Working Model
| Developer(s) | Design Simulation Technologies, Inc. |
|---|---|
| License | proprietary |
| Website |
www |
Working Model is an engineering simulation software product by Design Simulation Technologies, Inc.. Virtual mechanical components, such as springs, ropes, and motors are combined with objects in a 2D working space. After the software is run, the program will simulate the interaction of the model's parts and can also graph the movement and force on any element in the project. It is useful for basic physics simulations, and can be quite a powerful dynamic geometric analytical tool, once you learn it. One drawback is the pulley simulation feature is limited to the 'string through a hole' type. WM has a sister program Called Interactive Physics the fundamental difference between the two seems to be WM will read .dxf files which can be converted to 'objects' inside WM.
WM was originally introduced in the early 1990s as a boxed software product from Knowledge Revolution in San Francisco, for Macintosh. Knowledge Revolution was acquired by MSC Software in Santa Ana, CA, and WM than resold to Design Simulation Technologies, Inc. of Canton, Michigan.
WM has a retail price of ~US$2,500, but a free evaluation 'demo' version, which will import .dxf, but has 'save' disabled, is at http://workingmodel.com/WM2D/demo.php
Similar, but not as analytical, 2D physics sandbox simulators are: Physion(free), and Phun.