Autodesk
Canvas Category Software : Engineering : Digital Twin
Autodesk is changing how the world is designed and made. From greener buildings to smarter products to mesmerizing blockbusters, Autodesk software helps our customers to design and make a better world for all.
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Autodesk & Cadence: Partnering to Unlock Smarter Product Design and Fuel Innovation
Traditionally, printed circuit board (PCB) designers using Cadence Design Systems tools operated in a silo, isolated from the mechanical design team working with tools like Autodesk Fusion. Teams would play a game of digital ping-pong, tossing files over the virtual wall, hoping everything gets noticed in the right place, at the right time, and by the right people.
This week at Autodesk University, we were excited to announce our new partnership with Cadence Design Systems, the leader in electronic systems design tools, which aims to bridge this gap between electronic and mechanical design teams. The integration connects specialized Cadence PCB technologies directly with Autodesk Fusion, advancing its powerful CAD, CAM, and PCB design capabilities to streamline ECAD to MCAD workflows and transform smart product design.
Together, the partnership brings cloud-based integration between Fusion and Cadence Allegro X and OrCAD X. The integrated solution is another example of Autodesk’s commitment to an open ecosystem and to improve collaboration across electronics and mechanical design teams.
Autodesk signs definitive agreement to acquire FlexSim
Autodesk has signed a definitive agreement to acquire FlexSim, a provider of simulation technology that enables factory and logistics center operators to optimize their processes. Through discrete event simulation, or DES, FlexSim’s technology brings the design of a factory or logistics center to life. It puts production flow analysis at the fingertips of operations leaders to surface fundamental business insights that help achieve time and cost objectives.
FlexSim’s factory simulation technology complements Autodesk’s existing factory design solutions. It provides in-depth model analysis, layout scenarios, and process simulation to users of Autodesk Inventor, Revit, Autodesk Construction Cloud, AutoCAD, and Autodesk’s Product Design and Manufacturing Collection. FlexSim will initially be offered in conjunction with Autodesk’s Design and Make Platform, closely aligned with Autodesk Fusion, which integrates CAD, PCB design, CAM, CAE, PLM, and MES software into a single, cloud-based solution.
Transcend Raises $20M Series B to Automate Critical Infrastructure Design
Transcend Software Inc. (“Transcend”), the leading SaaS provider of generative design tools for critical infrastructure, announced today it has closed on its Series B financing round with participation from Autodesk, Inc., a leading software provider for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, product design, and media and entertainment industries. Existing investors HG Ventures, PureTerra and Aspen Capital Group also participated in the round, along with new investors Arosa Capital and Riverstone Holdings LLC.
The investment will allow Transcend to continue to expand its customer base, which already includes many of the leading infrastructure players in the world such as Arcadis, Black and Veatch, Brookfield Asset Management, Anglian Water, Xylem, and Veolia. In less than two years, designs generated through Transcend’s software have already positively impacted the lives of over 100M people in 65 countries around the globe.
Transcend’s market-leading generative design software, the Transcend Design Generator (TDG), fully automates the conceptual and preliminary design of critical infrastructure assets, enabling asset owners to reduce design costs and timelines and prioritizes the incorporation of innovative and sustainable technologies. TDG integrates process, mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering calculations and decisions to automatically generate complete and accurate preliminary engineering designs for a variety of water and power infrastructure projects. The outputs include 3D Building Information Modeling (BIM) models, carbon footprint estimates, equipment lists, operating and capital expenditure calculations, and many others.
New software solution to accelerate manual CAM programming time by 80%, enabling manufacturers to be more productive
CAM Assist – currently available as a plug-in within Autodesk’s Fusion 360 software platform – uses advanced computer science techniques to generate professional machining strategies for 3-axis parts in seconds, which could take CNC machine programmers hours or even days to manually create. As a result, the amount of time it takes to program a CNC machine to make a component – a bottleneck in many factories, due to a global skills shortage – is reduced by up to 80%, compared to the previous manual programming process.
Previously, depending on complexity, it could take a CAM programmer between an hour to several days to determine the best strategy to CNC machine a new component. This includes selecting the correct tools, toolpaths, and techniques – determining between hundreds of thousands of potential variables and approaches.Instead, CAM Assist uses advanced computational optimisation and AI inference techniques to rapidly determine a professional strategy and toolset needed to manufacture a part, along with the most appropriate cutting speeds and feeds from the user’s library.
TOSHULIN is using Generative Design to Transform CNC Machine Design
The digital twin that brings data to the forefront of facilities operations
To achieve operational efficiency, owners have long recognized that good data is key. In fact, 71% of owners say that capturing and retaining more data during design and construction will reduce lifecycle operations costs. That’s according to research by Autodesk and FMI
Design and construction data—housed in building information models or BIM—act as the foundation for visualizing physical assets in digital form. Owners can now make the most of those models by integrating cloud-enabled IT/OT systems that share data. By connecting the data, owners can layer on visualizations of current conditions, analyze historic trends or anomalies, and assess performance.
Makersite partners with Autodesk to bring sustainability into product design
Exciting news for the product design world: In our new partnership with Autodesk, the leader in product design software, Makersite combines environmental impact and cost data with Autodesk Fusion 360’s product design data.
For Industry 4.0 to succeed, manufacturing education must transform
Released today, Transforming Manufacturing Education: The Path to Train the Industry 4.0 Workforce offers perspectives from both industry and academia that help identify the future workflows and skills needed for mechanical engineers, manufacturing engineers, and CNC machinist roles over the next decade.
In the next decade, the manufacturing industry will continue to undergo notable changes through digital transformation and role convergence. While the three roles we analyzed will evolve differently over time, our research showed academia and industry agreed on the rising importance of design for manufacturing (DfM), artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI and ML) across these roles. Impressively, 90% of survey respondents agreed that growing students’ DfM knowledge and skills was the most impactful way for academia to develop the future manufacturing workforce
CloudNC raises $45m to deliver autonomous manufacturing
CloudNC, the company developing advanced software that enables factories to autonomously manufacture precision parts, today announced it has raised $45 million in a Series B round led by Autodesk, with Lockheed Martin and British Patient Capital participating alongside returning investors Atomico and Episode 1 Ventures. The company will use the additional capital to further develop its SaaS offering and roll out at-scale through integrations with CAD/CAM packages such as Autodesk’s platforms, and to expand its unique full-stack manufacturing capability in Essex, United Kingdom.
CloudNC’s technology already provides a significant degree of autonomy. A user can upload a 3D model of any part and, with one click, the software autonomously determines the tools needed, how they will be used and drafts the code to tell a CNC machine how to make it. This software assistance allows factories to be more efficient while upskilling the workforce, since more junior employees are able to operate the machines.
How IGESTEK Produces 40% Lighter Automotive Parts
Autodesk to Acquire The Wild, Extended Reality (XR) Solutions Provider for Immersive and Collaborative Workspaces for Design and Construction
Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire The Wild, a cloud-connected, extended reality (XR) platform, which includes its namesake solutions, The Wild, and IrisVR. The Wild enables architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals to present, collaborate and review projects together in immersive and interactive experiences, from anywhere and at any time. This acquisition enables Autodesk to meet increasing needs for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology advancements within the AEC industry and further support AEC customers throughout the project delivery lifecycle.
Autodesk, ModuleWorks Form Strategic Partnership
The partnership with ModuleWorks gives Autodesk ongoing access to the toolpath calculation algorithms developed by the CAD/CAM specialist ModuleWorks. ModuleWorks components are seamlessly integrated into Fusion 360 to evolve the performance, quality and functionality of its digital manufacturing workflows while maintaining its familiar user experience, according to the company.
Autodesk Acquisitions Support Digital Factory Concept
Autodesk has acquired Prodsmart, a maker of software for optimizing manufacturing processes with automation and digitization. Prodsmart technology provides a real-time system of record for data collection, management and analysis to give production managers insights from order through to shipping, the company says. The company says its new assets are already transforming what it is able to deliver in its Fusion 360 software.
Generative Design for Milling Lightweights EV Motorbike Part
Generative design software uses a set of user-input parameters and constraints to develop efficient part designs. These shapes are often organic forms no human would design on their own, and in its earliest years generative design was locked to additive manufacturing and production methods facilitated by additive manufacturing. Not long after Lightning and Autodesk developed their first iteration of the generatively designed motorcycle swing arm, Autodesk updated its solver to support milling and other conventional manufacturing methods. Design candidates generated for milling generally cannot reach the same level of optimization as their AM siblings, but they are much easier to manufacture while still reducing the weight of the part.
What Is Generative Design, and How Can It Be Used in Manufacturing?
The primary use case of generative design in manufacturing is to automatically trigger design options that are pre-validated to meet the requirements you’ve established. That can be especially important for efficient manufacturing. Sometimes a part or tool must fit into an entrenched workflow or pipeline—methodologically or physically—as part of a larger device or process.
How Construction Robotics Are Transforming Risk Management
“We’re starting to move away from purely tackling deviations on the site,” Maggs says. “It’s obviously valuable to define problems, but the quicker you find a deviation, the more valuable that data is. The destructive impact of a deviation increases the longer it goes unnoticed.
“Finding an off-spec element late in the game can be damaging for the project, so we’re moving more towards risk mitigation and risk allocations,” he continues. “We can also analyze data to identify trends within the construction process and then deliver back insights. That’s much more valuable than raw data alone. It’s providing actionable information around project risks that can help mitigate them.”
How to Design Furniture in Fusion 360: Everything You Need to Know
Recently, we hosted an extensive, week-long workshop on designing furniture in Fusion 360. If you’ve been curious about how to take advantage of workflows that include parametric design and production automation — or even just want to learn the basics — read on because this article is for you. We’ll share each video in the series, along with a brief recap of what you’ll learn from watching. Let’s get started.
Real working Squidgame robot
Before the Flood: How Technology Is Helping Build Water Resilience Around the Globe
At Veolia Water Technologies—a division of global water, waste, and energy management giant Veolia—the company’s developers are working on new ways to prepare cities for the inevitable. They’re applying digital and IoT technologies and predictive analytics to build water-resilience management techniques such as flood modeling, sustainable drainage design, clean water distribution, and resource optimization.
From Logs to Logging On: Paper Machines Built With Digital Manufacturing
ANDRITZ, an Austrian company that manufactures machinery for pulp and paper mills, is using digital manufacturing and artificial-intelligence (AI) processes to save millions of dollars. Skilled workers and engineers on ANDRITZ production lines are now able to take advantage of data-driven support as standard. 3D modeling and digital twins also give ANDRITZ a competitive advantage by guiding operators safely through maintenance and repairs and ensuring transparent access to data.
How Augmented Reality Became a Serious Tool for Manufacturing
Making monsters appear in games like Pokémon Go is not the only application for augmented reality these days. Industry is using the technology too, harnessing CAD data for training workers, standardizing workflows, and enabling collaboration.
AI in Manufacturing: How It's Used and Why It's Important for Future Factories
The fully autonomous factory has always been a provocative vision, much used in speculative fiction. It’s a place that’s nearly unmanned and run entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) systems directing robotic production lines. But this is unlikely to be the way AI will be employed in manufacturing within the practical planning horizon.
The realistic conception of AI in manufacturing looks more like a collection of applications for compact, discrete systems that manage specific manufacturing processes. They will operate more or less autonomously and respond to external events in increasingly intelligent and even humanlike ways—events ranging from a tool wearing out, a system outage, or a fire or natural disaster.
aPriori Secures $26.8M Series C Financing Round
aPriori, the leading provider of enterprise product cost management (PCM) software featuring design for manufacturability (DFM) and cost (DTC) solutions, announces today that the company completed a $26.8M series C financing round. Autodesk led the investment round with participation from other new and existing investors including NewSpring Capital, PBJ Capital, Oyster Angel Fund, Sigma Partners, Sigma Prime Ventures and Gutbrain Ventures. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of a suite of target applications for engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing teams, providing a consistent view of costs and a platform for working together.
Fusion 360 Gets Stronger and Smarter With a New Manufacturing Extension and Cost Insights for Generative Design
aPriori is pleased to announce a new partnership with Autodesk , Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) of San Rafael, CA. The focus of this collaboration will be on the integration of aPriori’s Cost Insight Engine into the Autodesk Fusion 360 generative design workspace. For the first time ever, Fusion 360 customers will be able to generate a manufacturing cost estimate for each design alternative created.