As newcomer to your forum I was wondering if anyone knows of a "simple" plate design software. I have a regular need to check deflections and stresses in RECTANGLUAR glass plates under various edge support and load conditions. I currently use a spreadsheet but its a bit long-winded !

The software should be able to accept input for:

WIDTH (mm) HEIGHT (mm) and PLATE THICKNESS (mm) MODULUS OF ELASTICITY, POISSONS RATIO, UDL (Kn/sq.m), POINT LOAD (N) and LINE LOAD (Kn/m).

The edge conditions would be two edge supprted OR 4 edge supportes. The information required would be maximum deflection and the Bending Stress.

I did find some software once that did do the above, but following a hard disk failure and subsequent internet searches I cna only seem to fine very complex software that provides design info for wall, circular plates and mulitnode FEM programs (I only really need 4 nodes for a rectangle or is it 8 for thick plates ?)

Any help in tracking this down would be greatly appreciated

Lee A Roth