Volvo Car Corporation (Volvo) one of the global car industry’s strongest brands, has revealed that Autodesk design and visualisation software was key to the successful design of its Concept You car. The fully-functional concept model was unveiled to great critical acclaim at the Frankfurt Motor Show last autumn.

Following the earlier success of Volvo’s Concept Universe at the Shanghai Motor Show in April 2011, the Volvo design team was under extreme pressure to further refine its ideas and produce a working model with full interior in a matter of months, in time for Frankfurt. Both concepts were created to demonstrate Volvo’s vision for the future of luxury cars under its new ownership.

Using Autodesk Alias software, the concept modelling team was able to quickly create digital prototypes from the designer’s initial sketches. This enabled the team to quickly hone and test the design on screen, helping to save time and maintain the original design integrity behind the concept. As a result, designers were able to get to the best option with the technical surfacing and visualisation of the car as quickly as possible without having to start from scratch with every iteration.

Although the Volvo team was working under a particularly tight deadline, timescales such as this are becoming typical in such a competitive industry. Cars are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated with a high technical content, yet manufacturers are under pressure to design them faster, while incurring lower costs. Like Volvo, a growing number of manufacturers are using Autodesk Alias to accelerate the entire design process from concept to class A modelling.

As part of the design workflow, Volvo also used Autodesk Showcase software for advanced visualisation of its ideas. This enabled the concept to be quickly communicated to the design management team and board so that they could easily understand what was being created. Despite the punishing time-frame, Volvo’s new concept was ready in time to create a real talking point at the show. The automotive press was full of accolades, describing the car as, “beautifully done”, “a much-needed tonic” and simply “stunning”.

A long-term user of Autodesk software, Volvo has recently become a Platinum Support customer which gives it direct access to Autodesk experts, promoting a two-way dialogue to help influence future development of Alias and other products.

Source:http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20120208005540/en/autodesk/manufacturing/technology

A leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) services provider as well as a provider of Autodesk 2D and 3D CAD products and services, announced today that it has earned the new Building Engineering – MEP Systems Specialization designation for value-added resellers from Autodesk, Inc., a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. As an Autodesk Specialized Partner, Applied Software has shown that it has made significant investment in its people, has a solid business plan specific to its specialization area, has customer references and can provide a high level of expertise, experience and support to customers in the MEP industries.

The new Autodesk Partner Specializations enable value-added resellers to highlight and brand their expertise in delivering services in key industry areas. By completing the required curriculum and training, as well as meeting required levels of service and standards set by Autodesk, Applied Software demonstrates through its strong customer service and support what it means to be a trusted adviser to Autodesk customers throughout the world.

“We are excited to have earned the Building Engineering – MEP specialization,” said Richard Burroughs, president, Applied Software. “This specialization is an acknowledgement of the investment we have made in both our sales and technical staff’s industry experience to support the needs of the MEP design and construction industries.”

Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/applied-software-earns-autodesk-mep-specialization-138560734.html

Tuesday’s press release from Autodesk regarding its new relationship with Pitney Bowes Software (PBS, the new name as of January 1, 2012 for Pitney Bowes Business Insights) raised many questions. Joe Francica and I spoke with James Buckley, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Customer Data & Location Intelligence, Pitney Bowes Software and Rich Humphrey, Director of Civil Infrastructure in the AEC Division at Autodesk on Tuesday night to try to tease out some answers.

Humphrey outlined the relationship as taking advantage of the relative strength of each company across the Plan -> Design-> Build-> Manage lifecycle. While both companies have fingers across each step, Autodesk has particular strength in the middle (Design, Build) and PBS has strength on the ends (Plan, Manage). The idea is to work together to provide a deep and complete set of tools to organizations moving through those steps. With that broader perspective on projects, organizations can take on master planning and policy development. While there is overlap in some areas, Humphrey and Buckley agreed that there is synergy within that overlap. And, the bigger goal is to unlock the GIS and design data, enable analytics and make better decisions.

What sort of organizations will be ideal clients? The pair ticked off three for attention in the short term:
road and highway transportation
local government
mining and natural resource management
If those sound a bit outside of PBS’ expertise, remember that the company has acquired traffic products (Paramics) and local government asset management tools (Confirm, currently not sold in the U.S.). I for one am not that familiar with these tools or their users. There is also a vision that horizontal tools like PBS geocoding and Geosk content management system will provide value across enterprises.

We found the first of the year announcement date interesting and asked, “Why now?” The answer revealed that no single event or client launched discussions of a relationship. Instead, the more conversations continued the more value each company could offer from its products to common clients. Further, Pitney Bowes is interested in growing via alliances and has some experience in this space. Buckley noted the company’s successful relationship in the retail banking space. In short, such relationships are not without precedent.

We asked about plan for integration of products and it’s likely that will be a longer term play. That said, the two companies have already bid on projects together, the fruits of which may be known in the first half of 2012.

We asked about how Autodesk sees GIS as part of its set of offerings. Humphrey made it clear the company had not backed off its investment in GIS, but rather repositioned it to better fit client needs. “GIS means,” he said, “unleashing GIS data and analytics to a broader set of clients,” which I understood to mean both within existing client organizations and in new ones.

Source:http://apb.directionsmag.com/entry/autodesk-and-pitney-bowes-software-elaborate-on-new-relationship/225079