MaterialCenter 2017 Streamlines Material Selection for Product Designs

Material property comparison charts can help engineers choose the right substance for their designs.

MSC Software has released the 2017 version of its material data and process management platform MaterialCenter. Engineers can use MaterialCenter 2017 for their materials development and data reuse libraries. This will help them keep track of material data for everything from simulations to design engineering.

Engineers can use MaterialCenter to assess material property data trends. (Image courtesy of MSC Software.)

MaterialCenter targets engineers working in the aerospace, automotive, defense and heavy machinery industries who are looking for the right substances for their product designs. The new release can perform tasks such as material property comparative analysis using a visual comparison tool.

MaterialCenter is also capable of material data tracking and data management. With the mountain of materials available for products these days, it’s hard for engineers, designers, analysts and original equipment manufacturers to keep track of all of these material properties. Without the correct material properties, a simulation’s accuracy can be called into question. This can slow down development and lead to expensive last-minute redesigns.

MaterialCenter is a unique data management solution because it can interface with various simulation and computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools. The system is also capable of multilevel material property calculations. This will help engineers have the traceability they need throughout the product lifecycle.

New additions to MaterialCenter 2017 include:

  • CAE material model generation
  • New third-party integrations into Creo and CATIA
  • A streamlined work request management system
  • Tools to improve security and compliance

To learn more about MaterialCenter, read “MaterialCenter 2016 Simplifies the Export of Material Data into CAE Solvers” or “Material Data Management Comes to the MSC Ecosystem.”


Written by

Shawn Wasserman

For over 10 years, Shawn Wasserman has informed, inspired and engaged the engineering community through online content. As a senior writer at WTWH media, he produces branded content to help engineers streamline their operations via new tools, technologies and software. While a senior editor at Engineering.com, Shawn wrote stories about CAE, simulation, PLM, CAD, IoT, AI and more. During his time as the blog manager at Ansys, Shawn produced content featuring stories, tips, tricks and interesting use cases for CAE technologies. Shawn holds a master’s degree in Bioengineering from the University of Guelph and an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.