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Noesis Solutions' vision and strategy aim to pioneer Computer Aided Simulation Process Integration and Design Optimization. With the new OPTIMUS Rev 9 release, Noesis Solutions delivers innovative technology advances in every major Process Integration and Design Optimization field. This revision delivers new improvements in process integration openness and enhancements to enable Trust Region Data Mining. These advancements alone represent a major step forward on the path of Simulation Driven Product Development. Our customers and business partners have been instrumental to guide us in the development of new technologies with unparalleled capabilities: - New User Customizable Interface to capture CAE simulation input/output file syntax
- New Trust Region Post-Processing capability to support multi-disciplinary decision making
- New ANSA/META Post Input and Output interface to automate substitution and extraction of design parameters
- New ANSYS WB Post Input and Output interface to automate substitution and extraction of design parameters (available as from December 2009)
- New AVL Excite/Boost coupling to automate parameterization and OPTIMUS workflow creation
Next to the new functionalities, OPTIMUS Revision 9 offers new improvements directly derived from our customer's feedback. In this new revision, one will notice the revised user interface performance to further optimize user experience and the larger openness to user-defined plug-in components. As always, the new developments in OPTIMUS focus on providing users with the highest level or productivity by giving them the methods they need to improve their designs and by providing them with the technology, necessary to quickly create and evaluate design alternatives in search of better, safer and more reliable products. The most important changes are highlighted here : User customizable Interface (UCI)Over the past releases, OPTIMUS offered an increasing number of direct interfaces. LMS Virtual.LabTM, LMS Imagine.LabTM, CATIA-V5TM, ABAQUSTM, MS-ExcelTM, MATLABTM, SAMCEFTM, Ricardo WaveTM, LS-DYNATM, ANSA/META PostTM, ANSYS WorkBenchTM, AVL Boost/ExciteTM are among the most popular analysis programs supported by OPTIMUS up to Revision 9. Thanks to each pre-programmed interface, OPTIMUS orchestrates the parameterization and automates the substitution of design variables and the extraction simulation results. The launch and the execution of the simulation software are embedded inside the action without any user programming. The parameterization of the design model and the CAE result data are complemented from a user-friendly graphical interface without any exposure to complex file syntax. Increasingly, engineers combine popular Computer Aided Engineering tools with a wide variety of dedicated applications developed in-house or sporadically used across the organization. To orchestrate the combination of all applications in a single workflow, OPTIMUS Rev 8 User Actions and User Customizable Actions (UCA) offered a straightforward framework to define the corresponding launch scripts. Because the architecture of CAE packages is generally closed and rigid and to avoid the inefficient and error-prone processes of manually defining the parameters in complex file syntax, OPTIMUS Revision 9 introduces the User Customizable Interface (UCI). The aim is to deliver a comprehensive set of wrapping capabilities in an open architecture that allows a pervasive customization and integration of third-party simulation file syntax in a unique framework. The User Customizable Interface (UCI) captures and wraps the syntax of any commercial or in-house simulation software. Thanks to a wrapping layer, the user has direct access to the design parameters and the extracted results from the program input or output files. The data exchange between OPTIMUS and the simulation file supports both ASCII and binary file formats. To publish parameters from binary file, the wrapping programmable layer translates the data through a user defined executable, regardless the programming language. To cope with ASCII simulation file, the parameter syntax is incorporated in a simple xml file without any programming. At any time, a new data block can be added to support a broader set of values in the xml. Each UCI, enabled in a local or central place, appears automatically on all OPTIMUS seats without having to modify the OPTIMUS deployment. Thanks to the UCI, OPTIMUS provides an easy-to-use graphical drag-and-drop interface to quickly create a multi-disciplinary workflow. Parsing and accessing the parameters is achieved from an OPTIMUS dialog without any syntax related complexity. Substitution and extraction of design parameters, respectively results, rely on the same wrapper technology. ANSA/META Post Interface In OPTIMUS Revision 9, setting up and running a workflow that contains ANSA/META Post parameterization is straightforward. Rather than manually defining substitution and extraction rules of input design variables (DV file) and output results, the user sets up the parameterization of his ANSA, respectively, META Post model from a specific OPTIMUS dialog. Thanks to a tight integration of the ANSA/META Post input and output files syntax, the engineer, in charge of simulation, builds an OPTIMUS workflow in an unparalleled time frame. A powerful search engine, embedded in OPTIMUS, offers dedicated filters based on ANSA/META Post key names, data type and desired result components. ANSA/META Post engineers recognize very easily important information from a large model to quickly achieve the parameterization of a large model. From the parameterization, the OPTIMUS engine automatically creates the adequate workflow. ANSYS Workbench InterfaceThe integration of the ANSYS Workbench 12.0 represents a sizable step forward in the coverage of commercial simulation applications. With this interface, the analyst interacts with ANSYS design parameters and analysis results from OPTIMUS. From a unique OPTIMUS graphical interface, the analyst works through parametric CAD geometry to the selection of post-processing analysis results parameterization. Rather than manually defining substitution and extraction rules of input design variables and output results, the user drags and drops the ANSYS Workbench connector in the workflow. Automatically, the data transfer relies on the tight integration of the ANSYS Workbench input and output files syntax to propagate the parametric computation of the workflow.
A powerful search engine embedded in OPTIMUS offers dedicated filters based on data type, key names, data IDs and desired result components. The analyst recognizes very easily important information from a large model to quickly achieve the parameterization of a large model. Finally, with the seamless integration of ANSYS CFX and ANSYS FLUENT in ANSYS Workbench 12.0, OPTIMUS manages with a few clicks the parameterization and the workflow integration of ANSYS multi-physics simulations. AVL Excite/Boost InterfaceOPTIMUS for AVL Workspace automates the creation of a workflow that contains any AVL Workspace tools : BOOST, EXCITE, etc. Rather than manually defining substitution and extraction rules of design variables and output results, the user sets up the input parameterization of his model in the AVL Workspace Software, define design outputs in the AVL Workspace Impress Chart. Thanks to a tight integration of OPTIMUS with the AVL Workspace Software, the user can then easily create OPTIMUS workflow by clicking on the “Launch OPTIMUS” button available under the optimization menu of all AVL Workspace Software. OPTIMUS automatically modifies the AVL Workspace design parameters, generates and updates the underlying files and extracts the result outputs (scalar and vectors) to be used in a multi-disciplinary DOE, optimization or robust design workflow. Trust Region Post-ProcessingThe Trust Region is an important milestone in multi-disciplinary optimization data mining. With a large set of optimization algorithms, OPTIMUS orchestrates simulation application to hunt the best design in each discipline. Unfortunately, in many multi-dimensional cases, the optimum of one discipline is senseless in the engineering optimization of a second one. To bridge multiple disciplines and determine the global optimum regardless the considered disciplines, the engineers should rely on trust region intervals that include all dimensions of the multi-physics aspect.
The Trust Region plot, introduced in OPTIMUS Rev 9, relies on a response surface sampling. The user explores and zooms in the design space of each design variable and analysis result interactively with adequate gauge sliders. The instant evaluation of the analysis results, including the design variable dependencies and constraints, are displayed in a 1D colour bar for each parameter. Thanks to the colour interval, the engineer locates one or more intervals of confidence that can be shared between different disciplines. Similarly, the trust region plot helps the user to adjust the parameters in a trust interval irrespective from the constraints on the other dimensions of the problem to solve.
Other improvementsWhen planning the release of OPTIMUS Revision 9, Noesis Solutions took on the challenge of making OPTIMUS even easier to work with than today. Taking into account extensive usability reports, OPTIMUS Revision 9 is released with a focus on the graphical user interface performances and usability. Beside the main functionalities developed in OPTIMUS Revision 9, many customer feature requests have been addressed. Among others : The support of a CentOS Enterprise 5 Operating System The support of the latest ABAQUS 6.9 Revision The integrity check of the data files involved in any workflow The extension of the Taguchi Robust Design capabilities
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