The changing face of CAE


Gemma Church talks to engineering simulation company Altair about how Computer Aided Engineering


has become mainstream


as architecture, life science, consumer products, electronics, energy, heavy industry, and the marine and offshore industries. It offers a broad range of services to these


A


clients, including product development, industrial design, workflow automation and even staffing services, to supply engineering and IT resources to companies with a skills gap. But Altair remains focused on the development


and application of simulation technology, including its HyperWorks soſtware suite, which is used to synthesise and optimise designs, processes, and decisions to improve its clients’ business performance. Te company also offers engineering services to implement these technologies broadly throughout all industries. According to Dr Detlef Schneider, senior vice


president EMEA at Altair, Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) applications have shiſted


ltair serves more than 5,000 corporate clients across broad industry segments, including the automotive, aerospace and rail industries as well


from niche tech to mainstream staple. He told Scientific Computing World: ‘Different industries have different requirements, but all of them are striving to develop better products faster. In addition to that, many companies have also tried to consolidate their investment in CAE soſtware and to reduce the number of soſtware vendors they work with. ‘Terefore it becomes increasingly important


to offer a broad portfolio that can cover the simulation needs of the engineering community from one vendor,’ Schneider added. Te shiſt of CAE applications from niche


products to broadly-used engineering solutions has meant the technology is now used earlier in the design phase. Previously, CAE was employed rather late in


the development process, as a final check of a design before building a prototype. Schneider said: ‘Te use of CAE has now been


frontloaded and the tools are applied very early – even as a driver of the design process.’ Tis method of CAE use very early in the


Is ‘engineer by objective’ the future for simulation?


Gemma Church profiles engineering simulation provider Noesis Solutions on how it is transforming designs


into benchmark products and getting it right first time N


oesis Solutions provides simulation solutions for a range of engineering- intensive industries, from aerospace to consumer goods, and defence to


healthcare. Its flagship soſtware platform, Optimus,


allows users to adopt an ‘engineer by objective’ (EBO) strategy. Te platform directs simulation- based engineering processes so that engineering teams can work their way back from product performance targets to the relevant design


32 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD


parameters, instead of relying on traditional ‘trial-and-error’ engineering simulation approaches. It achieves this by connecting disparate commercial, legacy and in-house engineering simulation tools and data models to deliver a vendor-neutral platform for multidisciplinary engineering optimisation. By taking the guesswork out of the


engineering process, the Optimus platform enables multidisciplinary engineering teams to stay focused on brand differentiators that


process, before a CAD model exists, is called ‘simulation-driven design’. It enables engineers to optimise their products and to make important design decisions a lot earlier, helping them to save development time and money. Previously, when using CAE applications,


companies have oſten employed specialised single products for each application case. Now, customers are demanding a broader set up, through an entire CAE suite of products, according to Altair. ‘Tose product families include more than just


one application area and therefore enable multi- disciplinary simulation and optimisation, as well as multiphysics simulation,’ Schneider added.


A CONVENIENT AND INTUITIVE USER INTERFACE IS A ‘MUST’


Tis broad user base means the CAE soſtware


has had to change to meet customer demands and expectations. A convenient and intuitive user interface is a ‘must’ to make different applications accessible to a broader user base. Easier, semi- automated processes are also required to open simulation to other non-specialist users in the concept phase, according to Altair.


create a competitive advantage. Tis also produces a faster process, when compared with conventional iterative processes. Naji El Masri, COO at Noesis Solutions, told Scientific Computing World: ‘Te purpose is reducing engineering teams’ time and effort to gain more extended and in-depth insights into product performance.’ A key enabler of the EBO approach is the use


of process integration and design optimisation (PIDO) technologies within the soſtware platform. Te platform’s capacity to integrate a wide range of engineering simulation tools into a multi-disciplinary simulation workflow brings this EBO strategy within reach of a wide community. Optimus is transforming simulation-based


engineering, but many challenges still face soſtware platforms in the PIDO space. El Masri said: ‘Te design space exploitation and optimisation technologies available in Optimus do require specific user knowledge and expertise. Our existing Python customisation capabilities have taught us it is important for our


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