Structural Designer Role Overview
Design Simulation for SOLIDWORKS Users powered by proven world-class ABAQUS Realistic Simulation technology in a seamless, intuitive, and modern user interface within the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform.
Extend SOLIDWORKS Simulation with a tightly integrated, cloud-based solution and solve complex physics with confidence. Built on the cloud-based Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, Structural Designer provides intuitive design simulation based guidance during product design process to easily get the technical insights needed for informed design decisions.
Cloud-based simulation software
Structural Designer was developed with designers in mind. The design process is made up of multiple iterations, multiple ‘what if’ ideas to successfully deliver the right product to manufacturing. With Structural Designer, any designer can assess product behavior for each design iteration to improve product performance and reduce time and cost of product development process.
Structural Designer delivers linear static, natural frequency, buckling and steady state thermal simulation capabilities for fast and efficient product testing experience.
Structural Designer Capabilities
Delivers linear static, natural frequency, buckling and steady-state thermal simulation capabilities
Provide a Robust Engineering Workflow Fully Associative with SOLIDWORKS® 3D CAD
- Connecting SOLIDWORKS® 3D CAD to the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables your team to save and manage your SOLIDWORKS geometry on the platform directly from SOLIDWORKS and share it through a browser.
- Once on the platform, you can easily test SOLIDWORKS geometries with Structural Designer relying on full simulation associativity for best-in-class designs simulation workflows.
- Enable traceable revisions of what-if scenarios for efficient engineering workflows.
Solve Complex Engineering Problems
- Structural Designer users can experience product performance virtually so that they can make better-informed design decisions.
- Better design decisions based on more complete information about product performance lead to better designs and better products.
- The capability to assess product behavior early in the product development process enables companies in reducing potential late issues, reducing costs and developing innovative product.
- Structural Designer includes embedded compute licensing allowing routine execution of one concurrent simulation job on up to 4 cores. Embedded compute is inseparable from its associated role. Access to embedded compute follows the same Named User or Concurrent license model as the role it is associated with.
Familiar Simulation Experience
- The simulation experience delivered by Structural Designer fits within the designer’s familiar design environment.
- Enables simulation of the physical behavior of parts and assemblies so that virtual testing can be conducted before physical prototypes are available for a faster product development process.
- The intuitive user experience makes simulation adoption possible for all designers.
- Users receive continuous guidance regarding where they are in the simulation process and what they need to do next, for easy adoption
- Sophisticated simulation technology is used automatically, while the options presented to the user are intuitive and explained in the language of product designers.
Collaboration is built into the underlying 3DEXPERIENCE
- Data management, collaboration, and communities are all part of the global solution.
- Models built in Structural Designer can be shared directly with advanced simulation tools to enable the entire simulation team to collaborate with designers.
- Simulation Results can be easily reviewed by any project stakeholders in the 3DEXPERIENCE dashboard so they become insights for technical and business decision
SIMULIA Role Matrix
Determine which Role suits your analysis needs
| Feature | Capability | Structural Designer | Structural Engineer | Structural Performance Engineer | Structural Mechanics Engineer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integration Workflow | SOLIDWORKS® Connector Save SOLIDWORKS data on the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE® platform directly from SOLIDWORKS | + Role | + Role | + Role | + Role |
| Full Design Associativity Enable efficient what-if scenarios that update your simulation model for any change made with a CAD application connected to the platform | ● | ● | ● | ● | |
| User Interface | User Assistant Follow an interactive wizard to set up, run and review results of simulation | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Physics Methods Reuse Customize the User Assistant to streamline the setup and solving of complex simulations | ● | ● | |||
| Platform | Data Access and Management Access the latest product design information from a single, centralized, secure location on the cloud | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Engineering Collaboration Collaborate in real time, exchange ideas and manage tasks across disciplines on the cloud | ● | ● | ● | ● | |
| Lightweight Results Review Review and share simulation results in real time on the cloud | ● | ● | ● | ● | |
| Solver | Abaqus Implicit Solver Solve static problems such as gasket compression and pre-loaded bolts | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Abaqus Implicit Dynamic Solver Solve quasi-static problems such as snap fits | ● | ● | |||
| Abaqus Explicit Solver Solve nonlinear dynamic problems such as drop test and impact | ● | ||||
| Scenario | Linear Static Analysis Run linear static, thermal (steady-state), frequency, and linear buckling studies | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Linear Dynamic Analysis Run modal transient, and model harmonic studies | ● | ● | ● | ||
| Nonlinear Static Analysis Run nonlinear static, thermal (transient) and visco/creep studies | ● | ● | |||
| Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis Run nonlinear dynamic, nonlinear buckling, random vibrations, complex frequency, and sub-modeling studies | ● | ||||
| Sequential Multi-Step Simulations Set-up automatic sequential loading in one simulation | ● | ● | |||
| Abaqus General Contact Automatically set up component contact | ● | ● | |||
| Model | Connections Set up modeling of multiple components in an assembly | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Adaptive Solid Meshing Automatically refine meshes for higher accuracy where needed | ● | ||||
| Comprehensive Meshing Capabilities Create high-quality meshes for solids, shells, and beams | ● | ● | ● | ||
| Rule-Based Meshing Set meshing size and specifications (holes, fillets) for automatic high-quality mesh creation | ● | ● | ● | ||
| Geometry Preparation & Simplification Automatically remove undesired geometry (holes, fillets, logos), extract mid-surface, and partition geometry for hex meshing | ● | ||||
| Materials | Nonlinear Materials Explore a wide range of materials with the following properties: hyper-elasticity, plastic or permanent deformation, creep deformation, viscoelasticity | ● | ● | ||
| Material Calibration Use test data to calibrate model behavior | ● | ||||
| Results | Basic Post-Processing Tools Generate report, contour/vector/iso-surface plots | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Advanced Post-Processing Tools Create XY plots (field, history), path plots, view cuts | ● | ● | ● | ||
| Material Rendering Create stunning visuals coupling material rendering with simulation results | ● | ● | ● | ||
| High-Performance Visualization Accelerate the visualization of results even on large models | ● | ● | ● | ||
| Computation | Local Computing Run simulations on user’s local computer | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Cloud Computing Run simulations remotely on the cloud | + Role | + Role | + Role | + Role |
+ Requires an additional role
Structural Designer Features
Apply simulation directly to your design geometry
Interaction between CAD & PLM
With Structural Designer, users build simulation models directly on the design geometry.
- Tight associativity with CATIA and SOLIDWORKS means that simulation and CAD always remain synchronized even after design changes.
- Provides access to advanced simulation technology within a consistent and intuitive interface.
Easy to use Interface
The Structural Designer user experience is designed to greatly accelerate simulation adoption during the design process.
- Sophisticated simulation technology is used automatically, while the options presented to users are meaningful and intuitive for fast product integration in the engineering process.
- Automation with control is the key. The finite element mesh is created automatically and can be refined easily with local mesh control on geometry.
Collaboration
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables your organization to efficiently manage all facets of your product development process while reducing infrastructure costs, IT overhead, software maintenance and complexity. Your teams can take advantage of the following platform capabilities:
- Securely view, share, annotate, discuss and manage designs and simulation data from anywhere, at any time and on any device with a web browser
- Collaborate with all internal and external team members through cloud-based dashboards, messaging, activity streams, communities and drag-and-drop task management
3DEXPERIENCE Works provides a Safe, Social, Connected, Informed and Structured environment for team leaders, project managers and other professionals who want to manage data on the cloud and collaborate without constraints.
Safe: Customer controlled access. Transparent cloud backup. Encrypted communication protocols. Data always safe-no overwrite, no loss of data.
Social: Integrated structured and unstructured collaboration tools enabling social innovation. Collaborate on product design or engage with your stakeholders early in product development.
Connected: Every user always connected to a single, common database. Access data anywhere, anytime, on any device. Review and markup models.
Informed: Choose from the widget library, Create and share Dashboards. Get the latest information about your product development. Always have access to your latest data.
Structured: Zero overhead data management - store and manage data across collaborative spaces, share information in communities. Find indexed data faster by using tags, custom search, etc.