Siemens Acquires Belgium’s VRcontext for 3D Visualization

By DE Editors

The Siemens Industry Automation Division has announced the expansion of its industry software portfolio with the acquisition of VRcontext International, Brussels, Belgium. With its Walkinside product family, VRcontext is one of the leading developers of 3D visualization and training software for displaying complex engineering data in the shipbuilding and plant construction industries. According to the company, this acquisition will help Siemens to “further strengthen its established position in the industrial software market.” The parties agreed not to disclose details of the purchase price.

Walkinside 3D visualization software is currently in use in plant operation, maintenance and servicing in more than 200 companies in over 30 countries. VRcontext has specialized particularly in remote offshore installations for the oil and gas industry.

“The integration of the Walkinside 3D visualization and training software of our long-standing partner VRcontext into our industrial software portfolio will benefit our customers significantly. Using intelligent 3D models can make plant engineering and operation safer and more efficient in a great many sectors of industry,” said Eckard Eberle, CEO of the Siemens Industrial Automation Systems Business Unit,  to which VRcontext will be assigned.

Walkinside will supplement Comos, the Siemens software solution for holistic plant management, in providing access to 3D engineering data. A standard interface links Comos bidirectionally with Walkinside. The geometric elements from a virtual reality model are linked to the latest plant information throughout the entire plant lifecycle. Highly complex plant models can be represented realistically in three dimensions, with Comos acting as a global data center. As a result,  up-to-date plant data is always available as a 3D model in all lifecycles and can be used not only for engineering and monitoring purposes, but also for operation and training, the company says.

For more information, visit Siemens PLM Software.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.