Position Papers

Altair today announced that Gaston Ezequiel Perez, a final year electrical engineering student from the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Facultad Regional Buenos Aires, Argentina, has won the 2014 FEKO Student Competition, an international contest organized in support of engineering education and academic excellence. Students interested in antennas, microwave devices, bio-electromagnetics, electromagnetic compatibility, and other electromagnetic related fields are given the opportunity to showcase their work with FEKO, the electromagnetic solver of Altair HyperWorks®. The 2014 competition generated global interest, attracting entries from Taiwan, Spain, Italy, and the United States. Mr. Perez' winning entry, entitled Design of a Patch Antenna Array for Beamforming Combined with Metamaterials at 5.8 GHz, described the systematic design of a planar array system and how each design decision was informed by electromagnetic simulation. The goal was to provide a solution for satellite applications that require the onboard antenna to be low profile, high gain, and dynamically orientable while adhering to strict weight and volume constraints. Phased

TraceParts has broken another record in the number of registered users on its online CAD components library with an average number of 360,000 new subscriptions per year. The TraceParts Engineering community reached the astonishing number of 2 Million registered users in November 2014 with the registration of a user based in the United States of America. This user searched the online TraceParts library to find electrical components for use in renewable energy equipment which they supply and deploy in locations across the globe. In celebration of this milestone, the user will soon receive a free revolutionary gesture control armband called MyoTM, supplied by Thalmic Labs in partnership with TraceParts. With daily additions of new off-the-shelf components on the TracePartsOnline.net library, the ever growing engineering community has free and unrestricted access to hundreds of millions of standard parts, all available with full technical data and live 3D previews. CAD models of parts are available

MathWorks announced that Switzerland’s ETH Zürich has signed an agreement that provides all of its faculty and students with MATLAB, Simulink and 65 additional MathWorks products. ETH Zürich joins more than 400 schools worldwide already using the MathWorks university-wide license. ETH Zürich is ranked in the top 10 for engineering and technology in the 2013-2014 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. ETH Zürich’s adoption of MATLAB and Simulink for technical computing and Model-Based Design further demonstrates its commitment to prepare students for their professional careers by teaching with and giving them hands-on experience with the tools that are widely used by industry across the globe. ETH Zürich’s MATLAB and Simulink license includes analysis, design, modeling, simulation, code generation and testing products for the engineering and science schools, plus computational finance for the business and economic schools. The university-wide license also gives ETH Zürich access to the full set of MathWorks design flows, enabling the school to enhance

PTC today announced that team Next Level from South Burlington, Vermont has won the 2013-2014 National Finals Competition. The RWDC is a national design competition for high school students run by a public-private partnership with the goal of increasing the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. This year marks the sixth year of the competition. By 2050 there will be an estimated additional two billion people on Earth, and further estimates indicate there will be a need to produce 70% more food to address this population growth. An increase in food production can be realized through implementation of higher yield farming, using precision agriculture. The development of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) coupled with modern precision agriculture practices are anticipated to support increased production of food required to feed the projected global population growth. Next Level, representing South Burlington High School in South Burlington, Vermont, won the 2013-2014 Real World Design Challenge with its

Luxion today announced a partnership with 3D Systems that establishes KeyShot as the standard rendering solution included with many 3D Systems software products. With simple creation of product visuals, Luxion rendering and animation software gives users of select 3D Systems Geomagic software the power to make stunning imagery of their designs. “We are reimagining the engineer’s desktop with our complete line up of solutions for Scan-based Design, mechanical design and haptic-enabled freeform design,” said Calvin Hur, VP and GM of Geomagic Solutions at 3D Systems.  “Engineers will love having KeyShot’s world-class rendering as part of their Geomagic software.” Once a design has been rendered in KeyShot, users can export a full-color model directly to 3D Systems’ ProJet® x60 line of Color Jet Printers, and print a photo-realistic 3D model of their design to share with colleagues and prospective customers. “With 3D Systems’ seamless workflow from physical to digital to print creating product visuals

As previously announced at the CONVERGE User Group Meeting 2014, Convergent Science, Inc. (CSI) has acquired the majority shares in Ignite3d Engineering GmbH and renamed the company Convergent Science GmbH (CSG). CSG’s management includes Rainer Rothbauer, former owner of Ignite3d, as the General Manager. The company base is nestled between the Alps and the hills of Mühlviertel in Linz, Austria and overlooks the Danube River.  “The formation of Convergent Science GmbH allows us to inject the necessary resources to support the European market with a world-class team of CFD experts. Automotive companies in the United States and Asia are already embracing our technology, and we expect similar growth in Europe. Adoption of the CONVERGE CFD software is a natural progression for the European industry as their engineers continue to stay at the forefront of technology and innovation,” says Kelly Senecal, co-owner of Convergent Science GmbH and Convergent Science, Inc.  Convergent Science GmbH

CIMdata PLM Certificate Programs are available in North America and Europe for 2015 ANN ARBOR, Michigan, 9 December, 2014 — CIMdata, Inc., the leading global PLM strategic consulting and research firm announces its CIMdata PLM Certificate Program schedule for 2015. The CIMdata PLM Certificate Program is the flagship offering of CIMdata PLM Leadership — the PLM industry’s most comprehensive non-biased education offering for today’s PLM professionals. CIMdata’s PLM Certificate Program equips PLM professionals with the tools they need to successfully address the challenges associated with PLM strategy development and implementation. This assessment-based certificate program includes a personalized classroom experience, individual and team-based exercises, and individual evaluations of achievement. In addition, the program provides intensive and extensive exposure to a team of CIMdata experts. Upon successful completion of the program, participants receive a CIMdata PLM Certificate and become a member of CIMdata’s global PLM Leadership community. According to Peter Bilello, CIMdata’s President, “Since the

ZWCAD Design announced the release of ZWCAD+ 2015 SP1 with new features and enhancements such as Large Memory Processing, Google Earth Export, Interaction with ZW3D, 8 more DOSLib functions and many more. Based on feedback on ZWCAD+ 2015, ZWCAD+ 2015 SP1 has added new features aiming directly at improving the user experience of the software and the design workflow. Users will experience faster speed in opening large files, more flexible Google Earth import and export as well as convenient switch between ZWCAD+ and ZW3D. Highlights of ZWCAD+ 2015 SP1 include: Large Memory Processing---For computers with a RAM not less than 3GB, ZWCAD+2015 SP1 can possess many more memory resources, which enables designers to process large files without constant crashes. Google Earth Export---By easily acquiring accurate location information by GEIN and generating KML file by GEOUT, designers can accurately review their design on Google Earth. Interaction with ZW3D---ZWCAD+2015-SP1 allows swift switch between ZWCAD+ and ZW3D. When

One of the biggest determinants of productivity in shipbuilding is clear, effective and efficient communication. In recognition of this fact, SSI's ShipConstructor 2015 R2 release is geared towards substantial improvements in how information is conveyed. Improve Your Welding Processes SSI continues to make advancements in regards to how ShipConstructor facilitates the modeling and management of welding. Welding can represent 20-30% of production hours and approximately 10% of total cost so improvements in this area have immediate bottom line implications. Adopt Japanese-Style Advanced Engineering/Production Techniques ShipConstructor 2015 R2 further facilitates communication, quality, and efficiency by enabling the seamless adoption of advanced Japanese-style engineering and production techniques. This is accomplished via the introduction of catalog-based standards to dynamically manage property markings on parts. Gain Early Access to Productivity Enhancements with the Subscription Advantage Pack The Subscription Advantage Pack for this release allows ShipConstructor Subscribers to become early adopters of features with related communication enhancing benefits. A UDA editor allows User

CADENAS publishes the new parts4cad app for users of the cloud-based design and planning tool Autodesk Fusion 360. By means of the app, created by the software manufacturer from Augsburg, engineers have access to millions of 3D CAD models from more than 400 certified manufacturer catalogs. The desired components can be configured individually and afterwards integrated directly into existing designs in Autodesk Fusion 360. “With the new parts4cad app for Autodesk Fusion 360 we offer users the possibility to easily call up the numerous manufacturer catalogs directly in the CAD system and install the 3D CAD models with one click“, says Jürgen Heimbach, CEO of CADENAS. “To us this approach is a novelty. We are confident that this will once again revolutionize the market.“ Cloud-based design independent of time and place Autodesk Fusion 360 is an encompassing cloud-based solution for 3D modeling. Designers and engineers create their product conceptions in the cloud in