An interactive user interface for a structural analysis software using computer graphics techniques in MATLAB

This paper presents an interactive graphics tool for the structural analysis of one-dimensional element models, such as trusses, frames, and grillages. The focus is on the creation of a graphical user interface for a previously developed analysis solver. This graphical interface is entirely implemented in the MATLAB environment and features intuitive resources so that modeling and verification of results become easy tasks for students and engineers. The management of mouse events and the adopted solutions to basic computer graphics issues that arise from interactive modeling in two-dimensional and three-dimensional canvases are discussed, including the strategies to pick objects in spatial coordinates and to identify crossing elements. The result is a new educational software that proved to be a very useful application in structural analysis and introductory computer graphics courses for engineering. The article also presents examples of using the software as an educational tool.