New AnyCAD, 3D Printing and SimStudio Technologies Among Dozens of Enhancements to Product Design Suite, Factory Design Suite, Simulation and CAM Portfolios

April 13, 2015 — Autodesk today unveiled its 2016 Design Suites and applications for manufacturing industry professionals. These solutions – including breakthrough multi-CAD, 3D printing, computer aided manufacturing (CAM) and simulation capabilities — deliver affordable access to the complete Autodesk portfolio, which includes Autodesk Product Design Suite, Autodesk Factory Design Suite, Autodesk Inventor HSM and a comprehensive Simulation software portfolio.

“Products aren’t simply products anymore. Customers expect them to be smart, to have connected services and even to improve over time,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Design, Lifecycle and Simulation at Autodesk. “That’s why we have upped the ante with the 2016 Suites by providing a full set of software solutions that will allow our customers to compete and thrive in the disruptive manufacturing industry landscape.”

Manufacturers seeking to design better products, reduce development costs, and get to market faster can access Autodesk’s 2016 Design Suites in cost-effective editions including Standard (Factory Design Suite only), Premium and Ultimate (Factory Design Suite and Product Design Suite). Customers using the Ultimate level of the Suites will also have access to Autodesk Inventor Professional, which provides an open and connected design and engineering experience between data, people and processes.

Autodesk Inventor 2016 includes a new technology called AnyCAD that allows users to selectively and associatively work with dozens of non-native CAD data types from all major vendors for more efficient multi-CAD workflows, both internally and with suppliers. For example, an engineer can import a mechanical component from another CAD system into a larger assembly in Inventor, where it can be analyzed for fit and performance. The file is not "translated" into Inventor.  The imported component can be modified in its original CAD system and updates are automatically reflected in Inventor.

“The new AnyCAD technology in Inventor alone is worth moving to the 2016 version, but we’re also improving every part of the product workflow from concept through product delivery to help companies meet the challenges that lie ahead,” said Kross.

Seamlessly leverage data from virtually any CAD system associatively.

Inventor 2016 will also include new 3D printing capabilities that simplify the preparation of digital models for fabrication on any 3D printer. Users can orient and modify models to fit pre-defined printer volumes, all without affecting the original source model and before sending an STL file directly to a 3D printer. This built-in capability will dramatically speed up and simplify rapid prototyping or full scale production via additive manufacturing.

  3D print environment allows you to set up and visualize the 3D printing process.

New features available in all Autodesk 2016 Design Suites

• AutoCAD 2016 includes enhanced features specifically for the manufacturing industry to help make it easier to coordinate, extract as-built information, and document designs. 
• The Autodesk 2016 ReCap Portfolio helps designers and manufacturers integrate captured data from laser scans or photos into the design process.
• Finally, all Suites subscribers will continue to have access to Autodesk 360 cloud services that extend desktop functionality to better enable collaboration, optimization and to promote design sharing and reuse.

Autodesk Product Design Suite

Product Design Suite 2016 is built to deliver a comprehensive set of design, simulation, collaboration and visualization tools providing a comprehensive and connected design experience that helps users design better products and reduce development costs.

Key new features include:

• Extensive new Freeform tools that provide a quick and easy modeling approach to create, explore, iterate and optimize complex organic design forms.
• Inventor users can also now leverage AutoCAD DWG files in an Inventor part file as a DWG underlay, providing a connected, associative workflow from AutoCAD to Inventor.
• For customers on Subscription, Autodesk Fusion 360, which brings CAD, CAM and CAE together in the cloud, is also included as an entitlement.

For a full list of new capabilities in Product Design Suite 2016, please see: http://www.autodesk.com/suites/product-design-suite/overview.

Autodesk Factory Design Suite

Autodesk Factory Design Suite 2016 provides factory customers with access to interoperable, layout-specific workflows, cloud-based factory asset resources and powerful visualization and analysis tools that help increase design accuracy, efficiency and communication.

Key new features include:

• Ability for users to layout large scale manufacturing facilities in AutoCAD and to quickly convert them to 3D in Navisworks.
• Allows users to batch convert their legacy CAD content into Factory Assets.
• Point Clouds now display the laser scan location map and now sync across AutoCAD, Inventor, and Navisworks.
• Point Clouds can now be used to create assets in Factory Design Suite.

For a full list of new capabilities in Factory Design Suite 2016, please see: http://www.autodesk.com/factory-design-suite/overview.

Autodesk Inventor HSM 2016

Autodesk Inventor HSM continues to lead the industry in CAD integration with the single goal of driving product design. Inventor HSM offers users a truly transparent workflow that provides 2- to 5-axis milling and turning strategies seamlessly inside the CAD system of choice, which helps to achieve higher productivity, increased profits, and shorter time-to-market.

Autodesk Inventor HSM 2016 adds turning capabilities to the Autodesk Inventor-integrated CAM offering. Customers looking for a CAM system to help them improve productivity with traditional turning or to take full advantage of advanced mill/turn CNC machining centers now have access to the full range of CAM functionality available inside Autodesk Inventor.

Inventor HSM 2016 also features all the traditional turning toolpaths, including: facing, roughing, profiling, grooving and drilling, and supports programming twin-turret and twin-spindle lathes, as well as mill/turn machining, using all of the traditional milling and turning operations.

“Inventor HSM has changed our business. It’s the only program that I have run that is simplified as far as drawing and programming at the same time,” said Bob Paffumi, Owner of R Mac Shop. “The adaptive technology has decreased the cycle time, but the coolest thing is the tool life. It doubles it, if not triples it. We can run more parts in less time, and we’re not changing the tools all the time.”

  Turning in Inventor HSM 2016: simulation of Boring operation in perspective view

For a full list of new capabilities in Inventor HSM 2016, please go here. 

Autodesk Simulation 2016 Products

Autodesk’s 2016 Simulation software portfolio delivers a faster, more accurate and flexible approach to predicting, optimizing and validating designs earlier in the design process. The 2016 family of products includes new versions of Autodesk Simulation Mechanical, Autodesk Nastran In-CAD, Autodesk CFD, Autodesk Moldflow, Autodesk Helius PFA and Autodesk Helius Composite.

Autodesk Simulation Mechanical, Moldflow and CFD 2016 will all ship with Autodesk SimStudio Tools, which is a state-of-the-art geometry preparation, clean-up and simplification feature that works within multiple different CAD file formats. It allows users to prepare their geometry before simulation, as well as explore various designs ideas faster and more efficiently within their native CAD system.

"Autodesk SimStudio Tools supports my simulation workflow much better than a traditional CAD system can,” said Harald Götz, Product Innovation Manager at Vibracoustic GmbH & Co. KG. “It has also helped me enhance my Moldflow reports with improved visuals and model imagery.”

SimStudio Tools plastic part preparation

Additional New Features Include:

• Fully integrated CFD for conformal cooling analysis within Moldflow.
• An external radiation model enhancement and new Turbulence models to handle high curvature flows within Simulation CFD.
• Increased advanced Autodesk Nastran capabilities within Simulation Mechanical.

For a full list of new capabilities in the Autodesk Simulation Portfolio and forthcoming Autodesk SimStudio Tools, please see: http://www.autodesk.com/products/simulation/overview. For more information on Autodesk Moldflow 2016, please visit: http://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/moldflow2016.

Availability

Product availability varies by country. Purchasing a Design Suite with Autodesk Subscription helps customers stay current and connected with access to the latest workflows on desktops, mobile devices and in the cloud. See details and purchasing options at www.autodesk.com/purchaseoptions.