength, kinematics, aesthetics. But these are all pricey, and the free ones are really hard to learn. Then I discovered http://www.car-stuff.info/fea.htm and continued the idea.

Here's a plugin that lets us use sketchup as a frontend to the free Frame3DD frame analysis software. Basically, you draw edges that represents your frame members,.. attach material properties to the edges,... apply forces to the frame,... then extract the information to a format that is accepted by Frame3dd. The plugin will execute Frame3dd by itself. The results can be plotted using gnuplot for visualization of dynamic characteristics of frame design.

LIMITATIONS:
(1)Currently, the "Apply Material" function only applies material properties of a 1"x1"x2mm steel SHS to the selected frame members.Use mm as units in your model.
(2)"Apply Constraint" function applies rigid constraints. i.e. no movement allowed for the x, y, and z directions
(3)"Apply Force" function can only be applied to nodes.
(4) Amount of members. I havent tried going over 300 frame members. It might be too much for Frame3dd.
I hope to add more of frame3dd's features available in the future, if time permits.

CONFIGURATION:
A config.ini file is needed by the plugin for it to know where to dump the output files for Frame3dd processing.
[3DD_APP]
Path=<path to installed Frame3dd> - ex. c:\Program Files\Frame3dd\

Users will need to download and install:
Frame3dd - Thanks to Dr. Henri Gavin - http://frame3dd.sourceforge.net/
gnuplot - http://www.gnuplot.info/

Link to demo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1H7yiFpGvs&feature=youtu.be
[flash=560,315:3o6m928n]http://www.youtube.com/v/u1H7yiFpGvs[/flash:3o6m928n]

NEXT UP: V0.2
features:
(1) show resulting deformation
(2) additional constraint types - these new constraints allow prescribed movements along axis parallel to global

Plugin: Sketchup Frame3dd Interface V0.1

Krisidious · 8 Jul 2012, 05:08

wow... very kool. thanks. I build cars for a simulator using SketchUp. This will come in handy I'm sure.

Michaelv · 8 Jul 2012, 05:40

Awesome! That is all.
I have a feeling that it doesn't work yet on Macs. Since GNUplot and Frame 3DD do, I was going to look at it and try to make it work as much as possible.

Oh well I just saw it's scrambled. Contact me if you're interested to make it work. We'll see how I can help.

Michaelv · 8 Jul 2012, 05:45

There is another thread about FEA and that mentions frame3dd at the end, just in case you missed it:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=24521&start=15#p413922

oyil · 8 Jul 2012, 06:01

@michaelv said:

There is another thread about FEA and that mentions frame3dd at the end, just in case you missed it:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=24521&start=15#p413922

yup missed that one. but its a request to include frame3dd with the spring mass model plugin.

oyil · 8 Jul 2012, 06:04

@michaelv said:

Awesome! That is all.
I have a feeling that it doesn't work yet on Macs. Since GNUplot and Frame 3DD do, I was going to look at it and try to make it work as much as possible.

Oh well I just saw it's scrambled. Contact me if you're interested to make it work. We'll see how I can help.

i guess we'd have to make frame3dd and gnuplot work with Macs first.
i, myself, am wishing for a sketchup on android. that would be a very good reason to get a galaxy tab 10.
BOOOOOOOM!

Michaelv · 8 Jul 2012, 17:22

@oyil said:

@michaelv said:

Awesome! That is all.
I have a feeling that it doesn't work yet on Macs. Since GNUplot and Frame 3DD do, I was going to look at it and try to make it work as much as possible.

Oh well I just saw it's scrambled. Contact me if you're interested to make it work. We'll see how I can help.

i guess we'd have to make frame3dd and gnuplot work with Macs first.
i, myself, am wishing for a sketchup on android. that would be a very good reason to get a galaxy tab 10.
BOOOOOOOM!

Frame 3dd and Gnuplot work on Mac already.

a4chitect · 9 Jul 2012, 07:19

this looks very promising - thanks for sharing

I would prefer seeing the result (even better - immediate feedback) directly in sketchup, like an old game called bridge builder - where you drew lines and could see their condition under pressure by changing their color from green to red. this could help in the initial 'sketchup' phase of designing structure

glro · 9 Jul 2012, 09:55

@a4chitect said:

this looks very promising - thanks for sharing

I would prefer seeing the result (even better - immediate feedback) directly in sketchup, like an old game called bridge builder - where you drew lines and could see their condition under pressure by changing their color from green to red. this could help in the initial 'sketchup' phase of designing structure

i agree

Sketchup can be a much better viewer than GNUplot; i have a structural analysis software, with post processing features, but for textile structures for example, the result is better when i import the nodes position (X Y Z) output from the structural analysis software, into sketchup, using "cloud_v8.rbs" and "TIG_points_cloud_triangulation.rb"

The result is much more realistic

Apart from that, congratulation to Oyil for this plugin ! it widens, even more if possible, sketchup potential applications

watkins · 9 Jul 2012, 21:00

Don't forget this:

and for SpaceClaim users:

Regards,
Bob

oyil · 10 Jul 2012, 09:26

@a4chitect said:

came across this> http://sketchstruct.drupalgardens.com/

input is sketchup simple would prefer seeing the results graphically, but this could be easily integrated in another plugin/ruby just to visualize the results

and moving the vertices along with loads would also be preferable for a quick optimization

yup. saw that. tried it. but its 2D. not what i need.
i am now trying to figure out how to make the icons for the toolbar buttons. how?

a4chitect · 10 Jul 2012, 11:21

came across this> http://sketchstruct.drupalgardens.com/

input is sketchup simple would prefer seeing the results graphically, but this could be easily integrated in another plugin/ruby just to visualize the results

and moving the vertices along with loads would also be preferable for a quick optimization

a hot-stitched plugin to visualize its results (just for playing)
(after running sketchstruct select all frame members (edges) and run plugin Visualize "Sstruct" from Plugins menu
colors: green is zero force, red is maximum positive force, blue is maximum negative force, black is "data missing"
F5-bigger size F6-smaller size

A4_visualize-sketchsstruct.rb

oyil · 10 Jul 2012, 13:37

@a4chitect said:

a hot-stitched plugin to visualize its results (just for playing)
(after running sketchstruct select all frame members (edges) and run plugin Visualize "Sstruct" from Plugins menu
colors: green is zero force, red is maximum positive force, blue is maximum negative force, black is "data missing"
F5-bigger size F6-smaller size

i tried it. but i think frame3dd can do more. thanks for the suggestions.

a4chitect · 11 Jul 2012, 07:48

of course, this is childs-play compared to frame3dd possibilities, I just wish for a quick force visualization integrated into sketchup - to be able to optimize design of structure and explore possibilities. ideally this should happen in real-time within sketchup

Loveday · 16 Sept 2014, 15:06

Dont know if this post is dead - oyil, I am trying to use your plugin for simple two dimensional truss analysis - run the plugin - Frame3dd starts processign then error message: "the number of load cases must be at least one". Any ideas of what may be wrong? I have created the geometery, applied material, set constraints and loads.

oyil · 29 Mar 2015, 03:38

@loveday said:

Dont know if this post is dead - oyil, I am trying to use your plugin for simple two dimensional truss analysis - run the plugin - Frame3dd starts processign then error message: "the number of load cases must be at least one". Any ideas of what may be wrong? I have created the geometery, applied material, set constraints and loads.

load case on 3dd iput file maybe missing or the entire data was not written to the temporary 3dd import file.

Johnwang · 15 Nov 2019, 12:27

Just found frame3dd. Will try this.