Travel, tech adoption & news from Tech Soft 3D, Hexagon & Sandvik

I’ve been traveling for work for the last two weeks. When time permits, I’ll write about ESI LIVE 2022 and Autodesk University (AU), but I owe you a little catchup. It’s been a busy and fun couple of weeks but, TBH, I’m happy to be home.

On the travel front: I know tales of travel woe are all over the media, but I haven’t experienced any of it. There were slight delays for refueling and stowing cargo on my fights between the US and France, but just minutes. Flights within the US even arrived ahead of schedule. I doubt I’m magical, so while some people are experiencing real problems, not everyone is.

I’ll write more about this, but one thing that became very apparent over the last two weeks is how wonderful it is to attend in-person events. There’s just something about the energy of people coming together that’s been missing for over two years. ESI LIVE was intimate, AU was HUGE — and both proved how much more we learn from one another when we’re together. Both events were designed to deliver content to in-person and online audiences. That model makes a lot of sense since it covers all eventualities. It’s more stressful for the organizers but better for attendees. (And it broke my heart that Air France had to tell us that anyone who wants to mask should and that we all need to respect their choices — words to that effect. When did any of us inherit the right to criticize another??)

The other thing I’ll address soon is how unevenly technology is adopted. I’m briefed often on the coolest, latest technology in our PLMish universe, with the vendor telling me about early adopters. That’s awesome — but not the norm. Overheard while flying to AU and reinforced when talking to users at AU, it becomes clear that while vendors highlight their advanced offerings, many customers aren’t there, have no plans to go there soon, and can do their jobs with the technology they have and are comfortable with. This creates a widening gap between those using CAE, generative design, workflow tools, advanced role-based tools, and so on, and those who aren’t. It also creates headaches for the vendors supporting both ends of that spectrum and its vast middle. More to come on this.

And a couple of newsy bits:

You may remember that Tech Soft 3D acquired Ceetron and VKI in 2020. This week, Tech Soft released four CAE-specific software development toolkits that combine in-house and acquired technology for pre-processing, solving, and post-processing. This is great for CAE vendors, of course, and enables new entrants to focus on their specializations and let Tech Soft take care of the plumbing, but I especially like how this enables industrial companies to connect their workflows across in-house and commercial codes and tie together solutions from many vendors.

I also told you about Hexagon’s R-evolution, the sustainable innovation, and green-tech incubation subsidiary when Hexagon was looking for companies to join the program. One missing component, in my view, at launch was a funding arm — well, that’s just been announced. The first investment by the fund was in Material Mapper, a company that connects completed construction projects to new construction to create a chain that enables building material reuse. Hexagon says, “Considerations for R-ventures monetary investments or in-kind technology require green-tech startups to be in the pre-IPO funding stage, with an identified product and initial customer base. Seed investments typically range between 50k to 500k EUR. Additionally, R-evolution invites partners, private investors, accelerators, governments, and universities to increase visibility and outreach to startups.” Go here to apply.

Finally, today marks the close of the fiscal third quarter for many companies. We should see financial news appearing over the next few weeks — and Sandvik started early by announcing that it has raised EUR 500 million in the corporate bond market to “refinance maturing loans and general corporate purposes.” My take? More acquisitions to come. In a separate release, the company said it would take charges in the third quarter due to its spinoff of its materials technology business and its exit from Russia. This last turns out to be expensive: “Sandvik will now record an additional non-recurring charge of approximately SEK 0.6 billion (US$53 million). Following this non-recurring charge there are no significant remaining asset values or material wind-down costs remaining related to Russia.” Doing the right thing isn’t cheap …

It’s good to be home.