I attend a number of technical and engineering conferences over the course of a year, primarily CAD or CAM related, with some CAE thrown in. Some of the events are good, some are not so good, and some are just a waste of time.

Right now I’m at a very interesting CAE event for the first time– Altair Engineering’s Hyperworks Technology Conference (HTC) 2010. From what I’ve experienced so far, I classify this event in the “good” category.

The event showcases its unique product and service offerings, as well as its diverse user base that represents the automotive, aerospace, defense, consumer electronics, and, medical device industries.

If you are not familiar with Altair Engineering, know that is one of the most significant players in design simulation and analysis with its Hyperworks technology whose product and service capabilities are available on a “pay as you go” basis. The plan is based on tokens purchased and used

As far as the industries represented goes, today’s presentations were slanted a bit toward the automotive industry with talks from Ford, Porsche, Michigan Solar Car customers, and GM, but that’s OK – we are in the Detroit area, after all.

I also spent some time with a couple folks involved with Altair’s industrial design tool, solidThinking. It’s a unique and very capable conceptual design tool that I will be spending hands-on time with over the next few weeks as the new version, 8.1, is due to ship in the near future.

This blog post provides just a brief overview of the conference, but I’ll be going into more detail on specifics of what I experienced and who I talked to in the next MCAD Weekly that publishes May 10, 2010.