Altair’s solidThinking has just released a suite of products that is aimed toward the model-based design (MBD) and systems simulation market. This new suite of products uses math, signal-based physical and 3D models to produce early concept designs, control algorithms and system performance optimizations.
The new suite is made up of three products: solidThinking Compose, solidThinking Activate and solidThinking Embed. Much of the technology available in the new product is based on Altair VisSim, which will now be rebranded as Embed.
Numerical Computing with solidThinking Compose
Using solidThinking Compose, engineers and scientists will be able to produce high-level matrix-based computations.
In this respect, the product sounds much like MATLAB or Maple. In fact, the software is able to mix signal-based and physical-based components from Modelica within a single diagram.
One big benefit of Compose is that it has a built-in connectivity to the pre-/post-process data from Altair computer-aided engineering (CAE) software.
Compose has the following math libraries:
- Statistical data analysis & visualization
- Matrix analysis & number theory
- Signal processing
- Interactive 2D & 3D plotting
- Differential equations
- Optimization
solidThinking Activate for Block Diagram Product Modeling and Simulation
solidThinking Activate can be used for simulation and MBD. (Image courtesy of Altair solidThinking.)
Using this MBD diagram, engineers are able to assess a product’s entire system using a library of 1D multidisciplinary simulations. These simulations are then interconnected using the aforementioned block diagram UI.
Similar to solidThinking Compose, the Activate program is also able to mix physical Modelica components with signal-based components.
In this respect, the product sounds very similar to Simulink and MapleSim, as the product is able to produce system simulations and multibody dynamics. Activate can even compile the model into executable code.
solidThinking Embed for Developing Embedded Controls
solidThinking Embed can be used for developing model-based embedded control systems. (Image courtesy of Altair solidThinking.)
The C-code control algorithms are based on the system-level block diagram.
This control system can then be used to create virtual prototypes of the design before a physical product is produced.
Again, this code generation ability is very reminiscent of Simulink and MapleSim for their code generation capabilities.
To gain a better understanding of these new products, read up on their previous incarnation, Altair VisSim.