Hexagon Reveals Strategy for CAE Innovation

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has announced a new structure and growth plans for CAE at its first simulation-focused conference, HxGN Live Design & Engineering 2021.

“Hexagon invests 12% of its revenue directly into R&D, and we have applied that drive for innovation to our CAE business as well,” says Roger Assaker, president of Hexagon’s Design and Engineering business unit. “In just four years, we have amassed a portfolio that goes beyond offerings from simulation-only companies, serving diverse needs that any customer may have throughout the product lifecycle, regardless of their development mindset or industry.”

Hexagon’s CAE offering is now defined as eight Centers of Excellence (CoE), which group its portfolio of CAE tools by customer-defined goals, each focusing on one type of physics while enabling greater interoperability of workflows within common collaboration platform technology to enable multi-physics, generative design with data management and end-to-end solutions combining virtual and real data. Each CoE is led by an entrepreneurially-minded specialist, to ensure their customers’ needs are met at every stage and includes the discipline of product development, product marketing and process planning.

Assaker also revealed that one of Hexagon’s key focuses for cross-discipline development is artificial intelligence (AI), providing solutions in each CoE that are physics- and data-based. Hexagon is applying AI to improve accuracy, leverage data and enable problem solving in seconds rather than days, by building on its capabilities in finite element and finite volume analysis and other numerical simulation without compromising fidelity.

Hexagon will continue to help customers move beyond how a part will perform in theory, and to expand on its connection to metrology and production software to introduce solutions in smart manufacturing. Democratizing the use of CAE is implicit to this—making predictive insights available not just to designers, but to take simulation from engineering to the shop floor and the boardroom with new user experiences, the company says.

Nearly all Hexagon D&E tools will also be available through one licensing system; MSCOne, which includes partner software, and a new Innovate portal, which forms one destination for new and experienced engineers and designers to learn about Hexagon’s software, CAE topics and training.

The new Centers of Excellence include:

• Autonomous solutions, to simulate more scenarios and make next-generation advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving a reality as soon as possible, centered around the open Virtual Test Drive (VTD) platform.
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), for complex multi-physics fluid dynamics for everything from construction to aero-elasticity and MedTech, using Cradle CFD.
• Acoustics, the staple of automotive manufacturers and suppliers, aerospace and defense companies, and consumer product manufacturers, using Actran.
• Structures, combining modernized high-productivity user experiences with greater accuracy and performance, from MSC Nastran to Marc and MSC Apex.
• Manufacturing and costing, leading virtual manufacturing for complex production operations such as metal forming, joining, welding and additive manufacturing solutions, from generative design to manufacture, building on FTi FormingSuite to Simufact products and MSC Apex Generative Design.
• System dynamics, applying unparalleled insight to movement, from supporting electric vehicle powertrain and rotating machinery design to predicting durability and noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), with the Adams and Romax portfolios.
• Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME), using the best available technology to design and make efficient use of materials, predicting the manufactured product’s performance, from polymer composites to metals, using Digimat and MaterialCenter.
• Applied solutions, using Hexagon and its partners’ technologies to solve real design manufacturing problems, for everything from wind turbines to electric vehicle powertrains.

To view a selection of talks from the HxGN Live Design & Engineering 2021, click here. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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