Actually, I forgot to mention that, as far as structural mechanics go, I don't mind full discretisation of each/all member(s), since their geometry is fully defined and everything else is (relatively) non-load bearing. But when it comes to fluid mechanics, I prefer boundary element discretisation over full spatial discretisation simply because they take less time and, should the structure deform due to the fluid dynamic loads, the changes to the boundary elements would be far fewer than the changes to discretised space, hence taking less time...
So, here is an example of an equation which I would love to solve using the boundary element method (BEM). Equations like this one serve as proof that we engineers are mathematically inapt, since we rely so heavily on (not necesserally the best) tools. This is why I'm looking for advanced mathematical tex books, or to study mathematics before pursuing further post-grad engineering.
Read it and weep.