Design Study

In SimSolid Cloud, design studies are used to collect and quantify design variations. Designs studies are defined as a set of part geometry, part connections and one or more analysis definitions along with their corresponding analysis results. Each design study can contain a complete CAD assembly containing hundreds of parts. Each SimSolid Cloud project can contain many design studies.

When a project is first created, the initial CAD assembly is placed in the design study Study 1. Material properties, connections and analysis definitions are typically created by the user and one or more analyses is solved. When the design geometry is changed, the design study can be updated in one of three ways:

Limitations on Geometry update

With the following exceptions, SimSolid should be able to recreate the design study definitions:

Material properties on changed parts are not retained. In the Assembly menu, right-click select any changed parts and reassign material properties using the Set material command.
In some cases, geometry updates may remove faces used for load and constraint definitions. Visually check the loads and constraints and reapply as necessary. Any boundary condition marked in RED has lost the face association. Double click to edit the boundary condition and reapply the face as required.
Note: All RED boundary conditions must be resolved to run the analysis.
Connections are updated using the current settings for gap and penetration tolerances. On the connections panel, select Actions > Show disconnected groups of parts to check if all connections are in place and visually inspect as necessary.

Comparing Design Study Results

All design studies tabs are independent. As each tab is selected, the Project Tree and modeling window changes. To compare analysis results, first display results from one design study. Then pick on another design study label. Display the same result for this study. Now simply picking either tab quickly changes the view to allow for rapid comparison.

Command Reference

Right-clicking on a design study tab provides the following options in the context menu:

Update geometry – Re-import the design geometry from the CAD system and re-associate the analysis model definitions. Remove any prior analysis results. All analyses will need to be rerun.
Copy study – Duplicate the selected design study. This is useful when modifying material properties or connections but not geometry.
Delete study – Delete the selected design study.
Add Study “+” – Load new CAD geometry; SimSolid attempts to re-associate the existing analysis definitions from the currently active design study. This is useful when design variations are located in separate geometry files.