Stop Stressing over Product Validation with SOLIDWORKS Simulation

Article by Rod Mackay updated June 8, 2021

Article

If your product design doesn’t work in the real world, it’s a failure – a basic principle that every good designer understands. It’s also the primary reason physical prototyping has traditionally played an important role in the product validation process for manufacturers.

Prototyping allows manufacturers to physically test a new design to failure, gain insight into real-word performance and ensure that major design flaws are identified and mitigated before the final product ships. The result has been more reliable products, but unfortunately, the physical “design/build/test” process has also added significant cost and time to the product development cycle.

Go digital to reduce product validation costs

New desktop and cloud-based simulation tools are freeing designers from their dependence on costly physical prototypes for product validation. Simulation is cutting product development cycles and allowing manufacturers to bring better products to market faster than ever before. And the best news of all? Simulation is no longer exclusive to large manufacturers with deep pockets. Check out the video below to learn more about SOLIDWORKS Simulation tools:

Powerful Product Validation Tools

Simulation is now a simple, easy and cost-effective way to create products that exceed customer expectations. And if you’re a current SOLIDWORKS® user, simulation capabilities will be nothing new to you. SOLIDWORKS Premium includes both motion and structural analysis tools. This allows designers to simulate the effects of real-world forces and movements on their products, so they can gain a clear understanding of the strength of a design and identify potential weak points or overly designed components. These tools, for example, can simplify assumptions in the component material behavior, which speeds up the solution time, allowing for simulation to be carried out as part of the design process rather than at the end.

Simulation is changing the product validation game for designers, but the simulation and analysis capabilities included with SOLIDWORKS Premium only scratches the surface – opening up a whole new world of testing opportunities when transitioning to SOLIDWORKS Simulation add-ins.

Product Validation

Product Validation

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Standard

As an add-on to SOLIDWORKS Desktop software, the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Standard package is a simple way to achieve a greater understanding with minimal effort. You’ll be able to easily validate performance by tracking the impact of changes on key criteria (like stress of displacement), and even get a clearer picture of how repeated or load cycles cause structural failure. This is in addition to the ability to evaluate the physics of assembly motion and add true physical-to-assembly movements.

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional lets you gain a more thorough understanding of how designs will react in a real-world setting. Because the process of asking questions such as “What if I reduce the size of this hole?” or “What’s the best plastic for this part?” is answered and verified. You can ascertain the best available strength-to-weight ratio, frequency, or stiffness performance for your product, along with a clear understanding of how heat will affect each component.

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium

While many simulation tools lack the power to solve large, complex models and predict true product performance, SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium tackles these challenges with ease. You can make your work faster and easier with even more ways to test, validate, and ensure the best performance of your designs. You’ll also be able to control and define composite layers, calculate temperature distribution, test loads and structural response, and conduct nonlinear simulations.

Simulation Flow and Plastics

Simulation Flow and Plastics are two specialized solutions that allow designers and engineers to efficiently assess plastic mold injection, as well as fluid flow and fluid forces on designs.

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation is a powerful computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool that helps you efficiently simulate fluid flow, heat transfer, and fluid forces. Driven by engineering goals, SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation takes the complexity out of CFD and enables you to use insights to make technical decisions in a concurrent engineering approach.

SOLIDWORKS Plastics

SOLIDWORKS Plastics is a computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulation software tool that predicts how melted plastic flows during the injection molding process. The ability to predict how the plastic will react makes it easier to predict manufacturing-related defects. You can then change part or mold geometry, processing conditions, or the plastic material to eliminate or minimize the potential defects, saving you energy, natural resources, time, and money.

Extend your product validation with the power of the Cloud

As SOLIDWORKS CAD and Simulation users, you have come to appreciate the ease of use, intuitiveness, and power. Have you ever wanted more? Maybe more advanced solvers for static and dynamic events? Or the ability to perform analysis from anywhere on the cloud? Wait no more!

SIMULIA Product Design

SIMULIA Product Validation

In the following on-demand webinar, Dr. Omar Zohni, PhD, demonstrate how to extend SOLIDWORKS Simulation capabilities with 3DEXPERIENCE Works Simulation tools powered by the SIMULIA Abaqus Solver.

Abaqus technology

Built on industry-leading Abaqus technology, SIMULIA gives novices and experts alike the power to perform complex linear and non-linear analyses to validate product designs and make better-informed product decisions faster. Being part of the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE Works portfolio means any engineer can easily access advanced simulation without the need for expensive hardware. An added benefit is faster product delivery, thanks to real-time collaboration and data sharing capabilities.

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Rod Mackay

Rod has been using 3D CAD software for over 25 years and has trained thousands of designers to use their CAD systems more effectively. Rod is the Javelin Webmaster and is based in Ottawa, ON., Canada.