Altair announced the latest version of Inspire, its design, generative design and simulation platform.
Inspire has integrated the radically fast SimSolid, Altair’s latest simulation acquisition, so Inspire users can choose it as a solver. Other solvers in Inspire are OptiStruct (for structural analysis) and MotionSolve (for dynamic analysis).
SimSolid remains available to users as a stand-alone program, outside of the Inspire platform.
Altair’s Inspire is self-contained, a one-stop shop for analysts. There’s no need for “expensive GPUs”—it runs on “standard workstations.” There’s no need to call on CAD programs—Inspire can create and modify part geometry.
The advantage of being able to make changes in geometry under the Inspire umbrella saves the analyst from having to send a design back to the designer or design engineer and wait for its return—or having to develop skills in using a CAD program.
“Instead of employing it purely for validation at the end of the cycle, Inspire enables users to test more alternatives at the earliest opportunity, make better design decisions, and avoid implementing costly modifications at a later stage,” said James Dagg, one of Altair’sthree chief technology officers.
SimSolid is being credited with Inspire’s expanded ability to change CAD geometry.
“While offering the potential to significantly expand the usage of analysis to design engineers, the use of Inspire with SimSolid also has high value to simulation and CAE specialists who do not typically use 3D CAD tools,” said Don Tolle of CIMdata, who Altair reached out to for comment.
Altair is enjoying the validation of SimSolid by NAFEMS, the independent international simulation society, which tested SimSolid, running it through all its structural benchmarks. SimSolid came within 1 percent of the correct results (correctness is established either by “traditional” codes or handbook formulae) in most of the benchmarks and no worse than about 4 percent in one. For NAFEMS, normally shy of reviewing products, publishing the results of the SimSolid benchmarks may be a first for the simulation member society. But just so that it won’t appear to be playing favorites, NAFEMS has offered to do the same for other “design oriented codes” on request.
We expect that ANSYS Discovery Live, the other radically fast solver, is already in line to get NAFEMS’ attention.