Taking a cue from users' heightened demand for moreintegrated computer-aided simulation capabilities, Autodesk pumped up its offerings in thisarea with its announcement this week that it was acquiring Blue Ridge Numerics, a provider ofcomputational fluid dynamics (CFD) software.

With the $39 million cash acquisition, Autodesk gains entréeto Blue Ridge Numeric's CFdesign CFD software suite and its customers, whichinclude Parker Hannifin, Philips Medical, Top-Flite and Wolf Appliance Inc.,among others. Autodesk has been steadily building out its simulation productportfolio both organically and through acquisitions over the last few years-it'smost notable move being the December2008 purchase of Algor and Moldflow.

While the Algor acquisition provided a start into deliveringCFD functionality, the Blue Ridge Numerics technology rounds out Autodesk'sdigital prototyping suite with a spectrum of CFD capabilities to help automateflow and thermal simulation decision making, thus helping to reduce costlyphysical prototyping cycles, according to Scott Reese, Autodesk's seniordirector of digital simulation, in the manufacturing group.

"Simulation is a key growth area for usand a key element of our digital prototyping strategy," Reese says. "Simulationis a key part of being able to determine how a digital prototype performs inthe real world," Reese explains, in that it helps provide answers to suchquestions as what happens when you drop the product, does the fluid flowthrough the design properly, is it manufacturable? Using simulation to answerquestions like that has become critical for manufacturing customers to remaincompetitive, he says.

Blue Ridge Numerics' CFdesign software helpsengineers address such questions and make informed, up-front decisions aboutair flow, fluid flow or electronics cooling to help design and manufacturesafer, quality products or construct more energy efficient buildings. WhereBlue Ridge Numerics CFD technology stands out, Reese says, is that it hassuccessfully broken down the technological barriers that previously preventedCFD from being integrated within the mainstream product development process.The company's general-purpose analytical engine produces accurate simulationsset up within a range of CAD systems with little human time or simulationexperience required, he explains.

Autodesk's intent is to integrate BlueRidge Numerics into its Manufacturing Industry Group and to continue developingand selling Blue Ridge Numerics CFdesign products while supporting existingcustomers and integrating them into the Autodesk Manufacturing Community.Autodesk also plans to develop the Blue Ridge Numerics products with a multi-CADapproach, allowing direct data exchange between CFdesign products and multiplecomputer-aided design software offerings.  Long-term, the idea is to unify the experiencebetween all Autodesk simulation applications, helping customers concentrate onfleshing out the issues with their design rather than focusing on what kind ofsimulation they want to run, Reese says. Another key trend will be to leveragecloud computing technology to enhance simulation capabilities as seen byAutodesk's already announced Project Cumulus, an effort whichleverages the cloud for additional computational horsepower for Moldflowplastics design simulations.

Autodesk's timing is good in terms of targeting simulation capabilities as acore part of its digital prototyping suite. Industry analyst firm CIMdata forecasts that the simulation and analysis software market as a wholewill exceed $3.1 billion in 2014.

The Blue Ridge Numerics transaction isexpected to close in Autodesk's first quarter of fiscal 2012, which ends onApril 30, 2011.