New Year Brings New Challenges

By the time you read this, we will already be a month into 2025. I’m not big on making sweeping predictions for the coming year, but since my job is paying attention to new technology and engineering news, I did want to use my column space this month to take note of a number of developments that occurred since our last issue in December. A few of these items may shed some light on how 2025 will shape up for our readers and the technologies they use (or plan to use).

• Last year was a big one for mergers and acquisitions in the CAD, simulation and 3D printing space. But not all of those mergers are going quite as planned. Nano Dimension made a big splash over the past two years by acquiring and attempting to acquire a number of competitors in the additive manufacturing segment. It looked like they had finally sealed the deal with both Desktop Metal and Markforged, but in January there was a flurry of lawsuits among the three companies. Desktop Metal asserts that Nano had not sought proper regulatory approvals in a timely fashion, and that the planned acquisition of Markforged further jeopardized the deal because of competitive concerns. While that was happening, the Nano Dimension board of directors ousted the company’s pugilistic CEO Yoav Stern. We’re not sure how this will shake out. In the meantime, Hexagon bought 3D Systems’ Geomagic product, and venture firm Anzu bought voxeljet.
• We launched our inaugural Design & Simulation Software Guide late last year (you can download it here). Moving forward we hope to make this the most comprehensive guide to design, simulation, engineering, PLM, and design-for-additive software available. Feel free to reach out if your company should be included.
• In December cloud-based simulation specialist SimScale and cloud-based CAD platform Onshape (part of PTC) announced a collaboration. This is very much in keeping with the trend we have been seeing of more hosted and cloud-based engineering software.
• At Supercomputing 2024 (you can read our coverage in this issue) and CES 2025, NVIDIA continued to expand the capabilities of its Omniverse platform with AI-based advancements for modeling and engineering and a new Blueprint tool for CAE software providers that will help create real-time digital twins for engineers and designers.
• Engineering workstation providers also rolled out new AI-capable computers at CES, and venerable Dell even rebranded its entire product line.
• There continue to be announcements of new AI-based simulation tools and new vendors offering such software, along with quantum-computing-based simulation as well. We will continue to update our readers with these developments, and examine just how useful these tools can be (read our coverage to learn more).

It’s already been a busy year, and I expect to see even more innovation moving forward. If you really need a prediction, though, how about this: My hometown Cleveland Cavaliers are going all the way in 2025. Check back this summer to grade my powers of prognostication.