Free Casting Simulation Software
Prevent Defects at Zero Cost

PoligonSoft FREE is a permanently free edition — not a trial, not a demo, and not time-limited. You can use it as long as you need, with no hidden fees and no expiration date.

PoligonSoft FREE is designed for:

• Students and educators learning or teaching metal casting physics and simulation workflows.
• Engineers and foundry professionals who want to explore and evaluate the software's capabilities before committing to a paid license.
• Researchers and hobbyists working on academic or non-profit projects.

No. PoligonSoft FREE is licensed strictly for academic, educational, and non-profit purposes. If you need to run simulations as part of a professional workflow, for commercial production, or as a service to clients, a commercial license is required.

PoligonSoft FREE focuses entirely on solidification simulation and shrinkage defect prediction. You can accurately obtain:

• Temperature and phase fields during the cooling process
• Hot spot detection (areas that solidify last)
• Exact location and formation of shrinkage cavities
• Macro and microporosity distribution

These results cover the most critical defect analysis tasks, helping you optimize riser placement, avoid feeding problems, and validate part geometry for academic or evaluation projects.

PoligonSoft FREE provides a complete toolset for thermal analysis:

• Mesh Generator: Imports CAD models and generates optimized finite element meshes.
• Master (Simulation Setup): Configures simulation parameters, initial settings, and process templates.
• Material Database: An extensive library of alloys and materials.
• Fourier Solver: The professional thermal calculation engine.
• Mirage (Results Visualisation): Advanced interactive 3D viewer for dynamic fields, isosurfaces, transparency, and graphs.

Yes. The free version includes the exact same material database as our commercial editions. It features an extensive list of metals, alloys, and mold materials (including sands, ceramics, insulators, and exothermic sleeves) with highly accurate, temperature-dependent properties.

No. After the initial download, PoligonSoft FREE operates 100% offline. All mesh generation and complex calculations run locally using your computer's hardware.

Here is a summary of the key differences:

When you create a finite element mesh, the total number of tetrahedrons (mesh elements) for your entire setup must not exceed 500,000. This includes the casting itself, the mold, gating systems, risers, and any cores.

For many small to medium-sized castings, 500K elements are more than enough to learn the workflow and obtain high-quality results.

PoligonSoft provides advanced techniques to significantly reduce polygon count, allowing you to simulate surprisingly large models within the free version's limits:

• Virtual Mold: A mathematical technique that accurately calculates heat transfer without requiring a physical 3D mesh for the massive mold block, saving hundreds of thousands of polygons.
• Shell Molds: An automated tool that builds a highly efficient, thin-shell mold around your casting directly in the software, eliminating the need to model complex solid molds in external CAD.

No. While the Master module allows you to configure filling parameters (such as pouring velocities and temperatures) for learning and setup purposes, the Euler Flow Solver itself is disabled in the free version.

If you need to analyze fluid dynamics, predict misruns, or optimize gating velocities for production, you will need to upgrade to a commercial license or utilize our Simulation Services.

To download the software, simply create a free account on the PoligonSoft website using your email address or Google authentication. Registration takes less than a minute, and no credit card is required.

Once logged in, the download link for the installer will be instantly available on your User Profile page.

Go to the download page

The minimum system requirements to install PoligonSoft are:

• Operating system: Windows 10 or higher (64-bit).
• Processor: Works on virtually any modern processor. The software uses multi-core calculations, so faster processors with more cores will complete calculations more quickly.
• RAM: 8 GB.
• Disk space: 3 GB free for installation, plus additional space for projects and results.
• Graphics card: Compatible with OpenGL 3.0 or higher.

PoligonSoft imports 3D solid models using IGES and STEP formats. These are universal industry standards supported by all major CAD platforms (SolidWorks, Inventor, NX, CATIA, Fusion360, FreeCAD, etc.).

We provide a comprehensive, completely free video course designed specifically for PoligonSoft FREE users. It takes you step-by-step through real scenarios:

• Lesson 1: Mesh generation and optimization within the 500,000 polygon limit
• Lesson 2: Configuring your first simulation and analyzing the thermal results
• Lesson 3: Using the "Virtual Mold" to simulate large parts efficiently
• Lesson 4: Automatically generating thin shell molds

Free version users have full access to our extensive video courses and community resources. However, personalized, priority technical support from the PoligonSoft engineering team (such as troubleshooting specific CAD files or project configurations) is strictly reserved for users with active commercial licenses.

Yes, transitioning is seamless. PoligonSoft uses a modular system, so you can easily upgrade to an Annual Subscription or Perpetual License whenever your production needs grow.

Yes. If you need to evaluate advanced modules (like flow or stress) on a complex part, the best approach is to use our Casting Simulation Services. Our engineers will run your project using the full software suite and deliver comprehensive results.

Alternatively, a time-limited evaluation license for the commercial suite may be granted upon request to companies whose engineers have prior professional experience with casting simulation systems.

PoligonSoft FREE is highly capable for learning, but upgrading to a commercial license is required or recommended when:

• You need to use the software for commercial production or paid client work.
• Your part geometries are highly complex and frequently require more than 500,000 mesh elements to accurately capture details.
• You need to simulate mold filling dynamics to detect misruns or optimize gating flow.
• You need to calculate mechanical stresses, hot tears, or post-cooling deformations.
• You use specialized processes requiring add-ons (Heat Treatment, Vacuum, Centrifugal, Continuous casting).
• You require dedicated priority support from our engineering team to solve complex foundry challenges.

Explore commercial pricing and modules