Object-oriented Programming Applied to the Development of Structural Analysis and Optimization Software

this paper presents the development of a two-dimensional interactive software environment for structural analysis and optimization based on object-oriented programming using the c++ language. the main feature of the software is the effective integration of several computational tools into graphical user interfaces implemented in the windows-98 and windows-nt operating systems. the interfaces simplify data specification in the simulation and optimization of two-dimensional linear elastic problems. nurbs have been used in the software modules to represent geometric and graphical data. extensions to the analysis of three-dimensional problems have been implemented and are also discussed in this paper.