Computer-implemented generation of an analytical model of a structure

A computer system for generating an analytical model of a structure, the computer system having a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

• obtaining automatically or via user input a computer-aided design model representing a structure and comprising a plurality of physical elements;
• automatically generating based on the computer-aided design model an analytical model comprising analytical elements and analytical nodes, comprising the steps of:
• generating for each of multiple physical elements an analytical element comprising an initial spatial configuration;
• generating one or more connection nodes each associated with two or more analytical elements and comprising an initial spatial configuration, wherein at least one analytical element associated with a connection node is not tangent to the connection node;
• computing simultaneously new spatial configurations for all analytical elements and all connection nodes via optimization of a cost function based on the spatial configurations of the analytical elements and connection nodes to make analytical elements associated with a connection node tangent to said connection node, wherein said cost function is based on relative distances between connection nodes and associated analytical elements, and wherein said optimization is a constrained optimization based on spatial constraints for one, multiple or all of the spatial configurations;
• automatically displaying to a user via a graphical user interface a representation of the analytical model.

A computer program product for generating an analytical model of a structure, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions which, when the computer program product is executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the steps of:

• obtaining automatically or via user input a computer-aided design model representing a structure and comprising a plurality of physical elements;
• automatically generating based on the computer-aided design model an analytical model comprising analytical elements and analytical nodes, comprising the steps of:
• generating for each of multiple physical elements an analytical element comprising an initial spatial configuration;
• generating one or more connection nodes each associated with two or more analytical elements and comprising an initial spatial configuration, wherein at least one analytical element associated with a connection node is not tangent to the connection node;
• computing simultaneously new spatial configurations for all analytical elements and all connection nodes via optimization of a cost function based on the spatial configurations of the analytical elements and connection nodes to make analytical elements associated with a connection node tangent to said connection node, wherein said cost function is based on relative distances between connection nodes and associated analytical elements, and wherein said optimization is a constrained optimization based on spatial constraints for one, multiple or all of the spatial configurations;
• automatically displaying to a user via a graphical user interface a representation of the analytical model.