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Design Manager
Design Manager provides an automated approach within Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to run design exploration studies. Design exploration covers both performance assessment and optimization.
Study Types
Design Manager offers several types of design study by which you can explore the design space of your product.
The SHERPA Algorithm
SHERPA is a unique search algorithm—it performs a Simultaneous Hybrid Exploration that is Robust, Progressive, and Adaptive.

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Design Manager
Design Manager provides an automated approach within Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to run design exploration studies. Design exploration covers both performance assessment and optimization.
- Study Inputs
  In Design Manager, study inputs are parameters that you define in the reference simulation and that Design Manager can modify during design studies.
- Study Outputs
  For each design simulation in a design study, Design Manager allows you to record and write specific outputs.
- Surrogate Models
  In Design Manager, a surrogate is a predictive function that returns an estimated response value for a given set of numerical input parameters. Design Manager computes surrogate functions by fitting data from design study simulations to chosen surrogate models such as Kriging or Least Squares.
- Study Types
  Design Manager offers several types of design study by which you can explore the design space of your product.
  - The SHERPA Algorithm
    SHERPA is a unique search algorithm—it performs a Simultaneous Hybrid Exploration that is Robust, Progressive, and Adaptive.
- Study Runs
  Design Manager allows you to run design studies on your local workstation or on a high performance cluster. You can run the design simulations sequentially or concurrently, in serial or in parallel. In addition, you can customize the simulation run by inserting Java macros that contain additional setup for the simulation. Design Manager optimizes runs by caching meshes and reusing them where possible.
- Study Analysis
  Design Manager provides post-processing capabilities by which you can analyze the outputs of a design study.
- Design Manager Licensing
  The licenses that are required for running a design study in Design Manager depend on the type of study and the specified run settings. Also, different steps within the Design Manager workflow have particular license requirements.
- Design Manager Workflow
  The following steps outline the recommended workflow to set up, run, and post-process a design study in Design Manager.
- Design Manager Reference
  The following properties and right-click actions are available for a Design Manager project.
- Troubleshooting Design Manager
  If you encounter problems when setting up or running a design study, check these common problem scenarios for advice on how to proceed.

The SHERPA Algorithm

SHERPA is a unique search algorithm—it performs a Simultaneous Hybrid Exploration that is Robust, Progressive, and Adaptive.

During a single search, SHERPA uses multiple search methods simultaneously rather than sequentially. This approach uses the best attributes of each search method. If a particular search method is deemed to be ineffective, SHERPA reduces its participation.

A comparison of a traditional optimization approach and of the SHERPA approach is displayed below.

While running the SHERPA algorithm, a combination of global and local search methods are used. At any given time, the number of different methods that are used can range between two and ten. Unlike traditional optimization algorithms that require you to tune parameters manually, the tuning parameters in each method that SHERPA uses are modified automatically during the search. As SHERPA learns more about the design space, it determines when and to what extent to use each search method.

The general advantages of using SHERPA are:

You need not spend time understanding the design space before choosing a suitable algorithm. SHERPA learns about the design space.
You do not require any expertise in optimization algorithms and applications. SHERPA makes all the decisions about which method to use and how to tune them.
You can define realistic problems that are based on real engineering or business costs and benefits, without being constrained by the limitations of a particular search method. With SHERPA, your analysis can contain much broader goals and can include a larger number of variables compared to traditional approaches.