Defining Goals

You can define goals to specify your objective functions for the Optimization Design study. Optimization Design study is not available in SOLIDWORKS Standard and SOLIDWORKS Professional.

  1. On the Variable View or Table View tab of the design study, in Goals section, do one of the following:
    • Select a predefined sensor from the list.
    • Select Add Sensor, define a sensor, and select the newly defined sensor from the list.
    The sensor name appears in the Goals section.
  2. For the goal, if you defined multiple studies of the same type, select the simulation study to run and track the value of the sensor.
  3. For the goal, select one of the following:
    • Minimize.
    • Maximize.
    • Is close toType a value. For example, type 1 mm to find the optimal design that causes a 1mm deflection at the tip of a cantilever. The program evaluates optimal values for the design variables that cause the deflection at the tip to approximate 1 mm.
  4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to define additional goals.
  5. For multiple goals, enter the weight of each goal, for example 5.
    The weight of a goal to optimize represents its relative importance. The higher the weight of the goal, the more important it is to optimize that goal. The program modifies the final weight of the goal as: (weight of the individual goal) / (sum of weights of all goals).