SimScale Reviews

4.5
Overall rating
Reviews

4.5
Overall rating
Reviews
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User Reviews Overview

About SimScale

SimScale is a full-cloud engineering simulation platform that enables engineers and designers to perform CFD, FEA, and thermal simulations. It provides a single platform with broad physics capabilities, allowing engineers to...

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Feature ratings

Value for Money
4.5
Functionality
4.1
Ease of Use
4.3
Customer Support
4.7

Browse SimScale Reviews

142 of 142 reviews
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Paras
Paras
  • Industry: Printing
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 27/07/2019

Detailed & Easy

Pros

I am an OpenFOAM user and I like the freedom it gives the user to play with the parameters. SimScale offers the same level of freedom but with an interface that's simple and effortless to handle. Since it is cloud-based there isn't any need to download it and even the free version provides a lot of computing hours.

Cons

I am still exploring the software and have enjoyed every bit of it. I would appreciate if the tutorials emphasize more on the values used while mesh refining as well as Numerics and Simulation Control.

Rupak
  • Industry: Oil & Energy
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 04/08/2023

A good CFD tool

It is a very good tool. The support is excellent. They are very responsive and get back with solutions to the issues. The tool is still under rapid development and is only likely to add more features with time.

Pros

SimScale has made a cloud native simulation platform that works seamlessly. Importing CAD from OnShape is extrememly easy, while you also have the option of importing from your computer. Setting up simulations is extremely easy and it is convenient to setup the default cases very quickly. It takes a bit more effort to figure out how to change away from the defaults and incorporate approaches which are no pre-built. The post processing is also quite easy. You can also download the results and post-process in ParaView which is very helpful and opens up lots of options.

Cons

Although the integration with OnShape is extremely good, it requires a separate license. A small set of CAD features within SimScale would be very helpful. All of the post processing is visual. The ability to output certain results in tables / plots would be helpful. A measuring tool within the simulation domain would be very helpful. When setting boundary conditions, it is sometimes very useful to have a measuring tool to get a idea of some dimensions.

Avash
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Monthly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
0

5
Reviewed on 14/09/2024

Functional CFD on Browser!

I am loving learning SimScale. It also seems generally popular because I was talking with a mechanical engineer the other day and he was also talking about how he did a project on SimScale. I wanted to simulate fluid flow on a square cuvette fixxed with a magnetic rotator and I was able to do it easily with SimScale.

Pros

I like that we can do computations on cloud. I also like there there are courses from SimScale directly that teaches us not only the way to use it ; but also guides us on projects that can be done with it. I think this is a very useful feature for beginners like me. I did some Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations through the guided project and became familiar with the software. Another thing I like about it is the fact that it is lightweight on browser resource consumption.

Cons

Honestly, I don't have any complaints for SimScale. Sure, there could have been more advanced features but this is more than enough for most users.

Top SimScale Alternatives

Mark
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
2
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
2

2
Reviewed on 10/07/2017

CFD + Customer Service need work

Pros

Speed
Ease of use/understanding
Complete control; SimScale has built-in options that allows more advanced users better control
Customer support responds quickly

Cons

I worked on a project evaluating SimScale for use in a professional setting and the software was unable to provide accurate results for a simple CFD simulation that I worked on with customer support for quite some time. They were responsive, but seemingly unable to find any issue with my solution that would only converge with unreliable results, if at all. Soon, they stopped responding. It just looks like the implementation of OpenFoam for CFD and the support staff are not at the level they need to be for SimScale to work for us right now. Hopefully things will improve in the future!

Response from SimScale

Dear Mark,

Thanks a lot for your feedback! I am sorry to hear that you didn¿t have a positive support experience. We treat the success of our customers as our success. So we aim at answering all user questions with effective solutions that help them get the job done faster. It seems like we didn¿t achieve that in your case. After a review of the support logs, it looks like this is what happened: Our support team answered via the live chat but you were already offline. Then the automatic follow-up email that is sent in case a user doesn¿t read the chat message wasn't sent out. This is currently being investigated to ensure it doesn¿t happen in the future.

In case you¿re willing to give SimScale a second chance, our support team would love to help you be successful with your next CFD project. If there is anything in addition we can do to help remedy your experience, feel free to reach out to me directly.

All the best,

David Heiny
Managing Director and Co-Founder of SimScale

Replied 17/07/2017
Jason
  • Industry: Chemicals
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 26/06/2023

Cost effective solutions in a rapid manner

Overall, my experience has been great with SimScale. I've been able to either work through challenges myself using the readily available documentation or as a last resort reach out to the customer support for a quick resolution.

Pros

SimScale is easy to implement since it is entirely web-based. Not IT restrictions or limitations as you might experience with other similar software. There is a tremendous user community and the customer support is excellent. The workflow in SimScale is linear and easily understood by users even with limited experience. The help files and documentation often help resolve any problems you might be experiencing with the simulations.

Cons

In my field dealing with pressure vessels and piping, it would be beneficial to have a way to model cracks in order to predict propagation that would align with Level 3 FFS assessments.

Alternatives Considered

Ansys Fluent and Simcenter STAR-CCM+

Reasons for Switching to SimScale

Cost, ease of implementation, ease of use, available documentation and customer service
Stewart
  • Industry: Food Production
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 14/03/2023

Good for Thermal Mass Transfer and High Velocity Gas Flow Analysis

I have improved, explained, or discounted a number of my designs with the help of SimScale. SimScale's strength is in CFD and Thermal Analysis.

Pros

Good support, tutorials and worked examples. SimScale is quite good for the casual user and the mathematics is well hidden. The default Numerics seem to work most of the time.

Cons

In my opinion the software is still a work in progress, especially the interface, but this is good in a way because there are always new improvements appearing.If the CFD default Numerics do not work the settings can quickly confuse and without support from the Simscale Support team I would worry. To increase the user base of CFD someone has to come up with more obvious terms and explanations in this space, e.g. when is it best to use Gauss Linear Limited Corrected instead of Gauss Linear Corrected? This is true of most CFD tools that I have experienced.

Rafael
  • Industry: Design
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 10/10/2023

Talleres Artificio Review

I see a lot of potential in Simscale, is a really good modeling tool and has a lot of tutorials and a quick answering customer support.

Pros

I like Simscale, because you can achieve really good results, is really easy to use and the support answers really fast if you have any questions. Also, I can keep using my computer for other things like making a report or editing the geometry for a new design.

Cons

Maybe Simscale should include in the future shell and beam elements.

Alternatives Considered

Ansys Discovery and SolidWorks Premium

Reasons for Choosing SimScale

I had a lot of issues with my computer mainly because of the RAM usage, also Inventor is really limited compared to Simscale.

Switched From

Inventor

Reasons for Switching to SimScale

Price and is easier to achieve good results.
Michael
  • Industry: Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Weekly for Free Trial
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
0

5
Reviewed on 26/07/2019

Easy to learn, even without previous FEA experience

I am an electrical engineer by training and don't routinely use FEA software in my current role. However, I had a problem that needed solving, no access to any other FEA packages, so I found SimScale. I probably won't be able to justify a fully licensed version, but the learning opportunity alone on the trial version is well worth your time investment.

The ease of use and how quickly I was able to run a basic simulation was amazing. Even importing geometry was easy.

Also very helpful is the ability to see how your solution is converging (or not). With that data you can make assessments about time step, mesh resolution, etc. It makes striking a balance between accuracy and computational intensity much easier to judge.

Pros

The online tutorials made this software very easy to gain a basic proficiency very quickly. The menu layout makes it easy to set simulation parameters and reduces the chance of missing something that will negatively impact the accuracy of your simulation.

Cons

So far I've found nothing that I don't like.

Patrick
Patrick
  • Industry: Defense & Space
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
0

4
Reviewed on 01/08/2019

Simscale evaluation

I compared the software with Ansys, which I used for many years, and it's getting close to provide me the same experience.

Pros

Cloud based, powerfull, easy to link with CAD

Cons

Not covering the dynamic explicit, post processing has been improved but still need improvement, no possibility to restart simulation in dynamic

Verified Reviewer
  • Industry: Telecommunications
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
0

5
Reviewed on 02/08/2019

All around support

Pros

It supports all types of 3D models and can be used from anywhere since it is cloud-based.

Cons

In the beginning, it is not very intuitive. Complicated simulations can become too much for the software.

Sai
  • Industry: Automotive
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 28/08/2023

Simple, beginner friendly and Elegant

I've had excellent experience with Simscale, enough to not let me look at another product.

Pros

The user interface is easy to use and improved over time. From Cutting Planes to Point Selection for Parameters, it is easy find the necessary study variables. The 'Core' system allows for rapid simulations for large problems. Making everything Automatic (unless otherwise specified) makes it user friendly. A large material selection for structural analysis.

Cons

Simulation estimates can be off. More CAD operations would help (example would be to split just faces instead of bodies).

samreet
  • Industry: Construction
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 15/09/2023

Excellent User interface and customer support

Overall experience is great. The largest difference that using Simscale makes is the turnaround time on projects, the GPU powered computing significantly reduces the runtimes with minimal runtimes if any, therefore speeding up projects we work on.

Pros

I primarily use Simscale for the Pedestrian Wind comfort simulation for large scale developments. Integrating simscale into out workflow has been seamless, and the user interface is especially friendlier as compared to other CFD products we have previously used. The parameter configuration process pre-simulations is very intuitive and ordered, akin to a structured list. The mesh generation is also impressive, as it can be much more forgiving on complex geometry that we use, and for any issues, the documentation is extensive available online, along with great customer support.

Cons

There definitely can be improvements but that can be said for a lot of things. For the majority of the time, the setup process is pretty handy as simscale takes care of things on the backend, but sometimes it could be nice to change some of the finer parameters in a simulation.

Amrit pal
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 04/11/2016

Amendment in model tree

Simscale is good simulation software and also your efforts toward beta version of post processing is really great but whenever I hover mouse arrow over some of the items of value editing interface such as Details of load Boundary conditions I do not feel that there is something related to properties after type option because some time it does not show expanded mode of details so as a result one can get confused where to fill up force properties.For this I advice you, Tell your front end web interface developer of software that Detail portion should be highlighted by some outlining so that One can easily find that something in this particular portion without reading details or you can write something easy their like ADD THE VECTORS etc. Instead of Only writing just DETAILS. and Same thing happens with hovering arrow over simulations tree,Indication of selecting particular term in this just highlighted by switching arrow in hand but efficient way to turn it highlighted or emphasized by changing color of terms ,Last one and very important ,You should add search engine to scene tree so that one can easily select search particular surface or entity so that Time of searching manually reduced Because It is very difficult search a entity from hundreds If you want to take look you can look over MSC FOOSA model tree search type .You Will get lot of help from that. Thank you

Response from SimScale

Thank you for your feedback, Amrit! We will look into it. We are working on improving the platform for our users on a constant basis, so your comments are very much appreciated!

Replied 24/11/2016
John
  • Industry: Design
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 29/09/2023

John Parsons with Elgin

It's been intuitive to use after a walkthrough with my coworker, and what I haven't understood I've been able to ask SimScale about directly.

Pros

The product is relatively easy to use, and the tips we've gotten from SimScale reps have been useful. It's been great working with Ricardo. The option to edit a model in CAD is nice too. Subtracting objects from each other is easier in SimScale than inventor.

Cons

I've had runs fail or time out without knowing exactly what went wrong. I believe I had too many mesh cells, but I don't think I knew what a good target was.

Eva
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 11/03/2017

Really cool simulation platform!

Hello,
I'm a student and I am part of the Formula Student. Therefor I wanted to learn Simscale after I participated in the FSG Workshop for Aerodynamics which was taught by Simscale. I think it is really practicable that it works cloud based. Therefor the simulations run through much faster and you can decide about the cores without having your CPU getting killed. :D
I think the workshops are awesome you can learn really fast. You get immediately support if you have an error with your simulation or some ideas to gain a solution for a specific technical problem. The project sharing function makes it easy to communicate with other Simscale Users so that they may help you if you have issues. I also like the different kinds of simulations they're offering. There's e.g. the CFD sector with compressible, multiphase and lots and lots of features.
The only sad thing is that it is not easy to handle for new customers or students. But with the workshops you may learn it if you want to so they give much effort to it to make it handsome and I think they do a great job. If you guys would improve the simulation program by making it easier to understand and handle it without converting everything in STL ASCII and maybe improve the CAD-handling in the program then it would be easier for students and for new users too and then I'll give 5 stars for ease of use too. The workshops are fine. :)

Dale
  • Industry: Aviation & Aerospace
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 25/11/2020

Impressive Experience

There is no other engineering interface that combines everything which SimScale has tackled.

Pros

It simplifies many extremely complex engineering disciplines into one interface.

Cons

Slow reactivity to new proven user features (like streamlined project commenting availability).

Chantel
  • Industry: Renewables & Environment
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 28/04/2023

SimScale use for Energyminer product development

We are very happy with SimScale, as it is an affortable solution for product development and testing and allows access to quality simulations without the hardware and time limitations.

Pros

The ease of use, the cloud based setup, which negates the need for hardware.

Cons

The post-processing could be improved to get a better picture of results and have more options on output measurements.

Thiago
  • Industry: Architecture & Planning
  • Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 18/07/2023

Reliable and easy to use!

Pros

Simscale is a fast and rather easy simulation software to use, whereas it gives accurate and reliable results for PWC analyses. It has many ways of displaying the results, which is a huge benefit.

Cons

So far, everything looks great. I think it would be great to have an integrated microclimate tool, to analyze UTCI and other thermal comfort metrics.

Jaime
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 30/11/2020

Good CFD platform for initiates

Good for quick and simple CFD analysis.

Pros

Ease of usage, web-based platform, parallel running capacity.

Cons

Lack of some powerful features in CFD, mesher is not the best.

Alternatives Considered

Ansys Fluent

Reasons for Switching to SimScale

Price, web-based.
Harald
  • Industry: Mechanical or Industrial Engineering
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 15/09/2017

An excellent tool for mechanical analysis

Shorter development cycles, more capability in analysis mechanical components during the design stage.

Pros

It has a great user interface. Projects can be shared, version managed, and worked on collaboratively. It offers easy access to state of the art open source FEA analysis algorithms without all the hassle.

Cons

The 3D view could be smoother. It looks as if they are rendering it on a server, instead of having a true webGL interface. But that is only a minor issue.

Julio
  • Industry: Business Supplies & Equipment
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 14/08/2023

It is a great software

Pros

The user interface and multiple simulation tools

Cons

That does not bring a CAD designer, it is only simulation, few post-processing options

Thomas
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Functionality
3
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
4

3
Reviewed on 07/10/2016

SimScale review

Core functionality of meshing and simulation is good. Simulation runtimes are reasonable. Biggest problem is sometimes simulation runs fail and the reason for the failure is not clearly presented. Latency in the web UI also leads to frustrations. The only time there should be a delay when a button is clicked in the web UI is when large data transfers happen.

Pros

Online access and non-local computation.

Cons

Hard to figure out why failures occur.

Response from SimScale

Hello Thomas, Thank you for your feedback! I'm really sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems with simulation run failures and latency. This is something we would definitely like to look into. Did you try to reach out to our support regarding the failure issues that you are experiencing?

Replied 07/10/2016
Yerko
  • Industry: Mining & Metals
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
4

4
Reviewed on 06/10/2016

Download pre procesador files

I'm really happy for this application on cloud, is easy to use and also has big power, but has is possible to download files post-proces and every all can use Paraview stand alone in the personal computer, i good like to download files like pre-procesator for Open Faom / Calculix /Su2 and also to mesh files.

Pros

Running on cloud.

Cons

Its imposible dowloand files pro-prosesator

Response from SimScale

Hi Yerko, it is possible to download files at every stage of the simulation:
(a) The mesh can be downloaded separately after successful creation.
(b) The simulation results can be downloaded for offline post-processing purposes.
(c) Post-processing can be done on SimScale platform and the screen-shot/plots can be downloaded as well.
You can use ParaView/ParaFoam to view the mesh and to do post-processing. In case you are still having problems with downloads, feel free to reach out to our support for help.

Replied 07/10/2016
Giampiero
  • Industry: Mechanical or Industrial Engineering
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
3

5
Reviewed on 30/11/2020

Good software

Good

Pros

cloud based
Power
Easy to use
alwaysunder development

Cons

not so cheap
No shell element
no 1d element

Jon
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 12/10/2016

Excellent Product with outstanding support and learning resources!

My experience with simscale has been great, the effort that has gone it ensuring a good user experience and workflow is clear and they done a great job. Ease of use far exceeds what i have found with other commerical products that are priced much higher. I especially commened the efforts that have been made in regards to learning resources which has made the transition from other software much easier. There are some area for inprovements such as the import of geometery which can sometime cause issues and the ability to pause simulations would also be extremly useful. Overall i have been very satisfied with the simscale product.

142 reviews