A method and system for simulating and analyzing the behavior of a structural component of a computerized model in response to a simulated event to determine an optimized shape for the component is disclosed. The shape is optimized using an implicit dimensional reduction rather than an explicit geometric replacement by discarding data of a 3D discretization that has little or no bearing on the performance of the component to a simulated event. The reduced dataset is then collapsed onto a lower dimension projection that is applied over a force vector that is representative of the simulated event to determine the behavior of the component to the simulated event. Optimization tools may then be used to modify the physical attributes of the component and performance of the component once again simulated until an optimized component is determined.