FEM Preferences

The preferences screen of the FEM Workbench are found in the Preferences Editor, Edit → Preferences → FEM.

There are several tabs in the FEM workbench preferences, starting with the General configuration of the workbench. The rest of the tabs control how FEM interacts with supported external solvers.

The current supported external solvers are:

• CalculiX
• Gmsh
• Z88
• Elmer

General

CalculiX

Gmsh

Z88

Elmer

FEM

• FEM Analysis

• Materials: Solid, Fluid, Nonlinear mechanical; Material editor

• Element geometry: Beam (1D), Beam rotation (1D), Shell (2D), Fluid flow (1D)

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Constraints

• Electrostatic: Potential

• Fluid: Initial velocity, Fluid boundary, Flow velocity

• Mechanical: Fixed, Displacement, Plane rotation, Contact, Transform, Force, Pressure, Self weight, Bearing, Gear, Pulley

• Thermal: Initial temperature, Heat flux, Temperature, Heat source

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• Mesh: Mesh Netgen, Mesh GMSH, Mesh boundary layer, Mesh region, Mesh group, Nodes set, Mesh to mesh

• Solve: Calculix tools, CalculiX, Elmer, Z88; Equations: Heat, Elasticity, Electrostatic, Flux, Flow; Solver: Solver control, Solver run

• Results: Purge, Show; Postprocessing: Apply changes, Pipeline from result, Warp filter, Scalar clip filter, Function cut filter, Region clip filter, Line clip filter, Stress linearization plot, Data at point clip filter, Create functions

• Utilities: Clipping plane, Remove clipping planes; Mesh clear, Mesh display info

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• Additional: Preferences; FEM Install, FEM Mesh, FEM Solver, FEM CalculiX, FEM Concrete; FEM Element Types

User documentation

• Getting started
• Installation: Download, Windows, Linux, Mac, Additional components, Docker, AppImage, Ubuntu Snap
• Basics: About FreeCAD, Interface, Mouse navigation, Selection methods, Object name, Preferences, Workbenches, Document structure, Properties, Help FreeCAD, Donate

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• Help: Tutorials, Video tutorials
• Workbenches: Std Base, Arch, Draft, FEM, Image, Inspection, Mesh, OpenSCAD, Part, PartDesign, Path, Points, Raytracing, Reverse Engineering, Sketcher, Spreadsheet, Start, Surface, TechDraw, Test Framework, Web
• Deprecated or unmaintained workbenches: Complete, Drawing, Robot

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• Addons: Addon Manager, External workbenches, Scripting and macros

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• Hubs: User hub, Power users hub, Developer hub