# Best workflow for beginners

**URL:** <https://calculix.discourse.group/t/best-workflow-for-beginners/2060>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [February 4, 2024, 12:42am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/best-workflow-for-beginners/2060 "2024-02-04T00:42:27Z")\
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**Author:** ![Disla](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/calculix.discourse.group/disla/32/3548_2.png) [@Disla](https://calculix.discourse.group/u/Disla)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 7:27am UTC](https://calculix.discourse.group/t/best-workflow-for-beginners/2060/29 "2024-02-07T07:27:48Z")

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Agree with Sergio.

Less is more. Simplify or this can be overwhelming.

Software

Any of these two options is excellent.

[https://mecway.com/download/](https://mecway.com/download/)  
[https://prepomax.fs.um.si/downloads/](https://prepomax.fs.um.si/downloads/)

Mecway is probably more consolidated, but Prepomax is under strong development and free.  
Any of their Forum is an unvaluable help.

Books.

> **[FEA Academy - Book Store](https://www.fea-academy.com/index.php/ebook-store)**
>
> FEA Academy - Book Store

Ccx manual .

To start, just look at the final inp that your Prepomax or Mecway generate. You will get a flavor of how the inp is build and the syntax. When progressing you will need the manual for more advanced settings.

[http://www.dhondt.de/ccx\_2.21.pdf](http://www.dhondt.de/ccx_2.21.pdf)

Tutorials with the Step file. Excellent starting point.

> **[FEAnalyst](https://www.youtube.com/@FEAnalyst)**
>
> I'm a FEA analyst, using finite element method for both work and research but also as a hobby. I'm a big fan of open-source software and on this channel, I would like to show you how to use the best open-source FEA tools.

Step files Collection for practice. FeAnalyst also provide the step files of its examples.  
You can also try some of the McMaster huge step collection.

> **[McMaster-Carr](https://www.mcmaster.com/)**
>
> McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

Start modeling solids. Even many books and examples are with shells, they require more advanced setups.No need at this moment of Netgen, Gmesh, FreeCad, Salome,….  
No more no less. Just with these few tools you can start modeling in one hour.  
Forget about compiling the software, meshing techniques, 3D modeling, different solvers, file converters…  
All that will come out progressively. Take my advice. It’s a big mistake to try to tackle it all at once and you will only get demotivated. Simplify to the very basics so you can focus on the engineering problem and reading the results.

If you can’t solve one tutorial with those simple tools, search for another tutorial where the step is provided.

Enjoy!!!

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