FEA Workstation

[alphad]

Is it possible to setup an engineering server on network and run SolidWorks(with FEA)? We have engineers in several locations and wish to setup a powerful server to share. My VAR is telling me that SolidWorks is not supporting server architecture at all. If so, how do you deal with it? In your company, do you have a designated "special/powerful" workstation for that purpose?

Alphad

 

[ctopher]

I would use something like PDMWorks. Store the files on one main server, check them out, then run the FEA locally.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[alphad]

Running it locally is currently what we do. But, it basically takes over the workstation and can't contiune normal engineering work. If it takes longer than 2-3 hours per cycle, then, what would you do?

Alphad

 

[ctopher]

It would take longer running it from a server, unless you have good network and hardware speed.
When I used to run FEA at my last company, we let it run overnight, or lunch for small parts. A 6-8 hour run was typical for our bigger designs, on a quad-core.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[TheTick]

You definitely don't want to perform FEA over a network connection.

BAck when I used MSC NASTRAN, I had a second disk drive installed on my workstation. That drive was used only for FEA data files (those generated during the actual analysis). That way, the data read/write did not interfere with the normal system processes that needed to read/write the C: drive.

I'm not sure how the above would apply to COSMOS. Might help.

If FEA is taking time away from a design workstation, maybe get a separate workstation for FEA. Even if it is older and slower, at least it is not stopping your workday.

Honesty may be the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

-SolidWorks API VB programming help

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Could a FEA cluster (like a Render Farm) be used to speed up the more time consuming runs?

 

[alphad]

If I combine all of the above answers:
SolidWorks can be installed and run on servers, correct?

Depending on network/server setup, the performance varies. If the data read/write during FEA number crunching occurs on the server (not your local hard disk) configured with high-speed RAID 5 hard disk array with 2X minimum quad-core CPU and plus the other proper configuration, the overall performance should be better than a typical engineering workstation.
I hope I read it correctly and understood correctly.
Anyone out there actually running SolidWorks on a network server? I want to confirm what I've been told by VAR is wrong. Thank you very much for your response.

Alphad

 

[ctopher]

The license runs on a server, the application is installed on your workstation. The files and folders installed on a shared server, temporarily on your hard drive for editing/FEA.
Performance is based on hardware, etc.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

You may well be able to get SW to install and run on a Windows Server OS, but it looks like it will not be supported by SW.

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

eDrawings and the SNL is supported on a Windows Server OS.

Maybe I'm mis-interpreting your intentions. If the server is running a regular non-server Windows OS, then yes you will be able to install and run SW locally on that server computer.

However, there is a big difference between running SW locally on a server, and installing and running SW on a server for the purpose of accessing SW across a network on client computers.

Also, if people are accessing the server during the analysis, both the analysis and the remote accessing will be slower. Possibly even slower than a 'typical' engineering workstation.

In summary, a workstation dedicated for FEA would be best.

 

[EEnd]

I have worked with SolidWorks on a computer that I had connected through using the Remote Desktop functionality built into Windows. The graphics performance was abysmal, but it might suffice for your needs. You could: use Remote Desktop to connect to your dedicated FEA computer and launch the analysis on that computer. Once the analysis was completed, you could save the results and copy them to your local workstation for viewing. The dedicated FEA computer would likely need its own license of SolidWorks as it is being accessed by multiple users who could also be using their licenses on their own computers.

Eric

 

[GRF]

I would not run solidworks via a remote desktop. I am not sure what type of simulation you are going to be running but, Flow Simulation can be run on a remote computer. Provided the software is install on the remote computer and it is turned. When you set the simulation to run you can tell it to use x-machine and it will off load a good deal of the processing work to that machine. The mesh must be created on your local machine though. I have done this before but only on a trial basis and have not done any real time testing. I know that when I did that I did not notice nearly as much of a performance hit as when I ran the simulation on my local machine.

This is a opportunity to save a significant amount of money for your company though. If you have more than 1 person who is going to be running the simulation it would make sense to by 1 super workstation (not server) with 64bit windows and have everyone run their simulations remotely. Otherwise you will need to get a lot of 64bit workstation for the individuals to run the simulations. I was constantly fighting with simplifying simulations so though would run on my old 32bit workstation with 3GB of useable RAM.
If you are using a network license you will not use anymore licenses also. The remote machine will not check out a license. Only the license on the machine you are sitting at would pull a license.

 

[SBaugh]

Please post all your Simulation questions in the proper forum - forum1183: SolidWorks: Simulation/FEA (COSMOS)

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[takedownca]

I know almost nothing about how to implement it, but you might want to check out Terminal Server. A friend mentioned installing it at his company so CAD operations could be done from any computer. I would think the same would hold true for FEA.