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Heavier than air flight has been a technology that has evolved for 120 years, and in that time, practical aviation has developed on two parallel lines: airframes and powerplants. In most cases, engines have been the rate limiting step in aircraft development, despite considerable refinement in piston engine and gas turbine technology, the fundamental operating principles have been the same for decades.

Right now, that’s changing. The development of higher energy density, lighter batteries, and advanced electric motors has brought electric propulsion into the realm of practical use in aircraft, albeit with limitations in range and payload. The same constraints exist in automotive applications of electric technology, limitations which can be addressed with a hybrid approach. Can internal combustion engines be combined with battery electric drive to offer the range and endurance of combustion engines and the lower emissions and low noise of electric drive?

Joining engineering.com on this episode of The Engineering Roundtable are two experts to answer these important questions.

Panelists:

Michael Pereira, Configuration Manager, VoltAero
Roberto Licata, Aerospace & Defense Industry Solution Experience Director, Dassault Systèmes

Moderator:

Jim Anderton, Multimedia Content Director, engineering.com

* * *

Learn more on how to accelerate aircraft development with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud.

The post Hybrid aircraft: the best of both ICE and battery electric drive in one airframe  appeared first on Engineering.com.

Earlier this month at Siemens’ Realize Live Americas 2025 user conference, Engineering.com sat down with a pair of execs for an inside look at the $10 billion acquisition.

Sam Mahalingam, CTO of Altair, and Jean-Claude Ercolanelli, senior vice president of simulation and test solutions at Siemens Digital Industries Software, revealed their thoughts on the transition, what it means for Siemens and Altair users, and how AI will play a big role in the combined simulation portfolio.

The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Engineering.com: How’s the acquisition going? Sam, what’s it like working for Siemens?

Sam Mahalingam: Fantastic, fantastic. It’s a bigger family that we [Altair] are coming into. Altair was almost one tenth the size of Siemens software.

Our culture fit is truly good. Our core values were envisioning the future, technology first, embracing diversity and open, honest communication. It was all about, how can we start expediting innovation?

That was the kind of culture that we had. And coming into a larger company like Siemens, initially, I was a little worried whether there would be a similar kind of a culture or not. But I was pleasantly surprised. I think the culture is very, very, very similar to what it was at Altair. This whole one tech vision that Siemens has, I think, nicely fits in. And at the same time, Siemens software has been a company that understands the world of engineering, and our genesis was also in the world of physics-based simulation. And so I think it is a perfect match in my opinion. And so far, it’s been great.

Engineering.com: And Jean-Claude—how do you like Altair?

Jean-Claude Ercolanelli: First of all, I second every word that Sam just said. I was pleasantly surprised to see the same cultural fit, the same drive for excellence for the customers. Solving customer problems, putting the customers at the center and bringing the powerful tech to actually solve and address problems.

But beside this, what I found is Siemens has been paying a lot of attention and taking care of the people. Our business is about the people that are creating these products and solutions, and Siemens recognizes that. And I’m sure that Altair was doing the same. And I think it’s maybe the common theme of the tech culture. There’s no tech without the people.

Sam Mahalingam: I always used to say CTO doesn’t mean chief technical officer or chief technology officer, it means chief talent officer. You need to identify the right talent and bring them into the organization. At the end of the day, it’s the people who make or break the company. And if you bring in the right people, the bright-eyed into the organization, you are automatically going to see a tremendous amount of innovation that’s going to come out of that organization, and absolute agility as well.

Engineering.com: What’s in store for Altair users? Are they going to notice any big changes, or is it just a matter of changing the name on the invoice?

Jean-Claude Ercolanelli: Right now it’s still Altair on the invoice. It’s Altair and Siemens, but after the merge of the legal entities, they will only get one invoice.

Sam Mahalingam: It’s a true integration that is being worked out. There will no longer be the Altair brand. It will just be Siemens.

Engineering.com: Do you have a timeline on that?

Sam Mahalingam: We have a plan in place, but I don’t want to share that. We are working through that right now.

Engineering.com: In terms of the software itself—Altair HyperWorks, for example—is that going to get a Siemens skin on top?

Jean-Claude Ercolanelli: Might be the opposite. Who knows? Here we want to give the best of both, and they have a proven user experience and workflow that they bring the user from the start to end of the analysis work. And you know, the colors may change—the colors will change—but it really is a true integration from the technology standpoint.

Sam Mahalingam: Yes, I think in terms of the user experience, both sides have put in a lot of effort to modernize the user experience for the engineering world. And so we’ll take the best of the both worlds and make sure that it reflects as part of the integrated offering that we provide. But our intent is to make sure that the products get integrated. I mean, it all takes time. It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but as we go through the integration process, as we finish the integration process, it will be one portfolio of products from Siemens.

Engineering.com: Will it be part of Simcenter?

Sam Mahalingam: All the design and simulation tools will be part of the Simcenter portfolio, but the high performance computing and the data analytics and AI will not be part of Simcenter.

[Neither Ercolanelli nor Mahalingam would comment on what portfolio those tools would eventually join, though it may not exist yet; Siemens is actively expanding its center collection. For more, see What is Siemens Designcenter?]

Engineering.com: How is AI impacting simulation at Altair?

Sam Mahalingam: [Altair] started investing in engineering AI almost seven, eight years ago. It was an initial small investment in terms of figuring out how AI can truly add value to the whole simulation world.

Everybody was quick to jump into this whole notion of physics-infused neural nets. We also built something in that space. And then later on, we realized that it’s not just the data-based model that people are looking at. We need to also understand the geometry of the 3D model, along with the material, along with the constraints, your boundary conditions, and the load cases that you’re going to apply. This is extremely important as to how you want to capture these features for an AI model.

And that is where I think the ground-up development started, and PhysicsAI was that vision that we put in place. How do we capture the physics-based characteristics as features within the deep learning model which truly understands geometry as well? So I think that was a groundbreaking technology that we built.

Once we introduced PhysicsAI and we embedded that into our modeling visualization tools, we were pleasantly surprised at the amount of users within our customer base who started using PhysicsAI. And then at the end of 2023 we did a survey and we were pleasantly surprised at the amount of use cases for which PhysicsAI was being used. And when we documented those use cases, after surveying our customers, we came to around 115 different use cases for which PhysicsAI was being leveraged. So that is how fast customers started picking it up, because we nicely embedded PhysicsAI right into the tools that they were using on a day-to-day basis.

Engineering.com: Do you have any other plans for using AI in simulation?

Jean-Claude Ercolanelli: Yeah, we’re actually using AI for accelerating solvers. We’re working on AI chat for the documentation. And having a virtual agent to help guide a user, like a virtual engineer, to do automated and repetitive tasks.

Sam Mahalingam: Deloitte, one of our global system integrator partners, actually created agentic AI, leveraging Altair RapidMiner, as a virtual engineer. You command it and it starts driving our products right from opening up a model, cleaning up the model, setting up the load cases, asking it to run the simulation, and then coming back and generating the report. It was a fantastic agent that they put together themselves leveraging all of our tools.

Engineering.com: What’s the most exciting thing on the horizon for Siemens and Altair?

Sam Mahalingam: I think the way we can provide a complete lifecycle intelligence solution with our Siemens Xcelerator-as-a-Service. That’s what excites me. Intelligence for all the different lifecycles: product lifecycle, manufacturing lifecycle, process lifecycle and business lifecycle.

Jean-Claude Ercolanelli: For me, it’s the ability to really deliver that comprehensive digital twin to our customers. That’s one thing, but also that digital thread. So the integration of both technologies into the entire product lifecycle, what Sam calls the intelligent lifecycle. So that’s two things that really excite me. We want to deliver solutions to our customers so they can fix the pains, the challenges.

Sam Mahalingam: We want to amplify innovation for our customers so that they achieve engineering brilliance.

Jean-Claude Ercolanelli: We actually can transform engineering together.

The post Siemens and Altair are on a mission to “transform engineering” appeared first on Engineering.com.

It may be a vast and sprawling jungle of technology, but if you can hack your way through it the benefits are immense. Today’s design and simulation tools can help you be a better, more efficient engineer, allowing you and your team to get products to market faster while spending less. Using the right tools in the right way can give you engineering superpowers.

Okay, but how? You don’t have to hack your way through the jungle alone. Let Engineering.com’s Design and Simulation Week 2025, kicking off July 14, be your guide.

In this series of webinars, we’re bringing in industry experts to map the territory of design and simulation software—teaching you what tools, trends and techniques will be most valuable to you and your organization. You’ll see how other engineers are leveraging new technology, learn how to plan your own digital transformation and have the chance to interact directly with our expert guests. The only thing you won’t get is lunch (too many ants in the jungle, anyways).

Registrations are now open. Here’s what’s in store for the week:

July 14: Welcome to Design and Simulation Week 2025

12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Welcome to Engineering.com’s Design and Simulation Week 2025, where we’ll help you stay on top of the most exciting developments in engineering software. In this kickoff session, we’ll explore the design and simulation tools, trends and techniques that are shaping new engineering workflows, with a preview of the sessions and speakers you’ll see in the week to come.

What you’ll learn:

• What are the software trends you need to be aware of?
• Is AI really ready for engineering software?
• How can you take full advantage of Design and Simulation Week 2025?

Register here

July 15: The rise of AI agents in engineering: What can we expect?

12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

The next revolution in engineering simulation has begun, and AI is increasingly in the driver’s seat.

AI in simulation isn’t just about accelerating physics predictions any longer. AI agents are becoming capable of core engineering work too—handling decisions, performing model setup, and running simulations. But with this new era comes a pressing question: will these powerful tools disrupt the traditional role of engineers, or unlock new levels of human ingenuity?

Join us as we explore the rise of AI agents in engineering and dive into the realities behind the buzzwords. Whether you’re curious, cautious, or actively exploring AI-driven workflows, this interactive session will help you separate fact from fiction—and prepare for what’s next.

What you’ll learn:

• What AI agents are: See how Engineering AI and Physics AI is reshaping the experience of simulation in engineering workflows.
• Real-world use cases: See the concepts put into context with examples of AI agents solving complex engineering tasks.
• A vision and strategy for AI tooling: Understand the value we see this unlocking in the future.

Register here

July 15: Best practices for scaling automation

2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Manufacturers today are under growing pressure to deliver more custom solutions under ever-tightening schedules. Customers are demanding bespoke products, and manufacturers need to find ways to deliver, without taking excessive time away from engineering resources.

The solution? Automation. Makes sense, but where do you begin and how can you scale your automation strategy?

What you’ll learn:

• How automation helps reduce repetitive tasks in mechanical design.
• How to reduce time to market when configuring bespoke products.
• How you can win more business with custom made forms for sales.

Register here

July 16: Physics AI: The engineering revolution you need to be prepared for

12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

The Physics AI revolution is happening right now in engineering, and the availability of massive amounts of data together with recent advances in physics-based AI/ML modeling architectures is making it possible.

This revolution will have a meaningful and disruptive impact on how products are designed and how engineering teams are organized and work.

With advances in large-scale data availability, Physics AI models can be trained in specific domains with inference times around 1-3 seconds and accuracy in the predictions of the physics and derived quantities in the range of 1-2%.

What you’ll learn:

• Recent trends in Physics AI including most likely uses in engineering product development.
• How availability of massive amounts of high-fidelity data affects model accuracy for both scalar output quantities and field prediction.
• Domain-specific vs foundational models: How far can we currently push Physics AI models and how can we improve model generalizability?
• See examples of industrial applications of Physics AI.

Register here

July 17: Challenges, trends and opportunities in multiphysics simulation in 2025

12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

In this webinar, we’ll present the results from a recent survey of 250 engineers and decision-makers working in high-technology R&D. We’ll cover the 4 key challenges faced with multiphysics simulation and examine industry perceptions around modern platforms and emerging technologies.

Attendees will gain a clear understanding of the current landscape of multiphysics simulation and how new approaches are being implemented to address the common bottlenecks.

What you’ll learn:

• The 4 key challenges faced with multiphysics simulation in high-tech R&D.
• The role of modern platforms and emerging technologies addressing these challenges.
• Real-world examples of how these technologies are impacting simulation workflows today.

Register here

Don’t miss out! Register now for Engineering.com’s Design and Simulation Week 2025.

The post Secure your spot for Design and Simulation Week 2025 appeared first on Engineering.com.

Duro, the cloud-based PLM provider, has relaunched its platform as Duro Design.

Michael Corr, co-founder and CEO of Duro, told me that the change is more than just a new product name. “It’s really a new product… a revolution of what we’re doing, not just an incremental evolution,” he said.

Duro first launched its eponymous PLM platform in 2018, targeting startups and small-to-medium businesses looking for a quick and modern alternative to that jack-of-all-trades, Excel.

“We were very limited in functionality and very automated and opinionated, because we just helped customers implement industry best practices out of the box,” Corr said.

Since then, Corr said, the market for modern PLM tools has evolved. “The level of innovation that’s happening today is unprecedented,” he said, referring both to new hardware companies and the SaaS software startups catering to them. Duro’s customers wanted more capability, configurability and compatibility, and Corr saw that the platform could either adapt or harden into the same kind of stale PLM tool it had been built to disrupt.

“We recognized there was a unique small window to just completely revamp our platform and really meet what this market had evolved to be,” Corr said.

Duro Design is that revamp. Duro’s legacy PLM platform will be phased out and the company will help existing customers migrate to Duro Design.

So what’s the difference? A big part of it, as you might imagine, is AI. Corr describes Duro Design as “AI-native,” a phrase which I asked him to define (lest it come across as marketing fluff).

“Deep refactoring of our platform allowed us to leverage what was becoming the best practices for building AI-based tools,” Corr told me. “We changed our database structure, we changed our API structure, so that AI technologies, LLMs and even generative AI capabilities, were being built natively in the core of our platform, versus being a bolt-on after the fact.”

For example, Duro Design uses AI for natural language search, helping users more easily sort through heaps of design data. Users can also manage their PLM environment with AI by prompting changes to the underlying YAML configuration language (YAML ain’t markup language, if you’re a fan of backronyms). Duro Design also uses AI to analyze change orders and provide predictions and recommendations, according to Corr.

AI isn’t the only difference. Sandwich in a P and you get another tentpole of Duro Design: API.

“Following an API first approach, every single feature that we offer is exposed through the API,” Corr said, in contrast to the more limited API of the legacy platform. “[Users] can reconfigure their account as they wish. They could build their own integrations. They can even build their own front end web client if they wanted to.”

As far as integrations go, Duro offers plenty of its own with add-ins for Solidworks, NX (or should I say Designcenter), Altium 365, Onshape and more.

Speaking of Onshape…

Onshape gets MBD

PTC announced that its cloud CAD platform Onshape will soon be capable of model-based definition (MBD). The feature is in an “an early visibility program with select customers,” according to the press release, “and is expected to be generally available in late 2025.”

What is MBD? There are many bickering definitions for this engineering acronym, but when it stands for model-based definition it refers to annotating a 3D model with manufacturing data such as materials, dimensions, tolerances and the like. It’s an alternative to the standard 2D drawings that everyone loves to hate (but that don’t seem to be going away anytime soon).

“Our new MBD capabilities remove the need to interpret 2D drawings by embedding PMI [product manufacturing information] directly into the 3D model,” David Katzman, PTC’s general manager of Onshape and Arena, said in the release. “And because Onshape is cloud-native, this information is instantly accessible to everyone who needs it, from any device and any location. It’s a major step forward in making MBD practical and scalable for real-world use.”

PTC is showing off Onshape’s MBD this week at the Paris Air Show with their customer Aura Aero (June 16 – 19 2025, Zone B4). Check it out if you’re in town (but you might want to stay away from the Louvre).

Design and Simulation Week 2025

If you’re not already counting down the days to Engineering.com’s annual Design and Simulation week, here’s your 27-day warning.

Running from July 14 – 18, 2025, this series of expert webinars will explore the top trends in engineering software from some of the leading voices in the industry (and me). You’ll learn about AI, automation, multiphysics and how to make the most of modern tools.

Register for Design and Simulation Week now and start counting.

One last link

DiffusionRenderer is a pretty cool new AI-based rendering tool from Nvidia. It takes a 2D video and strips out the geometry and material info in order to plug in different lighting conditions, like changing a scene from day to night. In addition to its creative applications, Nvidia says it’ll help generate synthetic data for robotics training and autonomous vehicle development.

Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: malba@wtwhmedia.com.

The post Duro reboots its PLM platform for AI appeared first on Engineering.com.

Simulation has played a key role in the development of automotive manufacturing, enabling engineers to digitally assess the real-world performance of manufacturing processes before actually performing those processes. But even with insightful simulations, technological limitations have often required engineers to make assumptions about actual outcomes, rather than rely heavily on simulations.

With technology advancing, many of those limitations are being overcome. Simulations are now capable of more closely linking design and manufacturing, extending simple “virtual tryouts” to more realistic “virtual performance” simulations. These more sophisticated simulations promise to provide more accurate modeling, potentially improving quality, efficiency and throughput in automotive manufacturing.

Past limitations

Historically, automotive engineers have made design assumptions about various material properties for manufactured products. Without a detailed understanding of how material properties varied during and after manufacturing, engineers would assume nominal values and apply safety factors to cover uncertainties in characteristics such as performance, fatigue and durability. This has often led to over-engineered products, with designers lacking comprehensive data on manufactured product behavior.

For example, to evaluate welding, manufacturers have performed pull tests to assess individual spot weld performance. A laboratory spot weld stressed in various ways would produce a force-displacement curve that would be fed into a simulation model. In reality, those laboratory-based predictions do not always accurately represent actual weld behavior. Similarly, laboratory tests on stamped sheet metal do not always predict real-world variations such as material thinning and strain-hardening effects.

In short, these virtual tryouts, while insightful, have lacked depth and flexibility. Isolated tests on durability, fatigue and other factors have not interacted with other tests to give comprehensive views of manufacturing processes.

New approaches

With recent advancements, virtual tryouts are being merged with virtual performance analyses and producing more detailed simulations.

Merging the virtual trial with the virtual test, and merging the manufacturing domain with the structural domain, is what’s needed to reach the next level, according to Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division. HMI develops simulation, prototyping and other technical solutions for the automotive and other industries.

Returning to the welding example, manufacturers can now replace simple pull tests with more sophisticated welding simulations. The multi-dimensional computer-aided simulations help manufacturers better understand conditions such as the impact of thermal-mechanical behavior on stress, strain, distortion and microstructure. Applications could be in spot welding of vehicle frames or interior structural components such as subframes, cross-car beams, or other welded components.

Expanding further on the example, a manufacturing process may have a strain accumulation around a certain feature that is also affected by nearby welding. The weld may change the shape of the adjacent material, inducing or reducing stresses. With more detailed simulations, results can be chained from one analysis to another to explore different interactions.

For example, the result of a forming simulation can be chained over to a welding simulation, and find that one impacts the other.

Hexagon offers a variety of manufacturing simulation solutions. Simufact Welding, for example, can be used to model and optimize thermal joining processes, accounting for welding sequence and fixture. Simufact Forming orchestrates metal forming, modeling cold forming, hot forging, rolling and stamping. Hexagon’s computer-aided engineering (CAE) software solutions enable multi-dimensional simulation of product and process performance in finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multi-body dynamics (MBD), as well as providing cost estimation and design optimization tools.

Reaping benefits

By providing more insight into manufacturing processes, simulations can provide significant benefits, such as improved quality, efficiency and throughput. Regarding quality, this could include both dimensional and performance quality. Dimensional quality considers whether all components are built to design criteria and fit together. Performance quality considers if the product functions as intended. More detailed simulations can improve quality in both areas.

Overall quality must also be balanced with schedule and cost considerations to find the ideal balance, and manufacturing process simulation can help companies get there.

Along with simulation-aided quality improvements, efficiency and throughput improvements often occur, as well. More accurate data on material properties can lead to more efficient designs. Improved designs can lead to more efficient manufacturing processes, with less rework due to uncertainties in material behavior. The various benefits go hand-in-hand with improved simulations.

Looking ahead

Recent improvements in simulation may be just scratching the surface in simulation possibilities. Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting numerous aspects of manufacturing, and may do the same with simulation. Potential applications are numerous, but improvements are needed in training AI models to iterate autonomously and offer tangible benefits for automotive manufacturing, according to Hexagon.

Digital twins — virtual replicas of physical products or processes — also offer potential. Gaining traction in various industries, digital twins in automotive manufacturing have been primarily focused on design modeling. Future advancements could enable modeling, simulation and process monitoring data to be exchanged more freely across project lifecycles, helping product designs become easier to manufacture.

Additive manufacturing, commonly referred to as 3D printing, is also gaining prominence. As an example, significant benefits can be achieved by being able to predict what’s going to happen at the scan vector laser level and then validating that what you have is what you predicted, says Hexagon.  

As simulation continues to advance, automotive manufacturers can pursue new ways to improve processes, and moving toward the virtual performance of the as-manufactured product through manufacturing process simulation plus structural simulation equals a higher fidelity result.

Visit Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence to learn more.

The post Simulation evolves for automotive manufacturing appeared first on Engineering.com.

For decades, automotive designers have relied heavily on simulation to assess how various design parameters impact vehicle performance. As technology has advanced, simulations have become more sophisticated and realistic, and capable of more closely depicting actual conditions.

With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), simulation is taking on a new level of sophistication and realism. AI-enabled simulations are allowing designers to conduct simulations more efficiently and precisely than ever before, potentially revolutionizing automotive design.

What AI offers

Simulations in the automotive industry involve a wide range of data, both physical and digital. One of the major challenges has been managing all that data — sorting through information to distinguish between what is significant and insignificant — an often tedious process. AI can help combine physical and digital data from various sources, identifying patterns and allowing designers to more efficiently extract intelligence from that data.

By helping identify correlations between various datasets, AI enables designers to gain new insight into improving vehicle design. For example, AI-enabled modeling can predict manufacturing costs for different designs, enabling manufacturers to select the most efficient design.

AI can also improve the efficiency of executing simulations. Traditionally simulation has required multiple experts in specific areas to develop models, analyze results and make adjustments for subsequent simulations. With AI, designers can develop algorithms with machine learning (ML) to understand design objectives and answer questions in real time without having to create additional models, dramatically reducing simulation time.

Along with the time savings, AI-enabled simulation allows a wider range of people to run multiple simulations using a trained model. It democratizes the information, so that anybody — within reason — can start to understand the effects of design changes on performance, explains Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, which develops simulation, prototyping and other technical solutions for the automotive and other industries.

With AI providing more comprehensive insight on performance, designers can focus on how to optimize designs to meet certain objectives. Hexagon’s tools can target a particular set of outcomes within constraints of the design space and help find the appropriate inputs to get to a target outcome.

How it works

To develop AI-enabled simulations, teams must first identify, gather and prepare available performance data pertinent to the simulation. This includes categorizing and labeling model data, defining key variables and identifying desired outcomes. 

With a thoroughly prepared dataset, the next step is to train the AI model, using known physics and engineering data to guide the ML, model creation and model refinement. In some cases, this may also involve sharing model data with other sources to refine the model based on external data.

As the model produces results, it can be optimized using parametric, sensitivity and robustness analysis. The results can identify trends, sensitivity, gaps in data and other aspects that may warrant further refinement. Ultimately, the goal is to extract correlation and conclusions for optimizing designs and performing future simulations.

In some of these areas, automation and AI can streamline the processes. In fact, AI can actually be used to help automate the development of the model. For example, AI can help to package performance information, such as simulation data, physical test data, observed data, into more consumable pieces, irrespective of source. AI can also enrich data, filling gaps in available data.

Hexagon provides several solutions for performing AI-enabled simulations that combine physical and digital data. ODYSSEE (Optimal Decision Support System for Engineering and Expertise) employs predictive techniques to help engineers avoid the challenges of generating large amounts of data. With built-in tools to connect to engineering data sources, it aids in data orchestration, ML, analytics, digital twin model creation, customization and other key functions. ODYSSEE and other Hexagon tools are application-agnostic, meaning they are not restricted to data generated by Hexagon applications.

SimManager, a web-based simulation process and data management (SPDM) system, manages computer-aided engineering (CAE) and other needs specific to simulation. MaterialCenter serves as a scalable system that integrates with Microsoft Excel and other third-party CAE applications, enhancing the accuracy of simulations with appropriate material data to support informed decision-making. Hexagon also provides a variety of other tools and services to support AI-enabled simulation. 

Use cases

A growing number of companies are leveraging AI-enabled simulation to produce tangible benefits. Faurecia, an international automotive technology company, has used AI-enabled simulation to drastically reduce the time needed to analyze vehicle seating in crash conditions. The AI approach, which used ODYSSEE and SimManager, enabled the team to work with both physical and digitally simulated test data and reduce by 93% the time required to produce results when compared with previous methods. 

Other Hexagon clients have used AI-enabled simulation to address a variety of needs in automotive, aerospace and other industries.

Future possibilities

Looking ahead, AI is poised to dramatically change simulation in automotive design and other fields, with advancements occurring on an ongoing basis. In this rapidly evolving landscape, the integration of AI and ML in the simulation process isn’t just a trend — it’s quite transformative in itself.

As AI-enabled simulation continues to advance, automotive designers will undoubtedly find new ways to perform complex simulations and apply the results. The dramatic gains in efficiency and reduced time required to perform simulations will allow designers to focus on optimizing designs and other tasks requiring critical thinking.

Learn more at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence.

The post AI-enabled simulation for automotive design appeared first on Engineering.com.

PTC launched the latest version of its flagship CAD software, Creo 12. The update brings “hundreds of powerful enhancements to its design, simulation, and manufacturing capabilities,” according to PTC.

Creo 12 enhances the user interface, including adding feature presets that allow users to set their own defaults; composite structure design, including the ability to generate a solid geometry from composite layers; electrical design, including the ability to work on a harness as an assembly; model-based definition (MBD), including enhanced file export to STEP AP242; and more.

Creo+, the SaaS version of Creo, was also updated last month (it gets a new release quarterly). You can watch a PTC webinar on everything new in Creo 12 and Creo+ here.

Digging into Designcenter

Last week I wrote from Siemens Realize Live Americas 2025 in Detroit. I noted the introduction of Siemens Designcenter, “which as far as I can tell is just a new way of referring to Solid Edge and NX.”

Well, I was half right. But there’s more to the story, so if you use either of those programs (or want to learn about an interesting break from CAD industry norms) check out What is Siemens Designcenter?

nTop and SimScale team up for heat exchanger simulation

A new partnership between SimScale and nTop promises to unlock “unprecedented speed and robustness in the simulation and design exploration of high-performance heat exchangers.”

The software developers announced a new integration that allows engineers to import implicit geometry representations from nTop into SimScale. There, they can run flow and conjugate heat transfer simulations directly on the implicit geometry with SimScale’s immersed boundary method (IBM).

“Traditional CAD-to-simulation workflows have always been a major bottleneck in high-performance heat exchanger design—you’re constantly dealing with meshing failures and geometry conversion issues that kill iteration speed,” said Bradley Rothenberg, CEO of nTop, in the announcement. “This native integration with SimScale eliminates that friction—Engineers can now move directly from nTop implicit geometry into a robust thermal and flow solver without the preprocessing headaches, enabling teams to iterate faster and explore design spaces that were previously impractical to simulate.”

This isn’t nTop’s first geometry-to-cloud-based-simulation-pipeline partnership. In March nTop announced a collaboration with Luminary Cloud (and Nvidia) that would take nTop data directly to the simulation platform (and beyond, to Nvidia’s PhysicsNeMo for AI training).

Sketch Helper gets an update

Hestus, developer of the Sketch Helper tool for Autodesk Fusion, has updated said tool to be “up to 3x more responsive,” according to the v0.7.0 release notes.

If you don’t know Hestus or Sketch Helper, I wrote about them back in April when they were hosting a hackathon in San Francisco. Sketch Helper automatically applies constraints to sketches in Fusion (a bit like Autodesk’s own Sketch AutoConstrain tool). With the update, “Sketch Helper now generates recommendations in the background and without interrupting your workflow.”

When I tested it in April, Sketch Helper generated constraint recommendations in real-time—it’s one of the reasons CEO Sohrab Haghighat told me he believes his tool is superior to Autodesk’s Sketch AutoConstrain, which suggests constraints only when users click a button. Given that, I asked Haghighat to clarify the nature of the update.

“Sketch Helper always generated recommendations on the fly. But in bigger sketches where we can propose more recommendations, the computation could cause a momentary interruption in the user’s interaction. This update will resolve that issue by making each group of recommendations available to the user as soon as possible and not causing any interruption for the user,” he wrote in an email.

So there you have it. By the way, Hestus is currently looking for Fusion users to provide feedback on some new features in development—if you’re interested, reach out to Haghighat at sohrab@hestus.co.

Quick hits

• Chinese developer ZWSoft has released ZWCAD MFG 2026, the latest version of its mechanical design software. (If you remember reading about this already, you’re thinking of the beta release in April.)
• Vectorworks, part of the Nemetschek Group, launched a preview of a new AI assistant that will answer users’ Vectorworks questions. (If you remember reading about this already, you’re thinking of the AI assistant in Nemetschek’s Allplan and Graphisoft.)
• CoreTechnologie has teamed up with Leo AI to enable “advanced AI-powered analysis of CADx data on the Leo AI platform through CoreTechnologie’s embedded software development kit (SDK) 3D_Kernel_IO.” (If you remember 3D_Kernel_IO, it was just updated. I haven’t covered Leo AI before, so if you use it or make it, I’d like to hear from you.)

One last link

What do you do with all your old software when you’re trying to modernize? Manufacturing engineer Andrei-Lucian Rosca explains on Engineering.com: Dealing with legacy software during a digital overhaul.

Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: malba@wtwhmedia.com.

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The program includes live demonstrations of VI-grade’s hardware and software platforms, including dynamic driving simulators, such as the DiM250, and HiL systems, such as AutoHawk. Engineers will also be able to interact with real-time simulation tools for vehicle dynamics (VI-CarRealTime), ADAS development (VI-WorldSim), and NVH analysis (VI-NVHSim). Other stations will show how human-machine interface (HMI) concepts are evaluated in virtual environments.

Engineers from companies such as Honda Motors, Hitachi Astemo, Mcity, and Multimatic will present a range of technical sessions and case studies. These will cover applications of simulation in vehicle design, system integration, and validation.

One portion of the event is dedicated to NVH simulation. In the afternoon, VI-grade will host a focused NVH user group session featuring updates to VI-NVHSim (releases 2025.1 SP1 and 2025.2), and discussion topics including sound design, CAE-test correlation, and electric vehicle sound simulation. The session will conclude with an open Q&A for users to provide feedback and discuss future development needs.

Zero Prototypes Day is intended for engineers working in ride and handling, ADAS, NVH, and HMI development, offering a practical look at how simulation tools integrate into modern automotive workflows.

The North American event piggybacks off of VI-grade’s 2025 Zero Prototypes Summit, held May 13 to 15 at its SimCenter in Udine, Italy. The global event attracted over 1,500 participants, with approximately 300 attending on-site and more than 1,200 tuning in via livestream. The event drew representatives from 24 OEMs, 17 Tier 1 suppliers, and six academic and research institutions, supported by 27 industry sponsors.

Across three days, attendees accessed nearly 1,000 hands-on demo sessions spanning VI-grade’s software suite, dynamic simulators, and HiL systems. Key technical sessions and customer case studies covered applications in vehicle dynamics, ADAS, NVH, and HMI development. Notable contributor brands included Alpine, Hyundai METC, Aston Martin Lagonda, Ferrari, Ford Werke, Honda R&D, Multimatic, Porsche Engineering, Stellantis, Volvo, and others.

Two major product launches were introduced at the Summit:

• HexaRev: a 6‑DOF motion platform designed to deliver smoother, quieter, and more precise driver-in‑the‑loop simulation through a new mechanical design that eliminates belts, gears, and ball-screws.
• VI‑DataDrive Cloud: a cloud-based simulation and data analytics platform aimed at reducing high-fidelity model run times and enabling scalable, collaborative workflows via AI-enhanced digital twins.

Senior management from VI-grade noted that the event demonstrated a strong and growing industry commitment to simulation-first vehicle development. The Summit’s regional scope is expanding, with a North American Zero Prototypes Day scheduled for June 12 in Michigan and a planned Japanese edition in Tokyo on September 12.

See you in Novi

Engineering.com is attending the 2025 North American Zero Prototypes Day at SimCenter Detroit in Novi, Michigan. Follow Editor-in-Chief Rachael Pasini on LinkedIn for live coverage and stay tuned for a full report on the latest technology. Live or work nearby? Registration is still open and free of charge.

The post Get set for the 2025 North American Zero Prototypes Day in Detroit appeared first on Engineering.com.

In addition, engineers increasingly need to run multiphysics simulations that combine structural, thermal, and fluid dynamics effects, adding further computational demands. Evaluating multiple design variations and running detailed optimization studies within tight deadlines only amplifies the pressure.

This is where modern high-performance computing (HPC) becomes essential. By providing the processing power and scalability required for faster and more advanced simulations, HPC enables engineers to tackle larger, more detailed models with greater confidence. It unlocks the ability to explore more design scenarios, run complex analyses, and iterate rapidly — accelerating time to insight and ultimately time to market.

Even better, today’s HPC solutions are becoming more accessible and easier to integrate, empowering more engineering teams to overcome simulation bottlenecks and drive innovation forward.

Your download is sponsored by Ansys.

The post Best Practices and HPC Strategies for Ansys Mechanical appeared first on Engineering.com.

This week I’m in Detroit for Realize Live Americas 2025, Siemens’ annual user conference. Siemens Digital Industries Software CEO Tony Hemmelgarn gave the opening keynote yesterday to more than 2,500 attendees at the Huntington Place Convention Center. He kicked off the conference with that famous Heraclitus quote—“No man steps in the same river twice”—before expounding on the Greek philosopher’s lesser known views on digital transformation and the Xcelerator portfolio.

Hemmelgarn’s keynote gave a high level tour of Siemens’ products and plans. He pointed out AI copilots in Teamcenter and NX CAM, discussed immersive engineering with Teamcenter Digital Reality Viewer, gave some love to recent acquisition Altair and acquisition-in-progress Dotmatics, and showed off deluxe customers including Rolls Royce.

Today’s keynote, headlined by Siemens executive vice president of PLM products Joe Bohman, continued that tour. Bohman talked about BOMs (a favorite subject of his), design space exploration with Simcenter HEEDS, electrical design with Siemens Capital, requirements management with Polarion and more. He also announced that Siemens is developing an “industrial foundation model” to train AI in the language of engineering and manufacturing, but we didn’t get many details on that.

Bohman previewed a couple interesting upcoming features for Xcelerator: one, a new personalized home screen for all users to simplify onboarding, and two, embedded AI agents to which users can assign a task at the click of a button. Oh, and he introduced something called Siemens Designcenter, which as far as I can tell is just a new way of referring to Solid Edge and NX.

One more NX goodie: in the NX CAD keynote by Bob Haubrock, senior vice president of product engineering software, we learned that the upcoming 2506 release will allow multiple NX users to work on the same part or assembly at the same time, with live updates between them à la Google Docs.

More to come as I hunt down details in Detroit. If you’re at the show and want to say hi, you can find me by the coffee (or send me an email at malba@wtwhmedia.com).

Arcol launches “Figma for BIM”

Another cloud competitor has entered the building information modeling (BIM) arena. Arcol, a New York-based startup founded in 2021, has launched its web-based platform for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC).

Arcol wants to “bring the magic back to building design,” according to Paul O’Carroll, founder and CEO, in the company’s announcement.

By magic, O’Carroll means an intuitive, playful interface and a web-first workflow that averts versions, foregoes files, and eliminates emails and exports. O’Carroll wants Arcol to be the Figma for BIM (and Figma CEO Dylan Field happens to be an Arcol investor, so the inspiration runs both ways).

So what can it do? Arcol offers real-time collaboration (supporting multiple users and commenting), geometric modeling tools (with familiar sketch and extrude operations), automatic data calculations (live updates of square footage, unit counts, parking, costs, etc.), and a presentation workspace called Boards that synchs with everything else.

Arcol’s data can be exported in the expected ways—STL, CSV, JPG—but there’s also a beta to export models to Autodesk Revit through an add-in. A company spokesperson told me that Arcol will soon support additional BIM platforms as well.

At the moment, Arcol is a conceptual design platform. But the startup plans to go much further in the AEC workflow. Its roadmap includes schematic design, design development and eventually construction documentation.

Arcol is now generally available following a preview release for select firms. The platform starts at $100 per user per month, though enterprise pricing is also available.

So… anyone else feeling déjà vu?

Everything about Arcol reminds me of Motif, another web-based BIM platform that launched in March. Both platforms are taking aim at what they see as the outdated BIM goliath (cough, Revit). Both are explicitly taking cues from Figma and similar web-based tools. Both are coming out of the gate with a focus on conceptual design and real-time collaboration. Both have a synchronized presentation workspace (Motif’s is called Frames). Both have an add-on to send data directly to Revit (though Motif’s is bidirectional, while Arcol’s appears to be one-way). Both are planning more BIM add-ons soon (Motif currently supports Rhino as well as Revit).

And, most interestingly, both have Amar Hanspal, former co-CEO of Autodesk. He was an early investor in Arcol and is now the CEO of Motif. What’s that story, I wonder?

I asked O’Carroll about Hanspal over email, and I’ll quote his deft reply in full:

“Amar was an early angel investor in Arcol and later started Motif, which was unexpected. He is no longer involved in Arcol. But Motif’s entry into the space is just further proof that the industry is really hungry for innovation — it validates our market opportunity. We are confident we are delivering the best experience for today’s designers, and we’ll keep raising the bar for building design. Others will have to answer for themselves.”

Quick hits

• IMSI Design has released TurboCAD 2025, claiming more than 70 updates to the latest version of the CAD software. Those updates include performance boosts, interface improvements, and “AI-driven tools to enhance rendering workflows, provide design insights, and facilitate part creation” in the form of the optional TurboCAD Copilot Professional plug-in.
• 3D software developer CoreTechnologie has updated its 3D_Kernel_IO SDK for CAD conversion. The SDK now supports the latest formats for Catia V5, Solidworks, NX, Creo and more.
• Siemens Digital Industries Software announced two new offerings of its PCB design software, Xpedition, to cater to small and medium businesses. PADS Pro Essentials is a basic version of the software for $999/year and Xpedition Standard is for intermediate users at $2,999/year. Based on the clashing names, it seems Siemens is doing a bit of portfolio spring cleaning. Siemens notes on the Xpedition landing page that “PADS Standard, PADS Standard Plus, PADS Professional and PADS Professional Premium are still current products in our portfolio,” and that users can contact the company for additional seats.

One last link

CIMdata’s Peter Bilello, an Engineering.com contributor and fellow Realize Live attendee (hi Peter!), with In the rush to digital transformation, it might be time for a rethink.

Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: malba@wtwhmedia.com.

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