Mechanical Technology July 2015

⎪ Computer-aided engineering ⎪

During June 2015, solidThinking announced the signing of channel partnership agreements with productONE, Rapid3D and Access CAD/CAM to introduce the South African market to solidThinking Inspire ® software and offer support and workshops to customers in the region. MechTech visits the solidThinking stand at Indutec and talks to Gronum Smith (right) the Stellenbosch-based country manager for Altair South Africa. Pre-CAD solutions for advanced topology optimisation

A ltair, the parent company of solidThinking, prides itself on engineering analysis, synthesis and simulation solutions. Its HyperWorks ® offering is described as one of the most “comprehensive open architecture CAE simulation platforms in the industry”, offering “best in class” modelling, linear and non-linear analysis, structural optimisation, fluid and multi- body dynamics simulation, visualisation and data management solutions. “Altair has pioneered pre-CAD engi- neering solutions, which involve getting the engineering analysis right before attempting to develop a complicated 3D CAD model,” says Smith, showing a video of a man weighing a beautifully crafted chair, only for it to collapse when he sits on it. “The overarching philosophy is, before developing a detailed CAD model, a product needs to be thoroughly engineered. There is no point spending hours on an aesthetically pleasing design that is structurally inadequate. Ideally, the physics should be in place first, and it should stay in place throughout the detailed design process,” he suggests. Smith’s involvement with Altair began back in 1993 as a student at Stellenbosch University, where, with a colleague called Frans Meyer, he com- pleted a PhD thesis on electromagnetic field analysis. They started Electromagnetic Software & Systems (EMSS), a company consult- ing in electromagnetic field analysis and were later joined by Ulrich Jakobus, the pioneer of the EM field solver FEKO. “EMSS grew into a local company employing 120 engineers, before being split into three entities, EMSS-Antennas, currently developing antennas for the SKA; EMSS-Consulting, working on a database for safety compliance for mobile networks; and EMSS-SA, for advancing FEKO functionality for electromagnetic modelling and simulation software for antenna and RF component design, antenna placement, electromagnetic

compatibility, EMC/EMI and scattering analysis. I stayed with FEKO working on solutions for local customers such as CSIR, Denel and Poynting, amongst others,” Smith tells MechTech . FEKO software was picked up by European customers in the automotive industry, to model antennas on cars for receiving wireless sensor signals, such as those from tyre pressure monitors. It was used to design windscreen-embedded and traditional communication antennas for car roofs. “We became strong in the European automotive industry, while in the US, we focused on defence, model- ling RADAR and antenna placement on aircraft, for example,” he adds. “Our relationship with Altair spans back more than 15 years when Boeing was using FEKO as an EM field solver and HyperMesh as an advanced FEA pre- processor. FEKO was later one of the first products to be included in Altair’s Partner Alliance (APA),” Smith says. The APA provides HyperWorks’ cus- tomers access to a broad spectrum of complementary software tools for many simulation disciplines. “Altair does a lot of things differently,” explains Smith. “Instead of supplying and licensing software for each separate application, customers with a leased HyperWorks license have direct access to the full suite of tools,” which consist of multi-physics analysis tools for almost every field of en- gineering analysis, including FEA (finite element analysis), CFD (computational fluid dynamics); NVH (noise vibration and harshness); impact, durability and fatigue; electromagnetic modelling; manufacturing and thermal analysis; multi-body dynamics; composite model- ling and many more. “EMSS South Africa and the subsidiar- ies in USA, Germany and China were ac- quired by Altair in June 2014, which saw the FEKO electromagnetic field solver being added to the HyperWorks suite. As a consequence, our Stellenbosch office became the latest Altair office, making

the full benefits of Altair’s business model and software tools available in the South African market,” Smith reveals. solidThinking Inspire The solidThinking set of tools is aimed at structural analysis and optimisation, as a precursor to full-scale CAD (pre-CAD). “Concern has been expressed that solid- Thinking competes with traditional CAD products, but the fact is that Inspire’s power is in early design exploration and, globally, it is sold by companies who also sell CAD packages such as PTC Creo, SolidWorks, Solid Edge and ZW3D.” Altair’s solidThinking puts high level analysis tools in the hands of designers so that CAD users can focus on the detailing without worrying quite so much about the structural or functional engineering side,” Smith assures. “Company’s such as productONE are ideal local partners and solidThinking products will comple- ment their product and service offerings,” he adds. Describing its typical use, Smith says: “Any company looking at lightweighting in product design has three basic options: using advanced materials; changing the topology/geometry; or redesigning the entire product,” he says. Value can be added through the design for Additive Manufacturing (AM) by increasing performance, i.e. more complex shapes leverage the freedom of AM; lifecycle cost reduction; design cycle reduction; and lastly functional integration. “Three fundamental question apply: How can a designer come up with the best possible shape? How can the engi- neer draw this best possible shape? And how can this shape be manufactured?

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Mechanical Technology — July 2015