Axius Group
Facilitating Virtualized CAD/CAM Capabilities

Design engineers working at aerospace and defense firms are increasingly choosing remote work. But personal computers or laptops hardly qualify for running their complex 3D CAD/CAM software. Hence, aerospace and defense firms are busy procuring massive worksite workstations decked out with robust monitors, GPUs, and other computing hardware, delivering it to the designer’s home, and remotely managing the IT infrastructure—which has become a time-consuming and expensive affair, to say the least.

Axius Group—an engineering services provider—recognizing this industry need, has developed a virtualized CAD/CAM platform, Aether. Created with aerospace and defense R&D requirements in mind, this simple-to-use yet robust technology solution accommodates remote working while delivering state-of-the-art computing capabilities.

The Aether platform is hosted on the extremely secure Microsoft Azure Government cloud and is backed by cutting-edge hardware infrastructure with the latest and most powerful GPUs. It supports the world’s leading CAD and CAM software, which can be accessed by engineers through Azure Virtual Desktop in a broad range of endpoint devices and 3D peripherals. In addition, the platform meets the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-171 requirements, ensuring adherence to the regulatory requirements for aerospace and defense firms.

“Our platform enables clients to securely create complex part and component designs in a virtualized environment, without them having to worry about hardware infrastructure, scalability, or compliance,” says Lacy McDowell-Tedman, President and Chief Development Officer, Axius Group.

It’s not just virtualized IT infrastructure support; if a client lacks the necessary design team resources for handling larger projects, they can leverage Aether to connect with Axius Group’s own design team and work in tandem to complete their design operations.

After the design is complete, clients can also depend on Axius Group to streamline and enhance their product development operations to bring the design to fruition.

The company’s expert CNC programmers—led by Axius Group’s Chief Operating Officer Joe Gray, with his extensive NC and CNC expertise—partner directly with the client’s product development teams, helping them impart the best machining practices. Axius Group’s team first assesses the client’s exact end-product requirements, before programming their CNC machines for the production of designed components that adhere to exact specifications.

The company’s competencies in product development optimization can be exemplified by a recent case study of a government defense contractor. Axius Group’s specialized engineering team, led by Gray, helped the client ramp up their entire design and development workflow, abridging 16 long operations into just four concise processes. The client immediately achieved 350 percent efficiency, with the machined parts seamlessly passing quality inspection and first article inspection (FAI). Today, the contractor is depending on Axius Group to enhance their delivery speed, decrease manufacturing costs, and provide design training for their team.

Our platform enables clients to securely create complex part and component designs in a virtualized environment, without them having to worry about hardware infrastructure, scalability, or compliance

Its engineering service success rate is commendable, but equally impressive is Axius Group’s role as an effective talent acquisition firm for aerospace and defense firms, helping them source skilled contract labor and temp-to direct placements. It follows analytics based recruiting, matching engineers’ experience and knowledge with the specialized needs of aerospace and defense firms.

Encouraged by the reliability, cost effectiveness, and scalability of Axius Group’s diverse solution and service offerings, an increasing number of aerospace and defense firms in the U.S. are partnering with Axius Group. The company’s focus on quality and the ability to deliver precise end-products is encouraging the firms to switch their design workflows virtually and follow the more efficient path blazed by Axius Group.