PLM Industry Summary
Editor: Christine Bennett Vol. 9 No.14 Friday 6 April 2007
CONTENTS Top Story ______3 CIMdata Reports 10.4% PLM Market Growth for 2006; Heavy investments stronger than expected as companies aim for improved top and bottom line performance______3 Acquisitions______11 Siemens in Takeover Bid for IBS AG ______11 Company News ______12 Avatech Enters Autodesk Platinum Club for the 10th Year in a Row ______12 Cogiscan Hires Japan Sales Engineer ______12 Delcam Increases Focus on Larger Companies ______13 Fullscope’s Channel Efforts Gain Momentum______14 Metafore receives Top Partner of the Year Award from Leading PLM Software Company______15 Rwanda To Launch 2D-to-3D CAD Files Conversion Company with Help From SolidWorks Corporation ______16 SolidProfessor Expands Executive Team______18 Survey results: Top Challenges Impacting Manufacturers' Ability to Launch New Products ______18 Synopsys' Reference Flow for Common Platform Technology Wins IBM Beacon Award______19 Events News ______20 Agile to Participate at Consumer Goods Technology Regional PLM Conference for the Food & Beverage Industry _ 20 Apache Design Solutions to Present Power and Noise Solutions for 90/65/45nm SoC Designs at 2007 DATE Conference ______21 ASCON to Present KOMPAS-3D at Hannover Messe 2007 ______22 Cimmetry Introduces AutoVue Training Course ______23 Complimentary Webinar for the Flavor & Fragrance Industry ______23 Delcam Offers Free CAD Viewer to all Visitors to Plastics Innovations Show ______25 Delcam to Show Latest PartMaker at PMTS 2007______26 Noesis Solutions Announces 2007 OPTIMUS Worldwide Users Meeting in Leuven, Belgium______26 TopSolid’Wood 2007 at Ligna______27 TriCorn Brings Version 6.1 to Regional Shows______29 Financial News ______30 Dassault Systèmes Schedules First Quarter 2007 Conference Call Webcast for April 27, 2007 ______30 Flomerics Reports Sales Up 24%, Profits Up 30%, and Claims World’s Fastest-Growing CFD Software______30 Magma Announces Fourth-Quarter and Fiscal 2007 Earnings Call______32 PACE Secures € 3m in Growth Capital ______32 SAP Announces Availability of 2006 Annual Report and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Filing on Form 20-F ______33 Implementation Investments______34 Alenia Aeronautica Selects MSC.SimManager to Drive Enterprise Business Transformation ______34 BAE Systems’ Military Air Solutions Business Unit Selects UGS Product Lifecycle Management Software ______36 Bentley Publishes ‘The Year in Infrastructure’ Project Yearbook, Adds Project Search Tool to Web Site ______37 Catalog Data Solutions Adopted by Advanced Machine Engineering______38 CooperVision Deploys Agile PLM Quality Analytics to Manage Product Quality Globally ______38 Defense Manufacturer Selects IFS Applications to Streamline Lifecycle Management ______39 Dragon Offshore Selects AVEVA Marine Solution______40 GM Names UGS Supplier of the Year for the Second Consecutive Year ______41 Honda Racing F1 Team to Develop 2008 Formula One Car Using Solutions From IBM______42 Copyright © 2007 by CIMdata, Inc. All rights reserved. CIMdata, Inc. 3909 Research Park Drive Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108 Tel: +1 (734) 668–9922 Fax: +1 (734) 668–1957 E-mail: [email protected] CIMdata PLM Industry Summary
Manufacturer, Bianchi, Relies on think3 for Cycle Market Sprint______44 Raytheon Canada Ltd Selects CMstat CM______45 RITES Wins BE Award ______46 SchuF GmbH Chooses Synergis Adept PDM to Improve Time to Market for Global Valve Manufacturing ______47 UGS Delivers Three Millionth Teamcenter License in 2006, Capping Successful Year for PLM Industry’s Leading Software ______48 Wärtsilä Selects UGS for Global Product Lifecycle Management System ______49 Product News______49 Adobe Unveils Preview of Acrobat 3D Version 8 (CORRECTION) ______49 Agile Announces General Availability of its Latest Agile 9.2 Release ______51 Agilent Technologies Ships GENESYS 2007 EDA Software that Improves Productivity, Saves Time for RF and Microwave Component, Subsystem Designers ______53 CIMSystem Releases Six New Plug-ins for Rhino ______55 Dropping the Only in "for Educational Use Only"; Free Alibre solid modeler gives college co-op flexibility ______57 Fishbowl Solutions® Releases DXF Flat Pattern Automation for Pro|ENGINEER®______58 FISHER/UNITECH and Configure One Form Strategic Partnership to Further Expand Businesses ______59 Fullscope Announces FDA Validation Workbench ______60 Hitachi Sets Up New Design Infrastructure With Cadence EDA SOLUTIONS to Enhance "Monozukuri" Capability for Hardware Products Development______62 INOVx Solutions and FARO Technologies Announce RealityLINx Exchange for FARO Laser Scanners ______64 IronCAD Version 9.0 Releases in Japan ______64 Magma Announces Availability of Advanced Low-Power Reference Flow for Chartered-IBM-Samsung ______66 Mastercam’s Maintenance Release Delivers Enhanced Toolpath Control______67 Mentor Graphics Extends Inflexion Platform User Interface for the Nucleus Operating System ______68 Mentor Graphics Announces Synthesis Support for Xilinx Spartan-DSP Series______69 Nanno SOLUTIONS, a DFM Startup Specializing in Realistic, Statistically Based, Worstcase Interconnect Models, Expands to New Market; Announces Support for Windows-Based Designers ______70 New Telelogic SDL Suite 6.0 Expands Functionality for Next-Generation Protocol Development ______72 New – TriCorn Version 6.1 for Profitable and Productive Job Management ______74 Noran Engineering and UGS Corporation Expand Business Relationship in CAE Software ______75 Omnify Software Launches Next Generation PLM Solution; Omnify Empower Enhances Visibility to All Aspects of Product Data for Improved Product Quality and Shorter Development______75 Processia to Sell Leading PLM Software From Dassault Systèmes; Canadian Services Partner Becomes Value-Added Reseller of CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA______77 Proficiency Partners with INCAT to Bring Complete CAD Interoperability Solution to World’s Largest Manufacturers ______77 SolidWorks COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 Software Opens the door to Greater Innovation and Higher Product Quality ______78 SpaceClaim Announces Immediate Availability of SpaceClaim Professional 2007 for Mechanical Design ______80 SpaceClaim Chooses Spatial; Mechanical Design Software Benefits from Spatial’s Component Portfolio ______81 Synapsis Software Helps Companies Comply with China RoHS Regulation ______82 Synopsys Boosts Designer Productivity by Launching Liberty NCX Characterization Solution ______84 Synopsys Discovery AMS Delivers New Level of Performance and Accuracy for Integrated Analog and Mixed-Signal Verification ______85 Synopsys Enhances Library Compiler to Put Current-Source Models Within Reach of Every Designer ______86 Telelogic Provides New Performance-Improving Capabilities with Enhanced Rhapsody Model-Driven Development Solution ______87 Theorem's 'Multi-CAD' Module Enables Direct Insertion of UGNX Data into CATIA V5 ______88 TSMC 65-Nm Libraries First To Support Common Power Format-Enabled Design Flow______89 Visiprise Announces Release of Visiprise Manufacturing 4.3______89 VX Introduces New Inlay Wizard for Product Designers ______91
Page 2 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Top Story CIMdata Reports 10.4% PLM Market Growth for 2006; Heavy investments stronger than expected as companies aim for improved top and bottom line performance 3 April 2007
According to recent statistics compiled by consulting and research firm CIMdata, Inc., the worldwide Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market demonstrated significant growth and experienced a stronger than expected year in 2006. CIMdata research indicates that the overall PLM market grew 10.4% to reach $20.1 billion in 2006. This strong growth rate is attributed to continued recognition of the value of PLM in improving companies’ business performance. PLM investments are forecasted to continue their climb over the next five years, increasing at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 8.5% to exceed an estimated $30 billion by 2011 (as shown in Figure 1).
$35,000
Tools $30,000 cPDm
$25,000
$20,000
$15,000 US $ (Millions) $10,000
$5,000
$0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Est Est Est Est Est
Figure 1—Overall PLM Market Growth History and Forecast (Estimated for 2007 to 2011)
PLM is not just a set of technologies, but a strategic business approach that applies a consistent set of business solutions in support of the collaborative creation, management, dissemination, and use of product definition information across the extended enterprise from concept to end of life—integrating people, processes, business systems, and information. PLM forms the product information backbone for a company and its extended enterprise. The PLM industry encompasses investments in many different types of technologies and services.
CIMdata segments the overall PLM market into two primary sub-sectors: PLM information authoring and analysis applications (Tools), and collaborative Product Definition management (cPDm). Historically, the Tools sector has received the largest amount of investment, although growth of that sector has consistently been slower than that for cPDm. However, industry investments in Tools were above forecasts in 2006. According to CIMdata, $13.2 billion was spent in 2006 by companies worldwide on PLM Tools such as mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD), computed-aided manufacturing (CAM), electronic design automation (EDA), engineering simulation and analysis, technical publishing, and others. Growth in this sector was primarily driven by investments in EDA (up 11.9%)
Page 3 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary and mid-range MCAD (up 11%). Areas such as high-end MCAD and simulation and analysis experienced relatively lower growth. The Tools portion of the PLM market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% over the next five years to reach $17.1 billion by 2011.
The fastest-growing sector of PLM is for expenditures on cPDm, which is focused on collaboration, management, and sharing of product-related information. This segment covers technologies and approaches such as PDM, collaboration and visualization, data exchange, portfolio management, compliance management, strategic sourcing, enterprise application integration, workflow, functional applications such as configuration management, and solutions for specific industries or businesses.
CIMdata research indicates that the cPDm portion of the PLM market met the forecast for growth and reached $6.9 billion in 2006, representing an increase of approximately 12.9% over 2005. The cPDm segment is expected to continue its strong growth to $7.8 billion in 2007 and reach $13 billion by 2011 for a CAGR of 13.6% (as shown in Figure 2).
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Services $10,000 Software
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$6,000 US $ (Millions)
$4,000
$2,000
$0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Est Est Est Est Est
Figure 2— cPDm Market Growth History and Forecast (Estimated for 2007 to 2011)
The Expanding Reach of PLM
“Strong market growth continues to be driven by heavy investments from manufacturers of all sizes implementing PLM in record numbers,” explains CIMdata President Ed Miller. “Across a broadening range of industries, some of the world’s largest enterprises are improving top-line revenue growth and bottom-line performance as they transform their business processes. Impressive gains are likewise being experienced by smaller and mid-sized firms using PLM to boost productivity and improve competitiveness. With increased investment in both new and expanded PLM solutions, executive decision-makers are taking advantage of the significant business value PLM delivers. PLM is enabling enterprises of all sizes to bring continuous streams of winning products to market more efficiently, accelerate their product development and introduction processes, maintain high quality, and provide greater agility in adapting to rapidly shifting market and competitive trends.”
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According to Miller, the scope of PLM continues to evolve and expand, extending its reach across the enterprise from product planning and design to production, service, product support and beyond. He notes that the impact of this PLM footprint expansion is that many diverse, previously-isolated disciplines and pockets of automation are now being tightly integrated and efficiently coordinated through unified PLM solutions at a rapidly-growing number of companies.
“PLM is an enterprise enabler for achieving product and process innovation, and it is the foundation of many business initiatives including strategic product planning, integrated product development, design collaboration, supply chain management, digital manufacturing, and global resource utilization,” says Miller. “Considering the far-reaching corporate business impact of implementing the approach, PLM has become a critical enterprise investment and is widely regarded by some of the world’s most successful companies as a competitive necessity in today’s global economy. Now and in the years to come, industry-leading manufacturers with the greatest profitability and success will be those with PLM as part of their corporate strategy.”
Strong Growth in All Sectors
Looking deeper into the fast-growing cPDm sector of the overall PLM market, CIMdata statistics indicate that cPDm growth continued in all industry and geographic sectors for 2006. Both EMEA (Europe, Mid-East and Africa) and the Americas maintained solid growth with the Americas growing 14.1% and EMEA up 13.8%. Asia- Pacific continues to be a major opportunity. While the 8.2% growth Asia-Pacific was dominated by Japan, continued investment by solution providers in China and other AP countries should result in increased growth across the region in the coming years. While many AP deals were announced in these emerging markets, revenues are just beginning to flow (see Figure 3).
$3,000
2000 $2,500 2001 2002 2003 2004 $2,000 2005 2006
illions) $1,500 US $US (M
$1,000
$500
$0 Americas EMEA Asia Pacific Figure 3—cPDm Geographic Distribution—2000 through 2006 (Distribution based on CIMdata revenue estimates)
As shown in Figure 4, companies in a wide range of industry segments invest in cPDm. Automotive and high-tech continue to be the largest cPDm adopters in 2006. Aerospace and defense (A&D) and fabrication and assembly (F&A), which includes white goods, machine tools, retail and apparel, and others, had solid revenues. All process industry sectors had solid growth. This includes consumer-focused process industries (consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals), petrochemical, and utilities. The ‘other’ category (shipbuilding, construction, infrastructure and non-traditional sectors) also showed strength based on increasing adoption of PLM by those industries. This across the board growth demonstrates the universality of PLM in providing business value across such a diverse spectrum of industries.
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$2,000 $1,800 $1,600 $1,400 $1,200 $1,000 $800
US $ (Millions) $600 $400 $200 $0
l r ns rm e a a ica m Tr Ph Oth er / he Utilities h ssembly c & Defense A o Ot r et & P - ve CPG/F&B ti - s s es Aerospace s tomo ce Fabrication o& Proc Au Electron/Telecom/High techPr
Figure 4—cPDm Industry Segment Distribution 2006 (Distribution based on CIMdata revenue estimates)
Wide Range of PLM Providers
CIMdata Director of Research, Ken Amann, explains that a widely diverse group of suppliers provide PLM- solutions and services. Some of these suppliers focus on specific technologies or industries such as MDA, EDA, CASE, or analysis and simulation. Others deliver broad management and collaboration solutions that are the information backbone for PLM initiatives. Many PLM solution suppliers partner with suppliers of complementary technologies and applications in order to deliver more comprehensive enterprise PLM solutions than each could provide individually. Overall, companies from many different technology and service sectors derive substantial revenues from the PLM market.
Companies that have broad product suites designed to manage the full lifecycle—comprehensive technology suppliers—represent the foundation of PLM. These suppliers continue to expand their product suites to meet the needs of their customers. “Increased end-user investments are being driven by the continually-broadening scope of enterprise-wide implementations, expansion into new areas such as Digital Manufacturing, Strategic Product Planning, compliance management, industry-focused packaged solutions, and integration with other business initiatives such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM),” explains Amann. Both comprehensive PLM technology suppliers and focused application suppliers are packaging their products into solutions that focus on and support, the practices of specific industries (automotive, aerospace, high-tech electronics) and business problems, e.g. compliance. “The growth of supplier-developed ‘packaged solutions’ is significantly enabling small- and medium-sized businesses to adopt PLM solutions,” according to Amann. “Mid-market investment in PLM continues to grow and PLM solution providers are fine-tuning their product suites and pricing models to better meet mid-market requirements for PLM adoption. PLM suppliers (such as Arena Solutions, Aras, and Contact Software) have differentiated themselves by focusing on small- and mid-sized businesses, Other suppliers such as Selerant, Infor, and Lascom are examples of companies differentiating themselves by focusing on specific
Page 6 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary industries. Many of the larger PLM suppliers provide multiple solutions, each focusing on specific industries and sizes of companies.
Independent consultancies, systems integrators (SIs) and value-added resellers (VARs) (e.g., Accenture, CSC, Deloitte Consulting, HP Consulting, TCS, T-Systems, etc.) continue to expand their PLM programs in response to the growing demand for such services. Major comprehensive technology suppliers expanded their direct service delivery programs and increased their development of alliances with SIs and VARs. “Consultancies and SIs are growing PLM programs by teaming with one or more of the comprehensive technology suppliers as well as expanding their own PLM knowledge staff,” stated Amann.
Application suppliers focused on specific technologies and functions that are part of an overall PLM environment continue to expand the PLM footprint. Suppliers such as Accept Software, Centric Software, RuleStream, and Eurostep are examples of companies that are adding extended capabilities and value to PLM implementations. Examples of these expansion and/or niche areas include service-after-sales, strategic sourcing, and materials compliance solutions. The area of simulation and analysis continues to receive substantial emphasis, with expanded solutions to manage these environments and integrate them more fully into a full PLM program emerging and transitioning this sector of the market toward comprehensive enterprise simulation management (ESM) support. Suppliers such as MSC have been quite visible in driving this transition as well as the integrated simulation and analysis initiatives at major broad-based PLM suppliers like Dassault Systèmes and UGS.
Supplier Rankings
Each year, PLM-related technologies and services are provided by more companies representing all sectors of the PLM industry. To illustrate this growing and wide range of companies that participate in the overall PLM market, the suppliers of PLM-related solutions that derived the most revenues from the market are shown in Figure 5. As can be seen from the companies shown, many of these companies do not compete with each other, but focus on a variety of different aspects of PLM. In many cases, these suppliers are partners in providing more complete solutions to the PLM market.
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e s s e ult M ys C P ey a GS s T l SC desk U IB P phic SA EDS tem MSC C to denc op ra entur Ansys u a n Bent ys c A Dass C y c S T-S A entor G M
Figure 5—Overall PLM Revenue Leaders 2006 (Revenue information represents CIMdata’s estimates)
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Reinforcing the growing strength of the PLM market, there are six companies with revenues of more than $1 billion as seen in Figure 5. In addition, a seventh (PTC), is rapidly approaching that milestone.
While there are many companies participating in the PLM market, a few companies have distinguished themselves as “PLM Mindshare Leaders.” These companies are typically considered to be at the forefront of the market in terms of either revenue generation or thought leadership. With broad-based capabilities that support a full product lifecycle-focused solution, this group of PLM Mindshare Leaders for 2006 includes Agile, Dassault Systèmes, PTC, SAP, and UGS. In 2005, MatrixOne was also a PLM mindshare leader but was acquired by Dassault Systèmes during 2006. Full PLM-based revenues from these mindshare leaders are shown in Figure 6.
Rankings and statistics in these and subsequent figures reflect the ongoing consolidation within the PLM industry as it matures. In particular, 2006 revenues for Dassault Systèmes (DS) include the full year revenues for MatrixOne (acquired by DS in 2Q 2006), maintaining consistency with previous reporting practices.
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$1,600
$1,400 Tools cPDm $1,200
$1,000
$800
US $ (Millions) $600
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$0 Dassault UGS PTC SAP Agile
Figure 6—PLM Mindshare Leaders’ Revenues 2006 (Revenue information represents CIMdata’s estimates)
As shown in the preceding figure, DS was the PLM mindshare market revenue leader in 2006. UGS and PTC generated the second- and third-highest PLM revenues respectively, with all of the top three mindshare revenue leaders having excellent growth during the year. Also, note that PLM revenues for the top three suppliers are still dominated by revenues generated from the Tools portion of their product suites (i.e., their mechanical design automation offerings). However, their cPDm revenues are growing faster than their Tools revenues and becoming a larger portion of their overall business. All of the mindshare PLM suppliers sell some or all of their products and services through their own field sales and support organizations. This is their core or direct revenue. Each also has an increased market presence associated with consultancies, systems integrators, value added resellers, and other partners that sell and provide services based on the mindshare leaders’ technologies and products. The combined core and partner revenues can greatly expand the visibility and impact of a supplier in the industry, generating a significant market footprint. Based on these combined revenues, global PLM market presence (no double-counting of revenues and royalties) for the PLM Mindshare Leaders is shown in Figure 7.
Page 8 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary
$3,500 Presence = Supplier direct PLM revenue + Partners’ direct PLM revenue (adjusted for royalty payments to $3,000 eliminate double counting)
$2,500 Partner Revenue Direct Revenue $2,000
$1,500 US$ (Millions) $1,000
$500
$0 Dassault UGS PTC SAP Agile
Figure 7—PLM Mindshare Leaders’ Presence 2006 (Market presence information represents CIMdata’s estimates)
As indicated in Figure 7, DS was the PLM market presence leader in 2006. The revenue generated by IBM’s DS- based PLM services business is a significant contributor to DS’ market presence. UGS’ partners also generated substantial UGS-based revenue, with EDS being the most significant. Both PTC and SAP also exhibited strong and growing partner programs in 2006 and these provide a very positive impact on their overall market presence as well.
When looking at the cPDm portion of the overall PLM market, a somewhat different perspective emerges. According to CIMdata’s revenue estimates for 2006, the top market revenue leaders among the comprehensive cPDm technology suppliers are shown in Figure 8.
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illions) $300 Services Software US $(M $200
$100
$0 UGS SAP Dassault PTC Agile IFS AB Oracle
Figure 8—cPDm Revenue Leaders 2006 (Comprehensive Technology Suppliers Only) (Revenue information represents CIMdata’s estimates)
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As can be seen in the preceding figure, UGS was the leader in cPDm-only revenues for 2006. For both UGS and DS, the revenues from Digital Manufacturing solutions and services are included within the overall cPDm revenues, consistent with previous years reporting practices. SAP continued to generate substantial cPDm revenues by selling within its installed base. DS and PTC followed UGS and SAP. Agile was joined by IFS AB and Oracle in having cPDm revenues of over $100 million during 2006. As can be seen in the figure, many of these organizations generate a substantial portion of their revenues through services.
Market presence as an indicator of a supplier’s overall impact on the market was described previously. Based on these combined revenues, CIMdata’s analysis of cPDm market presence for the PLM mindshare leaders is shown in Figure 9 and illustrates the impact that partner revenue has on a supplier’s PLM footprint.
$1,400 Presence = Supplier direct PLM revenue + Partners’ direct PLM revenue (adjusted for royalty payments to eliminate double counting) $1,200 Partner Revenues Direct Revenues $1,000
$800
$600 US $ (Millions)
$400
$200
$0 UGS Dassault SAP PTC Agile
Figure 9—cPDm Market Presence Leaders 2006 (Comprehensive Technology Suppliers Only) (Market presence information represents CIMdata’s estimates)
UGS was the cPDm market presence leader for 2006 with both significant direct revenues and strong partner revenues from EDS and other partners. DS was a close second with IBM generating a significant portion of its partner revenues, followed by SAP, PTC, and Agile respectively,
The PLM market remains robust and will continue to have significant growth over the forecast period (2007 through 2011) as companies continue to invest in solutions that can provide them with sustainable business advantage and profitability. The cPDm sector of the PLM market will be the fastest-growing segment as companies invest to better leverage product and plant information across the lifecycle from concept, through manufacturing, to service and operation. Evolution of PLM’s definition and scope will continue to fuel growth in both software and services as PLM becomes more important and embedded within a business’ overall enterprise.
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Page 10 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Acquisitions Siemens in Takeover Bid for IBS AG 4 April 2007
Siemens AG today decided to submit to the shareholders of IBS AG a public takeover bid of €5.00 cash per share. Based on IBS’s closing price yesterday on the Xetra trading platform, this price represents a premium of 54 percent. IBS’s major shareholders have announced their binding acceptance of the offer. A 43-percent share of IBS’s capital stock for Siemens is thus already ensured. As a provider of software solutions for industrial quality management and other applications, IBS is intended to complement the MES business (Manufacturing Execution Systems) of Siemens’ Automation and Drives (A&D) Group.
Siemens has informed the Board of Directors and Supervisory Board of IBS AG of its intention to submit a takeover bid. Both IBS boards have indicated that they consider Siemens to be the suitable strategic partner and – subject to a close examination of the tender document – will support the offer.
“Not only will IBS shareholders profit from an attractive premium; also our customers will benefit from integrated solutions and strong partners,” notes Anton S. Huber, member of the Group executive management at Siemens Automation and Drives. “The product portfolio of IBS will supplement our MES business. We are well positioned with MES offerings in the process industries, for example food, chemical and pharmaceutical. IBS has longstanding, close customer relations in the discrete industries, for instance, with leading automobile manufacturers and their suppliers.”
According to information from IBS, the company’s sales totaled €19.7 million in fiscal 2006 and €17.7 million in fiscal 2005. Headquartered in Hoehr-Grenzhausen, near Koblenz, Germany, IBS has 170 employees. The Siemens offer corresponds to a price of about €35 million for the complete share capital of IBS.
The offer will be contingent on the fulfillment of a number of customary terms and conditions. For example, it must be ensured that a minimum of 75 percent of the capital stock of IBS AG is assumed and that the approval of the German anti-trust authorities is obtained. Details of the terms will be announced in the bid, which is expected to be made public by the end of April.
Further information about the offer is available on the Internet at http://www.siemens.de/ibs-angebot and as of Thursday, April 5th, 2007, also via the toll free service hotline 0800-6464783.
Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global company in electrical engineering and electronics. The company has around 475,000 employees (including discontinued operations) working to develop and manufacture products, design and install complex systems and projects, and tailor a wide range of services for individual requirements. Siemens provides innovative technologies and comprehensive know-how to benefit customers in some 190 countries. Founded more than 155 years ago, the company focuses on the areas of Information and Communications, Automation and Control, Power, Transportation, Medical, and Lighting. Based on U.S. GAAP, Siemens posted sales in fiscal 2006 (ended
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September 30) of €87.3 billion and net income of €3.033 billion. Further information is available on the Internet at: http://www.siemens.com/.
IBS AG (Hoehr-Grenzhausen), listed at the German stock exchange, is an IT enterprise which offers production near software solutions and services for industrial enterprises. Further information is available on the Internet at: http://www.ibs-ag.com/.
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Company News Avatech Enters Autodesk Platinum Club for the 10th Year in a Row 2 April 2007
Avatech Solutions, Inc. won top honors at the recent Autodesk One Team Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year, Avatech Solutions’ team won the award for Largest Reseller by Revenue in the United States.
Avatech also won top honors in the category for encouraging existing customers to leverage the leading edge of design innovation by ensuring they are using the latest Autodesk technologies.
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Cogiscan Hires Japan Sales Engineer 2 April 2007
Cogiscan announced the hiring of Satoshi Inoue as Japan Sales Engineer.
Satoshi Inoue possesses a strong background in the PCB assembly industry. Prior to joining Cogiscan, he worked over 10 years for a leading SMT equipment provider in the areas of Quality Assurance, Customer support and Software System Solutions. Satoshi Inoue will be based in the new Cogiscan office in Nagoya, Japan and will focus primarily on supporting local customers and driving the company's growth in Japan.
Jim Weik, Cogiscan Asia Sales Manager, said: “I am excited to have Inoue-san join our team with his commitment to customer satisfaction and deep knowledge of the electronics manufacturing market place in Japan. Our customers in Japan will receive outstanding support from Satoshi Inoue. Over the past year in Japan, we have seen an increased level of interest for our products because Japanese OEMs require cost-effective, scalable and complete traceability solutions to achieve the demands of the market place and to protect their brand name reputation for high quality products. This is a great fit for our traceability software and RFID/barcode technologies. Our recent successes in Asia demonstrate that the level of interest is very high.”
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Satoshi Inoue, Japan Sales Engineer, commented: “I am thrilled to join such an innovative and fast- growing company and to be able to contribute to their future success in Japan. I am convinced that we have the ability to become the leading provider of tracking and traceability solutions in Japan because the Cogiscan platform is fully integrated and supported by leading Japanese equipment vendors. My role is to make sure that all electronics manufacturers in Japan become aware of the complete range of material control solutions offered by Cogiscan and their strategic partners.”
Cogiscan Japan office
Satoshi Inoue – Cogiscan Japan Sales Engineer
Cogiscan, Inc (Nagoya)
Japan office
9-4 Inaba, Natsuyama, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-3621 JAPAN
Tel:+81-564-82-3560 Fax:+81-564-82-2944 Email: [email protected].
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Delcam Increases Focus on Larger Companies 4 April 2007
CADCAM developer Delcam has increased its focus on larger companies with the appointment of Roger Onions to a new position as International Business Development Director – Large Accounts. Traditionally, Delcam has been associated with the SME sector, especially in the mould and die industry. However, recent years have seen the company increase its business with larger, multi-national organisations, especially in the aerospace industry.
"Following some recent successes, it is clear that Delcam has an excellent opportunity to achieve a higher level of sales into major international accounts,” claimed Managing Director Hugh Humphreys. "More and more often, we are finding that we have several of our Sales Partners in different countries trying to sell to various parts of the same organisation. We need to coordinate these efforts more efficiently, both to give us a higher chance of winning the business and to enable us to support our customers more effectively.”
"We also need to raise our profile with larger, international manufacturing companies,” added Mr. Humphreys. "Many of these organisations do not realise how much Delcam has grown over recent years. For example, they may not know that we are the world’s largest specialist supplier of CAM software or that we are represented in 60 countries.”
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"Our increased focus on larger customers comes at a time when many companies are changing their attitudes to their CAM system,” explained Mr. Humphreys. "In the past, many larger companies have simply purchased the companion CAM software that accompanied their choice of design software. Now, an increasing number of companies are realising that they need to adopt specialist CAM systems from specialist CAM suppliers if they want to increase productivity, improve quality and reduce delivery times. Roger is ideally qualified to lead this new initiative, having developed a very extensive network of contacts from his time as GTMA President and, more recently, as a director of the Boeing AMRC in Sheffield.”
Mr. Onions joined Delcam in 1989, initially as Area Sales Manager for the West Midlands, after ten years running his own company offering computer solutions, including software sales, service, training and computer-aided design. In 1994, he was promoted to New Business Manager and then, in 1996, to UK Sales Director.
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Fullscope’s Channel Efforts Gain Momentum 5 April 2007
Fullscope, Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified business partner and one of the initial participants in the Microsoft Industry Builder program, emphasized its commitment to the new Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions program unveiled at Convergence 2007 and announced continued strong development of its reseller efforts.
Fullscope builds and supports Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX, part of Microsoft’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) product line, under the current Industry Builder program. Part of Fullscope’s Industry Builder responsibility is to develop the worldwide reseller channel for the Process solution. Microsoft recently announced the next phase of the Industry Builder program in a press release issued March 13, 2007:
“The Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions program will encompass the current Industry Builder program as well as other new initiatives. For Industry Builder members, the new program offers significantly improved benefits and revenue opportunities, and for customers, tightly integrated industry modules that will ship simultaneously with core Microsoft Dynamics releases and service packs.”
“We are committed to do our part to help Microsoft deliver on the next generation of solutions under the Industry Builder program,” said John Scandar, executive vice president and co-founder of Fullscope. “This change will let us create a stronger, development-focused relationship with Microsoft that will benefit our customers by bringing even deeper process industry functionality into the industry version of Microsoft Dynamics AX. Importantly, program improvements such as the simultaneous release of industry versions and standard AX will greatly please our core customers—upper mid-market and enterprise manufacturers.”
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Worldwide Resellers
In the past six months Fullscope has authorized over 100 Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX resellers in more than 35 countries. “We are committed to help Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX become the fastest growing ERP solution worldwide, and the momentum from our reseller channel, along with the new Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solution program, should help us achieve our goal faster than we initially anticipated,” Scandar said.
New Process Products
On April 5, 2007, Fullscope announced the availability of a new software and services product, FDA Validation Workbench, designed to assist life sciences companies to achieve and maintain U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) validation. It includes software for tracking and managing validation activities, templates for completing the documentation required by the U.S. FDA, documentation for a vendor audit of Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX, and consulting services to assist the manufacturer in completing the validation process. Please see the separate FDA press release for more information.
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Metafore receives Top Partner of the Year Award from Leading PLM Software Company 2 April 2007
Metafore announced that UGS has recognized Metafore as Americas’ Top Channel Partner for their outstanding achievements and client support in 2006. The award was presented to Metafore by UGS CEO Tony Affuso during the company’s annual global sales training event in Dallas, Texas.
“Metafore is truly a unique partner for us, and this award is well-deserved,” says Jim Gregory, Vice President, US Indirect Channels at UGS. “Their extensive practical understanding of PLM and their tremendous expertise in implementing and supporting our software solutions clearly position them at the forefront not only of our partner network but probably of most companies in the PLM industry. Any company looking to evaluate and implement PLM could greatly benefit from their unbiased knowledge and proven implementation experience.”
“We are excited about receiving this award,” says Andreas Lindenthal, Principal of Metafore. “It is a confirmation that we are an outstanding partner not only for the software vendors we work with, but also for our clients. UGS recognizes the value we bring as an independent firm to companies interested in evaluating and implementing PLM and to users of their software solutions.”
“It is great to be recognized by one of the leading PLM software companies in the world as number one among the more than 100 business partners,” says Chris Atkins, Principal of Metafore. “Last year we helped over a dozen companies to better understand PLM, to optimize their PLM-related business practices and processes, to identify and design the optimal solution for their business needs and to
Page 15 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary successfully implement both small workgroup PDM solutions for 10 users as well as large enterprise PLM solutions for over 500 users. This award confirms that Metafore is a credible, capable and trustworthy PLM solution provider.”
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Rwanda To Launch 2D-to-3D CAD Files Conversion Company with Help From SolidWorks Corporation 2 April 2007
Capitalizing on the growing pool of skilled engineers in Rwanda, the country’s technology ministries are teaming with two major science and technology schools and SolidWorks Corporation to launch a company that will convert 2D data into 3D models efficiently and affordably. Called Gasabo 3D Design, Ltd., the venture will provide fast, accurate file conversion as a service, enabling SolidWorks customers to leverage their existing 2D design data without having to do it in-house.
Rwanda has experienced a re-birth, fueled in part by an ambitious science and technology capacity building program launched by President Paul Kagame who has said, “The application of science and technology is fundamental, and indeed indispensable, to the social and economic transformation of our countries… It is about applying science and technology holistically – in all levels of education and training, in commercializing ideas, in developing business and quickening the pace of wealth-creation and employment-generation, in enabling government to provide better services, and indeed, in providing basic tools to society at large for self- and collective betterment.”
Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula are playing a critical role as schools across the country are graduating more engineers, in line with its vision of building a knowledge-driven economy. Gasabo 3D Design, Ltd. is a joint venture between the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA) on behalf of Rwanda’s technology ministries, the École Technique Officielle (ETO) Gitarama high school, and the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).
SolidWorks Corporation is providing software and business expertise to launch and grow a startup company. More importantly, the company will also provide the hands-on 3D CAD software training to teach STEM principles and ignite engineering enthusiasm. Gasabo 3D Design, Ltd. expects to begin converting 2D drawings into 3D models by Q3 2007.
Accelerating Product Development and Repair
Converting 2D files to 3D solid models can be expensive and tedious for large manufacturers with tens of thousands of product drawings. Paper Converting Machine Company manufactures machines that produce a variety of paper products, including tissue, newsprint, embossed paper, etc. The company has 10,000 machines deployed worldwide, and allocates 50 percent of its budget on service and retrofit projects.
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“Our machines last a long time. Some of them have been deployed for 87 years,” said Thad Perkins, director of CAD systems at PCMC. “Many of our designs reside in 2D drawings, but converting them to 3D models is expensive and time-consuming. By outsourcing the conversion, we save about two-thirds of the cost of doing it in-house. From a resource standpoint, it’s like adding 10 people to my staff, which enables us to be more responsive to our customers’ needs and provides us with the opportunity to accelerate investments in new technology. We’re able to develop equipment we might not have been able to develop, and sell equipment we might not have been able to sell. Gasabo 3D Design, Ltd. will help companies like us secure a competitive position in the global marketplace.”
SolidWorks’ involvement in the project is the latest in a series of efforts aimed at helping rebuild Rwanda’s infrastructure. The company has donated software and staff time to train teachers on how to use SolidWorks to promote STEM education with the goal of increasing the country’s engineering population.
“This partnership is really a testament to Rwanda’s resilience in the face of devastating circumstances,” said SolidWorks CEO John McEleney. “Gasabo 3D Design Ltd. will provide large manufacturers a cost- effective and fast way to convert vital 2D files into accurate 3D models they’ll be able to modify, machine, and build upon to meet customer needs. That efficiency will help companies stay agile, so they can design better products and excel in a global economy.”
About Gasabo 3D Design Ltd.
Gasabo 3D Design Ltd. is a registered Rwanda company. The company will initially convert 2D data to 3D solid models, however as the skills base matures, the company plans to move to higher skill work within the product design field. The company has the aim of being a SolidWorks centre of excellence on the African continent.
About the Rwandan Information Technology Authority (RITA)
RITA has been established by the Government of Rwanda in recognition of the importance of ICT for the economic and social development of Rwanda. RITA’s role is to manage the implementation of ICT programs throughout all sectors of the Rwandan economy in support of economic growth and poverty reduction.
About Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)
KIST was officially inaugurated in 1998 as the first public technological institute of higher learning in Rwanda. KIST aims to contribute to Rwanda’s economic renewal through the creation of highly skilled manpower. It seeks to become a regional centre offering courses in science, technology and management; carrying out extensive research activities and knowledge dissemination; and providing technical assistance and services to all sections of the community.
About ETO Gitarama
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ETO Gitarama is a secondary technical school located in the Southern province of Rwanda. The school has about 400 students, and it was established in November 2002.
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SolidProfessor Expands Executive Team 4 April 2007
San Diego based SolidProfessor, developer of SolidWorks integrated training and support solutions, welcomes Pedro Santana as its new Vice President.
“Over the past 4 years the acceptance of our training and support solutions within the SolidWorks User community has exceeded our expectations,” remarks SolidProfessor President David Ptak. “We’ve also succeeded in establishing successful partnerships with SolidWorks Resellers and Solution Partners. As a result we find ourselves poised to pursue an aggressive growth strategy, and we’re excited about the experience and perspective Pedro brings to our team.”
Mr. Santana joins SolidProfessor after 7 years with SolidWorks Value Added Reseller Digital Dimensions. While there, Mr. Santana made significant contributions in variety of roles including Applications Engineer, Certified SolidWorks Trainer, and ultimately Account Executive.
Mr. Santana received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University. His experience as a SolidWorks user is extensive. He is a Certified SolidWorks Support Technician and Certified SolidWorks Instructor.
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Survey results: Top Challenges Impacting Manufacturers' Ability to Launch New Products April 2007
Earlier this year Arena Solutions launched Project Collaboration, an extension to Arena PLM that enables manufacturers to answer mission-critical questions such as “When will my product ship?” and “Where should I focus to avoid delays?”
The main driver for this extension was feedback received from their customer base and the results of a study conducted earlier this year. In this survey of more than 150 mid-market manufacturing companies, Arena Solutions found that 92 percent of respondents had severe impediments hampering their new product introduction process.
Key threats to the timely execution of product-related projects include:
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• Poor coordination and communication across product teams (66 percent).
• Lack of visibility into constraints and bottlenecks (59 percent).
• Lack of infrastructure for standardizing processes and refining best practices (55 percent).
• Difficulty including suppliers and partners in project planning and execution (48 percent).
Arena Solutions invites you to download the results of the study here if you would like to learn more about what is impacting manufacturers’ ability to consistently hit product launch dates.
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Synopsys' Reference Flow for Common Platform Technology Wins IBM Beacon Award 5 April 2007
Synopsys, Inc. announced that it has won IBM's PartnerWorld Beacon Award as "The Best Common Platform Technology Ecosystem Solution." The IBM PartnerWorld Beacon Award recognizes the Synopsys reference flow for Common Platform 65-nanometer (nm) and 90-nm process technologies as critical to the success of the Common Platform technology effort between IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics.
Synopsys was recognized for its production-ready reference design flow that supports the full range of 65-nm design and implementation needs. Synopsys coordinated detailed technical development and validation efforts between its flow development team, process experts from IBM, Chartered and Samsung and IP developers at ARM, to provide a complete design solution. The 65-nm Synopsys reference flow was the first flow available for Common Platform technology customers worldwide, and has been available from Synopsys since July 2006.
"IBM -- together with our Common Platform collaborators Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung -- have introduced the semiconductor industry to a new business and manufacturing model based on close collaboration of technology leaders across the semiconductor industry. Synopsys, one of our leading ecosystem partners, has played a significant role in this effort by providing a complete EDA solution that supports and complements our advanced process technologies and enables our clients to meet their manufacturing needs," said Steve Longoria, vice president, Common Platform, for IBM. "IBM's evaluation and our customers' use of this reference flow have shown it to be complete and production-ready, allowing designers to quickly realize the benefits of the advanced 65-nm Common Platform process technology. IBM applauds Synopsys for its efforts in support of the Common Platform technology and winning the first Beacon award for the Common Platform Ecosystem."
The reference flow from Synopsys is a comprehensive, production-ready design flow derived from Synopsys' Pilot Design Environment using the Galaxy™ Design Platform, Discovery™ Verification
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Platform and Synopsys' Design for Manufacturing (DFM) tools. The reference flow helps design teams transform RTL into GDSII that can be manufactured at IBM, Chartered or Samsung. The reference flow provides an integrated, easy-to-use design flow to address 65-nm design challenges like low-power design, signal integrity, design-for-manufacturing (DFM) and design-for-testability (DFT) while also addressing timing closure and performance optimization. It is delivered with source scripts, allowing design teams to modify and extend the flow to best address project-specific needs. Synopsys Professional Services provides flow deployment services to assist chip developers with adopting and customizing the flow for their specific production design environment. More information about Synopsys' offerings for the Common Platform technology is available on- line at http://www.synopsys.com/partners/common_platform.
"IBM and the Common Platform have brought 90-nm and 65-nm process technologies to market to provide new advantages to the design community," said Rich Goldman, vice president of Strategic Market Development at Synopsys. "Synopsys recognizes the importance of continuous innovation and is committed to supporting these efforts through collaboration with our partners. Recognition of our contribution by IBM is gratifying and reinforces our commitment to the Common Platform effort."
About Common Platform Technology
IBM, Chartered and Samsung Electronics have broken new ground in the semiconductor industry with a collaboration focused on jointly developed digital CMOS process technologies and advanced manufacturing. The Common Platform model is further supported by a comprehensive ecosystem of design enablement and implementation business partners from the EDA, IP and design services industries. This ecosystem allows foundry customers to potentially source their chip designs to multiple 300mm foundries with flexibility and choice. The Common Platform model is currently in production with 90nm and 65nm technologies.
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Events News Agile to Participate at Consumer Goods Technology Regional PLM Conference for the Food & Beverage Industry 3 April 2007
WHO: Jerry Johnson, Food Innovation and Development, Menu Management of McDonald's, an Agile customer, and Bernard Goor, vice president, food & beverage at Agile Software Corporation, will participate in a Consumer Goods Technology regional food & beverage PLM conference.
WHAT: The Consumer Goods Technology regional PLM conference will enable attendees to network and exchange ideas with peers in the food & beverage industry on how to drive product and packaging innovation, accelerate time to market, increase revenues, reduce costs, improve quality, ensure compliance and automate data syndication. Agile is a featured sponsor at this event, along with Kalypso
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and Microsoft. Agile’s food and beverage industry customers that include Heinz, McDonald's, Bayer, Herbalife, Numico, Playtex and Johnson Diversey.
WHEN/WHERE: The Consumer Goods Technology regional conference takes place on April 4 from 8:30 a.m.-noon at the Conrad Chicago Hotel, 521 North Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois. For more information on this event, or to register, please go to http://www.agile.com/.
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Apache Design Solutions to Present Power and Noise Solutions for 90/65/45nm SoC Designs at 2007 DATE Conference 2 April 2007
Apache Design Solutions announced that the company will present their power and noise solutions for silicon integrity of 90/65/45nm SoC designs at the DATE (Design Automation and Test Europe) conference held on April 17-19, 2007 in Nice, France. Apache’s customers, STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductor, will also be presenting their experience with Apache’s products at the Exhibition Theatre on April 17th at 12:20 p.m. and April 19th at 11:20 a.m., respectively. STMicroelectronics will present how Apache’s PsiWinder helped them explore dynamic electrical effects on the clock network, and analyze and fix clock jitter issues in their designs. NXP will share how Apache’s RedHawk enabled them to manage the dynamic voltage drop of their high-frequency low-power mixed-signal designs, thus allowing them to meet the challenging signal and noise specifications.
WHO: Apache Design Solutions, Inc.
WHAT: Presentation and demonstration of power and noise solutions for silicon integrity of SoC designs.
• Testimonial presentation titled "Clock tree analysis in the light of dynamic electrical effects using Apache's PsiWinder tool" by Vincent Grenet, Digital Methodologies & Design Support Engineer, STMicroelectronics.
• Testimonial presentation titled "Power integrity analysis for high frequency, low-power mixed- signal designs using Apache's RedHawk" by Patrick Renaud, Senior SoC Designer, NXP Semiconductor.
WHERE: 2007 DATE Conference, Acropolis, Nice, France. For more information please visit http://www.date-conference.com.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - Thursday, April 19, 2007
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ASCON to Present KOMPAS-3D at Hannover Messe 2007 5 April 2007
ASCON Group will take part at Hannover Messe - one of the leading showcase for industrial technology, taking place from 16 to 20 April 2007 in Hannover, Germany. ASCON will exhibit at the fair with its KOMPAS solutions for 3D Parametric Modelling, 2D Drafting and Design. For the first time KOMPAS- 3D will be presented with German-interface language!
ASCON will also showcase new KOMPAS add-ons for Photo rendering, Animation, Kinematic and Dynamic Analysis, as well as applications simplifying integration of KOMPAS-3D with other CAD/CAM solutions and creating users' parametric 2D/3D libraries.
During the previous international fairs (CeBIT, CATPRO and others) KOMPAS solutions were well marked by professional CAD experts. As a result the product is now successfully distributed in German speaking countries via local partners and the first deals has been already concluded. Popularity of KOMPAS-3D in Mechanical CAD has been raised, because of its powerful functionality, easy learning and collaboration features and attractive pricing policy that allow companies to considerably reduce costs for production.
ASCON prepared special program for guests of the Hannover Messe:
• Showcases and presentations of software solutions for Mechanical CAD
• Express KOMPAS 3D-Modelling Contest
• Live Demos and Trainings for KOMPAS-3D product
• Light and Demo Versions of the software for all stand guests
• Special Offer for KOMPAS-3D newest version
• Before the fair starts, ASCON will launch a new information portal, devoted KOMPAS software, for German-speaking users and CAD community. The new web-site will be launched at http://www.kompas3d.de/.
Visit ASCON at Hall 17, Booth C67 at Hannover Messe from 16 to 20 April 2007
ASCON on the web: http://www.ascon.ru/english; http://www.kompas3d.de/(from April 10th, 2007); http://www.kompas3d.co.uk/
For additional information, please, contact Your nearest VAR or ASCON Headquarter at [email protected] or +7 812 703-39-33.
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Cimmetry Introduces AutoVue Training Course 4 April 2007
Cimmetry Systems, an Agile Software company, announced the introduction of a new Gold Level training course for AutoVue users.
Cimmetry's Gold Level Training is a one (1) day training course, delivered on site or via the web, focused on teaching fundamental AutoVue skills and concepts.
Depending on an organization's technology usage and requirements, customers can choose to focus the training course on 2D only, 2D and 3D, or 2D/3D and EDA viewing capabilities.
Designed as a comprehensive training course, AutoVue Gold Level Training provides users with a step- by-step approach to acquire expertise in AutoVue viewing, markup, printing and collaboration capabilities. Administrative functions, such as product installation, configuration, and performance tuning, will be also covered, as will various troubleshooting scenarios. Upon completion of the course, users will have gained sufficient knowledge to take full advantage of their AutoVue investment.
For additional information about the AutoVue Training Program, visit http://www.cimmetry.com/training.html.
For pricing information or to arrange for training, please contact [email protected] or +1-514-735- 3219.
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Complimentary Webinar for the Flavor & Fragrance Industry April 2007
Selerant is offering the Flavors & Fragrances Webinar : The Master Series. Both sessions will be led by Dr. John Labows, a renowned leader in the field as former Director of Fragrance Technology at Colgate Palmolive and current independent consultant.
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Part I : Mastering Formula Innovation April 4,2007 10:00 AM EST
• Streamline and simplify methodologies and resources via software solutions
• Create greater visibility to costs, hazards, ingredients, and compliance issues
• Increase collaboration across the enterprise
• Optimize formulation processes with current libraries, specifications, compliance issues, multiple currencies, and multiple formula views
• Demonstrations on Selerant’s PLM software, DevEX and its formulation suite
Part II : Mastering Gobal Compliance April 18,2007 10:00 AM EST
Explanations and updates on compliance issues and upcoming regulations, including:
• Fragrances for Homecare must follow the IFRA guidelines, TSCA and DSL lists and the DPD in Europe. For Oral and Personal Care they must follow new IFRA guidelines and DPD.
• The Oral/Cosmetic and Detergent Directives in Europe require allergen labeling specifically for 26 ingredients and applies to all fragrances in products sold in EU.
• Changes that occur in hazard assignments for ingredients, as well as the treatment of essential oils, impact labeling for the fragrance and the final consumer product.
• How to’s on managing single and multiple countries’ compliance lists
• Demonstrations on Selerant’s PLM software, DevEX and its Regulatory software with template- driven generated regulatory documentation.
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Delcam Offers Free CAD Viewer to all Visitors to Plastics Innovations Show 5 April 2007
Delcam will offer a free CAD viewer to all visitors to its stand, No. 59, at the Plastics Innovations show to be held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on 23rd and 24th May. The free PowerSHAPE-e software improves communication, either within a company or along a supply chain, by allowing everyone involved in the product development process to view, and comment on, CAD data throughout any project.
The software is intended mainly for people that do not normally use CAD systems, such as sales staff that need to discuss progress with the client or market researchers that need to get feedback from potential customers or retailers on new design proposals. However, it can also be used to supply preliminary data to sub-contractors so they can start work on quotations before the design has been finalised.
All models can be password-protected to prevent any unauthorised export of the data. This extra security ensures that any design sent out to sub-contractors for manufacturing quotes cannot find its way onto the market until a quote is approved. At that point, the password can be released to the approved supplier only, so enabling manufacture to begin.
The PowerSHAPE-e download incorporates Delcam’s PS-Exchange data translation software and so can read in files from all the main CAD systems, including CATIA, UG, Pro/Engineer, IDEAS, SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor and Solid Edge, as well as neutral formats such as IGES and STEP. Once imported, the models can be marked up with any comments or suggestions.
For CAD users, the viewer incorporates a wide range of surface and solid modelling functionality. Users can experiment with different design variants, whether these are intended to improve the appearance or style of the design, or are suggestions to simplify its manufacture. Once the changes have been finalised, notes can be added explaining what alterations have been made and why.
Model compare functionality is included so that any changes to the model can be identified and highlighted quickly at all stages of the product’s development. This helps ensure that everyone involved with the project is using the most recent design data. It also makes it easier for managers to check that their recommended alterations have been incorporated into the design in the way that they intended.
As manufacturing becomes more global, good communications along the supply chain are a growing challenge. Developments like e-mail and Internet telephony have made long-distance communication much easier. Delcam hopes that its new viewer will further speed and simplify the exchange of design ideas and modifications.
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PowerSHAPE-e should also make new product development more successful and more efficient. More communication with potential customers should increase the likelihood that the new design will be received well by consumers. Similarly, obtaining feedback from sub-contractors earlier in the development process should help ensure that progress from design to manufacture can proceed efficiently. It should also avoid problems with designs that appear attractive at the concept stage but that are too difficult or too expensive to manufacture cost-effectively.
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Delcam to Show Latest PartMaker at PMTS 2007 2 April 2007
Delcam will demonstrate the latest release, Version 8, of its PartMaker software for turn-mill centres and Swiss-type lathes on booth 544 at the PMTS 2007 exhibition to be held in Columbus, Ohio from 24th to 26th April. PartMaker Version 8 features a wide range of improved functionality, including the introduction of the PartMaker Full Machine Simulation module, which allows users to view photo- realistic 3D models of the machines for which they are programming their parts.
This new simulation module will provide improved error checking and collision detection to PartMaker users by allowing them to perform an even more robust machining simulation than currently offered in PartMaker. The machine model being simulated incorporates machine specific tool holders and attachments to assure that any possible collisions that could occur on the machine will be detected off- line on the user’s PC. The ability to detect such problems off-line is beneficial for CNC programmers and machinists because it means they will have to spend less time in setting up new jobs and performing dry runs to assure there are no collisions on the machine.
"The PMTS is a key venue for PartMaker to demonstrate its latest release,” says Hanan Fishman, PartMaker Inc. President. "PMTS is the pre-eminent showcase for precision machining technology in North America and only comes along every two years. As many PartMaker users and a number of other leaders in the field of multi-axis turning attend this show, it is an ideal showcase for the many new and exciting capabilities available in PartMaker Version 8.”
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Noesis Solutions Announces 2007 OPTIMUS Worldwide Users Meeting in Leuven, Belgium 29 March 2007
Noesis Solutions announced the 2007 edition of its upcoming OPTIMUS Worldwide Users Meeting, that will take place in Leuven, Belgium on June 25 and 26, 2007. The preliminary conference agenda is now available here
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The OPTIMUS Users Meeting attracts more than 100 people from various industries worldwide. Confirmed speakers present applications from companies like Airbus, Alpine, Subaru, Philips/NXP, Bausch & Lomb, FE-Design and Cybernet Systems.
Keynote addresses will be presented by:
• Dr. Nick Vlahopoulos, Professor Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan
• Dr. ir. Jan Leuridan, Executive Vice President & Chief Technical Officer, LMS International
"The objective of the OPTIMUS Users Meeting is to provide a platform to the OPTIMUS User Community to share their OPTIMUS work experiences with their colleagues in various other industries," says Hans Wynendaele, President and COO of Noesis Solutions. "This meeting provides an excellent opportunity for all those interested in Numerical Optimization, Robust Design and Design Exploration Methods to discover the applications and benefits of OPTIMUS and other NOESIS software products and services.
In addition, participants will learn more about the future development road map of OPTIMUS and the other NOESIS optimization software products embedded in LMS Virtual,Lab and CATIA V5.For more information regarding the OPTIMUS Worldwide Users Meeting, please visit http://www.noesissolutions.com/ugm
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TopSolid’Wood 2007 at Ligna 30 March 2007
Missler Software will present its integrated CAD/CAM solution, TopSolid'Wood, for the wood industry at Ligna in Hannover, 14-18 May, Hall 17 Stand H21.
TopSolid'Wood is an integrated design, manufacturing and management (CAD/CAM/PDM) software specialized for wood processing. TopSolid'Wood comprises comprehensive standard components and processes specific to the wood industry. With TopSolid'Wood design and manufacturing departments use the same data, thus avoiding potential errors. TopSolid'Wood offers modelling functions, optimised assembly management and facilitated communication with customers and manufacturing.
TopSolid'Wood 2007 boasts significant improvements to increase productivity in wood design and manufacturing. Here are the major enhancements of the 2007 version:
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o The 2007 laminate function was totally rebuilt. This improved function now allows the operator to choose associativity between the base and the laminate. In other words the operator can drill the base and the laminate at the same time and thereby save valuable time.
o Tenon mortise: A new ergonomy enables the operator to choose the direction of the tenon and facilitates the dimensioning of tenons.
o Propagation definition: TopSolid'Wood 2007 offers the possibility to save and reuse propagation models. The function, thereby, enables operators to define propagation characteristics which can be applied to such functions as eccentric joints, dowel joints, biscuit joints and screw joints.
o Panel model: This option integrates an option to save the characteristics of a panel in order to create a new one.
o Edge configuration:
o It is now possible to define codifications depending on the type, thickness, material, coating and height of the edge.
o All overvaluations of parts with one or more edges can be defined automatically depending on the edge's configuration.
o Management of bent parts: TopSolid'Wood 2007 takes into account bent parts in the calculation of finished dimensions and cutting lists.
o 5 axis molding: The operator can now create a molding path in 3D and is, therefore, not restricted to flat faces anymore.
o Grain direction symbol: This new function enables the grain direction to be added on the draft document with a symbol.
o Multi-drafts: You can now create a multi-draft of an assembly into a single document.
o BOMs of several projects: This new mode allows you to create a BOM from several projects without having to create the assembly of these projects.
o Ardis interface: A new interface is available between TopSolid'Wood and Ardis (optimisation and workshop management software)
TopSolid'WoodCam
New management of tool changers
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Automatic mounting of aggregate tools
Machining processes easier to personalise than ever
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TriCorn Brings Version 6.1 to Regional Shows 28 March 2007
The Midlands Manufacturing Show at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry on 18th and 19th April will be the first opportunity to see the newly launched Version 6.1 of TriCorn’s easy to use Job Processing Software.
On stand D26, the company will be showing how the complete integration of the TriCorn RTS scheduling software provides real time bi-directional communication and updating of job information and production planning data. By using a single database, TriCorn’s system automatically reflects any changes made in both the scheduling package and in its Job Processing Software. The benefit for the user is more accurate information and the ability to easily create comprehensive reports including lists of overdue deliveries, and itemisation of products approaching their due dates.
Midlands Manufacturing 2007 features dedicated areas for machine tools, software and subcontracting, making it an ideal venue for engineers to re-evaluate their manufacturing processes. Companies operating internationally will appreciate the new multi-currency capability in TriCorn Version 6.1. Additionally, the new flexible price banding tools will help manufacturers provide their customers with more accurate quotations tailored to offer volume and individual price adjustments.
For industry in the North of England, TriCorn will also be exhibiting at the North West Manufacturing Show at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton on 9th and 10th May, on stand D32. This show will give visitors another chance to see Version 6.1 of its Job Processing Software and also a chance to preview the Windows Vista implementation of the software which will be of particular interest to companies that aim to be early adopters of new technology. Jane Williamson, General Manager, TriCorn Systems said, “Efficient management of the manufacturing process is an area which can generate some real and significant improvements in productivity and profitability. TriCorn Job Processing Software and TriCorn RTS scheduling software are both designed for ease of implementation and use, and offer a straightforward way of reaching these important goals.”
About TriCorn Systems
A British company based in Farnham, Surrey, TriCorn Systems is the developer of its TriCorn Job Processing Software, TriCorn ISO 9001 Quality Management System and TriCorn RTS graphical scheduling and production planning system and is also a Microsoft Partner. Used by hundreds of companies across the UK, the software packages are aimed at increasing productivity and profitability for SMEs by providing accurate information about business processes. The company first launched its Job
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Processing Software in 1989, and since then has had a continual programme of development fuelled by close collaboration with its customers.
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Financial News Dassault Systèmes Schedules First Quarter 2007 Conference Call Webcast for April 27, 2007 5 April 2007
Dassault Systèmes (DS) will host a conference call on Friday, April 27, 2007, to discuss its operating performance for the first quarter 2007 ended March 31, 2007.
The management of Dassault Systèmes will host the conference call at 9:00 AM New York Time – 3:00 PM Paris Time to discuss the Company’s operating performance.
The conference call will be available via the Internet by accessing Dassault Systèmes’ website at http://www.3ds.com/corporate/investors/. Follow the directions on the main page to link to the audio. Please go to the website at least fifteen minutes prior to the call to register, to download and install any necessary audio software. The webcast will be archived for 30 days.
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Flomerics Reports Sales Up 24%, Profits Up 30%, and Claims World’s Fastest-Growing CFD Software April 2007
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Flomerics Group PLC has announced that sales increased by 24% to $27.8 million and that profits before tax, amortization of goodwill, exceptional items and share-based payments increased by 30% to $2.9 million. A key factor in these results was the company’s acquisition of Nika GmbH in July 2006. Global sales of Nika’s “Engineering Fluid Dynamics” (EFD) software grew by 33% in 2006, and Flomerics believes that EFD is now the world’s fastest-growing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) product. Revenues excluding those resulting from the acquisition of Nika grew by 13% to $25.3 million.
Flomerics three main lines of business all achieved healthy revenue increases. Sales of the company’s electronics cooling products, Flotherm and Flo/PCB, increased by 11%. Revenues related to MicReD, which was acquired in 2005 and is also part of the electronics cooling line, were up 80%. Revenue from electromagnetic products, Flo/EMC and MicroStripes, grew by 4%. In the building heating and ventilating segment, Flomerics’ existing Flovent product’s revenue grew by 24%.
“At the beginning of 2006 we set out to achieve three clear objectives,” said Gary Carter, Chief Executive for Flomerics. “Our first objective was to continue to drive the top line growth of our existing products. The second objective was to consolidate the acquisition of MicReD, and our third objective was to evaluate fresh acquisition opportunities. Acquisitions must meet our twin criteria of securing world-leading technology while also adding a complementary product set to our existing lines of business. I am delighted to announce that we have successfully achieved all three of these objectives.”
The acquisition of NIKA GmbH in 2006 represented a significant move for Flomerics. NIKA is a specialist developer providing fluid flow and heat transfer simulation software for a wide range of applications including vehicles, home appliances and electronics. The EFD software enables engineers to optimize their designs in the shortest possible time. A major advantage of EFD - unmatched by other CFD codes - is that it is fully embedded with the major Mechanical Computer Aided Design (MCAD) systems such as Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks and CATIA.
“The acquisition of NIKA enables Flomerics to sell solutions for a far wider range of applications and industries, while still providing the electronics sector with more specialized products and services,” said David Mann, Chairman of Flomerics. “Other benefits include the potential to drive a higher level of sales through each of our existing offices and the shortening of the sales cycle for the new products. In the period from the acquisition to the end of the year, sales from NIKA added £1.4 million (about $2.8 million in U.S. dollars) to group turnover. The acquisition has also brought some powerful new technology to the Group as well as a highly specialized product development team based in Moscow.”
“There is clear synergy between Nika’s and Flomerics’ product applications,” Carter added. “The client lists of both companies feature big-name companies, such as Alcatel, BAE Systems, Black & Decker, Bosch, Delphi, Intel, Mitsubishi, Thales, Samsung, Siemens and Toyota. However, Nika’s extensive client base also includes DAF, Electrolux, Honda, Lufthansa, Miele, Olympus, Pirelli, Tyco and Volkswagen. This provides the potential to cross-sell both NIKA and Flomerics solutions into the combined client base.”
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Magma Announces Fourth-Quarter and Fiscal 2007 Earnings Call 5 April 2007
WHO: Magma® Design Automation Inc. WHAT: Live webcast and conference call to discuss financial results for Magma’s fourth quarter and 2007 fiscal year, ended April 1, 2007. The call will be hosted by Rajeev Madhavan, chief executive officer; Roy E. Jewell, president and chief operating officer; and Peter S. Teshima, chief financial officer. WHEN: The webcast and conference call will be Thursday, April 26, 2007, at 1:30 p.m. PDT. Magma will release its fourth-quarter and fiscal 2007 financial results after the market closes on April 26. WEBCAST: The live webcast will be available online at http://investor.magma-da.com/medialist.cfm. A replay of the webcast will be available on Magma’s website through May 3, 2007. PHONE: Listen to the live call by telephone at the numbers below: U.S. & Canada: (866) 290-0880 Elsewhere: (913) 312-1229 A telephone replay will be available beginning at 3:30 p.m. PDT on April 26 until 11:59 p.m. PDT on May 3 at the numbers below: U.S. & Canada: (719) 457-0820 , code #6963740 Elsewhere: (888) 203-1112 , code #6963740 Click here to return to Contents
PACE Secures € 3m in Growth Capital 2 April 2007
PACE, one of the leading providers of knowledge based engineering software, announced the completion of a new financing round. The € 3 million round led by eCAPITAL has been joined by existing and new investors including the Netherlands-based Strategic European Technologies N.V. (SET) and VC Fonds Berlin. Their investment in PACE supports the company’s move into new vertical markets and the expansion of its global sales operation.
PACE develops knowledge based engineering (KBE) software solutions for the aerospace and automotive industries. For customers such as Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Bombardier and Embraer, integrating product knowledge within the product lifecycle management (PLM) is a key factor of success by greatly enhancing the quality of design while considerably reducing time-to-market and overall project costs. Frank Hölzle, managing partner of lead investor eCAPITAL, endorses the strategic significance of efficiently leveraging corporate know-how: “PLM and KBE are going to be tomorrow’s key technologies for unlocking an organization’s product innovation and cost saving potentials. Backed up by dedicated and experienced investors, PACE can compete effectively in the global market place and adopt the leading role in the realm of knowledge based engineering.”
Besides upgrading its applications for aircraft cabin configuration and performance engineering, the focus of PACE’s business operations is on maximizing the success of its flagship product Pacelab Suite,
Page 32 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary an integrated software environment for multidisciplinary preliminary design. “We are very pleased to have found three strong partners in eCAPITAL, VC Fonds Berlin and SET to support us in developing unique software solutions and moving further into the global marketplace. The investment provides the financial foundation for the expansion and future success of our company,“ comments PACE managing partner Dr. Oliver Kranz.
About PACE
PACE, with offices in Germany and the U.S., develops knowledge-based engineering software aimed at accelerating complex engineering processes. By providing intelligent information technology, PACE helps its customers to increase their productivity and competitiveness. The company has more than 50 employees and is managed by founders Michael Kokorniak, Dr. Oliver Kranz und Alexander Schneegans.
About VC Fonds Berlin and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH has managed the newly founded VC Fonds Berlin since November 2004. VC Fonds Berlin is the result of a joint initiative of the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the state of Berlin and is indirectly partly financed by EFRE resources. Its aim is to invest in Berlin-based technology ventures which have growth potential and which are active in Berlin’s key technology fields. Since 1997 the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, in consortia with partners, has placed over € 400 million at the disposal of technology firms in Berlin. Of this, € 60 million was invested by the IBB as lead, co-lead or co-investor.
About Strategic European Technologies N.V. (SET):
SET, located in ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, was founded in 1997 and is a venture capital fund financed by both institutional and private investors. SET manages a portfolio of 20 technology investments, primarily active in IT and communication industries. SET first invested in PACE in 1999. The fund is hands-on oriented and operationally involved.
About eCAPITAL:
Münster-based eCAPITAL is an entrepreneurially driven venture capital company which actively supports innovative entrepreneurs in promising business sectors. eCAPITAL focuses on fast-growing enterprises in the areas IT and communication, chemical engineering and new materials and optical technologies. eCAPITAL currently manages two funds totaling more than
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SAP Announces Availability of 2006 Annual Report and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Filing on Form 20-F 4 April 2007
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SAP AG announced that its Annual Report to Shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2006 is now available, and that SAP's Annual Report on Form 20-F has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Both reports can be accessed via SAP's Web site at http://www.sap.com/investor. Hardcopies of both reports can be ordered online at http://www.sap.com/investorand http://www.sap.de/investor, via phone +49 6227 7-67336 or +1-877- 727-7862 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
As previously disclosed in its 2006 year end results press release, beginning in the first quarter of 2007, SAP will realign its income statement to provide additional transparency for reporting potential new product revenue streams. Although currently not material, SAP added a new revenue line item called "subscription and other software related services revenue" as the basis of the realignment, in addition to changing the name of the line item "product revenues" to "software and software related services revenue." Therefore, "software and software related services revenue" equals "software revenue" plus "support revenue" (formerly called "maintenance revenue") plus "subscription and other software related services revenue."
The realigned 2006 quarterly income statements along with explanations and details of the realignment can be found at http://www.sap.com/investor.
In the 2006 Annual Report and Form 20-F, SAP provided additional information regarding the new line item "subscription and other related software services." SAP stated that for 2007 it expects "subscription and other related software services" to account for approximately 2 percent to 4 percent of "software and software related services revenue."
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Implementation Investments Alenia Aeronautica Selects MSC.SimManager to Drive Enterprise Business Transformation 3 April 2007
MSC.Software has announced that Alenia Aeronautica has selected its enterprise simulation management solution, SimManager to drive significant process transformation for the company’s Alenia Networked Enterprise Transformation (ALENET) initiative.
ALENET is a multi-year business transformation initiative, designed to deliver benefits in standardization, streamlining, and innovation to Alenia companies, suppliers, partners, and customers worldwide. Promoting an extended and integrated vision of the PLM and simulation environment, the ALENET objectives focus on improving engineering lifecycle efficiency, and include strategies for the improved integration of suppliers and partners, harmonization of technologies and processes, and the capture, management, and sharing of inherent process and intellectual property enterprise-wide.
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SimManager, a component of SimEnterprise, is MSC.Software’s enterprise simulation data and process management solution, and has been selected as a key component to the ALENET project.
The deployment of SimManager across the Alenia organization is central to the process for simulation / virtual test data management and process automation, establishing a standardized simulation and testing knowledge database, and helping to rationalize in-house and legacy technology onto a common integrated environment.
“Consistent with the ongoing transformation in the Aerospace & Defense sector, Alenia Aeronautica is undergoing radical changes in its core processes - a genuine business transformation to an extended virtual enterprise,” said Alessandro Franzoni, chief technical officer, Alenia Aeronautica.
“SimManager enables consolidated standards for simulation technology and process, and creates an enterprise wide collaborative knowledge management engineering environment. This is a critical factor in driving the shift from vertical silos to a growing interdependence - a transverse approach to lifecycle integration that will positively impact top & bottom lines.”
“We’re leveraging our heritage in engineering analysis with the scalability of the embedded IBM products in SimManager to provide a better product for our enterprise customers and lead the enterprise simulation movement from isolated to integrated solutions”, said Amir Mobayen, senior vice president, EMEA Operations, MSC.Software. “The ALENET project is an exciting example of how to harmonize, manage, and collaboratively extend engineering lifecycle processes across the enterprise including partners and suppliers and provides a strong testament to the value of the MSC.Software and IBM Alliance.”
SimManager provides organizations with the ability to work more efficiently, react more quickly, and to differentiate themselves and their products from the competition,” said Bill Weyand, chief executive officer, MSC.Software. “Alenia recognizes this innovation and has chosen MSC.Software as their enterprise simulation partner.”
More information on SimManager and SimEnterprise can be found at http://www.mscsoftware.com/ or https://cpd-associates.com/download/index.cfm?download=simmanagermsc&company=
About Alenia Aeronautica
Alenia Aeronautica, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, is a leading aerospace organization, with interests in the design and production and support of aircraft and aero-structures for a wide range of commercial and military applications. A key partner of the major aerospace groups, Alenia is involved with projects from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Airbus, and BAE Systems, and is one of the military partner companies of the Eurofighter and Panavia Tornado consortia.
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BAE Systems’ Military Air Solutions Business Unit Selects UGS Product Lifecycle Management Software 3 April 2007
UGS Corp. announced that Military Air Solutions, a business group of BAE Systems, has selected Teamcenter® software as its enterprise knowledge management technology for specific aircraft platforms within its group. Teamcenter replaces the existing solution and a number of legacy systems.
Military Air Solutions, which selected UGS following a comprehensive evaluation process, will use UGS’ Teamcenter to support its new business model of providing enhanced post-production support for customers’ aircraft. Teamcenter will serve as the foundation for Military Air Solutions’ maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) solution and will manage all of the product configurations for an individual aircraft – from design to disposal. It will also serve as a virtual knowledge manager, seamlessly integrating the data and functions associated with aircraft engineering and post-delivery service and support.
One example of how Military Air Solutions will use Teamcenter is to ensure that the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has its required aircraft fleet available for operational use at any given time. Using UGS’ PLM technology, Military Air Solutions’ in-service personnel will have global access to product data that will help predict maintenance activities and requirements for spare parts, thus reducing aircraft downtime.
“BAE Systems is moving toward greater involvement in the life support of its products by working in partnership with its principal customer,” said Graham Malley, BAE Systems’ PLM Program manager. “With the lifespan of an aircraft typically expanding to more than 50 years, managing complex data needed to build, modify, repair and operate the aircraft is a challenging task.”
“We understand the difficulty that a premier global defense company like BAE Systems has in carrying out effective MRO services for such complex products as aircrafts,” said Paul Vogel, senior vice president and managing director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, UGS. “UGS’ PLM technology will help BAE Systems Military Air Solutions provide leading in-service and MRO support to its customers and continue to focus on driving leading aircraft performance around the world.”
About BAE Systems
BAE Systems is a global defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With 88,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceeded £13.7 billion pounds sterling (US25.4 billion dollars) in 2006.
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Bentley Publishes ‘The Year in Infrastructure’ Project Yearbook, Adds Project Search Tool to Web Site 2 April 2007
Bentley Systems, Incorporated has published “The Year in Infrastructure,” a 162-page project yearbook highlighting the extraordinary work of Bentley users improving the world’s infrastructure.
The yearbook features the 225 nominees recognized and 29 winners honored in the professional portion of the 2006 BE Awards of Excellence program. The BE Awards are judged by an independent panel of industry experts and are presented at an evening ceremony during the annual BE Conference (http://www.be.org/). These projects, which set benchmarks and showcase the imagination and technical mastery of the organizations that created them, fall into the following categories:
Building – BIM for Architecture, BIM for Building Engineering, BIM for Multiple Disciplines, BIM for Simulation and Visualization, Building Managed Environment, and Building New Technology Adoption
Civil – Civil Managed Environment, Civil New Technology Adoption, Civil Rail Design, Civil Road Design, Civil Site Design, and Civil Visualization
Geospatial – Geospatial Communications, Geospatial Government, Geospatial Managed Environment, Geospatial Mapping and Cadastre, Geospatial Modeling, Geospatial Public Works, Geospatial Utilities, and Geospatial Web Publishing
Plant – Plant Lifecycle Information Management, Plant Managed Environment, Plant Multidiscipline Engineering, Plant New Technology Adoption, Plant Rookie of the Year, Plant Supply Chain Integration, and Plant Visualization
Special – Best Overall IT Strategy and Well-Trained Organization
Also included in the yearbook are the Lifetime Achievement and Educator of the Year BE Award nominees and winners for 2006, along with the 38 nominees recognized and three winners honored in the academic portion of the program.
To view “The Year in Infrastructure,” go to http://www.be.org/projectyearbook.
In addition, the more than 600 world-class projects acknowledged in the 2004, 2005, and 2006 BE Awards of Excellence programs are now searchable using a new Web tool available at http://www.be.org/search.The tool enables visitors to the site to search on terms, titles, or keywords to find projects of special interest or relevance to their needs.
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Catalog Data Solutions Adopted by Advanced Machine Engineering 3 April 2007
Catalog Data Solutions (CDS) announced that Advanced Machine & Engineering has adopted its CAD model download solution.
Advanced Machine & Engineering Co. (AME) is a Rockford, Illinois based manufacturer and distributor, originally established in 1966. Responding to customer requests for CAD models of its products, Advanced Machine & Engineering decided to offer 3D CAD models for download from its web site. "We frequently get requests from customers for CAD models" said Tom Watson, Director of Global Marketing for Goellner, Inc., the parent company. "We believe that adding 2D/3D CAD drawings on our website, we are meeting that need and are expecting an increase in traffic to our website, and in sales as a result."
"We are delighted to have been selected by Advanced Machine & Engineering for our leading online CAD model download solution, lead tracking system and affordable CAD services", said John Major, CEO Catalog Data Solutions, "online 3D models are an important sales and marketing tool for all industrial suppliers and distributors. With many customers moving from 2D to 3D CAD systems providing online 3D CAD model downloads often 'locks' products into a design so suppliers later benefit from the sales success of that design. Suppliers without 3D models on their website are at risk of losing customers to their competition who do offer 3D models".
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CooperVision Deploys Agile PLM Quality Analytics to Manage Product Quality Globally 3 April 2007
Agile Software Corporation announced that CooperVision, one of the world's leading manufacturers of contact lenses, has deployed Agile's quality analytics capability as part of its Agile Product Quality Management (PQM) deployment. Running Agile PQM as its global quality solution since 2006, CooperVision recently deployed the PQM quality analytics functionality to take advantage of Agile's analytics capabilities to proactively manage product quality across the global enterprise and present actionable insight related to product quality. Since implementing Agile PQM, CooperVision has experienced tremendous productivity gains, including a 30 percent reduction of average days to close complaints, which has significantly reduced the number of complaints open for more than 30 days.
"The Agile PQM solution is helping to enable CooperVision's mission to deliver high quality products worldwide," said Christine Moench, vice president, regulatory affairs and quality assurance, CooperVision. "With on-demand visibility of product quality data and process intelligence, we can now benchmark and manage the performance of our global quality operations across our portfolio of products and business units, and separate true high-risk actionable items from the distractions of multiple data points coming through each day."
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The Agile PQM solution with advanced analytics capabilities drives improved product quality and customer satisfaction by tightly integrating customer, product, quality and regulatory information within a closed-loop corrective action system. The solution delivers 100+ reports with multi-dimensional analysis capabilities on-demand and in real-time. Since deploying the Agile PQM analytics functionality, CooperVision has experienced early gains, including a reduction in the monthly reporting time from three days to one hour.
"The implementation of Agile Analytics has allowed us to disseminate quality information to a much wider audience," said Bryan Horrocks, manager, global quality systems, CooperVision. "But with Agile's business-ready solution, we're not only able to use this as a tool for data driven decisions, but also as an everyday business management tool for the entire company. No other PLM vendors we looked at offered this capability out of the box."
"The damage to a brand resulting from product quality issues is costly for any company, but even more critical for those in the highly regulated medical device industry," said Jay Fulcher, Agile CEO and president. "The ability of PLM analytics to sift through quality data, and to recognize and alert an organization to critical issues is increasingly becoming an imperative to companies, like CooperVision, who wish to proactively manage product quality and protect their reputation."
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Defense Manufacturer Selects IFS Applications to Streamline Lifecycle Management 4 April 2007
IFS has received an order for IFS Applications from Saab Microwave Systems for the delivery of business applications for product lifecycle management (PLM). The applications will be used to create a solid foundation for developing a more agile and efficient integrated flow of processes to manage product development, manufacturing, and after sales. The order is worth approximately SKr 10 million and initially includes components for product data management and document management.
The vision is to develop a common product model for organizing product data whereby the users take responsibility for and maintain the information they produce, from concept to after sales. The product model integrates data and information from processes such as software, electronic and mechanical engineering, as well as purchasing, manufacturing, and quality control, which means that different user categories can share product information in a controlled manner.
IFS Applications will replace several of Saab Microwave Systems’ existing solutions for a common product model. The new solution will go live in September 2007.
Aerospace and defense is one of IFS’ targeted market segments. IFS Applications includes advanced standard functionality that meets the demanding requirements of defense manufacturers. IFS’ fully integrated project tracking and product data management (PDM) capabilities, when combined with other IFS Applications components, make it easier to operate while managing the design, manufacturing, and
Page 39 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary ongoing spare parts logistics and maintenance support of complex products throughout the product lifecycle.
IFS customers within the aerospace and defense industry include the British, Norwegian, and US defense organizations as well as the Eurofighter consortium. Commercial MRO shops and operators include Finnair, Bristow Helicopters, Aero-Dienst GmbH, Hawker Pacific, and Jet Turbine Services. In addition, IFS provides solutions to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, BAE SYSTEMS, Saab, and GE Transportation.
About Saab Microwave Systems
Saab Microwave Systems is a business unit within Saab AB that provides radar systems, including advanced airborne, ground-based and naval radar with related service and support.
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Dragon Offshore Selects AVEVA Marine Solution 4 April 2007
AVEVA announced that the Dragon Offshore Industries LLC (Part of QGM Group), Hamriyah free zone port, Sharjah, has selected AVEVA's Marine Solution to use throughout all project lifecycles from estimation, through initial and detailed design, to the fabrication and final assembly.
QGM Group was formed initially to provide engineering and turnkey construction and project Management services to the oil and gas sector, operators and contracting companies. Over the years it has expanded considerably and now has extensive experience in jack up rig construction, rebuild, modification, in addition to ship repairs and maintenance, which underpinned its decision to look for a new solution.
AVEVA Marine will be used following training, on the current ongoing new build jack up projects 'Thule Energy' and 'Thule Force'. These new build projects are in addition to the 'Thule Power' jack up, the reconstruction of the 'Ex AD 19', to deliver enhanced operating capability and state of the art drilling systems. These projects are for Thule Drilling of Norway and are valued at US$ 355m.
Mr. Tony Bromham of Dragon Offshore comments "We selected AVEVA's Marine Solution due to its technical superiority; its product development roadmap and AVEVA's commitment to delivery of high level technical support and consultancy. We believe that by using this solution, we can deliver the best product and solutions to our most valued clients and at the same time gain the edge over our competitors and help to further establish Dragon Offshore as a lead player in the Marine & Offshore industry in the Middle East."
Louay Dahmash, Regional Director of AVEVA comments "We are delighted to be working with Dragon Offshore. We are confident that AVEVA Marine is the ideal solution for Dragon Offshore, providing
Page 40 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary more productive engineering, cut-downs in fabrication costs, optimised workflow, and a leverage that further enhances its pioneering position in the region. To AVEVA, this serves as the first major AVEVA Marine implementation in the Gulf, a step that is bound to be followed with continued success in this area."
About the QGM Group
The QGM Group of companies was founded in 1982 and has offices in Dubai U.A.E and an Inspection, repair, maintenance (IRM) facility in Hamriyah free zone port Sharjah U.A.E.
The Company was formed specially to provide Turnkey Construction and Project Management services to the Oil and Gas Sector operators and contracting companies.
Existing field with Offshore Drilling, Accommodation, Early Production Units and Fixed Structures are either nearing or past their original effective life. Owners of this specialist equipment are keen to obtain extended life by means of inspection, repair, maintenance, refurbishment and upgrade rather than replacement.
QGM Group recognised that the industry has progressed over the last 20 years to a point where there is a need for cost-effective solutions to operational problems and are aware there is a need in this market for representing owners and operators alike to achieve these ends, offering our expertise in design, engineering and control of these small to medium size projects. Additionally QGM Group has extensive experience in ship repairs and maintenance.
Foreseeing the requirement for providing engineering services to the Oil & Gas Industry, the decision was made by Tony Bromham to create a separate company. "Dragon Offshore Industries LLC" will provide total engineering solution and support to QGM Group and other clients in the Oil & Gas Industry. Dragon Offshore Industries LLC has a team of 130 engineers and draftsmen which covers all the necessary disciplines with the latest engineering software (TRIBON, ANSYS, SACS, NAPA, STAAD and ETAP) that would provide a complete and competitive engineering solution.
AVEVA Marine User Meeting 2007
AVEVA is proud to announce that it will be launching the new evolutionary VANTAGE Marine 12 in 2007. The Official Launch of VANTAGE Marine 12 will be part of the AVEVA Marine Users' meeting, to be held from 30 May to 1 June 2007, in Busan, Korea. For more information visit http://www.aveva.com/marineusermeeting/.
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GM Names UGS Supplier of the Year for the Second Consecutive Year 2 April 2007
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UGS Corp. announced that General Motors selected UGS as a 2006 Supplier of the Year. This is the second consecutive year that UGS has won the award for its overall business performance in enabling GM to transform its process of innovation by significantly reducing up-front vehicle development time. The 15th annual award – themed the “Best of the Best” -- was given during ceremonies Saturday, March 31 at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes in Orlando, Fla.
“We are proud to honor UGS as one of the ‘Best of the Best’ GM suppliers in 2006,” said Bo Andersson, GM group vice president, Global Purchasing and Supply Chain. “UGS achieved the award based on outstanding performance in 2006. We appreciate their energy, hard work and dedication to the success of GM.”
UGS is among a group of suppliers selected by GM that exceed GM’s expectations in quality, service, technology and price, and the only IT supplier to be honored. UGS is recognized for its Teamcenter® software, NX® software, and Tecnomatix™ software, UGS’ digital manufacturing portfolio.
“To receive the GM 2006 Supplier of the Year Award is truly an honor and to win the award for the second consecutive year is a testament to UGS’ commitment to our customers,” said Tony Affuso, chairman, CEO and president of UGS. “We are proud of our long-standing relationship with GM, which supports the world’s largest global product development implementation, and we strive for continuous product and process innovation to support GM.”
The GM Supplier of the Year award began as a global program in 1992. Winners are selected by a global team of executives from purchasing, engineering, manufacturing and logistics who base their decisions on supplier performance in quality, service, technology and price. This year, General Motors honored 89 suppliers for their outstanding performance throughout 2006.
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Honda Racing F1 Team to Develop 2008 Formula One Car Using Solutions From IBM 4 April 2007
IBM announced that the Honda Racing F1 Team will develop and manufacture its 2008 Formula One car with the help of IBM software and services. In addition to delivering significant benefits to the business challenges faced by the Honda Racing F1 Team, the new system aligns the team to the worldwide strategy of its parent company, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., in Japan. This closer integration will maximize resource effectiveness across the group, reduce costs and speed time to market.
"Formula One is the pinnacle of the motorsports industry, where the ability to compress the development cycle of the car is critical. Being successful on the track requires a combination of highly skilled, innovative engineers, strong teamwork and the use of state-of-the-art technologies and materials," said David France, IT Director at the Honda Racing F1 Team. "One of the keys to our success in adopting these new capabilities is IBM's overall project management capabilities and the levels of professionalism and industry expertise the IBM PLM and GBS teams have delivered."
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The solution is based on Dassault Systèmes' CATIA and ENOVIA VPLM, with infrastructure support from IBM Product Lifecycle Management solutions, including WebSphere Application Server and IBM Rational Rose Data Modeler. Together, these offerings enable the integration of all elements of the design and production process while rapidly adapting the applications to the customer's specific requirements. Over the last year, a team of IBM project management and technical services specialists worked together with the Honda Racing F1 team to assess and evaluate the company's requirements before implementing the solution.
Speed of reaction is critical to ensure that new innovations reach the track quickly and support the rapid implementation of design changes imposed by the evolution of the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) regulations.
The solution also includes Geometric Solutions' xPDM gateway to integrate ENOVIA VPLM with legacy Teamcenter PDM environments, in the process enabling the Honda Racing F1 Team to replace their existing systems with minimal disruption to their business processes.
"The Honda Racing F1 Team is a great example of the benefits that customers can achieve by upgrading their systems and implementing the right software and services solutions," said Dip Patel, IBM PLM Business Executive. "In this case, the many technical challenges in the motorsports environment are being addressed by a combination of IBM expertise and middleware as well as software from Dassault Systèmes and Geometric Solutions to maximize their effectiveness."
Since signing the agreement, the Honda Racing F1 Team is now deploying design and engineering capabilities, which will be followed rapidly by a full manufacturing production build and rollout this year.
The agreement is the first step in a developing partnership between IBM and the Honda Racing F1 Team. From a technology perspective, IBM will continue to support the evolution of collaborative development capabilities in 2007 with deployment of additional IBM middleware and collaboration tools. The organizations will also work together in a wider, mutually beneficial partnership to realize additional business value from the combined reputation for innovation of the IBM and Honda Brands.
About Honda:
Honda is the world's largest manufacturer of engines. The company employs more than 144,000 people, with manufacturing operations in 28 countries worldwide.
Honda's first entry into Formula One came in 1964, less than two years after the unveiling of its first road car model. The company's first and second eras of Formula One participation (from 1964-8, and 1983- 92) yielded no fewer than 71 Grand Prix wins, five consecutive Drivers' World Championships and six consecutive Constructors' World Championships.
Honda returned to Grand Prix racing in 2000 with the British American Racing team as its partner for the company's third generation of F1 racing operations, entering into a contract to supply engines and jointly
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develop chassis technology. Having taken a 45% shareholding in 2004, Honda completed its purchase of the remaining 55% in December 2005 to create the newly-renamed Honda Racing F1 Team.
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Manufacturer, Bianchi, Relies on think3 for Cycle Market Sprint 3 April 2007
Bianchi(R), world premier manufacturer of cycling and quality bicycles for more than 120 years, and long-time customer of think3 Inc.(R), is used the company's thinkiD DesignXpressions(TM) software solution to develop its new carbon-fiber frames to reduce overall time to market and continue to innovate.
Over the past ten years, Bianchi, headquartered Treviglio in northern Italy, has experienced enormous changes in the industry and a rapid increase in competition. For example, a decade ago, the average lifespan of a cycle frame was five years -- today that average has fallen to two years.
Bianchi, part of the Swedish group Cycleurope A.B., one of the world's most influential holding companies in the cycling sector, is a premium international brand producing more than 75,000 bicycles annually, which accounts for 10% of the world market. Keeping its competitive edge was paramount to Bianchi's ongoing success.
As part of the company's goal to differentiate itself, Bianchi began investing heavily in innovation and research and development, which is where think3 technology was tapped. The goal -- produce the largest number of projects in the shortest possible time without compromising quality -- allowing Team Bianchi to test prototypes well in advance and get to market faster.
"For our company, thinkiD is the best solution for creating new frames available on the market at both the concept and the engineering level," said Luca Minesso, Bianchi's Engineering and Production Manager. "With think3's solution we have been able to use new materials effectively. With the entrance of carbon fiber to the market, frame-linked performance has become increasingly important and subject to improvement. thinkiD's clever mix of style and engineering, which leaves designers great freedom while respecting solid and surface modeling parameters, lets us focus on these factors."
"A frame project may require a whole year to be refined, finalized and wind tunnel-tested," said Minesso. "thinkiD DesignXpressions halved our design times. Thanks to GSM3 (Global Shape Modeling), frame modifications can be performed in minutes instead of hours or days. What's more, we have managed to speed up communication all along the production chain, importing and managing files from different CAD systems without problems and carrying out modifications more rapidly -- thus accelerating the revision process. ThinkiD's transparency -- which allows files from different CAD systems to be imported and managed -- is one of the most important features that convinced us to adopt thinkiD DesignXpressions,"
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"thinkiD is the best solution for us, especially where the management of surfaces is concerned," said Fabio Ferri, Bianchi's Product Engineer. "This aspect is increasingly important in frame design. With carbon fiber, when you say frames it's more and more about performance. thinkiD is the perfect compromise between design and 'hybrid' modeling, allowing you to use solids and surfaces in the one environment."
With thinkiD DesignXpressions it is possible to concentrate exclusively on a product's form, with the greatest freedom of expression. The technology automatically transforms a design into a model which takes into account the technical and engineering aspects and maintains the initial design intention during the analysis and production phases, eliminating the math complexities. GSM3, which automatically performs the geometrical calculations required by a change of form, single modifications to the frame, can be carried out in just a few minutes, significantly speeding up the modification process.
"think3 technology allowed us to halve project completion times -- down from one year to six months," said Minesso. "Using thinkiD, we generated a significantly greater number of prototypes thanks to a streamlined product development cycle with significant cuts to modification times and development costs.
"In the past, Bianchi's range of bicycles consisted of 20 frame models and we were able to renew a maximum of five each year at best," said Minesso. Using the same resources, we have been able to renew 18 out of 20 models in the 2007 range."
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Raytheon Canada Ltd Selects CMstat CM 1 March 2007
CMstat announced that Raytheon Canada Ltd is its newest customer. The CMstat COTS Solution was recently selected and implemented at the Waterloo, Ontario site to support its Configuration Management needs.
The CMstat "Database of Authority will provide a "Central Information Repository" for all Metadata and Documents to improve product visibility and change control. Supplying customer IT departments with the tools they need for a fast and effective implementation, CMstat expects to be in production at a cost that is well below that of other PDM/PLM "solutions."
About Raytheon Canada Ltd
Mission support begins at concept development and extends through repair and overhaul to modernization and upgrade, ultimately providing whole of life support. Raytheon Canada offers a portfolio of products from sensors to precision weapons for the Canadian Forces.
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Raytheon Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company, an industry leader in defence and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft, based in Waltham, Mass. that employs 80,000 people worldwide.
About CMstat
CMstat is the Flagship CM product of TPT Technologies, Inc. CMstat is a COTS product offering in- depth CM functionality, including Part, Document and Change Management, Business Process Management and Collaborative On-line Document Review.
Epoch DM (Data Management) is the newest offering from TPT Technologies, Inc. Epoch is a web- based State of the Art DM and Contracts Management System developed to the newly released EIA-859 Data Management Standard.
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RITES Wins BE Award 3 April 2007
RITES Ltd. has won a BE Award for its detailed engineering study for the Kashmir Railway project in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The award category was “Civil: Rail Design.”
The $2.5 billion Kashmir Railway project will connect the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Railway and provide an important link to the rest of India. Among the project route’s many design and construction challenges is a 142-kilometer stretch of rugged, mountainous terrain that will require the construction of 118 bridges and 65 tunnels.
By helping RITES develop alternative routes, establish their feasibility, and optimize them, Bentley MXRAIL and its 3D visualizations have saved millions of dollars in construction costs as well as substantial time. For example, on one 12-kilometer section of railway, use of Bentley MXRAIL saved almost $13 million and shortened the construction time by six months.
Said RITES Chief Project Manager, Track and Survey, A. Jha, “Our use of Bentley MXRAIL enabled an integrated approach to this complex project, with a single database seamlessly managing various stages of project development. It facilitated collaborative work across disciplines, including track design, geology, and geo-technology as well as bridge and tunnel designs, and helped us quickly develop and examine alternative proposals before recommending the best alternative for adoption. In one instance, the software was able to triangulate a model containing more than eight million points and more than 13.5 million triangles in one go.”
The design process started with digitization of topography and elevation details from available maps. A tentative alignment was designed with alternatives to freeze the corridor for detailed study. Aerial
Page 46 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary photography, followed by photogrammetric study, was conducted for the frozen corridor, and the data generated from this process was used for the detailed design of alignment.
For more information on RITES’ winning project and all of the other BE Award projects, visit http://www.be.org/awards. For more information on the Bentley products used in this project, visit http://www.bentley.com/civil.
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SchuF GmbH Chooses Synergis Adept PDM to Improve Time to Market for Global Valve Manufacturing 27 February 2007
Synergis Software announced that SchuF GmbH, a manufacturer of custom-made valves, has selected Synergis Adept® as its enterprise Product Data Management (PDM) solution to achieve its corporate business goals of saving 25 percent in manufacturing time. “With manufacturing in separate global locations, it’s critical to provide the most current, up-to date information to the people who need it. We wanted to accomplish this using a single, centralized repository of data and a system that allows us to share licenses across continents and time zones,” explains Brian Walsh, global IT manager for the SchuF group of companies. “We had Adept running successfully at Fetteroff, PA, with outdated, unsupported Autodesk WorkCenter systems in Ireland and Germany. Beyond that, there was no data management system in our Brazil and India locations. To achieve our business goals, we need a single integrated product data management system.” “SchuF’s business challenges as a global manufacturer are not unlike the ones faced by many multi- national companies,” stated Todd Cummings, vice president of Research and Development for Synergis Adept. “SchuF is under pressure to get its custom valve designs to market faster while maintaining the highest quality assurance and service. Unlike many other solutions on the market, Synergis Software offers a single source of support, multi-CAD integrations and a centralized repository that many multi- national organizations require.” Adept Fits SchuF’s Data Management Requirements SchuF needed a solution that could complement its existing investments in SQL Server and Windows Server 2003 and help overcome the company’s slow WAN links. They also needed tight integration with both AutoCAD and SolidWorks design solutions, cross- geographic collaboration, and flexible licensing. After a two year evaluation cycle, which included solutions from multiple CAD and PDM vendors, Adept was selected for its: • Ability to meet SchuF’s current and future technical requirements • Developer direct relationship • Single point of support for global implementation • Success at SchuF’s U.S. location • Successful WorkCenter migrations, and • Best overall value
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SchuF’s Goals for Adept this Year Adept is an integral part of SchuF’s 2007 business goals, including the expansion from 56 to 100 Adept users. The initial phase of implementing Adept will centralize information between Germany, Ireland and the United States. During a second phase, SchuF plans to deploy Adept to India and Brazil. Overall, the company vision is to generate 25 percent time savings within each new site or department that adopts Adept. Click here to return to Contents
UGS Delivers Three Millionth Teamcenter License in 2006, Capping Successful Year for PLM Industry’s Leading Software 3 April 2007
UGS Corp. announced its Teamcenter® software portfolio surpassed the three million license mark near the end of 2006. Teamcenter is the first software solution of its kind to achieve this level of market acceptance which UGS credits to its high rate of customer satisfaction and retention, along with Teamcenter’s ability to effectively scale from a small departmental solution to an enterprise-wide, global implementation.
Teamcenter consists of an integrated suite of applications that provide a wide variety of productivity enhancing technologies such as 3D visualization, collaboration, supplier management and collaborative product data management (cPDM) – one of the fastest growing segments in the PLM industry.
“UGS’ announcement marks a significant milestone for UGS and the PLM industry in general,” said Ed Miller, president, CIMdata. “Investments in PLM have increased substantially over the past several years as PLM has become recognized as a critical enterprise initiative. The success of the industry's leading and visible PLM-enabling offerings, such as Teamcenter, is a market indicator that reinforces the growing industry confidence in PLM and reflects the increasing demand for PLM solutions. We congratulate UGS on their achievement.”
Another successful year
After being recognized as the winner of IndustryWeek magazine’s Technology of the Year Award for 2005, UGS and Teamcenter enjoyed another successful year in 2006. In addition to achieving the three million license plateau, Teamcenter was awarded several major customer contracts in 2006 including expanded deployments at Lockheed Martin for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program and Ford Motor Company for 57 worldwide vehicle programs. Teamcenter was also selected as the enterprise data management system at Boeing, and the Teamcenter Express solution for small to medium size businesses (SMB) has now been deployed in 26 countries since its introduction just over one year ago.
In addition, Teamcenter received Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine’s 2006 Technology Innovation Award, while CIMdata recognized UGS as a PLM leader and number one in cPDM market presence.
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“By listening to our customers and delivering solutions that meet the needs of the widest variety of organizations, UGS has been able to sustain its market leadership through a very high level of customer satisfaction and retention,” said Dave Shirk, executive vice president of Global Marketing, UGS. “From SMBs to large multinational corporations, Teamcenter continues to set the standard for the PLM industry.”
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Wärtsilä Selects UGS for Global Product Lifecycle Management System 4 April 2007
UGS Corp. announced a major PLM contract with Wärtsilä Corporation, a leading global supplier of ship power and power plant solutions, for more than 700 software licenses and services. As part of the agreement, Wärtsilä will use UGS’ Teamcenter® software as its PLM platform at production plants worldwide. The company selected UGS® software following an extensive evaluation of leading global PLM and ERP vendors.
Teamcenter will serve as a key element to build a central repository for shared product information in order to enhance Wärtsilä’s PLM and technology development capability. Teamcenter will manage all design and engineering data within a single PLM solution, including CAD data from I-deas™, NX®, AutoCAD™ and Comos™. In addition, Wärtsilä will implement Geolus® Search software solutions, UGS’ software application that has the ability to locate parts from large heterogeneous data sources on the basis of geometric similarity.
“UGS is honored to sign a major PLM agreement with Wärtsilä, the leading ship power supplier and a major provider of power plants, said Paul Vogel, senior vice president and managing director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, UGS. “Wärtsilä’s selection of UGS following an extensive evaluation of leading global PLM and ERP vendors confirms the business and engineering benefits of UGS’ PLM technology.”
About Wärtsilä
Wärtsilä focuses on the marine and energy markets with products and solutions as well as services. In 2006 Wärtsilä´s net sales were EUR 3.2 billion and the number of employees is 14,000.
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Product News Adobe Unveils Preview of Acrobat 3D Version 8 (CORRECTION) 29 March 2007
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Please note that the price of Acrobat 3D Version 8 was incorrect in the news item in the Friday March 30, 2007 issue of the CIMdata PLM Industry Summary. It should have read “Acrobat 3D Version 8 is expected to ship in spring 2007. The product is expected to be available for an estimated street price of US$995.”
The corrected announcement of the release of Acrobat 3D Version 8 follows:
Adobe Systems Incorporated announced a public preview of Adobe® Acrobat® 3D Version 8 software, a major upgrade to the desktop application for driving PDF document-based 3D design collaboration and computer-aided design (CAD) data interoperability capabilities to virtually anyone across the extended enterprise. Starting immediately, users worldwide can download a beta version of the product free from Adobe Labs, and experience the new and enhanced capabilities it will deliver for professionals in the manufacturing and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries. The preview can be downloaded at labs.adobe.com/technologies/acrobat3d_version8/
“Acrobat 3D and PDF have gained considerable traction in manufacturing and AEC over the past year as a means for driving 3D-based communication and collaboration processes leveraging a ubiquitous, trusted file format,” said Tom Hale, senior vice president, Knowledge Worker Business Unit at Adobe. “Today, we’re excited to provide users around the world free access to a beta of Acrobat 3D Version 8. We encourage anyone with interest in 3D to experience the dramatic advances we’ve made in terms of file compression, precision and CAD data interoperability. We look forward to hearing the thoughts and first-hand experiences of users throughout the preview period.”
With Acrobat 3D Version 8, design engineering, technical publishing and creative professionals in manufacturing industries such as automotive, aerospace and heavy machinery, as well as the AEC market, can convert virtually any 3D CAD file and other critical project data into a highly compressed PDF document with precise geometry. The PDF file can then be shared with colleagues, suppliers, partners, and customers for more secure visualization, collaboration and CAD data interoperability in an archival-quality format.
Once 3D models are in PDF, Acrobat 3D Version 8 users can enable extended teams to participate in an efficient document review process leveraging the free, ubiquitous Adobe Reader® software. Adobe Reader users can view detailed product structure and, when enabled by Acrobat 3D Version 8, have the ability to use commenting, measurement and cross-section tools directly on 3D objects in PDF files (1).
Acrobat 3D Version 8 will deliver enhanced capabilities for producing compressed PDF documents with precise geometry from large, complex CAD assemblies. The product supports conversion to 3D PDF from over 40 formats, including those for Autodesk Inventor, Dassault Systemes CATIA, PTC Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, and UGS NX and I-deas. The latest version also will enable users to distribute product manufacturing information—used to convey geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, annotations, and dimensions directly on a 3D model—in PDF. In addition, Acrobat 3D Version 8 users will have the option of exporting precise manufacturing CAD data from PDF into neutral file formats such as STEP, IGES and Parasolid for downstream processes such as machining operations and tool and mold design.
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Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash® Player, the company’s cross-platform client technologies, are installed on over 700 million connected PCs and devices worldwide.
Pricing and Availability
The free, fully functional beta version of Acrobat 3D Version 8 is immediately available in English, French and German language versions at labs.adobe.com/technologies/acrobat3d_version8/. The preview is available for Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows XP Professional, Home or Tablet PC Editions with Service Pack 2, and Windows Vista™ Ultimate, Enterprise, Business, Home Premium, or Home Basic Editions. The beta version will cease operating on June 15, 2007. Feedback can be submitted and discussed on the Adobe Labs forum. Technical support is not available during the preview period.
Acrobat 3D Version 8 is expected to ship in spring 2007. The product is expected to be available for an estimated street price of US$995 (2). Registered users who purchase Acrobat 3D from Sept. 18, 2006 until the ship of Acrobat 3D Version 8 will be eligible to receive a free upgrade to Acrobat 3D Version 8 (3).
More information on Acrobat 3D Version 8 is available at http://www.adobe.com/go/acrobat3dv8.
(1) Requires Adobe Reader 7.0.7 or later.
(2) Sales tax, shipping and handling may apply. Reseller prices may vary.
(3) Sales tax, shipping and handling may apply.
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Agile Announces General Availability of its Latest Agile 9.2 Release 2 April 2007
Agile Software Corporation announced the general availability of its latest version of the Agile 9.2 product line. The release, Agile 9.2.2, provides a broad and rich set of new capabilities that better enable companies to automate cross-functional business processes and promote secure collaboration across global operations and outsourced partners. Embedded and enriched decision support capabilities in the release help companies to make better strategic and operational decisions about their products. Also featured in the release is an enhanced and streamlined user experience, which improves usability and performance to drive user adoption and efficiencies.
"As one of the world's leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions, Micron has relied on Agile PLM to build a solid product development process and consistently execute against it," said Dean Klein, vice president of market development for Micron. "The increased visibility into our product
Page 51 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary portfolio has allowed us to optimize and improve our business processes, product selection process and product success ratios. We look forward to this latest release of Agile 9.2, which delivers exciting new decision support capabilities to help us continue to make better product decisions, and improved usability, which will continue to drive adoption of Agile PLM within Micron and across our extended product network."
"Agile has traditionally been recognized for its support of engineering- to-manufacturing business processes across a supply network, particularly related to high-tech electronics product-related businesses," said Ed Miller, president, CIMdata. "The new Agile 9.2.2 continues with this theme and includes numerous enhancements to improve the user experience and significantly expand its embedded decision support capabilities. Agile customers should benefit from these new capabilities and the expanded breadth and flexibility offered to support daily decision-making operations."
Latest Release Delivers Powerful New and Enhanced Capabilities Across the Agile 9.2 Product Line
Intuitive and Innovative Enhancements Improve Overall Agile User Experience
• The latest Agile 9.2 release incorporates a host of new and improved capabilities, which make interacting with the Agile product easier and more intuitive to help drive user adoption. Streamlined user interface and navigation simplify the process of accessing valuable product record information. Project summary pages, bookmarks and quick-links enable users to quickly access frequently used information. Powerful parametric search and virtual classification make design reuse fast and simple.
Embedded Decision Support Provides Greater Visibility and Enables Better Decision Making
• The out-of-the-box, extensible decision support capabilities now available in the latest version of Agile 9.2 offers customers an opportunity to drive significant value to their businesses. Personalized, easily configurable dashboards provide insights and views into the enterprise product record for both executives and those in operational roles. Event-based subscriptions provide users with proactive, exception-based notifications as to product lifecycle status. Pre- packaged PLM performance and analytic applications, specifically in the areas of product quality and portfolio management, deliver rapid time-to-value, clear executive-level visibility, and proactive analysis of PLM process performance. All of these next generation decision support capabilities provide customers with more insight than ever before, arming them with the critical information needed to make better product development and portfolio decisions.
Cross-Functional Business Process Automation and Collaboration Enables the Global Product Network
• Agile 9.2 provides industry-leading business process and collaboration capabilities, enabling companies and their product networks to securely manage and collaborate on shared business processes. Enhanced and significantly expanded relationship capabilities connect and fully automate end-to-end business processing across functions and enterprises. Agile provides a
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number of out-of-the-box best practice relationship capabilities, and customers can easily configure their own relationships based on their specific business practices, without any code or customizations. Additionally, enhancements to the Agile Product Portfolio Management (PPM) application allows companies to better coordinate deliverables, tasks, and schedules across organizations, global sites and partners. Synchronization of the deployment and timing of activities and resources across the product network improves the ability of manufacturers to manage their product portfolio, reducing costs, maximizing resources and improving time to market.
Comprehensive Integration and Extensibility Capabilities Allow Users to Leverage Current Information and Streamline Business Processes
• Agile has continued to enhance the capabilities introduced in the Agile 9 platform, built on open industry standards, to better enable customers to share information with other enterprise systems. In this current release, Agile allows customers to better leverage the Internet and public product data sources to streamline the design for cost and compliance business processes. Agile PLM seamlessly connects to part catalog information, retrieving timely information such as part cost, end of life, and compliance attributes. These capabilities, combined with robust, standards based integration services that enable data and business process connectivity to upstream design systems and downstream execution systems, help companies better develop and introduce products across complex design and supply chains.
"At Agile, we are laser-focused on the success of our customers. This latest version of Agile came to fruition through the valuable input and collaborative efforts of our customers," said Jay Fulcher, Agile president and CEO. "Agile PLM solutions enable companies to accelerate product innovation and maximize product profitability by managing the information, processes and decisions about their products, throughout their product lifecycle and across their global product network. This release of Agile 9.2 greatly improves the overall user experience for our customers and more broadly enables cross- functional business process automation and collaboration. The functional enhancements of this release, coupled with the embedded decision support capabilities, are unique and unprecedented in PLM."
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Agilent Technologies Ships GENESYS 2007 EDA Software that Improves Productivity, Saves Time for RF and Microwave Component, Subsystem Designers 4 April 2007
Agilent Technologies Inc. announced that it has shipped GENESYS 2007, the next major release of its GENESYS electronic design automation (EDA) software. GENESYS 2007 features LiveReport, a new design capability that streamlines the user interface and automates the documentation process for easy communication and reuse for RF and microwave component and subsystem designers.
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LiveReport helps designers overcome the complexities of working with large, multi-design projects. It captures living views of schematics, layouts, graphs and equations onto a single interactive document. Clicking on any image on a LiveReport page allows the designer to modify schematics, change markers and plots, and zoom layouts from a dashboard-like interface. When the design is complete, the LiveReport page can be printed at high resolution or cut and pasted into Microsoft Windows™ applications. A print preview function offers complete control over the appearance of the report -- the answer to a much-requested enhancement to the GENESYS package.
“The GENESYS 2007 interface is a product of customer requests,” said Daren McClearnon, product manager with Agilent’s EEsof EDA division. “The result is a simpler working model that helps you get work done faster. While there is plenty of technical contribution to GENESYS 2007, longtime GENESYS users will see this as a milestone release. The long-term architectural investments are finally paying off, making GENESYS a streamlined, exciting platform.”
GENESYS 2007 contains a number of simulator enhancements, including:
• 17 new nonlinear device models that enable RF power amplifier design, microwave downconverters, high-speed analog and wireline applications;
• improved phase noise in the harmonic balance simulator and an enhancement to Spectrasys to predict the RF system noise effects of phase-locking many local oscillators to a common, coherent frequency reference; these enable high-performance receiver architectures with breakthrough sensitivity and throughput; and
• new sources, measurements and defined “paths” in Spectrasys, which characterize large-signal distortion in complex architectures under sophisticated, multi-format signal conditions with interferers.
• Dozens of new toolbar buttons and right-click operations simplify complex tasks down to single button-clicks, saving time and making GENESYS 2007 faster than ever. Implemented suggestions from users include common tasks such as on-screen parameter editing, saving parts to a custom library, deactivating components, and turning off window visibility to maximize the working schematic area.
New features in GENESYS 2007 are available as free upgrades to supported customers. Supported GENESYS users are encouraged to visit the Agilent EEsof Knowledge Center to download their new release. Registration is simple at http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof-knowledgecenter.
A limited-time program is also available to users of older versions of GENESYS, who are invited to visit http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof-genesys-switch27 for information and assistance with migration from older releases.
About GENESYS
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Developed originally by Eagleware-Elanix and acquired by Agilent Technologies, GENESYS is an integrated EDA software package for RF and microwave design. Its configurations focus on RF circuit and system design. Try GENESYS 2007 at http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof-genesys-evaluation.
Additional information about all of Agilent’s EDA software offerings is available at http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof.
U.S. Pricing and Availability
GENESYS 2007 is available for immediate download. The fully functional GENESYS Core suite is priced at $3,995, including the first 12 months of support. Available GENESYS software suites include four bundles that are priced under $10,000. For more information about GENESYS suites, visit http://www.eagleware.com/.
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CIMSystem Releases Six New Plug-ins for Rhino 3 April 2007
CIMSystem announced the release of six new plug-ins for the NURBS 3D modeler Rhinoceros 4.0. First unveiled at the Eurostampi industry exhibition March 22 - 24, 2007 in Fiere di Parma, Italy, the six unique enhancements are now available for purchase and download from http://www.rhino-plugins.com/.
Each of the six plug-ins - Bamboo, Rave, Drill Matrix, Mosaix, Shot, and ElectrodeX - prepare Rhino 3D models for specialty Computer-Aided Machining (CAM) operations:
BAMBOO
Completely integrated in Rhinoceros, Bamboo is an application for tool path generation with different technologies, whether WireEDM, laser cut, oxygen-flame cut, or waterjet cut. In both 2D and 3D projects, Bamboo can compute all the necessary techniques for cutting safe, quick, and efficient tool paths. Bamboo is able to generate the right tool path from your CAD projects without conversion or alteration. Bamboo interacts with Mosaix nesting software to optimize the part layout, surfaces, and project setup, all from the same window. In conjunction with the Rave module, Bamboo generates the tool path starting from a picture or a drawing with the less effort and best usability.
RAVE
Rave is the ultimate raster-to-vector converter available for Rhinoceros. Rave creates a vector file from a raster image: a photo, a sketch, a logo, etc. Rave imports a pre-digitalized image from a file, but can also import directly from the Windows Clipboard or a scanner. Rave's potentials are limitless, but most
Page 55 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary importantly, it eliminates all the boring, time-consuming tracing tasks. You'll get a project traced down in no time and better than ever.
DRILL MATRIX
A Rhinoceros plug-in to automate a series of holes arranged over a rectangular or rhombus-shaped matrix, Drill Matrix also prepares the machining operations necessary for full execution of all the holes using both the simple helix tip and a two or three-point multi-spindle head. Drill Matrix provides the user with tools to create step-by-step drilling operations. Simply select the area of intersection between parts.
MOSAIX
Mosaix is a revolutionary nesting software which provides layout optimization of 2D and 3D geometries on every kind of shape and material. Unique from other nesting products, Mosaix allows the user to exclude damaged or scratched areas (e.g. scratches on plastic surfaces, lesions of leather, wood, etc.), or keep parts of the surface for other uses. Mosaix is fully integrated in Rhinoceros, and can be used even with a basic knowledge of the program. Mosaix is an essential tool in all work with disposition and optimization.
SHOT
In addition to its specific functions for managing sole scaling, Shot offers a range of commands for drawing, modifying, and importing 2D or 3D drawings of any complexity. The combination of these two applications comes from the need to fully manage all the issues relative to the design and creation of soles' sizes, templates, welts, heel breast flaps, clamps and internal parts of soles. Shot automatically generates sole measurements starting from drawings done in other CAD/CAM systems, from a scan, or by drawing the geometries directly in Rhinoceros. Sizes are created on the preset rules or customized by the user. Shot also offers an optional module for automatic nesting. If necessary, in combination with Shot, you can use CAM SUM3D software that provides macros for the creation of tool paths for any CNC.
ELECTRODEX
ElectrodeX is a new Rhinoceros plug-in to create electrodes, in response to the demand of many Italian mold makers. Very simple controls command extraction a part of a 3D model, transforming it into an electrode already positioned for the next processing. The software can also create all the references and reports for centering and direction of the origins for EDM (Electrode Discharge Machining).
About CIMSystem
CIMSystem's mission is to support companies in their technological development.
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Since the company's establishment in 1999 in Milan, CIMSystem has grown to be a leading provider of CAD/CAM technology and technological solutions with a worldwide technical and sales partner network. CIMSystem relies on its strong expertise in the production field to fully support its clients from the initial assessment of needs, to the implementation and customization of the right solution, through to qualified training, ad-hoc consultancy, and after-sales services. For more information, please visit http://www.cimsystem.com/. To learn more about added features to Rhinoceros, please see http://www.rhino-plugins.com/.
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Dropping the Only in "for Educational Use Only"; Free Alibre solid modeler gives college co-op flexibility 2 April 2007
Software makers usually offer discounts to students and instructors. The affordable price, however, comes with strict regulations. When the license says, "for educational use only," it means it. Any private or business use of the technology is illegal.
These restrictions made instructors at Coosa Valley Technical College (CVTC) consider a new approach for teaching solid modeling. Rather than investing in a classroom's worth of educational seats of a 3D modeling application, the Rome, Georgia institution instead adopted the free 3D parametric modeler, Alibre Design Xpress.
Alibre, Inc., two years ago, offered the basic functionality of its solid modeling technology for free download. The easy and effective model-sculpting tools offer their full capabilities for projects with small assemblies. For larger projects, or for advanced extras like rendering and finishing effects, Xpress users can upgrade to Alibre Design or Alibre Design Professional for a small license fee.
The advantage for instructors of Alibre Design Xpress is that it carries no caveats of use. "The problem with 'for educational use only' software is that you run into legal troubles," explains CVTC instructor Pierre Joubert. "Like many technical schools, we do a lot of cooperative projects with outside companies. And a lot of our students are nontraditional. They are older, in the 30s, 40s, or 50s, and are already working jobs in the field. They want to immediately apply what they learn at work."
CVTC bought one license of Alibre Design Professional for the classroom. Students can download the free modeler at school, at home, or at work - whenever they need to complete assignments. They then have the freedom to use solid modeling on cooperative projects in the corporate world, or bring their new skills to their jobs.
"What helps us enormously is that students can download the free trial for home use," says Joubert, who teaches Industrial Systems Technology at CVTC. "That students can download the modeler for free means that I don't have to monitor the use of the software. I don't have to check out discs or keep track of where they are."
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Joubert has worked for decades both in industry as a mechanical engineer and as an educator. Although 3D modeling is not yet a state requirement for the syllabus, Joubert believes the technology is becoming a new necessity in the workplace.
"I teach students the importance of proper planning to do any job, and technical drawings are part of that. I personally think anybody in the technical field who is not familiar with 3D modeling will be left behind in a few years. Right now there are still some industries that use 2D CAD - but in a few years, I think that will change."
Is Alibre the appropriate platform to learn the art of mechanical modeling? Joubert had the choice to purchase seats of other brand-name modelers at an educational discount, but prefers Alibre's simplicity. The application, he says, is not weighed down with a lot of complicated commands:
"I have experience with Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks, SolidEdge," explains Joubert. "What I like about Alibre compared to these others is that Alibre tends to be very user-friendly. The others seem to add more and more features with every new edition, which gets very tedious. And once one understands the basics of solid modeling on Alibre, it is very simple to switch to a different brand, if a job requires it."
"I think the Alibre Quick Start guide, and the tutorials, are superb. The other solid modelers also have tutorials, but they seem 'clumsy' compared to those of Alibre," says Joubert. "Of course, an instructor can offer a lot of guidance. In an hour I can show students what will probably take them weeks to figure out for themselves. Once they are up and running, the guide and the tutorials are excellent for those who need to review something, or those who want to explore further."
In a technical world that is changing fast, Joubert thinks 3D solid modeling is the future. He passes on his wisdom gained from the workplace on to his students. "I myself have seen the benefit of using 3D. Compared to 2D CAD, it's the difference between using a horse cart and a motor vehicle. If you design a project correctly in 3D, it cuts down tremendously on workshop time and waste of material. And if you compete with others for the same contract, you will find that 3D gives you a very impressive selling tool, with the ability to photo-render the final design. A 2D line drawing cannot compete with the visuals of a 3D model. That's a major practical advantage.
"In interacting with industry on cooperative projects, I'm still rather surprised that a lot of industry leaders are not aware of the benefits of 3D solid modeling. My students, a lot of whom are mid-way in their careers already, will likely take on these leadership positions in a few years. That's why it's essential that they should know the benefits of 3D."
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Fishbowl Solutions® Releases DXF Flat Pattern Automation for Pro|ENGINEER® 30 March 2007
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Fishbowl Solutions announced the release of DXF Flat Pattern Automation for Pro|ENGINEER (DXF FPA). DXF Flat Pattern frees up engineers’ time so they can focus on value-added tasks.
Manufacturing companies typically rely on CAD users to create DXF output from Pro|ENGINEER for downstream sheet metal fabrication. Though the creation of DXF files is often required for manufacturing purposes, it is a non-value added task. DXF Flat Pattern automates DXF creation of a 1:1 flat pattern from every Pro|ENGINEER sheet metal part in an assembly.
According to Rick Passolt, Business Development Manager of Fishbowl Solutions, “One of our customers reduced the time they spent creating DXF output by 4 to 6 hours (and sometimes more) across their process. They turned this tedious manual task into a quick and easy automated operation.”
DXF Flat Pattern Automation for Pro|ENGINEER allows companies to:
• Deliver reliable information downstream to manufacturing.
• Eliminate or greatly reduce the time spent with DXF creation.
• Automate the DXF creation of a 1:1 flat pattern for every Pro|ENGINEER sheet metal part in an assembly.
• Launch DXF Flat Pattern directly from Pro|ENGINEER or
• Run DXF Flat Pattern as a server side process that automatically executes upon an event like “Promote” to “Released” within Pro/INTRALINK or Windchill PDMLink.
“Eliminating non-value added activities is a key factor for US manufacturers to stay competitive,” said Tim Gruidl, President of Fishbowl Solutions. “By automating this manual process, valuable engineering resources will be able to focus on more strategic work rather than creating DXF’s.”
To learn more about DXF Flat Pattern please visit: http://www.fishbowlsolutions.com/dxfflatpattern_webcopy.htm.
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FISHER/UNITECH and Configure One Form Strategic Partnership to Further Expand Businesses 2 April 2007
FISHER/UNITECH has signed a multi-year agreement with Configure One to resell its Concept configurator software throughout the United States. The partnership is expected to further extend
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FISHER/UNITECH’s leadership as a PLM software reseller and consulting organization. Configure One’s Concept software is designed for manufacturing companies that create highly configurable or routinely customized products.
“Our customers will benefit from the combination of Configure One’s robust configurator coupled with our experience and infrastructure for PLM solutions,” said Charles Hess, president of FISHER/UNITECH. “Concept’s web-based architecture and scalability make it a strategic solution that manufacturing companies can use to dramatically increase sales while reducing costs. Design automation can now be easily extended to dealers and consumers through its standard web interface.”
Configure One’s Concept configurator streamlines and automates much of the pre-manufacturing process and tackles very complex design rules. Concept acts as a 24/7 product expert, empowering end users to configure custom products by entering feature and option requirements online. Concept prevents users from choosing incompatible product options, ensuring configuration validity.
For manufacturing companies, Concept can be implemented to solve a wide variety of configuration challenges.
For each product being configured, Concept can produce bills of material, pricing and cost, quotations, images, sales and approval drawings, production drawings, virtual 3D models, routings and reports. For those companies needing to connect to CAD, Concept is compatible with SolidWorks and Pro/ENGINEER. Concept can be interfaced to any ERP/MRP system.
Concept makes the online ordering process intuitive for field sales, dealers and customers, with no training necessary. Companies who implement Concept normally see a 100% return on investment within 18 months.
“Configure One views this partnership as very strategic to our organization,” said Ron Mouw, Business Development Manager at Configure One. “FISHER/UNITECH’s experience with PLM and 3D CAD software and its focus on providing process improvement to manufacturing companies make it well positioned to both sell and implement Configure One’s enterprise configurator application.”
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Fullscope Announces FDA Validation Workbench 5 April 2007
Fullscope, Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified business partner, announced the availability of a new software and services product, FDA Validation Workbench, designed to assist life sciences companies to achieve and maintain U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) validation. The new option complements Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX, supply chain management software also developed by Fullscope as part of the Microsoft Business Solutions Industry Builder ISV (IBI) program.
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Companies that manufacture medical devices, pharmaceuticals or other regulated substances must demonstrate that they can meet the processing, safety and tracking standards required by law. Fullscope’s FDA Validation Workbench includes software for tracking and managing validation activities, templates for completing the documentation required by the U.S. FDA, documentation for a vendor audit of Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX, and consulting services to assist the manufacturer in completing the validation process.
“This product directly addresses one of the most difficult and time-consuming problems faced by life sciences manufacturers,” said Russell Smith, president of Fullscope. “Until now, products targeting this issue have been expensive, complicated and cumbersome. With the new FDA Validation Workbench, a pharmaceutical manufacturer or other life sciences company can quickly and cost-effectively navigate the complicated validation process.”
The U.S. FDA and other similar regulatory agencies worldwide validate a manufacturer’s implementation and use of a vendor’s software rather than the software itself, forcing each life sciences company to conduct a complete validation process. The software, documentation and services provided in the FDA Validation Workbench can help reduce the time and effort required by capturing as much of the standard information as possible from each manufacturer.
Templates in the FDA Validation Toolkit include:
o Validation Master Plan (with risk assessment)
o Software Plan
o Requirements Disaster Recovery
o Software Traceability
o Validation Test Plan
o Supplier Audit Check List
o Internal Procedures
o Signature Matrix
o Validation Standard Operating Procedures
o Installation Qualification (IQ)
o Operational Qualification (OQ)
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o Performance Qualification (PQ)
o Validation Summary Report
Additional software provides users with tools to manage the validation process, track company-specific changes made to Microsoft Dynamics AX, and monitor on-going compliance status. The consulting services include on-site assistance from experienced validation consultants to implement the software, plan the validation project and complete the templates.
About Microsoft Industry Builder ISV (IBI)
The Microsoft Business Solutions Industry Builder ISV program combines the company’s global reach with the strength of locally focused reseller and services partners. Through IBI, Microsoft markets business management software solutions developed by independent software vendors. These solutions extend and enhance the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX, expanding the industries and business functions supported. With the Microsoft IBI program, manufacturers can deploy global solutions tailored to local issues and receive local support.
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Hitachi Sets Up New Design Infrastructure With Cadence EDA SOLUTIONS to Enhance "Monozukuri" Capability for Hardware Products Development 30 March 2007
Hitachi, Ltd. and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. announced that on April 2, 2007 Hitachi will start operating its new design center aimed at enhancing design efficiency and reducing the design-cycle time for Hitachi's hardware products as part of its focus on the company's manufacturing capability. The design infrastructure, which has been co-developed by Hitachi and Cadence, will be used for large-scale- integration (LSI) and printed-circuit-board (PCB) designs.
With the advent of the new design infrastructure, Hitachi will strengthen its design and manufacturing capability and that of its group companies. Hitachi plans to centrally manage this design infrastructure from the newly established Hitachi Design Center in Yokohama, Japan, and plans to deploy it across all Hitachi business units and group companies via Hitachi's internal network. The Information and Telecommunications Systems Group is the first to adopt the new design infrastructure to design its core products, including servers, storage, routers and networking systems. In earlier evaluations of the co- developed Cadence and Hitachi design infrastructure, Hitachi succeeded in doubling the design efficiency and reducing design-cycle time by 40 percent.
Hitachi has been focusing on enhancing its manufacturing competency in terms of cost, technology, and quality to increase its competitive position in the industry. The implementation of the new design infrastructure is part of laying the groundwork to reform its design and manufacturing capability and then apply it across the entire Hitachi Group. Improving manufacturing in its hardware business divisions is
Page 62 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary based on the need to strengthen LSI and PCB design capability to develop competitive next-generation hardware platforms.
"Hitachi has evaluated a number of electronic design automation (EDA) companies on high-efficiency, high-quality design activities, but chose Cadence to collaborate in building the corporate-wide design infrastructure," said Toru Hiyama, general manager, MONOZUKURI Innovation Operation, Hardware MONOZUKURI Division at Hitachi. "Together, our two companies planned and developed this next- generation design system. With Cadence's unparalleled software-development capability, know-how and world-class EDA technology solutions, and the newly implemented design infrastructure, we are now well equipped to address future design challenges."
The new design system is entirely standardized on Cadence design technology, including high-level logic description language; logic verification with hardware acceleration; quality logic synthesis, which impacts chip speed; and distributed high-speed layout processing using multi-threading. The system platform is built around Hitachi's 'BladeSymphony BS1000/BS320' enterprise-class blade servers and 'HA8000' PC servers, whose memory capacity was fully expanded for the design center. These servers are tightly integrated with Cadence products to create a high level of synergy and are fully optimized to develop hardware products.
"We are delighted to have helped Hitachi develop the new design infrastructure they need to enhance their competitive edge in the systems market," said Michael J. Fister, president and CEO of Cadence. "Our design teams collaborated closely to ensure that the goals for the design infrastructure of increased efficiency and reduced design time were met. This proven design system with its advanced technology will help Hitachi build the most leading-edge products."
Hitachi plans to expand and deploy the design system beyond information and communication products, to digital consumer products; automotive electronics, such as car navigation systems; and medical products, including ultrasound-diagnostic systems. This will result in significant improvement in design efficiency and design-cycle time enabling Hitachi to offer higher performance and higher quality products.
About MONOZUKURI
MONOZUKURI is a Japanese term combining two words-- "MONO" meaning product and "ZUKURI" meaning manufacturing. Hitachi's MONOZUKURI represents their total manufacturing solution which includes software and hardware know-how and development expertise. As such, Hitachi's MONOZUKURI provides maximum value for customers by providing end-to-end planning, design, manufacturing and quality control for every product.
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INOVx Solutions and FARO Technologies Announce RealityLINx Exchange for FARO Laser Scanners 26 March 2007
INOVx Solutions, Inc. in partnership with FARO Technologies, Inc., a world’s single source for a complete line of portable CAM2 solutions, announced RealityLINx Exchange, a new software tool to render FARO scan data to AVEVA PDMS, Intergraph PDS, AutoCAD, Bentley MicroStation and other popular CAD systems.
RealityLINx is a software suite for Virtualization™ allowing the creation and day-to-day use of intelligent virtual models seamlessly with existing enterprise software systems such as SAP PM, OSIsoft PI and Meridium. RealityLINx Exchange provides new support and functionality for working with laser scan point clouds including the ability to dynamically provide point cloud data to popular CAD systems.
The FARO Laser Scanner LS is a portable, computerized measurement device that creates a high- resolution, 3-D, digital “photograph” by scanning everything in its 360° x 320° field of view as far as 76 meters away. It collects 120,000 points per second – up to 100 times faster than Time-of-Flight scanners – while the system’s laptop computer records and recreates all the object’s 3-D measurements.
Now the resulting point cloud data from FARO Laser Scanners can also be imported into RealityLINx Exchange, reformatted and then rendered in any of the popular CAD systems as the basis for capital projects and on-going engineering modifications.
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IronCAD Version 9.0 Releases in Japan 3 April 2007
IronCAD, LLC announced its Japanese release of IronCAD Version 9. IronCAD’s existing functionality has been enhanced to match the needs of a growing Japanese user base and new features, like SmartAssembly, Design Variations and IntelliStretch, are helping designers and engineers bring their products to market faster.
IronCAD’s offerings include intelligent design technology like SmartAssembly (which automatically sizes and aligns geometry) and Automatic Feature Reordering (which eliminates the need to track design history) making IronCAD easy to use. These are two examples of many IronCAD features that simplify design, features that have been standard since IronCAD’s inception (others include the Triball, Handles and IntelliShapes).
Among IronCAD’s new features, Design Variations, which enable storage of multiple parametric component variations, allow users to build intelligent components stored in IronCAD Catalogs. This new feature activates when a shape is dropped from a catalog into the scene. Users then select the variation
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option to apply, reducing the need to create multiple component configurations and eliminating repetitive parameter setting on components. Other improvements include:
o SmartAssembly automatic positioning and sizing
o IntelliStretch sizebox stretch capability
o Assembly-based spot and point light capability
o Shell command options for inside/outside shell
o 2D sketch, new creation types and SmartSnap update
o Copy/link components along a 3D curve
o Point creation in 3D curves as reference points
o 3D curve modification tool enhancements
o Surface creation and modification enhancements
o Sheet metal closed corner tool
o Right-click quick property access to styles and layer information
o Automatic dimensioning of view or selected view area
o Automatic center mark/line creation
o Styles and layers property eye-dropper
o Carline and check sheet for automotive JIG
o Updated partner CD with additional one-year trial programs
“We are very excited to receive the Japanese release of IronCAD. As IronCAD’s exclusive Japanese reseller, we are looking forward to delivering IronCAD version 9 into the hands of our customers. They are eagerly waiting IronCAD’s new features, which will make their jobs easier by enhancing productivity,” says Junji Kanaoka, General Manager of NTT Data Engineering Systems Corporation’s Marketing Division.
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IronCAD V9 and its accompanying bonus CD are available for immediate delivery to the Japanese market. For a detailed description of IronCAD version 9’s new features, please visit the IronCAD product website at http://www.ironcad.com/product.
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Magma Announces Availability of Advanced Low-Power Reference Flow for Chartered- IBM-Samsung 2 April 2007
Magma® Design Automation Inc. announced the availability of an advanced low-power IC implementation reference flow for the 65-nanometer (nm) low-power process offered through the Common Platform™ technology initiative by Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, IBM and Samsung Electronics. The Magma flow, featuring Blast Power™, Blast Fusion®, Blast Create™ and Blast Rail™ NX, enables designers to address power considerations during implementation within a single environment, minimizing the power consumption of the design while reducing die size and turnaround time.
Blast Power optimizes dynamic power by using the flexibility of a virtually flat multi-Vdd flow to selectively shut down different regions of a chip. It minimizes leakage power by automatically inserting MTCMOS switches during floorplanning and power-grid synthesis, and it enables optimal power distribution through automatic power-grid synthesis. Blast Power and Blast Fusion also enable users to employ Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) in their designs to maximize total power savings for devices that can operate through a range of frequencies.
“Magma’s technology flows have demonstrated a proven approach to dealing with the challenges of low- power design,” said Ana Hunter, vice president of technology, System LSI Division, Samsung Semiconductor. “This offering extends the successful relationship we have had at 90 nm, and addresses power management with features such as MTCMOS and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. The Magma flow is well-suited to provide mutual customers a smooth integration into our leading-edge 65- nm low-power manufacturing environment.”
“Moving to design at 65 nm, the most sophisticated design tools and flows are required to deal with the emerging challenges, notably power issues, especially in consumer applications. By working together with Magma, the Common Platform partners are able to provide our mutual customers support for an advanced methodology that addresses critical design issues and streamlines the process of getting to working silicon as quickly as possible,” said Kevin Meyer, vice president of Worldwide Marketing and Platform Alliances at Chartered.
“Reaching this milestone with Magma for our 65-nm offering underscores both the efficiency as well as the commitment to openness of Common Platform technology. IBM’s, Chartered’s and Samsung’s approach to developing a comprehensive design ecosystem allows Magma’s tools flow to be supported at three leading-edge foundries simultaneously, giving customers unmatched flexibility and choice,” said
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Steve Longoria, vice president of Semiconductor Technology Platforms for IBM Global Engineering Solutions.
The low-power reference flow guides designers through an RTL-to-GDSII methodology enabling fast, optimal timing-versus-power and area-versus-power tradeoffs at different stages of the implementation flow. The low-power reference flow is part of Magma’s design enablement kit for the Common Platform 65-nm (CMOS10LP) process technology, which also includes a test design that exercises all the low- power features, including automatic de-cap insertion, dynamic IR drop and MTCMOS switches insertion. The ARM® Metro™ low-power standard cell library and the Power Management Kit (PMK), part of its family of Artisan® physical IP, were used in the flow development.
“Extending ARM’s relationship with Magma on the IBM, Chartered and Samsung Common Platform at 65-nm technology offers SoC designers advanced design methodologies, physical IP and silicon processes that result in superior power-management solutions,” said Tom Lantzsch, vice president, ARM Physical IP. “Collaborating with Magma and our Common Platform technology Partners reinforces our commitment to enable a successful design-to-silicon path that provides real benefits to our mutual customers.”
The RTL-to-GDSII scripts and methodology guide comprise the rest of the kit, which is qualified by the Common Platform. For more information, please visit the Foundry Partners page on the Magma website at: http://www.magma-da.com/FoundryPartners.
"We’re pleased to extend the benefits of the Common Platform for customers through our advanced low- power flow,” said Kam Kittrell, general manager of Magma’s Design Implementation Business Unit. “By enabling designers to optimize timing-versus-power and area-versus-power throughout the flow, our low-power reference flow helps mutual customers build leading-edge designs that consume the least amount of power.”
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Mastercam’s Maintenance Release Delivers Enhanced Toolpath Control March 2007
CNC Software announces the release of Mastercam X2’s Maintenance Release (MR1). Available to customers in March, this release is available to all Maintenance customers and all new Mastercam customers. This release introduces significant new capabilities, including improved toolpaths for high speed machining, multiaxis enhancements, and much more.
Pencil Rest Material Optimization
The high speed machining Pencil toolpath has been enhanced to provide much smoother motion with fewer retracts when used with rest material. Also, Mastercam can now calculate the appropriate number of offset passes needed, based on tool diameter.
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Core Roughing Trochoidal Controls
Trochoidal motion in high speed toolpaths assists with the machining of harder materials. Trochoidal motion maintains an acceptable tool load, allowing feeds and speeds programming to be reliable. In MR1, Mastercam gives you the ability to control when and how the trochoidal motion occurs in a toolpath.
Multiaxis Enhancements
Mastercam’s 5-Axis Flowline toolpath has been enhanced to support undercuts. On complicated files where controlling the normal direction of the surfaces are cumbersome, Mastercam has an option that lets you either allow undercuts or ignore the surface normal direction, greatly simplifying the process.
The Advanced Multiaxis toolpaths have also been enhanced to support solid geometry. When a solid model is present, Mastercam provides the option to select solid geometry.
Viewsheets
New to Mastercam, viewsheets will save time when working with multiple views or working with different levels at the same time. Viewsheets let you create different user-defined sheets consisting of the view orientation, zoom scale, and visible levels of the part. Bookmarks allow you to save a specific state inside the viewsheet and recall it later. Mastercam saves the current view orientation, zoom, and visible level information each time you move from one viewsheet to another.
Additional MR1 Enhancements
Z Oscillation contour type has been added to minimize tool wear. Z Oscillation is especially useful when cutting thinner materials or laminated materials.
• The high speed Scallop toolpath has been enhanced to optimize toolpath retracts during shallow applications.
• The high speed toolpaths have been modified to allow the user to control when automatic feeds, speeds, stepovers, and stepdowns are calculated.
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Mentor Graphics Extends Inflexion Platform User Interface for the Nucleus Operating System 2 April 2007
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Mentor Graphics Corporation announced a new application programming interface (API) for its Inflexion Platform™ UI (user interface) for the Nucleus® OS (operating system). The API delivers a new approach for rapid creation of dynamic user interfaces for electronic devices. Consequently, manufacturers can now deliver the most visually appealing and easy-to-use electronic device UI screens demanded by today’s consumers, while also being able to reuse and update them easily.
“Makers of electronic devices are facing a difficult challenge of differentiating the user interface of their device while making it flexible and exciting,” said Neil Henderson, general manager for the Embedded Systems Division of Mentor Graphics. “The Inflexion Platform UI gives them the capability to exceed their customer’s expectation by providing a powerful engine to create menus and applications. Inflexion Platform UI’s new portal technology opens new opportunities for electronic device makers to deliver compelling interfaces never before available without extensive code modifications.”
Electronic device manufacturers are under increasing pressure to customize their products for their customers, differentiate them from their competition, make them more usable and reduce time to market. The ability to create and modify a device’s user interface plays a crucial part in meeting these challenges. With the new API, the Inflexion Platform allows developers to supply and dynamically update advanced “theme-able” visuals throughout the device’s UI.
Conventional embedded UI solutions require a device’s software stack to be modified whenever the interface needs to be changed, and this increases risk and introduces delays. The Inflexion Platform UI avoids this problem by automating all of the common UI logic required by a typical electronic device. It provides a customizable and extensible menu system and application engine that can be used on any device with a graphical display. Flexible and reusable extensible markup language (XML) templates allow developers to automate many key interactive behaviors, including hierarchical browsing, detailed views and scrolling, without any coding.
Pricing and Availability
Inflexion Platform with the new API is available now for Nucleus OS, which is among the most widely deployed commercial operating systems in electronic devices today. Pricing starts at $2,500 per seat. For more information, please contact Mentor Graphics’ embedded systems division at 800-468-6853 or [email protected] or visit http://www.mentor.com/products/embedded_software.
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Mentor Graphics Announces Synthesis Support for Xilinx Spartan-DSP Series 3 April 2007
Mentor Graphics Corporation announced that its suite of advanced synthesis products supports the newly introduced Spartan™-DSP series from Xilinx, Inc. Synthesis support is available now in Precision® Synthesis (release 2006a2) with support in the LeonardoSpectrum™ tool suite to follow.
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The newest addition to the Xilinx XtremeDSP™ portfolio targets low-cost applications in wireless, video, and consumer applications. “The Spartan-DSP series lowers the price point for FPGA-based DSP applications, enabling a wider range of applications,” said Simon Bloch, general manager, Mentor Graphics Design Creation and Synthesis Division. “The advanced resource allocation capabilities found within Precision Synthesis will help designers maximize the potential of this new platform.” The companies began work last year on Spartan-DSP series support within the Mentor Graphics family of synthesis tools. “Mentor Graphics has a comprehensive suite of DSP design tools, from concept to implementation,” said Steve Lass, senior director of Software Product Marketing at Xilinx. “Precision Synthesis provides Spartan-DSP series users with the advanced tools they need to complete high- performance DSP designs.” Precision Synthesis forms the centerpiece of Mentor Graphics’ FPGA flow. With advanced support for ASIC prototyping (support for DesignWare® libraries, SDC constraints, gated-clock handling, etc.) plus advanced implementation and optimization techniques such as automatic mapping and inferencing of dedicated DSP and RAM blocks, Precision Synthesis is suited to handle today’s high-end FPGAs. In addition, Precision Synthesis features a design analysis capability, allowing designers to cross-probe between multiple views as well as perform interactive static timing for rapid "what-if" analyses. Precision Synthesis reduces design iterations, and enables faster, more predictable completion of designs, while delivering high quality of results. Click here to return to Contents
Nanno SOLUTIONS, a DFM Startup Specializing in Realistic, Statistically Based, Worstcase Interconnect Models, Expands to New Market; Announces Support for Windows-Based Designers 30 March 2007
Nanno SOLUTIONS, an EDA (Electronic Design Automation) company in the DFM/DFY (Design for Manufacturing/Yield) market, announced that its software products, Nanno-WiN and Nanno-CaL, now interface to Windows-based design environment from MyCAD as well as run on workstations running Unix or Sun OS.
As the performance of PCs improves and the number of PC-based designers increases, Nanno SOLUTIONS is meeting the demand by adding support for PC-based designers and improving their design manufacturability and yield with realistic, statistically based, worstcase interconnect models/DB for RC-Delay, Crosstalk and IR-Drop.
"We are selling our tools worldwide and have recently sold 500 copies of our Windows-based software to customers in India," said Young Yu, CEO of MyCAD. "We see great potential for our software in emerging markets like India and China as well as in America, Europe and Japan. Establishing a partnership with Nanno SOLUTIONS is one of the things we are doing to support our worldwide customers."
"Working with MyCAD, a major player in the Windows-based EDA Solutions market, is helping us achieve our goal of reaching out to the full spectrum of the EDA customer base," added Won-Young
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Jung, CTO of Nanno SOLUTIONS. "It means more EDA users can benefit from using our software to improve their silicon manufacturing with accurate interconnect models/DB."
About Nanno SOLUTIONS Technology and Software
Nanno SOLUTIONS' technology uses process variation data and transforms the information into realistic values that designers understand. Nanno's realistic, statistically based, worstcase interconnect models can be used at both the Front-End-of-Line (FEOL) and the Back-End-of-Line (BEOL) of the design flow to reduce design skew.
Nanno-WiN generates realistic, statistical, interconnect worstcase models. Nanno-CaL calculates interconnect performance and generates RCL netlists in the pre-layout design stage. Designers use these products to characterize interconnects and analyze the circuit statistically.
Nanno-WiN is an accurate model generator for RC-Delay, Crosstalk and IR-Drop. It is based on Monte- Carlo simulation and Accumulated-Maximum Probability and Effective Common Geometry methods. Nanno-WiN improves worstcase corner accuracy for RC-Delay by about 70% when compared to conventional worstcase methods.
Nanno-CaL works in the pre-layout design stage. It estimates interconnect load and calculates delay and transient time, and estimates RC-Delay, Crosstalk and IR-Drop for critical nets. It speeds up the design cycle by reducing the time for these pre-layout design tasks, and expands the interconnect macro block. Nanno-CaL also provides lumped R, C, L and distributed models for other applications. It interfaces to existing Place & Route and timing analysis software, and circuit simulators for estimation of circuit performance in the pre-layout design stage. It also can be used to optimize transistors and interconnect with circuit simulators like SPICE.
About MyCad
Founded in 1994, MyCAD, Inc. is a worldwide supplier of EDA software. MyCad is committed to providing quality design tools for IC design and verification, and educational software, all running on the Windows platform. MyCAD offers tools for IC and system design, IC layout and verification, VHDL simulation, logic design and FPGA prototyping. MyCAD software running on Windows has been on the market since 1990 and addresses IC design, photo devices, LEDs, MEMS and LCD designs. Over several thousand copies have been installed in the USA, Europe, Japan, China, India and Korea.
MyCAD is located at 528 East Weddell Dr. #3, Sunnyvale, CAD 94086 USA and can be contacted by calling 408-745-6785, or emailing [email protected] or [email protected].
About Nanno SOLUTIONS
Nanno SOLUTIONS, Inc. was founded in 2004, is privately held, and offers yield improvement software to improve manufacturing nanometer semiconductor ICs. Its software products take the massive amount
Page 71 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary of process variation data and transform it into realistic values that designers understand. The products help improving first time silicon success rate, offer better accuracy, run-time, accelerate yield and reduce design skew to improve time-to-market and time-to-profit.
The company headquarters are at 592 East Weddell Drive, suite 8, Sunnyvale, California 94089, and can be contacted by calling (Tel) 408-400-0688, or emailing [email protected]. For more information, please visit. http://www.nannosolutions.com.
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New Telelogic SDL Suite 6.0 Expands Functionality for Next-Generation Protocol Development 2 April 2007
Telelogic announced the release of Telelogic SDL Suite™ 6.0, which now features improved kernel architecture for next-generation protocol development.
The new release provides strong support for Linux® Host and Windows® Vista™ as well as integration with the Unified Modeling Language™ (UML®). These new capabilities reinforce SDL Suite's position as the leading Model Driven Development™ (MDD™) solution for communications protocol development. SDL Suite 6.0 supports automated Model-Driven Development™ (MDD™) workflows, which reduce development time and costs. New features enable engineers to optimize their 2G and 3G wireless systems development process, while preparing users for upcoming 4G systems. SDL Suite 6.0 also includes automation features to handle the increased call reliability and data throughput of today’s wireless systems.
The restructured execution kernel in SDL Suite 6.0 increases design flexibility and improves protocol development for next-generation wireless systems by enabling engineers to:
• Manage increased system resources
• Work with many more timers
• Trade off between optimized performance and minimized resources
"While the SDL language is acknowledged as the best design and implementation approach for protocols, a key implementation issue is always scaling from a verified protocol specification to an implementation with many concurrent instances," said Rick Reed, Rapporteur and Group Chair, International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector (Q.11/17). "Such scaling depends on the run-time system kernel for SDL, which is usually tool-vendor specific. The revised kernel that can handle large numbers (thousands) of timers and instances in one of the major
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telecoms industry tools, Telelogic SDL Suite 6.0, should therefore be an important, positive factor in the provision of modern-day, complex and high-performance communications protocols."
Via its integration with Telelogic Rhapsody®, the leading UML-based MDD solution for embedded and real-time development, SDL Suite 6.0 provides a powerful, new end-to-end UML/SDL solution that reduces development time and boosts product quality. This combination of MDD approaches fully automates the development, validation, code generation and testing of today’s complex communications applications and protocols.
SDL Suite 6.0 also supports Linux Host and Unicode. Linux support allows developers to leverage a common OS between host and embedded device streamlining testing, while Unicode enables globally distributed teams to work in their natural design environment, lowering costs and increasing developer productivity.
"Next-generation protocol development requires flexible, forward-thinking solutions," said Ingemar Ljungdahl, Chief Technology Officer, Telelogic. "Telelogic continues to lead the way in protocol development by providing proven solutions for the world’s most complex cell phone protocol stack development projects. With Telelogic SDL Suite 6.0, we are now applying our SDL and UML expertise with Linux Host and Windows Vista compatibility to meet the needs of the 2G, 3G and upcoming 4G systems developer."
The SDL Suite 6.0 offers full SDL and TTCN support for the Windows Vista platform. The average cost for an SDL Suite 6.0 development system is $17,900, including model creation, execution, code generation and test generation. In addition, each SDL Suite 6.0 user under current maintenance will receive a free copy of the Rhapsody Systems Architect modeling tool and the integration with SDL Suite 6.0.
About SDL and TTCN Suites
Telelogic SDL Suite is a real-time, software development tool that provides communications software specification and software development capabilities for complex communications systems described using the ITU-T Specification and Description Language (SDL) standard. Features include visual design and automatic software generation to increase quality and productivity.
Telelogic TTCN Suite, the de facto standard environment for compliance testing of communicating systems, is used worldwide to test telecom and datacom equipment ranging from built-in communication chips to huge switches and intelligent network services.
Along with the Telelogic TTCN Suite, SDL Suite has been successfully employed by dozens of communications product developers. SDL Suite is the tool of choice for the majority of cellular phone protocol stacks on the market today.
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New – TriCorn Version 6.1 for Profitable and Productive Job Management 28 March 2007
TriCorn Systems is launching Version 6.1 of its Job Processing Software. The key enhancements are tools for managing multiple currencies, the complete integration of its scheduling package, and flexible price bands which can be tailored to the requirements of each order and customer.
The trend towards globalisation has greatly increased the frequency of international trade. TriCorn’s software can import exchange rate data, which will enable the user to keep up to date with money market fluctuations. The system can then recalculate costs, quotations, and invoices into local currencies using the latest rates, which will make conducting international business activities significantly easier. Links to other software packages such as Sage will consolidate the data to provide an accurate record of transactions.
Integrating the scheduler into the TriCorn Job Processing Software is a major enhancement. Both packages now share the same database, making updates to the production plan occur in real time. Changes to the job, such as resources used, estimated machining times and due dates are all immediately reflected in the scheduler, while alterations in the scheduler such as late raw material deliveries or actual hours worked are immediately shown in the Job Processing Software. This bi-directional communication allows the user to instantly see the delivery status of each job by highlighting overdue items and parts which are approaching their due dates. This new functionality makes it easy to produce a range of live and flexible reports, which can be tailored to suit the requirements of each company, helping it to achieve its production targets.
The new price banding tools will help TriCorn’s users to tailor volume discounts and price adjustments to suit individual customers. The added flexibility will assist in maximising the number of successful quotations. Version 6.1 also benefits from additional information which enables jobs to be categorised more effectively. Nominal codes, long description fields and order type can be used to tag the individual part, making it possible to analyse results against different market sectors, and types of component.
Mass printing of job cards has been included in the new version. The ability to print all the cards in one operation will significantly speed up their creation. Furthermore, data packs covering components and assemblies are now all grouped together to including documentation such as specifications and diagrams. By collating this production information, TriCorn ensures that the shop floor receives comprehensive instructions which will help to improve quality and maximise profitability.
A British company based in Farnham, Surrey, TriCorn Systems is the developer of TriCorn Job Processing Software, TriCorn ISO 9001 Quality Management System and TriCorn RTS graphical scheduling and production planning system and is also a Microsoft Partner. Used by hundreds of companies across the UK, the software packages are aimed at increasing productivity and profitability for SMEs by providing accurate information about business processes. The company first launched its Job Processing Software in 1989, and since then has had a continual programme of development, fuelled by close collaboration with its customers.
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Noran Engineering and UGS Corporation Expand Business Relationship in CAE Software 4 April 2007
Noran Engineering, Inc. (NEi) announced that it is expanding its business relationship with UGS Corp. of Plano, TX. NEi’s status will change from OEM Supplier to full UGS Channel Partner. The change means NEi will market, sell, distribute, support, and service UGS’ portfolio of engineering software used for computer-aided analysis and simulation e.g. Femap® from the UGS Velocity Series™ and NX® Nastran software. NEi previously distributed Femap though an OEM agreement under the brand name NEiModeler.
Noran Engineering brings to this partnership its global depth of expertise in Nastran FEA applications, markets, technical support, and training programs. The announcement further solidifies the long standing distribution arrangement between the two companies and sets the stage for new initiatives on collaborative efforts to further develop and promote Femap as the premier pre- and post-processing tool in the FEA global market. The companies have agreed to leverage their strengths and put in place cooperative programs that will enhance Femap’s simulation capabilities and technical support, expand brand awareness, increase market share, and grow sales revenue.
Dave Weinberg, CEO of Noran Engineering, commented on the agreement: “The FEA industry is experiencing fundamental business changes. Customers want to know that they are choosing suppliers committed to software platforms, technical support, and training that will keep them at the technological forefront in a globally competitive environment.”
Jason Watkins, vice president of Americas Channels UGS, adds: “The agreement reflects our understanding that in today’s business environment it takes a strong well-coordinated team of technologically savvy, dedicated, and innovative partners like Noran Engineering to provide our customers with superior simulation tools and responsive support.”
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Omnify Software Launches Next Generation PLM Solution; Omnify Empower Enhances Visibility to All Aspects of Product Data for Improved Product Quality and Shorter Development 3 April 2007
Omnify Software announced Omnify Empower, Omnify Software's next generation PLM solution based on the Microsoft .NET Framework. New functionality such as Project Management, Quality Management, and Training Monitor, improves visibility to all aspects of product development for
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manufacturers and extends the capabilities of the PLM solution to support better design practices, improved product quality, and shorter development cycles.
Omnify Empower leverages Web Services to deliver the next level of open architecture for easier data sharing and customization. Web Services enhances Omnify Software's existing open platform for 3rd party integrations and enables easy customization of user interfaces and reports. The ability to tailor user interfaces creates a familiar environment for users, assuring a simple transition from legacy practices. Custom reporting offers high-level views of key development data to identify trends and issues early in the development cycle.
"We have incorporated more than 200 enhancement and new function requests into Empower, which is a direct result of our continued focus on meeting customer needs," said Chuck Cimalore, Chief Technology Officer for Omnify Software. "Extending the capability of the system to capture manufacturing, quality, and customer information and tie it back to the product record, improves visibility to all aspects of product data to help drive better design and streamline product development even further," added Cimalore.
Key new modules and enhancements include:
Project Management Module automates the management of tasks and project schedules for a more accurate view of project progress and completion. Project Management also offers Automated Tasks that allow external and system actions to automatically update project progress. Capturing all product and program data in Empower offers executive views for accurate prediction of deliverables, and analysis features facilitate recognition of common problems that impact deadline-sensitive development activities.
Quality Management Module automates capturing and routing of data related to product issues and defects (CAR, NCMR, SCAR, field complaints) in a Closed-loop Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) system. This provides a mechanism to identify, classify and resolve quality issues. The system's Resolution Tasks help manufacturers identify the resources and actions required for closure on issues.
Training Monitor tracks and documents all internal and external training. This provides a facility to associate required training and/or testing directly with events such as new product launches, implementation of product changes, and internal process changes. The Training Monitor assures Regulatory Compliance for manufacturers and, combined with Quality Management, fulfills the specific needs of medical manufacturers required to meet the FDA 21 CFR Part 820 Quality System Regulation.
Additional Enhancements include increased system performance, improved reporting and extended vendor data and service objects management. A new Help Desk feature supports multiple formats including video, html, PDF, among others and allows users to incorporate their own help and guidance to ensure adherence to corporate guidelines.
"The added functionality delivered in Omnify Empower is the next step towards tighter integration between people, materials and processes," stated Barry Mendell, Engineering Services Manager for Still River Systems. "The decision to build Omnify Empower on the .Net platform will enable managers and
Page 76 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary users to create views of data and provide daily metrics and reporting specific to their needs. Both comments are testimony to the fact that Omnify continues to listen closely to their customers' needs and delivers the goods," continued Mendell.
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Processia to Sell Leading PLM Software From Dassault Systèmes; Canadian Services Partner Becomes Value-Added Reseller of CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA 29 March 2007
Processia Solutions and Dassault Systèmes (DS) announced that the longtime Canadian services partner has become a certified reseller of CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA software solutions.
Processia, a widely recognized Dassault Systèmes’ services and consulting partner, adds a new dimension to its more than six years of experience implementing DS’ PLM solutions with the addition of software sales. Processia’s services include business consulting, solution design, and enterprise application integration (EAI) services. The company counts Bombardier, Renault F1 Team, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Volvo among its customers.
"We are extremely delighted to add the resale of Dassault Systèmes solutions to our service and consulting offering around PLM," announced Mr. Vincent Fraser, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Processia Solutions. "The exceptional process and functional coverage of Dassault Systèmes solutions, combined with our services, is accelerating the adoption of tailored PLM solutions by various industries within Canada.".
"By expanding their relationship with Dassault Systèmes, Processia is adding significant value for their customers to their already well-known PLM implementation services offering," said Jim Ryan, vice president, Channel Sales, PLM North America, Dassault Systèmes. "This new, deeper relationship between Processia and DS will drive even greater efficiency and responsiveness for customers in the Canadian market."
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Proficiency Partners with INCAT to Bring Complete CAD Interoperability Solution to World’s Largest Manufacturers 3 April 2007
Proficiency, Inc. announced that it has entered a partnership with INCAT, a global leader in engineering services outsourcing (ESO) and product-centric IT services. Through the partnership, the two companies will team up to offer customers throughout North America and the U.K., a complete CAD interoperability solution that combines Proficiency’s industry-leading solution with INCAT services.
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Under terms of the agreement, INCAT will offer Proficiency’s Collaboration Gateway™, an advanced solution that enables the transfer and integration of product knowledge from different CAD systems, as part of its solutions portfolio, and Proficiency will offer INCAT consulting services to its customers as part of its suite of offerings.
Using patented technology, the Collaboration Gateway extracts, enhances and preserves design data and intelligence created in diverse CAD and PDM systems, such as Pro/E, UGS NX, I-deas and CATIA V4 and CATIA V5. This enables the preservation of product knowledge when migrating from one design environment to another. It also enables seamless access within the enterprise and supply chain, without giving up control of the embedded intellectual property.
In addition to offering customers advanced engineering and design services, INCAT will offer its customers unique interoperability solutions leveraging its onsite and offshore engineering services.
“We’re pleased to partner with INCAT since it enables us to combine Proficiency’s technology and expertise with INCAT’s dominant engineering services position in the marketplace,” said Alex Shapira, CEO of Proficiency, Inc.
“Together, we can expand our market reach and offer a complete interoperability solution to customers who will benefit from innovative solutions and services to extract and leverage product knowledge in multi-CAD environments.”
“This partnership with Proficiency expands our offerings in CAD interoperability, and enhances INCAT’s position as a global leader in engineering services outsourcing by reinforcing our unique value proposition with even more cost-effective, domain-specific interoperability solutions for our clients,” said INCAT CEO Warren Harris.
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SolidWorks COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 Software Opens the door to Greater Innovation and Higher Product Quality 3 April 2007
SolidWorks Corporation released COSMOSDesignSTAR™ 2007 analysis software, which encourages designers of all experience and skill levels to innovate by giving them analysis tools to help them catch and correct errors throughout the design process. COSMOSDesignSTAR’s associative analysis enables designers to integrate CAD models created using Autodesk Inventor®, Solid Edge®, and SolidWorks® into COSMOSDesignSTAR without re-importing the data every time the design is modified.
COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 automates and simplifies laborious analysis tasks such as analyzing circular patterns, pinpointing stresses on a surface, simulating welded spots and large displacements on bolts. It also includes new usability features, such as automatic solver selection that helps less experienced users choose the right solver for a specific task. These features encourage designers to analyze their work
Page 78 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary throughout the design process. This constant analysis drastically reduces the number and severity of late- stage errors, which cause the majority of cost and time overruns. Designers eager to innovate can experiment with many designs and look for flaws early in order to develop better products.
Richard Grant, founder and president of Nova Scotia-based Grantec Engineering Consultants, Inc., has used COSMOSDesignSTAR and other COSMOS analysis solutions since 1990 on projects such as analyzing the structural integrity of the Canadian Navy’s Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel. Grant tested and purchased COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 because it combines ease of use, high performance, a rich feature set, and integration with most of the major CAD software, including SolidWorks, in a single cost- effective product.
“Value and versatility are a winning combination, and COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 has it,” Grant said. “It has the robustness and feature set for demanding analysis, yet it’s intuitive enough for a new user to learn without a drawn-out learning curve. COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 enables us to handle complex geometries faster and more cost-effectively than we could with other analysis products.”
COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 contains more than 50 new design and ease-of-use features to make the software easier for users of all ability levels. Many of them are unique to COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 or are only found in much more complicated and expensive applications.
Two of the more significant upgrades in COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007 are associative analysis, which eliminates redundant re-importing of design data from different applications, and adaptive meshing. Adaptive meshing automatically refines the analytical mesh users create on their designs in response to stress results. This yields more accurate results.
Among the key new design features are virtual sensors, cyclical symmetry, bolt connector and spot weld simulation, and “envelope plots” that create simple one-step processes for identifying peak stress at any location in a model for the entire load or time cycle. They are all automated to make them simpler and less time consuming, often reducing a once-laborious process to a single step.
Virtual sensors enable designers to pinpoint a specific area on a 3D model the same way they would use physical sensors on a prototype. The sensors provide detailed feedback on a potential problem area, such as a joint that deflects too much under stress. Cyclical symmetry enables designers to analyze a circular object, like a turbine blade, all at once rather than one blade at a time. The spot weld feature enables designers to simulate a weld between a shell and a solid in one step. With the bolt connector feature, unique to COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007, they can simulate real life problems affecting assemblies with bolts subject to large displacements. The envelope plot feature reduces to one step the complex task of determining the maximum and minimum results of tests such as thermal, drop, and non-linear analysis.
Among the new usability features are automatic solver selection, a restart option for nonlinear analysis, and remote mass analysis. The automatic solver selection uses a model’s size, the type of analysis and analytical mesh to determine which specific solver to use for the most accurate results. This helps less experienced designers avoid errors. The restart option helps to stop a nonlinear analysis, adjust its parameters, and then start it again from that point instead of from the beginning. Remote mass analysis
Page 79 CIMdata PLM Industry Summary simplifies the process of creating an analysis mesh. For a designer working on a chassis, for example, the remote mass analysis feature simulates the mass of parts such as motors and actuators that the chassis will have to hold. The simulation saves the designer the time and effort of creating an analysis mesh for the parts he/she is not designing.
“Concern about making costly errors restricts innovation. Analysis sharply reduces errors, but complexity has prevented designers from using analysis applications in the past. It’s a simple equation: simple, accurate analysis aids innovation,” said Ramesh Ramalingam, SolidWorks manager of product management, analysis products. “Through software like COSMOSDesignSTAR 2007, SolidWorks is steadily eroding one of the most stubborn barriers to innovation.”
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SpaceClaim Announces Immediate Availability of SpaceClaim Professional 2007 for Mechanical Design 30 March 2007
SpaceClaim Corp. announced the immediate availability of SpaceClaim Professional 2007, offering a modern, open 3D mechanical design solution for those who contribute directly to product development. SpaceClaim Professional 2007 establishes technology leadership through a highly-flexible design environment, geometric inferencing for real-time design hints, an integrated parts and assembly workspace for top-down design, and an open XML data model that ensures long-term protection of customer data.
“Techshot provides innovative engineering and design services to a variety of government and commercial enterprises. We needed a conceptual design tool that our engineers and scientists could use. Our team’s creativity in developing solutions to very challenging problems requires a truly flexible modeling environment and one that is suitable for part-time use since design is only one aspect of their engineering contributions,” said Mark S. Deuser, Co-founder, President, CEO of Techshot. “We chose SpaceClaim because it meets these requirements. Our CAD specialists are also pleased that they can receive more accurate 3D design input to start their detail design.”
“We are introducing SpaceClaim Professional 2007 in response to a growing need for accessible 3D within manufacturing organizations and across the supply chain,” commented SpaceClaim Corp. COO Michael McGuinness. “These organizations recognize the benefits of design contributors—such as suppliers, manufacturing engineers, analysis engineers, and engineering management—working in 3D. Because these groups lack access or time to master the designer’s CAD system, they need a tool that is intuitive to use, open, and fits within their design process. SpaceClaim Professional 2007 meets these needs.”
The product is available world-wide for purchase in English and Japanese languages and for download directly from the company web site, http://www.spaceclaim.com/.
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Product Packaging and Pricing
The SpaceClaim product line includes: SpaceClaim Professional 2007 with complimentary Home Edition and a free SpaceClaim Viewer. In addition, SpaceClaim offers a Data Exchange Package for data exchange beyond industry standard formats and Data Exchange Products that support CATIA® V5 data exchange. SpaceClaim also offers a Standard Parts Library, which includes over 100M components.
SpaceClaim products are available in US Dollars (USD) and the following currencies: Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP), and Japanese Yen (JPY). Pricing in US Dollars for SpaceClaim Professional 2007 as an annual lease is $1,700. Multi-year terms are also available. The SpaceClaim lease includes software right-to-use, updates, upgrades, and support services throughout the length of the term.
For more information regarding sales and support, please visit http://www.spaceclaim.com/.
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SpaceClaim Chooses Spatial; Mechanical Design Software Benefits from Spatial’s Component Portfolio 4 April 2007
Spatial Corp. announced SpaceClaim Corporation’s inclusion of Spatial 3D components in its SpaceClaim Professional 2007 product.
“There was never really any question that we would use 3D component technology at SpaceClaim,” said Daniel Dean, Vice President of Research and Development for SpaceClaim. “The component model makes sound business sense, and allows us to focus on our core competencies. We chose Spatial as a partner because of their responsive service and dedication to partnership, in addition to their flexible and expansive line of 3D products. Spatial has made a commitment to advance key technologies that support SpaceClaim’s innovative approach to working in 3D, and in turn, we view them as a long-term partner.”
SpaceClaim Professional 2007 bridges the gap between designers and those in the extended product development team—such as suppliers, manufacturing engineers, analysis engineers, and engineering management—who lack access or time to master the designers’ 3D CAD system. To date, the benefits of 3D have remained concentrated in the hands of dedicated CAD specialists. As a result, the people who contribute to design conceptualization, review, analysis, and manufacturing communicate with the design team through insufficient view-only file formats or even paper.
Key to SpaceClaim’s long-term commitment to Spatial was its purchase of a Partner level support package. Partner level support provides Spatial customers with a preferred selection of consulting, project management, and implementation assistance. These options provide direct benefits to the customer, including best practices for optimized code at the initial release, faster time to market, reduced costs, and proper allocation of core resources.
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SpaceClaim uses the majority of Spatial’s product portfolio, including:
o 3D ACIS® Modeler for geometry creation & modification.
o Precise Hidden Line V5 for generating hidden, visible, and occluded line information for drawing views.
o 3D InterOp Translators for data exchange capabilities between ACIS and CATIA® V5, CATIA®V4, Unigraphics NX®, Pro/ENGINEER®, SolidWorks®, Inventor®, Parasolid®, IGES, STEP, VDA formats.
"Spatial software components provide a robust and proven foundation for the new generation of engineering software such as that offered by SpaceClaim. We are committed to providing the software, services and support to help SpaceClaim achieve its business objectives," said Keith Mountain, CEO of Spatial. “As this new relationship demonstrates, Spatial has dedicated itself to delivering a state-of-the- art technology foundation that is continually relevant to cutting-edge application areas.”
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Synapsis Software Helps Companies Comply with China RoHS Regulation 30 March 2007
Synapsis Technology, Inc., announced Friday that EMARS™, its environmental compliance software solution, now provides support for the China RoHS environmental compliance regulation. The EMARS China RoHS module is designed to help companies comply with Phase One of the China RoHS regulation, and prepare them for Phase Two.
Companies that fail to comply with the China RoHS regulation may soon be prevented from shipping products into China.
“We’re finding that the number one compliance concern among manufacturers right now is China RoHS, particularly the disclosure and documentation requirements that went into effect this month,” said Lonnie Gillihan, Synapsis’ president. “China RoHS is bigger than EU RoHS ever was because the scope of the law includes more industries, companies, and products.”
The China RoHS regulation (officially called the “Management Methods for Controlling Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products Regulation”) will require manufacturers to limit the use of six hazardous substances in their products – the same six substances specified in the European Union’s RoHS directive: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE).
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However, unlike its European counterpart, which only recommends that companies disclose their products’ material content, China RoHS requires disclosure in the form of a specific “x-and-o” chart. As described in China’s industry standard document, Marking for Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products (SJ/T11364-2006), this chart must show the presence or absence of each of the six substances with respect to specified thresholds, broken down by part or subassembly.
Synapsis’ new EMARS China RoHS Solution enables users to:
• Generate an accurate declaration chart in the “x-and-o” format specified by the China RoHS directive. EMARS users can generate a completed chart that accurately reflects a product’s composition in minutes. No manual loading of product bills of material (BOMs) is required because BOMs can be accessed “as-is” from most major enterprise data systems.
• Perform rollups of complex, multi-level product BOMs into a single “x-and-o” chart. Users can configure chart rows to represent major subassemblies of the product, individual components, or any grouping in between.
• Perform drill down analysis on any “x-and-o” chart. Users can quickly determine what supplier part or material is contributing to a compliance failure and why it is causing the failure – enabling users to take corrective action.
• Perform worst-case analysis on all multi-sourced component permutations of a product. Perform best-case analysis to identify scenarios that meet shipment goals. Use these and other analysis reports to support “design for compliance” initiatives.
• Keep up-to-date as the China RoHS regulation changes. EMARS maintains the latest substance lists and thresholds associated with the China RoHS law as they are implemented.
Andrew M. Wertkin, Synapsis’ chief software architect said, “Our China RoHS solution clearly demonstrates the strength of the EMARS platform. Our customers benefit because all the material composition data they’ve already collected for EU RoHS can be used for China RoHS analysis and reporting. Companies that don’t have EMARS and haven’t collected their data in the right way are literally going back to every one of their suppliers and asking them to re-certify – a data collection process that we’ve seen take one to three years for large manufacturers.”
More information on Synapsis’ EMARS China RoHS solution is available online at http://www.synapsistech.com/china-rohs
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Synopsys Boosts Designer Productivity by Launching Liberty NCX Characterization Solution 4 April 2007
Synopsys, Inc. unveiled its new Liberty™ NCX next-generation library characterization solution for 65- nanometer (nm) and below process technologies. Liberty NCX is architected around Composite Current Source (CCS) models, the technology proven to deliver comprehensive characterization, performance and accuracy for advanced designs. Liberty NCX comprises an optimized model characterization engine with a suite of library quality checkers and compaction and model translation functions that significantly boost designer productivity by providing the fastest path to high-quality production libraries.
"Synopsys' Liberty modeling technology has enjoyed widespread adoption for over 15 years because of continued innovation," said Ahsan Bootehsaz, vice president of Research and Development, Synopsys Implementation Group. "With the advent of current-source models, simply defining a good library format no longer assures industry-wide adoption. Current-source models require a complete library delivery system that encompasses efficient model generation, verification and compaction. The new Liberty NCX solution efficiently generates and validates CCS-based libraries to significantly boost designers' productivity and enable semiconductor companies to reap the full benefits of sub-65-nanometer process geometries."
Current-source models increase accuracy by using current waveforms instead of delay and slew values in the library. Proper segmentation and verification of current waveforms are crucial to current-source model fidelity. Previous-generation library characterization engines were designed for delay and slew measurements and lacked the infrastructure to support efficient current waveform segmentation and verification.
Specially architected for current-source models, the Liberty NCX solution is a complete library delivery system specially featuring an optimized, single-pass CCS library generation flow that performs simultaneous characterization and model accuracy verification. Liberty NCX also includes a suite of library quality assurance, compaction, merging, scaling and model translation tools. These tools provide exceptional flexibility in delivering verified libraries at scaled voltage or temperature corners for tool flows from multiple EDA vendors. Liberty NCX supports all the latest open-source Liberty modeling innovations approved by the Liberty Technical Advisory Board (TAB) in December 2006, including base-curve compaction technology.
Pricing and Availability
Synopsys Liberty NCX is in limited customer availability today, and is expected to be generally available in June 2007. The Liberty NCX solution includes Library Compiler, which Synopsys today announced has been enhanced to assure high-quality current-source libraries while reducing characterization cost (see "Synopsys Enhances Library Compiler to Put Current-source Models Within Reach of Every Designer"). The Liberty NCX solution supports all variation-aware modeling capabilities required for emerging statistical timing analysis applications. U.S. list pricing starts at $81,340 for a one-year Technology Subscription License (TSL).
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Synopsys Discovery AMS Delivers New Level of Performance and Accuracy for Integrated Analog and Mixed-Signal Verification 2 April 2007
Synopsys, Inc. announced the release of Discovery™ AMS 2007, a comprehensive, integrated analog and mixed-signal (AMS) verification solution for complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs. Discovery AMS 2007 features three new components—next-generation FastSPICE simulation technology, a new unified AMS debug and visualization environment, and tight integration with Synopsys' VCS® digital verification solution—that build upon Synopsys' technology-leading HSIM® and NanoSim® FastSPICE simulators. These enhancements address the critical need for a mixed-signal verification solution that can achieve "out-of-the-box" SPICE accuracy while maintaining FastSPICE performance and capacity.
Shrinking sub-nanometer geometries introduce significant process variations that increasingly affect circuit performance. Verifying that complex, sub-90-nanometer AMS SoC designs meet specifications while accounting for process variations exponentially increases the number of simulations required. Until now, SPICE simulators did not have the capacity, and FastSPICE simulators could not achieve the accuracy required to simulate today's mixed-signal nanometer designs.
Synopsys' new XA simulation technology allows customers to achieve "out-of-the-box" SPICE accuracy while maintaining FastSPICE performance and capacity. The XA simulation technology is a patent- pending, transistor-level simulation engine designed to augment NanoSim and HSIM as an add-on option. The combination of the XA simulation technology with NanoSim or HSIM delivers the most complete transistor-level verification solution.
"Since its introduction in 2003, Discovery AMS has been adopted by hundreds of design teams worldwide in their production flows," said George Zafiropoulos, vice president of marketing for verification products at Synopsys, Inc. "With Discovery AMS 2007, we have addressed the growing need for SPICE acceleration performance with a solution that builds upon our proven HSIM and NanoSim simulators. Working with leading IC companies such as Renesas Technology allows us to continuously improve our mixed-signal verification solution and deliver breakthrough technology in performance and accuracy, which our HSIM and NanoSim users can leverage through their current investments in our products."
Increasing analog and mixed-signal content in SoC designs is driving both the demand for mixed-signal verification and the need for a unified environment for analog and mixed-signal debug and visualization. With Discovery AMS 2007, both Synopsys' high-performance HSIM and NanoSim circuit simulators are tightly integrated with Synopsys' VCS digital verification solution through direct-kernel integration. The result is higher performance, higher verification throughput and greater flexibility in verifying mixed- signal SoC designs at all levels of abstraction, including SystemC, SystemVerilog, behavioral, gate and transistor level. In addition, Discovery AMS 2007 provides a full-featured, powerful debug and analysis environment that includes both analog and digital analysis capabilities.
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"Accurate and timely verification of our complex custom and analog ICs with post-layout parasitics has become a critical factor in the success of our leading-edge IC designs," said Hisaharu Miwa, general manager, Design Technology Division, LSI Product Technology Unit, Renesas Technology Corp. "Discovery AMS, with the combination of HSIM and the XA simulation technology, enabled us to reduce verification time by an average of 5x over traditional FastSPICE and over 50x over SPICE while maintaining SPICE-like accuracy."
Availability
Synopsys' Discovery AMS 2007.03 is available immediately. The NanoSim/ HSIM XA Option is available immediately to HSIM and NanoSim customers.
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Synopsys Enhances Library Compiler to Put Current-Source Models Within Reach of Every Designer 4 April 2007
Synopsys, Inc. announced significant new technology updates to its widely-used Library Compiler solution designed to assure high-quality current-source libraries while reducing characterization cost. A new set of features in Library Compiler will enable current-source library validation, correlation, compaction and model translation all with near-HSPICE® simulation accuracy.
"The long-standing collaboration between ARM and Synopsys has enabled continuous availability of high-quality IP models for our mutual customers," said Herb Gebhart, director of product marketing, Physical IP, ARM. "To expand availability of CCS views, ARM works with Synopsys on validation and correlation automation using Library Compiler technology. An automated flow enables a consistent and streamlined delivery of high-quality views."
"In order to get the best accuracy from PrimeTime®, the industry's golden sign-off tool, designers need high-quality library models," said Jim McCanny, chief executive officer at Altos Design Automation. "Using the new Library Compiler technology, we've worked with Synopsys to do closed-loop validation and correlation of CCS timing and noise libraries generated with Altos Liberate. We are seeing excellent accuracy correlation between PrimeTime and HSPICE simulation to within 2 percent."
"Current-source models address key nanometer modeling needs and are becoming crucial at 65 nanometers and below," said Ken Liou, director of the IP and Design Support Division at UMC. "These new models require efficient quality assurance to ensure that they deliver the best results when used in EDA applications. We have worked closely with Synopsys to automate the validation and correlation of our CCS libraries using the new Library Compiler features and have experienced highly-accurate results."
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"As a semiconductor industry trusted IP partner, Virage Logic is committed to delivering the highest quality semiconductor IP to our customers which includes validated EDA tool views," said Mary Ann White, director of business development at Virage Logic Corporation. "Through adoption of the core checking capabilities that will be available in Library Compiler, we will be able to broaden our support to include quality CCS timing and noise views in our advanced process technology IP products."
Current-source modeling is a key technology that significantly increases library accuracy by modeling new effects that have emerged at the 65-nanometer-and-below process technologies. Widespread adoption of this modeling technology has been hindered by the lack of library quality-assurance tools, a multifold increase in data size, and multiple standards. To address these challenges, Synopsys enhanced Library Compiler to include a suite of library quality assurance, compaction, merging, scaling and model translation functions.
Using the open-source Liberty™ Composite Current Source (CCS) models, these new Library Compiler capabilities give library developers unsurpassed flexibility in delivering verified libraries at scaled voltage or temperature corners for tool flows from multiple vendors. Library Compiler helps assure high- quality CCS models for end users by performing automated validation and closed-loop correlation checking between the two industry "gold standards" for accuracy, the Synopsys PrimeTime sign-off solution and the HSPICE simulator. Library Compiler can also create legacy non-linear delay models (NLDM) or other third-party current-source models from CCS models, since they are a universal superset.
"At 65 nanometers and below, customers have tried to address new nanometer effects by characterizing more library corners and increasing guard-band margins," said Ahsan Bootehsaz, vice president of Research and Development, Synopsys Implementation Group. "Synopsys introduced CCS modeling technology to help customers address these modeling challenges without increasing cost. The new Library Compiler capabilities allow customers to take full advantage of current-source modeling technology without worrying about format standards, library quality assurance or data size."
Availability
Library Compiler is available today, with the newest functionality enhancements in limited customer availability in the 2007.03 release. General availability will commence with the 2007.06 release.
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Telelogic Provides New Performance-Improving Capabilities with Enhanced Rhapsody Model-Driven Development Solution 2 April 2007
Telelogic announced the latest version of its popular Model-Driven Development™ (MDD™) solution, Telelogic Rhapsody® 7.1.
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The new Telelogic Rhapsody® release is more tightly aligned with the Object Management Group’s (OMG) Systems Modeling Language 1.0 (SysML™) and offers greater support for Agile development processes, leading to enhanced productivity and flexibility.
In addition, Rhapsody 7.1 provides the Rhapsody For Telecom package. This package, which continues Telelogic’s strategy to verticalize the Rhapsody solution, was specially designed for Telecom developers and engineers, with features including Telelogic SDL Suite™ 6.0 integration.
Recent data from the Embedded Market Forecasters (EMF) shows that projects using Rhapsody are more likely to complete according to expected schedules. The latest EMF paper, “What Do You Do When the Horse You’re Riding Drops Dead: Why Model Driven Design is Emerging as a Preferred Best Practice”, reveals that software industry designs are, on average, completed four months behind schedule, costing companies millions of dollars per project. The report states that organizations using modeling and simulation are seven times more likely to make or beat schedules.
“EMF’s recent findings validate that MDD solutions like Telelogic Rhapsody 7.1 provide a clear path forward for improved productivity and better profitability,” said Jerry Krasner, Ph.D., MBA, Vice President, Embedded Market Forecasters.
"Embedded and real-time software is critical to the success of a growing number of products. The pressure to improve quality and performance couldn’t be more real,” said Ingemar Ljungdahl, Chief Technology Officer, Telelogic. “Developers need flexible solutions that easily fit into their process, allowing them to work in a way that's natural. By supporting both code-centric and model-centric development processes, Rhapsody enables users to leverage modeling without having to change their current processes. The new features in this release allow developers to take advantage of an even greater range of performance-enhancing best practices, such as Agile development and test.”
Rhapsody 7.1 is available now. Prices start at $1300 per license.
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Theorem's 'Multi-CAD' Module Enables Direct Insertion of UGNX Data into CATIA V5 4 April 2007
Theorem Solutions has introduced a new ‘Multi-CAD’ module which enables UGNX data to be imported directly into users’ current CATIA V5 sessions. Streamlining the sharing and use of non-CATIA data within design, manufacturing, design-in-context and visualisation environments, the new module replicates the ability of CATIA’s ‘insert existing component’ command to bring CATParts and CATproducts into the current CATIA V5 space and work with them. Using Theorem’s new ‘Multi-CAD’ module, CATIA V5 users can simply ‘insert’ UGNX data into the current workspace without the need to undertake an external CAD translation. The process is simply a ‘menu pick’, followed by the selection of the required part or assembly from a normal file system ‘tree’.
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Items inserted into CATIA V5 in this way maintain links to the original data, ensuring that any subsequent modifications to the UGNX part or assembly will be automatically updated in the CATIA V5 session. Commenting on the new development, Theorem’s General Manager Keith Jeacock said: “The ‘insert UGNX’ capability is available for immediate delivery – and will be extended to allow further key CAD formats to be brought directly into CATIA V5 within weeks rather than months. Very soon we will be providing users with the ability to ‘insert Pro/E’ and/or ‘insert I-DEAS’ data simply by using a standard CATIA V5 pull down menu. “The new module raises interoperability for CATIA V5 users to new levels and, judging by the levels of interest we have already seen, our ‘Multi-CAD’ series looks set to become one of Theorem’s most successful product offerings to date.”
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TSMC 65-Nm Libraries First To Support Common Power Format-Enabled Design Flow 28 March 2007
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced the availability of 65-nanometer, low-power libraries from TSMC supporting the Common Power Format (CPF).
Cadence also announced that it has extended its existing TSMC library distribution agreement to include these libraries.
"Low-power design automation for advanced designs is a major contributing factor to increasing the adoption rate for 65-nanometer technology," said Kuo Wu, director of design service marketing at TSMC. "By automating the use of TSMC developed low-power libraries, we're making it easier for designers of low-power design to realize benefits and improved manufacturability."
TSMC is a founding member of the Power Forward Initiative and has collaborated with Cadence on a number of low-power proof-point projects going back to 2003, including the most recent validation of CPF-based design technologies using TSMC's 65-nanometer libraries.
"Cadence and TSMC have worked closely on low-power techniques since 2003," said Jan Willis, senior vice president, Industry Alliances at Cadence "The CPF-enabled design flow that we have proven through our collaborative work delivers the productivity necessary to accelerate the adoption of advanced low-power design techniques."
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Visiprise Announces Release of Visiprise Manufacturing 4.3 29 March 2007
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Visiprise, Inc. announced the immediate availability of Visiprise Manufacturing 4.3. This release builds on the company’s SAP integration utilizing xMII and further enhances the user experience with improved performance and new production XML messages.
The release of Visiprise Manufacturing 4.3 completes the trilogy of product releases related to the Visiprise-SAP partnership. In January, Visiprise Manufacturing was named an SAP-endorsed business solution, and in February Visiprise announced Visiprise ERP Shop Floor Integration 1.0 packaged composite application achieved “SAP® xApps™ Certified – Powered by SAP NetWeaver®” status.
Visiprise Manufacturing 4.3 supports master data imports from SAP to Visiprise. In addition, production orders based on planning and created in SAP are delivered to the shop floor by execution orders to Visiprise Manufacturing. As production progresses, project results are reported back to SAP through quantity and scrap confirmations, closing the loop and tightly integrating the shop floor to the top floor.
This latest version of Visiprise Manufacturing is the first software upgrade to come from Visiprise and SAP’s cooperative agreement, providing customers with coordinated release cycles for consistent solution growth and maturity. Key benefits include:
• Tight integration through Visiprise ERP Shop Floor Integration of the manufacturing shop floor to the entire enterprise for global visibility into manufacturing operations
• Inbound and outbound communication between SAP and Visiprise Manufacturing for key manufacturing data – allowing for control of shop-floor processes through SAP
• Integration through xMII creating a two-way information channel that synchronizes enterprise and shop-floor activities, providing real-time visibility as well as up-to-date design and production data
“Through our continuing cooperative agreement with SAP, we are able to provide our customers with an increasingly integrated enterprise,” said Mike Lackey, vice president of industry business units of Visiprise. “By improving visibility between the shop floor and enterprise, companies are able to easily identify and act upon opportunities to drive increased performance.”
In addition, Visiprise Manufacturing includes enhancements for all customers including:
• New production XML messages for greater efficiency of enabling tight integration to the shop floor
• Improved performance through extension of the Visiprise Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Web services; provides access to all Visiprise Manufacturing business objects and processes
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VX Introduces New Inlay Wizard for Product Designers 22 February 2007
VX Corporation, specializing in CAD/CAM for plastic products and molds, announces the new Inlay wizard for producing inlaid shapes or raised bosses such as company logos or text on product surfaces.
Applying Raised Bosses or Inlays
VX CAD/CAM offers true hybrid modeling functionality, and VX customers use this power to define highly complex product shapes with curvatures intended to lend good ergonomics and appearance. However in today's quality conscious world, style without substance is meaningless. The devil is in the details and one of the detail problems that designers often hit is the need to apply a shape such as text or a logo as either a slightly raised boss or inlay.
It’s necessary to produce the inlay geometry accurately in CAD models for the purposes of manufacturing and especially important for mold designers for producing injection molded parts. Even on flat surfaces, a lot of effort is required of the designer to ensure manufacturability. The same task on a multi-curvature surface is even more time consuming using “traditional” modeling tools, and the little devils can be error prone.
Exactly What the Customer Wanted
VX has introduced a “wizard” solution to the problem and a once tedious task is now easy. Working in tandem with VX's extraordinary “wrap” command, which can actually wrap a planar Sketch onto any face curvature, the new inlay wizard can accept any shape or 3D text to produce a subtle inlay or slightly raised boss in seconds – complete with user-specified draft relief and blend filleting, as one parametric feature. The parameters of the feature can be edited via the history tree at any time. Bob Fisher, VX Vice President Product Management & Business Development, said “This is another exciting new tool we have developed in response to requests from our product design customers, yet other designers have also found it invaluable, especially mold designers that receive files produced in other CAD systems by their customers. These mold makers win contracts because they can use VX to modify just about anything to make a mold which often includes adding features that their customers were unable to model with their CAD programs.”
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