About

Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration is a scaled down version of HEEDS, tailored only to Simcenter 3D applications.

As of March 2025, version 2310 is the latest one for Design Space Exploration, supporting both Simcenter 3D 2306 and 2312.

The replacement product is the Design Space Exploration module, available directly in Simcenter 3D Pre/Post, without any additional installation being required.

Downloading Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration from Support Center

Download links:

Fig. 1 Simcenter 3D 2306 Add-ons Downloads – Design Space Exploration

Installing Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration

The software comes in a 7z package form and doesn’t require regular installation steps.

The 7z package can be extracted anywhere on your machine (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2 Extracting the Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration package

Running Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration

Design Space Exploration can be launched from the HEEDSMDO executable, located in the ..\Win64 directory of the installation folder:

Example: "C:\Apps\Siemens\Simcenter3D\SC3D_2206_DSE\Ver2022.1.0\Win64\HEEDSMDO.exe"

Upon a successful launch of Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration, check that it uses the desired version of Simcenter 3D in the Options menu (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration - Options

Documentation

Help documents for Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration can be found in the ..\docs\en sub-directory of the installation folder (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 Documentation files

Prerequisites for Simcenter 3D Motion studies in Design Space Exploration

Both the Simcenter 3D and Simcenter 3D Motion portals can be used for running Simcenter 3D Motion studies. Regardless of the portal, for running any Motion simulations and studies through Design Space Exploration, the following system or user environment variable (Fig. 5) should be set:

HEEDS_SIMCENTER3D_MRRCMD=%path_to_mrr_exe%
where %path_to_mrr_exe% is the path towards the Motion Results Reader executable.

The Motion Results Reader executable can be found in the Simcenter 3D (or NX) installation in:

..\MECH\motionsolver\MotionResultsReader.exe

Use the Motion Results Reader that comes with the version of Simcenter 3D you are planning on running through Design Space Exploration. Example, for 2212:

HEEDS_SIMCENTER3D_MRRCMD=C:\Apps\Siemens\Simcenter3D\SC3D_2212\MECH\motionsolver\MotionResultsReader.exe

Fig. 5 Environment variables for Simcenter 3D Motion studies in Design Space Exploration