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This is amazing news, but not very shocking. Based on the long relationship that ANSYS had with reselling SpaceClaim to supplement its Design Modeler application as well as other signs of something bigger brewing, ANSYS announced earlier this month that they have acquired SpaceClaim. My opinion, about time.
CAD developers have long been adding simulation into their suite of products. The addition is either through an integrated application or through a native data transfer. But, this is the first time that a simulation vendor has purchased a CAD app.
Users attest that adding analysis to the development cycle decreases overall cost while improving product design. But, when simulation is added to CAD, the focus is still on design first, verify later. That is, if there is time. On the other hand, by adding CAD to simulation, I believe that ANSYS is making a bold statement and saying analyze first, then finalize the design.
I don't think the acquisition of SpaceClaim was to simply provide a better pre-processor to ANSYS. I think we're going to see the watershed moment when engineering analysis is back in the forefront of driving design, and geometry will come second. Too bad FEA workflow requires input geometry in order to mesh and apply boundary conditions to. Perhaps ANSYS already has plans for a method to create and analyze simultaneously and SpaceClaim is a part of that plan. Only time will tell, but what an exciting time.
Sources:
http://otp.investis.com/clients/us/ansys/usn/usnews-story.aspx?cid=806&newsid=16276
http://www.spaceclaim.com/en/blog/14-05-01/ANSYS_acquires_SpaceClaim.aspx