Designer service and software
Collaboration and customisation are imperative when it comes to software as teams look to find ways to work better together. We look at some of the new services and software offerings available to help achieve those goals no matter the industry or sector they operate in.
NBS >
NBS Chorus Designer
Leading construction data platform NBS has launched a cost-effective subscription option for its specification platform, NBS Chorus. Created for use by the wider project team, NBS Chorus Designer will help firms and organisations increase the number of user permissions that can view design models whilst still controlling access permissions on specification editing control – all at a reduced price.
The new offering will help firms meet the demand for licences during busy time periods – allowing chosen ‘specification writers’ to continue developing technical content, whilst still permitting other project members to research, view specifications and annotate the model.
Dr Stephen Hamil, Innovations Director at NBS, said: “Our new NBS Chorus Designer subscription has been born out of demand – architectural and engineering firms are finding that they need more licences on the platform but not always for the reason of writing specifications. By providing this alternative, practices get the best of both worlds – designers can still access all the right information when they need it most, but without the price tag of a fully-fledged NBS Chorus licence.
"NBS Chorus Designer helps firms increase licence access and improve collaboration on design specifications."
“Given the technical expertise needed to develop specifications, we’ve been careful to avoid any risk when it comes to access control. We understand the need for designated responsibility, which is why Chorus for Designers will have ‘reader’ access only – meaning these team members will be unable to edit clause content, apply updates to content, or add additional clauses into the specification.”
By providing companies with Chorus Designer, it’s hoped that practices will be better able to manage workflows at a lower cost per head, improving levels of collaboration across teams when all specification writer seats are ‘taken’.
Hamil continued: “Our NBS Chorus platform continues to go from strength to strength and it is now an essential tool for the majority of the UK’s leading design practices. The introduction of Chorus Designer is another example of continuous improvement and innovation from NBS. With more Chorus users than ever, the platform is helping to produce more efficient, and more accurate documentation for better project outcomes.”
More information about Chorus Designer can be found here.
Hexagon >
Elements
Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence division has introduced Elements, new simulation software that helps engineering teams understand the behaviour of systems that are becoming increasingly complex in modern products. Using the software, teams can evaluate the performance and feasibility of new design concepts quickly for more efficient product development and reduce risk and cost.
Elements addresses the growing importance of integrated, multi-disciplinary system development and end-to-end workflows. Customers in every industry are demanding technologies that consider many physics domains and tackle mechatronics challenges, fuelling a growing trend towards system-level engineering. Achieving this requires the integration of all relevant engineering disciplines, control systems, and third-party supplier systems to understand how the domains interact, and how a design decision in one discipline impacts others.
Systems engineers can easily learn to use the Elements software, using its drag-and-drop environment to model any physics type or logic and analyse systems by intuitively connecting blocks – regardless of whether they represent electrical, hydraulic, mechanical components – to solve system-level engineering problems.
Systems modelling is indispensable in the early design phases because little information is required – often a CAD model, equation, or lookup table is sufficient and a 3D mesh is not required. Elements further speeds up engineering development because it also ensures that system-level models compute quickly and efficiently by optimising equations and code for fast calculation, but with no loss of fidelity.
As the design develops, and components and subsystems are detailed in specialist simulation software, the components can be routinely integrated into a larger system through full compliance with the FMI standard and Hexagon's proprietary SmartFMU technology. SmartFMU unlocks the Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) for supported Hexagon products so that changes can be made directly in the Elements system-level model without having to go back to the specialist Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software and its expert user. This helps to avoid resource bottlenecks, time-consuming switching between applications, and versioning problems.
"Elements addresses the growing importance of integrated, multi-disciplinary system development and end-to-end workflows."
Systems engineers can easily learn to use the Elements software, using its drag-and-drop environment to model any physics type or logic and analyse systems by intuitively connecting blocks – regardless of whether they represent electrical, hydraulic, mechanical components – to solve system-level engineering problems.
Systems modelling is indispensable in the early design phases because little information is required – often a CAD model, equation, or lookup table is sufficient and a 3D mesh is not required. Elements further speeds up engineering development because it also ensures that system-level models compute quickly and efficiently by optimising equations and code for fast calculation, but with no loss of fidelity.
As the design develops, and components and subsystems are detailed in specialist simulation software, the components can be routinely integrated into a larger system through full compliance with the FMI standard and Hexagon's proprietary SmartFMU technology. SmartFMU unlocks the Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) for supported Hexagon products so that changes can be made directly in the Elements system-level model without having to go back to the specialist Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software and its expert user. This helps to avoid resource bottlenecks, time-consuming switching between applications, and versioning problems.
Elements was developed in close cooperation with Maplesoft, building upon its maths engine to optimise system equations and deliver fast efficient simulation to Hexagon's customers. Chris Harduwar, VP of Strategic Solutions at Maplesoft, commented: "We are excited to begin this long-term collaboration with Hexagon, which has an impressive vision and track record of innovation. By combining the tried-and-tested Maplesoft system-level modelling technology with the extensive Hexagon CAE portfolio, engineers in many industries benefit from new productivity-boosting solutions that significantly reduce simulation effort."
Mahesh Kailasam, General Manager for Design and Engineering Software at Hexagon, commented: "Elements offers engineers an easy way to explore behaviour of systems quickly and find better solutions to problems using simulation, before committing designs to subsequent resource-intensive engineering processes. We look forward to a long-term collaboration with Maplesoft, using its powerful and open technology foundations to realise synergies with our extensive Hexagon CAE ecosystem portfolio and deliver valuable capabilities to our customers."
North Labs >
Data Concierge
North Labs, a cloud-native data analytics consulting firm, is revolutionising the way organisations tackle data modernisation with their newly launched managed service, Data Concierge.
Data Concierge is an ongoing technology-enabled managed service designed to help organisations succeed on their data maturity journey. When organisations partner with North Labs, they receive an entire fractional data team to handle the design, build, and ongoing support of their data environment for a predictable monthly cost. North Labs' Data Concierge Hub also provides complete observability, monitoring and automation for the ongoing well-being of customer environments.
Unlike building an internal data program from scratch which requires an extensive amount of time, resources, and expertise, Data Concierge gives companies access to end-to-end data architecture, engineering, operations, analytics and tooling support for a transparent monthly cost.
"Data Concierge gives companies access to end-to-end data architecture, engineering, operations, analytics and tooling support for a transparent monthly cost."
“Organisations are having trouble moving beyond the initial stages of their data modernisation efforts and are forced to spend upwards of 90% of their time on the care and feeding of their environment, as opposed to actually delivering ROI to the organisation,” says Collin Graves, Founder and CEO of North Labs. “We knew we needed a way for North Labs to deliver our prescriptive approach to building data systems in an easily consumable and cost-effective manner to the market. North Labs has made this attainable to small and mid-size businesses through Data Concierge, no matter where they are on their data modernisation journey.”