Nepenthes

Scan-and-Solve for Rhino

Scan-and-Solve is a plug-in for Rhino which ‘completely automates basic structural simulation of Rhino solids. Unlike other analysis tools, no preprocessing (meshing, simplification, healing, translating, etc.) is needed.’ See http://www.scan-and-solve.com/ for additional information, tutorials and discussions or you can also find it through the www.food4rhino.com downloads list.

Attached are my initial explorations in the student license of the software to analyse a block for use in a reciprocal grid structure. As the images show, the software is very simple to use, simply choose a solid; a material from the drop down list; select the faces to act as restraints and then the loads to apply. View the results as a colour gradient showing displacement values or danger levels within the solid. The software also allows you to visualise the deformation. Unfortunately, you cannot perform analysis on multiple solids within a system currently and the student license is limited to a solid of 50 faces or less.