SOLIDWORKS Simulation Analysis Productivity Tips

In this article, we share some tips and tricks that can help speed up SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis preparation, runtimes, and improve accuracy. The tools we show allow designers and engineers to make smart design decisions and trim down their solve time, leaving more room for other projects and improving designs even further.

Run a multi-variable loaded simulation analysis with Load Case Manager

Working with a few different force or pressure loads? We can simulate several situations for our parts with Load Case Manager.  

This example of a water silo covers several scenarios of forces and pressures being applied from both the inside and the outside of the design. Rather than set up a separate analysis for each scenario (which just adds to our engineering hours spent solving!), we can use Load Case Combinations. These instantly provide results for the different loading scenarios.

Inquire into precision by utilizing the Sub-modeling feature to further your SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis study

When working in a large design where we don’t want to rerun a study, why not isolate your problem area? 

Here we observe the runtime between studying an entire part and an isolated instance. We refine our understanding of our design by importing the loads and restraints from the entire part yet changing mesh settings on the isolated instance. This way, we focus our run time to just look at what we want to know. 

Tips to help you along and further your study

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Optimization Design Study

Not only can we create multiple load cases and simplify our model, but we can also automate parametric studies to help us optimize our parts. 

Creating Design Studies for our analysis gives us variables, constraints, and goals for our part to succeed. With them, we can change dimensions, loads, and materials in our static analyses. Taking them to the next step in a design study will show us which designs are possible within your set parameters.

Solver Settings

Intricate parts and assemblies that can’t be simplified, can have awfully long run times. If we can’t simplify our model, or if we cannot sacrifice a well meshed area, the degrees of freedom in the solver’s calculations will significantly increase. Likewise, the increased degrees of freedom will also increase the run time, leaving our machine’s RAM, number of cores, and CPU speed to run upwards from 200,000 to 200 million calculations. 

Each solver has a sweet spot where they are better used. For example, the FFEPlus solver will be able to solve an analysis with 2 million degrees of freedom far quicker than the Direct Sparse solver. 

Want to learn more? Check out our YouTube video for a demonstration of these tips, tricks, and best practices. 

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