SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2015 introduced the capability of analyzing a model using a symmetric runner. This capability is available in SOLIDWORKS Plastics Professional and SOLIDWORKS Plastics Premium. It can used to reduce a multi-cavity mold with a symmetric runner system to a single cavity analysis. The multi-cavity mold has to be symmetric about a plane or two planes of symmetry, or an axis (for circular symmetry). Analyzing a model using symmetry allows for a quicker computation as compared to analyzing the entire system. Also, the user has the ability to apply a more refined mesh on the reduced model to obtain more resolved results and still solve the analysis in a timely fashion.
SOLIDWORKS Model Setup
Original multi-cavity mold model is shown below with runner system layout sketch.
![SOLIDWORKS Plastics Symmetric Runner original multi-cavity mold model](https://cdn.goengineer.com/SOLIDWORKS Plastics Symmetric Runner original multi-cavity mold model.jpg?format=webp)
The first step is to create a SOLIDWORKS configuration including a single cavity and half of the runner layout sketch.
![SOLIDWORKS Plastics Symmetric Runner create a SOLIDWORKS configuration including a single cavity and half of the runner layout sketch](https://cdn.goengineer.com/SOLIDWORKS Plastics Symmetric Runner create a SOLIDWORKS configuration including a single cavity and half of the runner layout sketch.jpg?format=webp)
SOLIDWORKS Plastics Setup
Setting up a symmetrical runner requires the manual creation of a solid mesh and virtual runner system.
Right-click on the Solid link under the Mesh section and select the Manual option.
![Right-click on the Solid link under the Mesh section](https://cdn.goengineer.com/Right-click on the Solid link under the Mesh section.png?format=webp)
On the first screen of the solid mesh creation dialog window, check on the Runner and Cooling System Design option and select the next arrow.
![SOLIDWORKS Plastics Symmetric Runner check on the Runner and Cooling System Design option](https://cdn.goengineer.com/SOLIDWORKS Plastics Symmetric Runner check on the Runner and Cooling System Design option.jpg?format=webp)
On the Channel Design page, select Runner and then define the runner segments using the runner layout sketch.