You can use the material of a part or body component in a Design Study using the new Design Study Materials parameter. This functionality allows you to evaluate a wide range of design choices or optimize a current design by defining a parameter that sets bodies to use different materials as a design study variable. This functionality is available in SolidWorks Professional and above for setting Simulation results as goals in the design studies.
To define a material as a variable in a Design study:
- Create a Design study.
- Click or click the Design study tab and under Variables, select Add Parameter.
- In the Parameters dialog box, under Name, type a name for the parameter.
- Under Category, select Material.
- Under References, select the bodies for which the material is set as a variable in a design study.
Rows highlighted in green contain bodies assigned to the material parameter.
- Click Apply and OK.
An asterisk 
appears under Linked to show that the selected bodies are linked to the material parameter.
- Switch to the Table View tab to define the design scenarios.
- For each scenario, click the Select Material cell on the material parameter row.
- Select a material from the SolidWorks or custom materials library and click Apply.
The selected material is applied to the bodies linked to the material parameter.
A body can be assigned only one material for a given scenario. In case the parameters are defined such that a body has two material assignments, only the first material assignment is applied for each scenario.
The material of composite shell bodies cannot be set as variable in design studies.