Industrial engineering is innately a complex landscape.
With internal processes like material optimization, space, and weight design, accessibility in play, it takes a significant amount of iterations to get desired results. What follows is a colossal investment of time, resources, and energy.
This makes simulation software an indispensable part of every industrial engineer’s life.
Removing the guesswork, simulation software ensures you get a preview of your final product design closest to a real-world scenario. This way you end up having a lean and agile product development cycle while optimizing your development costs simultaneously.
But here’s the thing.
Choosing the right simulation software for your engineering process in itself is an ordeal. With almost every other tool claiming to have similar capabilities, it is often overwhelming to take a confident decision.
But fret not.
In this blog post, we offer you five tips that will guide you in identifying and selecting the simulation software that is best suited to your needs.
5 tips that every engineer needs to learn about simulation software in 2021
The best engineering simulation software are unique in their capabilities yet are the same in one core element.
They are all focused to bring you performance in the least possible time investment. Each of them is user-friendly, fast, and can deliver quality results. But that is not all that you need to validate before you finalize your tool.
There is a well-kept secret about simulation software. If you do not have a trained team to use the software, chances are your ROI (return on investment) expectations will fall flat.
It is always a viable plan to start with investing some resources in training a dedicated staff to use the software. This can depend upon the demands of your unique process and its related complexities.
Chances are you would end up spending more on training your team than the software which is a critical step towards success. But once you are through the training, you can start researching your tools option.
The following section would give you a detailed walkthrough of the five handy tips that you need to learn about simulation software in 2021.
1. Easy and quick installation and setup
If your tool of consideration does not support a hassle-free and quick installation, now is the time to rethink it. You are opting for the tool to alleviate your problems, not add another frustration in your workspace. This makes keeping an eye on the user interface of the software a prime metric to validate.
Any average simulation software’s learning curve is steep in itself. If the software does not support a precognitive interface and smooth experience working on it as an engineer can become a daily hassle.
Another pro tip here would be to check the overall design of the software. Does it nudge you enough to use the software? If so, how often. Answering this critical question can ensure you team up with the software that suits your needs.
2. Seamless and flexible
One of the primary elements that contribute to an efficient engineering process is the design workflow. This means if your software disrupts your existing workflow it is potentially going to do more harm than benefit.
Your ideal software should be flexible enough to integrate itself into your existing process while streamlining it simultaneously. This makes CAD integration such an important criterion for performance.
If your simulation software is limited when it comes to CAD integrations, chances are you will slow down your complete design process. On the contrary, opting for such software that supports CAD improves the model preparation time. This makes simulation software adoption easy and simple.
3. Robust support
Let’s just assume you chose the most feature-rich, precognitive software for your process. But then it is practically impossible to never run into any issues while using the software. Isn’t it?
This is the exact reason why customer support is so critical for determining the overall success of the software. Sure, the performance of software comes into account in the foundations but to truly transform your design process, you would need optimal usage of the software.
Software that comes with highly accessible and quick troubleshooting services is the one that proves to be most effective in the long term.
There is so much that the best software offers today. From clear, search engine indexable documentation to how-to video tutorials and live chat support.
4. Powerful meshing capabilities
One of the most critical stages in the industrial design process is meshing. Done right, it can turn the complete trajectory of your design venture.
But here’s the thing.
Meshing, as it is important is also time-consuming, traditionally.
Assume a situation where you have successfully completed your design development and have processed it for design analysis. But your software’s method takes forever to complete the analysis process. What follows is time delays in reiteration and final product launch.
But automatic meshing also known as adaptive meshing can streamline this process easily.
5. 360-degree performance
It might not occur to you at the first sight, but accuracy and speed are two integral parts of the performance of your simulation software.
No matter how feature-rich or promising the capabilities may appear, if your software takes forever to process small tasks, your investment is already at a loss. What’s worse?
Inaccurate results not only fail to speed up your process but misleads you in the wrong direction.
This means before you make your final decision, you need to ensure two factors. Your software is fast, enabling multiple simulations and directional insights. Also, look at whether the results are precise, enabling you to make confident decisions for reliable prototypes.
Conclusion
Industrial design is and will always be hard. There is no word to stress enough the complexities involved inside the process for building one viral product.
Sure, with advanced software and technology these problems can be alleviated. But the core work is still on you, the engineer.
Learning and gaining fluency in the software is just one piece. The majority of the work starts with proper planning. There is no substitute for brainstorming ideas and predicting their outcomes mentally. Keep the designer’s curiosity on. There would be times when your software could render unpredictable results. You need to dive deep to find the ‘why’.
The best meshing that you can perform here is your unique designer capabilities and the software in use. Done right, you would realize the most iconic designs of your professional life.
Author bio
Atreyee Chowdhury works full-time as an Instructional Designer. She has helped many small and medium-scale businesses achieve their content marketing goals with her carefully crafted and compelling content. She lives in Bangalore, India. You can reach her on Linkedin or write to her at atreyee.c@gmail.com.
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