# What are the main challenges when starting CAE simulation for product design?

A question for engineers who have been through a first CAE simulation deployment: what actually slows teams down when they start using Simulation & CAE software for product design, and which specific platform choices most reduced that friction for teams that worked through it?

The biggest startup challenges are consistently geometry preparation, learning curve, and model configuration rather than the simulation concept itself. Here is my read on the specific challenges and which platforms address them most directly:

The geometry and setup challenges:

Meshing and geometry cleanup: Every experienced CAE user describes this as the biggest time sink: cleaning imported CAD geometry, resolving short edges and gaps, and generating a mesh that a solver will accept without errors. Altair SimSolid eliminates this step by running structural analysis on unmodified CAD assemblies without geometry preparation, which is specifically the challenge that blocks first-time simulation users the longest.
Contact and constraint definition: Even after meshing, defining how components interact — bonded contacts, sliding interfaces, bolt preload — requires an understanding of physical behaviour that no software automates entirely. Simcenter 3D’s CAD-integrated environment reduces contact setup errors by keeping geometry associations live between design and simulation.

The learning and onboarding challenges:

Solver selection and physics setup: There can be uncertainty about which solver, analysis type, and boundary conditions apply to the problem. SimScale’s support team and documentation provide a practical substitute for in-house expertise
Interpreting results: Getting a solver to run is different from knowing whether the results are physically reasonable. SOLIDWORKS’s integrated environment provides contextual feedback; the design engineer sees simulation results on the geometry they created rather than in a disconnected post-processor, which reduces misinterpretation of stress plots or displacement fields.

For engineers who have worked through a first simulation deployment — what was the specific bottleneck that took the longest to resolve, and was the fix a platform feature, a training resource, or simply accumulated experience with the tool?

##### Post Metadata - Posted at: 29 days ago - Author title: Marketing Executive - Net upvotes: 1 ## Comments ### Comment 1 <p>Geometry cleanup and meshing would be the bottleneck I’d expect to eat the most time early on. Platform features can reduce the pain, but getting consistently good at setup and knowing what “looks wrong” in a model still seems to come mostly from hands-on experience.</p> ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: 21 days ago - Author title: Marketer ## Related discussions - [How well does Trello scale into a larger team?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/1-how-well-does-trello-scale-into-a-larger-team) - Posted at: over 13 years ago - Comments: 6 - [Can we please add a new section](https://www.g2.com/discussions/2-can-we-please-add-a-new-section) - Posted at: over 13 years ago - Comments: 0 - [Quantifiable benefits from implementing your CRM](https://www.g2.com/discussions/quantifiable-benefits-from-implementing-your-crm) - Posted at: over 13 years ago - Comments: 4