Editor’s Pick: Engineering Optimization and Process Solutions Updated

Dear DE Reader:

Even the simplest simulation can return massive datasets that make teasing out the insights to make informed decisions difficult. ESTECO has been in the forefront of simulation data management for over 15 years. But they don't stop there. They're also on the cutting edge of what they call “optimization-driven design.”

ESTECO recently released the Spring 2018 editions of its VOLTA and modeFRONTIER platforms. These software suites can help you create an enterprise-wide solution for design optimization, simulation data management, process integration and automation. They're really all about getting control over your engineering IP (intellectual property), making engineering knowledge a corporate-wide collaborative asset and fostering agile development processes for new products and technologies underscored with top-notch optimization technologies. It's fascinating stuff.

VOLTA is a web platform that runs on multicore workstations, HPC (high-performance computing) clusters and the cloud. It provides multidisciplinary process optimization and simulation data management. It helps you bring simulation data and processes under product development management. You can track changes and versions in a searchable database as well as capture and share engineering knowledge across disciplines.

The Spring edition sees a new interface for its Data Intelligence Environment that should make things easier. Here, you now have two tabs. One is a data tab that displays raw data. The second is a customizable dashboard for visualizing data as charts, including four new ones.

modeFRONTIER is a modular environment for engineering design process automation and optimization. It helps you formalize workflows and integrate with third-party engineering tools so that you can automate your simulation processes. It has all sorts of tools for data analysis, design exploration and visualization.

Really neat is ESTECO's suite of DOE (design of experiment) and optimization algorithms for exploring piles of design parameters simultaneously. These algorithms cover deterministic, stochastic and heuristic methods for both single- and multi-objective problems.

Which leads us back to the Spring 2018 release where, in addition to a new user interface, modeFRONTIER introduces an EGO (efficient global optimizer) algorithm. It's described as a multi-strategy, single-objective optimizer based on Gaussian processes. (Google EGO for some technical papers.) Basically, you can obtain a fast convergence and a robust optimization for designs with many optimal solutions.

The takeaway: VOLTA and modeFRONTIER are intended to help you explore countless design iterations and home in on an optimized design that meets requirements and budget realities quickly all in a managed environment. Hit today's link to learn more.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood, Editor at Large, DE

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