SOLIDWORKS FEA & CFD Simulation Training Event – Toronto (May 7, 2026)

 

SOLIDWORKS FEA & CFD Simulation Training Event 

Looking to reduce prototyping costs, improve product performance, and validate designs faster? Join our free SOLIDWORKS Simulation training event in Toronto and experience how engineering teams are using simulation to make smarter decisions—before anything is built.

What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2025 Simulation

What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2025 Simulation: Key Features & Enhancements

As engineers and designers continue to push the boundaries of innovation, simulation tools play a crucial role in ensuring that designs meet the necessary performance standards. With SOLIDWORKS 2025, users can look forward to a host of new features and improvements in SOLIDWORKS Simulation that further enhance design validation, accuracy, and efficiency. 

Here’s a look at some of the standout updates in SOLIDWORKS 2025 Simulation.

Enhanced Performance for Large Assemblies
Working with large assemblies can be a challenge when running simulations, often resulting in long computation times. SOLIDWORKS 2025 addresses this issue with improved performance, making it easier to handle and analyze complex, multi-part assemblies. Whether you're testing the integrity of mechanical assemblies or analyzing a large set of components, the time required to get simulation results is now significantly reduced, allowing for faster iterations and quicker decision-making.

Multiphysics Simulation Capabilities
The ability to simulate multiple physical phenomena simultaneously has become increasingly important for modern product designs. SOLIDWORKS SIMULATION 2025 takes multiphysics simulations to the next level by integrating thermal, structural, and fluid flow analyses into a single model. This allows for more comprehensive simulations that reflect real-world scenarios. With this enhancement, engineers can better understand the combined effects of heat, stress, and fluid dynamics on their designs, leading to more accurate and reliable results.

New Mesh Control Options
Mesh generation is one of the most critical aspects of any simulation, as the accuracy of the mesh directly impacts the results. In SOLIDWORKS SIMULATION 2025, users now have access to additional mesh control options that provide finer control over how the mesh behaves in key areas of the model, such as fillets, holes, and other complex geometries. This results in more accurate simulations, especially for designs with intricate features that require precision.

Simulation-Driven Design Integration
SOLIDWORKS has always emphasized a simulation-driven design approach, and SOLIDWORKS 2025 takes this even further. The integration between SOLIDWORKS Simulation and the CAD environment has been improved, allowing users to iterate on designs quickly and validate them in real-time. The seamless connection between design and simulation enables engineers to make data-driven decisions early in the development process, ultimately reducing time-to-market and improving product quality.

Expanded Materials Library
Accurate material properties are essential for realistic simulations, and SOLIDWORKS 2025 offers an expanded materials library to improve the precision of your analysis. With more materials and material properties available, users can now better match the materials used in their designs, ensuring that simulations reflect real-world performance under various conditions.

Advanced Nonlinear and Fatigue Simulations
SOLIDWORKS 2025 brings notable improvements to nonlinear and fatigue analysis capabilities. Nonlinear simulations, especially those involving large deformations and contact analysis, are now more efficient and provide more accurate results. Similarly, fatigue analysis has been enhanced to offer better predictions of failure under cyclic loading, helping engineers assess the durability and lifespan of their designs more effectively.

Improved Post-Processing Tools
Once a simulation is complete, interpreting the results is just as important as running the analysis. SOLIDWORKS 2025 introduces several enhancements to post-processing, offering improved result visualization, more advanced charting options, and new ways to evaluate critical factors such as stress, strain, and deformation. These enhancements allow engineers to gain deeper insights into their designs, making it easier to identify potential issues before physical testing.

With these exciting new features and enhancements, SOLIDWORKS 2025 Simulation continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in design validation. By improving performance, adding multiphysics capabilities, refining mesh controls, and enhancing post-processing tools, SOLIDWORKS 2025 offers a more powerful, efficient, and accurate simulation environment. These updates make it easier for engineers and designers to validate their designs, iterate quickly, and ensure that their products meet the highest standards of performance and reliability.

Whether you’re working on a simple part or a complex assembly, SOLIDWORKS 2025 Simulation provides the tools you need to bring your designs to life with confidence. Stay ahead of the curve and take full advantage of these new capabilities to streamline your design process and achieve better results.

For more information or to see how SOLIDWORKS 2025 Simulation can benefit your projects, feel free to contact us today! Our team is here to help you make the most out of these powerful new features and assist you with any questions or support you may need.

Contact Connections - Part 2

Last blog we examined connectors in SolidWorks Simulation. Let’s review a few more commonly used contact sets; the bolts, pin and springs.

A Bolted connection is very common in connector design. Bolt connections are simulated in the software by a beam and rigid bar.  The beam resists only tension and allows pre-loading and the rigid bar connects the beam with the flange faces. Only a few parameters need to be defined for a bolt including the type (counterbore, counter sink, etc.), shank diameter, head diameter, pre-load conditions and bolt strength data.  The software does the calculations to determine the resultant axial force shear force and bending moments. The image below illustrates a typical Solidworks assembly that requires bolted connections:

Below is a detailed view of a piping bolted connection:

Pin connectors are also common connectors. In order to simulate pins, SolidWorks creates a beam element and allows rotation as well as translation between the bodies. In order to apply a pin connection you simply select the cylindrical face of the hole and enter the pin characteristics such as strength and resistance to rotation. The image below illustrates the pin connection of a pair of pliers:

Spring connectors can be difficult to model in traditional FEA. The spring’s stiffness has to be divided by the number of nodes on each face and uneven mesh distribution can affect the spring stiffness. SolidWorks makes spring connectors easy by allowing designers to apply the connector either to parallel faces, concentric cylinders or even between vertices. Springs appear only in common projected areas between faces to avoid unintended moments. Designers may define tension-only, compression-only or tension-compression springs. Examples for each respective definition would be a rope, bumper and a typical spring. For each case the user may define a stiffness value as well as a pre-load parameter. Below is an example of a spring connector between two parallel faces:

Applying the correct connection ensures the part reacts properly under loading conditions. Defining connections between parts is made easy using SolidWorks Simulation.  

Contact Sets in SOLIDWORKS SIMULATION - Part 1

CONTACT SETS

Contact sets are fundamental to defining how a part reacts under loading conditions.  We are going to review three contact sets: Rigid Connection, Link Connectors and Edge Weld.

Rigid Connections is quite simply making two faces rigid with respect to one another.  Please be aware that by applying this condition the gap between the two faces will remain fixed, be sure that this is what you want.  An example of rigid connection is as such:

We have two blocks with a rigid connection defined.  Next we can apply a load:

Under loading conditions the blocks have undergone significant deformation.  However the rigid connection between the two remains fixed as expected.

Link Connectors work in much the same way as rigid connections however the difference is they act on points rather than faces.  The distance between the two points remains fixed regardless of the force applied.  Note that link connectors do allow for point rotation.  An example of link connectors is as such:

Here we have two bars with a link connector at the top vertex, however the bottom does not have a link connector.  A small force is applied:

When the force is applied, the linked points at the top do not move, however the points at the bottom are free to move as expected resulting in higher displacement. 

Edge Welds are used to simulate how a weld would behave under loading conditions.  This works between a face and an edge as well as edge to edge.  The software does this by applying a bonding condition on the nodes between one set and the second set.  The weld size and material need to be set when defining an edge weld.  SolidWorks uses the throat shear method to evaluate edge welds instead of just using stresses.  The program calculates normal, bending and shear forces on the weld.  A good example to use edge weld is the following assembly: 

In this assembly the edge welds are applied along the connection points highlighted by the blue lines.

Once an analysis is complete we generate an edge weld size plot and ensure that the weld size defined at the connection is greater than the largest required thickness in the chart.

This refresher should help designers with setting up the correct connections in SolidWorks Simulation

SOLIDWORKS Flat Patterns

FLAT PATTERNS

Flat patterns of complex geometries can be difficult to produce whether they be for sheet metal parts or even plastic parts.  Industries have different requirements and SOLIDWORKS 2016 has tools to help the designer achieve their goals. 

 Consider the following plastic cover:

To create a flat pattern of the top curved, complex surface we simply use the flatten feature from the surfaces tab and select the faces and edges required.

In doing so, we have a flattened version of the surface shown in the component preview.  In SOLIDWORKS 2016 designers can now flatten any surface, including ones that contain holes.  In this example that mean the arrow marks.

By selecting perimeter of the 3D curved arrow and adding it to the Additional Entities property box, it is now included and formed onto the flattened pattern. 

In designing flat patterns stresses are induced when forming the shape.  To see the stretch and deformation the designer can simply right click the flat pattern and select deformation plot.

The deformation plot shows the areas of stretch and compression from the forming process. 

In order to alleviate these stresses we can introduce relief cuts, a new function to SOLIDWORKS 2016.  

By selecting the cut line entities, the software will can update with a new flattened pattern.

Now when we check the stretch and compression plot as a result of forming, we find that the part is subjected to far less stress.

SOLIDWORKS 2016 delivers new and improved tools to help designers make flat patterns easier and quicker than before.

Fundamentals of SolidWorks Simulation

SOLIDWORKS SIMULATION

Get Started with SolidWorks Simulation

Contact Sets in SOLIDWORKS SIMULATION

Simulation Contact Set

SolidWorksSimulation of assemblies or multi bodies requires the application of contact sets to define the interface between two objects.  If the contact sets are not defined properly we will obtain incorrect results.

Consider a simple weldment framed structure with a steel plate sitting on top.  

This weldment is fixed at the end of each leg and has a load applied to the plate on top.

By default, SolidWorks Simulation treats weldments as beam elements and the plate on top as a solid element.  As such we have two different element types in this analysis; therefore we need to define a contact set.  As an option we can use the “automatically find contact set” function by selecting a beam element and the plate.  The software will find the connecting surface where you may apply a condition, in this case bonded.  This is repeated for all four faces.

Upon closer inspection, we find those contact sets to be a face to face contact

Following the creation of the contact sets we can mesh our model and run the analysis

However in doing so will result in an error message. 

This is because the contact set defined was incorrect.  When the contact sets were created they were treated as faces, however since this is a solid to a beam element, we need to select the beam element contact set under “Type”.  By redefining all four contact sets, remeshing and running the study, we now have the correct results.

Application of Loads in SolidWorks Simulation

Simulation:  Application of Loads

 SolidWorks Simulation allows users to set up and run tests using finite element analysis (FEA).  The manner in which a user sets up a test will determine whether the results are an accurate result of real-world conditions.  (Also Read:Symmetry in SolidWorks Simulation -Guide to applying loads and restraints appropriately)

Consider the electrical component shown below.  The main grey surface consists of ceramic porcelain whereas the small red parts indicate components that generate heat on the board.  We are interested in the heat distribution for this part under working conditions.

In order to set up the problem we define the material properties for each component.  This includes the red electrical components as well as the grey ceramic porcelain.  Following material definition, we define heat generation power of 0.2W for the red components and convection of 0.2 W/m^2 K for the outside surfaces.  The convection is a mechanism of heat transfer used to dissipate the heat.  

It is important to pay attention to detail when defining a simulation study.  Consider the definition of 0.2W heat generation for the red components.  The user must differentiate whether the heat generation is generated for each component or whether it is generated across the sum total of components.  This is an important distinguishing factor.  In this case it is set to “Per item” which is correct.

Furthermore, as a tip, if the user were to use symmetry to divide a heat generating part in half and the heat generation is defined in terms of Watts, it follows that the Watt value must also be divided by half since Watt is a total heat generating value.  The relationship is similar to that of force and pressure.

Once the analysis is successfully set up we need to mesh the component.

Once the component is meshed, we may run the analysis.  According to the conditions set for this thermal analysis we are seeing a maximum value of 460C occurring on the inner components.  The heat generated from the components travels outward to a temperature of 427C towards the outer edges of the ceramic porcelain.  

The manner in which the simulation analysis was set up can greatly affect the results.