Alignex Blog

Many people have seen or heard about the benefits of simulation software. We know it's a powerful tool for understanding how our designs will behave in the real world, but as with any tool, there are limitations on what is possible. Sometimes we have to make simplifications to get a simulation study to run. Unfortunately, in some cases we can't get it to run at all. I can think of a few examples from past experience...

Many SOLIDWORKS users have discovered SimulationXpress to be a very easy-to-use, first-pass analysis tool to test their products and quickly generate reports to document results. While SimulationXpress can certainly help us understand the effects of forces and pressures on individual parts, there are many cases where a more advanced SOLIDWORKS Simulation package will allow us to gain better insight into the design. This can often help us make important design decisions that improve quality, increase performance, and reduce costs.

During this short video, we’ll learn the differences between linear and nonlinear analysis, how to determine when you need to use a nonlinear solution, and finally, look at two examples that will give us the basics of setting up a nonlinear simulation study.

By asking the right questions up front and understanding a little about the physics of the problem, we can decide on the most appropriate study type for our simulation. Using the intuitive interface and powerful nonlinear solver in the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium module, we can quickly gain valuable insight into how our design will perform, even in complex applications.

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation 2016 has several new enhancements to help you be more productive and get your work done faster than ever before. Let’s take a look at three specific areas: meshing, transient analysis and thermal analysis.

SOLIDWORKS Simulation provides easy-to-use design validation tools that allow you to test your product and make important decisions to improve quality and performance early in the product development process. Full integration with the SOLIDWORKS environment means that you won’t waste time with redundant data transfer tasks. There is no need to export your SOLIDWORKS model when you want to run a study in SOLIDWORKS Simulation! With this CAD-embedded technology, design engineers can quickly and easily perform virtual testing before ever building the first prototype. 

SOLIDWORKS Simulation comes in 3 different packages: Standard, Professional, and Premium. Additionally, there are basic simulation capabilities included in SOLIDWORKS Premium. In this article, we will focus on linear static analysis which is available in all of the packages listed above. Linear static analysis allows us to apply static loads to a part or assembly and calculate the resulting stress, strain, displacement, reaction forces, and other parameters that will allow us to improve the quality and performance of our design. The model we will be analyzing is the wheel assembly for the Parrot MiniDrone Jumping Sumo.