SimScale vs. SOLIDWORKS

SimScale has a quick learning ramp. This is due to the excellent staff at SimScale. I've had interns in their 2nd year of a BSME degree pick this program up and solve some difficult incompressible flow simulations. They love it and I love that we can iterate so quickly on a tool that doesn't stop their other design work. We can run a simulation and get back to designing in CAD. We get notified when the simulation is done. It's great! Give it a try for free and see for yourself.

Incentivized

As a mechanical engineer, it is one of the best tools to just start modeling and engineering with. The UI tools are intuitive and engineering analysis such Mold Analysis, FEA, are great! Other 3D CAD modeling tools have a longer learning curve to master. All in all, if you're not planning to design an entire airplane with large assembly files, then Solidworks is your tool!

Incentivized

• Material non-linear analysis.
• Geometric non-linear analysis.
• Meshing.

Incentivized

• The collaborative work environment is a cool and useful feature where groups of people can work on the same model at the same time, and SOLIDWORKS ensures that you don't overwrite each other's work.
• The ease and amount of customization options are very useful for creating a personalized and intuitive user interface, whether SOLIDWORKS is your native CAD package or not.
• It is very easy to quickly edit a model you have already created. The software allows sketch and feature editing without having to take the time to actually enter the sketch/feature environment.
• The use of configurations and configurations-specific dimensions in the same sketch is very useful for creating different forms of the same part

Incentivized

• Learning from tutorials is great, but limiting. The online help is a must.
• Some simulations take a lot of time, but at least it's not on your PC.
• Sometimes the software times out due to the server.

Incentivized

• To date, the baked in surfacing tools lack power compared to dedicated surfacing software.
• In a similar vein, the core modeling kernel is not owned by SOLIDWORKS themselves and so there exists limitations with regards to implementing certain modeling/math.
• SOLIDWORKS is playing catchup to other online vendors of CAD (notable OnShape); instead of being the once leader, they are being forced to compare themselves. This, however, may work to their advantage and in turn allow them to produce a better on-line CAD tool.

Incentivized

I had a great experience with SimScale but we only used the software for a short period of time to complete the current design requirements. It is not a software that we would continually subscribe to. Next subscription event would occur when there is a design requirement to do so.

Incentivized

We have absolutely no reasons to not keep with SolidWorks for the foreseeable future.

Incentivized

I have been using SOLIDWORKS for around 12 years as of writing this review, so have learned where most things are and how they work. When first starting out it was quite daunting, but the interface is well laid out with like functions near each other which made finding new functions relatively easy.

Incentivized

We have an unusual arrangement. We don’t pay for support, but we’re partnered with a VAR for second-tier support.

I work with other users if I have questions but when we’ve had to ask the VAR, they always have answers. It appears that all of the VARs have access to a support platform from DS SOLIDWORKS that helps them answer most questions.

Incentivized

We chose to go with SimScale based mostly on capital cost. Competitors have a large upfront cost and also require expensive hardware to properly run them. Even their subscription cost is competitive with the annual cost of others.

Incentivized

Onshape is a direct competitor. It has great entry level pricing and it is easy to access with no installation required. Being a web based app there is sometime some lag being based in NZ. Management also have concerns over where the data is stored on the cloud. With SW we can control where it is stored

Incentivized

• We've been able to iterate through a large number of designs more quickly than we would have without a CFD simulation, and also compared to the time it would have taken to prepare most other CFD simulations.
• Affordable price, and it prevented us from needing to invest in expensive computing equipment.
• Help from the support team also sped up the process of modeling different scenarios!

Incentivized

• Hard to answer directly. Given our customer's needs, we absolutely have to have SW to open their file types.
• Given the relatively limited use we need at our company, it would be useful to have a cheaper option that was more stripped down but still had some capabilities. Something in-between SW and eDrawings, for example. SW is very capable and expensive, eDrawings is free and super limited. Would be nice to have a middle option.

Incentivized