SOLIDWORKS Simulation Level 1 — Foundation: Linear Static Analysis

Course Overview

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Level 1 — linear static analysis of parts, taught the industry way: hand calculation first, then FEA.

Course Description

You already design parts in SOLIDWORKS. This course teaches you to prove they will hold. You will set up linear static studies that match the real part, read the right result at the right location, and check every number against a hand calculation before you trust it.

Each module follows the same pattern: a short concept lesson, a worked hand calculation, a step-by-step SOLIDWORKS demo, and three problems — guided, industry-style and challenge. You compare your FEA result with the hand result and aim for within 5%.

You will learn how to choose honest fixtures and loads, control the mesh, run a convergence study, tell a real stress concentration from a mesh singularity, pick the correct failure criterion, and report a factor of safety you can defend in a design review.

The course ends with a capstone: a real industrial bracket taken from load path to a two-page validation report.

What You Will Learn

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Explain how FEA works: nodes, elements, degrees of freedom and stiffness.
• State the assumptions of linear static analysis and when they break.
• Set up a complete static study: material, fixtures, loads, mesh, run, check.
• Read stress components, principal stress, von Mises, displacement and strain correctly.
• Use probe, path graphs, section clipping, iso clipping, sensors and reports.
• Create custom materials for Indian grades such as IS 2062 E250 and EN8.
• Choose von Mises, Tresca, max normal stress or Mohr-Coulomb for the material.
• Produce factor-of-safety plots without the common traps.
• Reproduce axial, torsion, bending and beam-shear results and match hand calculations.
• Apply torque, moments and simply supported conditions honestly on solid models.
• Run mesh convergence studies and know when to stop refining.
• Tell stress concentrations from singularities at sharp corners and fixed edges.
• Use split lines, bearing loads and remote loads to load only where contact happens.
• Check reaction forces and equilibrium on every study.
• Apply curved-beam theory where the straight-beam formula fails.
• Reduce models with planar and circular symmetry, plane stress and plane strain.
• Write a one-page validation sheet for every result.

Course Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, learners will be able to:

1. Understand FEA Fundamentals — Explain how geometry is split into elements and solved for displacement, then stress, and what that means for accuracy.
2. Build Honest Simulation Models — Choose material data, fixtures and loads that represent the real part, its supports and its contact areas.
3. Read Results Correctly — Select the stress or displacement component that matches the design question and report it at a meaningful location.
4. Apply the Right Failure Criterion — Calculate factor of safety with the criterion that suits ductile or brittle materials.
5. Validate Every Result — Compare FEA with classical hand calculations for axial, bending, torsion, combined and curved-beam cases.
6. Prove Mesh Convergence — Show that the reported result does not change with further refinement, and identify singularities.
7. Simplify Models Safely — Use symmetry and 2D studies only when geometry, material, loads and fixtures allow it.
8. Communicate Engineering Results — Produce a concise validation report with assumptions, set-up, convergence evidence and a clear pass/redesign verdict.

Skills You Will Develop

Who Is This Course For?

• Design engineers who use SOLIDWORKS daily
• Machine, product and fixture/tooling designers
• Sheet-metal and weldment designers moving into simulation
• Mechanical engineers preparing for a CAE or design-validation role
• Final-year students with SOLIDWORKS modelling skills

Prerequisites: SOLIDWORKS part and assembly modelling, and strength of materials at diploma/BE level. Module 0 refreshes the formulas.