Advancing SOLIDWORKS Simulation Capabilities Using SIMULIAworks
These are exciting times on the simulation front at Dassault Systèmes (DS). Working at SOLIDWORKS for the last 10 years, we’ve been validating designs with SOLIDWORKS Simulation, which comes in three different packages: Standard, Professional, and Premium. These packages offer a ton of value to our user community, are easy to use and seamlessly integrated with SOLIDWORKS. As customers created increasingly complex 3D models, these tools started to hit their limits. I’m talking about complex material models, large strain, complex contact, or just really large models that take a lot of time for validation studies to complete. Now, I’m not saying you couldn’t validate some of these designs, but it might have required solver tweaks, massaging, and patience to get a valid solution.
Well, things are changing here…
With the combined power of all its divisions, DS offers so much more than just SOLIDWORKS. I know it’s difficult for us at SOLIDWORKS to hear that, but sometimes the truth hurts. SIMULIA, which specializes in the development of simulation solutions at DS, has an incredibly broad and deep portfolio. Figure 1 below shows the acquisitions that DS has made in the simulation space in the last ~20 years. I’m sure you’ll recognize some of those names.
So, what changed? Well, here at DS, we’ve been working on expanding the SOLIDWORKS portfolio you know and love with the next-generation applications for design, simulation, manufacturing, and governance – all connected to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, the largest product development-centric platform on the cloud.
This new portfolio of solutions, which we call 3DEXPERIENCEWORKS, combines the ease of use of SOLIDWORKS with the power of specialized solutions offered by DS and the added benefits of the platform such as collaboration, cloud computing, data and product lifecycle management, and a modern, intuitive interface consistent across all platform solutions. 3DEXPERIENCEWORKS encompasses the SOLIDWORKS portfolio of design solutions, SIMULIAworks portfolio of simulation solutions, and much more.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be running a webinar series that highlights some of the benefits of the SIMULIAworks solutions, but I wanted to give you a teaser because, quite honestly, I’m very excited about what the future holds.
One of the most powerful capabilities of SIMULIAworks is that it handles contact in a revolutionary way. Using just the general contact settings allows us to manage no penetration contact without the burden of setting up contact pairs. It can also handle interference fits with some really basic settings. Consider the gear assembly shown in Figure 2, where in the initial position there is some interference between the gear teeth and then a 360-degree rotation has been applied to the smaller gear. Without having to set up contact pairs (for interference or the contact of teeth during rotation) manually, we can solve this easily using SIMULIAworks.
Or, consider an explicit dynamics analysis using the Abaqus explicit solver to calculate the stresses and displacements as this URB-E scooter crashes into a wall shown in Figure 3.
This is just a taste of what can be done with SIMULIAworks. Advanced meshing tools, bolt analysis, vibration, damage analysis, and some really powerful material calibration capabilities – SIMULIAworks has it all. I don’t want to give away everything from the upcoming webinar series, so stay tuned for more. Again, these are exciting times for simulation fans, experts and wanabees alike!
For more information visit www.solidworks.com/SIMULIAWORKS. Or, check out the training courses available at MySolidworks by searching for SIMULIAworks. And, as always, reach out to SOLIDWORKS or your Value Added Reseller if you’d like to move forward.
Omar Zohni