What will you learn in this tutorial?

The goal of this tutorial is to familiarize you with the basics of the iMesh and iConc applets. After this tutorial which should take you about 50 minutes to solve, you will already be able to understand the basics of the Finite Element mesh generation process, and to calculate relatively complex structures. You will be able to use it independently to generate and calculate your own structures. If you are a Civil Engineer, this tutorial should be sufficient to help you start using iMesh and iConc to evaluate your own structural designs.

The aim of this tutorial is not to show you all the capacities of the two applets, neither to help you solve all potential problems that you may encounter. Rather, we encourage you to work it through as rapidly as possible. Should you encounter a problem at some point, the best solution is likely to just start over again, either from scratch or from an intermediate version that you may have saved already.

Should you encounter serious problems in following the instructions of this tutorial, you should then turn to the frequently asked questions page for the iMesh applet.

Before your start

Here are a couple points that you need to know before you start using this tutorial:

• The applets (iMesh and iConc) work on all kinds of computers, and do not require a very powerful machine, at least to run this tutorial. They have been successfully tested to run using the most current browsers available today. In the case of doubts, it may be better to use Firefox, which runs in a similar manner on the main computer platforms.

• Another difficulty, often encountered but not only with Macs, is that the applets need a three-button mouse to work properly. As the right mouse button is used for terminating input of lines, the applet hangs when you start using it without a right mouse button !

• The applets use the middle mouse button and roller to allow easy and transparent zooming. If you have a mouse with a roller as the middle button, you can at any time (even during the input of a line) use it to zoom in and out. Panning is also possible by pressing, holding and dragging the middle mouse button or roller. Not always easy to do with a roller, but it works!

• If at some point you want to delete an element you just created (node, are, etc.), first make sure that you terminate the current input, then activate the corresponding button (node, area, rebar, support, force, etc.) and press and release the left mouse button on the item that you want to select. It should now be displayed in another color. If needed, select several items (of the same category) while pressing the Ctrl key. Then press the button to delete all selected items.
  Note: when you delete a line, the nodes composing the lines are not deleted. You can choose to delete them also, but you an also leave them: if they are within your structure, there will be an actual node there, if they are outside, they will be ignored.

• An even quicker way to delete a node is to take the node that you want to remove and drag it another node. When both nodes are highlighted, releasing the mouse button will merge the two nodes, leaving the node onto which the other was dropped unchanged.