Practical Ways to Increase Your Virtual Crash Safety Efficiency

Even with proven solvers and validated dummy models, many CAE teams still rely on manual and fragmented pre-processing workflows. These workflows don't work for today’s development speed or regulatory pressure.

The result is a hidden productivity tax:

• Engineers spending significantly more valuable hours in positioning dummies instead of analyzing results
• Inconsistent and inaccurate setups driven by user experience rather than physics 
• Ergonomics intent diluted or lost before design for crash safety even begins 

This isn't just a nuisance; it is a hidden tax on your vehicle's program's efficiency and success.

In real world NCAP-driven and VT-driven environments, manual pre-processing is no longer just an inconvenience. It is a workflow bottleneck that slows vehicle development and adds unnecessary program risk.

We created APT CONNECT® to unify occupant safety model preparation into one automated workflow. It integrates dummy positioning, seat interaction, and belt routing into a single process, helping teams move from fragmented setup steps to a more consistent and efficient workflow. It offers continuity from RAMSIS comfort positions into crash preparation, preserving ergonomic intent, and improving traceability.

You'll have a single, automated workflow that eliminates the biggest source of inefficiencies in occupant safety CAE. Instead of preparing models step by step, engineers define the target posture, and APT CONNECT® streamlines the key setup steps. The results are faster model readiness, more repeatable setups, and fewer opportunities for user-driven variation.

Here are three ways you can streamline your crash safety validations.

The current standard for model setup takes approximately 8–10 hours per occupant model. Why? Because it often involves multiple separate steps, repeated adjustments, and expert judgment before the model is simulation ready.

Manual positioning relies on human judgment. Two engineers can position the same dummy in the same seat and get different results. This variation leads to "misalignments" and unrepeatable postures that risk rejection during VT validation.

The job of a CAE engineer should be analyzing crashworthiness and optimizing safety. It should not be fighting with joint angles and belt fitment for half the day.

By automating the tedious elements of model setup, you don't just save time; you gain confidence. This is why leading teams are adopting automated, standardized workflows. It's the standardized solution across all frontal models. This ensures that every simulation run is based on a repeatable, accurate, and crash simulation-ready model.

Ergonomic data from RAMSIS often sits in a silo, disconnected from the crash team. Transferring this data into CAE is challenging and frequently results in handoff errors, forcing engineers to settle for models that do not accurately capture the intended occupant position and design intent.

The future of simulation is connected. It is no longer acceptable for ergonomic design and crash safety to exist in separate worlds.

A robust virtual safety solution must offer a "closed-loop" process. APT CONNECT^® achieves this by importing comfort positions directly from RAMSIS / SAFETY STUDIO. This ensures that the ergonomic design intent is accurately carried over into the crash safety analysis.  

This traceability is essential for modern compliance and ensures that what you design for comfort is exactly what you validate for safety.