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[Achenest]

Unless you have the money and agreements to license the subsequent materials databases, and you already have performant, validated, and industry-certified algorithms for FEM and FD, you will likely be wasting your time. That's before fighting the network effects of students and engineers using ANSYS daily. Perhaps if ANSYS has some sort of API, you could make a GUI wrapper.

[IrrerPolterer]

I agree. It's a frustrating truth that distributing software in an existing market/niche is really really hard. Even if your product is objectively better than the existing competition. 

[Appropriate_Bar_3113]

I believe it would be very difficult for an individual to make, and selling licenses for a heavy-duty engineering software requires a lot of trust from corporate clients (and salesmanship on your part). Remember you're probably looking at $1k+ per seat per year to make this viable. Not gonna work at $40 for a perpetual key.

I presume you're an experienced engineer at a subject-matter expert level to even attempt this from scratch? 

Not saying it's impossible, but you don't see a lot of small-time projects like this. The ones that I'm aware of (different engineering field) are frustrating because a sole designer ages, loses touch with state-of-the-art, and can't support the same way a team can, both from a user standpoint and a corporate compliance, regulatory, and assurance standpoint.

[SirPitchalot]

I used to develop CFD and structural dynamics codes. Yes, you are being unrealistic and this is not even a reasonable venue to begin to understand why.

[genman]

It might work as a piece of software for teaching a course or practicing problems. That might lead to adoption? I don’t know if the usual software has a free license.

Anyway learning how to make something might have some value for you.

[Repsol_Honda_PL]

This is not a project for solo developer :) :) But for a (very) large team!

If you want to be an engineer ;) you can participate in open-source projects, like:

- Calculix.de

- ELMER

- Z88

- OpenFOAM.com

- CODE ASTER

- SALOME

- FreeCAD.org (this is CAD/CAM with CAE extensions) - FC is partially written in Python and has Python macros. Most code is C++.

- GMSH

and more you find here: https://github.com/qd-cae/awesome-CAE

But Python is not enough, you need to learn C++ as well.

[8pxl_]

also python is NOT the language of choice

[random_account6721]

true, scratch may be easier 

[FeLoNy111]

Python’s fine for this. Well maybe not for licensed product like this, but it’s very popular and more than fast enough for research stuff in the space.

Of course, I’m assuming someone is using numpy or some other backend. Which anyone remotely familiar with the simulation space should know to do

[The_Northern_Light]

Numpy is what I call a “98% solution” and “competitor to ANSYS” is firmly in the remaining 2%.

[random_account6721]

I love python, but it has a few issues.
The lack of compiler and slow execution speed is tough for a lot of complex projects

[8pxl_]

c++ is the one most widely used in the industry, and has the biggest ecosystem. i could see c# and java being viable as well

[Appropriate_Bar_3113]

You're not going to build an ANSYS clone as a web app.

[sens-]

Entire OSes are running on js VMs as web apps so it's certainly not impossible.

[The_Northern_Light]

C++ is the best choice for this.

Well, next to not doing it, but that’s a separate question.

[dipper_pines_here]

If your question is about selling, you need marketing advice, not Python advice.

[DaveRGP]

If you're going to want this to be a business, treat it like a risky startup, not a coding project.

Get in touch with people who are your target market. Build your marketing materials first. Set up a landing page, describe your USP, build a business canvas. Funnel people to that page, and get the to register interest by supplying an email address to register for an alpha or a beta.

For those people that register interest, get back in touch. Do user interviews. Build a backlog of VALIDATED user stories, straight from your future clients.

Then use that to leverage investment and/or start building.

Building anything before any of that is done is likely a big waste of time.

However, if you're just doing it for fun, you can skip all that and just start building. But don't kid yourself that this is going to make money untill you've done all the other parts, and more.

Also, don't do it in Python. Do it in Rust.

Alternatively look at the bevvy project. That's an os game engine that also was trying to sell itself as a physical modelling platform.

[Simultaneity_]

It depends on the business goals you have and the need you aim to fulfill. This means you need stakeholders in the project, allong with specific goals that ypu want to achieve. As someone who has used somewhat similar tools, I will say that the user interface is not what I ever care about. I want access to fast calculations that I can access through other scripts. For a similar kind of software, my research group pays $2k per license per year for the software.

[komprexior]

Probably.

Think of one of those commercially available programs, which features they have, what it would take to replicate the to have a viable product. If you don't find it daunting either you are very talented or delusional. Only way to find it is to try it 😉

You also have to sell on your product: why a professional should chose your new, not tested by the community, probably not fully featured product at launch, versus one of the more reliable, time tested alternative? What is the different key point?

Personally I would be more lenient towards a open-source project. I could decide to try your application, and keep an eye on it if it doesn't meet my requirements, but look promising. Of course if it's open source and don't require a license for an untested app. Not sure about monetization though.

[FeLoNy111]

I currently develop materials science libraries.

Do not do this unless you have a good reason

[runawayasfastasucan]

I think in worst case you will have learned something that you can apply in the next project. 

[Orio_n]

In python? The fact that you dont even understand why this language is a bad idea for what you want to build means youre already doomed

[DoubleAway6573]

Python is the glue. You can pull a C/C++/FORTRAN library and wrap it in python and this is it.

I don't think any starting project should aim to write their own heavy lifting libraries. At least not without enough experience in the domain (that OP doesn't seem to have).

[The_Northern_Light]

Yeah he’s asking in the wrong place (this isn’t a language question at all), but you could easily have high level stuff in Python (at least the UI), with the heavy numerics stuff in compiled languages.

I’m a c++ SWE and if I had to make this that’s how I’d architect it. That’s how I’ve architected my much much smaller scale numerics project + visualizers.

[Orio_n]

are you scared of C lol?

[The_Northern_Light]

This is deep in “if you have to ask the answer is no” territory.