CONCORD, MA, and SOUTHPOINTE, PA, Sep 9, 2009 - ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), a global innovator of simulation software and technologies designed to optimize product development processes, and SpaceClaim, provider of the world’s fastest and most innovative 3D Direct Modeling solutions, today announced a licensing and distribution agreement to offer SpaceClaim 3D Direct Modeling as an option within the ANSYS Simulation Driven Product Development process. This new ANSYS offering will enable product development and design engineers who are not CAD experts to create and modify 3D geometry models. As a result, engineers can import models from any major CAD system, prep with direct modeling, and move simulation earlier in the product development process, where it can have the most impact on design and cost.

ANSYS SpaceClaim Direct Modeler finds and fixes problematic areas, creating clean geometry for meshing and analysis.

Now available to ANSYS engineering customers worldwide, ANSYS® SpaceClaim Direct Modeler™ fully interoperates with ANSYS® 12.0 and 11.0 software as well as ANSYS® Workbench™ 2.0. It is based on SpaceClaim Engineer, a CAD-neutral 3D direct modeler for importing, repairing, and preparing models for intense engineering analysis. Because direct modeling is highly flexible, it empowers a broader cross section of product development engineers to perform 3D modeling. Users may import CAD models without any “baggage,” such as existing parametric or history-based settings. Complex models, for example, can have thousands of parameters, any of which may come into conflict with others when the user attempts to modify the geometry. In contrast, direct modeling imports a clean instance of the 3D model from the native CAD system, leaving behind all history-based parameters.

Building dimensional intelligence into dumb models for parametric studies with ANSYS Workbench

“Together, SpaceClaim and ANSYS provide an optimal environment for streamlined engineering simulation and can help our customers launch products with a higher probability of market success,” said Jim Cashman, president and CEO of ANSYS, Inc. “Our software is intentionally open and flexible, designed so it can interoperate with the broader engineering simulation ecosystem to extend efficiency and functionality. Part of Simulation Driven Product Development is reducing the hand-offs between different functional groups within an organization — because each hand-off is a potential bottleneck. Through this partnership, we empower engineering analysts to create and modify 3D geometry models early in the product development process, then virtually and quickly test their operational performance. The ultimate benefit is beating the competition to market.”
 
ANSYS SpaceClaim Direct Modeler is designed to enable engineering and analysis teams to collaborate more efficiently by facilitating access to 3D models and data across the engineering team. McCormick Stevenson, an engineering consulting firm, has leveraged SpaceClaim and the ANSYS Workbench environment to enable their computer-aided engineering (CAE) team to communicate directly with customers and quickly solve engineering challenges. “As a customer-centric organization, McCormick Stevenson can take models created in any CAD system, import them into SpaceClaim seamlessly, and then prepare them for analysis work in ANSYS Workbench,” said Shane McGoldrick, P.E., advanced mechanical engineer at McCormick Stevenson. “By empowering our CAE team to create and edit CAD designs using direct modeling in SpaceClaim, we’re delivering optimized solutions without time-consuming interoperability issues. We can then provide more value to our customers and help them get products to market faster.”
 
“Global manufacturers must ensure that their engineering teams have the freedom and flexibility to capture ideas quickly, edit solid models easily, and prepare designs for analysis, prototyping and manufacturing with tools created to drive innovation cost effectively,” said Chris Randles, president and CEO of SpaceClaim. “The evolution of SpaceClaim’s 3D Direct Modeling solutions is helping to drive this new era of innovation and, combined with the most comprehensive simulation software from ANSYS, we provide the ideal platform to help organizations significantly improve the concept-to-manufacturing process, while lowering development and manufacturing costs. We welcome this very compelling opportunity to extend our relationship with ANSYS.”

SpaceClaim provides the world’s fastest and most innovative 3D Direct Modeling solutions. SpaceClaim has created a quantum leap in engineering productivity, enabling 3D solid modeling that is accessible to everyone from power users and engineers to part-time designers. Global customers include Nokia Siemens Networks, BorgWarner, Medtronic, Lotus Cars, Sharp, K2 Medical Systems, FuelCell Energy, Emhart Glass, GE Aviation, General Dynamics, and the U.S Navy. SpaceClaim is privately held and backed by Borealis Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, and North Bridge Venture Partners. For more information on SpaceClaim, please visit:  www.spaceclaim.com.