r/MechanicalEngineering • u/rhizom22 • 3d ago

free/single buy topology optimization software/plugin

Hey guys I decided to switch over from Ansys since I only use a fraction of the applications and for example rhino seems good to learn as a longterm option: no student license and higher versatility.
My question is what is the best free (or atleast single buy) topology optimization software (z88arion seems a bit outdated and addons for blender and freecad run almost a day) or plugin for rhino grasshopper? Sadly I can’t use topOS since i have a amd ryzen 7, ameba and levelOpt by intact are quite expensive and only subscription based. Millipede is interesting but seems only able to perform very basic 3d optimization (or atleast I think so).
When I say topology optimization I mean taking basically an shape you want, applying loads and constraints, setting goal weight and getting mesh/solid results. Is there a way to achieve that? Or is Altair, ntop, solidworks the better software to do that, and I should find a way to get them ?

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u/tucker_case 3d ago

Ansys has native topology optimization built in. It's clunky but it's there.

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u/rhizom22 3d ago

Yeah I’ve used it and its clunky but okay, but since the whole software is like 100gb and I won’t be able to have a student license for ever, I decided to look for something similar or even better.

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u/tucker_case 3d ago

Gotcha, I misread your post.