Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research Joining the industry-wide race for dominance in tools to engineer the Internet of Things, Altair last month acquired Carriots S.L. The Madrid-based IoT technology company is the developer of Carriots, a complete IoT application enablement platform (AEP) to rapidly connect and manage devices, collect and analyze data, and build intelligent applications […]
Computational Acoustics Drives Innovative Design Solution
COMSOL has published a special edition of its annual publication, COMSOL News, celebrating simulation specialists working in the field of acoustics. Acoustics engineers shape experiences that create lifelong memories, whether it’s the hearing aid that allows a loved one to rejoin the dinner conversation, or those moments when you’re singing the words of your favorite song […]
Latest version of FloTHERM helps streamline user interface
Mentor, a Siemens business, announced the latest release of its market-leading FloTHERM product for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software for electronics cooling simulation. This latest version offers functionality aimed at increasing user effectiveness and productivity. It includes Command Center, which allows users to understand the product design space by defining variations of the base models. […]
Tebis introduces release 4 of Version 4.0 software
Tebis America, a leading software company specializing in CAD/CAM systems for design and manufacturing servicing the tool, die, mold, automotive and aerospace manufacturing industries announced the latest release 4 of its Version 4.0 Tebis software creates area curves during part comparison to enable better detection and limitation of modified areas. Design measures can be quickly […]
MapleMBSE from Maplesoft radically expands accessibility of model-based systems engineering
Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research Maplesoft’s just-released MapleMBSE, designed to help engineers create, maintain and validate product requirements efficiently and with fewer errors, is a technological breakthrough that for the first time lets engineering organizations adopt a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach to requirements management without forcing every engineer on the project to be an expert […]
Democratizing AM: Formlabs Fuse 1 makes SLS 3D printing accessible
Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research rinting systems that it differentiates as being both “powerful and accessible”—unveiled Fuse 1, its first selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printer. At the same time, it launched Form Cell, an automated production solution for additive manufacturing that uses the Form 2, which Formlabs bills as today’s best-selling professional 3D printer. […]
Changes in CAD—what you need to know
With the March release of Inventor 2018 and AutoCAD 2018, it’s a good time to review several of the recently released major CAD programs. Here’s a look at some of the biggest enhancements and key features of these programs. Jean Thilmany, Contributing Editor CAD packages are updated with the same regularity as other major software […]
Printed Parts Take Flight
As the aerospace industry moves toward supersonic travel and other innovations, 3D printing is keeping pace. Last week, Boom Supersonic announced a partnership with 3D-printer-maker Stratasys. Meanwhile, Airbus recently debuted a mini 3D-printed aircraft. Boom will accelerate production of advanced tooling and production-grade aircraft parts using Stratasys FDM 3D printing technology. The first flight of […]
International TechneGroup announces CADfix Plant & Process Simplification (PPS) Software
Global interoperability solution leader, International TechneGroup Incorporated (ITI), introduces the CADfixTM Plant & Process Simplification (PPS) software solution. CADfixTM PPS is a new, user-friendly solution – built on a proven CAD model translation, repair, healing, defeaturing and simplification platform – to help plant and process design engineers achieve up to 70% reduction in engineering design […]
MSC Apex Grizzly: Structural analysis for massive assemblies
Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research MSC Software just announced MSC Apex Grizzly, the seventh release of its next-generation CAE platform and an unprecedented breakthrough in engineering modeling and simulation of mega-structures. Very large structures such as cranes, ship hulls, shipyard ramps and the like are typically massive assemblies that often include thousands of parts welded together, […]
Dassault Systèmes Acquires Majority Stake in Outscale
Dassault Systèmes today announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Outscale, a global leader in enterprise-class cloud services, thereby strengthening its position as one of the fastest growing cloud companies in the world that is helping industry innovators to digitally transform their business. Financial terms were not disclosed. Founded in France in 2010, […]
Why is CFD Hard to “Democratize?”
The structure of CFD codes will need to change before the simulation method will become widely available to many types of users and engineers, write two officials from Mentor Graphics in a recent white paper. In the engineering industry, “democratization” has come to mean making software like CAD and simulation software available to more of […]
PTC, ANSYS to develop platform solution enabling digital simulation for the Industrial IoT
Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research PTC and ANSYS partnered to accelerate the industry-wide move to bring engineering modeling and simulation to the Industrial IoT. Just before the start of LiveWorx 2017, PTC’s annual mega-event around all things IIoT, the two leaders agreed to develop a solution that will let ANSYS engineering simulation technology be rapidly added […]
Dassault Systèmes acquires AITAC, enhancing its Marine & Offshore portfolio
Dassault Systèmes announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire AITAC BV, a Dutch company specialized in marine and offshore engineering software. With this acquisition, Dassault Systèmes will further strengthen its solutions designed to bring digital transformation to the marine and offshore industry by providing cutting-edge, industry-specific technologies for its 3DEXPERIENCE platform customers. AITAC’s […]
Early CFD Simulation Means Better ROI
Many engineering organizations have moved computational fluid dynamic analysis to the beginning of the design cycle. Other companies find they can now afford CFD software, as it’s increasingly becoming integrated with the CAD packages they already use. These companies want engineers themselves to find and fix the design issues that contribute to problems with air […]
The Democratization of CFD: Taking Off
Like CAD, computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, is moving toward (buzzword alert) democratization. Once the province of a subset of specialists, CFD is now reaching an ever-greater population of engineers. But that change is happening slowly. At many engineering companies, product designs—especially complex designs—are passed to experts CFD experts for detailed analysis and study of […]
LimitState:FORM V3.0 accelerates workflow
LimitState launched a new version of its design optimization software, LimitState:FORM 3.0. The new version includes major enhancements to the tool’s analysis and interactive editing capabilities. LimitState:FORM 3.0 uses layout and geometry optimization technology rather than topology optimization technology. This means that the time taken to deliver a viable optimized design can be reduced from […]
Democratizing thermal modeling with a cloud-based simulation app
Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research This test project for high-performance computing (HPC) in the cloud was designed to explore how cloud HPC resources can help to speed up and enable high-performance finite element simulations carried out with COMSOL Multiphysics and COMSOL Server. The objective was to find out how HPC cloud providers can augment engineering organizations’ […]
Siemens PLM Software releases version 5.0 of Kineo software
Version 5.0 of Kineo software components is for path planning, collision detection and cable simulation. It includes: Kineo Flexible Cables – for modeling deformable cables during motion simulation KineoWorks Interact – a graphical user interface for developing Kineo-enabled applications quickly and easily KineoWorks and Kineo Collision Detector – a capabilities and implementation enhancements Kineo Flexible […]
Design for use, lessons in adapting tools to other cultures through CAD
Jean Thilmany, Contributing Editor A functional, well-designed item is a luxury, says Tim Prestero, founder and chief executive officer at Salem, Mass.-based Design That Matters. It’s not that functional items are hard to come by, but in impoverished areas of the world those items may not be designed to fit users’ needs. Medical equipment tends […]
SolidWorks Introduces CAM for Smart Manufacturing
Gian Paolo Bassi, the chief executive officer of CAD maker SolidWorks kicked off SolidWorks World, held this week at the Los Angeles convention center, by introducing SolidWorks CAM, to help manufacturing companies with “smart manufacturing.” Smart manufacturing, he said, uses all the content in 3D models to: Recognize how features will be manufactured Learn how […]
Hazards of technology prophecy: Failures of imagination, failures of nerve
Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research In his classic essay collection Profiles of the Future, Arthur C. Clarke identified two kinds of what he termed “hazards of prophecy”: failures of imagination, and failures of nerve. Today, nearly a fifth of the way into the twenty-first century, it’s striking how many engineering organizations—and how many technology analyst firms […]
Onshape launches sheet metal design tools
Onshape, a leading professional 3D CAD platform for Agile Product Design, introduces sheet metal design capabilities. The cloud-based design tools enable faster creation and refinement of sheet metal parts with simultaneous generation of editable, synchronized flat, folded and tabular views. “This has been one of the most highly anticipated enhancements requested by our customers,” says […]
Stratasys Launches F123 Series of Printers for Rapid Prototyping
The three-dimensional printer company Stratasys of Eden Prairie, Minn., introduced three new 3D printers for rapid prototyping, which company officials say remains a strong use of these printers. They’re integrated with CAD software, so designers can take designs from their software and nto the real world for testing, verification, or even everyday use, says Rich […]
Simulation Is Becoming Democratized—At Last (Part 3)
This third and final installment in this series focuses on a revolutionary new generation of fit-for-purpose, product-specific and often user-organization-specific simulation “apps.” By placing advanced simulation and analysis technologies “under the hood” from the user’s perspective, simulation apps are making unprecedented powers of automated design exploration, optimization, synthesis and validation accessible, usable and safe for […]