A knowledge based assistance system for finite element analysis

In this paper, we present the development of an assistance system for finite element analysis. This software helps students, and also beginners from industry, to learn numerical simulation techniques based on the CAx-program CATIA V5. The software which was written in Python programming language, is interconnected to CATIA via the COM-interface. This program analyses the users activities to give hints, warnings, and error messages. The main goal is to avoid the most common errors during the beginners´ learning phases. In contradiction to conventional software wizards, this assistance system will not enforce a predefined sequence of solution steps. The user can interact freely with the finite element program. In case of problems, the learner can initiate an analysis cycle of the assistance software to get information and help. A web-browser is used to display the information which is created by the program.