Tech Soft 3D, a provider of engineering software development toolkits, has acquired Ceetron AS, experts in developing 3D visualization technology for the computer aided engineering (CAE) community. Tech Soft 3D has also acquired Visual Kinematics (VKI), maker of DevTools, a suite of component software development kits (SDKs) for CAE applications.
Ceetron AS
Tech Soft 3D has long been a provider of data access and engineering graphics SDKs to the CAE market, working with partners such as ANSYS, EXA (Dassault Systèmes), Altair, Numeca, MathWorks, MapleSoft and CD Adapco (Siemens). Ceetron's SDKs, which are purpose-built for visualization of simulation results, expand Tech Soft 3D's SDK portfolio to better support programmers building applications for simulation and analysis, targeting both web and desktop environments.
"Ceetron has been fueling innovation in CAE for 20+ years and Tech Soft 3D is excited to expand its portfolio to better serve our partners in the CAE space," said Tech Soft 3D CEO Ron Fritz. "We remain focused on empowering developers of engineering software to build world-class applications for manufacturing, building and construction and other industries, and the addition of the market-leading Ceetron technologies will help us do that on an even broader scale."
Based in Norway and France, Ceetron offers SDKs to independent software vendors (ISV) in the CAE market for finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data processing and 3D visualization. Its offering includes desktop and server-side components to read and process cross-solver CAE data, and to create and render CAE visualization models. It also provides modern and mature technology for WebGL-based visualization used for remote sharing and post-processing of CAE models and results. Ceetron SDKs are used by top-tier CAE simulation developers such as Autodesk, ANSYS, Dassault Systèmes, HBM Prenscia, Simscale, DNV GL and Transvalor.
"Our vision has been to enable developers of simulation software everywhere to accelerate their development cycles through the utilization of our 3D visualization development kits," said Tor Helge Hansen, Managing Director of Ceetron. "Joining forces with Tech Soft 3D accelerates that vision because in more ways than just technology, Tech Soft 3D is our twin. Together we are excited to explore the opportunities that will be unleashed from this collaboration."
"Over the coming months, we will be working to integrate Ceetron's technology with our HOOPS toolkits," said Gavin Bridgeman, CTO at Tech Soft 3D. "This acquisition is about making the HOOPS platform more attractive to a broader set of users in the engineering software world by enabling them to do everything they need to do with their CAD data. As a component provider, there are some important things to do to support the innovation that is happening in this space."
Tech Soft 3D intends to continue to maintain and support Ceetron's existing partners that are using its SDK offerings for CAE. Tech Soft 3D will retain Ceetron's staff, which will continue to support Ceetron customers and partners.
Visual Kinematics
Tech Soft 3D has acquired Visual Kinematics, which continues the company's growth plans to scale global reach and increase its product offerings.
"The CAE market is exploding and the applications for simulation will only continue to expand," said Fritz. "Analyzing how your design will function in the real world offers such massive cost savings that simulation is already well established in the design process. Tech Soft 3D is focused on adapting our tools to address this rapidly growing market space, as well as taking some of the core capabilities available in these technologies to serve the needs of additive manufacturing, AR/VR, IoT, machine learning, AI, etc."
Based in Saratoga, CA, the team at VKI has spent more than 30 years developing a component software product line that addresses a spectrum of CAE simulation technology needs, from mesh generation and interoperability tools to solvers, visualization and graphics. VKI's tools provide developers with the ability to import/export the analysis results from the majority of the world's most widely used simulation solutions including those from ANSYS, Siemens and Dassault Systèmes. VKI component tools have been installed in analysis products including mechanical, fluids, electro-magnetic and multiphysics applications. VKI is utilized by software companies such as ANSYS, Dassault Systèmes (SolidWorks), Siemens, Autodesk, Hexagon (MSC.Software), PTC, Ceetron and ESI Group to deliver applications for structural analysis, heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics and electromagnetics.
"We have been committed to providing the absolute best solutions to our customers, enabling them to build integrated, customized, end-to-end CAE analysis solutions, and we could not be happier knowing that our customers will now have even more tools at their disposal," said Gordon Ferguson, VKI CEO. "The commitment that Tech Soft 3D has to building the strongest suite of CAE development tools in the industry is unmatched, and we are excited to be joining the team."
"The VKI portfolio is the perfect complement to our HOOPS toolkits, as well as our recently acquired Ceetron SDKs for visualization of CAE results," said Bridgeman. "We will be working hard to integrate our tool sets, offering the most complete and robust CAE component technology solution on the market."
Tech Soft 3D intends to continue to maintain and support VKI's existing customers and partners who are using its SDK offerings for CAE, and will retain the staff.
For more information contact:
Tech Soft 3D
1567 SW Chandler Ave, Suite 100
Bend, OR 97702
541-383-4126
www.techsoft3d.com