
A couple of months ago we [Autodesk] released Project Simulus on Autodesk Labs. Project Simulus is free simulation technology for all, powered by Autodesk 360. That's right, we are giving anyone who wants it, a free Linear Static, Modal and Thermal simulation tool. There are some great videos out there to show you how to set up a simulation, simplify your model, edit your model, and interpret results in Project Simulus.
I wanted to walk you through some of the things I noticed when I first kicked the tires on Project Simulus.
First off, Simulus has a startup screen that lets you create a new study, open an existing simulation file, videos on using Simulus, etc. I threw caution to the wind and decided to bypass the tutorials and see what kind of damage I could do.

When starting a new study in Simulus, you get to set the default settings right out of the gate as you choose the type of simulation you are planning to run. I found this handy, since I had a model in mind I was planning on running a Linear Static Stress study on.

Right away I was prompted to choose a CAD model to simulate. Hey, Project Simulus is free...so, I don't want to hear any complaining about it's file import options. Plus, I use Autodesk Inventor...so, I think it has more than enough options.

Right away I thought the interface looked really familiar. Perhaps like Fusion or Fusion for Mac. And it has a bit of Fusion goodness under the hood (more on that later). There is the familiar ribbon toolbar along the top, along with the browser on the right side of the UI that is already listing out critical simulation criteria I need to define.

Like any curious tech-nerd, I immediately flipped through as many toolbars as I could to see what options I really had inside of Simulus. The ribbon switches between the Setup, Simplify, Idealize, Solid, Results and Compare tools. Right off, I was pretty excited to get to try some of these out. Fusion based simplification and modeling tools? In a free simulation tool? Yeah, I'm paying attention now.

Initially, I wanted to define some materials and set up a straight forward simulation. Right in the browser, you can simply select the Edit button to define your matierals. I, conveinently, brought in an Inventor assembly so all of my materials that were defined in my CAD system came directly into Simulus. If I wanted to, I could change any of them right in Simulus as well.

Check this out, by using the Simplify toolbar you can simply click the target symbols to include/exclude parts from the simulation. No more simulation specific assembly configurations/LODs/etc! You can also choose to Hide/Show the excluded components.

Oh, by the way, you can us some Fusion powered model editing to simplify your model too.

By simply using the icons on the Setup toolbar, I added Constraints and Loads as well as defined the Contacts between the components (you can define contact sets, or set a global default).

And here is where I was really curious. Solving. Lets see what this whole Autodesk 360 Cloud thing brings to the table.


3 minutes and 15 seconds later, I had some results. Project Simulus has some really nice ways of looking at your study results. from the standard stress plots and animation to automatically highlighting critical points of interest.


And a few of the other things that stuck out to me. You have access to the Marking Menus that you have come to know and love throughout the other Autodesk Products as well as the ability to leverage Autodesk 360 to Save, Solve and Share your simulation.

Go to Autodesk Labs and give Project Simulus a whirl for yourself.
-lw