Do you believe in fortune tellers? I don’t, but whether you do or not, predictions are still fun to make. One of the great things about the component software business is the expansive view one has of the industry goings-on. Here are my predictions for 2019 for the overall technical software solutions industry.

The pace of acquisitions and industry consolidation will continue.

Ok, so this might be an easy one, but with the threat of an economic slowdown, it isn’t as safe a pick as one might think. The pace of acquisitions in 2018 dwarfs that of recent years and shows no signs of slowing. The private equity market has tremendous amounts of cash looking to be put to work; companies like Aras have received substantial capital infusions, and corporate buyers have record cash reserves as well as historically low capital costs. It feels a bit like a land grab out there; acquisitions (as measured by volume and value) should equal or exceed 2018.

License revenue growth from sales to the AEC/BIM/Process industries will exceed that of the discrete manufacturing industry.

As measured by overall revenue the discrete manufacturing market has, going back decades, been the most attractive market for solution developers. Over the last several years, though, we have seen advances in the AEC/BIM/Process industries that are driving massive changes in their workflows. There has been much press given to the benefits of BIM as what amounts to the “digital twin” of a building or plant for the owner/operator, and substantial amounts of new regulations demanding BIM compliance, mostly in Western Europe. The move from design-bid-build to design-build is having a huge impact. The percentage growth in the overall AEC/BIM/Process market will be higher than discrete manufacturing in 2019.

“Digital transformation” becomes the dominant marketing message.

Let’s face it, in a red-ocean market like ours, marketing professionals are finding it increasingly difficult to gain mindshare with potential customers. When additive manufacturing exploded a few years ago, we were bombarded with – “this is how our solution can leverage your additive manufacturing strategy”. Anything to connect yourself to a hot trend. More recently, it has been how mixed reality is going to change your world. Going into 2019, expect to see the majority of solution providers cast their value in terms of how it enables digital transformation, as evidenced by the messaging on their websites.

Simulation Process and Data Management (SPDM) will be the next “new thing”.

Every so often our industry hits an inflection point, where the technology now available makes it possible to re-think the way we do things. Solid modeling is a case in point; additive manufacturing has done the same thing in this decade and more recently IoT and generative design are taking on that mantle. Right behind is SPDM, which is turning the way we think of the role of CAE and simulation on its head. The goal is to democratize the use of analysis and simulation data, which will enable process improvements across multiple disciplines. Expect to see a host of new offerings coming in the SPDM space in 2019.

1. Metal 3D printing goes mainstream. Prices for machines that print metal parts are below the levels many companies paid for FDM just a few years ago. Metal printing is more of an “industrial” process, but it’s still less messy than directly fabricating and machining metal – and the skillset needed is much less demanding.

2. Model-Based Definition (MBD) makes inroads. More companies are looking into and piloting the concept of a drawing-less, model-based enterprise (MBE). The technology to put product manufacturing information (PMI) directly on a 3D model is there, but corporate culture has to catch up. MBD is more of a people and process problem than a technology one.

3. Extended Reality (XR) becomes real. If you have a teenager in your house, you already know virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are the hottest entertainment technologies for youth. The expectation to experience products and processes in VR and AR will grow as our youth graduate school and tackle real-world challenges.

• • AI / Machine Learning in Construction: Autodesk anticipates the increased exploration and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered algorithms in construction, which already demonstrates significant benefits to the industry. In the year ahead, we will more regularly see AI and machine learning on the jobsite and as a result, more firms will realize its benefits to the construction workflow, saving companies time, money and, most importantly, increasing workers’ safety.

• • Background: Autodesk is the earliest developer of and investor in machine learning on construction sites with Autodesk BIM 360 Project IQ and Smartvid.io, respectively.  Using Autodesk BIM 360 Project IQ, more than 40 contractors report improved quality and reduced risk to personnel, specifically reducing risk of the ‘fatal four’.

Read the rest of Autodesk CEO’s 2019 Predictions – AI, M&A, Industrialized Construction, Oh My!

In 2017 and 2018 the biggest innovation I had seen was by far the amount of fiber lasers entering the industry.  In years past there was skepticism in our industry that fiber lasers wouldn’t take the place of C02.  However, this was proven wrong in these past few years.   Because of the speed of these new lasers; loading and unloading is now where sunk operational cost reside.

In 2019 and beyond, organizations will begin to utilize more automated load/unload solutions for parts and movement of parts throughout their facility.  It will be our job as software engineers to develop intelligent cost factors and solutions to guide such a transition.  When laser speed isn’t an issue, the speed of which parts move throughout the organization will be where shops start increasing profitability.  I believe the CAD/CAM and intelligent estimating solutions will need to develop intelligent cost calculations and route cost calculations to give clarity to the movement these parts.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – SecturaSOFT

Throughout the coming year simulation will continue to take on an even greater role as companies search for ways to become more innovative, leverage resources, and keep pace with accelerated product development cycles.  Consequently, the expanded use of advanced simulation tools beyond expert CAE analysts (i.e. the democratization of simulation) will become an even greater industry-wide priority.

Democratizing Simulation allows product engineering, manufacturing, and support organizations to more fully leverage their CAE investments and resources by allowing expert analysis to focus their time and expertise on high-priority simulations while allowing non-experts to perform basic (and even some advanced) CAE analysis.  The result of simulation-driven design will compress product development cycles and accelerate innovation with a measurable increase in product quality.

Read the rest of The Democratization of Simulation Movement Catches Fire – Revolutioninsimulation.org

The abundance of IoT devices are producing massive amounts of data on today’s factory floor. According to IHS Markit, the installed base of IoT devices will rise from 27B in 2017 to 73B by 2025, with manufacturing being a key industry driving IoT market growth. The number of connected devices in the manufacturing industry is expected to double between 2018 and 2020.

Automation is the backbone of manufacturing, so it’s no surprise that manufacturing is shaping the next industrial revolution, which is all about connectivity and processing (speed and precision of automation). IoT and smart devices are already increasing performance metrics of factories, boosting productivity by 40-60%, according to a recent study by MobiDev.

Read the rest of Edge IoT and 5G Will Transform Our World, Starting on the Factory Floor

I believe additive manufacturing will move from prototyping into full production in the automotive industry. 3D printing allows for faster innovation, flexible manufacturing, renovate supply chain, allowing for new markets and the ability to produce new parts in new ways that were not possible. I also believe that the cost of photopolymers will decrease to levels that are competitive with SLS and FDM thermoplastics, as well as more R&D dollars being spent by large material and chemical companies which formulate new materials for open platforms that will allow entirely new material chemistries to get to market.

Source: Fisher Unitech

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Fisher Unitech

CAD Visualization Technologies Drastically Increase in 2019

The rise of game engines as engineering & design tools

Game engines will play a larger role in the design and visualization of manufactured products. Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine are already making inroads to bring CAD data into the engine where advanced lighting, materials, cameras and scripted mechanics can simulate real-world environments. Real-time rendering enables huge time savings over traditional visualization and rendering processes, and allows the user experience to go virtual.

Increase in virtual product prototyping

Virtual prototyping is in many cases displacing processes of the past which required large, expensive models of cars, jets and even submarines to optimize product design. Virtual prototyping allows designers to visualize, walk around and even operate virtual models, giving them a multitude of tools to inspect and measure every square inch of the new design. Moreover, the design can be iterated as quickly as virtual components can be replaced. Generally speaking, the more iterations the design passes through, the better the design will be. Virtual prototyping promises lower development costs, increased optimization, and even the ability to market products before the expense of manufacturing is undertaken.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Transmagic

The advance of Industry 4.0 is encouraging new companies to enter the engineering software market to create new products that engage digital twins, connecting them to the material world. New players, as a rule, dedicate themselves to niches in which they possess the greatest competence and best strategic vision. Among the niches we are seeing are in the areas of generative design programs, collaboration tools, and additive manufacturing preprocessing software. In 2019, we will hear about even more of them, but will also witness more takeovers by the giants. Recall the recent acquisition of Frustum, a star of the new wave, by PTC.

Newcomers to the CAD community are impacting the mature market of software components – geometric kernels, data exchange tools, visualization engines, and so on – because they are looking for affordable components that integrate into their projects extremely quickly. In our digital era, go-to-market time is not measured in years, but in months and even weeks. Fortunately, the choice in geometric kernel now goes beyond ACIS or Parasolid. To provide functions such as geometric modeling, constraint solving, file conversion, and visualization, CAD software development firms can choose from the venerable CGM by Dassault Systemes, the completely new Kosmos kernel by Kubotek, and C3D Toolkit by C3D Labs.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – C3D Labs

1. Security and compliance issues will become an even bigger priority in 2019. With major data and privacy leaks seemingly happening every other week, more companies will follow IBM’s lead and ban employees from using portable USB or flash drives. A decade ago, very few companies had Chief Security Officers — the job title barely existed. Now companies will have to adopt some kind of agile security model to handle emerging threats.

2. As technology platforms for CAD systems continue to evolve, look for the first Augmented Reality CAD application in 2019 that is not just a viewer, but a brand new design platform where life-size 3D models can be created and edited in an engineer’s physical surroundings without a screen. Whether AR will transform the CAD world or just become a novelty is yet to be determined, but the technology is coming soon.

3. It will be inevitable that CPQ systems – configure price quote systems – will start to be adopted on a mainstream basis. Companies are demanding a better and faster way for their sales teams to help customers configure products to their specifications – and make sure that those configurations are manufacturable.

4. Mobile phone and robotics technology will continue to drive huge innovations in medical device design in the same way that the space program spun off new technologies that impacted multiple industries.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Onshape