Smarter Engineering with Ansys Discovery: Hands-On with the New Ansys Engineering Copilot

Digital engineering teams live and die by iteration speed. Waiting (hours or even days) for a simulation to converge can feel like leaving innovation stranded on the launchpad. In the latest Ansys AI webinar, product managers and support engineers pulled back the curtain on Discovery 2025 R1/R2 and its headline act, Ansys Engineering Copilot. The following is a technical recap of the features that matter most to power users.

The AI Engine Under the Hood

Ansys is structuring its AI roadmap around three pillars:

1. Accelerate & Democratize Simulation – physics-validated AI surrogates (SIM-AI) cut run-times by up to 100× while maintaining high-fidelity accuracy.
2. AI+ Solver Modules – GPU/HPC-accelerated add-ons that both speed solvers and generate synthetic data for continuous model training.
3. In-Product AI Assistance – Ansys Engineering Copilot embedded directly in the UI.

Together, these pillars aim to push validated results to designers earlier, eliminate ad-hoc scripting, and let domain experts focus on engineering insight rather than tool logistics.

Meet Ansys Engineering Copilot: Your Right-Pane Coworker

Copilot slides into Discovery as a collapsible side panel that surfaces everything an engineer usually hunts down in separate browser tabs:

• Home search across all Ansys knowledge domains
• Learning hub courses
• Knowledge base articles
• Forum threads
• Support ticket dashboard
• AnswersGPT—a multilingual LLM tuned on 50 years of Ansys IP

Because all resources load inline, users avoid the context switching that kills concentration and billable time. Test participants report shaving minutes off every “how-do-I-model-this” detour, which adds up over long projects. Copilot also respects Discovery’s 3-D-design filters, so queries stay relevant to the model in view.

Availability, Licensing, and Sneak-Peek Access

• Shipping now in Discovery 2025 R1 Service Pack 2 (Windows).
• Requires a free “Engineering Copilot” license increment for customers on active maintenance.
• Full support-ticket integration lands in 2025 R2 later this month.
• If you’d rather kick the tires first, Ansys offers time-boxed Virtual Labs instances—no local install, no license server.

Multiphysics Authoring Without Leaving Discovery

During the live demo, the presenter proved that Discovery is no longer “geometry + fluids only.” Copilot confirmed—and guided—workflows for:

• Static structural analyses
• Thermal, fluid, and electromagnetic runs
• Topology optimization and modal studies

All inside the same ribbon layout engineers already know.

Faster Setup with Contextual Helpers

Custom monitors:
When CFD boundary conditions needed validation, Copilot pointed the user straight to Simulation → Monitors → Custom, where pressure probes were added in two clicks.

Engineering Copilot Bolt Preload & Connection Assessment

A common pain point—pre-tensioning fasteners—was conquered via Copilot-surfaced tutorials:

• Use Prepare → Bolts → Assign to convert coaxial holes to 1-D beam connectors.
• Apply Bolt Preload forces with numeric clamp values.

To verify joint integrity, Copilot recommended the Connection Assessment Tool, which computes factor-of-safety pass/fail metrics on the finished run.

Integrated Learning & Live Support

Engineers who hit an unfamiliar workflow can launch full Learning Hub courses—complete with chaptered videos and multilingual captions—directly inside the Ansys Engineering Copilot window in Discovery.

If a question still stalls progress, opening a Support tab lets users submit a ticket, attach the model, and chat with Ansys experts without touching a browser. Ticket status updates and engineer responses stream back into the same panel.

Why It Matters

• Efficiency – Eliminating browser dives for documentation or forum answers keeps engineers in flow.
• Confidence – AI surrogates are physics-validated, and pass/fail tools like Connection Assessment close the gap between quick what-ifs and production-grade verification.
• Scalability – GPU acceleration plus AI+ modules mean larger models solve within desktop deadlines.
• On-Demand Upskilling – Embedded courses shorten ramp-up for multidisciplinary tasks (e.g., fluids-to-structure hand-offs).
• Global Collaboration – Multilingual AnswersGPT and captioned tutorials democratize simulation across geos and experience levels.