Product category:
3D CAD software
News Release from: SolidWorks Corporation | Subject: SolidWorks, Cosmos/Works and Cosmos/DesignStar
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 28 June 2002
Software helps students compete at SAE
competition
Cosmos analysis and simulation software is playing an integral role in the creation of tournament vehicles for college-level competitions sanctioned by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).
Cosmos analysis and simulation software is playing an integral role in the creation of tournament vehicles for college-level competitions sanctioned by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Teams impressed competition judges with safety features and analysis capabilities
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 31 Jan 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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SolidWorks 3D CAD software has been installed as a teaching tool for engineering students at University of California Berkeley.
Engineering students from California State University at Sacramento and the University of California at Irvine attribute their success in the competition to design and analysis capabilities found in SolidWorks, Cosmos/Works, and Cosmos/DesignStar software.
The annual SAE tournaments, including the Mini-Baja and Formula SAE competitions, call on college students to display their engineering design projects and compete with one another.
The Mini-Baja contest, sponsored by Briggs and Stratton required student teams to design, build, test, and promote their off-road Mini-Baja vehicles.
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Competitors in the Formula SAE contest designed and fabricated small, formula-style racing cars from scratch.
Vehicles were judged based on static inspection and engineering design, solo performance trials, and high performance track endurance.
James Strayer, a senior mechanical engineering major at UC Irvine, used SolidWorks 3D CAD software and Cosmos/Works analysis software to design and analyse the suspension uprights on his formula racing car entry.
Cosmos/Works is fully integrated with SolidWorks software, making it easy for students to design projects quickly.
Strayer cited Cosmos/Works' ease of use as a key factor in helping to design and test his racing car in record time.
"Because I used SolidWorks to design the car, I didn't have to continually switch over to the analysis program - Cosmos/Works works within the user interface, making it easy to design a component and then conduct analysis.
Cosmos/Works is so much easier to learn than other analysis packages.
It took a little more than 15 minutes to run the 3D stress analysis calculations on my design.
To conduct that same analysis by hand would have taken hours.
I've tried to learn other analysis software and found it extremely difficult to grasp and time consuming to use.
Cosmos/Works is very simple and efficient, and its integration with SolidWorks makes designing complex parts so easy".
Aaron Martin, a senior engineering major at California State Sacramento, used Cosmos/DesignStar for his team's Mini-Baja analysis requirements.
Aaron's team tested suspension components for a 3G pump, which measures the impact created by rough terrain.
The team also tested for axial loading and the constrain chassis.
"The judges stated that the safety features on our Mini-Baja vehicle were the deciding factor in helping us rank among the winners in the competition", Martin said.
"Cosmos/DesignStar enabled us to determine where the high stress concentrations were located in the vehicle prior to building the actual product.
These analysis procedures helped us build an incredibly light and safe vehicle, that would likely prevent dangerous rollovers".
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