SOLIDWORKS Simulation is a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) add-in that lets engineering teams test how a design will perform under real-world conditions before it’s ever built. Instead of finding out a part is too weak, too heavy, or too expensive through a failed prototype, teams can validate stress, motion, fatigue, and thermal behavior inside the model itself.
This guide covers the buying decision: whether you need Simulation, which package is likely the best fit, how licensing works, and what to expect on price. For the full feature-by-feature breakdown of what each package includes, see the SOLIDWORKS Simulation product page.
You’re in the right place if you’re trying to answer questions like:
- Do we actually need Simulation, or can we get by with what’s already in our SOLIDWORKS license?
- Should we buy Simulation Standard, Professional, or Premium?
- What does SOLIDWORKS Simulation cost?
- Can we get a quote for Simulation online?
Table of Contents
Does your team need SOLIDWORKS Simulation yet?
Most SOLIDWORKS teams designing physical parts will benefit from Simulation. The need becomes especially critical when you’ve hit the point where guessing costs more than testing.
Signs it’s time to evaluate Simulation:
- Customers or primes are requiring stress-test or validation data before they’ll approve a purchase order.
- Products are consistently overbuilt or over designed: heavier, more material, higher cost than the design actually requires, because nobody can confirm the factor of safety.
- Prototyping and re-tooling costs are piling up late in the design cycle, after a physical build reveals a problem.
- Field failures happen that a basic load case would have caught before the part shipped.
- The product development process involves iterative testing.
Is Simulation included in our SOLIDWORKS package?
SOLIDWORKS Design Premium enables static load bearing and time-based motion simulation for assemblies. If your needs go beyond static simulation, such as anything approaching nonlinear or dynamic behavior, or if you have SOLIDWORKS Design Standard or SOLIDWORKS Design Professional, that’s where the SOLIDWORKS Simulation add-ins come in.
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Packages at a Glance
SOLIDWORKS Simulation is offered in three tiers: Standard, Professional, and Premium. Each builds on the one before it, so Professional includes everything in Standard, and Premium includes everything in Professional.
Most Simulation users will use the static FEA found in SOLIDWORKS Design Premium and Simulation Standard. This is usually the starting point for more advanced simulations as well.
For the complete feature-by-feature comparison, see the Simulation package comparison matrix.
Bundled vs. Separate (Network) Simulation Licensing
Once you know which package fits, the next decision is how the license is deployed across your team.
Bundled licensing
Bundled licensing ties a Simulation license to a single SOLIDWORKS CAD seat and serial number. This is the simplest option and works well when one person owns simulation work.
Separate (standalone) licensing
Separate (standalone) licensing is a more flexible arrangement where the Simulation license is not tied to a SOLIDWORKS CAD seat and has a unique serial number. This is the better fit when the Simulation license might be periodically rotated among multiple SOLIDWORKS users.
Separate (network) licensing
Separate (network) licensing offers the highest level of flexibility and puts the Simulation license in a pool that any authorized user can check out as needed, rather than locking it to one seat. The network environment is the better fit for teams with several engineers who each run studies occasionally, since it avoids paying for a dedicated Simulation seat for every person who might need one.
The best model for your workflow will depend on how many people actually run simulations, how often, and whether that work is concentrated in one or two analysts or spread across the team. This is one of the first things a discovery call will help you scope.
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Quotes and Pricing
Since Simulation is a SOLIDWORKS add-in, it cannot be used as a standalone piece of software; it must be added to SOLIDWORKS Design Standard at the minimum. SOLIDWORKS Simulation Standard starts at approximately $2194 per seat, per year.
Those figures are a starting point. The final quote will depend on several variables:
- Which package you need: Standard, Professional, or Premium
- Whether you choose bundled or separate licensing
- Whether you purchase term licensing or perpetual licensing
- How many users need access, and how that maps to license count
- Whether training is included in the scope
- Whether you're purchasing alongside new SOLIDWORKS CAD seats or adding Simulation to an existing license
That’s why we typically have a discovery call to scope the right package and licensing model, not just confirm interest.
A typical discovery conversation covers:
- What your team is doing today without Simulation: physical prototyping, overdesigning to be safe, or shipping without formal validation at all.
- What kinds of studies you need: static, fatigue, thermal, nonlinear, or something more specialized. This is what determines the right tier.
- How many users need access: the input that determines whether bundled or network licensing makes more sense.
- What training your team needs: to make sure the tool gets used correctly from day one.
The output of a discovery call should be a package recommendation and a quote scoped to your team. This also protects against the most common Simulation buying mistakes: paying for higher level capability than the team needs, or not including training to ensure the team will get maximum ROI from the tool.
How to Justify SOLIDWORKS Simulation to Management
The business case for Simulation is stronger when it’s tied to measurable engineering outcomes instead of a list of features.
How Simulation provides an ROI:
- Fewer physical prototypes: Every design flaw caught in Simulation can be equated to a prototype cycle. Compare the cost of one physical build and test against the cost of a license, and the math usually favors Simulation quickly.
- Less overdesign: Teams that can't validate a design tend to overbuild it as a safety margin, adding material, weight, and cost that a validated design wouldn't need. Simulation replaces that guesswork with a number.
- Faster time to market: Catching a structural or thermal problem in the model, rather than after tooling is cut or a customer flags a failure in the field, avoids the redesign cycle that follows.
- Fewer field failures and warranty claims: A basic load case run before release can catch what would otherwise surface as a customer complaint or a warranty cost months later.
Building the case internally:
Start with what the team is already spending without Simulation: how many physical prototype cycles run per year, how often designs get flagged as overbuilt, and whether any recent field failures trace back to a load case that was never run.
The MLC team can help you weigh these against the cost of a license, which is how we help teams prove an ROI on the Simulation budget.
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Training
Training helps teams learn how to set up loads, constraints, and meshes correctly, so they can trust the results Simulation gives them.
While training teaches pre-processing (setting up the study), the engineer or analyst will need to have the knowledge to post-process the results.
MLC offers instructor-led and self-paced training across the full SOLIDWORKS portfolio, including Simulation-specific training options.
Ready to Talk to a Simulation Expert?
If your team is spending too much on prototyping, guessing design margins, or being asked for validation data you can’t produce, contact MLC CAD Systems for a Simulation discovery call.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between bundled and separate Simulation licensing?
A bundled license ties Simulation to a single SOLIDWORKS CAD seat and serial number. A separate license is not tied to a SOLIDWORKS seat and has its own serial number. Both options can be standalone or floated across a pool of users for checkout as needed. Network is usually the better fit for teams with multiple users running simulations.
How do I know if Simulation Standard, Professional, or Premium is right for my team?
It depends on the kinds of studies you need to run. Standard covers assembly-level static, motion, and fatigue analysis. Professional adds optimization, thermal, and large-assembly tools. Premium adds nonlinear, dynamic, and composite material simulation. See the full comparison matrix for a feature-by-feature breakdown or talk to an MLC engineer if you’re not sure which tier your studies fall into.
Does SOLIDWORKS Simulation pricing include training and support?
Training and support are scoped as part of the Simulation quote based on what your team needs. They aren’t automatically bundled into the license price.
