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Product category: FEA and structural analysis software
News Release from: SolidWorks Corporation | Subject: Cosmos 2004
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 29 August 2003

Analysis tools suit designers at every
skill level

SolidWorks reckons it has put sophisticated design analysis within the reach of every designer with major upgrades to its Cosmos analysis applications.

SolidWorks reckons it has put sophisticated design analysis within the reach of every designer with major upgrades to its Cosmos analysis applications Enhancements to CosmosWorks, CosmosFloWorks and CosmosMotion make the Cosmos products the first to put advanced finite element analysis (FEA) features in an affordable package that's easy enough for designers of all skill levels to use

Performance upgrades that enable solvers to use processor cycles more efficiently make the Cosmos family anywhere from 10 to 15 times faster than comparable analysis applications.

The applications' speed and automated simplicity enable users to focus on perfecting designs with ongoing analysis throughout the design process.

More than 10,000 companies currently use Cosmos products to reduce their prototyping costs and cut time-to-market by producing accurate designs faster than the competition.

CosmosWorks 2004 enables users to test the behaviour of assemblies' without the complicated and time-consuming step of fully modelling component connectors - such as pins and springs - up front.

CosmosWorks 2004 also simplifies analysis with new usability features to simulate processes such as heat regulation using a thermostat with simple menu-driven commands that replace manual computations.

New visual and reporting features enable users to extract more precise results from their analyses.

The CosmosFloWorks 2004 flow analysis application performs analyses on a broader spectrum of machinery and materials, such as rotating machinery and more non-Newtonian fluids.

The CosmosMotion 2004 virtual prototyping application can break assemblies down into sub-assemblies for more precise testing.

Tightened integration with SolidWorks 3D mechanical design software enables users of all three Cosmos applications to analyse designs without re-entering data and switching between applications.

Today's Cosmos 2004 release coincides with SolidWorks' release of its SolidWorks 2004 mechanical design software.

More than half of the Cosmos family's upgrades came through feedback from users such as Jack Kleinfeld, PE, of NY-based Kleinfeld Technical Services.

Kleinfeld, a CosmosWorks user, asked for more sophisticated reporting tools so he could better represent results to his customers.

"I'm very pleased with SolidWorks' responsiveness.

They've made the product much more usable and efficient so I can give better results to my customers", Kleinfeld said.

"For example, calculating the average heat flow across a surface now takes one step using two numbers.

Before it could have taken a thousand steps using a thousand numbers - if I chose to do it at all".

The ability to run such complex calculations without time-consuming manual work enables users to weave analysis into every phase of the design cycle without slowing it down.

Testing frequently saves time and expense by cutting back on the use of expensive physical prototypes to determine whether a design will perform properly.

The CosmosWorks, CosmosMotion, and CosmosFloWorks 2004 applications match analysis processes to real-life workflows, eliminating repetitive data input and reducing opportunity for error.

Each product also has specific enhancements in its own realm that enable designers to perform sophisticated analysis without laborious manual processes.

CosmosWorks 2004 simplifies assembly simulation with three new features that enable designers to model three commonly used assemblies: pin connectors that join assemblies such as mechanical arms; spring connectors that provide flexible resistance in assemblies such as shock absorbers; and elastic supports such as soft beds that absorb vibrations from machinery.

Simplified assembly simulation enables designers to analyse their designs without much of the repetitive manual work of modelling these structures.

In CosmosWorks 2004, designers simply enter values into a pull-down menu and the software simulates a pin, spring, or elastic support.

For a mechanical arm joined by pins, for example, the designer would select each pin location and run the analysis to determine how the mechanical arm would behave if the pins locked up.

In addition to its new modelling features, CosmosWorks 2004 has also made strides in ease of use by incorporating features such as: added heat transfer capabilities such as a new thermostat that simulates on/off switching of a heat source based on temperature sensors and surface-to-surface radiation heat; the ability to simulate buckling due to thermal effects; single-file storage for analysis data that simplifies management; adjustable vector plot visuals that make analyses easier to read than one-size-fits-all visuals; and tighter integration with SolidWorks 2004 that eliminates re-entering design data to perform analysis.

CosmosWorks 2004 automatically uses SolidWorks 2004 data to define the physical properties of materials in assemblies and reads data from the CosmosXpress analysis embedded in SolidWorks 2004.

CosmosWorks 2004 can also schedule analysis runs in SolidWorks 2004 task scheduler.

The CosmosFloWorks 2004 flow analysis application features automated data transfers to CosmosWorks 2004 that enable designers to perform structural and flow analysis in the same simulation.

This "multiphysics" capability is unique to CosmosFloWorks 2004.

The software also simulates flows in rotating machinery such as turbine blades with a new "rotating frame of reference" feature, and supports analysis of more non-Newtonian fluids, such as chocolates and molten plastics.

New for 2004, the CosmosMotion virtual prototyping application supports subassembly motion analysis.

This gives users the ability to leave a subassembly as a rigid group of parts, or to move specific parts in a subassembly to test their behaviour.

Testing specific subassemblies yields more accurate results and helps users root out redundancies in their designs.

"Our goal is to make every engineer and designer into an analyst without forcing them to take specialised training or learn complicated, expensive software", said Suchit Jain, Vice President for Analysis Products at SolidWorks Corp.

"Our Cosmos 2004 products represent the biggest stride yet toward sophisticated analysis software that's easy enough for everyone to use and economical enough to deploy widely in any organisation".

CosmosWorks 2004, CosmosFloWorks 2004 and CosmosMotion 2004 will be available in the third quarter of 2003.

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