Structural Design Using Interactive Graphics

Abstract

Full use of the computer’s capacity to store large quantities of information and process it according to the user’s instructions cannot be made by the designer until means of communication exist which enable him to both address the computer and obtain a reply rapidly and in terms which are natural and convenient to him. The prospect of a major advance on this front is offered by the graphical display unit linked to a time-sharing computer installation. An investigation of the potentialities of such an arrangement in the field of structural design has been undertaken by a group within the Department of Engineering at Leicester University with the support of the Science Research Council. One outcome of this work has been the system of programs called LUISA¹ the object of which is to provide the user, operating at an interactive graphics terminal, with the means he requires to design a structure. The finite element method forms the basis of the analysis routines used in LUISA.