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Key takeaways:
- ANSYS’ acquisition of SpaceClaim, following a long and productive partnership, is a good strategic move
- This is a move to bring product geometry more fully into the early phases of concept selection and product ideation. We believe it is not a move by ANSYS to enter the CAD market
- SpaceClaim significantly improves ANSYS’ geometric modeling and manipulation capabilities and ability to productively leverage most 3D CAD geometry within the simulation and analysis environment
ANSYS, the world’s largest provider of simulation and analysis software, has announced the acquisition of SpaceClaim Corp., a provider of direct modeling geometric design software, for $85 million in cash. This follows a long collaboration between the companies that includes integration of the SpaceClaim 3D direct modeling tools in the ANSYS environment.
SpaceClaim provides ANSYS with geometry creation and editing technology that complements their multi-domain and multi-physics simulation offerings. With this acquisition, ANSYS will no longer have to maintain and enhance their own geometric modeling tools. It will also allow them to leverage SpaceClaim’s interfaces to third-party CAD models, complementing ANSYS’ already strong bi-directional CAD capabilities.
In CIMdata’s opinion, this is a strategic move by ANSYS. It is a further step on their journey to provide an integrated engineering environment in which 3D geometry, representing a product’s physical realization, is fully a part of the early phases of ideation, product architecture, and concept development. Thus, the engineering model as developed in tools such as SpaceClaim and ANSYS Workbench becomes the basis for downstream product design, simulation, and manufacturing activities. Simulation, as exemplified by the products ANSYS provides, has moved far beyond being an analog of physical testing for product design validation. The combination of CAD capabilities within the analysis suite allows topology synthesis and geometry optimization to be driven by simulation and analysis so that the physical definition of the product is a direct outcome of systems requirements linked to the product’s definition. Tools and technology like those developed by SpaceClaim enable geometry to be brought into the early multi-discipline optimization and requirements definition phases of product development.
This acquisition represents an evolutionary move by ANSYS to provide a direct link between their product designs and the analysis tools that help product designers to analyze the effectiveness of their designs.
