Solidworks Certification: Simulation & Surfacing

CatFromHue

Hiya,

Has anyone ever taken the exams to become certified in Solidworks Simulation (FEA) or Solidworks Surfacing?

I'm thinking about doing them myself, well I've bought a book on the Simulation (FEA) and I'm working through that.

The Surfacing stuff looks very impressive, granted it's a fairly niche skill, but could look handy on the old CV.

Just wondering if anyone has, did they need a good amount of experience before they took the exams?

Shy Ted

I haven't done the fea exam but I did do surfacing and I would strongly recommend doing a lot of preparation for it. Time will be your enemy, whereas you'd normally have loads of time left over with the other exams. This is not just my personal opinion, it has been stated a lot on the SW forums. It genuinely is a tough exam compared to the rest.
Can't say much for the fea exam myself but you'll be expected to do hand calcs as well. I'd like to attempt it at some time though. What's your book like?

Have you done any of the other exams?
Have you attended any of the formal training courses?

Turbulent Bill

I haven't used Solidworks Simulation hands-on, but I've seen other people using it and it seems a bit basic. Dedicated FE software like ANSYS would walk all over it, albeit they're usually a lot more expensive.

I'd check to see how widely used it is before doing specific training. General FE knowledge is very useful of course.

Shy Ted

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

I haven't used Solidworks Simulation hands-on, but I've seen other people using it and it seems a bit basic. Dedicated FE software like ANSYS would walk all over it, albeit they're usually a lot more expensive.

I'd check to see how widely used it is before doing specific training. General FE knowledge is very useful of course.

They all have their own merits. I wouldn't say ANSYS would walk all over SW though. SolidWorks simulation is a very powerful tool and like ANSYS, it has to be verified against NAFEMS benchmarks.
SW has some advantages over ANSYS though, such as it will run an analysis much faster and it can be integrated into motion studies to extract loads.
Even SW Plastic can be used to extract residual stresses on a part for non linear analysis.
But in saying all of that, it does lack some of the functionality and stability that ANSYS has.

It probably seems basic because SW want designers to use simulation to quickly evaluate their own designs throughout the design process.
It's not basic, it's just a sensible user interface.

I think SW simulation is more widely used though. SW is probably the most popular 3D modelling software available on the market, and companies will be more likely to upgrade to the simulation add-in than pay out 4-5 times more for ANSYS.
My personal opinion is that SW simulation is for part time FEA to compliment mechanical designs, whereas ANSYS is more dedicated for full time structural/stress engineers.

If you want to gain new skills and bulk up the CV, stick with SW simulation.
If you want a career as a stress engineer, then learn ANSYS.

Turbulent Bill

Shy Ted wrote: »

It probably seems basic because SW want designers to use simulation to quickly evaluate their own designs throughout the design process.
It's not basic, it's just a sensible user interface.

That's true, the output I saw looked a bit dumbed - down but maybe there's levels of detail I didn't see.

I've done a reasonable amount of multiphysics simulations in ANSYS, and it naturally handles the complexities of these. I really doubt whether SW could do this, but it might be fine for straight structural sims. The OP might need to choose between ease of use (SW) and flexibility (ANSYS).

Shy Ted

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

I've done a reasonable amount of multiphysics simulations in ANSYS, and it naturally handles the complexities of these. I really doubt whether SW could do this, but it might be fine for straight structural sims. The OP might need to choose between ease of use (SW) and flexibility (ANSYS).

I'd say you're probably right there. Personally, I wouldn't like to trust SW simulation without physical trials but it seems that Ansys is widely accepted when used by a knowledgeable person.