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Product category: PLM and collaboration software
News Release from: Siemens PLM Software
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 04 March 2005

Software alliance targets
electromechanical design

UGS has signed a joint co-operation agreement with Mentor Graphics' Integrated Electrical Systems Division to deliver tight interoperability between the two companies' software solutions.

UGS has signed a joint co-operation agreement with Mentor Graphics' Integrated Electrical Systems Division (IESD) to deliver tight interoperability between the two companies' software solutions The agreement will result in a joint solution designed to significantly enhance the development and lifecycle management process for manufactured products employing electromechanical or "mechatronic" subsystems - a broad and growing segment of the market that includes household appliances, cellphones, personal computers, automobiles, aircraft, industrial machinery, medical equipment and satellites

The agreement announced today builds on an already strong existing relationship between UGS and Mentor Graphics - a Foundation Partner within the global UGS Partner Programme.

Mechatronics is an increasingly important and complex part of a product's lifecycle.

The mechatronics process includes the synergistic design and lifecycle management of integrated mechanical and electronic components along with the embedded software that controls these systems.

The computer-aided design (CAD) software used by the engineers developing the mechanical aspects of these systems is typically different from the design software used by those working on the electronic side.

Users of these MCAD and ECAD software solutions have difficulty sharing design data as well as managing the close relationships between their highly interdependent designs.

Furthermore, most product data management applications are unable to maintain a relationship between a mechatronic system's physical design and its embedded control software.

As a result, product development costs increase and time to market is delayed.

"The effective and efficient development and management of complex electro-mechanical products over their entire lifecycles represents an increasing challenge for all manufacturers and their suppliers", said Martin O'Brien, General Manager of Mentor Graphics Integrated Electrical Systems Division.

"Mentor and UGS recognise that providing integrated applications within our customers' electromechanical design environments will enable the viewing and managing of a complete bill-of-material - both mechanical and electrical - and create much better interaction between the two design domains".

"This will allow early exploration of system architectures thereby significantly reducing design errors and development cost".

Both UGS and Mentor Graphics IESD have been investing resources to develop tight integration between their software applications.

Teamcentre (UGS' product knowledge management and collaboration) and NX (UGS' digital product development) software solutions will offer bidirectional interoperability with Mentor Graphics' Capital Harness Systems (CHS) product suite, a comprehensive end-to-end software toolset for the design, analysis, engineering and production of complicated electrical interconnect systems.

The joint solution will leverage the skills, data, knowledge and experience of a customer's extended enterprise, enabling companies to work collaboratively across every stage of the electromechanical product lifecycle.

The integration of UGS' product development and information management applications with Mentor Graphic's CHS electrical design-build software flow will serve to remove many of the technological and infrastructure barriers that have traditionally separated the mechanical and electrical design disciplines and hindered the mechatronics process.

This should create value for customers as it addresses the requirement for synergy and collaboration between these highly interdependent disciplines.

The signing of this agreement represents a milestone in cooperation between leading vendors from the electrical design, mechanical design and PLM domains.

UGS and Mentor Graphics IESD have been working closely together to understand customers' mechatronics needs and to bring enhanced value to this process.

"UGS' focus on mechatronics is a key growth initiative for the company and our agreement with Mentor Graphics IESD is an important step in demonstrating our commitment to this initiative", said Don Vossler, UGS Fellow and General Manager of the UGS Mechatronics Initiative.

"The joint solution resulting from this agreement will be a key enabler of electro-mechanical co-design supported within a company's PLM backbone and will therefore affect the entire mechatronics process, providing comprehensive design and management of the customer's complete product".

UGS and Mentor Graphics IESD plan to deliver the first stage of their integrated solution in the second half of 2005.

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