Changing Design Link Version in Older Moldflow Insight and Adviser versions to Access Free 2014 Capabilities

Autodesk Simulation Moldflow Design Link is now a free product with full functionality implemented for the 2014 release. If you are a user that currently would like to use this free functionality but have not yet registered and upgraded to 2014, you can still access Design Link 2014 with your older versions of Insight and Adviser. Below I've detail exactly how to do this.

1. First you must install either Simulation Moldflow Synergy 2014 or Simulation Moldflow Adviser 2014. You don't need to register and setup your licenses (in case you have reasons for not upgrading yet as you should always upgrade when a new version is released) but the software does need installed as we don't have a standalone installation for Simulation Moldflow Design Link 2014.

2. After installing, you need to modify where your previous version looks for Design Link. The process is the same for both Insight and Adviser. The images below are taken from Insight 2013. First access the options as highlighted.

3. Once in the options, navigate to the External Applications tab and select the browse option next to the installation path provided.

4. This allows you to change the path to the mdl.exe application used. Here we're going to browse to the 2014 location. That location is

32-bit OS - C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Simulation Moldflow Design Link 2014\bin\mdl.exe

64-bit OS - C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\Simulation Moldflow Design Link 2014\bin\mdl.exe

5. Hit Apply

Now when importing, the use of Design Link will be provided and will require no licensing to properly work. If you have never had access to Design Link before, ensure you refer to online help if you have any questions. If you have run with a specific version of Design Link before, you'll note that you now have access to more possible files as all functionality is included.

As noted above, we highly recommend that if you have not upgraded to the full Simulation Autodesk Moldflow 2014 version, you do so. That said, this new change with Design Link being free can be leveraged for use within legacy versions.