Autodesk recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tinkercad, an easy-to-use browser-based 3D design tool. The addition of Tinkercad to Autodesk is aimed at helping broaden the consumer-oriented Autodesk 123D family of apps and supports Autodesk’s vision to help anybody (students, makers, and designers) imagine, design, and create anything. The acquisition will also revive the Tinkercad service and community, despite a previously announced shutdown by its founders and creators. Read the rest of this entry »

On the heels of recent tuck-in acquisitions, Dassault Systèmes has made yet another industry-specific acquisition, again for an undisclosed amount. This time it’s SIMPOE, a France-based provider of plastic injection molding manufacturing simulation software.

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During its ACE 2013 user conference, Aras, an open source product lifecycle management (PLM) software provider, announced a computer-aided design (CAD) to 3D PDF converter to be embedded in a PLM vault server and included for all Aras PLM subscribers. Now, with the addition of the converter, Aras can support 3D, 2D, Microsoft Office, images and scans, and other data types in a single open format—compressed PDF. This will enable users across the extended enterprise to view a variety of formats of product data in a single common user interface (UI) without buying additional software.

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Dassault Systèmes, a provider of 3D design, 3D digital mockup, and product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, is expanding its footprint in the energy, process, and utilities segments. This industry set is expected to grow rapidly to meet the needs to expand energy production, both to grow the global economy and to support demographic changes in view of the depletion of natural resources.

The industry needs to change its game: Read the rest of this entry »

Marrying desktop and cloud design experience for more comprehensive industry workflows continues to be a theme at Autodesk. The latest Autodesk Design and Creation Suites offer access to the Autodesk 2014 software portfolio for building, product, plant, and factory design; engineering, construction, and infrastructure; and entertainment creation professionals. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a great future in composite materials, the next generation of lighter, stronger, safer, and more energy-efficient materials.

After Siemens PLM Software acquired Vistagy more than a year ago, Autodesk yesterday announced that it has completed the acquisition of Firehole Technologies (do business as Firehole Composites), a privately held software company based in Laramie, Wyoming, that specializes in design and analysis software for composite materials. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read the rest of this entry »

Autodesk, the leader in cloud-based design and engineering software, continues with its cloud software investments. Most recently, it acquired (for an undisclosed sum) technology and a development team from Allpoint Systems LLC, a small Pittsburgh, PA–based developer of software and solutions for collecting and processing LiDAR (light detection and ranging) point cloud data. The Allpoint Systems team and technology, which offers software and data processing solutions for collecting and processing LiDAR data to the roadway and building markets, will help Autodesk expand the development of cloud-based reality capture software and solutions. Read the rest of this entry »

In late November 2012, Dassault Systèmes, a world leader in 3D design software, 3D digital mock up (DMU), and product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, announced the latest release of its 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Dassault Systèmes provides individuals and businesses with a set of software tools to create so-called “virtual universes” to imagine and create sustainable innovations and transform the way products are designed, produced, and supported. The company’s collaborative solutions foster social innovation and aim to expand possibilities for the virtual world to improve the real world. Dassault Systèmes has more than 150,000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 140 countries.

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In late November 2012, at the time of the Autodesk University 2012 conference, Autodesk, the leader in cloud-based design and engineering software, and INDYCAR, the auto racing sanctioning body behind popular racing events such as the Indianapolis 500, have signed a three-year technology partnership. INDYCAR already employs Autodesk’s desktop-based software within its operations for a variety of important functions. For example, the organization uses AutoCAD software to create detailed garage layouts before each event, which helps improve the logistics of load-in and load-out at venues.

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Trimble Navigation is primarily known for its advanced positioning solutions and hardware, such as GPS receivers and rangefinders. The company has been developing and producing those products for years; however, a key segment of the business is linked to engineering and construction. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series started with the assertion that product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions are becoming increasingly important to enterprises in a strategic sense. However, not all PLM products are created equal, especially in light of their different origins. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series started with the assertion that product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions are becoming increasingly important to enterprises, to a strategic degree. However, not all PLM products are created equal, especially in light of their different origins. Read the rest of this entry »

In this day and age of globalization, ever-shorter new product introduction (NPI) cycles and overall product lifecycles, partner collaboration, and whatnot, product lifecycle management (PLM) software solutions have lately increased their strategic significance to enterprises. In his recent Forbes blog post contribution, PTC’s CEO Jim Heppelmann touts PLM as a new path to shareholder value. He argues that the PLM repository of data should be an enterprise system of record rather than mundane transactional enterprise resource planning (ERP) data. Read the rest of this entry »

The voice of the customer (VOC) concept has been around for decades, but the Internet and social media technologies have finally enabled it to its fullest degree. We have all heard of (and perhaps even contributed to) customers venting their anger or expressing their delight with some vendor’s service or some product’s characteristics and performance via online forums.

A company’s ability to spot market trends in a timely way and find competitive info such as good or bad sentiments about its products and brands should go all the way back to the design department (and its suppliers). Read the rest of this entry »

Half a year ago, I wrote about the need to include customer input in the design process in What Brings Customers Closer to Your Product Development? Recently, two pieces of Web content caught my attention and made me revisit this topic.

The first one, The Path to Successful New Products, from the recent issue of McKinsey Quarterly, outlined three principles of making product development more successful, amongst which the degree of “[talking] to the customer” is one of the differentiators that separate top performers from the rest. The second one, a press release from First Insight on January 10, 2010, announced the availability of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that allows retailers and brands to have better visibility of consumers’ voices through social media marketing and sales channels. Read the rest of this entry »