Running an Offloaded Simulation

To run an offloaded Simulation the coordinator and the worker agent machines must be on the same network domain. The SOLIDWORKS Simulation Worker Agent is installed and activated on the worker agent computer.

To run offloaded simulation:

  1. For the worker agent computer on the network:
    1. From the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager, install the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Worker Agent client.
      The Intel® MPI Library Hydra Process Manager (includes Intel’s Message Passing Interface MPI executables) is installed which establishes communication protocols between the coordinator and worker agent machines to execute successfully an offloaded simulation.
    2. Run SOLIDWORKS Simulation Worker Agent from the Windows Start menu. (Simulation Worker Agent default installation folder: drive letter:/Program Files\Common Files\SOLIDWORKS Shared\Simulation Worker Agent). Click Activate Worker Agent. The worker agent computer is now ready to run an offloaded simulation.
    To change the temporary folder location, click Deactivate Worker Agent, and edit the folder location where temporary files are stored.
  2. For the coordinator computer on the network:
    1. Create a static or nonlinear Simulation study.
    2. Click Manage Network (Simulation CommandManager). In the User Account Control dialog box, click Yes to allow SOLIDWORKS Simulation Network Share to make changes to your computer. Type your Windows log-in password for the first time you run an offloaded simulation on the coordinator computer.
      In the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Network Manager, all worker agent machines with the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Worker Agent installed and activated are listed. The coordinator computer is highlighted in green at the top of the list. Click Refresh to update the list of available worker agents detected in the network.
    3. Click Offloaded Simulation (Simulation CommandManager).
      The solver switches to Intel Network Sparse.
    4. From the list of available worker agents on the network, select one to process the offloaded simulation, and click OK.
      If the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Network Manager does not detect any worker agents, make sure at least one worker agent computer is on and the worker agent is active; the coordinator and worker agent machines must be on the same subnetwork.
      Computers highlighted in red are not usable because they are either worker agents that are running offloaded Simulation jobs, or act as coordinators and are sharing the Simulation folder for other offloaded simulations that are in process.
    5. Run the study.
      Once the offloaded simulation is running, the status of the selected worker agent computer changes from idle to active. Information about the status of the offloaded simulation is shown in the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Worker Agent window.

      When the offloaded simulation completes, the Simulation Worker Agent client copies the result files back to the coordinator computer's hard drive.

    • You do not need to install SOLIDWORKS or SOLIDWORKS Simulation on the worker agent computer to run offloaded simulation.
    • You do not need to install the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Worker Agent client on the coordinator computer, unless you plan to use the coordinator computer as a worker agent.
    • To check that both the coordinator and worker agent computers are on the same network domain, open a Windows Command Processor window, and run the command net view. This command returns a list of computers on the same subnetwork with the one being used to run the command. Both computers, coordinator and worker agent, should appear on the list to run an offloaded simulation.
    • Make sure that the Windows Firewall does not block the executables of offloaded Simulation: mpiexec.hydra.exe, hydra_service.exe, and pmi_proxy.exe located in drive letter:\Program Files\Common Files\SOLIDWORKS Shared\Simulation Worker Agent. If you are still unable to run an offloaded simulation, consider turning off the Windows Firewall for the network domain.