Altair
Employing Simulation-driven Product Development

Apart from simplifying the design phase, simulation-driven product development quickens the process by simulation tools and advanced technologies. Advances in computer, visualization, and haptic technologies are fostering the rapid growth in the use of simulation to understand the physical behaviors of a complex object. As product complexity has increased, the challenges in performance evaluation have also grown in parallel with the traditional design process. Manufacturing organizations perceive that analysis works best when used throughout the product development process, especially in the early stages when it can have the most impact.

“At Altair, we believe that simulation drives product design process. This means bringing simulation into the earlier stages of the design cycle,” comments James Scapa, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Altair. Engineered to optimize design, performance, throughput, and usability, Altair—a simulation technology and service provider—offers a unique approach where CAD and CAE are deployed in parallel for creating more realistic experiential learning environments and higher degree of product optimization.

Altair’s HyperWorks CAE product suite is built on an open architecture with multi-physics capabilities, enabling users to drive the product-development process and make reliable decisions based on high-quality results. HyperWorks provides a tightly integrated suite of best-in-class tools for all facets of the simulation process—finite element modeling and assembly, visualization, reporting and data management solutions for linear, nonlinear analysis, structural optimization, fluid-structure interaction, electromagnetic field simulation, and multi-body dynamics applications.

With the standard technology and engineering expertise and unique design solutions, the firm helps small and large companies around the world to meet their performance, sustainability, and budget requirements. Altair’s HyperWorks simulation software suite emphasizes on real-world design applications, enabling engineers to design a product and perform stochastic methods for rapid assessment of its response to real-world forces, vibration, heat, fluid flow, and other physical effects. Often, the process can be expensive and lengthy, especially when a design change is required.

At Altair, we bring simulation into the earlier stages of the design cycle

With HyperWorks, designers can reduce the trial-and-error iterations of both design development and testing time, thereby minimizing the overall product cost and development cycle. The platform also allows for seamless integration with its customers’ third-party vendors for highly automated product design processes, which is supported by Altair’s unique patented units-based software licensing model, enabling users to run multiple applications simultaneously without using more licensing units. HyperWorks’ suite strengthens aerospace, automotive, and shipbuilding industries in particular to optimize design of millions of vehicles and aircrafts.

Furthermore, Altair’s HyperStudy, a design exploration tool for engineering designers automatically creates intelligent design variants and collects data to perform trade-off studies, optimize design performance and reliability. Results from these studies can be easily analyzed and interpreted using HyperStudy’s advanced post-processing and data mining capabilities to improve correlation of analysis models. For instance, Tesla Motors leveraged HyperStudy to meet the legal pedestrian impact requirements. Altair’s simulation team was able to improve the sub-systems performance, and resulted in a solution that was outside of conventional assumptions. Their software for multi-disciplinary design exploration, study, and optimization enabled Tesla to come up with innovative solutions by reducing the model creation process and spending more time on recreating the CAE model in response to design changes.

Altair has successfully grown into a global, multi-disciplinary product development consultancy of 700 designers, engineers, scientists, and creative thinkers to survive in the dynamic and fast-changing market. To take their success one step ahead, the firm works to roll out new solutions for synthesizing innovative structures optimized for both performance and manufacturing feasibility.