Why Use a Dedicated Manufacturing Simulation Solver?
General-purpose FEA can model a weld, a stamped part or a 3D print — but should it?
Most FEA solvers can, in principle, be configured to model a welding pass, a stamping operation or a metal 3D-print build. The question engineers should ask is not "can it be modelled?" but "will the result be accurate enough to trust before you cut metal?" This guide explains why Cadence's Simufact suite — covering welding, forming and additive manufacturing — exists as a dedicated platform rather than an add-on to a general-purpose solver, and when that distinction actually matters for your project.
What makes manufacturing process simulation different?
Structural FEA typically answers: "given this load, does the part survive?" Manufacturing process simulation answers a different question: "given this process — welding, forming, printing — what shape and material state will the part actually end up in?" That requires physics that general-purpose structural solvers are not built around by default:
- Coupled thermal, mechanical and metallurgical behaviour (phase transformations, hardness, microstructure)
- Large plastic deformation, contact and material flow (forming, forging)
- Layer-by-layer process history (additive manufacturing builds)
- Residual stress and distortion accumulated over an entire process sequence, not a single load case
A general FEA solver can be configured with the right material models and solved in enough load steps to approximate these effects. A dedicated solver like Simufact is built around them from the ground up, with validated material databases, process-specific solvers and defect-prediction workflows already in place.
What does Simufact provide that a generic solver doesn't?
Simufact is Cadence MSC Software's manufacturing process simulation suite, made up of three dedicated solvers — Welding, Additive and Forming:
| Simufact product | Process coverage | What it predicts |
| Simufact Welding | Arc, laser, electron beam, resistance, friction stir welding | Distortion, residual stress, heat-affected zone properties, phase transformation |
| Simufact Additive | SLM, EBM, DED (LMD/WAAM), binder jetting | Layer-by-layer distortion, residual stress, build failure risk, compensated geometry |
| Simufact Forming | Stamping, deep drawing, forging, rolling, ring rolling | Springback, material thinning/wrinkling, die wear, forming limits |
Each solver includes validated material databases with metallurgical transformation models, automated distortion compensation, and direct export of results (such as residual stress fields) into downstream tools like MSC Nastran and CAEfatigue for structural or fatigue assessment — something a generic FEA workflow would otherwise require significant manual setup to reproduce.
When is a general-purpose FEA solver still the right choice?
If the manufacturing effect you care about is a rough, first-pass estimate — for example, an early design study where approximate residual stress is acceptable — a general solver already in use on the project may be sufficient. Dedicated manufacturing simulation earns its cost when the process itself is the risk: safety-critical welded assemblies, expensive forming tooling that cannot be iterated physically, or metal AM parts where a single failed build wastes material, machine time and schedule.
How SimEvolution can help
SimEvolution supplies and supports the full Simufact suite — Welding, Additive and Forming — across Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. We can review a specific manufacturing process with you to help decide whether a dedicated solver is warranted, and run a demonstration on your own part geometry.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can add material data, but capturing the coupled thermal-mechanical-metallurgical behaviour of a manufacturing process accurately typically requires solver logic that general-purpose FEA packages do not include by default — which is why Simufact exists as a dedicated platform.
Yes — Simufact is built to connect to MSC Nastran, Marc and Adams so that residual stress and geometry changes from manufacturing can be carried into downstream structural or fatigue analysis.
Simufact Welding for joining processes, Simufact Additive for metal 3D printing, and Simufact Forming for stamping, forging and rolling. Many manufacturers use more than one across their production chain.