SMBs deserve simulation too

Small and medium businesses are being sought by the new UK Digital Twin Centre and Altair’s upcoming simulation conference, plus more engineering software news.

By Michael Alba

Welcome to Engineering Paper, bringing you the latest news in design and simulation software.

The UK Digital Twin Centre opened last week in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with funding from the UK government and industry partners including Thales UK, Artemis Technologies and Spirit AeroSystems.

The Centre alliteratively aims to help “demystify, demonstrate, and deploy digital twins” for businesses across the UK—particularly small and medium businesses (SMBs) without the resources to trial the technology on their own.

“We want to create a competitive advantage for those smaller businesses by giving them the ability to design, diversify or enhance a product in the digital world without having to go through all the prototyping, iterations and physical building,” Deborah Colville, director of the UK Digital Twin Center, told Engineering.com contributor Tereza Pultarova in an interview before the Centre’s opening. “We want to create a path for them to adopt digital twin technology in a way that is less costly and less complex.”

There’s a lot more to the story, which you can read about in Tereza’s article on Engineering.com: The sandbox solution to digital twins.

Altair to host online simulation conference for SMBs

Speaking of simulation and small and medium businesses, Altair will host a virtual event on May 15, 2025 that aims to highlight how SMBs can benefit from next-gen simulation technology. The event, called ATCx Simulate at the Speed of Design 2025, has been held annually since 2020.

“Simulation is foundational for companies of all sizes looking to reduce iteration loops, improve product maturity, and mitigate risk earlier in development,” said Pavan Kumar, senior vice president of global indirect business at Altair, in the news release. “This event will show how SMBs and SMEs are gaining competitive advantages by embedding CAE and multiphysics simulation into their design processes.”

ATCxSATSOD’25 will include speakers from Altair and its industry partners. The event is free to attend and you can register for it here.

Quick hits

• EDA developer Zuken launched the 2025 release of eCadstar, its PCB design software. The new release includes enhanced library management, batch processing for manufacturing outputs, support for image files in schematics, and other new features, according to Zuken.
• Siemens Digital Industries Software announced its intention to acquire Wevolver, an engineering content platform. According to Siemens, the acquisition will enhance the product portfolio for Supplyframe, a company that Siemens acquired in 2021 and described as “a rich intelligence resource for the electronics industry.”
• Ametek has agreed to acquire Faro Technologies, a developer of 3D scanning technology, for approximately $920 million. In Ametek’s announcement, CEO David Zapico said that the acquisition will complement Ametek’s existing 3D scanning business, Creaform. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.
• The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation, SPEC, announced the latest version of its workstation graphics benchmark, SPECviewperf 15. The update adds support for the latest graphics APIs as well as new and updated workloads. I used to review workstations for Engineering.com, and SPECviewperf was one of the benchmarks I relied on most heavily. In fact, now that I’m traipsing down memory lane, I recall that the team at SPEC were nice enough to profile me back in 2020.
• Spatial released the 2025 1.0.1 version of its software development kit for 3D modeling and CAD translation. The Dassault Systèmes subsidiary says the updated SDK “reduces manual tasks, increases fidelity in geometry translation, and strengthens its toolset for automated design-to-manufacture and design-to-simulation pipelines.”

One last link

Here’s an analysis of the terms “finite element analysis” and “machine learning” in scientific publications, from 3D modeling startup HelloTriangle : Finite Element Analysis in the AI era: Insights from scientific publishing trends.

The article concludes that FEA will not be replaced by AI, though it acknowledges several limitations with the analysis. Readers can draw their own conclusions. Mine is that the data is interesting, but it doesn’t say anything about how, when, or whether FEA will be replaced by AI.

Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: malba@wtwhmedia.com.

For more design and simulation stories, visit Engineering.com.