PTC
extended its support for Microsoft's
SharePoint 2010 with
new additions to the Windchill PLM suite that tap the collaboration platform to
give all stakeholders — design engineers, program managers and top executives —
access to the product development process within a familiar environment.
The new additions, part of PTC's on-going
strategy to extend its offerings beyond the core engineering ranks, include
Windchill PPMLink, a new program portfolio management solution; Windchill
SocialLink, a social computing component; Windchill Web Parts for SharePoint,
which consolidates data from Windchill and other systems for easier information
access; and Windchill
ProductPoint, an
enhanced version of the CAD data management tool aimed at small to mid-sized
businesses. The additions are slated for release later this year.
WindChill PPMLink, which extends Microsoft's
Enterprise Project Management capabilities with configurable stage and gate
processes, also features scorecards that aggregate traditional project
management measurements with PLM-derived product attributes.
The new Windchill
SocialLink follows in the footsteps of Windchill ProductPoint 1.1 and
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0, which introduced social computing capabilities to
the PTC user base. This new dedicated solution leverages SharePoint 2010 to
deliver social computing capabilities combined with rich knowledge of product
data, along with a Web 2.0 user experience that includes content tagging,
filtering and activity feeds, the latter a feature that automatically
disseminates relevant product knowledge to self-forming groups or "communities
of practices" that have shared interests. The module will also support personal
profiles, which are continuously updated based on PLM system usage to ensure
product data is delivered in a relevant way.
The other two additions
to the Windchill family are Windchill Web Parts for SharePoint, which provides
a single, consolidated view of product information by letting SharePoint users
view, search and edit Windchill data along with content from other core
enterprise systems like ERP. The new addition of Windchill ProductPoint
delivers CAD vaulting, sharing, visualization, mark-up and data reuse for SMBs
typically dealing with a heterogeneous CAD environment. New data loading tools
in the latest release will facilitate the migration of content housed in older
Pro/INTRALINK 3.X systems.
In related news, PTC
announced the latest version of its Mathcad engineering calculation software.
Mathcad 15.0 includes more than 25 new functions to aid in conducting Design of
Experiments (DoE), more robust reference libraries and integration with
third-party tools, including the latest version of Microsoft Excel, as well as
existing engineering platforms like PTC Pro/Engineer and Windchill.
Smith Electric Vehicles teamed with Trans Tech Bus to roll out a 42-passenger, 26,000-lb electric bus called the Newton eTrans, which it hopes will change the way children get to school every morning.
Doug Conner's self-starting, solar-powered Stirling engine runs all year when the sun is visible from the sculpture’s location. The engine can shut down when the sun isn’t visible, and it can restart by itself when the sun comes back up.
Thanks to embedded electronics, medical devices are getting smaller and smarter than ever. Pacemakers and implantable defibrillators are now able to call physicians. MRIs, CT scanners, and ultrasound machines are gaining mobility. And the venerable Band-Aid may soon be able to detect illnesses ranging from fevers to heart arrhythmias. On February 21, join Design News senior editor Charles Murray for a wide-ranging discussion, "Embedded Angles for Medical Products," which will explore the latest developments in medical electronics. The discussion will examine advances in medical device technology and offer an inside look at the embedded electronics behind it.
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