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Altair announces major updates to its software

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Altair, a global technology company providing solutions in product development, high-performance computing (HPC), and data analytics, announced a significant software update. All of Altair’s software products have been updated with new features, including intuitive workflows that empower users to streamline product development, allowing customers to get to market faster.

The software update release expands on the number of solutions available for designers, engineers, and others to drive better decisions and accelerate the pace of innovation. It broadens the scope of the new user experience, enables access to more physics, data analytics, and machine learning, and makes the Altair software delivery method more flexible and accessible.

Some of the highlights:
• Structures
–Altair HyperWorks – new interface to Altair’s solution for high-fidelity computer-aided engineering (CAE) modeling and visualization, making learning easy and productivity high
–New subsystem entity for modular model configuration
–Altair SimLab – fatigue optimization
–Altair OptiStruct ¬– includes the addition of new explicit solution and expanded implicit non-linear solutions including 2D axisymmetry
–Altair SimSolid – includes advanced 3D seam weld connections to further improve speed
–Altair Radioss – employs a dramatic reduction in runtimes for virtual drop testing of electronics devices

• Fluids and Thermal
–HyperWorks CFD – provides engineers and experienced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) specialists with the most productive CFD pre- and post-processing capabilities to-date
–Altair AcuSolve – GPU acceleration yields 3-4 times increased speed while also supporting nucleate boiling, radiation, condensation/evaporation and multiphase fluid-structure interaction (FSI)
–Altair ultraFluidX – includes a new, more accurate wall model and overset grid technique
–Altair nanoFluidX – is three times faster than the previous version

• Industrial Design and Structures
–Altair Inspire integration of Altair SimSolid solver includes support and connector reaction forces, instantaneous reaction time modeling large PolyNURBS models, and improved geometry generation from optimization
–Inspire Studio – advanced morphing of any geometry type

• Manufacturing
–3D printing simulation available in Inspire with new unit cell lattice generation

• Electromagnetics and Multiphysics
–SimLab – electric motor modeling and coupling with AcuSolve and Altair Flux; accommodates ECAD file import (ODB++)
–Altair Feko – provides a component library tightly integrated with CADFEKO
–Altair FluxMotor now includes thermal and acoustics evaluation
–Flux includes several enhancements including those for modeling iron losses and skew type motors

• Systems Modeling
–Altair Activate – performs multi-physics system modeling with hardware-in-the-loop and Internet of Things (IoT) for digital twin development
–Integration of EDEM bulk material modeling with multibody dynamics simulation and hydraulics ideal for heavy equipment and agricultural applications
–Altair MotionView – has a two-wheeler vehicle dynamics library for motorcycles and scooters
–Altair Compose – OpenMatrix Language available in Jupyter Notebook
–Altair Embed – supports three additional target and two additional target families from ST Micro, VRTOS code modifications for MISRA compliance, and OpenCV DNN (Deep Neural Network) module integration

• Data Analytics
–Recent release of Altair Panopticon – platform for user-driven monitoring of real-time data – includes major update of cloud-based deployment, enabling users to build, modify, and share custom-designed functions and content easily via standard web browsers; hotfix to enable deployment at Nomura
–Altair Knowledge Hub – improved messages for troubleshooting and robustness; security hardening; more flexible Windows deployment; deployment on Azure; transformations including continuous binning and lookup join (refactoring for performance) and more
–Altair Monarch – complex Excel input support – “Excel Trapping”; PDF extraction improvements; user experience and UI improvements; enhanced column list and more
–Altair Knowledge Studio – new features including Keras model, model stacking, and pivot table; variable transformations node improvements with dataset and variable preview and re-ordering

• Smart Product Development
–Altair SmartWorks – major re-architecture of the edge orchestration and augmentation; ability to validate the edge application in real-time environments and deploy at scale

• HPC and Cloud
–Altair Access – updated “work from home” features; more responsive 3D remote visualization; internationalization; better job resource charts; two-factor authentication and single sign-on; share support on mobile
–Altair Accelerator – EDA workload support on AWS (with Rapid Scaling), Microsoft Azure, and GCP; 10x faster for dynamic workloads; container improvements; REST query API; IPv6
–Altair PBS Professional – scalability improvements towards exascale; Cray Shasta support; container enhancements for converged AI+HPC workloads; better system maintenance support

All products are available through the Altair licensing model, making access to all Altair’s software broader and more flexible.

Altair
www.altair.com/2020

Update for IRONCAD 2020 improves productivity and manufacturing workflows

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IronCAD introduces the first update for IRONCAD 2020, the latest release from a leader in design productivity of 3D CAD programs and preferred software of machine designers and engineers globally. The IRONCAD 2020 Product Update #1 (PU1) features enhancements and capabilities that enable IronCAD users to accelerate productivity and improve product development, from conceptual design to manufactured products, and create value for their organizations.

Designed with a focus on performance, quality improvements, and design productivity, IronCAD’s research and development team delivered IRONCAD 2020 PU1 in response to enhancement requests from the IronCAD community around the world. With the many new capabilities and enhancements in PU1, users can benefit from an array of options and opportunities to improve system performance in their daily operations, streamline workflows and seek new levels of collaboration and agility to more quickly and cost-effectively deliver products to their customers.

Among the many new improvements and capabilities in IRONCAD 2020 Product Update #1 are:

–Open/Save/Import Performance: Continued improvements have been performed in this area to reduce the load/save times of extremely large assembly data sets to improve the overall performance when designing with large assembly files.

–IronCAD Drawing (ICD) View Creation/Update – Improvements have been made to improve the view creation and view update speed in the drawing environment, especially with large assembly files.

–IronCAD Drawing (ICD) View Camera Performance – New options to control functions additional performance settings have been added to aid in the overall camera interaction performance when interacting and detailing drawings.

Further improvements within Product Update #1 also include enhanced general quality improvements to the 2D Technical Drawing Area. Aligned with IronCAD’s position as a productivity leader for CAD software, PU1 also boasts improvements to the Bulk View Creation for automated drawing creation, including new search capabilities and creation from a selected set of parts/assemblies. Additional productivity improvements in PU1 improve the Sheet metal capabilities for Out/In Bend Automatic alignment to the angled stock, Quick Access commands added to right-click menus to improve speed and visibility in accessing commands as well as improvements to now create singled drawing sheets quickly from the selected elements in the scene.

IronCAD
www.ironcad.com/whatsnew
www.ironcad.com/free-online-trial

Online COMSOL Conference 2020 is announced for October 7-8

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COMSOL-53-release-3-croppedCOMSOL has announced that the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America will be held on October 7–8, 2020 in a virtual format. The annual Conference, a meeting focusing on advancing skills and furthering collaboration among engineers and scientists in the area of multiphysics simulation, will for the first time run online. Participants, from the comfort of their own workstations, will be able to experience event highlights, including:

• Invited speakers from industry and academia sharing their experiences using multiphysics modeling and simulation apps
• COMSOL keynotes featuring news and software product announcements
• User presentations showcasing research achievements and innovative design projects
• Panel discussions on simulation apps, heat transfer modeling, and electromagnetics simulation
• Tech Cafés, interactive sessions where software developers and technical product managers take modeling questions directly form COMSOL users
• Minicourses offering learning opportunities for any level of simulation expertise, from introductory to advanced
• Virtual exhibition and poster session

“With recent travel restrictions and social distancing in mind, moving the conference online this year is clearly the best option,” said Lauren Sansone, marketing and events director at COMSOL Inc. “The COMSOL Conference North America will be easy to join online, without travel time or time away from home. We believe that the online conference will be attractive to many, as it will also be easier to fit with a busy schedule and other obligations. As we will miss out on in-person meetings, we will be placing extra emphasis on providing interactive, small group sessions, and one-on-one discussions. An added benefit is that we will also have access to COMSOL’s global pool of engineers, as it will be equally easy for them to join the conversations, from anywhere.”

For event details and registration, please visit: COMSOL Conference 2020 North America.

Abstract Submission for Posters and Papers
The Program Committee for the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America is now inviting abstract submissions for posters and papers on simulation work and applications from users of COMSOL Multiphysics to present at the conference.

The papers and posters accepted for presentation will later be shared with the community through the open-access Technical Papers and Presentations database Technical Papers and Presentations database, with a global reach.

The abstract submission deadlines for the COMSOL Conference 2020 North America are: Early Bird submission by July 17th; Final Abstract submission by August 21st. For information and guidelines for abstract submission, please visit: Call for Papers and Posters.

The conference presentations have a broad scope, and the call for papers includes topics such as:

• AC/DC electromagnetics
• Acoustics and vibrations
• Batteries, fuel cells, and electrochemical processes
• Bioscience and bioengineering
• Chemical reaction engineering
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Electromagnetic heating
• Geophysics and geomechanics
• Heat transfer and phase change
• MEMS and nanotechnology
• Metal Processing
• Microfluidics
• Multiphysics
• Optics, photonics, and semiconductors
• Optimization and inverse methods
• Particle tracing
• Piezoelectric devices
• Plasma physics
• Porous Media Flow
• RF and microwave engineering
• Simulation methods and teaching
• Structural mechanics and thermal stresses
• Transport phenomena

COMSOL
www.comsol.com

 

xNURBS Rhino/SolidWorks Plugin v4 released

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xNURBS announces the availability of xNURBS SolidWorks and Rhino Plugin V4. V4 includes a number of enhancements and provides new capabilities, e.g., producing better surfacing quality, editing a xNURBS surface created with Rhino History and achieving smaller tangent deviation (less than 0.04 degree) etc.

Key Features of xNURBS V4:

  • Unlimited capacities for solving NURBS: Its optimization algorithm can solve virtually any NURBS surface in a matter of milliseconds (regardless of how complex the constraints are.)
Blending dozens of edges with one watertight G2 NURBS surface.

High-quality surfaces: For a given set of constraints, xNURBS’ optimization algorithm uses energy-minimization method to generate the smoothest NURBS surface among all possible solutions. The generated surface quality is outstanding.

 

xNURBS is one super powerful NURBS tool that fixes virtually all surfacing issues for existing CAD software.

 

Easy-to-use: It uses one simple UI for all kinds of NURBS modeling.

Super robust: xNURBS is rock solid and works flawlessly.

GTR Car: Most surfaces of the GTR model are generated by xNURBS.

Native CAD surfaces: xNURBS is based on NURBS, i.e., the native CAD surfaces, which can be directly used for any CAD modeling operations without any geometry translation.

Watertight Jet Ski Hull: All surfaces are generated by xNURBS with G2 continuity.

 

Fully support editing and rebuilding.

 

For more information, visit https://www.xnurbs.com

PTC Launches Creo 7.0 CAD Software with AI

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PTC launched an update to its computer-aided design software in middle April. Creo 7.0 includes new capabilities to bring artificial intelligence (AI) to designers so they can make simulation part of their daily work. according toBrian Thompson, divisional vice president and general manager, CAD, PTC.

The Creo 7.0 launch follows PTC’s recent acquisition of Onshape, developer of the Onshape Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product development platform, demonstrating the company’s deep commitment to providing innovative technology—via multiple delivery models—to drive business value.

The newest release includes generative design technology from Frusum, a company recently acquired by PTC. Generative design uses AI capabilities to optimize designs. AI is the use of technology and mathematics to create systems that perceive, learn, and act in order to enhance or replace human capabilities-augmented reasoning, said Jesse Coors-Blankenship, a senior vice president of technology at PTC.

“As a long-time Creo customer, we were excited to get early access to Creo 7.0,” said Adrian Marshall, manager of computer-aided design in product development, Royal Enfield. “Creo has helped us revolutionize the way we develop, produce, and maintain our motorcycles.”

Engineers can specify their requirements and goals within the software, including preferred materials and manufacturing processes—and the generative engine will automatically produce a manufacture-ready design as a starting point or as a final solution, Coors-Blankenship said.

The software combines AI with engineering capability and creativity. Parts and products designed through this process are lighter, stronger and use far less materials than those designed using traditional CAD software, Coors-Blankenship said.

Integral to generative design is the goal of augmenting design expertise and capabilities by:

  • Optimizing designs for multiple objectives simultaneously and providing a designer with several novel design alternatives, which enables companies to substantially reduce engineering cycles
  • Creating constraint-driven design that would not be intuitive to a human or that normally requires deep expertise to optimize (essentially allowing less-experienced designers to create output comparable to more experienced experts).

The Creo 7.0 also includes fluid flow analysis via Creo Simulation Live—a real-time simulation solution that helps designers iterate faster and design with more confidence. This analysis capability expands on PTC’s strategic alliance with Ansys, a maker of simulation and visualization software.

The tool offers real-time guidance for instant feedback on design decisions in the CAD environment. Engineers don’t have to guess at how their design might perform under real-world conditions. They can incorporate as many design changes as needed, confident that they’ve made the best-informed decisions possible, Thompson said.

Creo 7.0 also introduces multibody design, a new set of design tools that enables users to complete many design tasks more efficiently while making their part design easier to manage, understand, and modify. With the multibody design workflows, engineers can separately manage, visualize, and design geometric volumes. This is particularly helpful in the areas of generative design, additive manufacturing, and simulation.

The upgrade to the PTC CAD software also includes enhanced additive manufacturing capabilities, including improved support for Stochastic and custom lattices, giving designers greater flexibility when creating lattice structures.

As with every release, Creo 7.0 provides additional usability and productivity capabilities for all users, including enhanced draft capabilities, improvements to 2D mirror functionality, and multiple user interface improvements to the Sketcher tool.

Creo helps designers build better products faster by facilitating product innovation, fostering design reuse, and replacing assumptions with facts. Designers can go from the earliest phases of product design to a smart, connected product all within a single environment, Thompson said.

 

MSC pivots business model so engineers can continue innovating anytime and anywhere during COVID-19

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MSC Software Corporation (MSC), a global leader in Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) simulation software and services and part of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, has announced that it will provide its customers with free offline licensing and remote access options to help them remain productive while working from home as COVID-19 closes customers offices globally.

In the past, remote working has posed a challenge for the manufacturing industry, with many of its tools and processes being rooted in old-fashioned workflows. The COVID-19 mitigation measures, which have led to vast swaths of the engineering workforce forced out of the factories and offices, have driven the need for a more flexible, distributed mode of operations.

Computer-Aided Engineering and simulation tools can support this evolution, and MSC’s customer-centric move to flip their licensing model to allow for use in the home is proof in point.
Roger Assaker, Chief Customer Engagement Officer of MSC Software, said: “We are adapting to the needs of our customers, and are also adding a helping hand to support their business continuity so they can continue to design, engineer and perform virtual testing outside their place of work. We are facilitating the access to our software, knowledge base and support to enable the creation of even more value with our tools, helping companies to maintain productivity and innovation when many manufacturing lines are down.

“We appreciate that these are very challenging times for many of our customers, and we can guarantee that we will be supporting them to the best of our ability, every step of the way.”

The offering from MSC Software includes:
• Extension of licences for work-from-home support or alternative access options for MSC Software CAE solutions
• Free access to online learning for MSC Software solutions

Hexagon | MSC Software
mscsoftware.com

2020 updates for CAM Software

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DP Technology announced a comprehensive product update, called ESPRIT 2020, for their computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software. Among the most significant developments are updates to the software’s computer-aided design (CAD) interfaces and new or improved solutions for specific machine tools.

ESPRIT 2020 features plentiful updates for Swiss-type machining. This technique is defined by its small, often intricate parts. Medical devices, such as bone screws, are typically manufactured on Swiss-type machines. ESPRIT’s 2020 update introduces or enhances support for 200 different Swiss-type machine models, including:

● Citizen D25, which features three channels, 3x Y-axis, 3x Z-axis, B-axis front and back
● Star SV 38R, which features three channels and a B-axis
● Tsugami SS38, a chucker-convertible sliding headstock lathe with B-axis
● Tornos machines
● Seamless integration of laser cutting operations for Tsugami and Citizen
● Willemin-Macodel MT series machines
The 2020 update also includes updated support for the latest CAD software, including:
● SolidWorks 2020
● SolidEdge 2020
● PTC Creo 6
● NX 1847

Additionally, ESPRIT 2020 expands mill-turn support to the following machines:
● Index G200 and G220, featuring two and three turrets and a disk turret mounted on a B-axis
● Miyano BNE 51 MSY, featuring three X-axes and three Z-axes
● Traub TNX, featuring simultaneous independent machining with up to four tool carriers
● CMZ TTL, featuring two turrets and two spindles
Enhanced profile threading and probing capabilities round out the product release.

ESPRIT
www.espritcam.com

Import any PCB to any MCAD using ZofzPCB 3D Gerber Viewer

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If you need to import an electronic design from production files (Gerbers, drills, ipc-356 test point netlist) to any MCAD, you can use ZofzPCB.com new feature: STEP file export.

A screenshot of eDrawings Viewer, courtesy of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation.

ZofzPCB loads Gerber files automatically, converts the board outline drawing into the bare PCB solid and PCB tracks into optimally constructed faces. Using IPC-356 bare board test point file, ZofzPCB can recreate footprint information and, with little help of the user, construct component 3D models, on the fly.

The resulting STEP AP214 file is constructed as an assembly tree, containing additional information like component designators and, if a BOM file is also loaded, component names/values.

STEP file export was the most often requested feature, by the ZofzPCB users.

ZofzPCB
www.zofzpcb.com

How to use Inventor CAM to create 2D milling toolpaths

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ASCENT- Center for Technical Knowledge announced the release of Autodesk Inventor 2020: Introduction to 2D Milling, its newest title available in print and eBook formats for students and instructors, and in ProductivityNOW for self-paced eLearning. The hands-on, practice-intensive content teaches key skills and knowledge required to take the 3D model, set it up in the CAM environment, and assign the toolpaths needed to generate the code required by 2D milling machines.

“ASCENT’s Inventor curriculum has benefited countless design professionals over many years,” says Paul Burden director of product development, ASCENT. “With Inventor CAM now available in the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection, users have an integrated solution for CNC programmers and designers to work together in one software platform. This new ASCENT learning content provides the foundational skills to help those in need of CNC programming that may not have traditional design skills, to successfully use Inventor CAM to create 2D Milling CNC machine code. By combining theory and practice-intensive learning content, students are able to quickly advance their skillset and recognize the benefits of the integrated design and CAM tools.”

Highlights of topics covered in this introductory guide to Inventor’s integrated CAM solution include:

  • Locate, modify and create tools in the Tool Library
  • Set up machining operations using Inventor CAM
  • Create a Face, 2D Adaptive, 2D Pocket, 2D Contour, and Drill toolpath using the Inventor CAM interface
  • Use the Simulation option to visualize toolpaths

ASCENT
www.ascented.com

Elysium Extends its 3DExperience Partnership with Dassault Systèmes

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Elysium Extends its 3DExperience Partnership with Dassault Systèmes

Elysium, a solution for CAD interoperability has integrated its suite of software with the  Dassault Systèmes 3DExperience platform to support model-based definition and model-based enterprise (MBD and MBE). The integration will help users transfer their compliance-checked data in multi-CAD environments.

Many companies are moving toward the MBD workflow.

MBD calls upon 3D models, 3D product management information, and associated metadata within the 3D CAD software to define individual components and product assemblies. The types of information included are geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, component-level materials, assembly-level bills of material, engineering configurations, and design intent. MBD differs from other methods used to define components and assemblies, which have historically required accompanying 2D engineering drawings to provide this type of information.

It can be useful in additive manufacturing, where parts go straight from the computer to the printer.

The MBD workflow uses the 3D CAD model as what some in the industry term the “single source of truth” for product and process data. All relevant users can share the 3D model with anyone involved in the design and manufacturing process, and it will contain all the information they need to build it.

So all the “truth” needs to be incorporated into the model and the workflow.

One of the biggest obstacles for these companies is shared data. Elysium’s CAD interoperability solutions expand a company’s use of and sharing of 3D data; streamlining a variety of processes that leverage CAD from design to manufacturing.

The Elysium and Dassault Systèmes integration also ensures that customized quality checks, geometry, and product manufacturing information, attribute validation, and geometry simplification, which happens automatically within the 3Dexperience platform to create streamlined workflows.

This enhanced functionality is equally applicable to outside CAD and engineering data that can now be brought into the platform as tested, compliant data used for master models and derivates shared by original equipment manufacturers and their suppliers in collaborative development.

“Many 3DExperience users have been working to streamline digital data and improve productivity and throughput across product development,” says Atsuto Soma, chief technology officer at Elysium. “The increasing reliance on MBD/MBE to achieve these gains requires seamless interoperability of digital product data between systems.

The integrated systems enable a more unified product-data sharing ecosystem than was possible before. Elysium is moving toward supporting at a complete 3D data-based workflow for global manufacturers.

“We hope to become an essential partner for the industry’s success in enterprise-wide MBD,” Soma says.

The Elysium solution developed for Dassault Systèmes users and its counterparts includes data checking and healing, complies with more than 70 quality and best-practice standards, supports data migration to new software versions, offers change-configuration analysis. To develop the master and derivative models used in supply chains it transfers data and then prepares it in most major CAD vendor formats.

The solution also includes 3D PDF reporting capabilities, optimizations such as geometry simplification, and the organization and review of data comprised of PMI and attributes sent to downstream manufacturing systems. In addition, Elysium will support data import from Dassault Systèmes’ 3DXML format.