CAE roll-ups continue, with Siemens and Altair active
I work with a lot of investors and software companies, and perhaps the most common question I am asked is, what's left to acquire? It's rare that an industrial company acquires a simulation provider (as Juul did when it snapped up Envenio); this is usually more about...
When control systems fail …
We were driving along, quite safely or so I thought. Nothing to see here, just piloting down the middle of our lane, about to merge onto the highway. There were a few cars in the road, but none close when the car started going nuts. Beeping inside the cabin, flashing...
Free SolidWorks for displaced auto workers
Just came across this blog post and thought it deserves wider visibility: "Workers displaced by plant closure can leverage their industry knowledge and secure a brighter future by gaining SOLIDWORKS CAD skills. DASI is proud to offer a program at NO COST for these men...
It’s Pi Day – do some math!
Today is 3.14 -- shorthand for the mathematical constant π (aka pi), which you may remember as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. In college, friends could recite pi out to umpteen decimal places; I'm happy with 2. I didn't realize until last year...
Quickie: ESI’s revenue up 3% in fiscal 2019
ESI just reported revenue for the quarter and year ended 31 January -- and the news is good: Total revenue for the year was €139 million, up 3% as reported (up 4% in constant currencies, cc) For the year, license revenue was €110 million, up 4% as reported and...
Maritime slowwlllyyyy enters the 21st century
Many of you may know that I'm a naval architect by training and, despite a career more related to software than ships, I'm still part of a proud seafaring tradition. Building and operating ships is fascinating! And, lately, it's coming up more and more often in my...
Bentley invests in digital twins for water infrastructure
So much news .... Amidst a lot of earnings comes this, from Bentley Systems: Bentley today said that it has invested an undisclosed amount in Digital Water Works, a company that makes digital twin solutions for "smart wet infrastructure" (my quotes), to enable Bentley...
DS’ 2018 sets the stage for expansion in 2019
Dassault Systèmes announced results for Q4 and fiscal 2018 just as I was boarding a plane earlier this month, and I only had time to post a very quick recap of the highlights as I saw them then. This week brings us earnings from ANSYS (tonight/tomorrow morning), as...
Career management for CAD types
I absolutely love what Matt Lombard just wrote in his latest blog, https://dezignstuff.com/its-better-to-have-multiple-tools-available/. His main thesis is this: ... [T]here also comes a point where you need to diversify a little. That point has to come before you...
Hexagon adds Thermopylae to its geospatial biz
Another week, another acquisition: Hexagon says it will buy Thermopylae Sciences and Technology, a software provider of geospatial applications, mobile frameworks and cloud computing for enhanced location intelligence, primarily to the US government and other defense...
Webinars 2.0 – we’re not there yet
I tune into a lot of webinars, whether product announcements, investor updates or the occasional training session and, while things are much better since I first mused on the state of the art in 2008 and 2010 (here and here), it's time for a refresher on how to get...
Quickie: Schnitger Corp website changes
Always trying to make things better ... A while ago, web browsers started identifying unsafe websites, and put www.schnitgercorp.com in that category because we didn't have a valid SSL certificate. We got that sorted but the site was still deemed unsafe. Turns out the...
Wartsila using AR to collaborate & educate
Wartsila’s combo of Virtual Towing Tank and Dive Inspections works to simulate and explain the results, in one technological leap.
MuM reports rebound in Autodesk sales
We are nearing the end of earnings season, but still have a few biggies to go. One of those is Autodesk, and we use its largest European reseller, Mensch und Maschine (MuM) as a preview since MuM reports preliminary results a couple of weeks before Autodesk. Like...
AVEVA cruises along, positive about FY2019
Schneider Electric announced results today, which means that we have a hint about how things are going at AVEVA. AVEVA says that it "delivered low double-digit revenue growth in the first nine months of the financial year", meaning the period ended December 31, 2018....
#SWW19 takeaways from afar
For the first time in years I'm not at SolidWorks World, happening right now in Dallas, TX. Too much travel, too many time zones -- it just didn't fit. So I've been following from afar, on Dassault Systèmes' live broadcasts here. (I'm having trouble with the recorded...
Bentley gets into street signs
I live on a street with the popular girl's name, Kathleen. Every so often a boy, hoping to impress a girl (likely named Kathleen), steals our street sign. I've often wondered how someone monitors those thefts and then causes replacements to be made -- and today, I...
Quickie: DS acquires elecworks
Dassault Systèmes said today that it will acquire Trace Software’s elecworks electrical and automation design software product line in an asset transfer. Trace has been a SolidWorks applications partner since 1997; in 2012, Trace became a strategic partner so that the...
Quickie: Lots of good PLM earnings news
It's a big earnings day and I'm about to settle in for a long (wifi-free) flight, so a quick recap will have to hold us until I can dig into the earnings in more detail -- but it sure looks like the PLMish universe is doing very well, indeed. Dassault Systemes...
Like shuffling along in a crowd? No? Simulation to the rescue!
At last year's Bentley Year in Infrastructure, I was introduced to something I had never seen before: pedestrian modeling. In my naïveté, I assumed that engineers observed humans moving through spaces and used that to inform how they design subway stations, hotel...
