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COMSOL launches Version 5.5 of COMSOL Multiphysics

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COMSOL, a leading provider of software solutions for multiphysics modeling, simulation, and application design and deployment, announces the latest version of its COMSOL Multiphysics software. In version 5.5, the Design Module provides an entirely new sketching tool for easier creation and more versatile parametric control of geometry models. New and updated solvers speed up a range of simulations. Two new add-on products, the Porous Media Flow Module and the Metal Processing Module, further expand the product suite’s multiphysics modeling power.

Parametric sketching with dimensions
The Design Module provides a new sketching tool that makes it easy to assign dimensions and constraints to planar drawings for 2D models and 3D work planes. “We have carefully integrated the new dimensions and constraints tool in the Model Builder so that it becomes a natural part of the COMSOL Multiphysics workflow,” said Daniel Bertilsson, technology manager for mathematics and computer science at COMSOL. “The new tools for dimensions and constraints can be used together with model parameters in COMSOL Multiphysics to drive the simulation, whether for a single run, parametric sweep, or parametric optimization.”

Parametric optimization of fluid flow in a microvalve using the new sketching tool with dimensions and constraints capabilities available in the Design Module.

New solver technology for Acoustics Simulations
Ultrasound technology is becoming increasingly important in a range of applications spanning from process engineering and nondestructive testing to consumer electronics. New functionality based on the time-explicit discontinuous Galerkin method enables efficient multicore computations of ultrasound propagation in solids and fluids, including realistic materials featuring damping and anisotropy. The method also has low-frequency applications, such as in seismology. The included multiphysics capabilities can seamlessly combine linear elastic wave propagation in a solid and its transition to a fluid as an acoustic pressure wave, and back again. The new elastic wave functionality is available for users of the Structural Mechanics Module, MEMS Module, and Acoustics Module. The fluid-structure acoustics coupling is available in the Acoustics Module.

 

Sound pressure field in a car interior solved with the finite element method at 7 kHz using a specialized solver for wave propagation analysis.

For frequency-domain simulations, a specialized solver for wave propagation analysis makes it possible to handle higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths) using the finite element method. The new solver can be used to analyze enclosed structures such as that of a car cabin interior as well as other acoustics simulations.

Introducing the Metal Processing Module
The new Metal Processing Module makes metal phase transformation analysis accessible within the COMSOL Multiphysics environment for applications within welding, heat treatment, and metal additive manufacturing. “The Metal Processing Module makes it possible to predict deformations, stresses, and strains resulting from wanted or unwanted heat-driven phase changes in metals,” said Mats Danielsson, technical product manager at COMSOL. “The module can be combined with any of the other COMSOL products for virtually any kind of multiphysics analysis that includes metal phase change. We envision users combining this with, for example, the Heat Transfer Module for the influence of heat radiation, the Ac/dc Module for induction hardening, and the Nonlinear Structural Materials Module for highly predictive analysis of material behavior.”

 

Residual stresses in a spur gear after quenching, calculated using the Metal Processing Module.

Introducing the Porous Media Flow Module

The Porous Media Flow Module gives users within, for example, food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries a wide range of transport analysis capabilities for porous media. The new add-on product includes functionality for single- and multiphase flow in porous media, drying, and transport in fractures. The flow models cover linear and nonlinear flow in saturated and variably saturated media with special options for slow and fast porous media flows. The multiphysics simulation capabilities are extensive, with functionality that includes options for calculating effective thermal properties for multicomponent systems; poroelasticity; and transport of chemical species in solid, liquid, and gas phases.

Simulation of a packed bed latent heat storage tank, using the Porous Media Flow Module.

Simplified Shape and Topology Optimization with the Optimization Module
Users working with mechanical, acoustics, electromagnetics, heat, fluid, and chemical analysis have been able to perform shape and topology optimization in COMSOL Multiphysics for many years. The Optimization Module now offers simplified setup of shape optimization with new built-in features such as moving boundaries parameterized by polynomials and built-in support for shell thickness optimization. A new smoothing operation for topology optimization ensures higher-quality geometry outputs that can be used for additional analysis and additive manufacturing. COMSOL Multiphysics now has general support for import and export of the additive manufacturing formats PLY and 3MF, in addition to the STL format that is already available.

Shape optimization of a sheet metal bracket using the Optimization Module. The structure is subjected to a bending load resulting in ridges in the optimal design.

Nonlinear Shell Analysis, Pipe Mechanics, and Random Vibration Analysis
A wide range of nonlinear analysis options are now available for shells and composite shells, including plasticity, creep, viscoplasticity, viscoelasticity, hyperelasticity, and mechanical contact. The mechanical contact modeling functionality has been extended to support any combination of solids and shells, including solid-shell, solid-composite shell, and membrane-shell. Depending on the type of analysis, these improvements will be available to users of the Structural Mechanics Module, Nonlinear Structural Materials Module, and Composite Materials Module.

For users of the Structural Mechanics Module, a new user interface for pipe mechanics provides functionality to perform stress analysis of pipe systems. The new functionality can handle a variety of pipe cross sections and can include effects from external loads, internal pressure, axial drag forces, and temperature gradients through the pipe wall.

Users of the Structural Mechanics Module can now perform random vibration analysis to study the response to loads that are represented by their power spectral density (PSD).

This allows users to include loads that are random in nature, such as turbulent wind gusts or road-induced vibrations on a vehicle. The loads can be fully correlated, uncorrelated, or have a specific user-given correlation.

The Multibody Dynamics Module provides new functionality for analyzing rigid and elastic chain drives with automatic generation of the large number of links and joints needed for modeling chain drives.

 

Elastic chain drive analysis in the Multibody Dynamics Module. Colors and arrows show the velocity and velocity direction, respectively, in the chain and sprockets.

Compressible Euler Flow and Nonisothermal Large Eddy Simulations
Users of the CFD Module will get new interfaces for compressible Euler flow and nonisothermal large eddy simulations (LES). In addition, the flow interfaces for rotating machinery now support the level set and phase field methods as well as Euler–Euler and bubbly flow. The Heat Transfer Module comes with a new interface for lumped thermal systems, an equivalent circuit modeling approach for heat transfer simulations. Radiation in semitransparent (participating) media now supports multiple spectral bands, and a new open boundary formulation for convective flow reduces solution time by 30%.

Multiscale Wave and Ray Optics, Piezoelectric Shells, and PCB Ports
The Ray Optics Module can now be combined with the RF Module or Wave Optics Module for simultaneous full-wave and ray tracing simulations. This enables multiscale modeling, such as analyzing a waveguide beaming into a large room, where using a full-wave simulation would be computationally prohibitive. Combining the AC/DC Module and the Composite Materials Module, users can now analyze layered materials with both dielectric and piezoelectric layers in thin structures. In the RF Module, a set of new ports for vias and transmission lines makes setup much quicker and gives more control to the user for modeling of printed circuit boards.

Efficient Distribution of Standalone Applications
COMSOL Compiler enables you to create standalone applications based on COMSOL Multiphysics models with specialized user interfaces that have been built with the Application Builder. Compiled applications require only COMSOL Runtime — no COMSOL Multiphysics or COMSOL Server license is required. “Since the release of COMSOL Compiler last fall, we have seen great response from our Application Builder users with this new possibility of distributing their applications in standalone form,” said Daniel Ericsson, application product manager at COMSOL. The latest version of COMSOL Compiler has a new compile option for generating minimum-sized files for easier distribution. When the user launches an application for the first time, where the new compile option has been used, COMSOL Runtime is downloaded and installed, if needed, from COMSOL’s website. Only one instance of COMSOL Runtime is needed for applications using the same COMSOL version. COMSOL Runtime has a size of about 350 MB and an application file can be as small as a few MB.

The COMSOL Runtime installer for standalone applications created with the Application Builder and compiled with COMSOL Compiler.

Highlights in Version 5.5:

–New sketching tool with dimensions and constraints

–Fast linear elastic wave simulations

–New Metal Processing Module for welding, heat treatment, and metal additive manufacturing

–New Porous Media Flow Module for food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries

–Improved tools for shape and topology optimization for mechanical, acoustics, electromagnetics, heat, fluid, and chemical analysis

–Import and export of the 3D printing and additive manufacturing formats PLY and 3MF

–Editing tools for repair of STL, PLY, and 3MF files

–Structural analysis of nonlinear shells, pipe mechanics, random vibration, and chain drives

–Compressible Euler flow and nonisothermal large eddy simulation (LES)

–Rotating machinery with level set, phase field, Euler–Euler, and bubbly flow

–Lumped thermal system equivalent circuits

–Multiple spectral bands for radiation in participating media

–More efficient open boundary condition for convective heat transfer

–Use of thermodynamic database properties in any simulation type

–Combined full wave and ray optics simulations

–Piezoelectric and dielectric shells

–New PCB ports for vias and transmission lines

–Link images to Microsoft PowerPoint presentations

–Create your own add-ins for customizing the Model Builder workflow

–Minimal file size standalone applications with COMSOL Compiler

Availability
COMSOL Multiphysics, COMSOL Server, and COMSOL Compiler software products are supported on the following operating systems: Windows, Linux, and macOS. The Application Builder tool is supported in the Windows operating system.

To browse version 5.5 release highlights, visit: www.comsol.com/release/5.5

To download the latest version, visit: www.comsol.com/product-download

COMSOL

PTC to acquire Onshape

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PTC announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Onshape, creators of Software as a Service (SaaS) product development platform that unites computer aided design (CAD) with data management and collaboration tools, for approximately $470 million, net of cash acquired.
The acquisition is expected to accelerate PTC’s ability to attract new customers with a SaaS-based product offering and position the company to capitalize on the inevitable industry transition to SaaS. Pending regulatory approval and satisfaction of other closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed in November 2019.

Located in Cambridge, MA, Onshape was founded in 2012 by CAD pioneers and tech legends, including Jon Hirschtick, John McEleney, and Dave Corcoran, inventors and former executives of SolidWorks. Onshape has secured more than $150 million in funding from leading venture capital firms and has more than 5,000 subscribers around the world. The company’s software offering is delivered in a SaaS model, making it accessible from any connected location or device, eliminating the need for costly hardware and administrative staff to maintain. Distributed and mobile teams of designers, engineers, and others can benefit from the product’s cloud nature, enabling them to improve collaboration and to dramatically reduce the time needed to bring new products to market – while simultaneously staying current with the latest software.

This acquisition is the logical next step in PTC’s overall evolution to a recurring revenue business model, the first step of which was the company’s transition to subscription licensing, completed in January 2019. The SaaS model, while nascent in the CAD and PLM market, is rapidly becoming industry best practice across most other software domains.

Onshape will operate as a business unit within PTC, with current management reporting directly to PTC President and CEO Jim Heppelmann.

Barclays acted as exclusive financial advisor to PTC on the transaction.

PTC
www.ptc.com

Quality Information Framework (QIF) for translation and validation to/from CAD

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Elysium, a world leader in 3D-geometry handling, interoperability, data translation and quality-checking software, will release a solution for multi-CAD to/from QIF for translation and validation between users. The added capability will be part of the new release of ASFALIS software planned for early 2020.

A Quality Information Framework (QIF) is an XML architecture that defines, organizes, and associates quality information needed in manufacturing systems. With the rising demand for digital data utilization throughout the entire supply chain, and specifically within the measurement-and-inspection stage, QIF was created by DMSC, accredited by ANSI, to address pressing industry requirements.

The new solution will semantically connect the design, manufacturing and inspection phases and streamline design to inspection and quality management workflow. With this capability, users will be able to translate CAD geometry and Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) to QIF and import high-quality data to QIF-supported metrology software and hardware.

In addition, Elysium will offer advanced solutions such as:

* Validation between native CAD data and translated QIF data

* Validation between original QIF data and QIF data after editing

* Translation from edited QIF to CAD

“We’re providing a sensible solution for streamlining the manufacturing process by supporting the QIF lead taken by DMSC, where Elysium has a strong presence,” said Atsuto Soma, CTO at Elysium. “With translation tools between multi-CAD and QIF not yet widely developed in industry, manufacturers throughout the world have high expectations for a forthcoming solution. Elysium has advanced its geometry handling and CAD translation technologies significantly over the years—while continually strengthening genuine partnerships with major CAD vendors. Elysium hopes to better enable manufacturers in their Model-Based Definition and Enterprise (MBD/E) initiatives through its on-going support of QIF translation and validation.”

Elysium
www.elysium-global.com/en/

Comsol Multiphysics Update Includes New Sketching Tool

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Comsol is set to release Comsol Multiphysics Version 5.5 in November 2019. In this version, the Design Module offers a new sketching tool for easier creation and more versatile parametric control of geometry models, says Daniel Bertilsson, technology manager for mathematics and computer science at Comsol.

Comsol Multiphysics offers tools for engineering modeling, simulation, application, and deployment. It solves for multiple physical effects at the same time.

The company made the update announcement at its annual Comsol Conference held in October in Boston.

New and updated solvers speed a range of simulations. Two new add-on products, the Porous Media Flow Module and the Metal Processing Module, further expand on the product’s suite of multiphysics tools.

The new sketching tool makes it easier to assign dimensions and constraints to planar drawings for 2D modeling and 3D work planes.

“We’ve carefully integrated the new dimensions and constraints tool in the Model Builder so it becomes a natural part of the Comsol Multiphysics workflow,” Bertilsson says. “The new tools for dimensions and constraints can be used together with model parameters in Comsol to drive the simulation, whether for a single run, parametric sweep, or parametric optimization.”

Acoustics Simulations

Another update—new solver technology for acoustics simulations—is a nod to ultrasound technology becoming increasingly important in a range of applications from process engineering and nondestructive testing to consumer electronics.

Other new functionality—based on the time-explicit discontinuous Galerkin method—enables efficient multicore computation of ultrasound propagation in solids and fluids. This includes realistic materials featuring damping and anisotropy. The method also has low-frequency applications, such as in seismology. The multiphysics capability included in this new functionality can seamlessly combine linear elastic wave propagation in a solid and its transition to a fluid, as an acoustic pressure wave, and back again.

The new elastic wave functionality is available for users of the Structural Mechanics Module, MEMS Module, and Acoustics Module. The fluid-structure acoustics coupling is available in the Acoustics Module.

Porous Media Flow Module

This module gives users within industries such as food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical a range of transport analysis capabilities for porous media, trying, and transport in fractures. The flow modules cover linear and nonlinear flow in saturated and variably saturated media with special options for slow and fast porous media flows. The multisphycis simulation capabilities are extensive, with functionality that includes options for calculating effective thermal properties for multicomponent systems, poroelasticity, and transport of chemical species in solid, liquid, and gas phases.

Other highlights of this upgrade include:

  • Import and export of the 3D printing and additive manufacturing formats PLY and 3MF.
  • Multiple spectral bands for radiation in participating media
  • Lumped thermal systems equivalent circuits
  • Combined full wave and ray optics simulations
  • Minimum-sized standalone application files with Comsol Compiler
  • Compressible Euler flow and nonisothermal large eddy simulations
  • Editing tools for repair of STL, PLY, and 3MR files

 

Comsol Update Includes New Sketching Tool

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Comsol is set to release Comsol Multiphysics Version 5.5 in November 2019. In this version, the Design Module offers a new sketching tool for easier creation and more versatile parametric control of geometry models, says Daniel Bertilsson, technology manager for mathematics and computer science at Comsol.

Comsol Multiphysics offers tools for engineering modeling, simulation, application, and deployment. It solves for multiple physical effects at the same time.

The company made the update announcement at its annual Comsol Conference held in October in Boston.

New and updated solvers speed a range of simulations. Two new add-on products, the Porous Media Flow Module and the Metal Processing Module, further expand on the product’s suite of multiphysics tools.

The new sketching tool makes it easier to assign dimensions and constraints to planar drawings for 2D modeling and 3D work planes.

“We’ve carefully integrated the new dimensions and constraints tool in the Model Builder so it becomes a natural part of the Comsol Multiphysics workflow,” Bertilsson says. “The new tools for dimensions and constraints can be used together with model parameters in Comsol to drive the simulation, whether for a single run, parametric sweep, or parametric optimization.”

Acoustics Simulations

Another update—new solver technology for acoustics simulations—is a nod to ultrasound technology becoming increasingly important in a range of applications from process engineering and nondestructive testing to consumer electronics.

Other new functionality—based on the time-explicit discontinuous Galerkin method—enables efficient multicore computation of ultrasound propagation in solids and fluids. This includes realistic materials featuring damping and anisotropy. The method also has low-frequency applications, such as in seismology. The multiphysics capability included in this new functionality can seamlessly combine linear elastic wave propagation in a solid and its transition to a fluid, as an acoustic pressure wave, and back again.

The new elastic wave functionality is available for users of the Structural Mechanics Module, MEMS Module, and Acoustics Module. The fluid-structure acoustics coupling is available in the Acoustics Module.

Porous Media Flow Module

This module gives users within industries such as food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical a range of transport analysis capabilities for porous media, trying, and transport in fractures. The flow modules cover linear and nonlinear flow in saturated and variably saturated media with special options for slow and fast porous media flows. The multisphycis simulation capabilities are extensive, with functionality that includes options for calculating effective thermal properties for multicomponent systems, poroelasticity, and transport of chemical species in solid, liquid, and gas phases.

Other highlights of this upgrade include:

  • Import and export of the 3D printing and additive manufacturing formats PLY and 3MF.
  • Multiple spectral bands for radiation in participating media
  • Lumped thermal systems equivalent circuits
  • Combined full wave and ray optics simulations
  • Minimum-sized standalone application files with Comsol Compiler
  • Compressible Euler flow and nonisothermal large eddy simulations
  • Editing tools for repair of STL, PLY, and 3MR files

Wind River offers new release of VxWorks

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Wind River announced the latest release of its real-time operating system (RTOS) VxWorks, which has ensured the security, safety, and deterministic performance of embedded applications for more than 30 years. The latest release redefines embedded software development with new capabilities to drive greater business value, innovation, and productivity.

As the industry rapidly transforms with systems moving from automated to autonomous, there’s a demand for a new approach that enables engineers to use today’s mainstream tools and programming languages for innovating. VxWorks empowers developers of all backgrounds with popular programming languages and libraries, along with cloud-based development tools and infrastructures to create mission-critical applications that require the highest levels of security and safety.

The latest release of VxWorks includes:

• Support for C++17, Boost 1.70.0, Python 3.8, and Rust
• LLVM-based infrastructure which enables support for a broad set of modern and productive tools and frameworks
• Open source board support packages (BSPs) such as Raspberry Pi and TI Sitara AM65x for quick prototyping and flexibility of choice
• OpenSSL 1.1.1 for the most up-to-date cryptography libraries

Complementing VxWorks is Wind River Labs, which offers access to VxWorks–compatible new technologies and collaborative software projects, proof-of-concepts, open source integrations, pre-release and experimental software, including ROS 2, OpenCV, and IoT SDKs for public cloud providers to name a few.

Wind River
www.windriver.com
 www.windriver.com/announces/vxworks

Volume Graphics releases new generation of CT Software

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–Volume Graphics announced the latest generation of its software solutions for non-destructive quality assurance with industrial computed tomography (CT): Version 3.3 of VGSTUDIO MAX, VGSTUDIO, VGMETROLOGY, and VGinLINE.

VGSTUDIO MAX software is used for the analysis and visualization of industrial computed tomography (CT) data and covers all requirements related to metrology, defect detection and assessment, material properties, and simulation.

Using the new version, customers can determine the surfaces of multi-material components, export measurement and analysis results to store them centrally in quality-management software, automate inspection processes more flexibly based on text recognition, and translate real CT data into volume meshes for simulation.

To further support their customers, Volume Graphics has also added a Technical Consulting unit that provides professional consulting and evaluation services.

“With version 3.3 of our software solutions, we are once again laying the foundation for customers to make their processes smarter,” says Christof Reinhart, CEO and co-founder of Volume Graphics GmbH.

“For example, using the new data export, metrology data derived with the tremendous measurement capabilities of our software can be seamlessly shared with QA systems, where the values can then be combined and checked over time. More than ever before, this new feature enables customers to better integrate leading-edge CT technology into their existing software landscape. The new export feature is based on the native support of the widely used Q-DAS format, which makes using results in third-party statistical or analysis software especially easy.”

An overview of the innovations in VGSTUDIO MAX 3.3: Multi-material surface determination

–A new mode of the local-adaptive-surface determination enables the simultaneous determination of the surfaces of each material within a volume in one go
–This significantly simplifies the geometric dimensioning and tolerancing of multi-material objects, e.g., the position of metal pins of a connector relative to the plastic housing
–The new mode also facilitates segmentation of multi-material objects

Support of native data export in Q-DAS format

–There is now native support for data export in Q-DAS format for both VGSTUDIO MAX and the VGMETROLOGY metrology solution, as well as the VGinLINE solution for automated CT inspection
–Companies that still work with traditional measurement systems can switch to this comprehensive CT measurement technology without encountering software hurdles or having to forego their established processes for further statistical evaluation
–Export of detailed, CT-based measurement and analysis results (coordinate measurement, nominal/actual comparison, wall thickness analysis, porosity/inclusion analysis, fiber composite material analysis) is now enabled in the common Q-DAS data exchange format

OCR-based automation
–New optical character recognition (OCR) allows customers to read out text in CT scans, such as object identifiers, and store the recognized text in their meta information
–In automated inspection workflows, cavity markers in CT scans of injection molded or cast components can be recognized and the right reference object or the appropriate analysis in VGinLINE jobs can then be selected depending on the respective cavity
–At the same time, the recognized text improves the traceability of the results, since the information about the cavities can be included in the reports

 

Volume meshing for simulations
–With the new Volume Meshing Module, users can create accurate and high-quality tetrahedral volume meshes from their CT scans for use in mechanical, fluid, thermal, electrical, and other FEM simulations in third party software
–This is based directly on the subvoxel-accurate surface determination for scanned parts or material samples consisting of one or more materials
–The individual components of multi-material objects are translated into volume meshes with congruent tetrahedron faces and shared nodes at material interfaces
–The complete workflow from CT scan to volume mesh is covered
–Generated volume meshes can be exported in common .pat and .inp file formats
–Each cell of the generated volume mesh can be loaded with additional information required for simulation, such as fiber orientations, fiber volume fractions, porosity volume fractions, or gray values

Backed by 20 years’ experience in industrial CT, the new Technical Consulting unit analyzes the specific requirements of each customer’s application(s), creates optimal software configurations and general CT hardware specifications, and offers complete evaluations as a contract service

Volume Graphics
www.volumegraphics.com

ThingWorx 8.5 coming in late summer 2019

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ThingWorx 8.5 combines new capabilities with domain-specific solutions to serve the digital transformation needs of industrial enterprises worldwide.

Among the new and enhanced capabilities are tools that simplify the composition and deployment of solutions. Customers will be able to configure applications faster and deploy them across multiple sites and geographies. For those who want more readymade solutions, ThingWorx also offers pre-built, pre-configured capabilities for engineering, manufacturing, and service. This latest version of ThingWorx brings enhanced integration with Microsoft Azure IoT and includes additional tools for rolling out solutions at an enterprise scale.

The new ThingWorx Navigate Digital Change Management Application enables internal and external users to actively participate in change management. The series of ThingWorx Navigate Contribute Apps will expand on NavigateView suite, which makes information easily available and facilitates collaboration across the enterprise. Powered by the digital thread, engineers have real-time access to connected product data in ThingWorx to drive the design of next-generation products.

Manufacturing
ThingWorx 8.5 is now compatible with Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk Analytics. Additionally, PTC will be releasing ThingWorx Kepware Edge to provide flexible deployment of reliable and secure connectivity for dispersed equipment.

Service
PTC’s service solution suite enables service organizations to transform from cost centers to profit centers and drive product and service innovation through new IIoT-enabled business models. The service optimization solution allows companies to improve margins by minimizing truck rolls and increasing first time-fix rates. With ThingWorx 8.5, digital
service delivery is enhanced through a deepened integration with Microsoft Azure,
enabling manufacturers to now use the ThingWorx Software Content Management App
with the Azure IoT Hub and Azure IoT Edge.

PTC
ptc.com

PTC announces initiatives for its AR business

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PTC announced  initiatives to fuel its AR business and strengthen the Vuforia Augmented Reality (AR) platform. These initiatives include enhanced 3D AR model targets, leveraging Azure Spatial Anchor Services, a collaboration with Matterport to further the PTC enterprise reach into factories and other spaces, and the acquisition of an AR services agency, TWNKLS.

“AR redefines how the enterprise works. Across all industrial use cases including
manufacturing, engineering, service and training, AR is improving productivity, reducing
waste, and increasing worker safety and compliance. AR empowers organizations to
digitally transform their products, processes, and people,” said Jim Heppelmann, president
and CEO, PTC. “Our strategic alliances, acquisitions, and groundbreaking technology
highlight PTC’s commitment to helping industrial companies succeed with their digital
transformation initiatives.”

Create step-by-step AR instructions with Vuforia Expert Capture
Industrial customers can use Vuforia Expert Capture to quickly and easily create step-by-step instructions when and where they do their work, leveraging Microsoft HoloLens’ location-aware capabilities enabled by Azure Spatial Anchor Services. Front-line workers can then be safely and effectively guided through procedures by digital content presented at relevant locations in the physical environment. This feature improves the accuracy and speed of educating workers, and reduces training costs.

Vuforia Engine 8.3 enhanced with AI
In addition to providing intuitive AR user interactions, Vuforia Engine 8.3 offers robust AR experiences by harnessing the power of deep learning to provide target recognition capabilities based on the customer’s 3D CAD model. AI-powered, model-based recognition enables a product or machine to be recognized from difficult angles, even in poor lighting environments – enabling easier, faster, and more accurate user experiences.

PTC invests in Matterport to visualize factories
PTC has invested in and partnered with Matterport, a company that offers immersive 3D
technology and spatial capture solutions. By partnering with Matterport, PTC is offering the first AR solution with a focus on factories, plants, and other spaces – and the people who operate them. PTC’s enhanced Vuforia offerings give customers the ability to unify
their factory data and allow them to visualize and interact with a digital twin. The
collaborative solution provides customers an easy way to scan their facility and convert it
into a usable 3D mesh using a Matterport compatible camera.

PTC acquires TWNKLS to help customers deploy and adopt augmented reality
The Netherlands-based TWNKLS is a specialized AR company that develops tailor-made AR applications and experiences and provides AR services to solve the specific challenges faced by enterprise companies. The acquisition will accelerate PTC’s AR strategy as well as enable customers to realize faster time-to-value.

PTC’s Vuforia Experience Platform has been adopted by hundreds of companies
worldwide, including Aggreko, Fujitsu, Global Foundries, Howden, and Volvo.

PTC
ptc.com

Virtalis uses HOOPS Exchange to create rich data

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Tech Soft 3D, a leading provider of software development toolkits to engineering software companies, announced that Virtalis is using HOOPS Exchange to create rich data sets that fuel enterprise data models that serve as the visualization backbone for multiple types of applications across the enterprise. Virtalis is a pioneer in the AR/VR industry and provider of immersive visualization solutions that cover the full lifecycle of the product, from conceptual design to distribution.

Visionary Render is Virtalis’ flagship platform for importing and visualizing large datasets from a range of sources, while maintaining all the geometry, naming hierarchies, metadata, and product & manufacturing information (PMI). Virtalis is focused on supporting industrial applications and manufacturers creating large complex products for aerospace, defense and automotive, as well as construction, geoscience, consumer goods, and more. Accurately supporting the formats used in this wide range of industries is critical because companies need to visualize large amounts of data from diverse sources. Being able to review the data in an immersive environment on a one-to-one scale, rather than seeing a 2D view of a 3D object is effective for communicating to people who aren’t skilled in CAD.

“When we import CAD data with HOOPS Exchange, we get the data that we expect,” said Barry King, Product Owner at Virtalis. “Our customers expect to see reliable data when they’re making important decisions based on visualizations and having reliable and dependable data is one of the most important things for them. What’s great about HOOPS is that it supports almost all the formats, including VRML. Our customers have legacy data, and we rely on the fact that HOOPS Exchange supports those formats. Often our customers will challenge us with data and we can say, ‘no problem.’ We can support this wide variety of formats because we have HOOPS behind us.”

Virtalis goes beyond visualizing CAD data from an external view by immersing users in the environment where the model may live, allowing them to experience the product.

“We’re looking at products in the context of where they sit,” said Gavin England, Product Marketing Manager at Virtalis. “We could be looking at a product installed inside a factory, or a building structure coming from building information modeling (BIM) data. In addition to the core formats, being able to bring in data like Revit is key as well.”

HOOPS Exchange provides access to a broad range of data including B-Rep geometry, metadata, PMI, model tree, views, persistent IDs, styles, construction geometry, visualization and more – all without depending on any CAD system. This wide-ranging access proved to be an important element in Virtalis’ decision-making process.

“When we initially were getting to grips and integrating it, Tech Soft 3D was really responsive and collaborated with us to get the results that we needed,” said King. “When we communicate an issue, we always get it fixed in the next release, and the releases come out steadily and reliably.” That’s very important and a real benefit for us. Whether they’re working with engineering or science data, a lot of customers are learning how much time and money they can save by leveraging immersive visualization and not having to build physical prototypes. This helps them make better business decisions – and Tech Soft 3D plays a critical role in supporting those workflows.”

Tech Soft 3D
www.techsoft3d.com