Tensile Structure design

Support Modeling
1

Hi everyone,
I have a question that bother me a long time: are there a way to design tensile structure inside blender?
I mean design that we can simulate the tension force, not the way modeling with polygon, nurbs, etc.
This video will give you a better view to what i’m asking cause my english is suck.

If someone can develop a plugin like that would be great.
Thank for reading.

2

Blender is using Bullet physic engine, based on DMM engine ( Digital Molecular Matter ). So technically it should possible.

DMM was designed first for engineering construction then pushed to gaming ( Earthquake, resistance etc ) based on a molecular simulation level of the matter. ( based on real molecular interaction )… instead of common physic engine who use kinematics, it is based on the FEM method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_element_method

Strange is the wiki dont speak AMD; BUllet initiative http://techreport.com/news/17680/amd-pixelux-join-forces-on-opencl-game-physics

3

there is the soft cloth sim that can do something like that !

did you test it ?

happy bl

4

Thanks for your reply.
The fact is that the soft cloth sim as its name is good for clothes, fabric simulation. It’s hard to reproduce the tension force across the membrane.
If you find some videos relate to this , can you post here?
Thank again.

5

Thank for your reply.
It’s very technical matter, that why i wish somebody can make a plugin to do it easily

6

it is more like a fake sim
but if you set a few pinned points it should reproduce more or less the roof’s shapes
I think

I don’t see anything else closer to that in blender
otherwise would need a more elaborate algo using 3D catenary I guess!

if you have an algo to do it in 3D might be possible to make a script out of it
but don’t think it is an easy task

thanks
happy bl

7

Oh i don’t know a single code line, that why i asked for help here.
IMO, basically blender is a tool to create art from the beginning. It would be very interested if someone can push it to be more like a design tool as well, so blender be able to solve the real life problem, to make better decision.