The CAD Insider

FEA for All - Part 3: Autodesk and ANSYS Just Friends?

First, let me warn readers that an acquisition of ANSYS by Autodesk is pure speculation.

Picture two neighboring families -- one with all boys and one with all girls. The children grow up together. One thing leads another and, soon enough, one of the boys marries one of the the girls. Over the years, more of the boys and girls get married. Finally, only the older boy and the oldest girl remain single. Though the neighborhood buzzes with anticipation, the oldest boy and the oldest girl remain just friends. So it is with the CAD and FEA families. SDRC (now part of UGS) acquires FEMAP. SolidWorks acquires COSMOS. Dassault acquires ABAQUS. PTC acquires RASNA. Bentley acquires REI. But Autodesk and ANSYS remain friends.

Does it not seem logical that Autodesk should buy ANSYS?

ANSYS can't help but look like an acquisition target. It is a well run and continually profitable company that would add considerably to a company's bottom line. Besides, all the other CAD companies big enough to acquire it are already set with their own FEA products. 

Why hasn't Autodesk bought ANSYS? According to the recent financial report, Autodesk is sitting on $257 million in cash. Also, its recent history seem to suggest that its future growth is based on acquisition. Possible reasons could be:

• ANSYS could be too expensive for Autodesk -- and got even more expensive with its acquisition of Fluent.
• Autodesk and ANSYS executives may not see eye-to-eye
• Autodesk may not want to be a player in analysis, wanting to stick to design

Or, would a deal be in the works? CAD Insider asked Buzz Kross, leader of Autodesk's manufacturing division, who only stated his company's policy to not comment on whether an acquisition is underway.

Analysis for All, Part 2: SolidWorks and COSMOS

ANSYS was the first CAD/CAM vendor to propose analysis for all. Its DesignSpace product sought to make FEA easy to use, so easy that even those without engineering degrees could use it. Though its first iteration (back in the mid nineties) could only do linear static analysis, it made the analysis process effectively a push button process. The fact that DesignSpace was created by ANSYS, a respected leader in the industry, gave DesignSpace instant credibility and facilitated acceptance, opening the door for others. "Analysis for all" had come to stay.

Years later, SolidWorks jumped into the analysis-for-all market with both feet, buying an entire FEA company, SRAC, the makers of COSMOS. SRAC had been selling COSMOS as a standalone FEA package as well as an add-on for for SolidWorks. After the acquisition, COSMOS was completely and fully integrated with SolidWorks. Once a marginal player in the FEA market, COSMOS has bloomed with the close association to SolidWorks, the MCAD market's rising star. Rife with mechanical engineers, SolidWorks --the company--was quick to realize the value of analysis as a complement to its design product and untiringly continues to do all it can to popularize FEA. Every demo of the popular SolidWorks program seemed to mention COSMOS. Every user of SolidWorks gets a version on COSMOS in the box.

 
COSMOS flourishes after SolidWorks acquisition, benefiting from an inseparable association with a popular MCAD program.

SolidWorks now claims that, with over 24,000 commercial seats, COSMOS is now the market leader in analysis.

What is the competition doing? Algor would probably maintain that it holds a leadership in the number of FEA products in actual use, not just shipped. However, Algor and its close competitor ANSYS, both of whom only maintain 3rd party relations, with CAD vendors, now both seem naturally limited in growth. UGS has followed SolidWorks' lead and put its analysis program, FEMAP, in the box with Solid Edge but UGS' lack of marketing (see Solid Edge- the Best MCAD Program You'll Won't Buy) continues to keeping Solid Edge a secret and FEMAP even more so. PTC sells very capable FEA programs that are completely integrated with Pro/ENGINEER but gives nothing away, showing a lack of strategy to win new users in the design community. Autodesk's Inventor maintains 3rd party relationships with several FEA products but includes no FEA in the box. One of the main 3rd-party FEA products for Inventor is ANSYS.

Next: speculation.

Analysis for All, Part 1-- Should You Worry?

The fashion among CAD and FEA companies is to make analysis so simple that simpletons can use it. But as I fly home on a Boeing 757, I pray no such simpleton has analyzed the engine mount forgings or the (very thin-looking) landing gear struts. Similar thoughts occur to me when I drive across new bridges -- but I reassure myself that public works, at least, are signed off by degreed and certified engineers.

Am I the only one worried?

Finite element analysis was once the domain of an engineering department's special force -- the analysts. These over-educated geeks worked separately (often with their own big computers), dressed differently (white coats), spoke a different language (of "eigenvalues" and "discretization"). They seemed to worship a different god (Von Mises). Ordinary engineers would feed drawings through a slot in the door. Days or weeks later, an analyst would grace them with the results presented from a big stack of computer printout. Blah, blah, eigenvalue, blah, blah, sparse matrix, blah blah. The engineers would patiently wait for the ever important Factor of Safety, which would tell them whether it was back to the drawing board or on to production.

What has happened to the analysts? Perhaps they are in padded rooms and straitjackets, blubbering to no one in particular about planes falling out of skies as they imagine rooms of monkeys pecking at keyboards.

Cool Tech - Color Rapid Prototypes

Rapid prototypes took a big step towards realism with the introduction of color. If you think color is no big deal, try watching a black and white television--if you can find one.

Color models offer several advantages over the drab beige common to rapid prototypes. Parts are easily distinguishable in an assembly and can match the solid model. Analysis results can be mapped onto a model allowing quick visual verification and decrease the likelihood of a critical area being overlooked. Consumer products can be modeled as they would appear on shelves allowing aesthetics to be judged, not just shape. Terrain maps, massing studies, and a host of other applications, will now be able to be modeled more realistically.

Z Corporation showed their very impressive color rapid prototype machine recently at PTC/USER World 2006. Z Corp introduced color several years ago and it claims it is still the only company to provide this technology. To create color models, Z Corporation uses a technology similar to color inkjet printers. Its 3D printers build models one cross-section at a time, using liquid binders to solidify layers of powder only .089 mm thick. Multiple print heads mix four colored binders (cyan, magenta, yellow and clear) to create colors of almost any shade. The process repeats until the model is whole model is created. Z Corp's Spectrum Z510 can make models up to 10"x14"x8" and lists at a shade under $50,000.

COSMOS Simplifies to Beams

COSMOS 2007 includes a nifty new ability to create finite element models with beam elements. It can take a weldment such as the one shown and, with pushbutton ease, can reduce it to 3D beam elements and nodes. COSMOS will create beams along the length of long thin structures. Cross sectional properties are automatically determined by COSMOS from the solid model geometry.

COSMOS creates beam elements
(click for larger picture)

Why is this important? Beam elements are the most efficient way to model objects composed of long thin parts such as trusses, communication towers, space frames and the like. Though modern day modelers can break any part down into solid elements, the amount of solid elements required to model long and thin or flat geometry would be prohibitive. By comparison, beam element models will result in models with orders of magnitude less degrees of freedom, often with equivalent or better accuracy, and take a fraction of the time to solve.

But until now, modeling with beams had required recreating geometry. Lines would have to be drawn manually alongside existing geometry. This would often leave endpoints near but not connected to other endpoints. The analyst could then either move endpoints so elements could connect (causing the finite element model to deviate from the geometry and possibly skew the results) or create extra geometry that would tie together the floating endpoints. Either case would result in extra manual work for the analyst. COSMOS 2007 takes the latter approach, automatically creating a rigid element between floating endpoints. Nodes that fall within a sphere of a specified radius will be rigidly linked..

As far as I know, no other vendor has this sort of technology, which will be available to all SolidWorks users (except those who buy the base product).

Future releases of COSMOS will be able to create both beams and solid elements in the same model.

Get 'Em While They're Young: SolidWorks in Education

SolidWorks estimates one million students use their software, from high schoolers to university students. This number may be based upon an approximately 3X factor applied to the 300,000 licenses sold or given away. Students may have bought the SolidWorks Education Edition (for as low as $99) or had it packaged with their design and drafting text books.

What's missing with the $99 SolidWorks Education Edition compared to the $4000 commercial version? Not a whole lot. It does everything the commercial version does but it only does it for 2 years. Also, output is watermarked "not to be used for commercial purposes." And, of course, you need to be a student to buy one.

A number of design/drafting textbooks from publishers such as McGraw Hill and Prentice-Hall include a 150-day version SolidWorks, presumably giving enough time to complete a one semester course.

Sowing seeds in schools is hardly a new concept. Apple computer has been doing it practically their whole existence. CAD companies are falling over themselves in a race to stuff their software into school labs, using rock-bottom pricing or even giving it away. All this is done in the hopes that when school's out, former students will buy --at full price--the tools they are familiar and comfortable with.

Marie Planchard, director of education marketing at SolidWorks, thinks SolidWorks leads the race for young minds. Though other CAD products get hoisted on schools, they often just collect dust. "Other CAD products take too long to learn and students don't have that kind of time." She points to MIT students who had 11 weeks to design a solar-powered car.

It is a widespread belief that SolidWorks is easy to use compared to Pro/ENGINEER or Unigraphics. But another reason SolidWorks will be successful in ingraining itself in schools is Planchard herself. Her engineering degrees and background as an educator and user advocate provide an ideal background for her present job. Did I say job? Listen to Planchard even briefly and you get the feeling this is no 9 to 5 job. Getting SolidWorks into the hands of students is more of a mission. And we are not just talking about SolidWorks for drafting, either. Why not have university students use SolidWorks and COSMOS for finite element analysis? Why should engineering students spend hours poring over the most complex equations for the simplest geometry, she asks, when software can solve real problems with complex geometry in minutes? Well, there is that academic inertia. Professors who have taught the same things the same way to generations of students are not likely to change quickly. Or maybe they just haven't listened to Marie Planchard.

SolidWorks 2007 Sneak Preview

You can get a preview of SolidWorks 2007 on the SolidWorks web site (click here). Highlights include SWIFT (SolidWorks Intelligent Feature Technology), Design Checker, Sketch Blocks, advanced assembly mechanisms, and more. Videos accompany the highlights. Some of these items were previewed at SolidWorks World 2006 (the annual user meeting, see CADdigest.com article) but as far as I know, this is the first time SolidWorks has been mentioned on the corporate website.

Somehow all this material got on the SolidWorks website earlier than expected -- although only by a few hours. SolidWorks is "officially" announcing SolidWorks 2007 tomorrow to the assembled press (myself included) at their company headquarters near Boston, MA.

PTC/USER World Event: SpacePilot Best of Show

Are you are running your MCAD application on a powerful workstation with several gigabytes of RAM, powerful graphics, a high resolution monitor and lots of disk storage? If so, you are fortunate that your boss has invested thousands of dollars in the latest technology. However, you may still be missing a vital part of the 3D picture. in your hand you hold a mouse, a cheap little device --$50 at the most -- meant to just point and click, not navigate 3D space. While your 3D software may have been designed around your cheap little mouse and provides adequate 3D control, to truly move around the final frontier like Capt. James Kirk himself, you are going to have to upgrade.

Enter 3Dconnexion, a Logitech company, with the SpacePilot. The ease with which it allows the MCAD user to move around the solid model is most impressive. We saw it being used with Pro/ENGINEER, but the SpacePilot is equally home in other MCAD applications. It may take a little getting used to at first but to see it in the hands of an expert, the device so effortlessly combines zoom, pan and rotate commands that viewing is elevated to another level. This would be especially useful in inspecting complicated assemblies.

The first time I tried to use a 3D controller (years ago), I spun out of control and lost sight of the model. To prevent this, the Space3Dconnexion adds controls to aid new users. There is a button "fit" which brings the model into view and fits it to the screen. Also, you can have the SpacePilot lock motion to the dominant direction so, for example, if you are moving mostly along one axis, you are prevented from inadvertent spinning.

The SpacePilot has programmable keys along the top which store commands or user macros. These can vary according your application. SpacePilot is smart enough to detect what application you are using and change the available functions accordingly.

At $499, the SpacePilot will make sense the most sense for full time 3D users already on high end workstations. 3Dconnexion makes a smaller device (SpaceTraveler, $199, designed for use with laptops) but it lacks a display, leaving users to memorize key functions.

PTC/USER Part 4: Future Enhancements

PTC gave hints of what to expect in future releases of PRO/ENGINEER and other PTC products at PTC World 2006.

• MathCAD will be used to create a tolerance analysis application.
• 3D drawings. Companies are trying to remove 2D drawings from the design process. PTC will facilitate this by allowing dimensions, notes and other information on 3D views.

• Auto-round feature. The ability to automatically round all edges in a part.
  • Example of part took 6 interactive hours for new user and 2 hours for an intermediate took only 9 seconds with auto-round feature.
• Removing surface feature. The ability to remove a surface and have the nearby surfaces meet to fill the gap automatically.
  • Example: user may need to remove small fillets not needed for FEA
• Electrical design visualization, view query ECAD data, increased associativity between ECAD and MCAD applications. [ed. PTC seems to be working hard to be the MCAD application of choice for electromechanical design.]
• Super scaleable visualization.
  • A million part assembly shows in 3 seconds. Example: start from a view of 2 ships and zoom into a stair step on one of the ships [ed. this was not shown live]
• Security. "There's more protection on a 99 cent iTunes song than on a 3D model of your entire product line." Better protection of intellectual property, which is more important than ever with the trend to outsource and distribute design teams.
  • Example: An auto manufacturer may need to send a model of an engine to a subcontractor so they can create an engine mount for it. PTC will let the auto manufacturer hide the internal details of the engine, which form the intellectual property of the company, so the subcontractor only sees the outside. If further security is desired, external details can also be masked using a faceted view of the engine.

• Watermarking views --not models. This is sometime required for defense contractors.
• Product variants -- the ability to create product line with variations in features or parts.
• Manufacturing UI modernization. "We will be 'Wildfirizing' our CAM products."

PTC/USER Part 3: Q&A

Members of the press and analysts asked questions of PTC executives Dick Harrison, CEO, Jim Heppelmann, EVP and CPO and Neil Moses, EVP and CFO. Questions and answers are paraphrased.

What will constitute new customers for PTC? AutoCAD users in US and Europe?
PTC does not make that information available.

Do you have a problem with piracy in China? What are you doing about it?
Yes. We are working with the Chinese government. We'd rather make [pirating] companies into paying customers than prosecute.

Will future growth be organic or through acquisition?
2/3 of growth in future will be due to organic growth, the rest from acquisition.

How will PTC break away form single digit growth that seems typical of the industry at present?
Seeds need to be nurtured. We have big expectations from Arbortext and Windchill. We are hopeful of our new relationship [now 5 months old] with IBM and emerging markets such as China.

Does PTC offer PLM for mid-market?
Our present products are well suited to the small and mid-market. We are the only ones to offer hosted PLM. [ed. actually Arena Solutions has hosted PLM. PTC corrected this later but put down Arena as too low end].

Is PTC #3 in the MCAD market?
Not sure where that number comes from. PRO/E is by itself a $500M business, UGS makes $600M but that is split between Solid Edge, UG NX and I-deas. SolidWorks is about $200M. I'm not sure what Inventor numbers are.

How are you converting AutoCAD users?
2D to 3D is driving our VAR business. 2D users are all ending up with SolidWorks, Inventor or Pro/E.

Which company are you taking the most accounts from?
MatrixOne [ed: MatrixOne is a PLM company recently acquired by Dassault]

Can you compare acquisitions PTC makes with UGS and Dassault?
They are buying weaker companies that are not leaders in their industries.