Setting up a simulation workflow

You can set up and run a SimForm project by uploading your CAD file, categorizing components, selecting materials, and running simulations.

The following steps define the general workflow for setting up and running a project in SimForm.


Step	Description	Detailed help topic
1. Create a project	Create one of the following project types: Part Evaluation Project to run thermal analyses on your plastic part to estimate achievable cooling time and predict critical areas that will need extra cooling, even before the mold is designed. Tooling Evaluation Project to run thermal analyses on preliminary cooling designs, including conventional and conformal cooling channels. Channel Design Project (beta) to generate recommended cooling-line locations, place channels in the recommended regions, and evaluate their cooling performance.	Create a project
2. Create a job	Create a job and upload your CAD file to evaluate a specific mold or plastic part design.	Create a job
3. Categorize the mold components	Define the mold properties according to your analysis type as follows: For feasibility and channel recommender jobs, in the mold material card, select the mold material. For a channel assessment job with the basic mold mode disabled, assign the mold bodies to the mold group cards and select the appropriate materials for each mold group. This step ensures that the software can correctly identify the mold parts. For a channel assessment job using a basic mold, in the basic mold card, specify the basic mold size and select its materials. This allows the SimForm app solver to correctly identify the mold components in your CAD model and consider their material properties in the thermal analysis.	Define the mold for a channel assessment job Define the basic mold Define the mold for feasibility and channel recommender jobs
4. Categorize the plastic part components	Assign the plastic part bodies to the plastic part panel and select the appropriate materials for them. This step ensures that the software can correctly identify the plastic parts.	Define plastic part properties
5. (Optional) Categorize cooling channels	This step is only available for the channel assessment job type. Assign the cooling channel bodies or faces to the channels card, and specify their inlets and outlets, if your model contains cooling channels. This step ensures that the software can correctly identify the cooling channels.	Categorize channels using body selection Categorize channels using face selection
6. (Beta) Specify the manufacturing constraints	This step is only available for the channel recommender job type. Define the manufacturing parameters for your mold design, such as the coolant inlet temperature, the minimum distance between channels and the plastic part, and the channel diameter.	Define manufacturing constraints
7. Run the simulation	Submit your job to simulate the mold cooling process.	Run the simulation
8. View the results	Analyze the simulation results to understand what design features are driving the cycle time.	View results
9. (Optional) Run iterations	Create and set up multiple jobs within the same project to simulate different design variations of your mold or plastic part, until your design is optimized to produce a higher quality part with a lower cycle time.	Create a job