Rigorous, scientific pocketing?

[OccamzRazor]

As someone who teaches SOLIDWORKS FEA and does consulting work with it for a living I can say this...

Students will only have access to static FEA analysis in their student SOLIDWORKS version so you need to check the following:

-You are using a linear static material (no rubber or non-linear polymers)
Ex. HDPE is ok but PE is not because PE plastic does not have a yield strength. Any metal alloy you use commonly in FRC are covered here but you need accurate material models from the manufacturer, MATWEB.com, or somewhere reliable.

-The loads and deflections are linear. Double the load, double the deflection.

-Loads are applied slowly and gradually. No dynamic loads.

The software can do all of these things above with the correct version of SOLIDWORKS Simulation! But not with a student version!

It is also best practice to simplify. You could try to build the entire assembly in a simulation and wait 3 days for it to mesh and run to get good results or you can take it part by part and simulate that parts environment instead. The highest number of components I have ever tried to simulate simultaneously was about 600 parts. It took about 4 days to run on a $80,000 machine that most people could not fathom owning. I don't recommend that route if you are just starting out with FEA.

With that being said, I have actually started to produce content at work relating FRC, SOLIDWORKS, 3D Printing, and FEA analysis. One of the videos on FEA should be posted this week. When I have the link I will share it here.