Hi there,

This newsletter is not about your favorite 1982 movie, but rather the recent transition of Engineers and Technologists working from home. Just like many of us around the world, Fastway transitioned to a primary work from home strategy this month to promote social distancing and help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 here in Chicago.

This was not mandatory, as our offices at mHUB remain open, but it is the right thing to do. We are still very open for business and supporting our clients who are working in critical manufacturing and healthcare business.

There has been a huge outpouring of support in our industry for helping to innovate solutions for the healthcare industry using Design and Simulation tools such initiatives like cprcovid19, Masks On, Formlabs, Cad Crowd, a growing Global Network of work-from-home 3D Printers. Additionally many global manufacturers have stepped up to help build products such as Ford, Dyson, Tesla. Siemens Additive Manufacturing and many DoD contractors. 3M has even doubled production of N95 masks.

Of course, to help with these initiatives (and to continue to do our jobs), access to the tools is paramount. If you are an Engineering or Technologist working from home, hopefully you can "remote in" to your company's servers to use your CAD/CAE tools. If not, then here is a list of Web-based and cloud-accessible CAE tools that might help.

CAD: 3D Modeling and Design Tools

• Dassault CATIA 3DExperience - Web-based design and engineering tools for construction, Class-A styling, and Systems Engineering.
• Fusion 360 (Autodesk) - Design platform for CAD modeling as well as CAE & CAM with a local install, but cloud-based file management and collaboration tools.
• PTC Onshape - A fully web-based CAD tool with custom scripting and an App Store with CAM, CAE, and Rendering capabilities.
• Siemens NX Cloud - "Role-based" Design tools for 3D CAD Modeling and Mold Design, 2D Drafting, and CAM.
• Sketchup - Web-based geometry creation targeting the architectural and DIY interior/exterior home design and construction market.
• Solidworks 3D Creator and 3D Sculptor - Solidworks foray into web-based CAD for both solid modeling and "push-pull" sub-D modeling on the 3DExperience platform.
• Tinkercad (Autodesk) - Web-based 3D modeler popular in education and targeting entry-level designers.

Onshape offers 3D CAD modeling in the cloud via web browser and mobile.

CAE: Structural, Thermal, and Fluids Analysis

• AirShaper - Cloud-based "Wind Tunnel" specifically tuned for external aerodynamics for aerospace, automotive and sports-related applications.
• Altair Cloud - Job scheduling and "anywhere access" for FEA, CFD, Emag, Top Opt and more via their Hyperworks platform.
• Ansys Cloud - In-App cloud solving of Flagship products for Mechanical (FEA) and Fluent (CFD), with CFX (more CFD!) and LS-Dyna (Explicit FEA) coming soon.
• CAEPlex - Browser-based FEA Solver from startup Seamplex that solves Structural, Thermal, and Modal simulations and connects to Onshape CAD.
• Onscale - Multiphysics solver for use in electronics applications like MEMS, Sensors, Medical Imaging, and RF antennas.
• Simscale - Browser-based simulation for Structural, Thermal, and Fluid physics using open source codes Code_Aster for FEA and Openfoam for CFD.
• Solidworks Structural Professional Engineer - Implicit and Explicit structural solver using the 3DExperience web-based platform, which can solve locally or in the cloud.
• Autodesk CFD Cloud - This is a local install, but it includes "pull-down" access to remote solving on the cloud for quick and easy scaling.
• Dassault Systems SIMULIA Cloud - Web-based access to their PowerFLOW suite of Fluid Dynamics capabilities.

Simscale is browser-based structures/fluids, including advanced Lattice-Boltzmann CFD.

HPC: High Performance Computing, and Infrastructure (IaaS)

• Amazon Web Services - The largest Cloud Services company in the world has partnered with Ansys, Autodesk, and Siemens for turn-key solutions as well as being the backbone for many "DIY" solutions for consultants using Openfoam CFD.
• Awesim - A program of the Ohio Supercomputer Center, offering Modeling & Simulation tools for a wide variety of Engineering Simulations.
• Nimbix - Custom HPC deployments and "ready-to-run" apps from Ansys, COMSOL, Convergent Science, Siemens, MSC, and Dassault. 
• Penguin - Public, Private, and Hybrid  On-Demand solutions for Ansys, Star-CCM+, Convergent Science, Dassault, Esteco, Mathworks, MSC, Numeca, and more.
• Rescale - Massive selection of both On-Demand and BYOL (Bring Your Own License) for 370+ software codes from over 60 vendors. 
• TotalCAE - Turn-key clusters for codes from Ansys, COMSOL, Convergent Science, Dassault, LS-Dyna, MSC, and more.
• Ubercloud - Browser-based access using Docker containers on Microsoft Azure for immediate access to Ansys, STAR CCM+, CST, COMSOL, Abaqus, MATLAB, LS-DYNA, NUMECA, OpenFOAM, FORGE NxT and more.
  
  

According to Cray, CFD and Explicit FEA dominate the CAE HPC market (click to enlarge).