Version 3.1 of integration software supports more effective sharing of materials knowledge

Cambridge, UK – June 22, 2015 - Granta Design today announced Version 3.1 of the  MI:Materials Gateway™ software, further enhancing access to vital materials data within Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE). New features ensure that materials choices specified in CAD can be easily accessed in the CAE environment, enabling analysts to quickly identify the correct material models for simulation, ensuring consistency, and supporting collaboration between product design and simulation departments. This interoperability is supported from leading CAD systems, including CATIA®, Creo®, Autodesk Inventor®, and NX®, to CAE software such as Abaqus/CAE®, ANSYS Workbench®, HyperMesh®, and NX CAE®. The new software is being demonstrated for the first time at this week’s NAFEMS World Congress in San Diego, CA.

Designers and engineers need materials property data to inform decisions about which materials to specify in their products, and to enable performance analysis through simulation. But reliable, approved data is often difficult to obtain, slowing the process down and limiting accuracy. Even materials data that already exists within a company may not be easily available, resulting in wasted time and inconsistencies.  GRANTA MI™ is the leading system for materials information management in engineering enterprises, solving these problems by capturing all corporate materials data in one place and making it available, in a controlled manner, to the engineers that need it. GRANTA MI:Materials Gateway is the technology that provides direct access to data stored in GRANTA MI from within CAD, CAE, and PLM software.

MI:Materials Gateway 3.1 further enhances the ability to share materials knowledge effectively between product development functions. CAD users who have identified materials in a GRANTA MI database and assigned them to parts in their design can now interchange these materials assignments with CAE users, who can immediately find applicable CAE materials models for use in simulation. Usability improvements (e.g., finding and applying models for multiple materials simultaneously) further speed up this process.

CAE analysts save time, because they can more quickly find and assign the right materials models. CAE validity is enhanced, giving confidence that the simulation will accurately represent the design intent. And GRANTA MI:Materials Gateway also ensures traceability—materials assigned in CAD and CAE retain links  to the central ‘live’ database, so it is easy to audit what has been done, or to access GRANTA MI if further data about the material is required (e.g., on applicable processes, related substance restrictions, or materials sourcing), and to enable updating of models whenever new property data becomes available.

“Version 3.1 continues the fast pace of development for MI:Materials Gateway, in close collaboration with our customers and leading vendors of CAD, CAE, and PLM,” comments Dr Arthur Fairfull, Director of Strategic Product Initiatives at Granta. “Already in its third generation, this unique technology ensures a single view of company materials data across these systems. Now it’s even easier to share the resulting knowledge and traceability.”

About Granta Design Ltd

Granta are the materials information technology experts.  The company develops market leading software for managing materials and process information in engineering enterprises, and a series of tools for applying that data to key materials and product design decisions.  Granta serves sectors as diverse as aerospace, defense, energy, medical devices, automotive, motorsports, manufacture of consumer and industrial equipment, materials production, and publishing. Customers realize multi-million dollar benefits in reduced cost, enhanced product performance, improved quality, and faster design turnaround.

Granta was founded in 1994 as a spinout from the University of Cambridge and the work of Professors Mike Ashby and David Cebon.  For further information go on line to www.grantadesign.com.


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Stephen Warde
Vice President, Marketing 
Granta Design Limited
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