Engineering.com’s roundup of simulation news for the week of Nov. 13/23.
Autodesk University Announcements include AI, AR and VR Goodies for Engineers
At its annual global user conference, Autodesk unveiled two buzzworthy products.
Autodesk AI adds AI functionality to many of the tools within the Autodesk Design and Make Platform. For simulation engineers, this includes tools to simplify conceptual design exploration and generate product designs optimized for manufacturing, performance and cost. There are also new AI tools to help engineers optimize manufacturing methods.
Autodesk Workshop XR offers engineers the ability to experience designs in augmented reality and virtual reality. Engineers will be able to walk through designs, or hold them in the palm of their hands, within a digital world before anything is built, says Autodesk. Though currently targeting the AEC community, it isn’t hard to see this quickly becoming a tool for simulation and product-design engineers.
Virtual Automotive Factories and Autonomous Vehicle Simulations Come to Omniverse Cloud
NVIDIA announced two new simulation tools for its Omniverse Cloud service: a virtual factory simulation engine and an autonomous vehicle (AV) simulation engine. The company said these additions will enable automotive engineers to virtually build, simulate and assess the performance of factories and autonomous vehicles early in their development. Omniverse Cloud already offers automakers the ability to digitize many products and business processes. As these additions align with current market trends, they should help future proof those digitization endeavors.

New Simcenter Systems Simulation Features in 2310
Siemens outlined improvements in the 2310 release of Siemens Systems simulation. They include a new demo set for battery thermal management, an updated refined particle meshing method and a lithium plating detection variable to better assess battery designs. The release also includes a solid-oxide fuel-cell framework to help evaluate the performance of fuel cells in various scenarios. According to a company spokesperson, engineers in the automotive industry will also benefit from a 3D-road generator, a test ground template designer and an electric-vehicle database, while other improvements will benefit engineers specializing in aerospace and defense, fluid dynamics and more.
Altair HPCWorks 2024 Adds AI to Streamline How Engineers Run Simulations
Altair revealed the latest version of its high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud platform HPCWorks 2024, which now includes an AI-assisted user portal to help monitor and optimize how simulations are submitted to computational resources. According to Altair, the tool trains and retrains itself based on the past performances of similar computational loads and can improve throughput by 10 to 15%. The release also includes Altair Liquid Scheduling for PBS Professional, which helps to manage the workload of “next generation” supercomputers, and Altair NavOps, which helps engineers move computationally expensive workloads to the cloud.
Ansys, TSMC and Microsoft Improve Mechanical Stress Simulations for 3D-IC
Ansys, Microsoft and semiconductor manufacturer TSMC unveiled a cloud-based solution to assess the mechanical stresses within 2.5D and 3D integrated circuits (IC) with multi-die systems. The workflow is a part of Ansys Mechanical software, runs on Microsoft Azure and applies to chips produced using TSMC’s 3DFabric advanced packaging technologies. The companies said that with this tool, engineers can assess chip temperature variants to reduce the chances of cracking and shearing electronic connections.
Siemens Acquires Insight EDA to Improve Its IC Verification Technology
Siemens announced that it has acquired Insight EDA Inc., a provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software that can assess IC designs for reliability and potential points of failure. Siemens said the aim of the acquisition is to offer engineers an end-to-end circuit reliability solution when combining Insight’s technology and Calibre PERC, a manufacturing reliability sign-off software which was added to the portfolio after Siemens’ acquisition of Mentor Graphics in 2016.
Arm and Siemens Help Engineers Simulate and Validate Automotive Chipsets
Siemens Digital Industries Software and Arm, a developer of semiconductor technology, announced that Arm’s PAVE360 will be available on AWS cloud services. PAVE360 is designed to help engineers design, simulate and validate automotive software and hardware that use Arm technology. The companies explain that with the cloud’s computational power, engineers can build a virtual twin of a car’s electronic components and assess its performance in near real-time. This will help engineers get cars on the road faster and with less software and hardware issues.