Javelin / TriMech Author
Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE
Dimension Input History: Love it? Hate it?
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on August 1, 2013
SolidWorks 2013 introduced hundreds of enhancements creating a big stir of excitement in the user community. Most of the enhancements were a “love at first sight”, like conics, varying dimension patterns and intersect. However some of the others were not that well received by the…
Irfan’s Pick of the Day: Compare Configuration Mode – SolidWorks Flow Simulation [VIDEO]
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on July 12, 2013One of the best enhancements in Flow Simulation 2013 is the ability to compare results from various projects. This new feature allows users to compare results plots, goals, point/surface/volume parameters. The comparison can be presented both numerically and graphically, so users could make decisions on most effective design modifications. To access this feature, Right Click on the Results folder in the Flow Simulation analysis tree and click Compare. To see the new feature in action, watch the video below.
What are SOLIDWORKS Simulation Transient Sensors?
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on July 4, 2013SOLIDWORKS Simulation Transient Sensors store transient data from thermal simulations, drop tests, non-linear simulations and dynamics simulation. Due to the nature of simulations which support transient data, this new sensor is supported in SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and above. The transient sensor replaces the existing response plots which were previously used. Loading of a transient sensor is much faster than response plots since the data is preloaded into the sensor. After your run the study, you can list and create graph plots of the data stored by the transient sensor.Create a transient study (nonlinear, dynamic, transient thermal, or drop test) In the FeatureManager design tree, right-click Sensors and select Add Sensor. In the PropertyManager: Under Sensor Type tracktype, select Simulation Data. Under Data Quantity, select the…
The reaction moment on a fixed face [VIDEO]
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on June 18, 2013Reaction moments are only applicable to element with nodes having degrees of freedom in rotation. This is not the case for solids as they only have 3 degrees of freedom per node (3 translations, but no rotation). So how can we get reaction moments on fixed faces of Solid Bodies?
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Shell Elements Symmetry [VIDEO]
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on June 7, 2013
Have you ever tried imposing symmetry for shell elements in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2012 or older? If you have then you would probably know it is a very tedious process and requires exact knowledge of what the symmetry condition actually does to impose it for shells….
Which Solver? FFEPlus vs. Direct Sparse – PART 2 [VIDEO]
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on May 29, 2013Some time ago, I had written a blog post comparing two solvers in SolidWorks Simulations, FFEPlus and Direct Sparse. When comparing the speed of the solvers, the FFEPlus solver was beyond doubt the faster of the two solvers when handling large Degrees of Freedom. The question may now arise, why use the Direct Sparse Solver. The simplest answer is accuracy. Since the Direct Sparse solver does not make any approximations for solution, it solves the problem directly and there are no associated computational errors. The Direct Sparse Solver becomes the solver of choice in problems where the software has other iterative processes going on as well and the error can accumulate over these iterations. (Contact Problems, Large Displacement Analysis, Circular Symmetry etc.) This video demonstrates a…
SolidWorks Import Solution: Wrong Units in IGES Files?
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on April 11, 2013So you have just received a file from your customer in the IGES format and when you open it up, you notice that its size has been scaled up by around 25. The issue is that you were expecting the units to be in mm but the file is stored in inches. One way would be to simply scale the entire model by a factor of 1/25.4 but what if this is an IGES assembly and has multiple parts. I am sure you will find some way to scale everything and put the things back together again. Here is a simple technique that you can use to correct the units stored within the IGES document. IGES documents are stored as simple ASCII documents so you will need a text editor…
Show SOLIDWORKS Simulation Results on Selected Entities [VIDEO]
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on April 9, 2013
SOLIDWORKS Simulation adds a new post-processing capability which allows the user to show SOLIDWORKS Simulation results on selected entities. These entities can be either bodies or faces. To view the plot on a selected entity, open the plot Property Manager and, under Advanced Options, select Show…
What is SOLIDWORKS Simulation Submodeling and how do I use it?
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on April 5, 2013
Perhaps the best enhancement for simulation studies is the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Submodeling capability. For studies with a large number of bodies, this feature allows users to improve results at critical areas without having to rerun the analysis in the entire model. It can allow mesh…
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Render Shell Thickness in 3D
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on April 2, 2013
With SOLIDWORKS Simulation you can display the mesh and results of shells using a 3D representation of shell bodies. There is a new option to display the thickness of shells in result plots (stress, displacement, and strain) and when viewing the mesh. To view the…
SolidWorks Simulation – Use of Symmetry in Shell Elements [VIDEO]
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on January 31, 2013For large problems, solid elements can often take a long time to mesh and solve. For thin bodies with constant thickness, we can replace the solid elements with shell elements which will significantly speed up the process of both meshing and solution. For bodies which are geometrically symmetric and are loaded symmetrically about a plane, the symmetry condition can also be used to speed up the analysis. The built-in symmetry condition of SolidWorks can only be applied on faces, however when shell elements are cut on a plane, the produce symmetry about edges and not faces. The symmetry condition can then be created manually using the reference geometry condition. In applying this condition, we need to restrict any displacements along the plane of symmetry and at the same time…
SolidWorks Simulation – Shell Thickness in Design Study [VIDEO]
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on January 28, 2013When performing design studies in SolidWorks, you can typically link the dimensions within the model to design study parameters and then vary those dimensions to undertake design studies or design optimizations. If you use shell elements in an analysis then the thickness of the shell is defined within the simulation setup and is not part of the model itself. To perform a design study on the thickness of the shell, the thickness needs to be linked to a simulation parameter. To define this parameter, the Link Value option within the shell definition property manager can be used. Once the link value option is selected, a Parameters dialog box pops up. This can then be used to define a “Simulation Parameter” and linking this parameter to the thickness definition of the shell. Once the parameter is appropriately…
Which Solver? FFEPlus vs. Direct Sparse – PART 1
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on January 15, 2013
SolidWorks simulation provides two options to solve the set of FEA algebraic equations; iterative or direct solution methods. The iterative solver, FFEPlus, uses approximate techniques to solve the problem. It assumes a solution and then calculates the associated errors. The iterations continue until the errors become acceptable. The…
SolidWorks Simulation Validation Library
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on December 10, 2012
I see a number of people trying to create simple simulation studies and then comparing the results to hand calculations of well known problems. Although this is a good practice to gain confidence in the results obtained by SolidWorks, at times it is tedious and…
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Beam Joint Reactions [VIDEO]
By Irfan Zardadkhan, PhD, CSWE on December 5, 2012
My tech tip of the day is the new functionality for obtaining SOLIDWORKS Simulation Beam Joint beam joint reactions. Now it is possible to list reaction forces and reaction moments at beam joints that have fixed translations or rotations. After the simulation is completed, right…