SOLIDWORKS Simulation has been around for years, tracing its roots back to 1982 and the Structural Research and Analysis Corporation (SRAC). SOLIDWORKS Simulation used to be called COSMOSWorks, and since its early days, the Finite Element Analysis program has strived to be powerful, accurate, and EASY to use.
In theory, saving and loading SOLIDWORKS Simulation results to a network location is possible and, if it works, can make life easier for the person running a Simulation analysis. The problem is that conditions have to be just right for it to work properly. The network has to be very fast, the result files must be small, the network's anti-virus cannot block the simulation data as it is created and transferred onto the network.
A little-known but powerful tool in SOLIDWORKS Simulation is the Compare Results Tool. In recent years it has been updated and is a powerful way to visually compare simulation results between simulation studies not only in one SOLIDWORKS configuration but multiple configurations. There is an upper limit of four studies that can be seen at any one time, however.
SOLIDWORKS Simulation will automatically create beam joints when you create a study with parts created with weldments, or if you treat a solid body as a beam inside of your analysis.
Shell elements are very useful and can make your SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis run faster and more accurately than if solid elements were used in certain situations. These situations are when the model has a very large surface area when compared to the thickness. The general rule of thumb is a 10 to 1 ratio of surface area to thickness of a model.