Simulation and Engineering Software

Physics Models

Imagine you built a simulator so that when you added weight to the climber, the ribbon dimensions got bigger. If a spreadsheet created calculations that boiled down to simple algebraic formulas, those could be put into a video game. If someone improves the spreadsheet, they can swap in a different algebraic constant.

Dynamics, basic principles relationships, materials properties,... Codebase_Analysis#Physics_Engines

We believe that ODE could be a good simulation engine for realtime, or non-realtime calculations. Here is an excellent summary document: http://keithcu.com/cgi-bin/hg.cgi?raw-file/073cec0e2635/docs/dynamics.pdf

Spreadsheets

Ribbon dimensions, performance trade-offs, overall interactions matrix.

3-D Design Files

We will use the Collada format which is open, XML, has 3-D and physics capabilities. Collada introduction: http://keithcu.com/cgi-bin/hg.cgi?raw-file/6bcb243bfc7d/docs/COLLADA.odp

Blender

A little hard to get into, but extremely powerful and it has some physics simulation capabilities built in and supports Collada. Complete tutorial: http://www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/lib/54223045235521/BlenderBasics2.42a.pdf

http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/tutorial-folder/blender-user-interface-tutorial/

http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/#c836

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro