Mechanical Technology

Mechanical Technology — October 2015

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Computer-aided engineering

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ptimisation is the next logical

step, driving a paradigm shift

that replaces trial and error

engineering with a new way

of conceptualising designs. In lieu of the

traditional iterative process in which en-

gineers create, test, and validate designs

Optimisation drives 3D printing design

Polaris, a snowmobile manufacturer, is driving efficiencies and design

improvements throughout its engineering workflow, thanks to the use of

Altair’s OptiStruct and solidThinking Inspire software tools.

Simulation-driven design has dramatically altered the engineering landscape, helping companies condense

development cycles, better refine products, and greatly diminish costs. Gronum Smith develops the argument

and highlights the benefits of Altair’s OptiStruct and solidThinking Inspire software tools.

only to identify problems, make changes,

and start all over again, optimisation-led

design enables engineers and designers

to conceptualise ideas in a more efficient

manner.

Optimisation leads organisations

down a different path toward greater

innovation, the exploration

of light-weighting oppor-

tunities and the discovery

of potential failure modes

that might not be vis-

ible to the average design

engineer.

However, the dynamic

duo of simulation and

optimisation has primarily

been limited to domain

experts, often only tapped

mid-stream or later in the

design cycle. Limited ac-

cess to these new tools

amid proven legacy design

practices exacerbates the

highly iterative and time-

consuming design process,

requiring multiple hand-offs between

design engineers and CAE specialists,

which does little to streamline workflows

or help teams achieve optimal results.

Optimising early provides a variety of

benefits. Design concepts are more likely

to meet requirements, minimising the

back and forth between team members.

Optimising during the early concept stage

also gives engineering organisations a

jumpstart on identifying optimal struc-

ture, system, materials distribution, and

weight targets while improving safety,

durability, and other performance at-

tributes. The end result is a streamlined

development process, which cuts back on

costly prototypes and ensures aggressive

time-to-delivery objectives are met.

Altair opens up simulation and optimi-

sation practices to mainstream engineers

and designers alike. For traditional CAE

experts, Altair offers OptiStruct, a proven

structural analysis solver that tackles

complex linear and non-linear problems

under both static and dynamic loads.

With its built-in finite element and mul-

Altair’s solidThinking Inspire 2015

The 2015 version solidThinking Inspire

has been released, promising

increased speed, accuracy and better support for assemblies. Gronum

Smith, South African country manager for parent company, Altair, along

with David Anderson, founder and principal mechanical engineer of Exact

Engineering, introduce the release.

he latest generation of Inspire

combines faster geometry functions

with an updated user interface,

which significantly expand the

scope and complexity of problems that can

be addressed. Several new functions have

been added based on the most common

requests from the Inspire user community.

These include: Fasteners (bolts or screws),

Joints (pins or sliding pins) and Contacts

(bonded, contact, or no contact). Leveraging

these capabilities, Inspire users can now

easily model, optimise, and analyse complex

model assemblies.

“Professionals using Inspire rely on

its ability to simulate realistic loading

conditions,” says Smith. “With support

for assembly optimisation, users can now

incorporate a surrounding structure into

their optimisations and gain a deeper

understanding of the relationship between

multiple components.”

Adds Exact Engineering’s David Ander

son: “Designing components for high perfor-

mance applications has never been easier.

solidThinking Inspire lets my team explore

optimised designs at the beginning of the

development process and gets us started on

the right foot. The tool consistently helps us

deliver lighter, stiffer parts for a wide variety

of products.”

Key updates for Inspire 2015 include:

• Fasteners and joints

, which allow mul-

tiple parts in a model to be connected

using bolts, screws, pins or sliding pins.

Inspire’s workflow identifies areas in the

model with aligned holes to make the

process easy and intuitive.

• Contacts

, which enables users to desig-

nate whether neighbouring parts should

be bonded, contacting, or have no

contact for more realistic optimisation

results.

• Gravity loads:

G loads can now be added

to a model through the Model Browser.

• Updated user interface:

To accom-

modate the new tools offered in Inspire

2015, a new ribbon style interface

organises the tools into tabs. Users are

able to customise the tabs to tailor the

workflow to their process.

• Faster geometry functions:

Geometry

functions in the program are running up

to 300% faster than previous versions

of Inspire.

“solidThinking Inspire enables design en-

gineers, product designers, and architects

to create and investigate structurally ef-

ficient concepts quickly and easily, leading