Packed beds of spheres are simple to describe in mathematical terms, yet they capture much of the underlying complexity found in disordered materials. They provide accurate models of real packed beds and are important prototype models for other more complex granular media. Non-spherical particles are more difficult to deal with mathematically, but are important for modeling certain types of real materials. In the past, we have used a collective rearrangement algorithm for packed beds of spheres. Recently, we have developed a more general algorithm that employs simulated annealing. It can be used for non-spherical particles and spatially correlated packings and has been tested for very large packings (over one million spheres). Additionally, it accommodates essentially arbitrary bounding geometries such as the cylindrical container shown above and the fracture shown on the fractured materials page.