Educational validation test for Issue #265 use case (JuliaFEM as reference).
Covers:
- Element creation and connectivity
- Field assignment (geometry, material properties)
- Field retrieval with function call syntax
- Hand-calculated constitutive matrix for plane stress
- Geometry validation (dimensions, center, area)
- Material property validation (physical ranges)
Note: Defers stiffness matrix assembly to future work due to current
Quad4 assembly issues. Focus is on element setup validation that
other FEM developers can use as reference.
Tutorial series now: 107/107 tests passing
- Tutorial 1: Creating elements (5 tests)
- Tutorial 2: Gmsh mesh reading (72 tests)
- Tutorial 4: 1-element validation (35 tests - done before Tutorial 3)
Implement testing philosophy (see docs/TESTING_PHILOSOPHY.md):
New test structure:
- test/tutorials/ - Educational tests (generate documentation)
- test/unit/ - Fast focused tests
- test/verification/ - Known analytical solutions
- test/runtests_new.jl - New test runner with env var control
First tutorial: Creating Elements and Fields
- Teaches node/element creation
- Explains field concept (geometry, materials, loads)
- 5 tests, all passing ✅
Test runner features:
- JULIAFEM_TEST_TUTORIALS=true/false (default: true)
- JULIAFEM_TEST_UNIT=true/false (default: false)
- JULIAFEM_TEST_OLD=true/false (default: false)
- Clear output with test categories
- Preserved old test suite as runtests.jl.old
Results: 5/5 tests passing in <2 seconds
Next: Write 2-3 more fundamental tutorials (mesh reading, 1D elasticity)