“This new collaboration demonstrates Formula 1’s world commitment to innovation.”

WOKING SURREY, UK and VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, France, March 1st, 2011 – McLaren Racing, the operating arm of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team, and Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, are pleased to announce a new partnership to further enhance racing car development efficiency.

The agreement sees McLaren Racing committing to Dassault Systèmes’ open V6 PLM solutions for integrated design development, analysis and management. ENOVIA V6 forms McLaren Racing’s collaborative innovation backbone by providing a single IP reference for managing engineering, intellectual property and business processes.  CATIA V6 will be used for innovative design and concurrent engineering, enhancing McLaren’s development efficiency.

The deployment of Dassault Systèmes’ V6 solutions enables McLaren Racing’s team to benefit from one of the most sophisticated, open, flexible, secure and integrated PLM 2.0 software environments ever created. The scale, scope and speed of Formula 1 racing design means tens of thousands of new innovative designs and ideas each year.  Creating, developing and testing so many designs requires an efficient and trusted software environment to integrate and safely manage the considerable load of technical data and engineering simulation results. Dassault Systèmes’ V6 collaborative PLM solutions will play a vital role in helping streamline McLaren Racing’s processes, as well as promoting successful innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration from the initial concept to manufacturing and then to the racetrack itself.

“While it may look straightforward to guide a racing car from a 3D digital model to the racetrack, it’s a process that involves an extraordinarily complex and disparate series of interlocking design, purchasing and manufacturing constituents. At McLaren Racing, we are looking at every opportunity to cut our time to market – whether that’s through clever design, the introduction of improved processes or, in the case of V6 PLM, by introducing a sophisticated product lifecycle management system to improve efficiency throughout the production cycle,” said Jonathan Neale, McLaren Racing’s managing director. “Dassault Systèmes’ suite of software solutions has long been part of McLaren’s design DNA, and the introduction of CATIA V6 and ENOVIA V6 will only strengthen our hand, allowing us to work faster and more productively within one of the most competitive and relentless environments in the world.”

Dassault Systèmes CEO Bernard Charles commented, “By signing this important agreement with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes we are building a stronger partnership with a great Formula 1 team. This new collaboration demonstrates Formula 1’s world commitment to innovation. A formidable test bed for extreme reliable technologies that only Dassault Systèmes PLM 2.0 can provide. We wish Vodafone McLaren Mercedes the very best for the current race season and are proud of our involvement with such a prestigious and successful team”.

As one of CDC’s largest clients it gives us pleasure to show the progress and speed at which Optimal Energy has grown over the past year. Here is a press release stating their move forward into the future.

Optimal Energy, South African car manufacturer, will develop Joule, Africa’s first battery-powered vehicle, with the V6 solutions from Dassault Systèmes.

Optimal Energy will rely on CATIA and ENOVIA V6 for product design and data management. As well as ENOVIA 3DLIVE, to overcome the distance relationship of suppliers and partners and to be able to collaborate on the same model in real time over the Internet.

Click here to read the full story…

BMW signs up for 5 year Catia & Simulia deal for Sustainability and the V6 shift

Dassault Systemes has announced that BMW has signed a strategic 5-year global agreement to “pave the way to meet the automotive market’s new challenges.” According to the press release, “Through this agreement, the companies will establish a close link between their research & development centers that will not only improve the DS automotive product offering but also the BMW development and production process. Dassault Systemes software solutions support BMW in core areas for design and manufacturing process planning with Catia as the backbone for product development.”

The necessity to reduce C02 emission levels has forced automotive manufacturers to reshape their business processes to deliver greener cars. Fully embracing the cause of leaving a minimum carbon footprint on the planet, the implementation of the DS solutions will help automakers conceive, analyze and simulate eco-friendly low-emission vehicles like the Project I, a new Megacity vehicle, optimized for better performance and low energy consumption.

The BMW Concept ActiveE is powered by a new synchronous electric motor specially developed for this vehicle. Its maximum output is 125 kW/170 bhp, the maximum torque of 250 Nm / 184 lb-ft is available from standing as is typical for electric motors and remains available over an unusually broad load range.

The release also gave details of what BMW would be using:

By consolidating design in a single PLM software platform BMW can tap into “proven design” concepts and re-use them across all product lines achieving time savings in the design and manufacturing of new cars. The single platform also enables all designers, including development partners in the supply chain, to collaborate, which is another factor in streamlining the design process. Simulia realistic simulation solutions combined with Catia further allow BMW to virtually test their vehicle’s real-world performance early in the development cycle which helps improve product quality, while reducing time and cost of physical testing.

What’s also a small note in the press release is that:

“The agreement also defines a set of strategic projects where BMW will evaluate possible migration paths that ensure a smooth transition to Dassault Systèmes V6 PLM solutions for all its vehicle development programs.”

BMW already use Catia V5 and have been a flagship user for many years. This Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) that’s integrated in exhaust gas recirculation systems is typical.

There are many rumours and tales of unhappiness amongst many Dassault customers with the introduction of V6 – in both the small and very large account, with some major customers allegedly looking at a shift in platform for their product development. This shows that for some, and BMW have been a key account for DS for decades, the decision has already been made and the transition is a part of their long term strategy.

Our Engineers have been to courses in the UK and we at CDC are now proud to be certified to sell you the latest technology and thinking on the market today. V6 is the future in technology and will help your business manage you data more efficiently, collaborate and communicate more effieciently as well as bring your business together from design, to sales, to production and through to your executives needing a top down view of happenings in the company.

ENOVIA V6 a PLM Platform to Global Collaboration

Companies implementing a global engineering and manufacturing strategy are taking a hard look at how everyone, regardless of location or status, can collaborate across their PLM business processes. To solve this issue, ENOVIA V6 introduces the concept of “PLM online for all” that helps harness collective intelligence from business units, suppliers, and customers. This vision of “PLM online for all” is enabled in V6 by means of Web technologies. 

ENOVIA V6 is based on the Web technology principle of a n-tier architecture.  There are three primary tiers to the logical architecture, namely: data, application and presentation.  The data tier holds the application data (ENOVIA Database Server) and files (ENOVIA File Collaboration Server).  The application data acts as a single source of truth for all the information relevant to ENOVIA.  The second tier is the application tier, which handles the business logic and access to the database.  Last is the presentation tier where ENOVIA V6 is delivered to the user, over the Web.

A significant challenge in global collaboration is file access across multiple regions and continents due to the high bandwidth requirements for large files (like CAD data).  This is addressed in ENOVIA V6 through the use of the ENOVIA File Collaboration Server (FCS) architecture.  ENOVIA FCS allows a customer to deploy file servers closer to end users (ideally on their LAN, or high-speed WAN) for improved file transfer performance.  All the communication between the file server and the system or user (browser) is done securely through HTTPS.  The ENOVIA system automatically replicates files across file servers if the file at a local server is outdated.  This replication can occur on-the-fly as a user performs a download operation, or can be initiated proactively using background scripts.

The ENOVIA V6 engine identifies the location of the file and targeted FCS based on the mapping between the content being transferred, and the user’s default site configured in the system. For example, when Steve from London is trying to Check In a CAD file; the system knows to upload the file to the Bristol server close to Steve’s default site.  Alternately, if he is checking in a Microsoft Word document related to a project, the file would get Checked In to the Cambridge server location.

There are inherent advantages to a n-tier architecture as it is able to scale based on business needs.  Companies can start with a minimal setup with a single site and then grow into a multi-site environment with minimal changes to the ENOVIA V6 configuration.  With the use of Web architecture, product creation and collaboration is enabled for real-time, concurrent work across multiple remote locations with only a Web connection.  So a new employee in South Africa can access the ENOVIA V6 application hosted in New York and seamlessly start to collaborate with other employees and suppliers on different aspects of product design.

V6 n-tier architecture indeed delivers multiple benefits to the customer with secure global collaboration, scalability, enhanced file collaboration and system performance.  Please contact us for more information on ENOVIA V6.