MSC.Software Steers Towards Multidiscipline Simulation

Following through on its plan to offer an all-inclusive platform for multidiscipline simulation, MSC.Software has snapped up pioneerSOLUTIONS Inc. , which brings additional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to its platform.

The acquisition, coupled with MSC.Software’s SimEnterprise open SOA approach, sets the company up to deliver a single simulation platform and common user environment covering such areas as fluids, structure, thermal, acoustics, motion and mechatronics analysis. Specifically, the CFD capabilities include fluid flow, heat transfer, aerodynamics, climate control, chemical mixing and fluid structures interaction (FSI).

MSC.Software officials pitched the acquisition and evolving platform as a different approach than traditional CFD solver tools. There are over 40 CFD solver tools on the market, each of which create separate models for  CFD—a process MSC.Software CEO Bill Weyand called “outdated and costly.” By having a single, multidiscipline environment, engineers can drive more innovative products to market faster, he maintained.

pioneerSOLUTIONS’ FluidConnection, widely used in automotive, commercial and heavy machinery applications, is deliverable now in SimEnterprise, and will be offered as a SimXpert workspace in early 2008.