How to Duplicate and Reuse Simulation Study Data
How to Duplicate and Reuse Your Simulation Setup Data
Efficiency and ease of use is at the root of SOLIDWORKS products. Did you know that SOLIDWORKS Simulation makes it easy to copy and reuse data from one Simulation Study to the next? You almost never run only one simulation study and to make this workflow more efficient, SOLIDWORKS has several methods to make copying the data simple.
Method 1 - Copy the Entire Study
It is often beneficial to copy an entire simulation study into a new study. This can be used as a starting point for a new analysis while maintaining the original data. This workflow is often used if you are making small adjustments to the mesh, loads, or fixtures. It is also commonly used to copy all data from one study type to another, such as converting a Static study to a Nonlinear study to investigate large deformation or plastic deformation. To do this, right click the study tab name at the bottom and select “Copy Study”
From here, a dialog will appear with what kind of study you can copy the data to. If the desired type of Target Study (the study you are creating and copying the data to) isn’t in the list it is likely an incompatible type of study. From here, everything will copy including Material assignments, contacts, fixtures, loads, Mesh Controls, etc.)
Method 2 - Copy Only Certain Aspects of the Study
The other method is to drag and drop features from one study to another and it will create a copy of all applicable features. This can be used to combine setup features of multiple studies or if you only want certain aspects of the study to copy into the new study. To do this, select the features that you want to copy in the feature manager tree (Hold “Control” while picking features to select multiple items) and drag the item over the name of the new study. Release your mouse to start the transfer. Note: a completed mesh can be copied to give multiple studies an identical mesh. This is useful for fatigue calculations or for copying an h-adaptive mesh to a study that does not support adaptive meshing.
Using this tip should help you become a more efficient SOLIDWORKS Simulation user and help speed up your analysis process. Enjoy using SOLIDWORKS Simulation!