SIMULIA

What do you like best?

The interface and setup is relatively intuitive (IF you've used FEA CAE software in the past). It's relatively quick and easy to import a model or assembly and start working on it, as it's seamlessly integrated into SolidWorks (assuming you have the pro license for Simulation). Results are easy to interpret and easy to export reports for as well.

What do you dislike?

Firstly, it's not as robust as it could be--but then I've used ANSYS Workbench in the past, which is quite involved, unintuitive, but very comprehensive. There are times you'll struggle to get parts or features to mesh where there are certain assumptions that should have been made by the software. A lot of the time, even though my environment defaults are imperial, I'll get my results in ANSI/metric. It's quickly resolved by modifying the properties for the IPS I want, but it seems a bit silly that the software defaults and my model are created in imperial IPS units, but I get my results in mmgs. I've also had problems with complex assemblies or parts with varying geometries meshing and analyzing, and some scenarios where I couldn't run iterative analysis and had to work through large-displacement instead.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

SIMPLIFY. Seriously. As much as possible, simplify your design to the point where it's still relevant geometry. If you can turn an assembly into a single solid model, this will save some headaches figuring out connections, soft springs, attachment points, and meshing. IF you can (don't do this if it's not doable, as you'll invalidate your results). But to my point, watch some YouTube videos of common mistakes people make and understand the interpretation of your analysis. I still do a lot of hand calculation (or build smart calculators in Excel) to verify that I'm at least in the ballpark of what I expect is the result of my Analysis.

Also, make sure you have the workstation with the proper power benchmarks to run this. Multicore processors are great, but SolidWorks Simulation is better running on a higher clock speed 4 core processor than a lower clock speed 8 core. SSD is essential! Don't let a HDD be your bottleneck. And RAM should be, at least 16GB.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Running FEA helps prevent design problems, minimizes waste (in lieu of being overdesigned), and gets products to market much quicker, as you won't have to build iterations of prototypes, you can get--probably--90% confidence in your design and build a quick prototype for testing, based on results of your analysis in SolidWorks Simulation.