The Lab
Engineering tools, tested in the open
The Lab is where Queensferry builds software for engineering work, and releases it while it is still being worked on. Each tool states what it does, what has been checked against a known answer, what has not, and what it should not be used for — so you can judge how far to trust it before you use it, rather than afterwards.
You can run your own models through it and say where it is wrong or awkward. That is what the Lab is for.
What it is for
Software that shows its reasoning
Analysis software answers the question it was actually asked, which is rarely the one on the drawing. By the time a number reaches a design, the assumptions behind it are several layers below the interface and usually undocumented.
Keep the model and the reasoning together
A result is only as good as the idealisation behind it. The tools here keep the physical model, the analytical model and the answer in one place, so a number can be traced back to the decision that produced it.
Say what has been checked
Every tool records what it has been verified against and what it has not, on its own page rather than in release notes. An unchecked capability is listed as unchecked instead of being left for you to discover.
Release early enough to be useful
Tools are published while they are still being built, because feedback on a finished thing arrives too late to change it. What you get in return is honesty about the state it is in.
Make feedback worth giving
Testing needs an account so a report can be tied to the version you ran and followed up with you. Problems and suggestions go to the Forum, in the same discussion system as everything else — there is no separate tracker to learn.
Geometry, supports and the applied load.
The same frame as geometry, as the elements and freedoms a solver is given, and as the deflected shape it returns. The third is a real solve, using the plane-frame solver the Computational Engineering course is built on.
The tool
ATLAS
1 open for testing · 1 in the Lab
Structural analysis & learning environment
Structural analysis without hiding the engineering.
A structural analysis environment that keeps the model, the analysis and the reasoning in one place, so the numbers can be traced back to the decisions behind them.
The workflow, end to end: Model → Idealise → Load → Analyse → Review → Understand
Checked so far
- Linear static frame and shell analysis against hand calculations and worked benchmarks
- Cross-validation of results between two independent solver paths on the test suite
Not checked
- General-purpose dynamic and nonlinear workflows beyond the current benchmark set
- Use outside the scope covered by the test suite
ATLAS is a learning and analysis environment, not a design-code package. It is not validated for every engineering use and must not be relied on for safety-critical decisions.
ATLAS is the only tool in the Lab. Others have been scoped but not started, and are not listed here. Nothing in the Lab is a design-code package or a substitute for competent engineering judgement and independent checking.
Taking part
Testing and feedback
Testing needs an account so feedback can be tied to a version of a tool and followed up. Problems, questions and suggestions go to the Forum, in the same discussion system as everything else — there is no separate tracker to learn.
Register to join structured testing. Testers get a defined set of models to run and a simple route to report what does and does not behave as expected.
- 01Register and sign in
- 02Pick a tool that is open for testing
- 03Run the scope it defines
- 04Report what did and did not behave as expected