SOLIDWORKS One Window Interface allows for COMSOL simulations within the CAD user interface.
This will allow users to build simulation apps based on SOLIDWORKS geometry. The apps can import the geometry and synchronize changes back to the CAD software.
This bidirectional interface will help to ensure that the CAD model will always be up to date with the simulation geometry and vice versa. In fact, users will be able to control the CAD design parameters within the simulation apps themselves.
Alternatively, SOLIDWORKS users will also be able to interface with COMSOL within the CAD design environment. With this ‘One Window Interface,’ users will be able to access various simulation tools directly from within their familiar CAD environment.
Lorant Olasz, program manager at COMSOL, said, “With LiveLink for SOLIDWORKS and the Application Builder available in COMSOL Multiphysics, simulation specialists can put apps at the fingertips of every designer. With simulation apps based on CAD designs from SOLIDWORKS software, designers will be able to analyze and optimize CAD designs according to the standards built into the app by the simulation experts.”
Other improvements to LiveLink for SOLIDWORKS include:
- Synchronization of user-defined selected features (bodies, faces, edges and points)
- Support for material and physical setting definitions
- Access to SOLIDWORKS’ FeatureManager Design Tree to parametrically control the CAD assembly
- Automatic generation of CAD design based on material assignments
By bringing greater control over CAD models into simulation apps, analysts will be able to empower their colleagues to bring optimizations earlier into the design cycle. The analyst will be able to create a “sandbox” where early-stage designers can use simulations to iterate SOLIDWORKS designs without risking garbage-in, garbage-out results.
Some might argue, however, that this democratization has already come to SOLIDWORKS with its internal SOLIDWORKS Simulation bundle. While this option leverages the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it unfortunately doesn’t offer an equivalent to COMSOL’s app creation abilities, which better transfer the analyst’s knowledge to the other users.
As a result, this LiveLink integration between the two software applications will be quite beneficial for organizations that already operate with both COMSOL and SOLIDWORKS.
As for how LiveLink will affect the sales of SOLIDWORKS Simulation versus COMSOL, that will likely come down to price, Multiphysics checklists, and whether an organization already invested in either the 3DEXPERIENCE’s Simulia, SOLIDWORKS Simulation or COMSOL Multiphysics.