Autodesk Unveils 2012 Manufacturing Software Portfolio

“No product design and development challenge is too complex to overcome when you combine the powerful 3D mechanical design capabilities of Autodesk Inventor together with world-leading Autodesk visualization and simulation software,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. “Our customers need to create remarkable products more efficiently. The new Autodesk Product Design Suite makes it easier for manufacturers to adopt Digital Prototyping workflows to achieve this goal.”



New Autodesk Suites Deliver Digital Prototyping for Unbeatable Design Innovation and Quality

Autodesk Product Design Suite is a new, comprehensive and cost-effective design solution for creating compelling products. Containing Autodesk’s leading design, visualization and simulation software for manufacturers, the new suite provides flexibility to innovate and more easily respond to changing business requirements from early concepts to detailed engineering and simulation. Autodesk Product Design Suite also provides significant cost savings and is easier to deploy, maintain and manage than stand-alone products.*



Autodesk offers three editions of the Product Design Suite:



Product Design Suite Standard ¾ Foundational conceptual design and drafting tools for product design, featuring AutoCAD Mechanical, Autodesk Showcase, Autodesk SketchBook Designer, Autodesk Vault and Autodesk Mudbox software.

Product Design Suite Premium ¾ Optimized Digital Prototyping and visualization tools for maximum performance that features Standard edition tools along with Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk 3ds Max Design software.

Product Design Suite Ultimate ¾ Advanced surfacing, simulation and tooling for unbeatable design quality, featuring the same tools as the Premium edition along with Autodesk Inventor Professional and Autodesk Alias Design software.



“Combining our Autodesk Inventor Professional products with the software powering Hollywood-quality imagery, movies and interactive presentations enables us to create visually impressive and dynamic engineering solutions for our design and engineering teams,” said Carl Maas, CAD/engineering services manager with L-3 Communications, Power Paragon, Inc. “With the new Autodesk Product Design Suite we can create, validate and communicate our digital designs with even greater confidence and shortened development time.”



Launched in 2010 and updated this year, Autodesk Factory Design Suite 2012 is a factory layout and optimization solution that helps manufacturers make better layout decisions through the creation of a digital factory model, helping save time and money. It offers unique factory specific functionality in both AutoCAD Architecture and Autodesk Inventor, combined with Autodesk Navisworks’ powerful visualization and analysis and Autodesk Vault to improve collaboration. New additions to the suite in 2012 include AutoCAD Mechanical for automating mechanical CAD tasks and 3ds Max Design and Showcase for enhancing communication and bids.



Changing the Game in Sustainable Product Design

As a result of the strategic partnership announced in Oct. 2010, Autodesk and Granta Design Ltd. have built new design methods into Autodesk Inventor 2012 software that help designers estimate a product’s environmental impact and make more sustainable design decisions. The new Eco Materials Adviser in Inventor 2012 addresses sustainable design requirements early in the design process — when it matters most, enabling manufacturers to choose better materials without compromising on cost and performance. Powered by Granta’s extensive materials database, the Eco Materials Adviser helps guide material selection and generates reports so engineers can communicate the benefits of their sustainable design decisions.



Autodesk Inventor Fusion Brings 3D Direct Modeling to Range of Autodesk Products

Autodesk Inventor Fusion makes its commercial debut following its popular technology preview on Autodesk Labs. It is now included at no extra cost as a companion application to Autodesk Alias Design and Alias Automotive, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Moldflow, Autodesk Simulation and AutoCAD products. Inventor Fusion provides robust 3D modeling ease-of-use and direct modeling for rapid design changes. It also unites direct and parametric workflows within a single digital model created in Autodesk Inventor.



Along with the Autodesk Product Design Suite, each product in the Autodesk Manufacturing portfolio offers powerful new capabilities, spanning conceptual design, engineering, manufacturing and technical documentation.



AutoCAD Electrical 2012 software expands its support for international standards and now allows electrical controls designers to view, edit and share their DWG files on web browsers or mobile devices through AutoCAD WS.



AutoCAD Mechanical 2012 software now enables editing 3D models from any source with Inventor Fusion and intelligent drawing view creation with a new model documentation feature. Also new is mobile and web viewing and editing through AutoCAD WS, so mechanical engineers can spend more time innovating.



Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2012 visualization software enables you to demonstrate the operation of designs in real-world settings, providing seamless aggregation of CAD data and transforming digital prototypes into high-quality visuals with “push-button” rendering, cinematic-quality animation and effects and an extensive material and texture library.



Autodesk Alias 2012 products ― Alias Design, Alias Surface and Alias Automotive software ― make it easier to create accurate 3D models with Class-A surfaces and feature improvements to the technical surfacing process with modeling tools that are dramatically easier to use.



Autodesk Inventor 2012 software provides easier ways to interact with 3D mechanical design data; new opportunities for sharing, accepting and updating CAD data regardless of source and complexity; and high-impact performance and productivity improvements for both users and IT departments.



Autodesk Inventor Publisher 2012 software makes it easy to create highly visual and interactive assembly instructions, operating procedures and technical documentation from 2D and 3D CAD data. Users can publish interactive, 3D instructions in multiple formats directly to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch mobile devices.



Autodesk Moldflow 2012 software introduces new real-time injection-molding simulation functionality, enabling dynamic evaluation of a range of plastic part design alternatives in a fraction of the time it takes to perform a standard simulation, helping to pinpoint the best design more quickly.



Autodesk Showcase 2012 visualization software is a key element of the Product Design Suite, transforming CAD data into compelling imagery, movies, and interactive presentations to improve the design review process, secure internal buy-in and win competitive bids.



Autodesk Simulation 2012 software, previously known as Autodesk Algor Simulation, offers an all-new user interface as well as Autodesk Vault integration, introducing new revision management capabilities for easier management of design and engineering information.



Autodesk SketchBook Designer 2012 software provides digital sketching and illustration to enhance the creative process. Design professionals can export vector artwork from SketchBook Designer and bring it into Alias as curve data, transforming 2D concept sketches directly into 3D product designs.



Autodesk Vault 2012 product data management software gives workgroups across multiple locations more control over engineering data and documents from design through manufacturing, expanding its integration to additional Autodesk applications, including Navisworks, Inventor Publisher and Autodesk Simulation.