SOLIDWORKS Simulation 101- Accelerate innovation and problem solving
Instead of being told we can’t do something, engineers want to figure out how we could do something. Engineering is inherently about solving problems, and there are countless arrows in our proverbial quiver — equations, calculators, textbooks, penSOL and paper, or even 3D printed prototypes. This post focuses on simulation, and how engineers can use it to help accelerate innovation and problem solving.
Have you ever heard the line, “When in doubt, make it stout?” This phrase encourages engineers to “err on the side of overengineering,” but with simulation, this is a thing of the past. To engineers, simulation means validation — answering the question, “Will my design work?” In other words, having access to simulation tools is like having a crystal ball that lets an engineer see how their design will perform under any conditions, without ever having to build it. Simulation creates a virtual environment that can mimic real-world situations, and offers insights that help ensure or validate that their designs will work.
Simulation is a way for engineers to get answers to questions like, is it strong enough? Will it last long enough? Is it safe enough?
But that’s just the beginning. The true power of simulation lies in its ability to accelerate innovation and enable engineers to create the best designs possible.
What is Simulation?
Simulation is a computer aided engineering (CAE) tool. You can think of CAE as taking computer aided design (CAD) up a notch. It’s used to solve the design problems engineers encounter; specifically, simulation is a finite element analysis (FEA) tool, which refers to the way simulation goes about solving the problems.
Simulation breaks down the problem into many tiny pieces (finite elements) and solves the problem (analysis). The easiest way to visualize this is to consider a real brick house, or even a toy house made from Legos. The bricks are the finite elements that get put together to create the house. Example designs of brick houses are shown below. You can see the house on the left is coarser, meaning it has larger and fewer bricks (71 bricks) while the house on the right uses more and smaller bricks (228 bricks) to make the same design.
The FEA equations are solved within each element. The more elements that are used, the higher the resolution of the problem and the more accurate the solution.
But this comes at cost in both time and computing power/resources. Beyond the super-simple house example above, real-world simulation problems can become incredibly complex incredibly fast. Engineers must find a delicate balance — part art and part science — between using enough elements to ensure accuracy while keeping computation times practical. A simulation of a simple bracket might take 1,000 elements and be solved in a matter of seconds, while a car crash simulation might take 1,000,000-plus elements and days to solve.
How Do Engineers Use Simulation Now?
Engineers rely on simulation for two things:
1) to accelerate the design process and bring a final product to market faster, and
2) to validate or guide their design decisions.
Think of simulation like a GPS for CAD, offering turn-by-turn directions for design decisions.
This is vital because when an engineer has their design hat on, there are countless decisions and choices to make. How thick should this bracket be? Where is the best place to put this cutout? Is this too thin? How many holes should I put here? And many more.
SOLIDWORKS Simulation is a simulation tool integrated into SOLIDWORKS, which means there is a seamless transition between CAD and CAE. Whenever a design decision needs to be made, engineers can effortlessly leverage simulation to guide them towards the right choice — saving time and money in the initial design process and effectively eliminating the need for costly rework.
To a business, this translates to significant cost savings, because making changes earlier in the design process is easier and cheaper. Later in the process, every change gets more expensive and more time-consuming. Imagine the example below, and how costly it would be to identify a failure after a part has already been manufactured and is being used in the field by many customers.
But these days, strong isn’t good enough. Designs need to be able to achieve higher performance at a cheaper manufacturing cost. To effectively optimize their designs, engineers have to go beyond simple strength testing and consider all the other ways designs could fail or underperform. Picasso used more than one brush to create his masterpieces; shouldn’t engineers do the same with their designs?
There are many different ways simulation can be used to help engineers with their designs:
How did engineers simulate in the past?
In short, they didn’t — at least not in the way we do today. CAE and validation tools like simulation weren’t available 40 years ago, so the process of refining a design was completely different. Engineers would have to complete a design iteration and then make a physical prototype they could use for testing. This costly feedback loop would trap engineers for months or years.
Elements of this process are recognizable to engineers of today. Simulation does not entirely eliminate the need for physical prototypes and experimental testing; it simply gets engineers through that process much quicker.
How will engineers simulate in the future?
Tools like simulation have already revolutionized the industry; it’s safe to say that all this simulation is here to stay. But what’s next?
The evolution of these tools is going to include components of AI-driven simulation as well as cloud-based simulations. If you’re looking at the SOLIDWORKS ecosystem of tools, you don’t have to look too far ahead. AI is already enhancing other areas of the ecosystem, notably with the design assistant in SOLIDWORKS 2025. It’s just a hop, skip and jump away from incorporating AI to help predict the best design choices faster. One could even argue that AI simulation is already here with topology optimization studies.
The next evolution of simulation takes the tool from desktops to the cloud — but that’s already here, too. SOLIDWORKS has a suite of simulation tools already on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Cloud platforms address one of the big limiting factors of simulation: computing resources. Some simulation problems are so complex that they require hours or even days to complete. By leveraging these cloud resources and advanced solvers, you can get better answers to more complicated questions.
How will you use simulation in the future?
Engineering has always been about solving problems and not accepting limitations. Engineers are no longer bound by trial-and-error processes or the costly inefficiencies of overengineering. Simulation has changed the game, giving engineers that crystal ball to see into the future of their designs.
With today’s simulation tools, engineers don’t just ask, “Will it work?” Instead, they ask how it can be made stronger, lighter, faster and cheaper? Simulation means more than just validation; it’s about optimization, innovation and accelerating designs from idea to reality.
stephenpetrock