Load Case Manager

With the Load Case Manager, you can define (secondary) load combinations from (primary) load cases quickly and evaluate the effects of the various load combinations on your model.

Available for SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium.

To access the Load Case Manager for static studies:

Right-click the top icon of a Simulation static study tree and click Load Case Manager.

Load Case View

  Primary Load Cases Lists the primary load cases with the corresponding load, restraint, and connector definitions. For example, each primary load case can correspond to "Dead," "Live," "Wind," or "Earthquake" loads. For each load case, you can modify the value of a load definition or suppress it.
  • Click the down arrow inside a cell to either modify its value, or suppress it from the corresponding load case.
  • Click to add a primary load case.
To rename a primary load case, select it and enter a new name.
Show All (no filter) Changes the visibility of all study definitions.
Show/Hide Fixtures Changes the visibility of all fixture definitions.
Show/Hide External Loads Changes the visibility of all external load definitions.
Show/Hide Connector Loads Changes the visibility of all connector definitions.
  Load Case Combinations Click to add a secondary load case as a linear combination of the primary load cases. In the Edit Equation box, enter the equation that describes the linear load combination, for example:

1.4 * "Load Case 1" + 1.6 * " Load Case 2"

Clicking inside the equation editor brings up the list menu of supported Functions.
For a complete list of supported functions see SOLIDWORKS Help:Operators, Functions, and Constants.
  Track Results Click to add a Simulation data sensor to monitor selected results quantities (for the primary loads and load case combinations) and create alerts when values deviate from the limits you specify.

Results View

After you set up the load case combinations, click Run.

Switch to the Results View tab to view the results from the added Simulation data sensors.

Transpose rows and columns Transposes the rows to columns and vice versa of the results data matrix.
You can filter results between the primary load cases and load case combinations:
  • Click Show/Hide Primary Load Cases
  • Click Show/Hide Load Case Combinations
Show/Hide Sensor Results Changes the visibility of the results monitored by the Simulation data sensors.
Show/Hide Input Loads Changes the visibility of the input loads.

Result plots are saved under Load Case Results in the Simulation static study tree.

You can load the results of a particular load case by clicking the cell containing its name. The name of the current load case is referenced in the Simulation study tree.

Load the input data from an external .csv file Imports (previously saved) load case manager input data from a comma-delimited *.csv file.
Save the data to an eternal .cvs file Saves the load case manager input data to a comma-delimited *.csv file. Use a text editor or Microsoft Excel to view this file.
Create Report Creates one report document for each selected primary load case or load combination. You can access published reports under Report (Simulation study tree). You can edit, delete, and republish reports.
Publish to eDrawings Saves the results from the selected load cases into a single eDrawings file.
The Load Case Manager does not support H-Adaptive and P-Adaptive meshing methods.

Optimized Solver Performance for Load Case Manager

The Intel Direct Sparse (IDS) solver is reconfigured for optimized performance for linear static studies with multiple load cases.

These observations apply to the optimized Intel Direct Sparse (IDS) solver performance for linear static studies with multiple load cases:
  • Improvement in solution time is observed for up to 25 load cases. For linear static studies with more than 25 load cases, any gain in solution time due to the solver’s performance is balanced out by the time-demanding post-processing functions.
  • Only the IDS is configured for highly optimized performance (although the FFE plus solver also exhibits performance benefits, but not as great as the IDS.) If you select the Direct Sparse or the Large Problem Direct Sparse solvers, the software switches internally to the IDS solver.
  • You could observe the optimized solver performance for: Pressure, Force, Torque, and Force and Moment components of Remote Loads. All other load types, connectors, and nonzero prescribed displacements should be exactly the same in all load cases to observe any performance benefit. The software groups together the Load cases in the Load Case Manager in such a way that load cases with similar features (such as mentioned above) are run together with the optimized performance scheme. Load cases with dissimilar features are run without any such optimization.
  • The optimized solver performance is not activated when no-penetration contact or virtual wall contact are present in any load case, and also in cases of distributed beam loads, which vary across load cases.
  • For a typical linear static study solved by the IDS equation solver, the most time consuming part of the solution is the factorization of the global stiffness matrix, which consumes more than 80% of the total solution. In the optimized performance scheme, this factorization is done only once as the stiffness matrix is exactly the same for every load case. During the nonoptimized performance scheme, the same factorization is repeated for the solution of each load case.