LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS®

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LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS®

For Augmenting Your SOLIDWORKS® Design Experience with Simulations
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Image made using the COMSOL Multiphysics® software and is provided courtesy of COMSOL.

A helicopter swashplate mechanism translates flight control inputs to the orientation of the rotor blades.

LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS®


Integrated Interface for COMSOL® Simulations and 3D Designs in SOLIDWORKS®

COMSOL Multiphysics® with LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS® delivers enhanced connectivity so you can efficiently integrate simulation into your design workflow. SOLIDWORKS® is a premier CAD solution for 3D design and product data management. When used together with multiphysics simulation, it provides a powerful tool for product design, evaluation and optimization. Using LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS®, you can leverage the functionality of COMSOL Multiphysics to better understand how your SOLIDWORKS® design performs in its intended operating environment and accurately evaluate the impact of essentially any physical effects and their interactions.

The One Window Interface Brings COMSOL Multiphysics Into the SolidWorks User Interface

LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS® includes a bidirectional interface between the COMSOL Desktop® and SOLIDWORKS®. Through this interface, you can synchronize the CAD design with the COMSOL model, and, in the other direction, you can let your simulation control the design parameters in the SolidWorks file. This enables the optimizing of CAD designs through simulations with automated parametric sweeps. Providing an even closer integration, the One Window Interface brings the familiar windows, tools, icons, and menu items from COMSOL Multiphysics and makes them available to set up and run simulations from within the SolidWorks user interface.


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Product Features

Models

Product Features

  • A LiveLink™ interface that synchronizes between the SOLIDWORKS® 2015 or 2016 versions of the CAD software and COMSOL Multiphysics when both are running simultaneously
  • Works with an embedded COMSOL Desktop® within the SOLIDWORKS® GUI, or as two separately run programs running simultaneously
  • Synchronize 3D geometric objects (solids, surfaces, curves and points) between SOLIDWORKS® geometries and COMSOL Multiphysics®
  • The synchronized geometry is associative, i.e., the CAD model can be modified in SOLIDWORKS® without the need to re-apply model settings in COMSOL Multiphysics®after re-synchronization
  • For faster synchronization of large assemblies, the associativity feature for faces, edges, or vertices can be turned off, if not needed
  • Synchronize material selections and other user-defined selections between the SOLIDWORKS® design and the COMSOL®model
  • Synchronize parameters between the SOLIDWORKS® design and COMSOL Multiphysics® model to modify the COMSOL Multiphysics® geometry, either manually or as controlled by a parametric or optimization solver
  • Connect to COMSOL Server™ from within SOLIDWORKS® to browse and run apps from within the SOLIDWORKS® interface, including those that use geometry synchronized with SOLIDWORKS®.
  • File import of the most popular CAD file formats, see table below
  • Encapsulate geometries to model phenomena in the surrounding domains
  • Export geometry files to the Parasolid® and ACIS® file formats
  • Geometry repair through identification of geometric inconsistencies and knitting surfaces to create solids
  • Defeaturing through the finding and deletion of fillets, short edges, sliver faces, small faces, and spikes
  • Manually deleting faces and healing the resulting gaps through filling (creating a new face) or patching (shrinking or expanding adjacent faces)
  • Detaching faces from a solid object to create a new solid object
  • Cap holes or empty spaces to fill the space and create modeling domains
  • Patch removed faces by growing or shrinking the surrounding surfaces to cover the removed face

Models

The reliability of a bike frame can be estimated by analyzing the structural stress subjected to different load cases. This app leverages LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS® to interactively update the geometry while computing stress analyses. Using this app, you can easily test different configurations of a bike frame for different cases of dimensions, material, and loads. The app computes the stress distribution and the deformation of the frame, based on the structural dimensions, materials, and loads/constraints of the bike frame.

To easily keep track of the analyzed CAD design when the geometry in the app is updated from a SOLIDWORKS® document, the app displays CAD file information, such as the date and time of the last update, as well as the document name, its configuration, and display state. You can manipulate the frame geometry’s dimensions, such as head angle, seat angle, top tube length, base bottom drop, the chainstay, wheelbase, and stack. You can also define material properties to be aluminum, steel, titanium, or something that you specify. Load cases and constraints can also be specified.

The app allows you to set a maximum allowable stress factor where a control value for the effective stress is computed for a given load case.

NOTE: In order to run this app, you need both LiveLink™ for SOLIDWORKS® and the Structural Mechanics Module.

» See model.

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