ANSYS’ Mark Hindsbo Talks Live Simulation: It’s Really That Easy and Fast

Recently, PTC announced a partnership with ANSYS, a company renowned for its engineering simulation tools. Together, the companies unveiled Creo Simulation Live, a technology that will run engineering simulation on parametric models from within a CAD system-- in real time.

“For a designer or engineer that means simulation results change live as you change physics types or inputs, make geometry edits, or alter display characteristics,” said Jim Heppelmann, PTC CEO.

Creo Simulation Live is an adaptation of ANSYS Discovery Live, which works similarly with direct modeling software. And if you think it sounds too good to be true, you’re not alone.

“Before we demo it, nobody believes it's that easy and that fast,” says Mark Hindsbo, Vice President and General Manager at ANSYS. [Laughing] “That's where we have to start, right?”

You can see more about the technology in this interview and this demo. So we asked Hindsbo (with some help from PTC’s Brian Thompson) to tell us more about what he thinks live simulation means to product development. His overarching message? “Don’t underestimate how this will change how you engineer!”

What Is Creo Simulation Live?

Hindsbo: Creo Simulation Live is a whole new product that’s embedded natively in the parametric CAD modeler. It provides insight into the engineering consequences of your design decisions real time.

How do you think that impacts design engineering work?

Hindsbo: It changes everything!  It's one of these profound things that when technology becomes easy to use and fast to use, all of a sudden behavior changes.

If you want to sort of have an analogy, think about the printing press. Before that technology, it took a monk about a year to make one copy of a book. So there weren't too many books, right? Then you get the printing press, and everyone can own a book.

When technology becomes intuitive, when it becomes real time, our behavior changes. And I think this is one thing that Creo Simulation Live will do for engineering. It will change the way we do engineering.

Why do behaviors need to change?

Hindsbo: Because we are historically afraid to do too much experimentation. It’s been expensive because it can take weeks to set up a simulation. And physical prototyping can cost you thousands or millions of dollars.

But with real-time simulation, we can abandon that carefulness. We can experiment easily and inexpensively. And that’s where engineers will need to change their mindset.

Think of penicillin. It was discovered by going through tens of thousands of different compounds until we found the one that actually reacted antibiotically.

Imagine what that level of experimentation could do for your product design when you can do it quickly and intuitively.

Watch the full interview here:

Be Among the First to Try It!

Why not try Creo Simulation Live on your own models? The Early Access program is available now.

Creo Simulation Live is unlike any design tool you’ve ever used before. Don’t believe it? Try on your own models absolutely free. You don’t even need to own Creo to get started. Choose from the following options:

• For current Creo users, download the most recent release Creo 5.0.3.0. Creo Simulation Live is fully integrated into your CAD software.
• For others, use the web version.