Mechanical and manufacturing simulation

While both are world-class finite element solvers, Simcenter Nastran and Simcenter Optistruct have distinct strengths that make each better suited to particular workflows. Simcenter Nastran is widely regarded as the gold standard for aerospace and defense structural analysis, offering deep support for aeroelasticity, rotor dynamics, and complex dynamic response — environments where certification traceability and solver fidelity are paramount. Simcenter Optistruct, by contrast, was architected from the ground up with optimization at its core, making it the preferred choice when lightweight design, topology exploration, or fatigue-driven optimization are primary objectives. Many organizations deploy both solvers within Simcenter Hypermesh, leveraging each where it excels while maintaining a consistent pre- and post-processing environment across their engineering teams.

Traditional finite element analysis requires significant time investment in geometry cleanup, defeaturing, and mesh generation — steps that can consume more engineering hours than the analysis itself. Simcenter Simsolid eliminates this bottleneck by using an advanced meshless technology that works directly on fully featured CAD geometry, including assemblies with hundreds of components, thin-walled parts, and complex contacts. Rather than replacing traditional FEA solvers like Simcenter Nastran or Simcenter Optistruct for final validation, Simcenter Simsolid is most powerful earlier in the design cycle, where rapid iteration and design space exploration are critical. Engineers can run meaningful structural assessments in minutes, identify load paths and problem areas, and arrive at detailed FEA with a far more mature design — compressing overall simulation timelines considerably.

Simcenter Radioss and Simcenter Madymo address complementary but distinct aspects of crash and safety simulation, and their combined use gives safety engineers a uniquely comprehensive toolchain. Simcenter Radioss excels at modeling the structural response of the vehicle itself — deformation of body-in-white structures, barrier interactions, and energy absorption behavior during high-speed impact events. Simcenter Madymo, meanwhile, specializes in the biomechanical response of vehicle occupants and pedestrians, accurately simulating dummy models, human body models, restraint systems such as seatbelts and airbags, and child safety seat interactions. By coupling Simcenter Radioss structural results with Simcenter Madymo occupant models, engineers can assess injury metrics such as head injury criterion (HIC), chest deflection, and femur loads within a single integrated workflow — enabling faster, more accurate compliance with global safety regulations including Euro NCAP, FMVSS, and UNECE standards.

One of the most challenging aspects of mechanisms simulation is accurately capturing the dynamic interplay between structural flexibility, active control logic, and realistic operating loads — and this is precisely where Simcenter Motionsolve distinguishes itself. Rather than treating bodies as purely rigid, Simcenter Motionsolve supports flexible body integration through Craig-Bampton component mode synthesis, allowing structural deformation to influence system-level dynamic behavior. Control systems — whether modeled natively or co-simulated with tools like Simulink — can be tightly coupled to the mechanical model, enabling hardware-in-the-loop style virtual testing. Simcenter Tire models feed in realistic road-load excitations, while connections to Simcenter Nastran or Simcenter 3D allow fatigue and stress recovery on flexible components directly from MBD results — creating a truly end-to-end loads and durability workflow.

Simcenter Optistruct and Simcenter Inspire both deliver powerful structural optimization capabilities, but they are designed for different users and stages of the product development process. Simcenter Optistruct is a solver-level tool offering the full depth of optimization mathematics — topology, topography, size, shape, and lattice optimization — with fine-grained control over constraints, manufacturing rules, and multi-load case scenarios. It is the tool of choice for simulation specialists who need to embed optimization within rigorous, validated engineering workflows. Simcenter Inspire, by contrast, presents optimization results through a highly visual, geometry-centric interface that makes generative design accessible to design engineers and industrial designers without deep FEA backgrounds. Used together strategically, Simcenter Inspire can rapidly generate and communicate optimized concept geometries early in development, while Simcenter Optistruct refines and validates those concepts to production-ready standards later in the process.

A part that performs perfectly in simulation but distorts during manufacturing can fail to meet assembly tolerances or structural requirements in service — making the link between manufacturing simulation and structural analysis critically important. Simcenter's part manufacturing simulation capabilities predict phenomena such as springback in sheet metal forming, residual stresses from welding and heat treatment, and distortion in additive manufacturing builds. Critically, these manufacturing-induced residual stress and geometry deviation results can be mapped directly into downstream Simcenter Nastran or Simcenter Optistruct structural analyses, allowing engineers to assess how the as-manufactured state — rather than the ideal CAD geometry — affects fatigue life, buckling resistance, and overall structural integrity. This closed-loop connection between manufacturing and structural simulation is a key enabler of first-time-right product development.