Ansys Discovery 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews

Overview

Ansys Discovery

3.9

(17)

Pricing

Pricing available upon request

About Ansys Discovery

Ansys Discovery is a cloud-based 3D simulation software that helps users calculate and find the right answers to critical design questions. The software provides tools that help boost performance and productivity by terminating long waiting times for simulation results. It offers features such as structural analysis, topology optimization, design & geometry modeling, and many more.

Ansys Discovery Screenshots

Ansys Discovery Pricing and Plans

Starting price: Connect with an advisor for pricing

Free Trial

Free Version

Basic

Pricing available upon request

No plan information available

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Ansys Discovery Features

Popular features found in 3D CAD
2D Drawing
Animation
Bill of Materials Management
Data Import/Export
For 3D Printing
For Architects
For Manufacturers
More features of Ansys Discovery
3D Design & Modeling
Annotations
Direct Manipulation
Mathematical Modeling
Reporting/Analytics

Ansys Discovery User Reviews

Overall Rating

3.9

Ratings Breakdown

35%

41%

12%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

3.9

Value for money

3.8

Customer support

4.5

Functionality

3.6

Yusuf Y.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

5001-10000 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2022

Effective for pre design

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

İts effective for simple predesign and userfriendly

Cons:

You can not complex simulation. It can be improve

Augusto C.

Verified reviewer

Mining & Metals

10000+ employees

Used weekly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed July 2022

Ansys Discovery : A diferent persperctive of real simulation

When I first got in touch with the student version of this software I knew that i was dealing with a software that can meet th expectations of how simulaion need to be done

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I like the powerful and capabilities that are built into the software.

Cons:

I think the price is one of the cons when you come to chose a simulation software

Reasons for choosing Ansys Discovery

Because it includes these pacakges in the software

Reasons for switching to Ansys Discovery

Because of the power and more capabilities that you find in Ansys

Ewen C.

Verified reviewer

Automotive

10000+ employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed December 2021

It's a good start, but there are a lot of opportunities for improvement.

It's a good start. The very quick solution turn around using GPUs is definitely a benefit. But the limitations and clunkiness of the program makes it such that I can hardly use it ever (because my models requires a capability that Ansys Discovery Live currently does not or cannot offer).

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

With the proper and appropriate hardware, you can obtain a solution significantly faster than conventional solution methods by leveraging the power of GPUs, even older ones. For simple problems (i.e. single parts and/or basic external vehicle aerodynamics), it is very easy to set up.

Cons:

I'll give what I think are opportunities for improvements based on domain. Static structural - does not handle multiple parts/complex assemblies very well. Does not/cannot model non-linear contacts. Does not/cannot simulate non-linear materials. Defining and applying custom materials is sometimes quite cumbersome. Fluids - Cannot extract important engineering values from the fluid simulation, e.g. coefficient of drag/coefficient of lift from the external aerodynamics example. Cannot select other turbulence models. (Last I inquired, you can ONLY use the LES turbulence model, which is invalid for certain types/classes of analyses.) Cannot model air as an ideal gas (compressible flow solver). Cannot define point heat sources. Direct modelling/manipulation - if you have a part with defined dimensions (part from print), it is quite cumbersome to reproduce the part using the direct manipulation method. Direct manipulation method is great when you are trying to experiment with new designs and you are trying to figure out which design will work best, but if you are trying to test/verify an existing design and you don't have the original/source CAD part, which requires you to re-model it in Ansys Discovery Live/SpaceClaim, it's ridiculously complicated to create, for example, a dimension that is symmetrical/mirrored. Topology optimisation - Sometimes the result from the topology optimisation does not pass the FEA analysis.

Tam H.

Verified reviewer

Telecommunications

10000+ employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2025

Ansys Discovery and Workbench

I mostly use it for thermal simulation, work nicely with Workbench.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Ansys Discovery is very powerful for multi-physics simulation with intuitive user GUI.

Cons:

It’s a bit complex to bring simulation models from one tool to the others and loading quite slow.

Verified

Reviewer

Computer Software

11-50 employees

Used weekly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed July 2023

Ansys Discovery Review

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Discovery offers us a fast, live, accurate early simulation. Discovery has a complete end-to-end workflow from modeling to refined simulation.

Cons:

It requires high-end hardware requirements in order to get a smooth experience

Sean O.

Verified reviewer

Mechanical or Industrial Engineering

Self-Employed

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed February 2022

Complete waste of money

Every time I tried to use Discovery, I spent several days trying to get it to work, usually only succeeding when I could copy an existing demo and then replacing the geometry instead of starting from scratch because of all the UI bugs and order of operations is critical for functionality but the UI does not help you understand which order is functional. Every project took several days to get to the 90% completion phase, and then I would need one aspect - rotation, movement, mixing, a video with rotating propeller, etc. and support would notify me that I would need to start over from scratch in fluent / CFX and my days of setup were a complete waste.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Its a complete standalone software. It doesn't need anything else to function.

Cons:

It's a complete standalone software. I can't use it on existing simulations, or transfer simulations from discovery directly to fluent / mechanical. If I do I have to redesign everything, remodel everything, reset the boundary conditions and everything

Reasons for choosing Ansys Discovery

because I was investing in other Ansys products and I don't want to have to install, setup, maintain and troubleshoot both systems with completely different terminology, licensing, UI, support, etc.

Verified

Reviewer

Mechanical or Industrial Engineering

Self-Employed

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed December 2022

Ansys Discovery

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Ansys Discovery is a powerful Tool which is capable of creating 3D Models simulations and Analysis of different structures and designs

Cons:

The thing that i don't like is that there are many CAD/CAE and simulation software in the market that provide better features at a low price

Verified

Reviewer

Higher Education

501-1000 employees

Used weekly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed December 2022

Good for Quick Simulations

I enjoy using ANSYS Discovery for simple and quick simulations. I don't expect it to match the higher precision and accuracy of other ANSYS tools, but it is okay since the user should know what they are doing. I definitely recommend it.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

Ansys discovery is a great tool for easy and quick simulation. It offers a streamlined workflow for the user to quickly setup a problem's geometry and mesh, then setup the properties and boundary conditions. In addition, optimization is very efficient as changing the problem's variable is very simple and not time consuming.

Cons:

Although the mentioned advantages look very attractive, there is a downside for quick and simple simulations. This is of course related to the accuracy of such calculations. It should be kept in mind that this ANSYS Discovery which is mostly targeted for problems not requiring very high accuracy. Other than that, the software sometimes crashes unexpectedly or won't start at all if graphic card requirementw are not met (which are actually very high)

Godwin A.

Verified reviewer

Mechanical or Industrial Engineering

11-50 employees

Used other for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed August 2021

Simulation and Experimentation in Real Time

Ansys Discovery is relatively easy to use and it gives real time simulation at its best as you don't get to wait long period of time just to get results, they are delivered instantly in the explore mode. With this, you can easily experiment with different materials and conditions without having to wait for results as long as the solving is turned on. As materials are being changed, results are updated automatically. Multiple studies can be carried out in the same project including mechanical, thermal and fluid flow. I get to easily import geometry directly as native CAD files of Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks without have to convert them.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The user interface is very interactive with an heads up display (HUD) that tells you what information is required to complete whatever study(ies) to be carried out and as soon as enough information is supplied, results can be gotten instantly.

Cons:

Due to its real time nature, performance relies heavily on system GPU so you might need to follow the minimum system requirements. I noticed a restriction on exporting files to only discovery file format.

Verified

Reviewer

Civil Engineering

51-200 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2022

Complete 3D software