In the age of the Internet of Things (IoT), todays' manufacturer faces unprecedented change. Complex, connected products incorporate hardware, software, and electronics into systems that communicate with other products, services and people via mobile or hard-wired Internet connections.
Robust, dynamic, easily configurable — hardly words most would use to describe traditional PDM (product data management) or PLM (product lifecycle management). But when Microsoft set out to consolidate and standardize its hardware groups on a core product development platform, its alternative approach — building on top of an open, cloud-based PLM platform and leveraging its expertise in agile methodologies — led to a global deployment completed in record time and packed with more functionality than its previous PLM systems.
3D Systems Now to Add Geomagic for SOLIDWORKS, Integrating 3D Scanning
If you are a fan of 3D scanning and using SOLIDWORKS, 3D Systems is now making life easier all around. With the addition of Geomagic for SOLIDWORKS, users will now be able to look forward to having 3D scanned data delivered quickly and accurately right into the software.
Success at Microsoft and Airbus: Can Aras Battle Their Way into the PLM Big Leagues?
The battle for a place on the podium in the PLM “olympics” is fierce, but usually among the same competitors. After 15 years with the same few dominant players, aren’t there any new ones that can seriously threaten Dassault Systèmes, Autodesk, Siemens PLM, IBM, PTC, Oracle and SAP PLM?
MecSoft Corporation, the developer of industry leading CAD/CAM software solutions, has announced the launch of a new configuration to the Milling module of its popular CAM software product line, called Xpress. This configuration is tailored for the growing community of makers, tinkerers, and DIY’ers who are looking for an easy to use, inexpensive but powerful software solution for programming CNC mills. MILL-Xpress will be available for VisualCAD/CAM, RhinoCAM and VisualCAM for SOLIDWORKS.
Exa's Q1 shows some customers, at least, favoring cloud
Earnings keep coming and the news is increasingly positive -- in our PLMish world, at least, customers are buying and using technology to continue to innovate. One recent announcement comes from Exa, the CFD maker. Exa reported that first quarter fiscal 2017, which ended April 30, 2016, revenue was $16.8 million, up 14% as reported and up 13% in constant currencies (cc) -- at the high end of the company's range for the quarter.
By Oleksandr Syniakov, Director of Enterprise Solutions at AMC Bridge. In our work with enterprise engineering organizations, we see a recurring pattern: the platform decision has been made, the APIs are available, initial prototypes show promise, and then the project stalls. Not because of missing capabilities, but because of everything that surrounds them: authentication models, cost governance, CI/CD pipelines, long-term maintainability, and the effort of moving from a working demo to a system hundreds of users depend on daily.
As product complexity increases and regulatory requirements become more stringent, engineering teams face growing pressure to ensure that design outputs consistently meet defined requirements. However, fragmented toolchains, manual validation, and weak traceability lead to inefficiencies, late-stage rework, and compliance risks. AMC Bridge has developed the AI-Assisted KiCad–Codebeamer MCP Integration Demo, a technology demonstration that introduces a new approach to requirements-driven design validation and compliance automation, in response to recurring challenges observed across client projects, where requirements management remains fragmented, inconsistently standardized, and often handled through emails, documents, or ad-hoc processes—highlighting a clear gap that existing tools, including ALM systems, do not fully address within manufacturing engineering workflows.
As manufacturing becomes more distributed and product development more complex, companies are under more pressure than ever to connect data across design, engineering, and production. The idea of a “digital thread,” this continuous flow of product data across systems, is no longer just a long-term goal, but something many organizations are actively pushing to implement.
As software vendors modernize their 3D platforms, transitioning to a reliable and widely adopted geometry kernel becomes essential for improving modeling accuracy, streamlining development, and accelerating innovation. To support organizations on this journey, Siemens Digital Industries Software and AMC Bridge hosted a joint webinar focused on Parasolid implementation. Discover how vendors can speed up product development by leveraging a PLM Components–based ecosystem and collaborating with engineering teams experienced in advanced geometry workflows.