[tim-tim]

I know what we do is go off of previous years experiences (both our own and other teams) and base the design from those lessons. I can tell you that many teams do not go through the FE Analysis previously mentioned because it is complex and most schools can't support it.

However, JVN will tell you it is about iterative design. If you have the luxury, do some testing. Find out where your design fails and fix it, then go back to the drawing board and make it better. Then go back and find where you can remove material or place a pocket or hole pattern to reduce weight in the design.