Meep — The Complete Guide: Open-Source FDTD Electromagnetic Simulation for Photonics
Meep is an open FDTD package for electromagnetic simulation in Python: waveguides, resonators, photonic crystals and inverse design with an adjoint solver.
Guides and Articles
openEMS — The Complete Guide: Free FDTD Electromagnetic Simulation for Antennas and RF
openEMS is a 3D FDTD electromagnetic solver for antennas, RF filters and PCB structures. You build the model in an Octave, MATLAB or Python script.
Online 3D Viewer — The Complete Guide: Open STEP, IFC and STL in the Browser Without Uploading
Online 3D Viewer opens STEP, IGES, IFC, STL, OBJ and more in the browser; the file is processed on your computer, not uploaded. Open source, free, no install.
F3D — The Complete Guide: A Fast, Minimalist 3D Viewer for Free
F3D is a fast, minimalist open-source 3D viewer: STEP, STL, OBJ, glTF and PLY, plus model thumbnails in the file manager. When it is enough, and when it is not.
Klipper — The Complete Guide: Open Firmware for Faster, Cleaner 3D Printing
Klipper is open 3D-printer firmware that moves heavy computing to a small computer like a Raspberry Pi: input shaping and pressure advance for cleaner prints.
Autodesk Viewer — The Complete Guide: View DWG, RVT and STEP Files in the Browser for Free
Autodesk Viewer is a free service that opens 80+ formats in the browser — DWG, RVT, IPT, STEP and SOLIDWORKS — with measuring, markup and sharing links.
Dakota — The Complete Guide: Optimisation and Uncertainty Quantification Around Any Simulation Code
Sandia’s Dakota runs an existing model — FEA, CFD or any program — again and again for optimisation, parameter sweeps, calibration, sensitivity and uncertainty.
SageMath — The Complete Guide: An Open Mathematics System Instead of Mathematica and Maple
SageMath bundles dozens of open packages, including NumPy, SciPy and SymPy, in one Python interface: symbolic and numeric maths and plots. A Maple alternative.
Drake — The Complete Guide: Open-Source Robot Dynamics, Simulation and Control
Drake is an open C++ and Python toolbox for robot dynamics: multibody simulation with contact and friction, optimisation, trajectory planning and control.
AeroSandbox — The Complete Guide: Free Aircraft Design Optimisation in Python
AeroSandbox is an open-source Python library for aircraft design optimisation: aerodynamics, structures, propulsion and trajectory in one differentiable model.
BARAM — The Complete Guide: A Free Graphical Front-End for OpenFOAM
BARAM is an open-source CFD package that adds a graphical interface to OpenFOAM solvers: meshing, physics set-up, runs and results without dictionary files.
MoveIt 2 — The Complete Guide: Free Motion Planning for Robot Arms on ROS 2
MoveIt 2 is an open-source framework for robot arm motion planning on ROS 2: paths among obstacles, inverse kinematics, collision checking and grasping.