How HEEDS Optimization Works

Taking the same software tools that you would use in a manual design process (a finite element package, a computational fluid dynamics package, a dynamic systems package, a circuit simulation package, etc.), HEEDS Professional searches the design space by automating the evaluation process and executing it numerous times, adjusting the variables each time until it has performed the number of evaluations you specify.

Baseline Design and Input/Output Files
HEEDS^® optimization begins within your preferred modeling and analysis tools, where you create and execute the analysis models needed to fully evaluate the performance of a baseline design. The input and output files generated during model creation and analysis contain the data that HEEDS will use as a starting point for its optimization process.

Project Setup in HEEDS Modeler
Next, within the HEEDS Modeler, you complete the following project setup steps:

HEEDS Setup Steps

Executing the Optimization
When you execute the project, HEEDS begins by choosing values for project variables within the limitations you specified. During each evaluation, HEEDS dynamically alters its search strategy based on the results that are returned.

Next, HEEDS creates new model input files and evaluates each design with the same analysis software tools that produced the baseline input and output files. After each evaluation, HEEDS extracts the corresponding response values from the output files.

As the search progresses, HEEDS uses an intelligent mathematical process to discover relationships among variables and responses, and leverages this knowledge to identify higher-performing designs, until it converges on the optimal solution. It writes the very first design to its working files as a benchmark, and then it adds a design to the files whenever it finds a better one. The last design added during a run will be the best design found.

During a given execution, HEEDS Professional can evaluate hundreds of designs—a far greater number than can typically be produced in a manual design search.

HEEDS Design Optimization Process

It doesn’t take an engineer to figure out how much more likely you are to find the "optimal design" with HEEDS than with other optimization software tools or the manual method!

Other HEEDS design studies, such as Design of Experiments (DOE) or Robustness and Reliability studies, are performed in a very similar manner. The primary difference is in the definition of the sampling methods and in the post-processing of the results.