Running Studies
After assigning materials, defining loads and restraints, and meshing
the model, you can run the study to calculate the results. If you run
a study before meshing it, the software meshes the model and runs the
study.
To run a study, right-click its icon in the Simulation study tree and
select Run or click Run
in the Simulation toolbar.
NOTE: When you run
one or multiple Simulation studies, they run as background processes.
Simulation continues to run in the background after the SolidWorks session
is ended. When the simulation completes, results are stored in the designated
directory.
To run all studies, click the down arrow on Run
(Simulation CommandManager) and select Run
All Studies.
You can move the pointer over the Simulation
study tab of a running study to see its status.
Solvers
The software offers different solvers to handle different types and
sizes of problems more efficiently. The solvers exploit a new technology
for the solution of large systems of simultaneous equations to reduce
solution time, disk space, and memory requirements.
The software offers the following options:
The SolidWorks Simulation solvers are in many cases 100 times faster
than conventional solvers.
You select the solver when defining the properties of a study. Both
solvers should give similar answers provided that the same mesh is used.
However, the performance and speed vary depending on the type and size
of the problem. The two solvers are efficient for small problems. The
FFEPlus solver is particularly efficient for large problems (over 300,000
degrees of freedom).
Solver Status
The Solver Status window appears
when you run a study. In addition to progress information, it displays:
Memory usage
Elapsed time
Study-specific information such as degrees of
freedom, number of nodes, number of elements
Solver information such as solver type
Warnings
All static studies that use the FFEPlus (iterative) solver let you access
the convergence plot and solver parameters. The convergence plot helps
you visualize how the solution is converging. The solver parameters let
you manipulate the solver iterations so that you can either improve accuracy
or improve speed with less accurate results. You can use the solver's
preset values or change:
To improve accuracy, decrease the stopping threshold value. In slowly
converging situations, you can improve speed with less accurate results
by increasing the stopping threshold value or decreasing the maximum number
of iterations.
After running analysis, you can view messages issued by the
solver by right-clicking the Results
folder and selecting Solver Messages.
Message types include: number of nodes, solution time, errors, warnings,
etc. Note that these are the same messages that appear in the window during
analysis.
Refer to the Design
Studies section for more information.