Altair Engineering Opens High-Powered Data Center to Support Cloud-Based HyperWorks On-Demand

New center in Troy, Mich., will manage large-scale high-performance computing jobs for customers.

Altair Engineering, Inc., today announced the opening of an exceptionally high-powered data center in Troy, Mich., this month to house and manage its growing HyperWorks On-Demand cloud-based computer-aided engineering (CAE) solution for customers who rely on high-performance computing.

HyperWorks On-Demand (HWOD) is a high-performance computing (HPC) solution for design innovation in the cloud. HWOD leverages Altair’s patented licensing system, providing access to Altair’s HyperWorks CAE software and a modern, scalable HPC infrastructure through a secure and efficient Web-based platform.

The data center enables Altair to scale HWOD up to more than 10,000 cores for computer simulation projects. In fact, it can support as many as 150 large-scale engineering solver jobs running simultaneously, employing Altair’s solvers RADIOSS, OptiStruct and AcuSolve along with other tools in the HyperWorks family of simulation software.

“Companies often turn to HyperWorks On-Demand because they have outgrown their internal capacity or do not have the resources internally to manage high-performance computing equipment,” said Altair Chief Information Officer Martin Nichols. “HyperWorks On-Demand provides all our HyperWorks products as a cloud service, and this data center allows us to scale up to provide much larger on-demand clusters for our customers.”

Unlike most other cloud services, HWOD provides true HPC for its end users. This means that customer simulations – which can require substantial resources and can run for several days – are run as fast as possible.

HPC requires extensive infrastructure in addition to just the computers. Things such as backup generators, uninterruptible power supplies, water-cooling capabilities, systems administration, operators, and high security are all necessary elements that are often out of reach for many small and midsized engineering departments. Companies gain access to a robust, resilient and secure HPC environment when they use the HWOD services that will be hosted in the new data center. Thanks to its domain expertise and sophisticated cloud stack, Altair can also provide turnkey and configurable private cloud solutions, offering all the efficiency and flexibility of HWOD completely within the customer’s firewall.

The data center is a scalable, modular facility that can be easily extended internally and has the capability to be interconnected with similar adjacent modular facilities in the future.

“Our HyperWorks On-Demand data center essentially fits the power of an entire building of high-performance computers into a single room, making it feasible now for medium to large-sized organizations to access substantial computing resources via Altair’s private cloud,” Nichols noted. “The compute-power density of this center is phenomenal, far higher than that of a standard commercial data center. Altair’s is much more similar to a scientific super-computing installation.”

The data center is situated about 3.5 miles from Altair’s headquarters and incorporates extensive physical and cyber security measures. It is monitored inside and outside by video surveillance, night-vision cameras and sensors. Firewall devices protect data both entering and exiting the facility’s computing equipment.

Construction of the data center was completed this week, and Altair is in the process of expanding its current HWOD capabilities to be relocated to the new facility within the next month. The expanded HWOD will be fully up-and-running in the new data center by early 2012.

StressCheck, the Newest HyperWorks Partner Alliance Application, Expands Altair's FEA Capabilities

HyperWorks customers can access StressCheck by ESRD through the flexible and cost-effective HyperWorks licensing model.

Altair, developer of the popular HyperWorks computer-aided engineering software, today announced the official release of StressCheck by Engineering Software Research & Development, Inc. (ESRD) in the HyperWorks Partner Alliance. StressCheck complements Altair’s finite element analysis (FEA) solver, RADIOSS, supporting detailed structural and strength analyses including multi-body contact and computation of fracture mechanics parameters for metallic and composite parts. ESRD is renowned in the aerospace industry, but increasing requirements for detailed FEA and stress analysis in mechanical and structural engineering of all types make StressCheck a strategic addition to the HyperWorks Partner Alliance (HWPA). HyperWorks users will be able to access StressCheck from the HWPA website at www.hyperworksalliance.com.

“ESRD is pleased to join the HyperWorks Partner Alliance and enter into new markets through Altair’s global sales and marketing efforts,” said Dr. Anil K Mehta, senior vice president of business development at ESRD, Inc. “StressCheck is well known for its advanced technical capabilities in the aerospace industry. HyperWorks customers, especially in the automotive and turbo-machinery industries, will benefit from its verified stress analysis capabilities, as well as its unique functionalities in laminated composites, fatigue and damage tolerance analyses. StressCheck provides a framework for standardization of simulation practices in a scalable electronic handbook in support of the accumulation and management of expert-designed solutions."

HyperWorks customers can access StressCheck through the HWPA, a suite of third-party partner applications that can be accessed with the same units used to invoke Altair HyperWorks software. The flexibility of these HyperWorks Units empowers users to deploy the largest and most complete suite of CAE applications available at no incremental cost or long-term commitment.

“ESRD's StressCheck is a strategic addition to our HyperWorks Partner Alliance,” said Robert Yancey, executive director – global aerospace at Altair. “Detailed stress and fracture analysis, especially for composite structures, is very important in the Aerospace sector. Coupled with Altair’s optimization technology, ESRD's StressCheck will provide a broader set of options to our customers when optimizing the design of metallic and composite structures. ”

The HWPA strives to provide the most comprehensive offering of software applications across multiple relevant domains related to computer-aided engineering. The addition of ESRD further enhances the flexibility of the HyperWorks Units and the overall value of Altair HyperWorks.

Engineering Software Research and Development, Inc. (ESRD), founded in 1989, develops advanced engineering software products and offers professional services in this area. ESRD's flagship software product is StressCheck, an advanced FEA tool based on the p-version finite element analysis method. StressCheck is a leader among p-FEA structural and strength analysis software and is the only FEA product in existence that was designed to meet the technical requirements of simulation governance.

Altair Engineering Receives Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility

Altair Engineering, Inc today announced that the company has been honored with a 2011 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. As part of the When Work Works research initiative, the annual award recognizes employers that enhance business and employee success by fostering flexible work environments.

The honorees are chosen based on an initial employer application and subsequent employee insights gathered through an online survey.

“Our employees are our greatest asset, and we strive to demonstrate our appreciation for their dedication by cultivating a positive work environment and culture,” said Jim Scapa, chairman and CEO of Altair. “Knowing that we have received this award in large part thanks to our employee feedback and participation in the process is encouraging.”

Altair has integrated a variety of initiatives and policies in an effort to improve work-life balance and employee satisfaction. Among these include providing technology to enable remote working arrangements, inviting staff to receive a massage by an on-site therapist during work hours, and encouraging wellness by incorporating fresh-food vending options and having in-house exercise facilities. In addition, Altair has introduced a health clinic within its world headquarters, which provides employees – and their families – access to a nurse practitioner who can address common health concerns, allowing employees to avoid a time-consuming trip to the doctor.

“The response to these programs has been outstanding,” said Scapa. “Altair will continue to explore opportunities to enhance our employees’ day-to-day environment.”

When Work Works is a project of the Families and Work Institute in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Competitive Workforce and the Twiga Foundation, with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Advanced Utility Systems and HiQube Partner to Deliver CIS Analytics Solution

Integration of Harris subsidiary's CIS Infinity® solution with Altair’s HiQube® business intelligence platform offers unprecedented analytics capabilities to enhance customer service and operations.

HiQube, a division of Altair Engineering, Inc., and Advanced Utility Systems (Advanced), a division of N. Harris Computer Corporation, today announced a multi-year, non-exclusive agreement to develop and market a business analytics solution for Advanced’s CIS Infinity® utility customers. Branded as Infinity.BI, the stand-alone customer information systems (CIS) analytics solution will provide powerful new business analytics capabilities for Advanced’s CIS Infinity utility customers.

Through a direct integration of Altair’s HiQube business intelligence (BI) platform and Advanced’s CIS Infinity solution, Infinity.BI will be sold as a rapidly deployed business analytics module providing a rich set of standard dynamic reports and performance dashboards addressing critical operational and customer service metrics for utilities.

“More and more, utilities are requiring advanced BI functionality as part of their overall CIS deployment,” said Peter Fanous, general manager of Advanced Utility Systems. “Customer service, operational performance and smart grid initiatives are driving this demand and over the last year and a half we have evaluated many potential BI solution partners. We found that HiQube’s technology and scalability addresses both our short and long-term BI strategy and we are thrilled with what this partnership will offer CIS Infinity customers.”

The initial Infinity.BI solution will include self-service analytics functionality to analyze revenue and service consumption, cash flow, collections, service customer move-in/out activity, customer call volume and service orders. Additionally, Infinity.BI can be extended beyond the standard core offering to address utility-specific rate scheduling analysis and optimization, additional data store connections, branding, reports, dashboards, and performance metrics through consulting services agreements.

“The utility industry is in a state of transformational change in both business processes and operations infrastructure,” said Michael J. Kidder, senior vice president of marketing and OEM partnerships for HiQube. “Now more than ever, the ability to quickly explore and analyze large data stores of customer information without requiring a specialized and dedicated hardware appliance is essential to optimize rate schedules and time-of-use pricing while ensuring the highest level of customer service. We are very excited about partnering with Advanced to deliver a scalable and extensible analytics solution that accelerates robust decision-making for CIS Infinity customers today and in the future.”

Infinity.BI will be unveiled to the public during the 2011 Harris Customer Conference, Nov. 16-18, 2011 in Anaheim, Calif. As a platinum sponsor, HiQube will introduce and provide a live demonstration of Infinity.BI on Nov. 16 at 12:30 p.m. as part of Advanced’s customer-focused workshop series program. One-on-one live demonstrations also will be made available throughout the conference at HiQube’s exhibition booth (#P1).

Commercial availability of Infinity.BI is expected in early Q1 2012 following the successful completion of a detailed beta evaluation program with select utilities that comprise Advanced’s Executive Steering Committee.

Altair Receives Top Honors in 2011 HPCwire Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards

Altair Engineering, Inc has been recognized in the annual HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards, presented at the 2011 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC ‘11), in Seattle. The list of winners was revealed at an evening reception on Nov.14, and simultaneously announced on the HPCwire website, located at www.HPCwire.com. Altair was recognized with the following honors:

Readers’ Choice, Best use of HPC in automotive: Altair’s PBS Works, a suite of on-demand cloud computing technologies that optimizes workload scheduling and management of complex jobs in the HPC environment to ensure that technologies are used to their greatest efficiency. It enables enterprises to maximize efficient use of their computing resources and to initiate HPC jobs rapidly, thereby improving their overall productivity and return on investment. PBS Works is the most widely implemented software environment to optimize grid, cloud, cluster and on-demand computing worldwide.

Readers’ Choice, Best use of HPC in the Oil & Gas industry: Altair’s HyperWorks, a simulation solution suite for rapid design exploration and decision-making, maximizing the power of HPC through superior scalability, quality and repeatability of its CAE solvers, combined with the value-based licensing model.

Altair is the only software and services provider that touches all of the major sectors of cloud, including apps, middleware, SaaS and HPC. Altair will soon release two new job submission and monitoring portals: Compute ManagerTM, which will enable users to run, monitor and manage workloads on distributed resources remotely, and PBS DesktopTM, which will launch jobs from workstations to any server running PBS Professional.

“In Altair’s 26-year history, our comprehensive solutions, from HyperWorks, to PBS Professional, to our complementary simulation, optimization and HPC-focused software tools, have been crucial to various industries worldwide,” said Jim Scapa, Chairman and CEO of Altair. “The honors we have received from HPCwire are most significant because they represent recognition from our user base, the customers we strive to make smarter HPC environments and solutions for every day.”

The highly-coveted HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards are determined through online polling of the global HPCwire audience for the Readers’ Choice Awards, along with a rigorous selection process involving HPCwire editors and industry luminaries to determine the Editors’ Choice Awards recipients. The awards are an annual feature of the publication and constitute prestigious recognition from the HPC community. The awards are revealed during the Monday opening reception at the Supercomputing Conference each year, which showcases high performance computing, networking, storage, and data analysis.

"HPCwire readers are regarded as amongst the most discerning in the HPC community, and these awards highlight Altair as one of the HPC-related companies that is making the biggest impact this year within this populace,” said Tom Tabor, publisher of HPCwire. "The HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards send a succinct message to the recipients that their peers globally across the HPC community recognize their work, and consider their efforts exemplary. Our congratulations go out to Altair and its business units.”

Altair’s receipt of the HPCwire Readers’ Choice Awards is one of the latest is a series of recent awards and recognitions earned by the company. On Nov. 14, Altair was also awarded the Intel® Cluster Ready top partner award, the Pathfinder award, which acknowledges partners that are creating new paths in supercomputing. Intel® recognized Altair for driving innovation to continually reduce complexities of HPC cluster system usage by integrating Intel® Cluster Checker into job execution work flow.

Altair Appoints Miles Mahoney as President of Its HiQube Business Intelligence Software Division

Proven BI industry corporate executive will lead HiQube’s global operations and partner strategy.

Altair Engineering, Inc today announced the appointment of Miles Mahoney as president of its HiQube business intelligence software division. Mahoney, whose nearly 20 years of experience includes officer-level positions with Crystal Decisions, Business Objects and SAS, will be responsible for setting the vision and strategy to grow HiQube’s business globally, with an emphasis on alliances with system integrators, OEM partners and value-added resellers.

Mahoney joins HiQube after serving as president and COO of Denver-based EverGreen Energy, which developed the world’s most accurate tool for the scientific measurement and management of greenhouse gas emissions. There, Mahoney was responsible for global financial performance and the company’s sales infrastructure and marketing, as well as business development relationships with Deloitte, IBM, SAP and other major independent software vendors and system integrators.

“HiQube is a visionary technology that is setting new directions for the future of business intelligence,” said Mahoney. “I feel fortunate to have this opportunity to guide an aggressive growth and support strategy for HiQube globally through direct and indirect channels.”

Earlier, Mahoney was a vice president and general manager at SAS Institute, developing its first-ever global alliances, OEM and channel/distribution business. As a vice president of the global channel and system integrator business at Crystal Decisions, later Business Objects, Mahoney built a world-class alliance organization from a $5 million unit into a $60 million business. Mahoney’s career also has included positions as senior vice president at Day Corporation, national sales manager for Infinium software and financial analyst for Dun and Bradstreet.

“Miles has an impressive record of building successful channel-partner, direct-sales and operational organizations,” said Altair Chairman and CEO James Scapa. “His appointment represents an important stage of Altair’s commitment to advancing a new generation of BI technology to help guide faster, more robust decisions to minimize business risk and optimize performance.”

Mahoney’s educational background has been focused on business leadership. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in finance from Montana State University, Billings, and an MBA in business strategy from Pepperdine University.

Value of the Unit Reaches New Heights as the HWPA Expands its Suite of On-Demand Partner Applications

Altair reaches agreements to offer four new partner applications through its flexible and cost effective licensing model.

Altair Engineering today announced the signing of agreements with four new software partners to offer their products through the HyperWorks Partner Alliance (HWPA). Engineering Software Research & Development, Inc. (ESRD) plans to release its stress analysis tool StressCheck in December 2011. Key to Metals AG will release its comprehensive metals database in January 2012. Ontonix, which develops the complexity management software OntoSpace, and ThermoAnalytics, which develops the thermal simulation and heat transfer software RadTherm, will be made available in the first quarter of 2012. HyperWorks users will be able to access these applications from the HWPA website at www.hyperworksalliance.com.

Over 100 new customers will have joined the HWPA by the end of 2011 alone, with well over 500 joining since the program’s inception in 2008. Altair customers can access the entire suite of HyperWorks software as well as the growing number of partner applications using a common pool of recyclable tokens called HyperWorks Units. With these flexible units, users have the ability access the largest and most complete suite of CAE applications available, at no incremental cost or long-term commitment.

StressCheck by ESRD, one of the new additions to the HyperWorks Partner Alliance, is an advanced finite element stress analysis and design tool that supports verification and virtual experimentation in mechanical, structural and aerospace engineering. “StressCheck is an advanced FEA product that complements conventional engineering simulation tools,” says Dr. Anil K Mehta, Senior Vice President of Business Development at ESRD, Inc. “The capabilities of StressCheck support advanced solution methods in linear elasticity, multi-body contact, geometric and material nonlinearities, modal and buckling analysis, fracture mechanics, and laminate composite analysis, and provide automatic, accurate, verified convergence of any FE result.”

The second new Partner, Key to Metals AG, develops the KEY to METALS Database, the world’s most comprehensive resource for metal properties available. “The KEY to METALS database is an invaluable tool for engineers requiring in-depth, accurate material property information without the need for time consuming research through the masses of literature out there. This comprehensive resource empowers users to make decisions in the design phase that can drastically improve accuracy of predictive material behavior under a range of conditions and therefore help secure the quality and reliability of the finished product,” says Dr. Viktor Pocajt, CEO of Key to Metals AG. “The HyperWorks Partner Alliance distribution model allows Altair customers the unique ability to access KEY to METALS and other Partner applications on-demand. The ease of deployment will help us expose new users to KEY to METALS and expand our market share globally. ”The Key to Metals database holds property data for over 175,000 alloys, from 57 countries and standards across the world. Supported in 19 languages, the data allows effortless comparison and equivalent identification using its powerful cross referencing capability. The seamlessly integrated Key to Metals advanced property module dataset provides an unparalleled material property resource for advanced structural calculations and analysis including stress strain diagrams, fatigue data and more for thousands of materials. In the future, Key to Metals plans to extend its database to include plastic and ceramic properties as well.

Ontonix develops OntoSpace, the world’s first system to measure and manage complexity. High complexity of products and systems is a prelude to inefficiency and vulnerability; therefore it becomes necessary to use a measure of product complexity as a design attribute. Technology developed by Ontonix allows engineers to conceive new solutions and designs while keeping complexity in the CAE loop from day one. "Along with stresses, frequencies, or fatigue life, complexity can also become a design target,” says Dr. J. Marczyk, Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Ontonix. “If CAE is to cope with the inevitable increase of product complexity, complexity must enter the CAE loop. "OntoSpace also provides a unique measure of system robustness. Computation of robustness is based on data produced by Monte Carlo Simulation, Design of Experiments, Parametric/Sensitivity studies, or time-domain simulations, enabling engineers to exploit their expansive amounts of existing data to the fullest extent.

RadTherm is a thermal management tool from ThermoAnalytics that simulates steady state and transient heat transfer behavior, allowing users to maximize their engineering design tradeoffs in the early stages of development and then optimize and validate their final product designs. With RadTherm, you can analyze 3D conduction, total radiation exchange, and convection/advection under realistic boundary conditions including natural environments. All functions are integrated into one carefully designed graphical user interface, allowing users to analyze designs with simplicity, speed, and accuracy.
RadTherm, when combined with the powerful human thermal comfort module allows design engineers to develop total thermal solutions to their automotive cabin designs thus reducing fuel/energy usage and increasing occupant thermal comfort. Other advanced specialty modules include the battery thermal-electric and the solid 3D conduction modules. These sophisticated modules in conjunction with RadTherm provide the capability to optimize HVAC systems, analyze Lithium-Ion batteries at the cell, pack, or full battery management system level, and predict thermal gradients within complex structural designs. “The RadTherm software package has become a popular thermal management CAE tool in the automotive, aerospace, architectural, and military communities for solving heat transfer problems and producing comprehensive thermal management solutions,” says Keith Johnson, CEO of ThermoAnalytics, Inc.

The HyperWorks Partner Alliance strives to provide the most comprehensive offering of software applications across multiple relevant domains related to Computer Aided Engineering. The addition of ESRD, Key to Metals, Ontonix, and ThermoAnalytics brings the total number of participating partners to 17; further enhancing the flexibility of the HyperWorks Unit and the overall value of Altair’s HyperWorks offering.

Altair and Cellbond Partner to Create Industry's Most Accurate Virtual Crash-Test Barriers

New finite-element-analysis barrier models for U.S. and European testing are built on Cellbond’s decades of experience with physical crash barriers and Altair’s world-leading crash-test solutions.

Altair Engineering, Inc today announced the release of the first simulation model to emerge from its partnership with U.K.-based test barrier supplier Cellbond, a highly accurate and reliable finite-element-analysis (FEA) barrier model for virtual side impact crash testing.

Cellbond is one of the world’s foremost developers of physical barriers for crash testing, employing a composite honeycomb technology to create energy-absorption structures. As a result of a recent agreement between Altair and Cellbond, Altair has been able to incorporate all the data that Cellbond has gathered regarding material properties and barrier design into virtual barriers for use with RADIOSS, Altair’s complete finite element solver for structural analysis found in its HyperWorks CAE software suite. Altair has built these models on findings from decades of Cellbond work to define material characteristics, barrier geometries, drawings and physical test results.

Altair is developing a series of such models for use in simulating front-end and side-impact crashes that meet U.S. NHTSA and IIHS standards and for European standards, as well.

“Altair’s joint project with Cellbond offers automotive companies a heightened degree of confidence in the integrity of barrier models,” said James Brancheau, Altair’s Chief Technical Officer. “With Altair’s barrier models, designers and test engineers can anticipate a high level of correlation between virtual barrier crashes and physical crash testing, eliminating any potential problems with barrier simulation from the virtual crash-test equation. Through this and other industry partnerships, Altair now integrates world-leading crash-test analysis software, virtual barriers and occupant dummies with one of the industry’s most efficient and flexible solvers, RADIOSS from our HyperWorks suite.”

Many auto companies have developed their own barrier models in house – Altair’s models now offer levels of accuracy and comprehensiveness that are unprecedented in the industry.

Altair has been working in collaboration with Cellbond to develop the new FEA barrier models since August 2010 and now is offering the first of more than half a dozen anticipated models designed exclusively for RADIOSS applications.

“Our partnership with Altair enables Cellbond to advance its leadership in the crash-test arena,” said Petros Goutas, Business Development Manager for Cellbond. “With our decades of experience with physical crash testing, our own work with FEA models and our ability to complement Altair’s suite of crash-test software, we are looking forward to broadening our impact on automotive design and safety.”

Altair's PBS Works to Optimize Software for Intel® MIC Architecture

Altair Engineering, Inc., a leading global provider of simulation and advanced computing software solutions, announced today that PBS Works™ has partnered with Intel Corporation to optimize its software for future Intel® Many Integrated Core (Intel® MIC) products . The strategic partnership was formed to proactively ensure that as the first commercially available Intel MIC product, codenamed “Knights Corner,” is launched broadly, PBS Professional will be able to seamlessly schedule jobs onto both Intel Xeon processors and Intel MIC co-processors without requiring additional technical support.

“Altair and Intel have worked closely together for many years and it is an honor to be part of this important development phase with Intel MIC,” said Bill Nitzberg, CTO of PBS Works. “We are confident that the insight and expertise we have provided to Intel on hardware and software development environments, specifically those related to optimizing workload scheduling and management in the HPC environment, will ensure Altair’s PBS Works and HyperWorks customers will be ready for Intel MIC when it launches.”

Intel has provided Altair early access to the Intel MIC software development platform, codenamed “Knights Ferry,” and early versions of the software stack. The advance integration efforts between the two companies will help ensure seamless integration of PBS Professional, Altair’s EAL3+ security certified commercial-grade high-performance computing (HPC) workload management solution.

Key benefits of optimizing PBS Works for Intel MIC include:

Access to Altair solvers, beginning with RADIOSS, enabling Intel customers to take advantage of the advances in speed, performance and capability that Intel MIC architecture can bring.
Access to PBS Professional, allowing organizations to maximize efficient use of their computing resources and to rapidly initiate HPC jobs, improving overall productivity and return on investment.

“The ‘Knights Ferry’ program allows us to gain valuable insight from our partners and ensures that Intel® MIC architecture, the latest breakthrough in high performance computing, has full software support for a variety of usage models when it launches,” said Paresh Pattani, Intel’s director of HPC and Many Core computing. “We are pleased to partner with Altair to enable PBS Works, a key ingredient for HPC workload management.”

Intel processors are used in more than 80 percent of the world’s supercomputers. To learn more about PBS Professional and Intel MIC, join PBS Works for a presentation in Intel’s booth (#2121) at SC11 or visit Altair’s booth (#2531).

Ryohin Keikaku Expands HiQube Deployment Throughout Japanese Retail Store Chain

MUJI brand manufacturer and retailer goes live with HiQube analytics countrywide.

Altair Engineering, Inc. announced today that Ryohin Keikaku, manufacturer and retailer of the popular MUJI brand, has expanded its deployment of Altair’s HiQube® simulation-driven business intelligence and data analytics solution throughout all 268 MUJI retail stores (as of August, 2011) in Japan, as well as its head office. The HiQube expansion reduces reporting time by 50 percent and shares tailored, Web-based analytics of all stores across the entire organization, speeding communication and decision-making.

MUJI, which started as a private brand of The Seiyu, Ltd. in December 1980 with only 40 products, has grown and now offers more than 7,000 products. Ryohin Keikaku was spun off from Seiyu in 1989 and became a manufacturer/retailer for the planning, development, production, distribution and sale of MUJI products, which include diverse necessities such as clothes, household articles and food. Today with more than 4,900 direct employees and more than $2.1 billion in annual sales, Ryohin Keikaku has been steadily developing its design concept and the popularity of its products sold under the MUJI brand is spreading worldwide.

”The growth and continued success of the MUJI brand relies in our ability to act on free ideas founded on accurate, timely information throughout our corporate and retail stores and continuous activities for improvement,” says Kenji Takeuchi, general manager of accounting and finance at Ryohin Keikaku. “HiQube has allowed us to accelerate our enterprise aggregations and reporting while providing the ability to deliver on-demand, store-specific views through its interactive web client.”

Ryohin Keikaku is firmly committed to world-class information systems with enthusiasm for new challenges. HiQube’s addition to their software stack now allows Ryohin Keikaku to aggregate pertinent data, most notably their management accounting data, residing in various business systems to automate reporting activities and analyze their business at a much higher levels of granularity.

“Our previous reporting process was manually intensive and required the management of complex spreadsheets and email distribution of static PDF reports to each store,” said Takeuchi. “With HiQube, we have improved reporting accuracy and cut month end reporting by more than 50 percent. Moreover, with data management on routine basis, we reduce the annual reporting from one month to one day.”

“Since our first deployment in 2009, it’s been a very rewarding experience to have had the opportunity to work side by side with a dynamic, leading retailer like Ryohin Keikaku to support its reporting and analytics needs,” say Tsunaki Kawamoto, HiQube sales and partner manager for Japan. “The multi-dimensional nature and enormity of the data they are dealing with, exceeding the capabilities of Excel, was a perfect application for HiQube. We greatly appreciate Ryohin’s selection of HiQube and look forward to continuing our support now and into the future.”

Growth Momentum Propels Altair Engineering to Top Level of the World's Leading CAE Software Companies

Expansion of executive leadership team, significant growth in key markets and sectors, mark a milestone year for Altair.

Altair Engineering, Inc today affirmed that its growth year-to-date has propelled Altair to the top spot as the world’s largest privately held computer-aided engineering (CAE) software development company. Altair’s 2011 global revenue are solidly on track to exceed $200 million, up more than 20 percent from 2010 global revenue.

Furthermore, Altair announced that its growing momentum will be guided by an expanded executive leadership team, extending its technical and financial strength through the appointments of Tom Perring, Norma Jean Zaleski and Martin Nichols to key executive leadership positions. Zaleski has been appointed chief financial officer; Nichols has been named chief information officer; and Perring was promoted to chief administrative officer.

Previously Altair’s chief financial officer, Perring has assumed responsibility for legal oversight, IT systems, purchasing, administration and facilities in his newly established role as chief administrative officer. His leadership helped position Altair as one of America’s most fiscally sound private corporations. Perring joined Altair in 1993 and has since served as director of finance, chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Earlier he worked for 15 years in managing large-scale software development projects at Chrysler Corporation and CIMLINC, Inc.

As chief financial officer, Zaleski is responsible for Altair’s global corporate financial reporting and overall financial strategy. She was previously Altair’s director of accounting and financial reporting. Prior to joining the company, Zaleski held several senior finance positions for such corporations as Acument (formerly Textron Fastening Systems) and Honeywell, including vice president of finance for the Americas and Asian operations of Honeywell Friction Materials, and director of global financial planning and analysis. She began her career as a CPA and held various positions in this regard at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she focused on mergers and acquisitions advisory and assurance services.

As chief information officer, Nichols oversees Altair’s enterprise business systems, technology partnerships and programs, and corporate human resources. He was previously Altair’s executive vice president of global alliances and operations. His role included oversight of Altair’s partnering and alliance activities, as well as sales operations. Since joining Altair in 1992, Nichols’ accomplishments include opening and managing Altair’s UK operation as well as directly managing the Altair China operation in Shanghai. He also spearheaded the establishment of Altair’s operations, business presence and distribution channels in several other major global markets, including Spain, France, India and Brazil.

The newly named officers will build on Altair’s consistent record of compound annual growth exceeding 20 percent throughout its 26-year history. During 2011, Altair’s success has been reflected in its rapidly escalating work for companies in the automotive and aerospace sectors. Today, Altair operates from offices in 16 countries, including new locations in Madrid and Montreal, and it now serves more than 4,000 customers worldwide.

“Altair’s momentum during this dynamic period in CAE and challenging manufacturing climate validates the high value that customers find in our technology, consulting services and full-circle approach to product development,” said Jim Scapa, chairman and CEO of Altair Engineering. “As organizations accelerate the role and significance of simulation in their global design, engineering and manufacturing strategies, we expect that Altair will continue to play a vital role in enabling and strengthening their innovation.”

Perkins Selects solidThinking Inspired for Industrial Engine Structural Optimisation

Altair Engineering, Inc announced today that Global engine manufacturer Perkins has deployed solidThinking Inspired to optimise the design of industrial engine components.

“Perkins has a reputation for delivering durable, long lasting industrial engines,” said Martin Dirker, Engineering Team Leader at Perkins Engines. “We were looking for an affordable tool that could help us optimise the design of our engine brackets to meet stiffness targets and reduce overall design iteration time.”

In 2011, Perkins invested in solidThinking Inspired 3D conceptual design software to help visualise, explore and evaluate designs in less time.

“solidThinking Inspired has helped us optimise bracket designs to meet stiffness targets and therefore improve the overall system stiffness by more than 10 times,” said Martin Dirker. “We have also significantly reduced the design iteration time. Whereas we were previously taking up to two weeks to optimise a single component, we are now able to do this in just an afternoon. This means that we have been able to reduce the overall design time from six weeks to just over four weeks.”

The ability to use Pro Engineer geometry directly, together with the ease of learning the software, were key drivers for Perkins’s selection of solidThinking Inspired.

“We know about Altair and are very enthusiastic about solidThinking,” added Martin Dirker. “It’s easy to use, delivers results quickly and has given us the confidence to meet our targets. solidThinking Inspired has impressed us and is the most effective structural optimisation tool I’ve worked with.”

“We are very pleased to see Perkins Engines use our tools to enhance their development processes,” said David Mason, Managing Director, Altair Engineering, U.K. “solidThinking is the industrial design software of choice that is redefining the way CAD models are visualised and optimised. It accelerates the overall design time and offers customers a cost-effective solution. I expect to see more manufacturing companies in the U.K. turning to solidThinking Inspired thanks to the business benefits the product offers.”

Altair Engineering Internship Program to Offer Real-World Experience and Employment Opportunities to Students

Altair will choose two university sophomore students for paid internships.

Altair Engineering, Inc today announced that it will select two engineering students to participate in a paid, two-summer internship program during 2012 and 2013. The initiative is part of Altair’s ongoing internship program that will extend to future years as well, as new students cycle into the program annually.

Those eligible for the internships include engineering students who will be completing their sophomore year in 2012 and are enrolled in ABET-accredited engineering programs in the United States. Students can apply by visiting www.altair.com/careers and clicking on the University Internship Program tab.

Altair created the program to enable students to learn the fundamentals of computer-aided engineering (CAE), a crucial discipline for developing simulations that businesses use for designing and perfecting everything from automobiles and airlines to computer chips and golf clubs.

The students will gain the opportunity to work closely with experts at Altair, a high-tech global engineering firm known for its CAE software and consulting services for engineering, computing and business analytics. The company employs more than 1,500 people in North America, South America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. Altair’s HyperWorks is one of the world’s most popular suites of computer-aided engineering software, offering sophisticated capabilities for finite element analysis and computer simulation.

For the internship program, Altair is interested in candidates who are pursuing concentrations in mechanical, civil or aerospace engineering. Students applying for the positions will be evaluated on their desire for computer-simulation careers, aptitude for CAE and academic performance.

The two students who are selected will complete a paid summer internship in the HyperWorks support organization in 2012. They will work with industry customers, project management teams, the HyperWorks sales force and other Altair business units. In the summer of 2013, the same students will return for an internship with Altair’s ProductDesign division, learning how the design process takes place within a simulation-driven engineering project.

Interns who complete the two-summer program will be reviewed for possible fulltime employment at Altair’s headquarters in Troy, Mich., or on-site with one of Altair’s industry-leading customers or partners.

The summer internships complement Altair’s longstanding programs in the educational community that are focused on providing collaboration tools and access to the company’s world-class technology and engineering expertise. Graduates of Altair’s program often have moved into rewarding careers in the engineering field.

“The Altair Engineering internship program jump-started my career by exposing me to the real-world working environment early in my life,” said former summer intern Zul Zulkarnain, who today is an Altair account manager. “The valuable hands-on experience gained from working with several different business units at Altair complemented my classroom experience at Kettering University, and that has contributed tremendously to my growth as a professional.”

Questions about the summer internship program may be emailed to internship@altair.com. Students can also visit www.altair.com/Internships.aspx for more information.

Altair Releases Student Edition of Its Popular HyperWorks Computer-Aided Engineering Software Suite

Altair Engineering, Inc today announced the release of the HyperWorks 11.0 Student Edition, a personal academic version of the popular suite of computer-aided engineering (CAE) software used by manufacturers around the world. The Student Edition offers affordable opportunities for engineering and design students to gain experience in computer simulation with the same software that engineering professionals use to design and develop everything from aircraft and automobiles to computer chips and golf clubs. As part of the program’s global roll-out, the first 200 students in each country to register at the Altair Online Store will receive the HyperWorks 11.0 Student Edition for free.

“Simulation is the fastest-growing market sector in the PLM market, from the earliest phases of conceptual design through to manufacturing the product, and demand is high for graduates with simulation experience,” said Dr. Matthias Goelke, business development director for academic markets at Altair Engineering. “Our goal with this program is simply to make our commercial tools and training materials more broadly available to students to expose and encourage careers in engineering and CAE.”

The HyperWorks Student Edition is available for purchase now through Altair’s Online Store (https://secure.altair.com/onlinestore) and includes access to core HyperWorks commercial technologies that support the complete CAE workflow process for various solution types and applications. These include:

Modeling (Pre-processing:
Linear/Nonlinear Analysis:
Topology/Topography Design Optimization:
Composites Simulation and Optimization:
Results Visualization (Post-processing):
Data Analysis and Plotting:
Personal Simulation Management: HyperMesh®
RADIOSS™
OptiStruct®
RADIOSS™, OptiStruct®
HyperView®
HyperGraph®
HyperWorks Collaboration Tools™

“It is exciting news that the student version of HyperWorks is now available,” said Dr. Wei Chen, Wilson-Cook Professor in Engineering Design at Northwestern University. “This program truly demonstrates Altair’s commitment to enhancing students’ learning experience outside the classroom so that they can reinforce their engineering knowledge and classroom instruction.”

The HyperWorks Student Edition program further extends and complements Altair’s ongoing academia support initiatives, which include discounted university licensing programs, Altair’s University Fellowship program and collegiate competitions like Formula SAE. A key differentiator of the Student Edition program is that, for a nominal fee, students can install HyperWorks locally on their personal hardware and access self-guided training materials for independent study outside of the university network infrastructure.

“The HyperWorks 11.0 Student Edition is an important and highly appreciated add-on to the HyperWorks suite that I use for teaching. My students now can use a commercial CAE software package locally on their own hardware, which gives all of us a great deal of flexibility,” said Prof. Dr. Uwe Janoske, University of Wuppertal, Germany.

With the HyperWorks 11.0 Student Edition, students receive an extended set of e-learning tutorials and a complementary starter kit manual – a HyperWorks best-practices guide for beginners. The Student Edition also contains a simplified FEM process guide embedded within the software. The guide is especially valuable to students who do not have knowledge of the syntax of a finite-element solver or the HyperWorks philosophy. This highly automated process reduces the user interaction to a minimum and thus becomes an extremely helpful tool. Additional online training resources include Altair’s Academic Blog (www.altairuniversity.com), a HyperWorks knowledge repository that focuses specifically on the needs of students, teachers and researchers.

More details about the HyperWorks 11.0 Student Edition can be found at: http://www.altairhyperworks.com/student.

Altair ProductDesign Partners with Studio X-GENE to Develop a New Electric Vehicle Concept Car

Altair's ProductDesign division lends its crash, durability, vibration and vehicle dynamics simulation expertise to develop an innovative, lightweight, environmentally friendly vehicle.

Altair Engineering Inc announced today that its product development division, Altair ProductDesign, has successfully partnered with Taiwanese automotive design consultancy, Studio X-GENE, to develop a new electric concept vehicle. Revealed for the first time at the Auto Shanghai 2011, the AVANT GT is a pure electric sports grand tourer.

The AVANT GT is a project initiated by Studio X-GENE along with its partners, Delta Electronics, Wistron and Qisda, to demonstrate its domain knowledge and expertise by building an electric vehicle platform. Altair ProductDesign became involved in the project to lend its support to the engineering development of the vehicle. Altair was given responsibility for providing a simulation driven design approach for the vehicle’s crash, durability, vibration, vehicle dynamics, and computational fluid dynamics drag evaluation along with supporting Studio X-GENE during the architectural design phase.

“The AVANT GT is a unique project for Studio X-GENE and represents the quality of automotive design expertise available in Taiwan today,” said Albert Yang, Executive Director of Studio X-GENE. “Partnering with Altair ProductDesign proved invaluable. Combining our design knowledge with Altair’s engineering and optimization expertise has allowed us to deliver this exciting, high-performance new vehicle to the Shanghai Auto Show and really make an impact on the automotive community.”

Altair ProductDesign worked with Studio X-GENE to implement a comprehensive set of optimization techniques throughout the AVANT GT’s development to ensure that the car remained as lightweight as possible, while meeting all structural and safety requirements. A minimum mass aluminium alloy body frame was developed as the basis for the concept car, and was combined with a range of carbon fiber components to keep weight down, and maximize performance and vehicle power range per charge. This dedication to a lightweight design resulted in the car weighing just 1600kg when revealed at the Shanghai show, which is significantly lighter than most electric, battery-driven vehicles of the AVANT GT’s size and specification.

“After all of Studio X-Gene’s and Altair’s excellent work on this project, it was a great sense of accomplishment to see the AVANT GT on display at the Shanghai Auto Show,” said Richard Yen, Vice President, Altair ProductDesign. “As concern about future fuel prices continues to rise, automotive OEMs and customers alike are exploring the advantages that electric vehicles offer. We are pleased to lend our automotive engineering and testing expertise to the development of a new generation of innovative passenger vehicles.”

Altair Engineering Expands solidThinking Leadership Team in Europe

Altair names Cosimo Panetta to newly created position of European Managing Director responsible for conceptual design and styling software market strategy and channel development.

Altair Engineering, Inc has announced that it has appointed Cosimo Panetta to European Managing Director of its wholly owned subsidiary solidThinking, Inc.. In this newly created role, Cosimo Panetta will oversee the EMEA market strategy and channel development of its conceptual design and styling software product offerings, solidThinking and solidThinking Inspired.

“In his previous position as head of Altair Italy, Cosimo Panetta has contributed to the growth of the Italian market for our solidThinking products in an outstanding way,” said Dr. Michael Hoffman, VP European Operations, Altair Engineering. “Cosimo Panetta’s appointment to managing director reflects his success and will give him the opportunity to position solidThinking as the product of choice for designers throughout Europe and beyond."

Cosimo Panetta will work closely with Altair’s European country offices to manage and grow the solidThinking reseller community. He will also support the educational market with helpful material and projects such as the solidThinking Design Contest, a global design contest in which design students of all types can enter designs created with solidThinking or solidThinking Inspired for recognition and prizes. The deadline for the solidThinking Design Contest is November 30, 2011.

“I’m looking forward to extending solidThinking’s success in Italy to markets throughout the EMEA regions,” said Cosimo Panetta, European managing director for solidThinking. “solidThinking already has a strong reputation and standing within the Italian design community, one of the largest and most influential design markets globally. This new position provides me with the unique opportunity and privilege to connect with the many renowned design communities throughout Europe to further our technology and build upon solidThinking’s success.”

Cosimo Panetta was previously managing director of Altair Italy. He joined Altair in 2001 and was responsible for the Italian market until July of this year. Prior to Altair, he co-founded Seprind s.r.l, a company offering engineering services for composite components.

Cosimo Panetta’s previous responsibilities as managing director of Altair Italy will be assumed by Mauro Guglielminotti. A 15 year Altair veteran, Mario Guglielminotti will assume a new role as Altair’s managing director for southern Europe and Africa, also a newly created position. Currently, Mario Guglielminotti serves as the managing director of Altair France, a role which he has held since the 2001 founding of the country office. He originally joined Altair in 1996 as sales director for Altair Italy. Before his time at Altair, Mario Guglielminotti worked at several companies of the FIAT Group and at IBM. Mauro Guglielminotti will split his monthly working time between the Turin, Italy, and Paris offices of Altair Engineering.

Bright Computing Now Resells Altair PBS Professional Workload Manager, Delivering HPC Operational Efficiencies and Cost Savings

Bright Computing, a leader in cluster management software, today announced that the company has become a global authorized reseller of Altair Engineering’s PBS Professional® software. Perhaps the most widely used workload management system in HPC, PBS Professional software has long been an optional integrated workload manager for Bright. What’s new is that the company is now a global reseller of PBS Professional, bundling Bright Cluster Manager with a free, 90-day temporary license of PBS Professional with an option to purchase.

Bright Computing provides PBS Professional as a pre-integrated, user-selectable option along with a number of other popular workload managers. Upon selection, Bright automatically configures and deploys PBS Professional throughout the cluster, and provides monitoring and management of the workload manager through the intuitive Bright Cluster Manager GUI, its powerful cluster management shell and the web-based user portal. Additional benefits of the seamless integration include sampling, analysis and visualization of a wide range of workload manager statistics within the Bright GUI, automatic head node failover, access to the Bright SOAP API, and pre-job health checking capability.

“With Bright Computing becoming an authorized reseller of PBS Professional at a global level, more companies will now have access to a solution that meets all of their needs,” said Bill Nitzberg, CTO of PBS Works. “We are looking forward to growing our relationship with Bright Computing, and helping companies to further optimize HPC projects to run efficiently and easily.”

The combination of Bright Cluster Manager tightly coupled with PBS Professional delivers a number of operational efficiencies that reduce costs, improve system utilization/throughput, and save energy. Further, the combination of Bright Cluster Manager with PBS Professional solves the productivity-killing problem known as “Black Hole Node Syndrome.” Unlike other cluster management software, Bright works closely with workload managers to identify nodes that, although appear to be functioning normally, have subtle problems that will crash compute jobs. Bright sidelines these nodes and alerts the system administrators.

A leading aerospace manufacturing company is a noteworthy joint customer of the two companies. This manufacturing giant was able to put an end to its black hole node syndrome, gain measurable operating efficiencies and streamline system management efforts across a number of distributed HPC clusters.

“We took the decision to resell PBS Professional in response to customer requests,” said Dr. Matthijs van Leeuwen, founder and CEO of Bright Computing. “We are now able to streamline both their purchasing and support processes, in addition to providing them with a complete, end-to-end solution for deployment, provisioning, scheduling, monitoring and management.”

Altair ProductDesign Unveils the World's First Series Hydraulic Hybrid Transit Bus

Altair ProductDesign, a global product development consultancy and wholly-owned subsidiary of Altair Engineering, Inc., today unveiled the world’s first series hydraulic hybrid transit bus. The LCO-140H (Low-Cost of Ownership-1st 40-foot Hybrid) was developed under the BUSolutions program in partnership with Automation Alley, in an effort to revitalize public bus transportation in America.

Compared to the database of buses tested at Altoona, where the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) certification program is conducted, the LCO-140H fuel economy results are 110 percent better than conventional diesel buses and 30 percent better than the leading diesel-electric hybrid buses available today. The LCO-140 achieved an industry high fuel economy of 6.9 mpg when tested using the downtown “stop-and-go” duty cycles and test protocol established by the FTA for transit bus certification testing.

BUSolutions is projected to lower the cost of ownership by $170,000 per bus as compared to a conventional diesel bus. With the average local transit authority operating approximately 300 buses, the savings could reduce a city’s cost of transit bus operation by approximately $50 million. When compared to an estimated $27 million increase in operational costs for a similar electric hybrid fleet, it is clear the LCO-140H could revolutionize the transit industry by providing reduced fuel consumption and emissions while improving the fiscal performance of a regional transit authority.

BUSolutions has been a collaborative effort between public and private entities to research, develop and commercialize advanced transit bus systems that are significantly more fuel efficient, have lower operating and maintenance costs, are competitively priced and can operate without updating the infrastructure of existing transit authorities.

In addition to investments by Altair and Automation Alley, BUSolutions has been funded by multiple federal and state programs including the FTA and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). It also has received exceptional local support by southeast Michigan congressional members, transportation industry partners, and local transit authorities SMART and the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT).

“This project has been a collaborative effort from start to finish throughout the development, design and test phases. We would not have exceeded the goals we had set for ourselves had we not applied our knowledge and unique technologies to produce this revolutionary bus,” said Mike Heskitt, chief operating officer at Altair ProductDesign. “BUSolutions demonstrates Altair’s expertise and capabilities as a concept-to-release, full vehicle development partner.”

“We are thrilled to have partnered in the BUSolutions program that is putting Michigan at the forefront of solving emerging public transit technology issues through innovation and collaboration,” said Ken Rogers, executive director at Automation Alley. “Goals were set when this program started to produce a transit bus that was more fuel efficient, more affordable and more cost effective to operate for city transit authorities, and this project has both met and exceeded those goals.”

Additionally, BUSolutions strategically partnered with regional and global high-tech manufacturers that assisted in incorporating state-of-the-art components and technologies from the transportation sector. Program sponsors include Parker and Meritor, which contributed significant driveline systems and knowledge. Various levels of support have been provided by PRAN, Sika Corporation, Meritor Wabco, Alcoa Wheel Products, Carrier Corporation, LADD Industries, Haldex, Shaw Development, Tenneco, USSC Group, Cummins Bridgeway, Multicolor Specialties and Williams Controls.

Altair has worked closely with local transit authorities, SMART and DDOT, to ensure the newly designed bus platform will meet regulatory requirements and address the needs of bus drivers and riders. Altair also established the BUSolutions Advisory Board to offer insight into broader community needs, as well as perspective on actual ridership issues and public-interface ergonomics. As a result, Altair ProductDesign successfully engineered the bus to incorporate design principles that will enhance the rider experience.

The LCO-140H Bus will also be demonstrated at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Expo in New Orleans Oct. 3-5 at booth #2281. For more information, visit the Altair events website.

solidThinking Offers Designers a Sneak Peek of Its Upcoming Release at the 2011 IDSA International Conference, Sept. 14-17 in New Orleans

Concept design software developer solidThinking, Inc. will offer designers a sneak preview of the new tools that will be available in solidThinking Version 9 when the company demonstrates its software at the 2011 Industrial Designers Society of America International Conference Sept. 14-17 at booth 20 of the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans.

Designers attending the conference will have the opportunity to “test drive” some of the advanced capabilities that will be incorporated into the next version of solidThinking, which is scheduled to be released in late 2011. In addition, they will be able to participate in a demonstration of solidThinking 8.5 and solidThinking 8.5 Inspired, which incorporate hundreds of improvements, enhancements and updates from previous versions, based on user feedback, to make the development of digital 3D designs even more intuitive and flexible.

Current solidThinking design tools also have been displayed across the nation this year at regional IDSA conferences, enabling solidThinking product specialists to gather more firsthand reactions from the user base and to share new approaches to design. That experience will be incorporated into the next version of solidThinking.

“IDSA is an important element in our development process, because it enables us to gain wide-ranging user feedback while demonstrating our latest tools to those who rely on solidThinking for designing everything from accessories to product packaging to furniture and architecture,” said Jim Hassberger, Vice President of Business Development, solidThinking, Inc. “This year at IDSA, in line with the conference theme of ‘power in community,’ designers not only have the chance to work with our most current version of solidThinking but, for the first time, to preview features of an upcoming version and offer a direct hand in its development.”

solidThinking’s NURBS-based design software offers conceptual modeling, high-quality visualization tools and fast real-time photorealistic rendering for design presentation. Its best-in-class ConstructionTree™ technology allows designers to experiment with designs without having to start from scratch if they change their minds. solidThinking is available on Mac and Windows operating systems and is compatible with leading CAD/CAID/CAE software, encouraging enhanced collaboration and productivity between industrial designers and engineers during the product development cycle.

solidThinking is a subsidiary of Altair Engineering, Inc., a leader in simulation, predictive analytics and optimization, leveraging high-performance computing for engineering and business decision-making. solidThinking is now also available as part of Altair’s HyperWorks computer-aided engineering (CAE) software suite and can be accessed by HyperWorks customers using their existing license units.

Altair Announces CFD Technology OEM Partnership with Intelligent Light

Agreement to deeply embed FieldView13 post-processing software with Altair’s AcuSolve technology delivers a fully integrated, end-to-end CFD solution to the HyperWorks community.

Altair Engineering, Inc., a leading global provider of simulation technology and engineering services, today announced that it has completed an agreement with Intelligent Light, to integrate the full version of Intelligent Light’s FieldView 13 post-processor directly into Altair’s AcuSolve computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution.

This agreement demonstrates Altair’s commitment to offer best-in-class CFD solutions to its customers. The advanced features of FieldView 13 will equip AcuSolve with comprehensive and powerful CFD post-processing capabilities, furthering AcuSolve’s leadership in the CFD market space. Altair customers soon will have access to these capabilities as part of the comprehensive AcuSolve CFD solution through their purchased pool of HyperWorks Units, an innovative token-based licensing model from Altair.
Wind Turbine Rotor Wake Analysis
FieldView is one of the industry’s most widely used post-processors for CFD. The HyperWorks OEM version of FieldView, branded as AcuFieldView, is based on FieldView 13 with an improved unified user interface. It offers interactive review of transient data with sweep caching, along with CFD data management capabilities. It can handle steady and unsteady data of any size with high interactivity and speed, enabling engineers to interrogate and visualize complex flow simulations within AcuSolve.

"The addition of AcuFieldView to AcuSolve brings complete CFD capability to HyperWorks customers - from pre-processing through solver solutions to post-processing - at no additional cost," said Altair Vice President of CFD Farzin Shakib. "Altair is committed organizationally to the success of our customers who use CFD, and the integration of AcuFieldView into the HyperWorks suite gives those users significant new tools to improve their capabilities, productivity and return on investment."

AcuFieldView will be shipped as an integral part of AcuSolve within the HyperWorks 11.0 software suite and will be accessed through AcuConsole, AcuSolve’s graphic user interface environment. The new version of AcuSolve is expected to be released in October, 2011.

"FieldView is a premium post-processor that has been designed specifically for CFD applications," said Intelligent Light General Manager Steve Legensky. "We are pleased to be able to offer FieldView’s ease of use, powerful interrogation capabilities and best-in-class visualization tools to HyperWorks AcuSolve users. The CFD data management and workflow support that FieldView offers will further assist in reducing turnaround times and increasing efficiency."