ICE-Flow GlyphWorks Adds Python Scripting Language
nCode International, a leading developer of data analysis software, data acquisition systems and durability solutions, has released the latest update release of ICE-flow GlyphWorks, including the introduction of a 'GlyphBuilder' capability which uses the Python scripting language. This provides a unique way for users to add specific or proprietary methods into an "off-the shelf" analysis framework and effectively opens up GlyphWorks to a whole range of applications.
ICE-flow GlyphWorks data analysis software provides a graphical, process-oriented environment that enables engineers to rapidly extract useful information from vast amounts of measured data. Complete multi-step analysis processes can be easily created using individual function building blocks called 'glyphs'. The new GlyphBuilder capability provides a Scripting glyph which enables users to now program their own glyphs using Python.
GlyphWorks customers include many of the world's major automotive and aerospace manufacturers such as Ford Motor Company, PSA Peugeot Citroën and Lockheed Martin, who require the ability to process large amounts of test data. These companies often have proprietary analysis methods that cannot be included in a commercial software product. This new scripting capability enables them to cost-effectively retain the knowledge in-house while gaining the productivity benefits of using a standard analysis tool such as GlyphWorks. Other applications include the ability to add support for new or unusual file formats or accessing other third party tools.
Python is a powerful object-oriented programming language that is developed and maintained by a global community of open source developers. The language is the basis of applications used by tens of thousands of companies and organizations worldwide including, Google and NASA, and used in other engineering products such as ABAQUS. Python developers can easily take advantage of the graphical environment of GlyphWorks for visualizing and reporting engineering data including 3D displays and mapping of GPS data.
"The Scripting glyph in ICE-flow GlyphWorks empowers new customer specific functionality," says Jon Aldred, ICE-flow GlyphWorks Product Manager. "The Scripting glyph allows GlyphWorks users to rapidly build custom functions - and to incorporate these in GlyphWorks processes. The scripting capability truly unleashes the power of GlyphWorks and we expect this functionality to be rapidly adopted. Python provides an excellent choice for scripting because of its ease of use and wide acceptance in many industries including engineering."
The Scripting glyph is available for Windows 32-bit platforms in the ICE-flow 4.1 ISR3 update release and will be available across all platforms at the next major release in Spring 2008.
To learn more about the Scripting glyph visit www.ncode.com or to view a pre-recorded webinar, Create Your Own Glyphs with Python, visit www.ncode.com/WebinarDetail.aspx?webinar_id=40.
Autodesk CEO Says Competitive Advantage Can Be Won Through Design
Describing how companies use better design to gain competitive advantage, Autodesk, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Carl Bass said, “Design is more important than ever. Ruthless commoditization means designers of all kinds – architects, manufacturers, filmmakers, game developers, and engineers -- must differentiate themselves with great ideas to better compete in the global economy.”
Designers are using powerful design innovation technology to create digital models and interconnected workflow to see how an idea looks and performs. They can to explore alternatives, make early improvements and find new ideas, faster and more cheaply than ever before. “It’s no longer enough to focus solely on aesthetics,” said Bass.
Designing in 3D is changing the way design is done across many industries. Digital models, rather than physical prototypes, serve a more valuable function by representing a project in all its complexity. “Autodesk is in the business of creating disruptive echnologies,” said Autodesk Chief Technology Officer Jeff Kowalski. “3D modeling technologies help customers understand their designs as if they were real. This interactive and collaborative experience is why design is such an exciting field, allowing people to do things that were not possible even a few years ago.”
Contact www.autodesk.com
Voltaire Switches Included in New PNNL Supercomputer Dedicated to Accelerating Environmental Science Research
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will use Voltaire’s Grid Backbone switching solutions as part of a new high-performance computing (HPC) system from HP, designed to accelerate research discovery in environmental molecular sciences. This represents a multimillion dollar deal for Voltaire for planned delivery in 2008.
“This supercomputer will aid in furthering EMSL’s mission to use scientific computing to develop a molecular-level understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes that underlie the most critical environmental issues facing the DOE,” said Kevin Regimbal, associate director for Enabling Technologies at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.
The supercomputer will be located in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a Department of Energy (DOE) national scientific user facility located at the PNNL in Richland, Wash. It will be used for research projects related to bioremediation, energy production and environmental clean-up. The system’s scalable design uses Voltaire InfiniBand-based switches as the high-performance interconnect to allow scientists to run more complex problems and obtain faster and more accurate results.
The supercomputer is composed of HP ProLiant servers interconnected with sixteen Voltaire Grid Director 2012 InfiniBand switches, which deliver 20 Gigabits/second or Double Data Rate (DDR) bandwidth and very low latency. Consisting of 18,480 2.2 gigahertz AMD processor cores, the supercomputer will have an expected total peak performance of about 163 teraflops, making it one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
“We are delighted to work with PNNL to help them improve and expedite their research in environmental sciences,” said Peter Waxman, vice president of sales, Americas at Voltaire. “Voltaire’s 20 Gigabits/second InfiniBand switches bring heightened levels of bandwidth and performance to PNNL’s system enabling them to run more complex calculations faster and with greater efficiency.”
“HP has a strong and successful relationship with Voltaire to deliver Voltaire's InfiniBand-based switches and software within HP's Unified Cluster Portfolio,” said Ed Turkel, manager of the product and technology marketing group for the High-Performance Computing (HPC) Division at HP. “Voltaire’s solutions have enabled HP to deploy scalable, reliable, InfiniBand clusters across a broad performance range, including a number of very large systems such as this deployment at PNNL.”
The system is expected to be delivered and tested in two phases starting in Q1 2008 and is expected to be fully operational in eptember 2008.
Contact www.voltaire.com
CSC Wins $113 Million NASA Task Order
Computer Sciences Corporation has won a task order to provide supercomputing support services to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Awarded under the General Services Administration Millennia contract, the estimated value of the five-year task order is $113 million.
Under the terms of the task order, CSC will provide supercomputing systems integration services to the NASA Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS), the high performance scientific computing facility that is operated, maintained and managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center's Computational and Information Sciences & Technology Office.
“CSC is pleased to continue our 40-year relationship with NASA in providing key computing services that are essential to the success of NASA’s missions and programs,” said James W. Sheaffer, president of CSC’s North American Public Sector business unit.
The NCCS mission is to provide scientists and engineers with the supercomputing resources and simulation tools needed to carry out critical NASA missions and to make new scientific discoveries for the benefit of humankind.
Computer Sciences Corporation is a leading global information technology (IT) services company. CSC’s mission is to provide
customers in industry and government with solutions crafted to meet their specific challenges and enable them to profit from the advanced use of technology.
Contact www.csc.com
National Instruments Introduces the LabVIEW 8.5 Control Design and Simulation Module
 National Instruments has released the NI LabVIEW 8.5 Control Design and Simulation Module, an extension of the LabVIEW graphical system design platform that helps engineers and scientists analyze open-loop model behavior, design closed-loop controllers, simulate systems and create real-time implementations. The latest version of the module introduces new design features such as analytical proportional integral derivative (PID) for improving system closed-loop stability and model predictive control to multivariable systems. The LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module also offers expanded support of LabVIEW MathScript with the addition of 18 new .m file functions to simplify such tasks as creating models, defining how models are connected and analyzing system stability.
“The LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module significantly reduced the time it took us to develop the dynamic positioning on a split hopper vessel,” said Miguel Taboada, control engineer with SEAPLACE, an offshore and naval engineering company in Madrid, Spain. “The module made it easy for us to simulate our different control algorithms and test the code without the use of any hardware. When we achieved the results we wanted in simulation, we were able to reuse the graphical code created with the module and deploy it to real hardware and debug it – all within a single day.”
A new time-saving feature in the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module is analytical PID capability. Historically, engineers and scientists have identified the proper PID controller gain values by experimentally tuning their controllers. The analytical PID feature provides engineers and scientists with functions to find sets of PID gain values automatically for a given system model, making it easy for them to avoid undesired behavior at design time and improve system stability.
The latest version of the module also includes model predictive control (MPC), a popular algorithm used in industry to control multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems in complex process control applications. Engineers and scientists can use the MPC feature to construct controllers that adjust the control action before a change in the output setpoint actually occurs. This ability to predict model behavior combined with traditional feedback helps the controller make smoother adjustments that are closer to the optimal control action values.
“Model predictive control is a valuable technique for industry that may not be so accessible to engineers unfamiliar with text-based programming,” said Michael Grimble, technical director of ISC Ltd. and professor of industrial systems at the Industrial Control Centre at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. “By adding MPC functionality in the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module, National Instruments is providing a very intuitive tool with a simple real-time implementation interface. This should deliver tremendous benefits to engineers performing process control or machine control applications in industries such as automotive and aerospace, and even in academia where predicting model behavior is often a crucial step when developing advanced controls.”
The LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module easily integrates with NI software tools such as the LabVIEW Statechart Module for event-based control design or simulation and the LabVIEW Real-Time Module for rapid control prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop applications as well as system deployment. Engineers and scientists also can combine the module with the LabVIEW System Identification Toolkit and NI I/O devices to develop reliable measurement-based controllers.
Readers can visit www.ni.com/embeddedcontrol for more information on the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module.
2008 Winter Release of EnSight
Computational Engineering International’s latest version of EnSight, the company’s extreme visualization software, is now available and is being called the EnSight 2008 Winter Release.
The Winter Release includes several new additions to the powerful visualization product; an option to add CAD file importers to access native CAD files without the use of the original CAD system, a new FLUENT direct interface, and the introduction of Chameleon Mode, a technique to modify the graphical user interface (GUI) to suit each user’s specific needs.
The CAD readers now offered include CATIA V5, CATIA V4, IGES, Parasolid. Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, STEP, Unigraphics, and ACIS. CEI has leveraged technology from CAD market leader, Dassault Systemes’ Spatial, to ensure the quality of CAD file conversion.
The new FLUENT direct data reader improves the speed, robustness, and capability of the previous reader. With the new FLUENT beta reader we have added faster data loading; SOS support for large models and distributed computations; and convenience specifically related to quickly uncompressing zipped files, availability of a list of variables for parts, and the ability to load a single part.
Chameleon Mode allows users of EnSight to develop their own GUI with the ability to switch from the standard EnSight GUI to a custom GUI directly within EnSight.
Contact www.ensight.com
Webcom Presents Multiple Industries Patent Workshop
~ at the 2008 Magnetics Conference in Denver, Colo., May 14, 2008~
Half Day Workshop: Intellectual Property Issues for New Product Development
May 14, 2008 (1 p.m. to 5 p.m.) - Beverages and Course Materials Provided
The workshop will start with an overview of the various types of intellectual property, including patents, trademark, copyrights, trade secrets, non-competes and publishing. It will feature a detailed discussion of patents, including type of patents, what is patentable, patent laws and rules, the patenting process and patent strategy. Also covered will be the integration of the patenting process with the new product development process and discussion of critical patent strategy issues. It will conclude with a practical training session for writing technical disclosures for patenting purposes.
For more details about what attendees can expect to learn from this workshop visit http://www.magneticsmagazine.com/mag_conf08_workshops.htm#akc.
• Register before March 14, 2008 - $395 • Register after March 14, 2008 - $495
Register Now!
Visit http://www.magneticsmagazine.com/mag_conf08_workshop_reg.php/. |
