I include Google ads in this site to generate some income from my project work and the effort of documenting it.  Now, many of you are probably running ad blocking software in your web browsers – I certainly do, so I don’t blame you if you do.

However I learned something important tonight: Google can sometimes serve up some freaking awesome ads!

I am still working on eliminating the personal dating ads (I have managed to kill the awful weight loss ones!), but while testing my site, I discovered that there was an ad for a website called Simscale.

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with Simscale and have not been paid or induced to endorse them in any way.

I just think that the service that they offer is frickin awesome.

Simscale (https://www.simscale.com/) is a cloud based simulation service that can perform fluid dynamics analysys, finite element analysis (stress analysis), and thermodynamic analysis of your project.  You upload your 3D model, configure the simulation (non-trivial, but doable), and their cloud system computes the results for you.  You can pay for the computer time to keep it private, or make it a public project and they will do the computation for free!  That is a seriously good deal.

Designing a piece of machinery, or a tool and want to know if the design is robust enough?  Simscale can tell you where the points of failure will likely be.  Want to simulate the airflow in a building (or through a heat recovery system) – Simscale can tell you what will happen.

When I studied industrial design over twenty years ago, this sort of analysis was vastly expensive and mentioned only in passing by our lecturers.  Now days, it’s completely commoditised and accessible to just about anyone with and internet connection, 3D modeling software, the inclination to learn some new skills, and a few hours.

Any way you look at it, this is an amazing service – and one that I am seriously contemplating using with my projects.