CIMdata Blog

Today, from Ford Field, Siemens announced a $55.8 million in-kind software grant to Mott Community College. Students there will now have access to the same Siemens product lifecycle management (PLM) software used in nearly every manufacturing environment in the world – and by more than 80% of automakers – to improve productivity and efficiency in the manufacturing process. The announcement was made during the 2014 Automotive Summit at the Manufacturing in America Symposium sponsored by Siemens and Electro-Matic. “The manufacturing industry in America is on the rise and it is being transformed by a software revolution that is enhancing productivity, increasing efficiency and speeding time to market,” said Chuck Grindstaff, president and CEO, Siemens PLM Software. “This revolution requires a highly trained workforce. With this grant, Mott Community College will be able to integrate world-class PLM technology into its curriculum, so that its students are even better prepared for co-op assignments

Autodesk, Inc. unveiled the 2015 versions of its popular 3D animations tools: Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage, and the newest addition to the lineup, Maya LT, a 3D animation and modeling tool for professional indie game makers. Autodesk also announced the availability of the 2015 Entertainment Creation Suite for 3D animation and visual effects. “Our strongest releases in many years, the 2015 versions put more creative power back into the hands of the artists,” said Chris Bradshaw, senior vice president, Media & Entertainment at Autodesk. “To achieve this, we redesigned core parts of our applications focusing on performance, ease-of-use and innovative new tools like Bifrost that make it simpler to do complex tasks. Whether our users are creating effects for a movie blockbuster, a game for one of the new consoles or developing a mobile app, the 2015 versions allow artists to focus on what they do best – storytelling.” Creating animation today is

PTC announced that Fujitsu Limited has adopted the PTC Service Parts Management solution to optimize its service parts management process. The PTC solution will enable Fujitsu to improve the performance of its service parts function and reduce unnecessary inventory.  Today, Fujitsu's locations in and outside of Japan use and manage personal computer service parts differently with different process maturity levels. The lack of a standardized process prevents Fujitsu from accurately forecasting demand, stabilizing inventory, and fulfilling parts shipment requests on a timely basis. Fujitsu selected the PTC Service Parts Management solution to achieve a consistent domestic and overseas planning process, centrally manage its parts inventory, and implement standard operational processes around the world.  According to a report by leading industry analyst firm the Aberdeen Group, (Service Parts Management 2013: Align Planning and Forecasting with Efficient Resolution) "the efficient management of service parts has become a strategic business operation which can drive not only operational efficiencies but

Multiquip, the manufacturer of MQ Power® generators recently chose Exa® Corporation to help them evaluate and reduce noise propagation from their containerized power generators. Using Exa's aeroacoustic and aerodynamic highly accurate simulations, Multiquip engineers were able to evaluate and optimize their generator design. In the design of housing for large equipment there is always a tradeoff between ventilation and noise. The Multiquip team quickly discovered Exa's suite of products could not only accurately simulate the container acoustics, including the modeling of absorbing materials, but also help the designers make them more efficient through combined aerodynamic and aeroacoustic simulations and virtual design optimization. Multiquip ran numerous fully complex, transient simulations that included the generator's rotating fan. Initial simulation results quickly confirmed Exa's accuracy. Torsten Erbel, Multiquip Vice President of Product Management, Engineering and Customer Support remarked, "Exa's noise prediction validation data correlated within two decibels of our experimental data. After the initial validation runs, we

aPriori announced that Dematic, a supplier of automated logistics and material handling systems, will leverage its software to control new product costs by providing real-time insight to cost projections in design and sourcing.  Dematic designs, builds and supports logistics solutions that optimize material and information flow - from receiving to shipping. It offers a consultative and holistic engineering approach that drives the development of non-biased, data-driven logistics solutions that optimize the user's supply chain. A typical Dematic solution is built around process improvements, material handling technology, and software. System configurations may be manually operated, mechanized or automated.  Katie Wierengo, Dematic senior vice president, supply chain stated, “By leveraging the aPriori platform, Dematic will manage costs for our automated technology solutions. The software will provide our engineering and strategic sourcing professionals with real-time cost feedback on 3D computer-aided designs (CAD) and continuous visibility into product cost performance as designs develop and change.“  The aPriori

Microsol Resources has been named by Autodesk as its Partner of the Year for the Americas for fiscal year 2014. This is the top honor awarded annually to an Autodesk partner and recognizes Microsol Resources for its outstanding achievements in delivering world-class service and technical expertise to customers throughout fiscal year 2014, exceeding expectations in sales, growth and other key measures. The award was presented at Autodesk's One Team Conference, an annual sales and leadership event held in Las Vegas, NV, that brings together Autodesk employees and partners from around the world.  "Microsol Resources has been a partner of Autodesk for over 25 years, delivering solutions at the highest level to the architecture, engineering and construction industry. I am thrilled that we were recognized as Autodesk’s Partner of the Year. I want our customers to know that we will continue to do what we have always done that allowed us to achieve this

A Forum for Setting A&D Industry Direction on PLM-Related Requirements, Standards, and Research CIMdata has assembled a group of leading aerospace and defense companies into an action group to help address PLM-related challenges in that industry. CIMdata’s Aerospace & Defense PLM Action Group (Action Group) provides a unique opportunity for Aerospace & Defense Industry leaders to maximize the benefits they receive from their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) investments. The Action Group is open to major aerospace and defense OEMs and selected tier 1 suppliers. Participation enables members to make more informed business decisions by providing timely and valuable information, insights, and advice, while networking with companies with similar PLM challenges.  Features & Benefits of Participation Include: You will be part of a group that serves as a sounding board for common practices and issues You will have access to CIMdata subject matter experts You will participate in the identification and prioritization of industry-specific PLM topics You will have access to

Innovation is a top priority for many CEOs, who look to new products as the engines to implement their corporate strategy for growth and transformation. However, translating these aspirations into reality requires treating product innovation as a key business process, and providing solutions to support that process – linking this upstream to overall portfolio management, and downstream to product development and commercialization. It is precisely to address this challenge that Oracle has introduced Oracle Innovation Management. This new solution helps organizations increase revenue growth from new products and achieve a competitive advantage by introducing a systematic approach to capturing, selecting and investing in the right ideas and product concepts. To help organizations increase their return on innovation, Oracle today introduced Oracle Innovation Management, a systematic approach to capture, select and invest in the right product ideas and to manage your overall product portfolio. Oracle Innovation Management enables bottom-up innovation so all stakeholders may participate in

Australian-based IC3D has released a new version of translationXPERT, the rapid language translation software it developed for SolidWorks. Distributed nationally in Australia and New Zealand by IC3D sister company Intercad – the largest SolidWorks distributor in the region – translationXPERT 2.0 revolutionises the way designers collaborate with colleagues and other designers around the world in their native languages. New functionality in translationXPERT 2.0 means any SolidWorks drawing (including DWG imports) can now be automatically translated and output as a foreign-language PDF document. The software has also been upgraded to work seamlessly with SolidWorks Enterprise PDM’s workflow engine, allowing translations of SolidWorks documents to be generated automatically on release. “translationXPERT has changed the way many of our customers do business, helping them overcome communication bottlenecks, reduce turnaround times on global projects, and eliminate issues that have literally been ‘lost in translation’,” said Intercad sales and marketing director Mark Deere-Jones. “With the enhancements to the software, not

FISHER/UNITECH are announcing the addition of a search-based application (SBA) technology for product development named EXALEAD OnePart from Dassault Systemes SolidWorks. SBA is a disruptive technology that will revolutionize how designers and engineers manage and access product data in environments with multiple repositories and formats of legacy information. EXALEAD OnePart allows designers and engineers to rapidly locate and access existing parts, product designs and other related information located anywhere inside the organization, even beyond PDM and PLM repositories. This innovative technology will save a company substantial time and costs as it eliminates the need to reproduce new parts and reduces the time spent searching for already created parts. EXALEAD OnePart helps designers find reusable 2D/3D designs and related documentation at the speed of thought with just a few clicks across multiple programs. The application offers both semantic and geometric based search arguments to find existing parts. “FISHER/UNITECH is pleased to introduce EXALEAD