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Original Post - 31 Oct 2025 - Michael H. Scott
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Over six years in and 430 posts down, the blog is moving along in various directions–perhaps orthogonal to previous directions, which is not a bad thing. But what are those previous directions?
To help answer that question, I compiled a list of the 30 most read posts over the blog’s lifetime. All but one of the top 30 were pressed in or before 2022. Apparently, I grabbed the low-hanging fruit early, and that fruit has had time to ferment into evergreen content.
While I participate in ZeroPoMo, your assignment is to follow the countdown and read one post a day this November.
30 - Failure to Solve
29 - Plastic Rotation
28 - Recorders Not Recording?
27 - Norms and Tolerance
26 - Force-Based Beam-Column Integration Options
25 - Eigenvalues of the Stiffness Matrix
24 - P-M Interaction by the Book
23 - Load Patterns and Time Series
22 - Trapezoidal Beam Loads
21 - The Basics of Frame Element Localization
20 - Rayleigh Damping Coefficients
19 - Hysteretic Pinching Parameters
18 - OpenSees Shells by the Seashore
17 - It’s Not Load Control
16 - Meshing for Column Loads
15 - Modal Participation Factors
14 - Right Under Your Nose
13 - How to Record Section Curvature
12 - A Marathon, Not a Sprint
11 - A Vector in the x-z Plane
10 - Handle Your Constraints with Care
9 - A Tale of Two Element Formulations
8 - Failed to Get Compatible …
7 - How to Cite OpenSees
6 - Verifying Ain’t Easy
5 - OpenSees Tcl to Python Converter
4 - Torsion with Fiber Sections
3 - How to Record Fiber Response
2 - Be Careful with Modal Damping
1 - Gimme All Your Damping, All Your Mass and Stiffness Too
I’m not surprised by any entry in the list as each post addresses a perennial pain point among OpenSees users.
Is there a post not on the list that solved an OpenSees problem for you? Let me know in the Comments section below. I’ll respond with the post’s ranking.
For example, if you comment “No CAPS When You Spell the Framework’s Name helped me remember how to capitalize OpenSees”, I’ll respond with “Awesome, that’s post number 93”.