Siemens To Acquire Altair

Altair has been one of those design and analysis software developers that isn’t always the most visible option. Altair products that I have written about previously have included solidThinking, Hyperworks, Inspire and Altair platforms more generally.

Altair provides a wide range of design and analysis products. There are dozens of CAE related tools listed in their line, which include circuit simulators, Design AI, aerodynamic simulation, mold and forming simulation, flow sim/design, fatigue predictor, extrusion optimizer and many many more. They also have a partner relationship with companies such as Elysium, which produces tools for translation and validation which I have written about elsewhere.

HyperWorks is Altair’s platform for CAE applications. Altair Inspire appears to be the main CAD program. Inspire, according to marketing materials on their site “is a unified simulation-driven design platform for generating, optimizing and manufacturing innovative parts in one environment”. That’s a tall order I may have to research later on.

Siemens has been looking for some AI connections for their CAD products, and Altair appears able to provide some of that. The Altair site uses the term “data analytics” where I think other companies might use the term AI.

Altair RapidMiner is a platform for data analytics and AI. Again according to Altair website marketing materials RapidMiner “enables anyone to utilize enterprise data, build and deploy models…for everyday use”. With HPCWorks and RapidMiner, Altair does as much as an IT developer as it does in the CAE space. The IT chops are certainly needed in the move to AI and cloud applications.