I am often reminded that what seems basic to me is not so obvious to others who use OpenSees. For example, the wipe command. What it does--and what it does not do--can be confusing. The wipe command clears out the entire OpenSees model domain (nodes, elements, materials, loads, etc.) and analysis options (algorithm, system, etc.). … Continue reading Wipe Out!
Tag: Python
Recorders Not Recording?
Python is one of the best things to happen with OpenSees. Unfortunately, the break from Tcl has not been squeaky clean. A very sticky transition point has been element recorders. When we wrote the internal setResponse functions to identify which element, section, material, or fiber response to record, we put C-style int argc, char **argv … Continue reading Recorders Not Recording?
Gimme All Your Damping, All Your Mass and Stiffness Too
Just because OpenSees is open source does not mean it is a fully transparent box. This is mostly because documentation has lagged behind development. So, pessimists would say the box is semi-opaque while optimists would characterize it as semi-transparent. But a few parts of OpenSees are definitely housed in an opaque box. Take, for instance, … Continue reading Gimme All Your Damping, All Your Mass and Stiffness Too
OpenSees Twitter Bot
Twitter fascinates me. Not only because it's a platform where many academics disseminate the latest additions to their CVs, but also because it has an Application Programming Interface (API) through which you can automate all kinds of cool stuff. One cool thing I've come across is bots that automatically retweet and/or favorite tweets that contain … Continue reading OpenSees Twitter Bot
Just Another Python Module
When OpenSees got off the ground, many finite element analysis software packages relied on fixed format input. So, it was important to integrate OpenSees with a fully functional scripting language to give users flexibility in creating applications without requiring users to write and compile C++ main() functions. I don't remember all the factors that went … Continue reading Just Another Python Module
