Lightweight your Vehicle with Simulation-Driven Design
Altair® Inspire™’s powerful and user-friendly tools help you enhance your vehicle’s performance with advanced structural simulation, lightweight optimization, and kinematic system analysis—trusted by top teams to achieve winning results.
Suspension Design and Vehicle Dynamics with Multibody Dynamics
Altair® MotionView®/MotionSolve® software simplifies and allows for advanced simulation of vehicle dynamics, deeper analysis of kinematics & compliance, and 3D calculation of internal loads between moving parts under real operating conditions.
Reduce Drag Using External Aerodynamics
Altair® FlightStream® software streamlines aerodynamics analysis with an easy-to-use interface and advanced solver, helping vehicle designers quickly reduce drag and improve performance.
Advanced Vehicle Body Design with Composites
Altair® HyperMesh® and OptiStruct® enable teams to efficiently design and optimize composite vehicle structures by providing advanced stress analysis and automated development of tailored composite layups.
Learn Inspire
Structural Analysis
In conjunction with its industry-leading solvers, Inspire's intuitive interface can get you results in a fraction of the time of other leading analysis tools. From checking to determine how much a part deforms, to making sure a critical bracket can take the necessary loads without breaking, to even checking vibrational frequencies, Inspire is the ideal structural analysis tool to help you design your vehicle to go the distance.
Optimization
Inspire leverages the powerful optimization capabilities of OptiStruct, the pioneer tool of Topological Optimization in engineering. In a competition where weight is critical, Inspire ensures your vehicle is lightweight without compromising strength or safety. It supports various manufacturing methods like milling, casting, cutting, and 3D printing. Design a faster, more efficient vehicle with Inspire.
Motion
A complex vehicle has numerous intricate moving parts. Ensure they operate correctly using Inspire's motion simulation tools, which include automatic joint creation, simple motor and actuator setup, and rapid contact generation. After your analysis, you can easily extract joint and contact forces and integrate them into structural analysis and optimizations for dynamic loading.
Learn MotionView/MotionSolve, FlightStream, and HyperMesh/OptiStruct
MotionView/MotionSolve
These posts will help you learn the basics of suspension modeling and design using the power of template-driven, parametric MotionView templates. While we are currently working on implementing a SolarCar library, utilization of the FSAE library, which is also a track event, will accurately simulate your suspension designs and vehicle dynamics.
- Suspension Library Overview in MotionSolve
- Verification Of Vehicle Kinematics and Compliance Using MotionSolve
- Verification of Vehicle Loading Using MotionSolve
FlightStream
FlightStream is equipped with unique point-and-click capabilities for problem setup and pre- and post-processing tools that allow real-time case visualization. This YouTube playlist will provide you with an easy, guided path to learning FlightStream in preparation for utilizing the software to rapidly create aerodynamic studies of your vehicle.
HyperMesh/OptiStruct
These resources will give you a head start to get you on your way to building better, lighter, stronger vehicles with the power of composites. You can learn the intuitive pre-processing in HyperMesh that mimics the manner in which composites are laid up on the shop floor and build your skills to optimize and automatically generate ply shapes and stacking order for the ideal layup.
Additional Learning Resources
Learn from Altair Experts on Vehicle Design and become fully equipped to design the most lightweight, aerodynamic, and energy-efficient vehicle possible.
Real-World Stories from Student Teams
Reducing Aerodynamic Drag on our Solar Car | Brunel Solar
The Brunel Solar Car team used Altair FlightStream to run thousands of aerodynamic simulations, accelerating development and enhancing vehicle performance. This approach enabled rapid design refinement and contributed to winning first place at the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The presentation will showcase these achievements with a live demo of FlightStream using the team's solar car model.
Designing for Dirt in Baja SAE | NJIT Highlander Racing
NJIT Highlander Racing uses Altair HyperWorks to quickly develop and refine their double wishbone suspension for Baja SAE, addressing challenges like long suspension travel and high impacts. The software enables detailed analysis of wheel alignment and movement, reduces reliance on physical tests, and supports evaluation of different damping and bushing options, helping the team make confident, data-driven decisions to boost performance in competition.
Lightweight Chassis Design in Formula SAE | Penn State Nittany
Penn State’s Nittany Motorsports used Altair SimSolid to streamline the design of their electric formula racecar chassis, achieving a 9.3% weight reduction without sacrificing strength or safety. This led to higher competition scores and supports their ongoing shift to advanced, simulation-driven design for future improvements.
The presentation also includes a demo from Altair aerodynamics expert Julien Chaussee.
Panel Session: Composites | Oxford Brooks Racing
This session covers essential techniques in composite design, focusing on practical ways to improve efficiency and avoid common mistakes. Key topics include drape analysis, composites optimization, and the benefits of different modeling approaches. Altair experts and the Oxford Brookes student team discuss how these methods helped reduce the weight of their 2025 car by 24%, resulting in significant performance improvements.
Racing Ahead: Enhancing Formula SAE Car Performance and Safety | Veloce Racing India
Our FSAE team used Altair’s advanced simulation tools to improve vehicle safety, performance, and reliability. By validating designs and optimizing key components, we reduced weight without compromising strength, resulting in multiple award wins. This presentation demonstrates how Altair’s software and streamlined workflows enabled innovation throughout our design process.
Panel Session: How Altair Inspires UBC Solar to New Heights | UBC Solar
Altair Inspire enabled the UBC Solar team to quickly learn and optimize key mechanical components, leading to a win at the FSGP 2025 Altair Challenge. By using intuitive tools like OptiStrut and SimSolid, they reduced vehicle mass and improved performance.
Earn the Victory, Move the World: Altair's Role in the University of Michigan Solar Car Team
Watch how the University of Michigan Solar Team uses Altair's cutting-edge tools to create lightweight, safe solar vehicles through material optimization and composite analysis.
Optimizing a Solar Car for Endurance and Energy Efficiency
Using Altair simulation software, Gurit supports Western Sydney University's Bridgestone World Solar Challenge team, helping them design the most efficient and aerodynamic car possible, while ensuring driver safety and adhering to class rules.
University of Michigan Competing Around the World
See how Altair's Software is used to get the University of Michigan's solar car, Novum, to the next level to compete in the World Solar Challenge in Australia and the American Solar Challenge - crossing an entire continent in both cases just on the power of the sun alone.
Kogakuin University Solar Team and Altair
The Kogakuin solar team, comprised of more than 300 students, are focused on performance, growth, self-reliance and teamwork through science and engineering activities. Established in 2009, the team has won three consecutive national championships.
