Hi Irving,

Looks like i have either a long development schedule ahead or build a monster :)

As for FAE tools.

I dont know much about any possible open source software but i use Cosmos in Solidowrks quite regularly.

Its pretty good for tension, stress, deformation and heat dispersion but to expect anything less than 80% accuracy would be optimistic.

The other issue is th epower needed to run such software. A simple heat transfer model on a heatsink will take a machine with 2GHz processor and 4Gb RAm approx 5 minutes. Doesnt sound much but add a few other parts and it raises that time quite a bit.

As for my dilema. I may scale the JoeCNC to suit what i need frame wise. I dont like the idea of an MDF frame for anything other than maybe a small scale wood router. Aluminium or at a push HDPE or similar frame will do for what i am after.