And facts about SimScale, Hexagon, Makersite, and more design and simulation software news.
Welcome to Engineering Paper and this week’s haul of design and simulation software news.
Let’s indulge in some gossip, shall we? Rumor has it that Autodesk is considering a takeover of rival PTC, according to a recent report from Bloomberg.
Or are they? Yesterday, industry watcher Monica Schnitger reported on an Autodesk SEC filing suggesting that if the company was ever really interested in PTC, it’s not anymore.
For more analysis, read Engineering.com contributor Lionel Grealou’s article Autodesk mulling PTC takeover to create industrial software juggernaut.
And now let’s leave the rumor mill, dust ourselves off, and head to the fact works.
A billion synthetic engineers
Did I say fact works? I meant hype jungle. Poking out of the uncanny canopy you’ll find IntuigenceAI, the latest AI startup on the prowl for engineers. The company has launched what it calls “the world’s first superintelligent AI-based engineer platform, IntuiAI.”
At the heart of that platform are AI agents that IntuigenceAI calls “Intuigents” or, slightly more tolerably, “synthetic engineers.” Picture an AI-generated person with an AI-generated voice proclaiming, with a wolfish smile, “I may not look like it, but I am an AI chemical and process engineer with PhD level expertise.”
Supposedly Intuigents can apply domain-specific knowledge to create documents, automate workflows, and search and understand information. The startup’s goal is to make a billion of them, which I think was the plot of a Star Trek episode, but I can’t remember how it ended.
IntuigenceAI isn’t the first startup to make bold claims of AI engineers and back them up with almost nothing. The company has $10 million in seed funding to do something, so I’ll file this away for later reference in the how’s-that-working-out-for-them folder.
Online and nonlinear simulation
Cloud simulation provider SimScale announced that Hexagon’s Marc nonlinear FEA solver is now generally available on the SimScale platform. The two developers had previously announced a partnership in December 2024.
“We’re excited about the fact that in this collaboration with Hexagon, we’re enabling engineering teams to deploy what used to be very hard-to-use workflows, broadly, early, and aggressively in engineering organizations,” David Heiny, CEO of SimScale, told me.
All SimScale users, including the non-paying Community users, can now access Marc for limited free testing.
Design and Simulation Week 2025
Engineering.com’s second annual Design and Simulation Week is officially underway, and it’s not too late to participate.
This week-long series of expert webinars is exploring 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. Any sessions you’ve missed are now available on-demand.
Register for Design and Simulation Week now!
A correction: If any readers happened to catch my kickoff presentation yesterday, I want to apologize for mixing up the speakers of the final two presentations in the series. “Physics AI: The engineering revolution you need to be prepared for” will be presented by Luminary Cloud CTO and co-founder Juan Alonso on Wednesday, July 16. “Challenges, trends and opportunities in multiphysics simulation in 2025” will be presented by Quanscient CEO and co-founder Juha Riippi on Thursday, July 17. I had it the other way around. I’d have a scapegoat if I’d used AI to make my presentation, but alas, this hallucination was all human.
Quick hits
- BIM developer Vectorworks has announced a series of global Design Days “where designers can exchange bold ideas, explore cutting-edge tools, and shape the future of design,” according to Vectorworks senior product marketing director Rubina Siddiqui. The free event will take place in London on October 14, 2025, Vancouver on October 30, 2025, Tokyo on December 5, 2025, and Sydney sometime in May 2026.
- Product lifecycle intelligence platform Makersite has announced a collaboration with Siemens Digital Industries Software to integrate its environmental, cost, and supply chain risk data directly into Siemens’ PLM platform Teamcenter.
- Chinese CAD developer Gstarsoft announced the “transformative release” of GstarCAD 2026, its AutoCAD alternative. The biggest transformation is a new interface that includes redesigned icons, updated themes, and a restructured layout.
One last link
Engineering.com Editor-in-Chief Rachael Pasini wrote about her experience at VI-grade’s North American Zero Prototypes Day in Virtual testing is transforming automotive engineering.
Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: malba@wtwhmedia.com.
