Integrate SOLIDWORKS Design With 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation Using ‘POWER’BY’

Today, we have a guest blog post by Rob Hurlston from our friends over at Fidelis Engineering Associates. Here, we will discuss how pairing SOLIDWORKS with SIMULIA, within the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, could transform the way our customers view simulation.

Within the past couple of years, Dassault Systèmes has been striving to unify all its products such that users of its previously disparate packages can collaborate more effectively than ever before.

In 2018 - enter POWER’BY. This new functionality within the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform allows direct compatibility with many different standalone products, including SOLIDWORKS. What this all means is that legacy SOLIDWORKS customers can unlock the power of the Platform without needing to learn new CAD software.

Introduction to the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform

In the middle of the last decade, Dassault released the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which is aimed at meeting - and even defining - the business needs of organizations now and in the future. Since then, many of the most prestigious engineering companies in the world have taken advantage of the paradigm shift in technology – giants like Boeing, Exxon Mobil, and EDF. The Platform is allowing companies to transform the relationships and roles across multifunctional business groups by allowing everyone to work from a ‘single source of truth’. No longer do we have files, spread across directory structures or cumbersome PLM packages, where care needs to be taken to ‘check-in’ and ‘check-out’ data when design changes are made. A centralized metadata structure for organizing files means that everybody is working with the most recent data. We are not really talking about file management anymore, but rather a platform for the management of the entire organization.

Further, the role-based system of apps means that managing a whole host of standalone software packages will soon be a thing of the past. Each unique user login to the Platform is given access to designated business roles, which in turn provides them with access to all the applications they need to perform their job responsibilities. For example, designers might have access to design apps, rule managers, and change management, while a simulation analyst would be able to use an FEA pre and post-processor and solver – each working with the same integrated data.

What is POWER’BY?

POWER’BY allows standalone software packages to integrate with the 3DEXPERIENCE. In the CAD world, that means we can bring SOLIDWORKS (and other non-CATIA) models into the Platform natively and utilize the powerful PLM and simulation tools that exist within it. Perhaps more importantly, the data that we create in SOLIDWORKS instantly becomes available to all the stakeholders in the product design lifecycle, meaning extended team members can explore, visualize, and collaborate online using innovative browser apps. Subsequent changes made in SOLIDWORKS are instantly recognized in the platform, and now project managers and simulation analysts alike can take advantage of the new/modified data in real-time.

SIMULIA in the 3DEXPERIENCE

Since, we at Fidelis, are simulation experts and resellers of the 3DEXPERIENCE ourselves, it would be remiss of us not to introduce some of the powerful and intuitive simulation roles available within the Platform. After all, one of the biggest benefits of POWER’BY is the ability to unlock professional-grade analysis tools while maintaining familiar CAD packages to help ease the pain of legacy cost and implementation.

There are almost 600 roles in the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and around 50 of them revolve around simulation in some way or another. This might seem daunting, but once you understand a little bit about how roles are devised, it becomes clear. Finite element analysis (FEA) based roles, for example, can be selected by either industry or by the level of capability you need. A designer might only need to perform ‘quick and dirty’ checks on single parts to ensure that stresses and deflections are at acceptable levels based on known loads. On the other end of the spectrum, a professional analyst needs access to industry-leading multiphysics simulation capabilities that can capture the behavior of large assemblies subjected to many different loading scenarios. To learn more about the five most important FEA solution roles, check out this post on the Fidelis blog.

One final thing of note regarding the pairing of design and simulation within the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform is the ability to directly tie CAD to SIM. What this means is that there is no more exporting STEP or IGES files to simulate. In fact, changes to CAD can be captured directly by FEA mesh allowing parameter-based DOE and optimization studies to be set up and run with the touch of a button.

Final thoughts

Companies like Perception and Fidelis are seeing their worlds collide with the advent of the Business Intelligence Platform, and we only see that as a good thing. No longer are we questioning whether our analysis results came from the most updated designs, or whether our Project Manager remembered to change the status in PLM after a gate review. The integration of design, analysis, PLM, and all the other once-siloed aspects of the product life cycle is allowing companies, big and small, to revolutionize the way they do business.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions or are in need of contract services. We are always here to help!