How to Set Up Default Options for your SOLIDWORKS Simulation Studies
If you recently purchased SOLIDWORKS Simulation or if you are setting up a new computer with SOLIDWORKS Simulation, having the default options and preferred Plot settings can help create a more automated workflow for your analysis. This article will go over some of the most common options that users can configure. Please note that changing these options will only change the options in new simulation studies created and will not overwrite options in existing studies.
To access the Simulation Settings, you first need to have a SOLIDWORKS part or assembly open and have the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Add-in activated.
Go to Simulation -> Options -> Default Options to configure the options used for new studies.
This article will go over some of the most common options that are configured for users but you can explore the other options here on your own.
Units – You can customize the units that the studies use to either your personal or company preference.
Mesh – While most of the other settings in this section are often left at their default, the option to “Render beam profiles and shell thickness” is often checked to better visualize the results when you are using beam or shell elements in your study.
Solver and Results – When simulations are run, a lot of files are generated and organizing them in an effective manner is important. If the results files are not saved locally on your machine, then your simulations can take a lot longer to run and the files can experience corruption, so it is best practice to save your results files locally. The most common setup is to create a custom folder on your C drive called “Solidworks Simulation Results” and set this as the user defined results section. This will also make it easy in the future to clear out old simulation files to free up hard drive space as Simulation files can get very large.
Plot -> Color Chart – You can choose the Number Format and the number of Decimal Places on the legend. Enabling the option to change the color above yield for von mises plots is a popular option to quickly alert you to a problem. Depending on the units used, Floating number format is often easier to read.
Plot -> Default Plots – This section allows you to customize the plots that are automatically created when you run a new study. Each type of study has different plots that are customized. The first plot (“Plot1”) will be the plot that is shown right after the study is finished running. For Static Studies, the most common plots that are set up are Von Mises Stress, Resultant Displacement, Energy Norm Error, and Factor of Safety.
If you find yourself routinely changing anything about your plots to make them easier to read, return to these Simulation options to make changes that will be applied to all new studies. If you have additional questions, please contact us for more information!