SimWise is CAD neutral but provides three methods of using CAD assemblies for motion and FEA simulation.

• CAD Plug-ins or Add-ons that transfer geometry and assembly constraints in an associative manner to SimWise. Changes to the CAD model are reflected in the SimWise model.
• Native File Readers that directly read the CAD system database and convert the assembly geometry to SimWise.
• Neutral file formats such as STEP, IGES, Parasolids (x_t and x_b), ACIS, and STL.

CAD Plug-ins

Plug-in or Add-ons are available for the following CAD systems:

SolidWorks	Solid Edge	Autodesk Inventor	Creo Parametrics
Available Now	Available Q2 2012	Available Now	Available Q2 2012

The plug-in allows you to transfer a complete assembly model including constraints to SimWise with one click of a menu. During the transfer process associsativity links are built that connect the SimWise model to the CAD assembly. If a change is made to the CAD assembly it can be reexported to SimWise and only the changed portion of the model is updated in SimWise. Assembly constraints are mapped to SimWise constraints and where possible multiple lower order assembly constraints are converted to single higher order SimWise constraint.

Native File Readers

Assemblies can be read directly from the following CAD systems:

Catia V4

Catia V5

Unigraphics

Since data is only read from the CAD assembly file, associative links are not possible.

Neutral File Formats

The following neutral file formats are supported:

STEP

IGES

VDA-FS

Parasolids

ACIS