From CAD to Design-Risk Report in Days: How the AutoCAE.AI Platform Works

Ask any hardware team how long a full system-level design analysis takes, and the answer is usually "weeks". Not because the solver is slow, but because a design-risk study is mostly not simulation. It is model preparation, checking, setting up many load cases, running dozens of jobs, post-processing, comparing against limits and writing a report that people outside the simulation team can act on.

AutoCAE.AI is a platform that automates that whole chain: CAD in, design-risk report out -- for every load case, in days instead of weeks.

The Problem: Ten Load Cases, Dozens of Runs, One Slip

A consumer-electronics product is typically assessed under ten or more load cases: drops in many orientations, ball impacts, stiffness, thermal-mechanical effects, module shock, vibration and more. Each case needs its own setup, its own checks and its own post-processing.

Three things make this hard:

Volume. Dozens of simulations per design, and the design changes every few weeks.
Fragility. One modelling slip -- a missing connection, a wrong material assignment, a part constrained twice -- may only show up after the runs, wasting the entire batch.
Inconsistency. Different people use different layouts, different limits and different wording. Results are hard to compare between designs and hard to trust across teams.

The platform addresses all three: it automates the repetitive work, enforces the modelling rules mechanically, runs the load cases as one batch and produces the same report structure every time.

How the Platform Works: One Automated Chain, Your Checkpoints

The platform runs a fixed chain of steps. At a few checkpoints you review and approve before the chain continues -- the plan, the treatment of critical parts and the validated model. Everything in between is automated.

1. Plan. Every study starts from a plan: which load cases, which conditions, which components matter most and which failure criteria apply. The plan drives the whole batch -- the platform prepares exactly what it lists.

2. Model build. The uploaded CAD is cleaned and simplified where needed, meshed, given materials and connected (bonds, ties, contacts). Every simplification is recorded in a ledger, so anyone can see what was changed and why.

3. Rule checks. Before any job starts, the model is checked automatically against the modelling rules: mesh quality, connections, material assignments, numbering, required output. If a check fails, nothing runs -- the model goes back to the build step. Catching a slip here costs minutes; catching it after a batch costs days.

4. Validation on a single case. One representative case -- for example a single flat drop -- is run and checked in detail: energy balance, mass, contact behaviour, numerical health. Only a validated model goes on to the batch.

5. Batch runs. The validated model feeds every load case. Jobs are distributed over the available compute with monitoring, automatic retries for known numerical issues and a structured debug procedure.

6. Post-processing in parallel. Results of all cases are processed at once: health checks, maximum values per component, hot-spot pictures, animations and risk tables in which each component is compared with its failure criterion.

7. Report. The platform writes a consistent, readable design-risk report for engineering and cross-functional teams: what was simulated, what is at risk, why, and what could be changed.

8. Design iterations. Because the chain is automated, design variants -- a thicker wall, a different gasket, a moved support -- run through the same steps and are compared on equal terms.

Load Cases Covered

Oriented drops -- the product dropped in many orientations, risk per component.
Ball impacts -- impact points over glass and display areas, crack risk.
Stiffness -- bending and torsion under user loads.
SRS for critical modules -- shock response spectra at cameras, displays and other sensitive modules.
Rub and buzz -- risk of parts rattling against each other under speaker excitation.
Modal analysis -- natural frequencies and mode shapes.
Thermal-mechanical -- temperature soak, heat sources and CTE mismatch warpage.
System stability -- tip-over of stands and table-top devices.
Yank -- connector and cable pull and side load.
ESC -- environmental stress cracking of plastics under sustained strain.

All load cases share the same model, the same rules and the same report layout -- so the risks are comparable.

Business Value

Fewer physical build iterations. Risks found in simulation before the build are fixed in CAD, where changes are cheap. Each build is more likely to pass, and fewer "fix and rebuild" loops are needed.

Earlier risk discovery. Because a full study takes days, it can be done at concept and pre-EVT -- when the architecture can still change -- instead of after the first test failures.

Consistency. Every design is checked against the same rules and reported the same way. Design A and design B can be compared directly, across teams and programmes.

Traceability. Every simplification, every check result and every approval is recorded. When a test result differs from the prediction, the trail shows exactly what was modelled and why.

Your team focuses on decisions. The repetitive setup, checking, running and formatting is automated, so your engineers spend their time on design trade-offs instead of preparing models.

Your data, your standards. CAD and results stay confidential to you. The platform judges every part against your own requirements, material limits and failure criteria -- public standards serve as a reference only, never as a substitute.

What the Platform Does Not Do

It does not replace physical testing. It reduces the number of builds and makes each one more informative; correlation with tests remains essential.
It does not hide problems. When a model cannot be made to run cleanly, the platform reports it instead of producing a result it cannot stand behind.

Getting Started

Start with one product design: upload the CAD and bill of materials, choose the load cases, and receive the single-drop report within 24 hours and the full design-risk report within 72 hours. Every following design iteration runs through the same automated chain.

Visit www.autocae.ai to start a pilot with your next design.