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[en] (1) Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has become a common method when studying fossils. As computer systems and tools advance, new software like Fossils is developed to make FE analyses more efficient. (2) However, the preparation of input data for analysis remains time-consuming. In particular, surface mesh cleaning and the selection of groups of nodes for the boundary conditions (muscle forces and prescribed displacements) usually require graphical programs that are either not well adapted to this task or require an expensive license. (3) To address this, we introduce BFEX (Blender Finite Element eXporter), a Blender add-on that simplifies model creation for FEA with Fossils. (4) This approach helps streamline the entire process, making it more user-friendly.

Disciplines :

Earth sciences & physical geography
Zoology
Life sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Environmental sciences & ecology
Anatomy (cytology, histology, embryology...) & physiology
Mechanical engineering

Author, co-author :

Díaz de León-Muñoz, E Miguel ; Fachbereich Geowissenschaften University of Tübingen Tubingen Germany

Boman, Romain ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'aérospatiale et mécanique

Ferreira, Gabriel S; Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment Tubingen Germany

Language :

English

Title :

BFEX: A Toolbox for Finite Element Analysis With Fossils and Blender.

Publication date :

March 2025

Journal title :

Ecology and Evolution

eISSN :

2045-7758

Publisher :

Wiley, Oxford, Gb

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

e71093

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Name of the research project :

Doctoral Programmes in Germany (91862888)

Funders :

DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst

Funding text :

Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) ResearchGrants; Project DEAL

Data Set :

Add-on source code on Zenodo

frozen version related to this article

Add-on source code on GitLab

latest version

Fossils

current source code and executable of the FE solver

Available on ORBi :

since 12 March 2025

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Bibliography

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