u/tyson-9

Hey r/hardware,

Quick background: I'm an ME with CAE industry experience building tools for hardware startups that can't afford simulation engineers.

Built a tool that takes a STEP file and tells you whether your part will break — automatically.

One command → 4 seconds → stress result + safety factor + plain English explanation.

Demo: Demo video

Example output:

"Your bracket handles 200N with a safety factor of 8.6. Stress concentrates at the fillet junction — no design changes needed for this load case."

Looking for hardware founders with real parts to test this on. Free. I want to know where it breaks on real geometry. What's the most annoying part of your current validation workflow?

I am trying to make a web app for the same, as a stand alone agentic structural engineer. Please reach out to me.

Hey r/fea,

I've been building an automated FEA pipeline for hardware founders who don't have simulation expertise.

Here's what it does:

- Takes a STEP file as input

- Auto-meshes with Gmsh (tetrahedral, quality-optimized)

- Solves linear elasticity with FEniCSx

- Returns von Mises stress, safety factor, and a plain English

interpretation

Stack: Python, Gmsh, FEniCSx, Groq API

Runtime: ~4 seconds on a simple bracket

Currently looking for hardware engineers or founders with real STEP files to test this on. Free beta — I just want feedback on where it breaks.

Trying it to make a complete agentic structural engineer.

Happy to answer technical questions about the pipeline.

What failure modes do you think I'll hit on real industrial geometry?

Here's the demo video. Please reach out to me!

Demo video

Built a free structural analysis tool for hardware founders — no CAE engineer needed

I built a free tool that does structural FEA automatically from a STEP file to engineering insights, looking for beta testers and design partners