The objective of this work is to develop and test a new data structure, which takes advantage of the latest programming technology to build interactive structural engineering modeling software that is robust, efficient, portable, modular, expandable, and easy to use. The data structure proposed is composed of a collection of matrices that describe both the geometrical properties and the topological adjacency information of the structural model, as well as the section, material, loading, and fixity attributes of the structural elements. This data structure is dubbed the Adjacency Matrix Data Structure (AMDS). There are eight matrices in the AMDS, each capturing the details of one type of structural entity or attribute: Vertex, Edge, Face, Group, Section, Material, Load, and Fixity. The design of the AMDS allows it to excel in terms of efficiency and speed when used in a matrix-based programming environment, such as MATLAB. The final outcome called “BASYS-MTB” is a structural modeling and visualization MATLAB Toolbox that is a demonstration implementation of the AMDS as the underlying data structure. The toolbox, which can serve as a preprocessor, solver, and postprocessor, employs the object-oriented programming capabilities in MATLAB to create and manipulate numerical and graphical objects. This system offers engineers and researchers with limited programming expertise a structural modeler that can be easily customized to their requirements using their existing knowledge in MATLAB.

这项工作的目的是开发和测试新的数据结构，该数据结构利用最新的编程技术来构建交互式结构工程建模软件，该软件健壮，高效，可移植，模块化，可扩展且易于使用。所提出的数据结构由描述结构模型的几何特性和拓扑邻接信息以及结构元素的截面，材料，载荷和固定性属性的矩阵集合组成。该数据结构称为邻接矩阵数据结构（AMDS）。AMDS中有八个矩阵，每个矩阵都捕获一种类型的结构实体或属性的详细信息：顶点，边，面，组，截面，材料，载荷和固定性。当在基于矩阵的编程环境（例如MATLAB）中使用AMDS时，AMDS的设计使其在效率和速度方面都出类拔萃。最终结果称为“BASYS-MTB是一种结构建模和可视化MATLAB Toolbox，它是AMDS作为基础数据结构的演示实现。该工具箱可用作预处理器，求解器和后处理器，它利用MATLAB中的面向对象编程功能来创建和操纵数字和图形对象。该系统为具有有限编程专业知识的工程师和研究人员提供了一种结构建模器，可以利用他们在MATLAB中的现有知识轻松地对其进行定制。