Siemens PLM Connection: Declaring Victory in the Land of Automobile; Forging into Interactive Tech Pubs

Hard-fought battles are paying off for Siemens PLM Software, especially in the realm of automakers, according to Siemens PLM Software’s chairman and CEO Tony Affuso. Speaking to Siemens faithfuls at PLM Connection Americas User Conference 2011 (Las Vegas, May 2-5), he relished in the fact that “24 of the top 25 automotive OEMS (original equipment manufacturers) now use Siemens PLM software.”

Affuso has good reasons to be giddy—over 3 million seats and five quarters of double-digit growth, for instance. Another might be the company’s most recent deal, a 10-year contract with Daimler AG. The automaker, well-known for its Mercedes-Benz brand, will replace its current CAD system with Siemens’ NX. “As part of the worldwide 10-year agreement, Daimler AG will begin using Siemens PLM Software’s technology in its first vehicle series beginning in 2012. Siemens PLM Software will begin enabling Daimler’s vast network of suppliers beginning July 2011,” Siemens announced.

Siemens and its rivals continue to court new businesses in previous unexplored territories, such as life sciences, fashion and apparel, and consumer goods packaging. But big spenders in aerospace and automotive remain the lifeblood of PLM software suppliers like Siemens.

The company is also diving into another area now pursued by nearly all PLM software makers. Betting on interactive online manuals and catalogs as the future of technical documentation, Siemens has just struck a partnership with Cortona3D to sell Cortona3D RapidAuthor software suite with Siemens’ Teamcenter data-management software.

“The integration of Teamcenter with Cortona3D RapidAuthor places documentation authoring,  illustration, and publishing within the same PLM environment as product development to align publication activities with product processes and information,” states Siemens. “The capture of Teamcenter product data within Cortona3D RapidAuthor provides automated links between 2D and 3D illustrations and structured text,  providing interactive documentation”

Siemens’ French rival Dassault Systemes develops and markets 3DVIA Composer, an interactive tech publishing software that can take advantage of existing CAD files. Siemens U.S. rival PTC offers Arbotext for the same purpose. Autodesk sells Inventor Publisher, a similar publishing product catering its 3D MCAD software users.

Cortona3D’s Cortona RapidAuthor software titles—RapidManual, RapidCatalog, RapidLearning, and RapidWorkInstruction—gives you the ability to create dynamic 3D installation guides and instruction manuals, ready for deployment online. Far more interactive than animations, dynamic 3D scenes and documents produced in Cortona3D’s software allows you to not only view the action sequences but also rotate, zoom in, zoom out, and inspect the 3D data at the desired angle.

More reporting from the conference to follow, including updates on Velocity Series.