Accelerating CAE innovation in the cloud era

The shift toward cloud-based CAE represents a massive adjustment in the way manufacturers approach simulation. Hexagon offers an end-to-end solution for noise, vibration and harshness analysis with tools that allow engineers to optimize the structural behaviour (vibrations), encapsulate noise sources (acoustic materials) and reduce the emission levels of the powertrain (gears and bearings) (Credit: Hexagon)

In the early days of the Apollo space program, computer-aided engineering (CAE) was a groundbreaking tool for simulating the complex physics of space travel. Fast forward to today, and CAE has become a cornerstone of product development, allowing manufacturers to test and validate their designs in the virtual world before investing in physical prototypes.

But the role and contribution of CAE in industry is changing. As technology continues advancing, a new era of innovation is emerging, fueled by the power and versatility of cloud computing. This shift is poised to revolutionize the way manufacturers think about and use simulation in their product development process. With cloud-based CAE, companies of all sizes—from small startups to global enterprises—can tap into the full potential of simulation like never before. It will open new possibilities, drive innovation and ultimately help businesses create better products faster and more efficiently.

The challenges of traditional CAE

There are clearly understood time and cost benefits of simulation in many areas over physical tests. But the high costs and complexities of setting up the simulation compute infrastructure within organizations have limited its use. Specifically, access to the high-performance computing systems needed to run high-fidelity, complex simulations—or to conduct larger-scale exploration studies—is limited by the availability of powerful compute infrastructure and the required software licenses.

Smaller companies (especially those with ten or fewer employees) are at a distinct disadvantage. They are facing strong limitations on what they can simulate, prohibiting them from performing any simulations demanding computing capacities not available to them because they typically lack the necessary hardware and infrastructure to run complex simulations effectively.

The potential of cloud computing

The shift toward cloud-based CAE represents a massive adjustment in the way manufacturers approach simulation. By moving away from perpetual licenses and embracing flexible, consumption-based SaaS models deployed on state-of-the-art cloud HPC infrastructure, every company can now access the latest tools and virtually unlimited computing power on demand.

This transformation allows organizations to dynamically scale their simulation capacity, run multiple complex simulations in parallel, and explore design spaces more efficiently than ever before. For example, Hexagon’s Nexus Compute shows how cloud-based CAE solutions are empowering manufacturers to push the boundaries of what’s possible with simulation. With a solution like Nexus Compute, customers don’t need to plan their exact CPU and license needs years in advance—they can react on the fly to additional demands. And by running multiple simulations simultaneously, they can now explore the design space in ways that weren’t practical when limited to single-point runs.

From capital expense to operational expense

From a business perspective, cloud computing allows organizations to transition CAE from an expert-focused, capital-intensive process to one that is more operationally streamlined and accessible across the enterprise.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) opens the door to more simulations, allowing companies to explore more complex designs. Combined with on-demand cloud HPC, this opens exciting new business opportunities, especially for small engineering consulting firms that couldn’t previously afford to invest in simulation infrastructure. But even large companies with extensive compute capacities can expand their use of simulation, particularly in design exploration, which typically requires a significant number of simulations.

(Credit: Hexagon)

SaaS—the new normal

The traditional model of annual software licenses tied to on-premises hardware will eventually become obsolete. Manufacturers want the flexibility to access the latest CAE tools and computing power on-demand without major upfront investments or complex IT overhead.

Hexagon’s journey from on-premises perpetual software to cloud SaaS mirrors the overall shift in design and engineering software. We aren’t alone in this transition—all serious CAE and product lifecycle management (PLM) vendors are racing to build out cloud offerings to meet customer needs and remain competitive.

Computational scalability enables more realistic simulations

The move to cloud CAE is about more than individual features and performance metrics; it highlights a fundamental shift in how manufacturers approach product development.

As customers’ needs have grown more sophisticated, so too have their simulation models. What started as simple models with just a few thousand unknowns have evolved into highly detailed representations with millions or even hundreds of millions of variables.

With finer, more detailed simulations can achieve greater accuracy, improving their representation of real-world behaviour.

Capturing more physics and exploring the design space

Larger, more complex models mean that organizations can simulate more physics and handle more calculations. But that isn’t all; these updated models let customers incorporate more intricate, realistic physical behaviors into their simulations, such as higher-fidelity material and part interaction behaviours, non-linear phenomena and multi-physics coupled simulation. In the past, many of these complex phenomena were either simplified or left out entirely to make the simulations possible on limited computing hardware.

It is not just about model fidelity; with unlimited resources, it now also becomes possible to simulate more variations, broadening the view on different designs or different scenarios/events. This enables much more rigorous assessment, which is particularly crucial as products become smarter and the number of different scenarios/events to be assessed increases.

For example, a self-driving car can encounter an almost infinite number of scenarios that are hard to predict in advance. By simulating the mechanics of a self-driving car, customers can understand more realistic car behaviors. running more simulations, customers can thoroughly validate their designs and ensure the product performs well in all these diverse scenarios.

Cloud computing provides virtually unlimited power, allowing engineers to explore various design options efficiently. They can use advanced techniques like Design of Experiments (DOE), simultaneously changing multiple input variables across hundreds or thousands of simulations. This empowers them to systematically analyze how sensitive the product’s performance is to the development of the smart behavior of a design as well as different design choices—or, in other words, they can see how much the product’s behavior changes when they alter specific design elements. By running multiple simulations with varying inputs, engineers can fine-tune their designs and make informed decisions to optimize the product’s performance.

An expanding ecosystem for digital twins

Looking ahead, we believe the future of CAE is not bound to the development phase of a product but will expand into the world of connected digital twins that fuse real-world sensor data with engineering simulations to optimize product performance and sustainability across the entire lifecycle.

As manufacturers embrace the cloud and its near-unlimited computing power, they’ll be able to conduct extensive simulation studies not only on the nominal design (as in the development phase) but with concrete instances of digital twins in operation. AI/ML will fuel the adoption of CAE in the digital twin, as AI/ML will allow industries to directly build models from simulations that provide the predictive capabilities to better maintain and operate products. This will form the foundation for a new era of a data-driven, intelligent product development life cycle as we expand beyond development.

Simulation democratization

The potential impact of cloud CAE goes beyond simply making existing simulation workflows faster or more cost-effective. Radically improving the simulation’s accessibility, scalability, and efficiency can change how products are designed and who is involved in the process.

For example, in the next five years, we predict any simulation process Hexagon offers will have artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) components for design space exploration and building predictive reduced-order models. And this democratization of CAE has major implications.

Specialist CAE analysts will always play a vital role, but we see a future where simulation becomes a more integral part of the engineer’s toolkit from the earliest design stages. Embedded AI/ML will guide users to optimal designs and automate tedious pre- and post-processing. Digital twins will blur the lines between virtual and physical, allowing engineers to make continuous improvements to products in the field.

Embracing the future

The advent of cloud computing in the CAE industry represents a transformative shift that will redefine how manufacturers approach product development. As technology progresses and cloud-based CAE gains traction, the question is not if but when companies will fully embrace its power and potential.

Its benefits are clear: increased accessibility, scalability and flexibility that allow companies of all sizes to leverage advanced simulation capabilities and drive innovation like never before. The cloud is breaking down the barriers to entry and democratizing access to cutting-edge tools and virtually unlimited computing power. This is leveling the playing field and ushering in a new era of collaboration and discovery.

But this transformation’s impact extends far beyond the realm of simulation. As manufacturers harness the power of the cloud to optimize their product development processes, they’ll be better positioned to create more innovative, high-quality products that meet customers’ evolving needs. With the continued integration of AI, machine learning, and digital twin technology, the possibilities for what can be achieved with cloud-based CAE are truly limitless.

The future of CAE is in the cloud—and it’s a future that holds immense promise for those who are ready to seize it. By embracing this shift and adapting to the new reality of cloud-based simulation, manufacturers will position themselves at the forefront of innovation, poised to deliver cutting-edge products that exceed customer expectations and drive business growth.

Michael Schlenkrich and Hugues Jeancolas are with Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence.