Category Archives: Strand7

Contour plots with Excel and Matplotlib

Contour plots are widely used for a great variety of purposes, but facilities for producing them in Excel are very limited, and those that are provided are very well hidden. In this post I will look at some simple examples … Continue reading

Posted in Arrays, Charts, Charts, Excel, Finite Element Analysis, Link to Python, NumPy and SciPy, PyXLL, Strand7, UDFs | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

ConbeamU update

I recently discovered that the continuous beam function from the ConbeamU spreadsheet was giving incorrect results for cantilevers at the left hand end, if the cantilever had more than one segment and no point loads. The corrected version (Rel 4.16) … Continue reading

Posted in Beam Bending, Excel, Finite Element Analysis, Frame Analysis, Newton, Strand7, UDFs, VBA | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

3D Frame Update

Following a comment here I have updated the code for the 3DFrame spreadsheet to calculate shear deflections correctly for sections with a different shear area for each transverse principal axis. The updated files can be downloaded from: 3DFrame.zip A note … Continue reading

Posted in Excel, Frame Analysis, Newton, Strand7, UDFs, VBA | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Using Excel with Python and ctypes

The Strand7 API provides an interface between the Strand7 Finite Element Analysis program and external software. It works with many different languages, including Python, which uses ctypes to transfer data to and from the API functions. It is essential that … Continue reading

Posted in Beam Bending, Excel, Link to dll, Link to Python, NumPy and SciPy, PyXLL, Strand7, UDFs | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dancing Pendulums Revisited

I have previously posted on Dynamically Defined Dancing Pendulums, using the Strand7 FEA program to generate the motion of a series of pendulums of varying length.  I have now updated that video using the latest Beta version of the program (Rel … Continue reading

Posted in Animation, Finite Element Analysis, Frame Analysis, Newton, Strand7 | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment