[tindleroot]

Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. Blender's physics engine is pretty good and can give you some useful insight, as you said. However, Blender's physics engine uses mesh collision, which is not the same as solid collision, so there may be some significant variance in results. Obviously, Blender's engine was created for animation purposes, not real-life physics or engineering purposes.

Most high-end CAD programs have their own physics simulators, so while they are harder to use, I strongly recommend learning how to use those as they will give you better results.