Autodesk announced the release of Simulation 360, the company’s first comprehensive, pay-as-you-go, cloud solving analysis service. This service permits users to solve very complex analyses without the up-front costs associated with numerous simulation software purchases, as well as the costs of the computing hardware required to perform the calculations.

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What is Simulation 360?

Simulation 360 is composed of the following core components:

  • Autodesk Simulation Mechanical 360
  • Autodesk Simulation CFD 360
  • Autodesk Simulation Moldflow Insight 360

The licensing and services are all handled through an Autodesk 360 account. Each time the software is started, the user is prompted to login to their Autodesk 360 account. Once logged in, everything appears completely normal.

How does it Work?

SNAGHTML2f25e44_thumb[4]Once installed, these components operate in a similar manner to their respective stand-alone titles, however when it comes to solving, the design and setup package is handed off to the Autodesk cloud server.

The stand-alone simulation solvers are run on the cloud, and solve the analysis for you remotely, allowing users to move on to other work simultaneous to the solution process.

The status of the upload – Solving – download are monitored by the Simulation Job Manager , the very same one that handles Autodesk Project Simulus currently.

Once the solution is complete, the solution is handed back to the user, and updates the results of the respective software, just as if it had been run on the stand-alone version.

How Well Does it Work…Really?

I have been using Autodesk Simulation 360 for 3 months now, and can say that with the exception of one installation issue, the software has run as flawlessly as the stand-alone counterparts. During the setup process, Autodesk and I became aware that something was blocking the Simulation job Manager from running, however the Autodesk team sent in a ringer, and the issue was resolved after a couple of troubleshooting sessions.

Cloud performance?

Oh…..My….God….. I love this thing. I will talk more about it soon, but I’ll leave you with this comparison:

  • Medium complexity solution on Simulation mechanical  + 2 processor cores @ 2.6 GHz processor stand-alone = 19 hours and failure to solve
  • Same solution on Simulation Mechanical 360  + buttload of cloud processor cores = 30 minutes and successful solution

This is no exaggeration. It really is about paying for as much access to cloud power that you need, without paying for the time when you are not using it. The worst part of Simulation 360 is the upload time. I am so used to getting solutions in record time that I am peeved at waiting for a few minutes to upload.

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More Information and Free Stuff

Check out the company site for more information. Autodesk Simulation 360

Autodesk is offering Simulation 360 free until October 31st, 2012. Check out the Autodesk Simulation Liberation Event