ESI Announces the Release of Visual-Environment 7.5

14 December 2011
Paris, France
An open and collaborative virtual prototyping platform

ESI Group, pioneer and world- leading solution provider in virtual prototyping for manufacturing industries, announces the release of Visual-Environment 7.5, a flexible and open engineering framework within a common platform, addressing multiple simulation domains. Visual-Environment encompasses the entire Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) process, from interfacing with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) to model set-up and post processing; all using a single core compute model.

The Casting simulation solution in Visual-Environment.

The Casting simulation solution in Visual-Environment.

“Grupo Antolin uses Visual-Environment for pre and post treatment of virtual vehicle seat prototypes. Thanks to the new enhancements for task automation, accurate safety tools corresponding to our needs, and easy-to-use data export and automation in the post-treatment, we saved about 50% time for each simulation loop,” affirms Franck Chantegret, Simulation Manager, Grupo Antolin Seats Business Unit.

This latest release Visual-Environment 7.5 provides important improvements related to software usability. Pre and post-processing are now visually integrated within the environment for improved user experience. Overall, this new version offers a better look and feel and common windows and page management that deliver enhanced graphic unity to run smooth, flawless workflows.

The increasingly intuitive user interface also offers greater interaction. For example, from the homepage, users can access shortcuts to their most common operations, recently loaded files, and useful quick links such as software highlights and online social networks.

An ever-evolving platform, Visual-Environment adapts to the needs of various disciplines, solvers and industries. For each application in Visual-Environment, engineers can use the comprehensive modeling tool “Visual-Mesh” to generate, for complex geometries, solution quality meshes for various disciplines, including vehicle crash testing, passenger safety, NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness), heat treatment, welding, casting, and electromagnetics. The Visual-Viewer post-processing tool caters to the demanding requirements of the CAE community through its multi-page, multi-plot environment while the integrated software development toolkit, Visual-SDK, provides for customization and extension of the open architecture through process templates and macros.

The VisualDSS application, the end-to-end decision support system of Visual-Environment, allows for Engineering Change Management by propagating changes made from one iteration model to another. New in the Visual-Environment 7.5 release, users can directly create workflows, upload key results and reports, and compare iteration models online in the VisualDSS client web portal.

Interface with various disciplines

ESI’s Visual-Environment is flexible: every application can be updated individually.

Visual-Environment is open: version 7.5 boasts enhanced conversion utilities that facilitate the integration of data from third-party software. Other smart improvements in version 7.5 include better visualization; for instance, in the display of meshless simulation methods such as Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Finite-Point Method (FPM), and in visualizing airbag folding thanks to a new tool introduced in Sim-Folder. The complete support for Heat Treatment Advisor in Visual-Weld, enables realistic simulation by supporting chaining Welding and Heat Treatment in a manufacturing process. 

Improved meshing abilities targeted at NVH and Internal Acoustics applications tremendously ease the meshing of cavities. Visual-Cast, the meshing-pre-post processing environment for foundry applications, provides for set-up of models using CAD topology; enabling the automatic update of iteration models and delivering considerable time gains.

Visual-Environment 7.5 incorporates engineering knowledge, best practices, process, workflow management and simulation content management into the engineering design process.

For more information, please visit: www.esi-group.com/visual-environment