Why not use unsupported rails?

[Jonathan]

Enjoying your stress analysis so far - good work there. I think people are finding the pretty colours more interesting than my old spreadsheet of numbers.

Thanks - I used that spreadsheet a lot to start with.

You mention the bed analysis - any plans for stress analysis on other areas of a cnc machine such as gantry sides?

Don't see why not. Although I'm not sure what to compare there? I could model different thicknesses of aluminium plate, but that wont tell us much more than your spreadsheet did. What would you suggest?