Case Study: Tesla achieves faster design cycles—cutting 2–3 days by automating CAE connector creation with Altair’s HyperMesh

Automating CAE connector creation in HyperMesh helped optimize Tesla’s design cycle

Tesla needed to speed up finite element analysis (FEA) model preparation for the Model S: with more than 300 fixings and over 6,000 weld points, manually recreating connectors when importing CATIA CAD into the CAE environment was a major bottleneck. Working with Altair and leveraging Altair’s HyperMesh environment, the Tesla simulation team sought to automate connector creation so they could meet tight development schedules and respond quickly to design changes.

Altair helped implement a workflow that kept detailed connector data in CATIA via a CNX CAD structure and used a CNX Data Merge tool, an Excel macro, and a HyperMesh TCL script to import geometry and automatically create CAE connection elements (flagging any failures). The Altair-enabled solution eliminated tedious manual work, shaved off about two to three days from model creation, and freed Tesla’s CAE engineers to perform deeper, higher‑value analyses and faster design iterations.

Tesla

Singai Krishnamoorthi

Technical Specialist and Staff Engineer