How Onshape Simulation Simplifies Workflows

As an autumn treat, Onshape delivered a Simulation experience to its users. 

There was quite a bit of hubbub on the Onshape Forum and our social accounts after the release.

Since its release, Onshape Simulation already has been wowing the CAD community. But what can it really do? How does this feature work in a browser-based, cloud-native environment? How will it impact current workflows at your business?

Greg Brown, Onshape Vice President of Product Management, and Chrisopher Gromek, PTC Senior Product Manager, held a webinar explaining the ins and outs. Here are the highlights of what you should know about Onshape Simulation

What is Onshape Simulation?

Onshape Simulation is an intuitive decision support tool built into modeling workflows that provides structural analysis results such as stress, displacement, and factors of safety. It was specifically created for designers to test designs during the design process. 

“It provides structure simulation as a natural and intuitive part of assembly design,” Greg explains. “It offers the simplest possible workflow of any structural simulation application ever.”

Lastly, Simulation is an intrinsic part of the Onshape modeling environment. There’s nothing to install, nothing to download, and no drivers that need to be kept up to date. Any web browser that can run Onshape can run Onshape Simulation because it uses the same cloud-native GPU-powered computational resources.

Dive deeper into the nuts and bolts of Onshape Simulation by visiting the feature page.

Why Cloud-Native Simulation Now?

Strained supply chains and inflexible workflows are prompting business leaders to look for new solutions that create a flexible and agile product development process.

Today, engineers and designers are under pressure to shorten time-to-market while being able to innovate on the fly. This new generation is looking toward the future and seeking tools that’ll help take them there. 

And Onshape Simulation is just that tool.

How Onshape Simulation Simplifies Workflows

The simulation workflows of the past ranged from convoluted to difficult, but most importantly, took up valuable time. Take a look at a typical workflow below:

Onshape Simulation is built into the Onshape platform, meaning there’s no time spent researching the tools that are needed, then setting it up and learning how to use it with whichever CAD software.

“Because no designer wakes up and says I want to spend all day setting up the simulation,” Chris says. “Instead, they say, ‘I want to spend all day making a better product and simulation is a part of that.’”

When simulation tools are accessible from the CAD platform itself, it simplifies the data transfer between both tools, helping CAD designers make informed designs in real-time. There’s no reassigning part interaction for the simulation because it already knows.

Now, the Onshape Simulation workflow looks like this:

“The workflow gets even better as you use those results to inform your next design step,” Chris says. “Because we built Onshape Simulation directly into the same data model as the rest of the Document – a single source of data – any change will automatically propagate into the simulation results.”

“This is a truly real-time collaborative simulation,” Greg adds.

Stress Analysis Without the Stress

Another benefit related to saving time is the learning curve that comes with simulation. With Onshape Simulation, anyone who knows how to use Onshape, can dive right into structural simulation analysis.

“Our goal was that if you already know how to use Onshape Assemblies, you've already got the full training manual for Onshape Simulation, and you can get started right away,” Chris says.

The Simulation panel provides connectivity methods and visualization settings that provide users with plenty of testing options, providing the necessary information to build a robust product.

But there are only so many words that can describe the power of Onshape Simulation. Watch the on-demand webinar to see Onshape Simulation in action and hear from the experts themselves.