CalculiX
A Free Software Three-Dimensional Structural Finite Element Program
Authors:
Guido Dhondt (Finite Element Solver)
Klaus Wittig(Pre- and Postprocessor)
Version 2.0 of CalculiX is available!
Maximum principal stress in a paraglider (thanks to Thomas Ripplinger)
Notice: The authors acknowledge that naming conventions and input style formats
for CalculiX are based on those used by ABAQUS, a proprietary, general purpose
finite element code developed and supported by Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen, Inc (HKS)
(http://www.abaqus.com) and are used with kind permission from HKS. Results obtained
from CalculiX are in no way connected to ABAQUS.
For a reference describing the theory behind CalculiX CrunchiX the user is
referred to:
Dhondt, G. The Finite Element Method for Three-Dimensional Thermomechanical
Applications, Wiley, 2004.
Click here to get
Available downloads for the graphical interface (CalculiX GraphiX: cgx):
Available downloads for the solver (CalculiX CrunchiX: ccx):
If you compile the program from scratch using the source code, you will need the source code for the sparse linear equation solver (SPOOLES.2.2(serial version)) and the eigenvalue solver (ARPACK (serial version)) too.
rpm archives for Intel machines were generated by Manfred Spraul and can be downloaded at https://sourceforge.net/projects/calculix-rpm/files.
Available add-ons:
- a vda to fbd
converter. After exporting a CAD model in vda format (available in
most CAD codes), you can use this program to convert it in fbd format and read
it into cgx. This feature was coded by Johannes Barner. Many thanks!
- a acis to fbd
converter. After exporting a CAD model in acis format (available in
autoCAD), you can use this program to convert it in fbd format and read
it into cgx. Splines and nurbs are not covered yet. This feature was coded by Roland Felde. Many thanks!
A mailing list with name "calculix" has been setup. That way you can share problems and experiences with other CalculiX users.
For some essential parts of a finite element program such as mathematical solvers, very good source code has been written by people devoting their whole life to it. Therefore, we are especially grateful to those who agreed to have their code included or referred to, specifically (in alphabetical order of the first author):
- C.C. Ashcraft, R.G. Grimes, D.J. Pierce and D.K. Wah for the SPOOLES sparse matrix solver.
- J. Barner for the vda2fbd converter.
- J. Baylor for the Windows executable of cgx and ccx, starting from Version 1.5.
- M. De Marchi for the Windows executable of ccx, Version 1.2.
- R. Felde for the acis2fbd converter.
- Reinhold Fisher for the contact implementation in modal dynamics calculations.
- Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen, Inc. for allowing us to use the ABAQUS input format.
- R.B. Lehoucq, D.C. Sorensen and C. Yang for the ARPACK eigenvalue solver.
- S. Merz for the implementation of the Zienkiewicz-Zhu error estimator.
- K. Mottl for implementing multistage MPC's.
- Y. Muller for the implementation of aerodynamic networks.
- A. Philipp for the external face extraction within an existing mesh (cgx).
- E. Rank and M. Ruecker for the C-version of the iterative solver.
- D. Rossi for the Windows executable of ccx, Version 1.1.
- M. Spraul for generating the rmp archives, enhancements in the
numcheck.awk script and the multithreading capability.
- S.W. Sloan for the profile reduction algorithms.
- Xinan Zhou for supporting me with the wedge element implementation.
The use of Transactions of Mathematical Software (TOMS) routines 347 (dsort)
and 584 (cubtri) is gratefully acknowledged.
Appropriate references have been included in the User's Manual.
Material data can be found at www.matweb.com.
Finally, the authors would like to thank MTU Aero Engines for the allowance to publish this work.
Von Mises stress in a turbine segment
If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you would like to contribute to this project, please contact us!
Email: dhondt@t-online.de
(CalculiX CrunchiX), klaus.h.wittig@t-online.de (CalculiX graphix) and johannes.barner@web.de (vda
to fbd converter)
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