Held biennially, RIMPAC is a large international maritime exercise, bringing together military forces from around the globe to strengthen partnerships, enhance interoperability, and demonstrate collective readiness in support of a free and open IndoPacific, Meltio reports. RIMPAC 2026 will include more than 25,000 personnel, 40 surface ships, five submarines, and 140 aircraft operating throughout the Pacific region.

As part of CAMRE’s distributed advanced manufacturing experiment, Phillips Federal will deploy a containerized Haas TM-1P CNC platform integrated with Meltio Blue wire-laser metal additive manufacturing technology aboard the USS ESSEX (LHD-2). The system combines additive and subtractive manufacturing capabilities in a single platform, enabling the repair, restoration, and production of critical metal components closer to the point of need.

FLEETWERX, a Partnership Intermediary for the Naval Postgraduate School, helps connect government, industry, and academia to boost evaluation of technologies in operational environments. Through its support of CAMRE, FLEETWERX enables industry partners such as Phillips Corporation to demonstrate advanced manufacturing capabilities in real-world scenarios that address critical military sustainment challenges.

The exercise will evaluate how expeditionary manufacturing can help reduce the time required to obtain replacement parts and repairs in austere, distributed environments where traditional supply chains may be limited or unavailable. By producing or restoring components closer to where they are needed, these capabilities can improve readiness and reduce maintenance delays in operational environments.

By connecting advanced manufacturing assets across multiple locations into a collaborative network, CAMRE continues to explore new approaches to distributed logistics and maintenance in contested environments.

"RIMPAC provides an opportunity to evaluate how advanced manufacturing can help solve real sustainment challenges for the fleet," says Brian Kristaponis, president of Phillips Additive Manufacturing Solutions. "When critical parts are unavailable through traditional supply channels, the ability to manufacture or repair components closer to the point of need can help improve readiness and keep systems operational. We are honored to support the Naval Postgraduate School, CAMRE, FLEETWERX, and the U.S. Navy in this important effort."

The Phillips system leverages proven Haas CNC technology and Meltio’s wire-laser metal deposition process to provide a flexible manufacturing solution that can produce new components, repair worn parts, and perform precision machining operations within a single workflow.

Phillips Federal has worked alongside the U.S. Department of Defense, Naval Postgraduate School, and industry partners to advance deployable manufacturing solutions that enhance sustainment, increase resiliency, and support operational readiness across the Joint Force. RIMPAC 2026 takes place from June 24 through July 31, 2026 throughout the Hawaiian Islands and surrounding waters.

About Phillips 

Phillips Corporation is a global leader in manufacturing solutions and services, dedicated to advancing the metalworking industry by delivering expert knowledge, innovation, and technology. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The three-month hybrid program will guide a select cohort of 5–10 companies through developing a competitive NSF Project Pitch and building a complete, submission-ready Phase I proposal package.

The program is built for Ohio-based companies developing technical innovations with research and development (R&D) objectives. Over 12 weeks, participants will receive structured support, expert coaching, and dedicated working sessions to accelerate their readiness for NSF review.

Two-Stage Program 

The cohort is structured in two parts:

• Part 1 (Weeks 1–4): Project Pitch Development: Participants will develop or refine their NSF Project Pitch, including sections on technological innovation, technical challenges, market opportunity, and company capabilities. The goal is to secure an NSF invitation to submit a Phase I proposal. 
• Part 2 (Weeks 5–12): Phase I Proposal Build: Companies invited by NSF, or those with clear plans to resubmit after prior feedback, will work through the full Phase I proposal package. This includes drafting all NSF-required documents, a comprehensive technical work plan, and budget development aligned with NSF rules. The program provides structured reviews, a mock panel (red team), and a final compliance check.

• High-Touch, Hybrid Support Model
  The initiative combines virtual sessions with up to three in-person working days in Ohio, designed for high-impact collaboration:

• Pitch Studio (Week 1–2): Focused development of the Project Pitch and NSF-fit assessment
• Proposal Lab (Week 6–7): Writing sprints and budget support for major proposal sections
• Red Team & Readiness Review (Week 11–12): Mock review, revisions, and compliance walkthrough

Participants also receive 1:1 coaching, written feedback cycles, and dedicated proposal and budget support.

Important Dates: 
Application Released: June 30
Applications Reviewed on a Rolling Basis
Applications Due: July 20
Selected Applicants Notified: July 22
First Cohort In-Person Session (Attendance required in Youngstown, OH): July 29, 1-5 p.m. ET

Access the Cohort Program page and application, HERE.

About the Youngstown Innovation Hub
The Youngstown, Ohio-based Innovation Hub for Aerospace & Defense brings together cutting-edge facilities, talent, and strategic partnerships to advance American manufacturing. 

About NCDMM
NCDMM delivers collaborative manufacturing solutions that enhance our nation’s workforce and economic competitiveness. NCDMM has knowledge and depth in commercial and defense manufacturing areas to innovate, improve, and advance manufacturing technologies and methodologies. 

About Parallax Advanced Research & the Ohio Aerospace Institute 
Parallax Advanced Research is an advanced research institute that tackles global challenges through strategic partnerships with government, industry, and academia. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

Now that simulation software is shifting toward the use of AI agents and copilots, the step is expected to become a series of natural language prompts. This makes FEA and CFD much more accessible, especially for the general designers with limited exposure to simulation. But could this make debugging harder when things go awry? Would it open the door to AI hallucination in FEA or CFD? In this article, we explain how to recognize the signs of hallucination, and what you can do to minimize it.

Message Confusion

Just like humans, AI agents can sometimes misinterpret messages while they attempt to carry out instructions, explained Krystian Link, Technical Product Marketing Manager, Rand. “In the backend, the AI agent is trying to identify keywords and analyze how you have structured them,” he said. “As you add more and more keywords, the message can become disjointed.” Rand Simulation, part of Rand Worldwide, is an elite Ansys software reseller. Ansys simulation software with natural language-driven chatbots and copilots. 

Santosh Kini is the Product Manager for Simulation at Keysight, catering to the aerospace, automotive, datacenter, healthcare, and semiconductor markets, among others. He said, “Hallucination may come from the algorithm itself. Typically, it will give a statistically likely result, but not necessarily what’s physically correct. And the algorithm may have no inbuilt validation mechanism. For example, the algorithm doesn’t know your temperatures cannot go below zero, or that your inflow and outflow have to be the same to maintain the system.” 

In the conceptual design phase, AI hallucination can be a source of creativity, leading to unexplored design options. Kini said, “If you’re an automotive designer, you know what a car should look like. But when you use AI, you’re also expecting the AI tool to use its imagination, to come up with novel ideas. In that sense, it can argued hallucination is a feature of the tool thinking outside the box.”

Training vs. Usage

AI training needs data—lots of it. Often new users underestimate the volume of validated FEA runs required to develop a reliable surrogate or reduced order model that can stand in for the full physics model. And inaccurate or corrupt data in the training data set can sow the seed for AI hallucination.

“The data should not be noisy or incomplete. It should not be very sparse on the edge,” said Kini. “And the user should only use the AI-trained model for what it’s trained to predict. If the entire data set is made up of laminar flow simulations, but you’re asking it to predict turbulent flows, you’re asking for trouble.”

Room for Assumptions

Simulation is fundamentally mathematics, a series of equations. Therefore, simulation programs work best with calculable, quantifiable parameters, like temperature, weight, volume, and tensile strength. But with natural language prompts, users could inadvertently sidestep the critical parameters, forcing the AI tool to make assumptions.

“If you give the tool an underdefined problem, and don't give it enough information, then you’re asking it to fill the gaps. That means you’re opening the door for hallucination,” said Kini.

Signs of Hallucination

Recognizing AI hallucination usually requires domain knowledge. It resides with the industry veterans who can look at the shape of a part and intuitively know where its vulnerabilities are, or the CFD or FEA experts who know what the expected results should look from a quick glance at the mesh model or CAD geometry.

“If you come from the analog background [having used pre-AI simulation tools], you know what to expect, what to look for, so it’s easier to catch AI hallucination,” said Link.

“See if the underlying physics is violated. There are standard benchmarks that you use to validate the solvers. If your AI prediction is something completely off, if it doesn’t align with those benchmarks, it's probably hallucinating,” said Kini. “You can catch a lot of hallucination by looking for inconsistencies. If you gave the tool two very similar sets of inputs, but the results are widely different, something is wrong.”

Link recalled that, on a number of occasions, he had had to interrogate the AI tools to identify the source of simulation results that seemed odd. Instead of asking the AI tool more questions about the same simulation model, feeding more examples of the same type of simulation would be more helpful, he suggested.

“If you show it enough example, it might say, based on these setups and flow conditions, here are the factors that should be present, so you can check for them,” he said. “The more feedback you give, the more it will incorporate the new knowledge into its future runs.”

Solver in the Loop, Human in the Loop

Kini warned that, when it comes to safety critical systems, human oversight is nonnegotiable. “With aircrafts, power plants, or something similar, because their failure means a big disaster, you have to have more safeguards and humans should definitely be in the loop all the times,” he said.

He also proposed the solver-in-the-loop workflow, where AI predictions are not accepted at face value but also confirmed with a full simulation run on a time-test solver. “AI proposes, but the traditional solver validates it, or you do spot checks with the solver,” he explained.

Bruno Lecointre, AI innovation lead for CAE at Keysight, said, “The markets we serve are heavily regulated. There's a lot of automation that already exists. So customers need to find out where the value is, where agentic AI may be superior to automation. That's not a given,” he said. “There is also a tradeoff with AI solutions. How much do you need to invest in AI training? I’d say the market is in the exploratory phase right now.”

As natural language prompts become a standard feature in CFD and FEA programs, Link feels the software should also include more guardrails to keep the human-machine exchanges on the right path. “If it’s designed to funnel the conversation toward simulation, to ask for things like industry-standard physics types and flow conditions, then it minimizes the risk of hallucination,” he reasoned.

To fulfill the ORECA Group’s goal to expand the use of advanced simulation technologies across competitive racing programs, it has replaced its legacy CFD environment with Siemens’ technologies to improve simulation efficiency, enable more advanced multiphysics simulation and strengthen workflow integration across its motorsport engineering teams.

“ORECA was looking for a simulation environment that could support accelerated and more streamlined workflows from design through simulation while enabling new types of multiphysics analysis,” says Jean-Philippe Pelaprat, head of aerodynamics, ORECA Group. “Siemens’ simulation software gives our engineering teams the flexibility to run more advanced simulations and optimize composite structures in a highly demanding motorsport environment.”

“Our collaboration with ORECA shows how Siemens Xcelerator empowers engineering organizations to push the limits of performance through simulation-driven engineering,” says Sam Mahalingam, executive vice-president of Simulation, HPC and AI, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “By bringing advanced CFD and composite optimization together within a digital twin environment, we’re giving customers the tools to explore bold new design approaches and drive innovation in some of the most demanding, competitive engineering programs in the world.”

The ORECA Group is using Siemens’ Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software to support more efficient CFD workflows and to conduct complex multi-physics simulations that combine aerodynamic, thermal and brake-related effects. Siemens’ Simcenter Optistruct software is being applied to optimize carbon fiber composite layups, helping engineers balance stiffness and weight in components. Together, these capabilities support ORECA’s efforts to deploy sophisticated simulation technologies and enable innovation across its motorsport development programs.

The collaboration aligns with Siemens’ focus on digital twin technologies and software-driven engineering used in motorsport to enable virtual-first development, reduce reliance on physical testing and support performance optimization. 

To learn more, visit https://www.siemens.com/en-us/campaigns/siemens-motorsports/

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The Shell Triple 10 Challenge concept car was created to demonstrate three objectives for future electric mobility: 

• Charge Faster: 10% to 80% charge in under 10 minutes. 

• Go Further: 10 km/kWh efficiency. 

• Drive Cleaner: a lifecycle footprint of less than 10 tonnes CO₂e. 

As part of the project, ENGYS contributed its expertise in external vehicle aerodynamics design and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, helping evaluate and understand the vehicle’s aerodynamic performance and overall energy efficiency. 

Using CFD, parametric modeling and automated optimization workflows, ENGYS engineers explored a range of design configurations to understand the relationship between vehicle shape and aerodynamic drag. The work was part of a simulation-led development process used to support engineering decision-making throughout the project. 

“Aerodynamics is critical to vehicle efficiency,” says Angus Lock, general manager of ENGYS North America. “The most interesting aspect of this project was not a specific aerodynamic feature, but the ability to use CFD to explore the design space and guide engineering decisions early in development. We needed to understand how different geometric parameters interacted with one another and used simulation to identify the combinations that delivered the greatest overall benefit.” 

The Shell Triple 10 Challenge project demonstrates how advanced CFD workflows can help engineers evaluate complex design challenges earlier in the development cycle. 

ENGYS worked alongside Shell and other project partners, including RML, Empel and HORIBA MIRA.

Watch the launch video here. 

About ENGYS 

ENGYS develops advanced open-source CFD software solutions for enterprise applications designed to make fluid dynamics simulations more accessible.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

UKFE’s fusion energy expertise combines with Dassault Systèmes’ virtual twin and collaborative innovation technologies to strengthen the UK’s position in the move toward clean energy leadership. The deployment and expansion of Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform will provide the digital engineering foundations needed to design, develop and operate next-generation fusion power plants and research facilities.

STEP, the UK Government’s flagship fusion energy program, aims to design and build a prototype fusion power plant by 2040. As part of the agreement, Dassault Systèmes will expand product lifecycle management and engineering collaboration capabilities through the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, a core component of STEP’s Plant Information Management System (PIMS).

The platform will provide a unified engineering environment enabling program teams and supply chain partners to collaborate using shared, real-time data across the full lifecycle of the plant. By improving information continuity and reducing operational silos, the collaboration is expected to enhance engineering productivity.

The agreement also marks a  milestone in establishing the UK’s sovereign digital capability for fusion energy infrastructure. The Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform will lay the foundations for STEP’s long-term virtual twin strategy, enabling engineers to model, simulate, test and optimise highly complex fusion systems in virtual environments before and throughout physical construction and operations.

Leveraging virtual twin experiences, engineers will be able to address multiphysics challenges associated with fusion energy development while improving engineering accuracy, operational readiness and lifecycle performance. The digital framework will also support the evolution of STEP through detailed design, construction, commissioning and future operations by aligning all stakeholders around a standardized and connected engineering environment.

“This agreement marks an important milestone in the evolution of the information baseline for the STEP Prototype Fusion Power Plant at West Burton. PIMS, powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, will play a critical role in enabling fast, efficient and rigorous engineering delivery while creating the blueprint for future fusion power plant," says Debbie Kempton, director of Engineering Programme at UK Fusion Energy. 

“As we advance toward a virtual twin for STEP through the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, UKFE is establishing the digital engineering foundations required to deliver the next generation of fusion power plants,” says John Turnbull, managing director EURONORTH, Dassault Systèmes. “This deployment will strengthen engineering continuity, accelerate innovation and ensure that plant information, engineering decisions and system designs remain fully connected across the entire lifecycle of the prototype power plant.”

Dassault Systèmes’ role within STEP reflects its broader focus on enabling the industrialzsation of transformative technologies through science-based virtual twin experiences that connect research, engineering, manufacturing and operations within a single collaborative ecosystem.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

Training content for MarkedUp will soon be available within Eagle Point Software’s Pinnacle Series platform, equipping architecture, engineering, and construction professionals with the knowledge needed to leverage AI for more accurate drawing review workflows.

MarkedUp is a drawing audit tool that operates invisibly in existing workflows, connecting directly to project and file management systems where teams already work. The platform automatically scans plans for missing elements, mismatched tags, and schedule anomalies, sending instant alerts directly via email, Slack, or Teams.

By automating the first pass of plan coordination before estimators and project managers bid, build, or share drawing sets, MarkedUp AI helps firms eliminate human error and safeguard their project contingencies.

“As AI continues to reshape how AECO, design, and manufacturing teams work, it’s critical that organizations not only adopt these technologies but also understand how to apply them effectively,” says Steve Biver, chief operating officer, Eagle Point Software. “By partnering with MarkedUp AI, we’re helping our customers build the skills needed to take full advantage of AI-driven drawing review and improve project outcomes.”

The addition of MarkedUp AI training content into Pinnacle Series will provide learning paths and practical guidance for users looking to integrate AI into their design and documentation processes. This includes instruction on how to identify issues earlier in the project lifecycle, streamline review cycles, and enhance collaboration across teams.

“Construction has a $65 billion per year rework problem caused directly by uncoordinated drawings,” says Christopher Mouflard, founder and CEO of MarkedUp. “Reviewing plans is critical, tedious work, and when busy teams skip it, it becomes a massive drain on project margins. By partnering with Eagle Point Software, we are ensuring construction teams have both our automated drawing audit technology and the exact training they need to run invisible checks before they bid, build, or share their plans.”

This partnership aligns with both companies’ shared mission to improve productivity and reduce risk across the AECO+D&M industries by combining innovative technology with learning and adoption strategies.

MarkedUp training content is expected to be available in Pinnacle Series later this year.

About Eagle Point Software

Pinnacle Series creator Eagle Point Software has helped AECO, design, and manufacturing companies work more efficiently since 1983. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The Foundation evolves its pledge to contribute 1% of company equity toward scholarships into an initiative with national and regional partnerships. Xometry has committed $1 million per year to scholarships, grants, and hands-on engineering programs, designed to develop the next generation of engineers and manufacturing talent, as well as U.S. workforce development initiatives that will launch later this year.

“As the industry undergoes a digital transformation, we must ensure the next generation of engineers and manufacturers has the access and resources to succeed,” sats Randy Altschuler, co-founder and CEO at Xometry. “The Xometry Foundation is our commitment to strengthen the manufacturing ecosystem by removing barriers to education and fostering innovation at every level.”

Education and Community Impact

Xometry has launched its first initiative. In partnership with the ASME Foundation, Xometry is funding travel grants that expand access to ASME Engineering Festivals (E-Fests) and annual scholarships helping future engineers with financial support for their undergraduate education.

“Our collaboration with Xometry opens doors of opportunity for next generation engineers. By combining our philanthropic reach with Xometry's resources we are actively working to build a more accessible and inclusive engineering ecosystem. Providing support like student travel grants and annual scholarships allows us to empower a diverse pipeline of emerging leaders who will be ready to solve complex global challenges. Together, we are ensuring that tomorrow's engineering workforce is exceptionally well-prepared, highly motivated, and representative of the communities they serve,” says Stephanie Viola, executive director of the ASME Foundation.

In partnership with the SAE Foundation, Xometry is funding the Student Access Program, providing undergraduate students with career development opportunities, financial assistance for the Collegiate Design Series events, and ongoing engineering education resources.

“Xometry’s support of the SAE Foundation to create the Xometry Student Access Program is doing more than supporting students—they are opening doors,” said Jamie Ferguson, SAE Foundation executive director. “Their generous investment is helping remove financial barriers, expand access to hands-on engineering experiences, and connect students to the skills and careers that will define the future of mobility and manufacturing.”

The Xometry Foundation is funding community impact programs to provide STEM resources to organizations that inspire future engineers and manufacturers at the local level. Partners include the U.S. Space & Rocket Center – a Smithsonian affiliate and home to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL – through which the Foundation supports both Space Camp programming and curriculum sponsorships. Closer to Xometry's corporate headquarters in Maryland, the Foundation will continue supporting KID Museum, which empowers youth to become creative problem-solvers through hands-on maker education and STEM programming.

The Xometry Innovators Program
In addition to the Foundation initiatives, Xometry recently launched its Innovators Program, connecting student engineers and manufacturing innovators with the tools they need. Through this program, undergraduate student groups get access to exclusive parts discounts, educational resources, and dedicated engineering mentorship. Several universities, including Lehigh University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Vermont are already benefiting from the Xometry Innovators Program.

To learn more about the Xometry Foundation's current initiatives and upcoming workforce development programs, visit xometry.com/xometry-foundation.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

ZWCAD is focused on reducing friction in everyday CAD work. This can mean faster commands, smoother workflows, stronger compatibility, simpler administration, or a more intuitive user experience, according to ZWSOFT.

The goal is not to add complexity. The goal is to help users work more effectively, focus on their projects, and move ideas forward. Feedback from professionals worldwide is used by the company to helps ZWSOFT understand where workflows can be improved and where innovation can make a greater difference.

For ZWSOFT, this new positioning is a milestone to help the company buildsoftware around real user needs and to continuously improve the professional CAD experience.

It is also closely connected to the mission of enabling sustainable innovation. Across products, technologies, services, and partner ecosystem, ZWSOFT aims to help professionals work more efficiently and reduce complexity.

Looking ahead, the company plans to continue investing in the areas that matter: performance, compatibility, usability, workflow efficiency, customer support, and partner success.

Download ZWCAD or buy now.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

AAKRUTI 2026–27 will focus on four key themes that reflect global priorities: robotics, local community problems, healthcare innovation and mobility. These themes are designed to encourage students to apply design thinking and engineering principles to solve real-world challenges with measurable impact.  

Students will use Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform and SOLIDWORKS applications to develop their projects.

“AAKRUTI started with a simple belief that students everywhere have incredible ideas if we give them the right platform, tools and encouragement. What inspires us most is seeing young innovators take on real problems with creativity, passion, and purpose. From a small initiative to a global movement across 37-plus countries, AAKRUTI has become a place where students turn ideas into solutions that can truly make a difference,” says Suchit Jain, vice president, Strategy, Dassault Systèmes.

This edition also sees a marked increase in rewards. A total of $20,000 in cash prizes, along with SOLIDWORKS licenses, will be awarded to winners. In addition, all participants will gain access to Dassault Systèmes’ design ecosystem including SOLIDWORKS licenses, certification opportunities (CSWA, CSWP), and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, enabling hands-on learning and real-world simulation capabilities.

In the previous edition, over 2,000 certifications were awarded, amounting to nearly $396,000 in upskilling value.

Since its inception, AAKRUTI has witnessed participation from over 75,000 students across more than 1,000 institutes and 37 countries. The program has also demonstrated industry relevance, with 500 alumni and winners currently working across leading global organizations, based on recent survey insights.

The competition journey will culminate in the Global Finale at Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE World 2027 event in Nashville. AAKRUTI registration link: https://www.solidworks.com/product/students/aakruti-global

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

For instance, because performance vehicles cost big money to produce, such manufacturers usually have change to spare when manufacturing specialized parts and components, making AM a cost-effective fit. 

But what about the rest of the automotive industry—does AM really make economic sense? Can it support large-scale production of parts? How exactly is its use being adopted across the sector? Digital Engineering reached out to several companies in AM who addressed their successes and limitations in using AM as a tool to impact automotive parts production and more.

Trending in Additive Manufacturing

Conflux Technology, an Australian advanced manufacturing company, designs and produces metal additive manufactured heat exchangers for use in production vehicles, motorsport, aerospace, and defense applications. 

“From where we sit, the headline trend in automotive AM is straightforward: 3D printing has moved from ‘prototyping and curiosity’ to a legitimate tool in the production toolkit—and adoption is accelerating,” says Daniel Woodford, CEO, Conflux Technology. “Two forces are driving this.

The No. 1 driving force for the 3D printing shift from prototyping to a tool for production, according to Woodford, is confidence. “There is now a growing body of certification evidence and experience that AM delivers—production parts, race-proven components, multi-year OEM contracts. That self-reinforcing knowledge base is lowering the barrier for procurement and engineering teams to specify AM parts.”

The other force, which may be obvious, is cost. “The economics are improving materially, driven by higher productivity, lower cost AM platforms (particularly in metal) and companies like Conflux investing deliberately in cost-down manufacturing strategies,” Woodford suggests.

Automotive grill prototype created using 3D Systems SLA 3D printing and Accura AMX Rigid Black material. Image courtesy: 3D Systems

Although Conflux sees economic bright spots, Eric Utley of Protolabs says it’s still critical to understand the financial piece with automotive: “It’s an industry laser-focused on cost per part. That’s always been one of the main reasons 3D printing hasn’t moved more broadly into high-volume production. The technology is really good at making complex parts with high-performance features like lightweighting, but automotive companies are constantly trying to drive costs down to the absolute minimum.”

Joe Dopkowski, business development manager, 3D Systems, says the cost factor is related to volumes. According to Dopkowski, volume is “always at the leading edge of cost-driven solutions. When you’re manufacturing millions and millions of components a year, tenths of a penny start to add up quickly. The end customer for volume automotive is also very price sensitive. The main hurdle [for AM] to be used at a greater scale is cost.”

A view of the side of a Harley-Davidson racing motorcycle engine and 3D-printed exhaust system designed to get closer to the ground on turns, according to Eric Utley of Protolabs. Image courtesy: Protolabs

That said, what may influence increased adoption of AM in automotive is supply chain pressure, according to Bruno Romero, HP Additive Manufacturing EMEA applications engineer manager. “As companies look to reduce inventory and produce parts closer to where they are needed, on-demand, localized production is making additive manufacturing a more practical solution.”

Romero continues, “Historically, cost per part and throughput limited its use beyond prototyping. That is now changing as systems become more productive and materials more efficient.”

Cost aside, innovations and developments in AM also increase its attractiveness to the automotive sector. 

“…advances in automation, software, and workflow integration are making it easier to move from design to production using the same processes and materials. This allows engineering teams to produce functional parts in-house and reduces the gap between design, validation, and manufacturing,” HP’s Romero adds.

Protolabs’ Utley notes more developments tipping the scales in favor of AM.

“For high-performance vehicles, 3D-printed parts that are complex or require lightweighting are still a strong application for 3D printing,” Utley says, as is mass customization. “More OEMs are offering customization features that fit nicely with low-volume manufacturing methods like additive.” Another growing opportunity involves replacement parts, especially for older vehicles, or components that aren’t easy to source.

What’s Driving Performance Automotive 

Pictured here is the right side of a Harley-Davidson racing bike, which features a 3D printed exhaust system, a collaborative effort involving Protolabs. Image courtesy: Protolabs.

Collaboration helps fuel the integration of AM in automotive especially in the performance vehicle segment. “Conflux’s automotive engagement runs across the high-performance spectrum—from motorsport at the sharp end through to low-volume hypercar and supercar OEM production,” shares Woodford. The company’s longest automotive relationships are in motorsport, including Formula One, where performance expectations and tolerance for AM technology have been high.

On the OEM side, Woodford spoke of two specific programs that Conflux has worked on all the way to production. 

Pagani Utopia — Conflux developed a bespoke transmission oil cooler for the Pagani Utopia hypercar. The Utopia’s V12-powered drivetrain demanded “exceptional” thermal management of its transmission oil circuit, particularly under track conditions. Conflux delivered a 30% increase in heat rejection compared to the previous solution, Woodford notes. 

Donkervoort P24 RS — Donkervoort selected Conflux’s barrel water charge air coolers for their upcoming P24 RS supercar — a 600 hp, twin-turbo V6 in a 780 kg car. The P24 RS will carry two Conflux WCACs, utilizing cylindrical designs placed directly between the turbochargers and throttle bodies. Each unit features tailored fin geometry, density, and size.

“These are production programs, not prototypes—and they reflect what we believe is a broader shift in how performance vehicle manufacturers are approaching thermal management,” Woodford says.

Where AM Makes Most Sense

Smaller parts can present a strong case for 3D printing, according to Utley. “3D printing tends to make the most sense when the part is relatively small, fairly detailed, needed in lower volumes, or likely to be redesigned a few times. That’s where we’re seeing the most traction. It’s less about trying to compete with traditional manufacturing on huge production runs and more about helping customers move faster, iterate faster and solve problems that conventional processes don’t handle as well.”

Again, though, the size of the component being produced can limit AM’s use, notes Dopkowski. “Large components are likely to still be made with traditional methods that can support the large component size. Metal structural components, turbochargers, engine internals, interior panels, gaskets and electronics enclosures, even the molds used to manufacture tires, can and are being made additively,” he shares.

Yet AM is in play for a broader range of automotive components today. “Additive has really worked its way, in some way/shape or form, into virtually all components—whether it is the end-use part itself, prototyping of that component or fixturing to assemble the final components,” Dopkowski adds. 

Specific Use Cases for Additive in Automotive

For performance vehicles, use cases for AM can include “everything from quick iteration wind tunnel testing to lightweight structural components for reducing unsprung mass and everything in between,” says 3D Systems’ Dopkowski. “Performance vehicles are very purpose-focused (performance) and less price sensitive as long as the tool applied (additive) provides the solution that is being looked for.”

At Protolabs, Utley breaks down use cases by category:

Prototyping: A large amount of work here centers on interior components, housings, headlights, taillights, and development parts, Utley notes.

Low-volume production: Such as for EV startups and specialty vehicles 

Aftermarket and replacement parts: ”In situations where parts are out of market, 3D printing can be a very practical way to make replacement plastic components like housings, covers, and more,” Utley says.

Sensor-related parts: Including LIDAR and other autonomous or advanced driver-assistance components. “Those parts are often small, detailed, and subject to rapid design updates, which plays to the strengths of additive.”

Racing and performance applications: “Customers are often willing to pay more if it means getting a lighter or better-performing part,” Utley says.

One use case example that Protolabs’ Utley shared by name is Harley-Davidson, whose factory racing team has teamed up with Protolabs on a racing bike. “For example, we recently printed a new exhaust system for their racing bike that allows the bike to get closer to the ground on turns without scraping the exhaust. Design freedom and lightweight titanium achievable through additive manufacturing make a ton of sense for this application,” Utley shares.

Metal additive manufactured heat exchanger and thermal management parts made by Conflux Technology for Doonkervoort. Image courtesy: Conflux Technology

At Conflux Technology, thermal management is the primary category for AM use. “Our focus is squarely on production thermal management components—high-performing, reliable heat exchangers that go into vehicles,” says Woodford.

The specific use cases the company is addressing include:

• Water charge air coolers / intercoolers—cooling charged air between the turbocharger and the engine. 

• Oil coolers—transmission, gearbox, and powertrain oil cooling for motorsport and road-going applications. 

• Bespoke / extreme packaging applications—for customers with specific geometric constraints, aesthetic requirements, or integration challenges, the company develops purpose-designed AM heat exchangers.

For its metal heat exchangers, Conflux turns to AM platforms such as the EOS M290 and M300 laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) systems.

At HP, Romero adds serial production to the mix: “The goal is to enable serial production parts where there’s the highest value. In the case of serial production, cases such as the recent launch of Renault E5 demonstrate there is a market for car personalization where the buyer can purchase accessories, which are additively manufactured, from Renault’s website. Other OEMs such as Alpine A110 R or GM Tahoe saw the potential for manufacturing visible components.”

In another example, Romero shares how Blazin Rodz, a California-based maker of custom cars, has integrated “more than 75 Multi Jet Fusion–printed parts into a fully functional vehicle, showcasing how additive enables faster, more flexible and highly personalized production.”

Future Direction of AM in Automotive

The trajectory is clear: AM will occupy an increasingly significant role in automotive production, not just prototyping, according to Woodford. “The cost curve is moving in the right direction, the engineering community’s confidence in AM is growing, and the performance advantages—particularly for thermal management—are well established. 

“I expect to see the production volume threshold at which AM is cost-competitive continue to shift upward, opening new application areas beyond the current high-performance / low-volume sweet spot,” Woodford adds.

Utley of Protolabs has a more tempered view, because of the cost pressure, “so I don’t think additive suddenly replaces traditional manufacturing for mainstream high-volume parts. But I do think it continues to grow in the areas where it brings clear value. That includes premium vehicles, racing, low-volume programs, aftermarket parts, and the rapidly evolving technologies like sensors and electrification components.”

Utley also likes the growth potential of AM in mass customization. ”Additive is naturally a good fit for custom accessories, trim pieces, and personalized components because you don’t need tooling and you can make low volumes economically. There’s also probably an AI angle to that over time. As design tools get better, it may become much easier to create customized parts or accessories and then manufacture them through additive. At the high end, you’ll also keep seeing additive paired with advanced design tools for lightweight, performance-driven parts.”

Romero at HP suggests that automotive production “is shifting toward lower volumes, greater variation, and shorter development cycles,” which will amplify the demand for flexible manufacturing methods. Over time, additive manufacturing will become a more established part of the production mix, used to enable more responsive and adaptable production models, particularly in areas where speed and complexity are critical,” Romero concludes.

Dopkowski of 3D Systems sees the future of AM in automotive through the lens of the EV: “…there are still advantages to be gained from weight reduction in terms of efficiency. Lighter vehicles are more efficient, have less impact on the roads and are more fun to drive!” 

Michael Balchanos, ASDL Senior Research Engineer, and a team of Ph.D. students followed the GWCCA Police Department to understand the traffic management challenges during major events at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In doing so, they identified a key challenge: monitoring and understanding the constantly changing nature of safety planning and traffic operations during mega events. To address it, they developed data-calibrated simulations and digital twins to support the same operations during the World Cup.

“Our digital twins blend multiple streams of data to create models about how cars and people will move when they interact with each other. Once we determine their rules of behavior, our simulations evaluate different traffic interventions to avoid bottlenecks, traffic slowdowns, and unwanted crowdedness,” said project leader Balchanos. “Our custom-built interface allows us to build different scenarios and simulate different approaches, in real time, as conditions change." He expected decision makers would use the dashboard to advise when and what interventions should be used.

The project team includes aerospace Ph.D. students Hajar Mali, Nathnael Geneti, Balaji Ravikanti, and Mario Zarate. 

“By leveraging ASDL’s data-driven simulation and digital twin capabilities, this initiative brings the lab’s years of expertise in advanced modeling for aerospace systems to the problem of people and vehicle traffic in downtown Atlanta during the games," said ASDL Director and Regents’ Professor Dimitri Mavris.

ASDL got involved after GTPD Chief Robert Connolly and members of Georgia Tech’s Administration and Finance team began looking for ways to use research to support the GWCCA. 

Connolly, also VP for Public Safety, said, “While this current work supports GWCCA and the planning of FIFA, the benefits extend far beyond a single event. The insights will help Georgia Tech make more informed, data-driven decisions as our campus grows."

Mavris said. “It’s a win-win for campus and the city as we welcome soccer fans from around the world.”

Industrial AI that acts, not just advises

The Eigen Engineering Agent plans, executes, and validates industrial automation engineering tasks end-to-end. It understands the project, writes the control software, configures the system and keeps refining its work until it meets defined quality benchmarks. 

The Eigen Engineering Agent works alongside the TIA Portal, Siemens’ engineering software platform, and is part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio.

Productivity gains in the real world

More than 100 companies in 19 countries are using the Eigen Engineering Agent. The agent accelerates everyday engineering work such as programmable logic controller (PLC) programming, human-machine interface (HMI) visualization and device configuration, with measurable gains:

• 2 to 5 times faster execution than manual workflows

• up to 50% efficiency gains in engineering

• 80% improvement in overall solution quality

“The Eigen Engineering Agent shows what AI can deliver beyond the digital world,” says Peter Koerte, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and the company’s chief technology officer and chief strategy officer. “It makes companies up to 50 percent more efficient in complex engineering work, while making the results more reliable. That’s what it takes to build the machines, factories and infrastructure that keep everyday life running—and it’s what real value from AI in the physical world looks like.”

With the new capabilities – ECAD integration and standards-compliant project generation – the Eigen Engineering Agent now understands more of the context that comes before software development itself, including hardware topology, machine structure and engineering intent. 

ECAD integration: closing the gap between electrical design and automation code

The Eigen Engineering Agent reads electrical design files in widely used formats including XML and AML. It detects inconsistencies, resolves or flags them, adds devices to the TIA Portal project, configures the connections and generates PLC tags grounded in the actual hardware topology.

The Eigen Engineering Agent now turns machine descriptions into standards-compliant projects in minutes. Engineers describe the machine in plain language: its stations, devices and how it should behave. The agent generates a complete project that follows the Siemens Automation Framework, Siemens' best-practice reference for structuring TIA Portal projects. The project opens directly in TIA Portal.

“Engineering teams lose time between electrical design and software and between knowing best practices and applying them,” says Vasi Philomin, Executive Vice President and Head of Data and AI at Siemens. “With these new capabilities, the Eigen Engineering Agent brings hardware topology, system structure and engineering intent into the automation workflow, enabling automation engineers to start from a project that already reflects the system they need to automate.”

Both capabilities are included in the standard Eigen Engineering Agent subscription at no extra cost.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

Comprising 14 renowned artists’ designs from the Art of Golf collection, the representations measure about 15 cm and are 3D printed on Mimaki’s photorealistic full color 3DUJ-553 3D printer in one piece. Each 3D printed replica brings the designers’ visions to life by capturing the form, texture, and artwork of the original bag.

Each of the fourteen designs is produced in a limited quantity of 25 3D prints, making a total of 350 models available for purchase throughout the 14 events that make up the 2026 LIV Golf tournament. Complementing the series of miniatures, Mimaki was also commissioned by Cleeks Golf Club to produce a larger half-scale reproduction of the full-sized players’ bags for each design in the Art of Golf series. Measuring 50 cm,  the models are on display as a clubhouse showpiece at each LIV event.

Teeing Up Innovation

As Matthew Stark, 3D segment manager at Mimaki, explains, with traditional production often requiring trade-offs, including simplifying shapes, reducing color, or adding manual finishing, 3D printing proved the right partner for Cleeks’ needs.

“When it comes to high-quality collectibles, this project perfectly exemplifies the capability of our 3D printing proposition—namely short-run, highly precise, full color output consistent from one piece to the next and delivered in a matter of hours,” he explains. “The reality is that for projects like this, 3D printing is really the only viable option. Aside from the time and cost associated with conventional methods, the level of realism and fine detail we’re able to achieve would be impossible with techniques like traditional hand model-making,” continues Stark.

Jonas Mårtensson, general manager, Cleeks Golf Club, adds; “Art of Golf is about expanding what golf can be. We use the golf bag as a canvas to celebrate artists, cultures and creative voices from around the world, bringing a new dimension to the sport and creating experiences that resonate beyond traditional golf audiences. These collectibles capture that idea perfectly. They’re not simply miniature golf bags; they’re miniature works of art. Mimaki’s technology has allowed us to faithfully reproduce each artist’s vision and create something that fans can take home while preserving the integrity of the original work,” adds Mårtensson.

Mimaki is now actively involved in assisting in the design and 3D printing of miniature golf bags for upcoming rounds in the UK, as well as additional events in the United States.

The Art of the Drive

The designs that make up the Art of Golf series feature creations from artists across multiple countries including Korea, Mexico, Singapore and the United States. In most cases, the artists are locally anchored to the regions that feature as part of the 2026 LIV Golf tournament, allowing each design to reflect not only the artist’s language, but also the cultural context surrounding the course. The sixth bag in the 2026 Art of Golf series draws inspiration from Virginia, incorporating the Flowering Dogwood and Northern Cardinal into the design.

Mimaki’s collaboration with Cleeks Golf Club underscores its 3D printing capability, which is exemplified by its flagship 3D printer, the 3DUJ-553, that is central to this project. As a photorealistic full-color 3D printer, it is capable of producing more than 10 million unique colors across a multitude of different application scenarios. l 

Golf fans can enjoy an up-close look at the four 3D prints from the Art of Golf series, as well as the opportunity to purchase them, at the remaining events across the 2026 LIV Golf tournament. The upcoming locations and dates are: LIV Golf UK, July 23-26, (JCB Golf and Country Club, Rocester, England); August 6–9, LIV Golf New York, (Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, New Jersey, USA); August 20-23, LIV Golf Indianapolis, (The Club at Chatham Hills, Westfield, IN, USA); and August 27–30, LIV Golf Michigan - Team Championship, (The Cardinal at Saint John's, Plymouth, MI, USA).

Additionally, some designs from the collection will also be on display at BMW International Open, a DP World Tour event held at Golfclub München Eichenried in Munich, Germany, July 2–5.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

Effective July 1, Bryan Ferrand will assume the role of president and Donna Kelly has been promoted to chief operating officer of BMF Precision Inc.  John Kawola will transition from CEO to strategic advisor, supporting the leadership team and the company’s long-term direction.

“BMF is a remarkable company with exceptional technology, a strong team, and a bright future,” says John Kawola. “I have tremendous confidence in Bryan, Donna, and the broader leadership team as they guide the company forward.  I will plan to remain a long-term adviser to the leadership team and a strong believer in BMF and its continued success.”

“John has been a tremendous partner to me and has helped us build BMF from the ground up.  He has also built a strong team that is able to step up and bring BMF to the next level,” says Dr. Xioaning He, chairman BMF.

About Boston Micro Fabrication

Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF) enables micro-scale 3D printing across the healthcare, life sciences, electronics, and machining industries. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

“We’re extra excited about our new CAMJam 2026 video archive and viewing guide. It builds upon previous versions and includes videos on all of our CAM configuration modules. CAMJam 2026 additionally includes easy access to all available printed training materials through our newly released online document hub," says Don LaCourse, tech support manager at MecSoft and a principal involved in the creation of the product.

Training Available in CAMJam 2026:

• What’s New in MecSoft CAM 2026
• NVIDIA Tweaks for Tri-Dexel Simulation
• New 4 Axis Methods Training
• Machining 3D Models with STD Configuration
• Common 2.5 Axis Support Training
• Basic & Advanced TURN Module Training
• Over 700 Tips & Best Use Practices 
• The 2026 MecSoft Documentation Portal 

About MecSoft Corporation

Headquartered in Dana Point, CA, MecSoft Corp. provides CAM software solutions for the small to mid-market segments. These solutions include the VisualCAD/CAM, and RhinoCAM products. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

Through this partnership, Xpertos3D will leverage Nikon SLM Solutions’ technology and expertise to help customers evaluate, develop, and implement production-ready metal AM applications.

Beyond providing access to advanced manufacturing technologies, Xpertos3D offers consulting and engineering support throughout the product lifecycle.

“Latin America continues to present significant opportunities for industrial additive manufacturing adoption,” says Sam O’Leary, CEO of Nikon SLM Solutions. “By partnering with Xpertos3D, we are strengthening our ability to support customers in the region with the technology, expertise, and local presence required to accelerate the adoption of metal additive manufacturing for demanding industrial applications.”

The partnership will focus initially on supporting aerospace and energy customers.

“We chose Nikon SLM Solutions because of their leadership in metal additive manufacturing and their commitment to helping customers succeed in production environments,” says Erick Betancourth, business development manager at Xpertos3D. “Together, we can provide world-class metal additive manufacturing capabilities that help drive innovation for aerospace, energy, and other advanced industrial sectors throughout the region.”

The collaboration supports Nikon SLM Solutions’ strategy of enabling industrial-scale additive manufacturing through a combination of advanced hardware, validated materials, application expertise, software solutions, and comprehensive service support.

As adoption of metal additive manufacturing continues to grow globally, partnerships such as this help ensure customers have access to the local expertise and technical guidance required to successfully implement the technology and realize its full potential.

About Xpertos3D

Xpertos3D is a provider of advanced manufacturing and engineering solutions serving customers across Latin America. The company supports organizations throughout the product development process, from initial design and prototyping through industrial production.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

ARC is a U.S. Army Center of Excellence for the modeling and simulation of ground vehicles, led by the University of Michigan. It operates in a Quad structure, with Army scientists, academic investigators, industry engineers, and graduate students working together to solve problems ranging from autonomy, power and energy management, and mobility to ground vehicle survivability. 

At the 32nd ARC Annual Program Review (June 10-11), participants demonstrated how collaboration, digital engineering, and modeling and simulation continue to solve Army problems and shape its future capabilities.

“The technologies you are all spearheading will help prepare our military for the battlefield of the future,” said U.S. Sen. Gary Peters during opening remarks.

Dr. David Gorsich, Chief Scientist for U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC), noted, "[The Quad model] creates an environment where promising ideas mature faster and transition more effectively from research to capability. That ability to connect research, development, and experimentation is critical to delivering new technologies to soldiers.”

The event featured keynote speeches from industry and military leaders in automation and robotics, case studies, technical talks, and a panel with ARC partners. The main focus was on autonomous vehicle systems, advanced modeling, and digital engineering development.

During the presentation titled “Engineering the Army–Academia–Industry Innovation Ecosystem for U.S. Defense Modernization Through Digital Engineering,” GVSC Ground Vehicle Robotics Associate Director Jillyn Alban, said, "Collaboration is key—it’s the linchpin. Sharing oversight and validation results will reduce duplication. It will build trust and ensure acceptance from the research and development side of the house all the way to fielding.”

Similarly, GVSC Director Michael Cadieux said, “It’s industry and academic partners that carry forward the research that you’re doing. You mature the products and have the next set of questions you want to get after that feed that pipeline into the future.”

Alban stressed, "Homegrown talent is essential. We must empower young engineers to innovate and make our AI solutions resilient—because without that, this just won’t be accomplished.”

ARC has over the last several years brought together more than 80 industry partners and nine government agencies, currently working with 15 different universities.

This release delivers improvements across meshing, geometry preparation, import/export workflows, visualization, scripting, and machine learning support.

Highlights include new anisotropic tetrahedral meshing, cohesive element generation for crack and interface modeling, more triangle and tetrahedral meshing, improved mesh quality metrics for higher-order elements, reduced memory usage in Sculpt refinement, and expanded file compatibility for solver workflows. 

What’s New in Coreform Cubit 2026.6?

Coreform Cubit 2026.6 is fis designed to help users generate higher-quality meshes, work with complex geometry, and move models between Cubit and downstream simulation tools.

For users working with advanced fracture and interface problems, this release introduces cohesive element generation and anisotropic tetrahedral meshing. For users preparing large or complex models, improvements to triangle and tetrahedral meshing, composite surface handling, assembly file opening, and Sculpt refinement performance help streamline workflows. The release also includes expanded import/export capabilities, including more robust MCNP import for nuclear users working with radiation transport models.

Major Updates

• New advanced meshing capabilities — Coreform Cubit 2026.6 introduces anisotropic tetrahedral meshing and cohesive element generation, supporting more specialized workflows such as crack modeling and cohesive interface modeling.
• Improved meshing and quality assessment — Triangle and tetrahedral meshing have been improved for better stability and mesh quality, with additional accuracy improvements for mesh quality metrics and new Jacobian and scaled Jacobian metrics for Tetra10 and Tri6 higher-order elements.
• Better performance for large and complex models — Parallel Sculpt refinement now uses less memory, helping large models run on HPC nodes that previously ran out of memory, and Cubit files containing assembly data now open faster.
• Expanded solver and file compatibility — Updates include 64-bit Exodus ID support, additional Abaqus import support, solver element mapping, improved degenerate-element handling, I-DEAS sideset import, and MCNP import for nuclear users who need pathways from radiation transport geometry into Cubit workflows.
• Updated usability, scripting, and ML support — The GUI includes improved dark mode support and updated icons, the journal editor adds new script execution shortcuts, Cubit now includes Python 3.12, and new graph neural network feature strategies expand machine learning support through the Cubit Python API.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

“This is a critical public-private collaboration, where Thea Energy is leveraging AI to build systems on time and on budget, keeping us on track to delivering on-demand, abundant fusion power by 2035,” says David Gates, Ph.D., co-founder and chief technology officer of Thea Energy. “Our planar coil stellarator architecture also utilizes AI for its software controls to continuously reoptimize the system and correct for wear-and-tear.

"With this collaboration, we are expanding our AI applications to include multifaceted device modeling at the click of a button," Gates continues. "With the Helios digital twin, we can shorten development cycles and essentially run the system before we even put a shovel in the ground."

Through these collaborations: 

• NVIDIA will accelerate and integrate Thea Energy’s models, codes, and real-world data into a digital twin platform using NVIDIA Omniverse libraries. Powered by NVIDIA AI infrastructure, this platform will allow Thea Energy to analyze power plant performance in real-time.
• Synopsys will deliver simulation software expertise to integrate data into a unified multiphysics framework. This Ansys simulation-driven, AI-accelerated approach allows for the rapid evaluation of Thea Energy’s breeding blanket system.
• ANL will contribute expertise in neutronics analysis and blanket design as well as data that will be integrated into the Helios digital twin to bridge the knowledge gap in commercial blanket systems.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

Built on Massivit’s Cast-In-Motion (CIM) technology, RapidWings compresses composite tooling lead times into a matter of days. RapidWings partners have reported up to 70% savings in cost, versus conventional metal and machinable-board tooling, according to Massivit.

In the past year, Massivit has reported demand for manufacturing services from defense buyers in Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia, and India. The company is establishing RapidWings, a global network of local, on-demand, sovereign production facilities.

The RapidWings network will consist of regional partnerships, joint manufacturing alliances (JMAs), with certified Tier-2 composite manufacturing facilities. By embedding Massivit’s Cast In Motion digital tooling capability into established manufacturing facilities, JMA partners can advance and scale production without additional capital expenditure.

The first JMA—between Israel-based Comparts Ltd. and Massivit—is currently fully operational, with ongoing  defense engagements serving leading OEMs. The RapidWings model allows JMA partners to retain full operational control of their existing business and customer relationships with capability to accept more orders. 

Massivit is currently accepting applications from qualified composite manufacturers in the USA and Europe to join its expanding RapidWings network.

“Defense is a necessity worldwide," says Yossi Azarzar, CEO, Massivit. "By cutting manufacturing times, RapidWings’ proprietary technology could save defense and aeronautical companies months and millions.  RapidWings marks a strategic milestone for Massivit as we pivot from providing industrial 3D printers to delivering a much-needed Defense manufacturing platform that overcomes bottlenecks and empowers manufacturers to scale.”

About RapidWings

RapidWings is a turnkey composite manufacturing platform for Aerospace and Defense — delivering on-demand, certified tooling and structural parts through a global network of Joint Manufacturing Alliance partners. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

“You’re power constrained on Earth,” he said. “Space has the advantage that it’s always sunny.”

What Musk has described is a constellation of satellites acting as compute nodes for this orbital data center; he has further predicted that the cost of such a project would soon fall below the cost of building and powering a terrestrial data center.

But will it? Can this actually work? 

The short answer is: probably not, at least not under current conditions; but maybe, for more limited types of applications.

Earthbound Data Center Problems

Before we get into why there are going to be constraints on putting AI data centers in space, it’s important to note that this is a proposed solution to a very real problem. AI data center power consumption is expected to double to nearly 1,000 terawatt-hours in a few years. Data centers are having a real effect on energy prices in the communities where they are being built, and that has led to pushback from local residents and environmental groups, and in some cases has shut down or delayed new data center projects.

Some companies are building dedicated power infrastructure for data centers or proposing small-scale nuclear reactors to power them. But Musk isn’t the only one with his head in the stars. The start-up Starcloud put an NVIDIA H100 chip on one of its craft last year, the first step in what it, too, hopes will be an orbital data center project. Google’s project Suncatcher is also in the works, and would be an 81-satellite cluster built with the satellite-imagery company Planet. 

Another company, Aethero, is designing a distributed, edge computing concept for space applications, leveraging Ansys simulation solutions from Synopsys to analyze its satellites.

There are smaller scale applications where having compute resources in space has a real value. For example, having extraterrestrial data centers analyze Earth observation data (like weather patterns, for example) could benefit from having compute and data collection co-located on a satellite.

“These satellites are looking at what’s happening on the surface of the earth,” says Walter Frei, principal applications engineer at COMSOL. “We want that information as soon as possible, but collecting it from orbit can be challenging. You want to preprocess that data as much as possible and send it down to the end user. That’s reasonable.”

This type of data center application would require a larger version of existing satellites with more communication bandwidth. What Musk is proposing is much more elaborate.

But to operate a data center, whether in space or in New Jersey, there are two significant constraints—power and heat transfer. Theoretically, putting a data center in space solves both because there is infinite solar energy available, and space is very cold. It’s not that simple, however, and building a functional data center array in space creates as many problems as it solves.

Let the Sunshine In

In a recent webinar titled “Orbital Data Centers: Can Bitcoin Be Mined in Space?”, Maya HTT examined the simulation and design challenges of creating space-based compute nodes for a cryptocurrency application. Bitcoin mining on Earth consumes a lot of expensive electricity and generates significant heat (requiring thermal management); profitability of these operations is highly dependent on the cost of electricity. 

In this particular example, modeled using Siemens Simcenter tools, the presenters noted that there were significant tradeoffs when it came to powering such a system. “You would need to rely entirely on solar power, and that sounds amazing because solar is free,” said Jean-Francoise Labrecque-Piedboeuf, product line manager for space at Maya HTT. “We do have more solar energy in space than on Earth, but it’s not straightforward because you need more panels and cells, which are not that efficient.” In the Maya HTT model, it simply was not cost-efficient to push this type of work into orbit.

While there is no sunset in space, an orbiting satellite is still not always in direct sunlight. The solar panels would need to be periodically repositioned to capture the sun’s rays, requiring some motors and controls, and all of that adds cost and weight. In addition, the size of solar panels would need to be enormous. The International Space Station has panels nearly half the size of a football field that generate roughly 100 kilowatts of power. Scaling that up into megawatts would require exponentially larger panels that would constantly be exposed to collisions with space debris.

“Elon Musk is talking about terawatt-scale data centers in space,” says Sherman Ikemoto, group director at Cadence Design Systems. “Doing some quick calculations, the size of the solar panels that would be required would cover half the United States.”

The solar panels would also need to move to maintain constant power. “There are orbits available that are always exposed to the sun, independent of the spin of the Earth,” says Ikemoto. “But in order to maximize exposure, as the satellite is orbiting you still need some way of reorienting the solar panels.”

“You will get an order of magnitude more energy out of solar in space, but only if the panel is pointing at the sun the entire time,” Frei says. “You’d also need a really big solar panel—tens of meters in size, and it would need to be reoriented constantly. It would need to be larger than the International Space Station, and include thrusters and hardware to move it. How do you get it up there, and what happens if anything hits it?”

Cold, Hard Facts About Heat Transfer

While space is very cold, the heat generated by the computers on these orbiting satellites still has to be transferred away from the components. On Earth, air gives us free convection that helps move this heat. Data centers increasingly rely on liquid cooling systems to efficiently remove heat.

“People talk about cooling space is so easy and so free because space is cold, but actually it’s not that simple,” Frei says. Because space is a vacuum, you can’t use air or water to carry heat away. The heat has to radiate away from the hardware. The Stefan-Boltzmann law requires more than 1,000 square meters of radiator surface for the thermal output of a single megawatt of computing power (this can vary based on operating temperature). The satellite would also be absorbing solar energy, further increasing the thermal management challenge. New passive thermal controls under development would help, but this is still a significant engineering challenge.

“The major difference in space is the mode of heat transfer has to be conduction and radiation only; there is no fluid or air flow,” Ikemoto says. “It’s cold in space, but when thinking about heat transfer it’s not as straightforward as just putting something in a freezer. You don’t want to have to conduct heat out to a radiator over a long distance, because you lose efficiency. The design challenge doesn’t go away no matter what environment you are in.”

There are other problems to solve as well. Shielding components from cosmic radiation would be complex and potentially add significant weight. Microchips aren’t static; upgrading server farms with the latest and greatest CPUs and GPUs requires physical access to the hardware; orbiting data centers could wind up being computationally obsolete in a few years. 

“We don’t know how much shielding you’d need for a data center,” Frei says. “Ideally you want as little as possible, but you need to shield it from cosmic radiation. We have had solar flares that take out the electrical grid on Earth. It would be an absolutely infrastructure-ending event for a space-based data center.”

Data centers on Earth are also designed for compactness, with the chips as close together as possible to maximize communication between the components. In space, though, planar flat surfaces are optimal for heat dissipation. “You want maximum computing density in a three-dimensional sense,” says Frei. “In space, though, you want them as far apart as possible because you cannot build a better radiator than a flat, thin sheet. You can’t make things compact in space.”

“There are so many things that make this complicated,” Ikemoto says. “You can’t launch something that heavy preassembled, but if you launch it in pieces, what is the practical maximum size of the pieces, and the practical number of pieces needed to assemble in space to come up with the individual unit?”

Given costs and constraints, it might be a better use of resources to invest in creating more efficient data centers on Earth, and coming up with better ways to power and cool them. 

“With the introduction of NVIDIA’s accelerated computing technology based on GPUs, we’ve gone into the need for liquid cooling almost overnight,” Ikemoto says. “Our company developed simulation capabilities to capture that so we’d be ready, but even we got caught off guard by the new practical technologies that had to be incorporated into the design to make cooling work—control systems and the impact of new cooling system components like valves and pumps that weren’t widely available. You have to capture the behavior of all of those things, and that level of acceleration was recent.”

“A gallon of water is the cheapest thing you can use as far as cooling efficiency,” says Frei. “We should be paying more attention to how these data centers use their water, but that is a problem that can be solved with a long pipe and reverse osmosis filters.”

Many companies are playing catch-up when it comes to incorporating advanced cooling technologies into their data center designs. “On top of that, there’s always been an education gap between the companies that design data center components, and the companies that take those components and assemble them on site into a data center,” Ikemoto says. “It’s two different worlds that never really communicated or interacted very much.”

Each year, new chips come out that are twice as fast as their predecessors at the same price, but because data center design is not optimized for those constantly evolving chips, operators get less and less performance out of each CPU and GPU.

“Imagine an F1 racing team, but the engine and body are designed by separate companies that don’t talk to each other,” Ikemoto says. “And without instructions to put the body and engine together and then run a race. You won’t win with that operating procedure. That’s what is happening in the data center world today.”

In response, Cadence and NVIDIA have partnered to help design new formulas for data center operation that take advantage of the new chips to reduce power consumption and improve performance. Simulation will play a key role in optimizing these new data centers.

“That way the entire system is optimized for maximum computational throughput at minimal cost and environmental impact,” Ikemoto says. “These are problems that need to be solved, and will require a new set of design and operating practices that have never been applied in a data center before.”

The Blueprint is based on Supermicro's DCBBS, which provide the necessary compute, networking, advanced liquid cooling, power distribution, and site infrastructure, delivered by a team of Supermicro DCBBS experts to advance time-to-online for research institutions and supercomputing centers.

"Scientific discovery has always been driven by the tools available to researchers, and AI has become an essential part of the research process," says Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "The institutions that accelerate infrastructure deployment will lead the next generation of breakthroughs. With our DCBBS Blueprints for NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL4, research organizations can confidently deploy HPC and AI infrastructure at any scale, knowing that it is backed by Supermicro's proven experience building some of the world's largest liquid-cooled clusters."

Click here for more information on DCBBS.

The NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL4 platform is built for a convergence, and the DCBBS Blueprint for HPC defines the steps to deploy it successfully, backed by Supermicro's ability to build liquid-cooled supercomputing clusters featuring over 100,000 GPUs.

The Blueprint covers the full end-to-end sequence that Supermicro has used to complete large-scale liquid-cooled projects at fast speeds. On-site facility surveys conducted by the Supermicro experts assess loading dock access, data hall measurements and clearances, floor load ratings, and existing power and cooling infrastructure to inform a design proposal tailored to each project.

Solution integration begins well before delivery, with racking, stacking, cabling, and system-level (L10) and cluster-level (L11) testing performed in Supermicro's global manufacturing facilities. White-glove delivery and on-site integration cover rack placement, power and cooling connections, network cabling, commissioning, and on-site solution validation, with ongoing support options including on-site response times as fast as 4 hours for critical uptime.

Configurations for HPC and AI based on the NVIDIA GB200 NVL4 are also available for immediate deployment.

Supermicro DCBBS delivers modular AI infrastructure built from validated components and subsystems, enabling flexible deployment from individual servers and networking to full rack-scale and data center-level solutions, including software and services. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

You can use screen to prep a room before heading into VR, or as your primary way of reviewing and collaborating on 3D content.

Setting up for a design diagnostic or collaborative review used to mean importing files one by one. You can now select and import multiple files of the same type in a single action, with a combined stats panel showing each file name, its dimensions, and the total size of everything you’ve selected.

It’s a change that adds up quickly when you’re pulling together several reference models before a session. Gather everything you need from screen, then jump into VR with your workspace already ready to go.

This is available automatically to any user with import permissions on the screen app.

Creating a design variation used to mean heading into VR or working around the limitation with manual exports. You can now duplicate any selected sketch object, control point, or entire layer directly in the screen app, using the duplicate button in the selection toolbar, Ctrl + D, or a right click in the layers menu. A notification confirms the action, and duplicates appear in place.

For physical product design workflows, this is an unlock. Basic edits and variations can happen from screen, which means more directions explored before committing to expensive downstream processes or physical samples. It tightens iteration loops at a stage where speed matters.

The screen app now shows a clear view of the Gumball tool and the specific selection of faces, edges, or points a VR user is working with. The visual display of points and edges in edit mode has also been improved.

These changes make the shared view more transparent for everyone in the room. During live design reviews, screen-based stakeholders can follow the geometry precisely, which means less re-explaining and faster alignment between VR creators and the people giving feedback.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

What's New?

The SeerLens B50R Pro2, a lightweight  enterprise-class MR headset, is built to handle industrial and medical workloads. Engineered as an alternative to the Microsoft HoloLens, the B50R Pro2 supports the MRTK3  framework, ensuring software migration for enterprise developers.

The headset is tailored for job training, education, on-site quality assurance, operational guidance, remote assistance, and high-fidelity 3D medical visualization.

Key specifications include:

• Advanced Tracking: Ultra-low latency, highly stable 6DOF head and hand tracking, paired with a self-tracking 6DOF controller.
• Power Efficiency: Up to 3 hours of standalone operating time per charge via a lightweight USB-tethered configuration.
• Continuous Workflow: Features a dedicated "charge-while-use" mode, enabling uninterrupted, all-day operation for intensive enterprise shifts.
• Sleek Spatial Optics: SeerLens W50R Pro

For environments demanding an ultra-low profile, Xvisio introduces the SeerLens W50R Pro. While the B50R series utilizes robust Birdbath display technology, the W50R Pro integrates 50-degree reflective waveguides. This optical architecture delivers a thin, lightweight form factor. The device is powered by Qualcomm SM8550 for heavy rendering tasks.

Accelerating Physical AI: SeerFusion One

The SeerFusion One ego-centric vision data collection HMD is custom-built for physical AI data collection. It serves as a wearable data capture tool allowing AI models to see, map, and understand human-robot interaction and physical tasks from a first-person perspective.

High-Speed 6DOF Tracking Peripherals

Xvisio is also showcasing two high-performance peripherals powered by its high-speed VSLAM engine:

• 6DOF Self-Tracking Controller: Optimized for XR and robotic teleoperation (teleop), delivering lightning-fast, precise pose tracking at an industry-leading precision and refresh rate..
• 6DOF Stylus: Leveraging the same ultra-high-speed VSLAM engine, this pen-shaped peripheral brings precise spatial input to naked-eye 3D displays and spatial design interfaces.

"Enterprise spatial computing is evolving rapidly, demanding lighter form factors, open source ecosystems like Open XR and Android  XR , and specialized tools for AI data collection," says John Lin , CEO of  Xvisio Technology. "Our new portfolio bridges the gap between traditional industrial MR applications and the future of physical AI, giving developers and enterprises the exact hardware tools they need to scale."

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The agreement operationalizes the memorandum of understanding announced May 7, 2026, and establishes AMD as a technology partner at the silicon layer of Rackspace's governed AI stack.

At full deployment, 30 MW of dedicated AMD compute across Rackspace's footprint will serve regulated enterprise workloads. This collaboration incorporates AMD Instinct GPUs (including MI355X, MI350P, and future successor solutions) and AMD EPYC CPUs inside an integrated Enterprise AI Cloud architecture.

“Enterprises in regulated industries need AI infrastructure that is governed from the ground up, with one operator accountable for business outcomes, not a collection of vendors each owning a piece," says Gajen Kandiah, CEO, Rackspace Technology. "This collaboration combines the right compute with the right operating model and delivers something the market hasn't offered before: a governed AI stack with one accountable partner from silicon to outcomes."

“As enterprise AI evolves, customers need infrastructure that can deliver the right mix of accelerated and general-purpose compute for each workload,” says Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Compute and Enterprise AI, AMD. “By bringing together leadership AMD AI compute solutions and Rackspace’s governed cloud operating model, we are helping regulated enterprises deploy high-performance AI infrastructure with the openness, scalability and accountability needed to run AI at enterprise scale.”

Both companies expect to dedicate sales and marketing resources to identify and engage enterprise customers for AMD compute-powered infrastructure.

This agreement will accelerate delivery of the four integrated capabilities announced with the MOU: Enterprise AI Cloud, Enterprise Inference Engine, Inference as a Service, and Bare Metal AMD Instinct, offering a governed stack from bare metal compute through fully operated inference. Together, the companies aim to establish a new category of managed enterprise AI infrastructure that offers enterprises an alternative to the bare metal model. 

About Rackspace Technology

Rackspace Technology is the operator of the full enterprise AI stack from governed private cloud to AI inference and agents in production. 

About AMD

With a portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

At the heart of Advance Design 2027 are two innovations: a new Open API and the integrated Graitec Assistant.

The new Open API supports integration with common development environments and helps engineering teams build custom workflows, automate repetitive modeling tasks, and run parametric studies with reduced manual interaction.

Advance Design 2027 also introduces the Graitec Assistant, built directly into the software to support engineers throughout their design and analysis workflows.

Embedded in Advance Design and aware of the user’s model and context, the AI Assistant provides instant, relevant guidance based on the software’s logic, documentation, and project environment. It helps engineers access information, understand results, and navigate complex workflows.

Another capability of GRAITEC Assistant is its ability to ground responses in your company’s knowledge. By connecting directly to your SharePoint, the Assistant can reference your documents, ensuring that answers are relevant, accurate, and aligned with your organization.

The Assistant can also act directly within Advance Design. By connecting conversational AI with the model, users can describe their intent and let the Assistant support actions such as creating elements, defining loads, retrieving results, or validating model data.

This capability is enhanced by Skills: reusable, structured workflows designed to automate repetitive tasks, standardize engineering practices, and deliver repeatable outcomes.

“Advance Design 2027 represents an important step toward more connected, automated, and intelligent structural design workflows,” says Rawad Assaf, Solution Line Vice President at Graitec . “By combining open automation capabilities with AI-assisted engineering, we are helping structural engineers save time, reduce manual effort, and focus on higher-value design decisions.”

In addition to these major innovations, Advance Design 2027 includes several engineering enhancements, including new Layered Shell modeling capabilities, integrated CLT design according to Eurocode 5, a standalone reinforced concrete retaining wall module, improved SAF workflows, and timber section optimization for North American design codes.

Together, these enhancements make Advance Design 2027 a flexible platform for structural engineers working on complex projects.

About GRAITEC

Graitec is a global software developer and Autodesk Platinum Partner, supporting professionals in architecture, engineering, construction and manufacturing industries. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

HELYX 4.5.1 is a maintenance release focused on bug fixes, stability improvements and code refinements to address known issues identified in previous versions. For more information, existing users should refer to the Release Notes provided with the software.

To download the latest release of HELYX, log in to the ENGYS Customer Portal and navigate to the Downloads section to access the latest installation files for Linux and Windows.

For those not currently using HELYX or wanting to explore the capabilities of the CFD software in more detail, visit the HELYX product page.

About ENGYS

ENGYS develops advanced open-source CFD software solutions for enterprise applications designed to make fluid dynamics simulations more accessible and cost-effective.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The solution is designed specifically for CAD designers and engineers who want to perform accurate, realistic simulations earlier in the design cycle, according to IronCAD. MPIC 2027 features major enhancements focused on kinematic behavior and load application, helping users accelerate design validation while maintaining SEFEA (Strain-Enriched Finite Element Analysis) technology.

Key New Multiphysics Technologies

New Kinematic Connection Features MPIC 2027 introduces an approach to kinematic joints that bridges traditional Rigid-Body Kinematics (RBK) with standard FEA. Engineers can now define ball, hinge, or piston connections using any Body, Face, or Edge of a finite element model.

• Body selection: Treats the selected geometry as a rigid body, capturing translational and rotational motion without computing internal stresses.

• Face or Edge selection: Applies joint constraint only to selected surface or edge while allowing the surrounding solid elements to remain fully deformable.

This flexible method eliminates the need for complex mesh refinement around joints and removes the requirement for the physical joint geometry (such as a hinge shaft) to exist in the model. 

Direct Moment and Rotation Specification: MPIC 2027 extends rigid-body kinematic theory to enable direct application of moments and rotational constraints to any Body, Face, Edge, or Curve.

These new Body Forces and Body Constraints (accessible via the main menu and context-sensitive help) automatically convert selected geometry into a semi-rigid entity with the necessary rotational DOF. 

“MPIC 2027 represents a significant step forward in making advanced simulation more accessible to everyday CAD users,” says Cary O’Connor, general manager of IronCAD Product Division and S.V.P. Product & Strategy. “By combining the simplicity of kinematic joints with the accuracy of full FEA—and eliminating cumbersome workarounds for moments and rotations—designers can obtain reliable results faster than ever before.”

About IronCAD 

IronCAD is a provider of 3D design software for Industrial Equipment & Machinery Manufacturing, Metal Fabrication and Tooling Manufacturing, Assembly Layout and Design of Industrial Equipment and Facilities, and Modular Product Manufacturers markets. 

About Multiphysics for IronCAD (MPIC) 

MPIC is a tightly integrated multiphysics simulation solution for IronCAD that delivers structural, thermal, fluid, electrical, and coupled analyses directly within the CAD environment. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

MMX is designed as an intensive two-day experience where collaboration, innovation, and industry leadership converge, according to America Makes. Attendees can participate in discussions and strategic networking focused on advancing next-generation AM adoption across the defense industrial base, strengthening the workforce, and increasing supply chain resiliency.

America Makes' leadership will present the annual State of the Union, including a preview of new funding and contracting pathways that will shape future partnerships and project activity, America Makes reports.

Leaders across AM technology, workforce development, and the industrial base will guide keynote sessions, panel discussions, and “Industry Perspectives,” highlighting member companies that are developing novel AM applications across diverse sectors. Also, as an annual tradition, America Makes will honor recipients of the Distinguished Collaborator and Ambassador Awards.

Additional Activities on August 3

Golf Outing at Kennsington Golf Club includes 18 holes and a cart for $50. Tee times begin at 12 p.m. Players will receive a notification on team assignments and tee times closer to August 3. Register as a single or a foursome HERE.

Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense Networking will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on August 3. America Makes will host a networking session to introduce participants to the Youngstown Innovation Hub, managed by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) in collaboration with America Makes.

The Hub and its partners support small and mid-sized startups seeking to enter defense manufacturing, as well as established companies looking to expand their role in the supply chain or relocate to Northeast Ohio. 

MMX Welcome Reception at the Excellence Training Center (ETC) at Youngstown State University is slated for 5-8 p.m. Guests can spend the evening before MMX with the America team at the event welcome reception at the ETC that will offer heavy hors d'oeuvres, tours, and networking opportunities. The ETC is a hub for advanced manufacturing workforce development, education, research, and commercialization. It houses over $10M in advanced manufacturing equipment to support hands-on learning and innovation.

Promo Code for MMX Registration Discount

Register by June 30 using promo code MMX2026 to receive a $50 discount. Registration closes July 17.

Check out the agenda, register, become a sponsor, and make hotel accommodations HERE.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

Careers Electric Coalition members include major industry employers, national trade associations, workforce development organizations and philanthropic partners. Initially launched in North Carolina, the coalition is committed to supporting and scaling a workforce training model that is delivering results for employers and workers.

The forming of the coalition signals a new approach to workforce development in America’s skilled trades—one defined by action, collaboration, and scale. The employer-powered coalition brings together organizations to align efforts, expand what’s working, and open the door to well-paying, in-demand electrical careers.

ABB has committed to joining the Careers Electric Coalition as a co-chair with the Siemens Foundation, providing a pledge of $1 million over the first two years to support the Coalition’s efforts to scale electrical workforce development nationwide. Their role as co-chair and contributing funder symbolizes the importance of sector collaboration across businesses to grow the talent pipeline.

“Joining Careers Electric aligns perfectly with our goal of growing a skilled workforce that enables industries to be more sustainable and resource-efficient so they can outperform. We are proud to be part of a coalition bringing together government, industry, and education to help people build life-changing, well-paying careers while powering the electrified economy,” says Deni Miller, U.S. Electrification Business lead at ABB.

Founding coalition industry partners include ABB, Amazon Web Services, Duke Energy, JetZero, Hitachi Energy, NC Electric Cooperatives, and Siemens—organizations that will work hand in hand with the following implementation partners:

• Workforce Development Organizations: CareerWise, Strada Education Foundation, The Manufacturing Institute (501(c)3 of the National Association of Manufacturers
• North Carolina Incubation Partners: NC Chamber Foundation, NC Department of Commerce
• North Carolina Grantee Partners: NC Business Committee for Education, Wake Technical Community College, NC Community College System Office and Foundation, EVITP, and Families and Workers Fund

The Careers Electric initiative is well underway thanks to a $9.25 million backbone investment from the Siemens Foundation. Rather than starting from scratch, member investments are accelerating and scaling proven programs and training pathways to more rapidly develop a skilled workforce.

As electrification accelerates across industries—from energy and infrastructure to advanced manufacturing and data centers—the need for skilled electrical workers continues to grow. Employment demand for electrical careers is projected to increase by roughly 10% over the next decade with as many as 80,000 job openings each year.

Also, pressures related to an aging workforce are already visible. For example, in North Carolina, approximately 70% of licensed electricians are over the age of 50, adding urgency to train the next generation of skilled workers.

“High-quality workforce training is essential not only to meet employers’ growing demand for skilled talent, but also to expand access to well-paying trade careers for more Americans,” says David Etzwiler, CEO of the Siemens Foundation. “Seeing industry leaders, including competitor companies, come together as part of this powerful coalition underscores just how important workforce training is to the strength of our economies and communities.”

With plans to scale this model across the United States, the Careers Electric Coalition will deliver lasting impact for workers, employers, and communities. The initiative aims to train 25,000 people in its first 10 years.

To learn more about the Careers Electric initiative or to join the coalition, visit CareersElectric.com.

About the Siemens Foundation 

The Siemens Foundation advances workforce development in focused fields, including manufacturing, electrification, and healthcare in the United States. Established in 1998, the Siemens Foundation has invested $174 million in the United States to support the development of U.S. workers.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The estimated end-user payments grew from $2.9 billion in 2024 to $3.1 billion in 2025. CIMdata projects that in 2026 the CAM market, and the PLM conomy, will continue to grow. CIMdata estimates end-user payments for CAM software in 2026 will increase by 8.3% to $3.4 billion.

Since 2002, the CAM software market has shown modest but steady growth as global economies generally improved. Manufacturing firms have strengthened their competitive positions and the overall PLM (product lifecycle management) market, of which CAM software is a component, has continued on a growth path during this period.

CAM software purchases are related to these factors and more specifically machine tool sales. The size and growth of the CAM software and related services market based on end-user payments is shown in the chart within this brief. It shows that somewhat less than one-third of the end-user payments are reseller revenues, and more than two-thirds of the payments are made directly to software suppliers.

The 2026 version of the CAM MAR is a 97-page report containing 20 charts and 39 tables of data detailing the worldwide CAM market along various dimensions. It also includes a discussion of trends in the CAM industry and updates on the top CAM solution providers. The 2026 CIMdata CAM Market Analysis Report is available for purchase at: https://www.cimdata.com/en/research/plm-market-analysis-report-series.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

Keysight's photonic design automation portfolio now moves from device physics to full system behavior. RSoft handles device-level simulation for waveguides, gratings, modulators, and laser sources. Photonic Designer delivers circuit-level design and verification for photonic integrated circuits.

The acquisition of VPIphotonics boosts Keysight's circuit-level design capabilities and extends its photonic design automation portfolio to the system level with VPIphotonics Design Suite. 

One example of this integrated workflow is VPI Optical Link in Keysight ADS, which enables simulation of the transceiver path in a single analysis, from electrical to optical and back to electrical (E-O-E). Engineers can then predict how the whole link will perform, including bit error rate, without moving a design between separate electrical and optical tools.

Because the workflow connects to Keysight's high-speed digital tools and test instruments, simulation aligns with bench measurements, which means, issues surface earlier and teams require fewer prototype iterations.

“We have been supporting our customers with value-adding photonic design tools for high-demand applications for decades," says Dr. André Richter, general manager, VPIphotonics. "Joining Keysight means we can engineer powerful, more complete workflow solutions to serve our customers better.”

“Photonics design complexity continues to increase for our customers, especially for those working at speeds greater than 1 THz," says Nilesh Kamdar, general manager, Keysight EDA. "Having a complete suite of tools that address these challenges from device to system is crucial."

Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The new material expands Stratasys’ portfolio of industrial-grade, rail-ready FDM thermoplastics and is engineered specifically for use on Fortus 450mc and F900 systems.

The new material meets EN 45545-2 HL2 (R22/R23) and FMVSS 302 fire safety requirements, delivering high stiffness and strength suitable for load-bearing, functional rail applications. 

Designed for production environments, the material offers printability, surface finish, and repeatable part quality. Its flame-retardant PA 6/66 base polymer is reinforced with 30% glass fiber,. Compatibility with SUP4050B breakaway supports enables post-processing and throughput for end-use parts, Stratasys reports.

“Stratasys is strategically focused on mobility, transportation, automotive, and industrial applications, where our high-end additive manufacturing solutions have a real advantage in meeting production and certification requirements. The launch of FDM PA6/66-GF30-FR demonstrates our excellence in design for mobility applications,” says Rich Garrity, chief business unit officer at Stratasys. “By expanding our rail-certified FDM materials portfolio, we’re enabling customers to scale additive manufacturing with greater flexibility and confidence, while producing parts when and where they’re needed.”

FDM PA6/66-GF30-FR is generally available for Fortus 450mc and F900 systems. Additional specifications and supported applications are available on the product page: https://www.stratasys.com/en/materials/materials-catalog/fdm-materials/fdm-pa6-66-gf30-fr/

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

PTC Orbit applies AI to make asset information accessible, explorable, and actionable across engineering teams, according to PTC.

PTC Orbit supports three  functions:

• Asset data consolidation: Connects and reconciles asset data from PLM, ERP, CRM, IoT, EAM, FSM, and other enterprise systems to create a unified, as-maintained view of each asset.
• AI-powered lifecycle intelligence: Applies AI to detect service patterns and failure trends, calculate asset health scores, and forecast service and maintenance demand by asset group, account, and region.
• AI‑assisted access and interaction: Enables teams in the enterprise to interact with asset data through an AI canvas that surfaces insights based on user context.

“Asset data has always existed everywhere, but nowhere could it truly be used,” says Joseph June, general manager of SLM and AI Strategy, PTC. “With PTC Orbit, we built a new AI-first solution from the ground up to be the system of record for asset intelligence. With this new solution, we’re shifting asset data from something teams manage after the fact to something they can use proactively across the entire product lifecycle.”

PTC Orbit was showcased at the PTC NEXT Chicago event in June 2026 at the Swissôtel Chicago. 

To learn more about PTC Orbit, visit www.ptc.com/en/products/ptc-orbit.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

This week, the company releases Multiphysics Fusion solution for multi-die chip design, the first in a wave that's expected. In the announcement, Synopsys said, "The Multiphysics Fusion portfolio combines Synopsys' AI-powered EDA solutions with Ansys golden signoff analysis across timing signoff, design closure, multi-die design, and analog workflows."

Sanjay Bali, Senior Vice President of EDA Product Management and Strategy, Synopsys, said, “Our Multiphysics Fusion portfolio unifies Synopsys and Ansys technologies to embed physics directly into digital and analog workflows, enabling engineering teams to design across domains with fewer iterations, improved productivity and more optimized silicon for next-generation systems.”

Synopsys revealed there is significant speedup, resulting from the native integration of multiphysics solver, smarter algorithms, and efficient data exchange. For example, the software "enables up to 3x faster runtimes, SPICE-accurate multiphysics timing analysis ..." and "up to 10x faster design closure with higher engineering change order (ECO) success rates and improved power, performance and area (PPA)."

Snopsys releases Multiphysics Fusion solution for multi-die chip design, aimed at replacing loosely coupled tools. Image courtesy of Synopsys.

One of the reasons for the speedup is bypassing a workflow that requires loosely coupled tools, according to Preeti Gupta, Product Management, Synopsys. "Traditional solutions are multi-tool workflows. For example, one tool for timing analysis, another for timing sign off, and another for power integrity signoff. By natively integrating the multiphysics solvers into timing, design closure, multi-die, analog, and photonics, we are really enabling a unique solution," she said.

Synopsys cited NVIDIA, MediaTek, and Samsung as microprocessor makers who had reported measurable impact as a result of using its Multiphysics Fusion solution for multi-die chip design. 

"Advanced AI and high-performance computing platforms are pushing chip design beyond traditional workflows, and to deliver greater performance, efficiency and reliability at scale, multiphysics-aware co-design is essential," said Tim Costa, vice president and general manager of computational engineering at NVIDIA. 

“Manufacturers are increasingly investing in software, data and AI to make engineering and factory operations more flexible, intelligent and connected,” said Tracey Countryman, global supply chain and engineering lead at Accenture. “But many companies struggle to integrate these technologies across their products, factories, plants and supply chains. We will combine IndX’s proven expertise in Siemens technologies with Accenture’s AI capabilities and industry knowledge to solve this challenge for clients faster.”

IndX provides expertise in software for discrete and process manufacturers from Siemens. It specializes in implementing digital thread solutions that help clients connect engineering, manufacturing and automation across IT and operational technology, from product lifecycle management, simulation and digital twins to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), industrial edge computing and cloud computing.

IndX’s clients include leading companies in aerospace & defense, automotive, consumer goods, energy, high tech, industrial equipment, life sciences and utilities. It has a team of more than 650 professionals based in Italy, US, India, Germany, other European countries and Mexico.

Once the acquisition has been completed, IndX’s team and capabilities are expected to support the continued growth of the Accenture Siemens Business Group, a dedicated global business practice formed last year, which combines leading industrial technology with AI-enabled engineering and manufacturing capabilities.

“Accenture’s acquisition of IndX is a milestone for the Accenture Siemens Business Group,” said Tony Hemmelgarn, President and CEO of Siemens Digital Industries Software. “It brings proven skills in our industrial solutions for digital manufacturing, engineering, automation, digital twin and simulation, plus long-standing relationships with clients that apply them.”

“Together with Siemens, we develop industrial AI-enabled solutions that shorten engineering time to market, increase manufacturing efficiencies and strengthen the digital core for our clients,” added Vivek Kaushik, global lead of Accenture Siemens Business Group at Accenture. “IndX will strengthen the Accenture Siemens Business Group and help deliver on Accenture and Siemens’ shared ambition to scale these AI solutions.”

Following the completion of the acquisition, Accenture plans to establish two new Centers of Excellence for Siemens DI solutions in Italy and India. Accenture will integrate IndX’s assets and services for other technologies into its respective business units.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

ITRES adds high-performance hyperspectral and thermal imaging sensors that operate across wavelengths.

These capabilities allow ability to collect more analytical datasets from a single airborne survey. Fusing multispectral and thermal data with LiDAR and optical imagery opens capabilities for ground surface assessment, object classification and thermal property detection, while Hexagon's software ecosystem helps teams process and act on data faster. The result is a multi-sensor mapping platform – and opportunities for hybrid information collection and data fusion.

“Geospatial professionals are looking to extract deeper insight from each airborne survey,” says Anders Svensson, president and CEO of Hexagon. “By integrating hyperspectral and thermal sensing into our portfolio, we further expand the range of information that can be captured and analysed. Combining complementary sensing technologies helps geospatial professionals improve classification accuracy, better distinguish materials, and derive more reliable thermal insights, supporting more advanced and specialised applications."

By adding hyperspectral and thermal imaging capabilities to the airborne workflow, customers can gain insight from airborne surveys for environmental applications (such as urban heat mapping, water quality monitoring) as well as disaster response applications (including locating active fire hotspots, identifying people or objects through heat detection, and providing responders with georeferenced thermal imagery).

“We welcome the ITRES team and its exceptional capabilities within airborne hyperspectral and thermal imaging to the Infrastructure & Geospatial Business Area. From a technology perspective, the portfolios of Hexagon and ITRES are highly complementary, enabling us to meet our customers’ full range of needs in advanced airborne mapping,” says Henning Sandfort, president, Infrastructure & Geospatial Business Area.

ITRES will be reported within Hexagon's Infrastructure & Geospatial (formerly Geosystems) Business Area, within the Scanning & Mapping Division, and is expected to generate revenues of around 13 MEUR in 2026, accretive to net profits from day of completion and with margin initially slightly below the Infrastructure & Geospatial Business Area average.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

This release positions TurboCAD Mac as a precise and accessible CAD solution for 2D drafting, 3D modeling, design communication, and production-ready workflows.

New Features in TurboCAD Mac 17

Modern Interface

TurboCAD Mac 17 introduces refreshed SVG tool icons and expanded light and dark mode graphics across dialogs, menus, and tool palettes. 

XREF Workflow Improvements

New lightweight XREF loading uses display geometry to reduce memory usage and file size for complex mechanical parts, while Attach Folder imports a folder of parts as referenced objects positioned in place for large assemblies and shared component libraries.

AI-Powered Visualization and Part Discovery

Copilot Render, available with Copilot Professional, takes 2D drawings and 3D models, converting them into visual concepts using natural-language prompts. Users can generate and compare multiple variations, explore materials and lighting, add or modify visual elements, and apply reference images without changing the underlying CAD geometry. Copilot Part Finder adds natural-language search across a library of more than 770,000 CAD components, including ANSI, ISO, and DIN parts.

Advanced Modeling Enhancements

Skin Solid with Center Line creates swept solids from ordered closed profiles along a path. The Pipe tool now supports Rounded Rectangle, N-Sided, and Coils cross-sections, with associative geometry that updates automatically when the path is edited.

Rendering Assets and Materials

TurboCAD Mac 17 expands rendering workflows with six new studio backgrounds, six carbon-fiber textures, and eight new wood materials. 

BOM Notes and Stability Refinements

New BOM Note attributes let objects carry semantic information. Copilot can use this context during AI-assisted rendering and CAD-data queries. TurboCAD Mac 17 also includes hundreds of corrections.

“TurboCAD Mac 17 brings AI deeper into practical CAD workflows. Copilot Render and Part Finder help users move from idea to presentation and from component search to reuse with less friction, while the new modeling and XREF improvements support the precision work our customers depend on," says Tim Olson, vice president of R&D.

Availability and Pricing

TurboCAD Mac 17 is available for purchase. TurboCAD Mac is available in four variants:

• Platinum – Advanced package: $1,499.99
• Pro – Tools for intricate design work: $999.99
• Deluxe – A toolkit for diverse projects: $399.99
• Designer – Ideal for beginners focusing on 2D design: $149.99

All variants are available as standalone licenses or through flexible term plans, including 1-year and 3-year options.

All TurboCAD Mac 17 purchases include a complimentary trial of TurboCAD Copilot Help, an optional plug‑in powered by Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG). Copilot Help delivers context‑aware answers drawn from trusted documentation, FAQs, video tutorials, and product guides. After the trial, Copilot Help is available for $99.99.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

About IMSI Design

IMSI Design makes CAD and home design software for Windows and Mac, and mobile solutions for the architectural, engineering, and construction) industry.

Asked for preference of a human or a robot for managing specific workplace tasks, adults chose robots for physical, repetitive, and hazardous work. A total of 68% prefer a robot for lifting and transporting heavy items, 54% for carrying and delivering, and 52% for monitoring hazards. Children have greater openness, with 69% preferring a robot for heavy lifting, and 59% for carrying and delivering.

However, for tasks that require empathy or accountability, both groups move decisively to humans. The biggest gap? Caregiving. A total of 67% of children and 71% of adults want a human to care for the sick, elderly or children. Elsewhere, just 16% and 12%, respectively, would choose a robot, the lowest robot preference for any task tested.

Robot Assistant Era

So what do people want from a robot? According to Hexagon, the answer for both groups—adults and children—is practical help. Adults prioritize tasks such as capturing measurements or research (53%), managing admin (38%), and ensuring workplace safety (34%). Children want assistants to help them understand school lessons (60%) and generate ideas (48%).

Only 21% of adults think robots should be viewed as colleagues, and only 14% would want them in charge, but children are 50% more likely to view robots as colleagues, pointing to a generational shift. Interestingly, 40% of adults say a robot colleague might be exciting, but 38% say it would be frightening, mirroring a similar earlier response captured in the first wave of the study.

Industry: Testing Ground for Robotics

The environment where robots perform practical tasks is important. Adults are comfortable with robots helping in factories and warehouses (63%), ahead of hospitals and clinics (45%), or classrooms (39%). This pattern holds across markets: in China, where 75% of adults have encountered robots in real life, 63% would be comfortable with a robot in the home. In contrast, just 32% in the UK, where exposure remains the lowest of any market surveyed. As the first wave of the study found, anxiety is highest where robots are least visible.

Preference also tilts toward machine-like robots (28%) over human-like (22%), suggesting trust is built through function, not appearance. Yet adoption remains conditional: 86% of adults say clear rules for what robots can and can’t do are essential. Furthermore, concerns around security (51%), reliability (21%), and trust (26%) underline that governance must keep pace with deployment.

“People are telling us exactly where robots belong and where they don’t, and their instincts are remarkably consistent across markets,” says Burkhard Boeckem, chief technology officer at Hexagon. “Industrial environments are where the tasks for robots are the most defined, the safety cases are mature, and governance is in public view. That is where people feel most comfortable working alongside humanoids, and it’s precisely where our technologies already operate. This data confirms that the path to adoption runs through industry, not around it.”

Methodology

The Hexagon Robot Generation study surveyed 9,000 adults and 9,000 children aged 8–18  across the USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, China, Brazil, and India. The survey was carried out by Vitreous World on behalf of Hexagon in late 2025.

‘Robot’ in this context means a machine that can carry out tasks either completely on its own or with human guidance. These tasks could be pre-programmed or the robot could be acting independently. Robots can be found in many forms.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The solution is made for mechanical engineers and fabricators who work with complex assemblies, steel structures, and large projects. IronCAD Mechanical 2027 introduces new tools and smart improvements that reduce manual work while increasing design accuracy and consistency.

Key New Features

Enhanced Check BOM Tool: The CheckBOM command now includes material verification. It intelligently identifies parts with different shapes but identical Name/Part Numbers, as well as identical shapes with different names, while also checking material consistency.

External Link Manager: This allows users to manage internally linked elements across assemblies. The “Save Unlinked Elements” function intelligently saves and converts elements into proper external links.

Steel Design & Fabrication Tools

• Steel Joints – This tool streamlines application of joints to steel profiles. Users can place joints and insert fasteners in a single workflow, with full support for adding user-defined components to the library.
• Place Hole & Fasteners – New tool automatically places bolts into all holes on a steel plate and can create matching holes in underlying steel members.
• Steel Stiffener –Improved interface with enhanced options for placing reinforcements on H-profiles in one operation, better management of lateral reinforcements on C and H profiles, and expanded hole pattern control.
• Profile Creation & Custom Steels – Improved sweep behavior, updated dialogs for component type changes, automatic regeneration of Attachment Points, and handling of color/texture data from library profiles.
• Trim at Intersection – Uses the negative shape of the reference tube for more accurate trimming of tubular profiles.

Additional Productivity Enhancements

• Numbering System – New support for persistent, generic counters (starting with “%”) that are not tied to any specific project.
• IPRO Explode – Explosion lines are now drawn orthogonally for cleaner and professional presentation views.
• IPROActiveManager – Improved BOM generation for multiple assemblies and new ability to assign and display Material and Color at the assembly level.
• TreeView – Sheet metal parts are grouped by thickness in the type tree view. A new context menu for surface elements allows deletion of selected groups.

“IronCAD Mechanical 2027 continues our commitment to giving mechanical designers practical, time-saving tools that directly address daily challenges,” says Cary O’Connor, general manager of IronCAD Product Division and senior vice president of Product & Strategy. “From smarter steel workflows and fastener automation to improved BOM validation and drawing consistency, this release helps teams deliver higher quality designs faster.”

IronCAD Mechanical 2027 is available to all IronCAD Mechanical Software Support subscribers as part of the 2027 product release.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

What's New in CST CAD Navigator 16

• 2D improvements
  • Improved import of DWG and DXF formats.
  • Added export to DWG and DXF 2010, 2013, 2018 formats.
  • Improved export to DWG and DXF formats.
• 3D improvements
  • Improved import of STEP, ACIS (SAT, SAB), and SLDPRT formats.
  • Added support for SLDASM format.
• PDF to DWG/DXF conversion improvements
  • Improved overall conversion quality.
  • Added option to apply transparency to fills.
• Added a Batch Conversion feature that allows users to convert multiple 2D files to a specified format in one go (Tools -> Batch).

• Improved G-code generation.
• 2D mode improvements:
  • Improved 2D navigation.
  • Improved measurement tools.
  • Added the display of print settings on drawings.
  • Added the ability to create new layouts.
• Bug fixes and performance improvements.

Download the latest version of CST CAD Navigator and try it out for free for 30 days. Click here for the free trial.

If you have an active subscription, you will receive CST CAD Navigator 16 for free. If you own a lifetime license, you can purchase an upgrade at a special price at https://cadsofttools.com/products/cst-cad-navigator/lifetime-license-upgrade/.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

AI Meets Design Environment

The Creo AI Assistant gives engineers a resource embedded directly in their workflow. Through a chat interface in Creo, engineers can get instant guidance of best practices. Whether new to Creo or an experienced user with an unfamiliar workflow, the assistant enables a more efficient process, according to PTC.

In addition to the available Creo AI Assistant functionality, this release also previews a beta capability that reads directly from the 3D model, extracting insights intended to help engineers catch design issues early, validate compliance, and surface key design data on demand. PTC describes it as an early look at how AI will become an active part of the design process, rather than a generic tool layered on top.

"AI in the design environment is changing how engineering teams operate, helping them work faster and make decisions with greater confidence,” says Brian Thompson, general manager of Creo, PTC. “With the Creo AI Assistant, our customers are no longer limited by how much institutional knowledge any one person carries."

Powering Entire Design Process

In addition to the new AI Assistant capabilities, Creo 13 and Creo+ 13.3 deliver improvements across product design workflows:

• User Productivity: Expanded feature presets, improved surfacing, sketcher, sheet metal, welding, and multi-body design capabilities.
• Faster Assembly Management: Up to 70% faster assembly loading from Windchill over a Wide-Area Network, improving performance for remote users working with large CAD assemblies.
• Model-Based Definition: Expanded 3D PDF export and improved annotation tools to share design intent with everyone involved.
• Composite Design & Manufacturing: Reuse composite design structure and intent with copy-paste capabilities. 
• Simulation-Driven Design: Simulation coverage in assemblies and electronics scenarios enables engineers to resolve problems in the digital model.
• Generative Design: Optimization of designs in the assembly context, expanded multiphysics scenarios, and constraint cases help achieve best designs.
• Advanced Manufacturing: Expanded 5-axis toolpath options, improved toolpath setup workflows, and mold design options.
• Design for Electrification: Enhanced workflows expand harness assembly design and early cable routing.

Creo 13, Creo+ 13.3, and Creo AI Assistant were showcased at the PTC NEXT Chicago event on June 9-10 at the Swissôtel Chicago. The PTC NEXT On-Demand Experience Hub is now live, with new content added to ensure customers and partners can access the content shared during the event.

To learn more about Creo, visit www.ptc.com/en/products/creo/whats-new.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

New solutions, such as the PTC Orbit AI-first, cloud-native solution, connect data from product lifecycle management, enterprise resource planning, Internet of Things, and enterprise asset management systems into a single, unified asset record. The solution also applies AI to maintain data quality and make asset information accessible across the enterprise. The PTC Jetstream cloud-native solution enhances collaboration across product data by enabling internal and external teams to share, review, and capture traceable feedback, while staying integrated with PLM, asset lifecycle management, and CAD and powered by AI.

PTC also previews its new AI platform, which, along with AI agents and assistants embedded across its portfolio, helps set up a new Intelligence Layer across its portfolio.

“In a constantly changing world, the manufacturers and product companies that win move the fastest without sacrificing cost, traceability, and meeting regulations,” says Neil Barua, CEO, PTC. “Every innovation we launch at PTC NEXT is designed to help our customers move faster, improve access to product data, and accelerate their transformations with the Intelligent Product Lifecycle.”

PTC NEXT is PTC’s twice-yearly innovation launch moment, with a spring season and a fall season. Each season consolidates all major product releases, allowing companies to build AI strategies and digital transformation roadmaps with a view of what is available and what is coming.

PTC NEXT Chicago, the Spring 2026 season event, took place June 9-10, at the Swissôtel Chicago, where attendees could learn about the spring product innovations, hear executive keynotes, and experiance hands-on demonstrations.

The new PTC NEXT On-Demand Experience Hub is also now live.

Spring Season Product Innovations Overview

• New Solutions:
  • PTC Orbit: Provides manufacturers with a single trusted source for asset-centric data across operations.
  • PTC Jetstream: Enables internal and external teams to share, review, and capture traceable feedback.
• Creo computer-aided design (CAD) solution: Introduces AI-assisted engineering capabilities, with expanded support for model-based definition, composite design, simulation-driven optimization, advanced manufacturing, and electrification.
• Onshape computer-aided design (CAD) and product data management (PDM) platform: Expands AI-assisted design feedback, next-generation model-based definition, robotics simulation, cloud-connected ECAD-MCAD collaboration, and ITAR/EAR compliance support.
• Windchill product-lifecycle management (PLM) solution: Delivers a modernized UI/UX experience, AI-assisted PLM workflows, expanded enterprise collaboration, and strengthened digital thread connectivity across design, manufacturing, and service engineering.
• Arena product lifecycle management (PLM) and quality management system (QMS) solution: Enhances AI-assisted search, component risk management, GovCloud analytics, and rich text communications.
• Codebeamer application lifecycle management (ALM) solution: Advances AI-powered assistance, configuration management with streamlined delta merging, product line coevolution, and end-to-end digital product traceability.
• ServiceMax field service management solution: Unveils AI controls, adaptive scheduling automation, intelligent work plan dependencies, and smarter parts handling.
• Servigistics service supply chain optimization solution: Advances AI-powered service supply chain optimization with intelligent assistants, self-healing autonomous workflows, machine learning forecasting, and enterprise-wide SIOP collaboration.
• Integration Highlights Include:
  • Product Lifecycle: New Windchill Connectors to Onshape (beta), ServiceMax, ERP systems
  • Product Line Engineering: Codebeamer and Windchill connections to the Pure Variants™ ALM solution
  • Digital Product Traceability: Windchill, Creo, and Codebeamer connectors
  • NVIDIA Connectors: Windchill and Creo to NVIDIA Omniverse and Onshape-to-Isaac Sim
  • Electronic Product Development: Onshape Connector to Altium 365

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

TRD, the high-performance division for Toyota and Lexus, designs motorsport engines for participation in NASCAR, GR Cup, off-road, and numerous other racing competitions. From its Costa Mesa engineering team to trackside staff, TRD uses PTC’s Creo CAD and Windchill PLM solutions for early design through race-ready production of its motorsports engines.

“PTC has been a trusted part of our engine development process for many years, supporting our teams from initial design through production,” says Tyler Gibbs, president, TRD U.S.A. “As our engineering programs continue to evolve, partnering with PTC allows us to further leverage PTC’s expertise and technology to improve collaboration, efficiency, and development speed across our organization.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

By entering TDK's global manufacturing network, Fabric8Labs' ECAM technology would gain the production scale, supply chain resiliency, and operational infrastructure to serve a growing base of enterprise customers across data center infrastructure and next-generation electronics, the companies report.

Fabric8labs' ECAM technology addresses markets including advanced liquid cooling for data center infrastructure, passive components for power regulation, and RF components for wireless communications systems. 

In data center deployments, where thermal management is a critical constraint on compute density and system reliability, ECAM enables advanced liquid cooling products that reduce accelerator temperatures by up to 7°C/kW. 

"Joining TDK group is a defining moment for Fabric8Labs, our technology, and most importantly our customers. We developed ECAM to solve manufacturing challenges at the frontier of performance — and we always knew that reaching its full potential would require a network with global reach and operational depth. TDK is that network," says Jeff Herman, CEO and co-founder of Fabric8Labs.

For TDK, the acquisition will add a manufacturing capability that strengthens its position in data center infrastructure and advanced electronics.

"Fabric8Labs' ECAM technology is exactly the kind of foundational manufacturing innovation we look for — one that doesn't just improve on TDK's existing solution but enables products and performance levels that weren't previously achievable, contributing to the transformation of society." says Noboru Saito, president and CEO, TDK Corp. "As data center infrastructure continues to scale and the performance demands on advanced electronics intensify, we envision that by bringing this technology into our global manufacturing network and providing products that determine the performance of next-generation data centers, it will be a significant advantage for our customers."

About Fabric8Labs

Fabric8Labs, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, CA, offers Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM) 3D printing technology. Founded in 2015, the company delivers breakthrough solutions across electronics, medical devices, communications, and semiconductor industries. Fabric8Labs’ ECAM technology empowers data center infrastructure, enabling advanced thermal management solutions, power management components, and semiconductor packaging. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

ELEMENTS 4.5.1 is a maintenance release focused on bug fixes, stability improvements and code refinements to address issues identified in previous versions. Existing users should refer to the Release Notes provided with the software for more details.

To download the latest release of ELEMENTS,  log in to the ENGYS Customer Portal and navigate to the Downloads section to access the latest installation files for Linux and Windows.

If not currently using ELEMENTS, or you'd like to explore the software capabilities in more detail, visit the ELEMENTS product page.

About Streamline Solutions

Streamline Solutions LLC, a joint venture formed between ENGYS and Auto Research Center, was founded in the United States in 2012 to service the vehicle design software market, covering automotive, motorsports, commercial and military applications. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

“You might notice that, in some premium luxury cars, the speakers are from Bose,” says Santosh Kottalgi, senior architect, Application Engineering Vehicle Electrification, Ansys, part of Synopsys. “As vehicles get more automated, you get more opportunities to enjoy the music. So the acoustics [are] part of the experience of the car.”

From the 1950s to the 1970s, cars typically had one speaker, which was mounted next to the driver in the middle of the dashboard. (“The Evolution of Car Speakers”). “Now, some cars have 15 to 16 speakers, with some tuned to lower frequencies, some to higher frequencies, set to different orientations and sizes. If you’re talking about premium cars, even the car seats’ headrests might come with their own speakers. That means everyone doesn’t have to listen to the same music,” Kottalgi points out.

Aiming to promote factory-installed stereo speakers, Bose launched Bose Automotive in 1982. The company currently lists a variety of Porsche, Cadillac, Audi, and Volvo models as those equipped with its sound systems. Other speaker makers like Bang & Olufsen, JBL, and Blaupunkt have also forged partnerships with automakers.

In this article, we speak to—and listen to—the experts in the realm of acoustic simulation to understand the new challenges that come with the sound of silence.

Too Silent for Comfort

The loud gas-guzzling combustion engine, now viewed by many as detrimental to the environment, is ironically safer for the pedestrians who might be distracted by their phones and streaming music, or those who are vision-impaired. 

“When a car with a combustion engine comes close to you, you can hear it, so you can react to it,” says Siva Senthooran, Transportation, Mobility, and Acoustics Industry Process Director, SIMULIA, Dassault Systèmes. “But an electric vehicle is very quiet, so it needs to alert you somehow.”

In December 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Minimum Sound Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles. The summary says, “This standard will help to ensure that blind, visually impaired, and other pedestrians are able to detect and recognize nearby hybrid and electric vehicles, as required by the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act.”

The combustion engine also makes ambient noises, such as wind noise at low speed and cabin rattles. “But now, with electronic cars, that has gone away, so you start to notice the other sounds much more,” says Senthooran.

A COMSOL gearbox multiphysics simulation. Image courtesy of COMSOL.

Sound testing is part of the NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) study in automotive design. Prior to digital simulation, sound testing often involved driving the prototype vehicle on the road to evaluate the audible squeaks and grumbles. But advancement in physics and increased computing capacity changed the practice. Now acoustic simulation is the favored approach. “Now we can make much better predictions of cabin sound. We can also visualize them in 2D and 3D. We can also hear sounds,” says Senthooran. 

Dassault Systèmes offers CST Suite, for 3D electromagnetic simulation; Manatee, for electromagnetic noise and vibrations study; Simpack, for simulation multibody system (useful to study motion and roll); Wave6, for vibro-acoustic analysis; PowerFLOW, for aeroacoustic simulations; and Abaqus, for structural vibrations simulation.

What Do You Want to See and Hear?

In standard structural analysis and flow simulation, engineers want to see the concentration of stress, deformation, and flow patterns in the results. This gives them insights into the geometry changes necessary to counteract the design’s vulnerabilities. In sound simulation, the software can literally let you listen to a cabin that has not been built yet, by producing an audio file based on simulation.

“You have three types of noises: noise from the structure itself; noises from the operating environment, like wind, rain, tires, and honking from the nearby cars; and noises created within the cabin, like conversation, music, and warning indicators,” says Kottalgi. “So you want to study how the shape or cavity of the cabin responds to these noises.” 

“You want to see the sound distribution patterns and hear the sounds. Both are important,” says Jinlin Huang, principal applications engineer, Acoustics and Vibrations, COMSOL. “You want to study the key listening positions, like the area around the driver’s head.”

COMSOL offers multiphysics simulation modules under the COMSOL Multiphysics software suite. The Acoustic Module, an add-on package, provides tools for modeling and studying the acoustics and vibrations in speakers, mobile devices, microphones, mufflers, sensors, sonar, flowmeters, rooms, and concert halls, among others. 

“You want to be able to measure certain engineering data from the simulation, like sound pressure level, how it’s distributed throughout the cabin. But you also want to see how the intensity changes over time, so that may be a time-dependent graph,” says Kottalgi. Ansys offers Ansys Sound, for studying and optimizing sound quality; and Ansys Mechanical and Ansys LS-Dyna, for simulating Aero-Acoustic, Vibro-acoustics, and non-linear multiphysics acoustic events.

In COMSOL Multiphysics, you can model and simulate a gearbox’s vibration and noise. Image courtesy of COMSOL.

Typically, music, human speech, and everyday noises fall between 20 Hz and 20 kHz, considered the audible spectrum for healthy humans. In COMSOL, acoustic simulation allows you to see the frequency responses. “It contains both magnitude and phase data, so it’s very useful for spotting peaks caused by cabin resonance, or dips caused by phase cancellation. It also lets you judge the tonal balance: whether the bass is too heavy or the treble is too sharp,” says Huang.

COMSOL can also provide impulse responses or conveniently convert frequency responses to impulse responses and vice versa. “These are two sides of the same coin,” notes Huang. “Impulse responses let you see how the sounds from different sources arrive at a listener. COMSOL can export them as wave files you can listen to.”

High-accuracy acoustics simulation relies on full-wave modeling up to the highest practical frequencies, making it computationally intensive. “It helps that we now have GPU acceleration. With it, we have seen 20 to 50 times speedup in acoustic analyses,” says Huang. “COMSOL supports the use of not just one but multiple GPUs.”

Give Me Real Audio

Sound simulation output is much more reliable—that is, much closer to what you would hear—if the source file used as input is derived from the real world. In other words, you use the actual recording of a device instead of an idealized sound or generic approximation to represent the source audio. 

“Usually, there’s a sound source, like the wind outside, the speaker inside, or the powertrain. Figuring out the travel of the sound waves inside the cabin is a multiphysics calculation, so you might use a mix of tools,” says Senthooran. The simulation could involve structure mechanics and acoustic vibrations, among others. 

“Tire noise, like when you’re traveling at 30 mph or 80 mph, or when someone rolls down the window and it creates buffeting sounds, or when it’s raining outside— these are very difficult to obtain, even if you have a vehicle or a prototype,” says Kottalgi. “If you don’t, then simulation is the only way to get it.”

For in-cabin acoustic analysis, a detailed CAD model of the cabin is important. So are the interior surface properties available from measurement or simulation. “You use it to figure how sound interacts with cabin components, like roof and carpet surfaces, windshield, seat, even human passengers,” says Huang. “Surface conditions are very important. They have properties like reflection, scattering, absorption, and impedance, which affect the frequency responses. COMSOL created an app that lets you extract frequency-dependent surface properties of configurable sound absorbers for use in larger simulation models, with adjustable materials, backing conditions, and layer geometries.”

“If you’re going to look at conditions that influence the audio quality, then you need to know the wind speed, the type of road you’re traveling on, the type of tires involved, the insulation inside, and the shape of the cabin, among other things,” says Senthooran. “Many engineers also want to look at the frequency, amplitude, and changes in decibel over time.” 

Fix That Sound

Fixing an acoustic issue might involve changing the speaker mount, swapping out one surface material for another, adding surface treatment (like coating) to change its behavior, and identifying and addressing the acoustic dead zones. “When you’re speaking to your passenger, if they cannot hear you well, that’s not a good experience,” notes Kottalgi. 

“The goal is usually to get a more uniform sound distribution inside the cabin,” says Huang.

When something is about to break down, your sensor-equipped smart car will likely become aware of the problem before the driver does. Therefore, it will issue critical warnings and alerts. In this case, instead of eliminating the sound, you may want to find ways to amplify it. 

“One solution is to increase the number of sound sources—that means, adding more speakers,” says Kottalgi. “The reverse is to introduce white noise to cancel out the harsh noises, to make the cabin quieter. A quieter car means whisper-level sound, usually 30-50 dB. But how can you achieve it if the engine itself is running at 60 dB?” 

What Did You Say to My Car?

Cars are not only making sounds but also listening. This is especially true of autonomous vehicles equipped with sensors. In the future, with AI and machine learning, cars may be able to distinguish and label the voices of the occupants, which opens new opportunities for providing a personalized experience.

“Cars are now connected to Google or Android, so you can tell it to set your destination, find the nearest gas station or restaurant, turn down the volume, or turn up the air conditioner,” notes Kottalgi. “So it’s important to place the receiver microphones in the correct position to get these instructions from the driver and passengers.”

“The downside of working in this field is that, now, when I am driving or riding, I notice more flaws than others,” says Senthooran.

The partnership supports Aurelia's continuous improvement plans, including design consolidation, faster iteration, supply chain resilience, and cost reductions, according to Velo3D.

Velo3D says it values the collaboration because it supports the role of additive manufacturing in advanced energy and propulsion systems. 

Aurelia's Move to Adopt AM

As Aurelia works to improve its turbine platforms, additive manufacturing has emerged as a tool to simplify designs, reduce part counts, and make improvements in high‑temperature, high‑stress environments. Aurelia is using additive manufacturing to consolidate traditionally multi‑part assemblies into fewer, more integrated components, reducing fasteners, joints, tolerancing stack‑ups, and long‑term maintenance risk.

"Additive manufacturing allows us to simplify designs, reduce failure points, and move faster while staying grounded in proven turbomachinery fundamentals and materials science," says Karol Hricisak, PE, director of Technology at Aurelia Technologies.

Under the partnership, the companies are collaborating on a phased additive manufacturing program that includes component feasibility evaluation, material and process development, and progression toward qualification and low‑rate initial production using Velo3D's Sapphire XC platform.

Initial efforts focus on evaluating where additive manufacturing can deliver tangible benefits in performance, lead time, and manufacturability across select turbine components and high‑performance alloys.

Supply Chain Resilience 

By reducing dependence on long‑lead forgings, tooling‑intensive processes, and large inventory commitments, Aurelia is improving responsiveness to design updates and market demand. Additive manufacturing also enables faster design iteration, allowing geometry updates or feature changes to be implemented and produced in weeks rather than months, the company reports.

Aurelia says it selected Velo3D based on its deep experience in metal additive manufacturing, qualification approach, and ability to support development and scalable production. 

"Advanced energy systems are pushing the limits of traditional manufacturing," says Michelle Sidwell, chief revenue officer of Velo3D. "Aurelia is taking a thoughtful, engineering‑driven approach by designing with additive manufacturing in mind from the beginning, which is where the greatest impact can be realized."

About Aurelia Technologies

Aurelia Technologies develops small‑scale gas turbines for industrial, municipal, and data center applications. The company combines proven turbomachinery principles with modern design and manufacturing approaches to deliver reliable, resilient power solutions.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

The collaboration builds on existing work with the ORNL Manufacturing Demonstration Facility to bring simulation codes developed at the national labs to American industry at scale.

Operating as the Agentic HPC Pipeline Initiative (AHPI), the partnership would use launched agentic digital engineering capabilities on the Rescale platform to accelerate U.S. manufacturers’ deployment of DOE-developed codes in production engineering environments.

By hosting DOE codes on the Rescale digital engineering platform and pairing them with agentic AI that guides users through all steps, engineers in U.S. industry can translate intent into fully autonomous simulation workflows. Tasks that demand deep specialist knowledge, such as mesh configuration and hardware selection, are handled autonomously by the simulation-native agents.

“America’s national laboratories have spent decades building the most powerful engineering simulation software in the world, like our AMReX framework, but the depth of domain expertise required to configure and validate these tools has kept them out of reach for many manufacturers,” says Peter Nugent, division deputy for Science in the Applied Math & Computational Research Division at LBNL and principal investigator of the AHPI project. “We are replacing the manual burden of solver selection, checkpointing, and hardware configuration with intelligent automation.”

Rescale’s in-platform agents are orchestrating manufacturing codes developed at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility.

“At ORNL, we are focused on pushing the boundaries of what is possible in physical production,” says Ramanan Sankaran, ORNL lead. “By reducing the expertise bottleneck in job configuration and allowing engineers to train surrogate models on their simulation data using in-platform agents, we are enabling U.S. manufacturers to innovate at speeds that were previously impossible.”

The proposed collaboration with LLNL builds on the established HPC for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program, which connects U.S. companies with national laboratory expertise and resources in high-performance computing, modeling and simulation.

“Through HPC4EI, LLNL has a long and successful history of bridging the gap between national lab supercomputing and real-world industrial applications,” says Aaron Fisher, LLNL lead. “We believe the use of agentic AI will lead to a step change in our ability to bring these capabilities to American industry.”

Together, the three laboratories bring depth across fluid dynamics, phase and chemical transformations, additive manufacturing, materials science, and energy systems, covering advanced manufacturing applications. The Rescale platform is intended to provide secure, cloud-native access to these codes through an intuitive, agent-augmented interface that requires no specialized HPC expertise to operate.

“In the United States, both industry and the national labs have made extraordinary investments in computing infrastructure and simulation software,” says Joris Poort, CEO of Rescale. “Rescale’s digital engineering platform serves as the bridge that brings both investments together in one place and puts them to work accelerating innovation for American industry. By pairing the world’s best simulation codes with AI agents that automate the complex workflows around them, we are giving American manufacturers a compounding advantage to accelerate progress, which is the ability to explore design spaces, validate materials, and optimize manufacturing processes at speeds and scales that were previously out of reach.”

The Rescale platform, including the capabilities powering the AHPI consortium, is available now. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.