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Tacton introduces full CAD automation to eliminate manual tasks in the sales and engineering process

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Tacton announced Tacton CPQ with CAD Automation, an enhanced product capability that automates the generation of CAD drawings of custom and configured products. CAD automation allows manufacturers to configure, design, and deliver custom products faster and with precision, eliminating errors and empowering customers, sales teams, and engineering to generate technical CAD drawings automatically.

In manufacturing, customers often require detailed technical drawings to close a sale, but challenges such as manual handovers can lead to long and drawn-out sales processes. In addition, stakeholders often lack a single source of product data, leading to costly technical product design errors — not to mention, unhappy customers. Tacton CPQ with CAD Automation eliminates these pain points by empowering customers and sales reps without CAD skills to automatically generate technical drawings based on configurations. This automation empowers customers and sales while allowing engineers to focus on innovation, new products, and other value-creating tasks.

“In complex sales, engineering needs to be involved in every customer case to provide detailed technical drawings to close sales and build the custom products, but misunderstandings and a lack of technical product knowledge often lead to invalid quote requests,” said Bo Gyldenvang, Chief Executive Officer at Tacton. “When paired with our CPQ, CAD Automation automates these manual processes, which makes sales teams more effective, frees up time for engineers, and, ultimately, delivers a pain-free experience to end customers.”

Tacton’s 15-plus years of experience and extensive knowledge of manufacturing vertical requirements contribute to making Tacton CPQ with CAD Automation easy to use because it is:
• Easy to implement: Fast and easy CAD mappings via point-and-click with no coding required can be validated immediately and directly connected to the CPQ platform to exchange data in the background.
• Easy to use: A simple and context-sensitive UI speeds up navigation, matching the UI of the host CAD system to ease orientation while integrated help texts speed up the onboarding of new users.
• Easy to maintain: Clear separation between configuration models and CAD mappings along with intuitive recognition of already mapped elements allows users to simply test individual values or a complete configuration. In addition, one set of constraints means administrators don’t need to worry about synchronizing systems.

Generating and providing CAD files early in the sales process eliminates misunderstandings and costly errors, ensuring reliability to the customer and promoting trust. Tacton CPQ with CAD Automation allows manufacturers to offer customized designs at a much lower cost, creating a valuable competitive advantage and boosting customer satisfaction.

Tacton
www.tacton.com

Spatial computing supports large spaces

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PTC announced the newest addition to its Vuforia augmented reality (AR) enterprise platform, the Vuforia Engine Area Targets offering. This program supports the creation of immersive augmented reality (AR) experiences for spaces up to 300,000 square feet. Through the use of Area Targets, industrial organizations can create AR interfaces within their facilities to enable employees to better engage with machinery and understand how the environment is being used.

PTC’s Vuforia Engine Area Targets leverages spatial computing capabilities to support large spaces equivalent to six American football fields

With support from Matterport and Leica 3D scanners, along with NavVis’s indoor mobile mapping systems, Area Targets users can generate photorealistic, survey-grade digital twins, empowering them to create digital canvases of spaces, such as factories, malls, or offices for spatial computing applications.

As one of the leading emerging technologies, spatial computing powers digital twin renderings to support the activities of machines and people, as well as the environments in which they operate. When deployed across the industrial enterprise, spatial computing enables seamless interactions between employees through AR, enabling companies to close the loop on performance management, improve machine learning capabilities with spatial analytics, and optimize design and factory floor operations.

PTC
www.ptc.com

Dassault Systèmes and “The Inventor” launch the “3D Design Challenge” celebrating Leonardo da Vinci

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In celebration of Leonardo da Vinci’s ingenuity that has fascinated the world for centuries, Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Lab has teamed up with “The Inventor” – a new animated film about Leonardo from Jim Capobianco, the Academy Award-nominated writer of the Pixar film “Ratatouille” – Foliascope and Château du Clos Lucé – Parc Leonardo da Vinci to launch a new “3D Design Challenge” to bring Leonardo’s drawings to life.

The challenge invites individuals to showcase their 3D skills by using Dassault Systèmes’ 3D digital applications – which have enabled the design and engineering of groundbreaking industrial innovations for 40 years – to digitally reconstruct an invention from Leonardo’s codices.

Five winners will be selected based on how closely the 3D model resembles the original drawing, how well the model articulates the movements intended by Leonardo in the corresponding sketch, and how easily the model could be 3D printed.  Each winner will receive a 3D-printed version of their model, and gain access to Dassault Systèmes’ xDesign application for one year.

The winning designs will also be featured in the upcoming “The Inventor” stop-motion animated film that follows the incredible journey of Leonardo in a humorous and inventive story for the whole family, voiced by Stephen Fry as Leonardo, Daisy Ridley as Princess Marguerite de Navarre, and Marion Cotillard as Louise de Savoy.

The 3D Design Challenge is being run fully online from February 12-April 15, 2021 in the Open Codex Community.  Since 2012, this community has been bringing together designers, engineers, makers, hobbyists, students, teachers and others to draw inspiration from the past and use the virtual world to link imagination with innovation through international challenges focused on recreating Leonardo’s inventions in 3D.

Participants in the 3D Design Challenge must choose one of the 10 codices listed in the community and use CATIA, SOLIDWORKS or xDesign applications to accurately create a 3D working model of the drawing in real-life dimensions, then submit their entry by posting an explanation of how the final design works and uploading the 3D model in the online community.  These applications, powered by Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, enable users to digitally create, test and optimize the structure, mechanics and system.

In line with the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab’s collective intelligence and cross-collaborative approach to strengthen society’s future of creation, participants are encouraged to interact with other designers, participants and fans of Leonardo in the community throughout the challenge.

For more information:

 

Introducing hyperMILL 2021.1 CAD/CAM software suite

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OPEN MIND Technologies AG, a leading developer of CAD/CAM software solutions, has introduced its latest hyperMILL 2021.1 CAD/CAM software suite which offers users new and enhanced features for efficient 3D, 5-axis and mill/turn machining. Key innovations include a new “Interactive Edit Toolpath” capability which enables toolpath editing after initial toolpath generation. Especially productive for optimizing tool and mold making, the new toolpath editing feature is easy-to-use, and offers programmers the flexibility to adapt toolpaths by trimming and removing sequences accordingly for component conditions.

To streamline access to Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) and metadata, hyperMILL 2021.1 offers a new import function that retrieves face quality information and metadata when importing CAD data from neutral or native formats, and attaches data to the imported faces in hyperCAD-S, making the information available to hyperMILL and its machining processes.

A new 5-axis Radial Machining strategy allows bottle shapes and similar cavities to be easily and efficiently programmed in hyperMILL, resulting in high-quality surface finishes. Using a new radial projection method, toolpaths are calculated quickly so that the most productive machining strategies can be applied. For optimal high precision machining, hyperMILL “High Precision Surface Mode” and “Smooth Overlap” strategies can also be applied when using 5-axis Radial Machining, ensuring the best surface quality and clean transitions.

For high-quality surface finishes and to simplify programming when flank and point milling blades, hyperMILL 2021.1 offers several enhanced Multi-Blade strategies. No longer do blade surfaces need to be ruled for accurate programming results. Using the enhanced strategies, any number of surfaces are permitted for the suction and pressure sides, making it exceptionally easy to extend blade surfaces. Fillets with a variable radius are supported in the latest version of hyperMILL. Also, for high accuracy, the enhanced Multi-Blade flank milling strategies result in smaller deviations on the suction and pressure side, and offer improved tool guidance along the upper boundary in the edge area.

hyperMILL 2021.1 provides a new SIMULATION Center for generic NC data in turning and milling operations. Modeled after the hyperMILL VIRTUAL Machining Center, the new, modern SIMULATION Center is integrated in hyperMILL, and offers an intuitive operating environment for faster simulation, independent collision checking and extensive analysis functions.

Additional new features in hyperMILL 2021.1 include a new, easy-to-use “XY Optimization” command for optimal 3D profile finishing. In the hyperMILL Mill-Turn Module, the high-performance mode has been integrated into a 3-axis simultaneous roughing strategy, combining the advantages of HPC and simultaneous turning. For the simplified alignment of components, hyperCAD-S has a new “Align Best Fit” machining command that allows like-geometry components to be aligned with one another using defined pairs of points.

OPEN MIND Technologies AG
www.openmind-tech.com/en

Radica Software partners with Onshape to bring 3D drawings and electrical CAD on one platform

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Radica Software, a developer of cloud-based electrical computer-aided design software (ECAD), announced it has partnered with Onshape Inc. Both companies have agreed to integrate their technologies to provide end-to-end drawing solutions for engineers around the globe. The integration makes it easy and efficient for engineers to complete product designs using 3D CAD software together with Electra Cloud’s 2D electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic drawings, in real-time, all within a single online platform on Onshape. This offering is already available, and users can now subscribe to Electra Cloud directly from Onshape’s app store.

Users may share parts, designs, and symbols so they can be reused throughout the entire company. This eliminates tedious repetitive tasks and frees up engineers’ time so they can focus on important priorities to improve bottom line.

Onshape and Radica Software already have plans for deeper integration within the coming months. For example, users will be able to customize Electra Cloud with a plugin that will extract information from Onshape and automatically populate electrical drawings. Conversely, electrical drawings made on Electra Cloud can also insert parts into 3D Onshape drawings, for workflow management or even simulations.

The partnership with Onshape is the first for Electra Cloud since its launch in early 2020. Radica Software is also looking to widen its market reach through partnerships with other industry players around the world.

Radica Software
radicasoftware.com

GEA uses Dassault Systèmes’ Simulation Technology to safely reopen its cafeteria for 1,900 employees

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Dassault Systèmes announced that GEA, one of the world’s largest technology suppliers for food processing and a wide range of other industries, used SIMULIA applications powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to simulate the airflow in its Oelde, Germany employee cafeteria, which has been closed since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and gain insights on how to safely reopen it for 1,900 employees.

Understanding that the coronavirus can spread through droplets in the air, GEA wanted to examine the spread of aerosols in its cafeteria and visualize different safety scenarios as part of its “Back to Work” initiative to fully reopen all sites. It worked with Dassault Systèmes to build a 3D virtual twin of the cafeteria with parameters that included people infected with the virus coughing and sneezing, to simulate particle flow behavior throughout the space. GEA was able to experience how the virus could spread through the air as well as contaminate surfaces like plates, trays and tables. The virtual twin also revealed unexpected areas of high virus concentration.

GEA is now using the simulation results to identify and implement an effective risk management strategy for a safer cafeteria environment. This includes altering entrances, exits and seating layouts, separating the cafeteria’s kitchen from its catering area, modifying the ventilation system, and adopting additional safety measures that protect kitchen staff.

“Simulation provided us with a valuable learning experience and will play a major role in our decision-making as we plan to reopen our cafeteria, which is an important gathering space for all our employees,” said Erich Nitzsche, Vice President Engineering Standards & Services, GEA. “The results from our collaboration with Dassault Systèmes exceeded our expectations and showed a different story from what we were expecting. Thanks to simulation, we can be more purposeful in our thinking as we solve problems to ensure the health and safety of our employees and reduce the negative impacts on our business. Selecting Dassault Systèmes was a winning initiative for us.”

GEA plans to share videos showing the simulation results to employees, to clearly communicate why and how new measures were taken, and technology’s role in this strategy.

“Virtual worlds revolutionize our relationship with knowledge and open up tremendous possibilities,” said Klaus Löckel, Managing Director, EUROCENTRAL, Dassault Systèmes. “Our SIMULIA applications reveal the invisible by representing the time and space of a behavior that evolves in its environment. GEA can understand and act on this behavior in response to the coronavirus crisis with a program that prioritizes employee well-being.”

Dassault Systèmes
www.3ds.com

Elysium to launch 3DxSUITE in Spring 2021

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Global interoperability solutions provider, Elysium, is developing a new consolidated interoperability platform scheduled for release in the spring of 2021. The 3DxSUITE will enable users to customize and integrate Elysium’s data solutions into automated quality and compliance-checking systems best suited to their operational needs.

Flexibility and openness support digital end-to-end processes for MBE and the 3D-Master
“For almost 30 years, we have been creating a variety of packaged software products based on our unique 3D data-processing technology,” says Atsuto Soma, CTO of Elysium. “Now, we are transforming our existing technology into a new platform that can more flexibly meet the demand for greater industry automation and inter-connectivity between CAD data resources and downstream manufacturing processes.

“3DxSUITE truly embodies the ‘interoperability’ that Elysium has set as its business concept since its foundation,” says Soma. “Companies that use 3D to design and manufacture products should not be tied to a specific authoring system or set of tools, but rather transcend the barriers between companies and organizations, creating the ideal manufacturing processes that connect all kinds of information, systems, equipment and people.”

Accelerating the digital transformation of manufacturing
In recent years, as digital transformation has progressed across many industries, manufacturing companies have increasingly relied on streamlined 3D data to optimize their supply chains.
“With advanced IT solutions now available, such as cloud applications and web-based portal communications, manufacturers using a variety of CAD software and PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) systems will be able to more broadly and deeply employ Elysium’s new platform to fully utilize their 3D digital engineering data,” Soma says. “This will facilitate the transformational changes now taking place globally and promote business growth.”

Modularity, usability and mobility
Elysium has developed a full spectrum of digital technologies—such as data translation, verification including PDQ (Product Data Quality), validation, optimization including geometry simplification and data repurposing, and even packaging of 3D and supplemental data—and incorporated these into the desktop application CADdoctor; the enterprise solution, ASFALIS; and the foundational data-translation tool, DirectTranslator.

On the upcoming interoperability platform, 3DxSUITE, users will not be limited to any specific configuration of Elysium products, or any particular CAD system or data format. They will be free to pick the manual or automated data solutions that best fit their individual needs with regard to design tools, manufacturing processes, operational systems, etc.

Companies can use the new platform to construct a centralized system that allows them to easily select, combine and integrate modularized functions and usage. This ability will save companies handling 3D engineering data significant time and costs in their model-based and digitalization efforts, and improve supply-chain integration and productivity.

Supporting the evolution of the digital environment
“One of the greatest advantages of this software consolidation is the ease by which customers can start incorporating their first priorities, whether small-scale or large-scale,” says Annalise Suzuki, North American VP of Technology & Engagement for Elysium. “When it comes to MBE initiatives, it’s not reasonable to seek a radical change overnight. MBD/MBE is a long-term, evolving roadmap as cultures, tools, standards and processes improve. The 3DxSUITE is most accommodating when it comes to supporting such an evolving shift—whether it be adding capabilities over time, expanding use cases, or changing out 3D formats.

“From a value perspective, 3DxSUITE is a single-point solution—a single architecture for upgrading a CAD system and outgoing data across multiple vendors and into set production and delivery schedules. It maximizes throughputs, but minimizes overhead for implementation, integration, configuration, upgrades, and long-term support,” says Suzuki.

Elysium
www.elysium-global.com/en/

Dassault Systèmes unveils 3DEXPERIENCE Edu, driving a new era of experience-based learning for the workforce of the future

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Dassault Systèmes today unveiled 3DEXPERIENCE Edu, its new ambition to help students and professionals thrive in the workplace with in-demand industry skills for sustainable innovation. With 3DEXPERIENCE Edu, Dassault Systèmes will drive its key role in building the workforce of the future by opening up new possibilities on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for lifelong learning and for connecting academic institutions with industry to foster employability.

3DEXPERIENCE Edu will deliver skills-related publications, establish global partnerships and educational centers, and engage students in sustainability challenges and competitions, as well as offer a new portfolio of learning experiences and certifications for professionals on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. These programs and resources aim to foster collective intelligence on key emerging roles and skills, redefine the way academic institutions and businesses collaborate to accelerate the adoption of new methods in industry, and transform education through experience-based learning.

While studies have already revealed a disconnect between the skills needed to fill today’s job vacancies and academic curricula, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed needs for reskilling, upskilling and training to help companies and academic institutions accelerate their transformation. Hybrid learning is becoming the new norm in education. Whether online or in class, learning is about people engagement. Experience-based learning is the solution for learners to actively grow their skills by creating projects and collaborating actively with their peers, experts and mentors.

“To foster industry growth in the COVID-19 era, people must be able to adapt to new ways of working, businesses must equip workers for fast-evolving roles and find workers that have the right skills, and industry must work with educators to reduce the gap between their needs and what is taught in classes,” said Florence Verzelen, Executive Vice President, Industry, Marketing, Global Affairs, Workforce of the Future, Dassault Systèmes. “We have long been a strategic partner for industry, which puts us in a unique position to know what skills jobs require and how to prepare them. 3DEXPERIENCE Edu offers a new world that empowers the workforce of the future with knowledge and know-how. We can engage people and transform how they learn, teach, make and share to imagine sustainable innovations.”

3DEXPERIENCE Edu builds upon Dassault Systèmes’ decades of experience in 11 industries, to support five million students of all ages every year as well as academic institutions, companies, and professionals seeking to improve their knowledge, expertise or employability. This includes providing educational packages to organizations worldwide during COVID-19 lockdowns, and partnerships with Re-Engineering Australia Foundation, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Illinois Institute of Technology on life sciences, and the World Economic Forum on advanced manufacturing skills.

Dassault Systèmes
www.3ds.com

Dassault Systèmes joins the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI)

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Dassault Systèmes announced it has joined the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), a global organization focused on enabling digital sustainability. Becoming a member of GeSI means that Dassault Systèmes is adding its name to a growing number of major information, communication, and technology (ICT) companies and organizations from around the world that are seeking to enable social and environmental sustainability through technology.

“An innovation can’t be sustainable if its impacts on the environment and on people haven’t been thought through. Modeling these impacts in virtual universes can dramatically accelerate a more sustainable future and our collective ability to deliver on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals,” said Alice Steenland, Chief Sustainability Officer, Dassault Systèmes. “We are a purpose-driven company with the ambition to be the catalyst and enabler of a sustainable world, working constantly to improve people’s lives by addressing major sustainability challenges with our customers. We look forward to driving solutions in collaboration with other sustainability leaders as a part of GeSI.”

Luis Neves, Managing Director and CEO of GeSI, said that the organization welcomes a member like Dassault Systèmes with its vast experience in 3D digital technology.

“GeSI’s mission is to help create a smarter, more sustainable world with digital solutions at its core,” Neves said. “We are thrilled to have a company like Dassault Systèmes, a leader in its industry sector, join us as a Member. Their engagement reinforces GeSI’s work to harness innovative digital solutions as a force for good as we commit to the 2030 Agenda. We look forward to a long partnership with Dassault Systèmes.”

Through its 3DEXPERIENCE platform and digital applications, Dassault Systèmes provides business and people with collaborative 3D virtual environments to imagine sustainable innovations. Recognizing that sustainability is the primary driver of innovation in all sectors of the economy and progress in all domains of society, Dassault Systèmes is focused on helping its customers achieve sustainable growth, on creating a better world for people, and on empowering the workforce of the future.

GeSI is a globally recognized thought leader, partner of choice and proactive driver of the ICT sustainability agenda as measured by the development and use of its tools, broad member base and contributions to relevant policies. Its vision is to create a sustainable world through responsible, ICT-enabled transformation. Its members and partners use their collective knowledge and experience to identify opportunities and develop effective solutions in a number of critical areas including: climate change, energy/resource efficiency, e-waste management, responsible supply chain practices, labor rights and public policy.

Dassault Systèmes
www.3ds.com

Autodesk makes Generative Design in Autodesk Fusion 360 more available to users

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Autodesk is making it easier for customers to take advantage of the features and functions of generative design with the Fusion 360 Generative Design Extension subscription offering. The company is offering unlimited access to the generative design functions as a separate subscription, at either $1,000 monthly or $8,000 annually.

Wheels for a Briggs supercar developed with Generative Design software. Image courtesy of Briggs Automotive Company

The introductory pricing is for a limited time. Through July 17, annual subscriptions to Fusion 360 and the Generative Design Extension are available for 50% off the regular price.

MJK Performance used generative design technology to create a set of lighter and stronger triple clamps for a drag bike.

For those who prefer to pay as they go, access to the generative design extension will continue to be available using Autodesk Cloud Credits.

Autodesk
www.autodesk.com