Integrated CAD/Simulation: The Next Wave of Computer-Aided Engineering?

Ten years ago, doing process simulation on a PC was the hottest area of automation in the engineering community. There were automation projects occurring in design at engineering-construction firms, and there was a continual stream of automation efforts in process control. But both of those areas tended to require expensive, specialized platforms (workstations, DCSs), and also tended to be by and for the specialist.

In the intervening years, the world has gone PC. While this was happening, an integration could have occurred in either the simulation-control direction, or the CAD-simulation direction. For a variety of business and technical reasons, combined simulation and control became the hot button in the 1990s.

Now, in another of what have been a series of bold moves by both parties, CAD is being linked to the existing simulation-control combination. Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, AL), one of the leading vendors in detailed-design software, is forming a strategic alliance with Aspen Technology, Inc. (Cambridge, MA), the leader in simulation and model-based control. Part of the momentum for this alliance was generated by Aspen deciding to purchase Zyqad Ltd., a British design-data firm that had previously built a relationship with Intergraph. Both Aspen and Intergraph bring a family of interrelated-and complementary-software tools. In the case of Aspen, it is Plantelligence, which includes simulation, control, optimization and process information management. In the case of Intergraph, it is CAD, document management and life-cycle data management. Also, while both companies have a legacy of minicomputer-based software, both are well along in a transition to all-Windows NT technology.

The companies will work together to integrate AspenTech's Plantelligence suite with Intergraph's Plant Design System (PDS), the SmartPlant suite of products, the Notia data warehouse solution, and the Asset and Information Management (AIM) system. In addition to software integration, the companies will conduct joint marketing, project-execution and related activities. Under terms of the alliance, AspenTech is responsible for developing and providing integrated products that focus on the design, operations, and management of manufacturing plants. Intergraph is responsible for developing and providing integrated products that focus on conceptual and detailed physical design, construction, maintenance, and asset management of plant equipment.

If the company product lines are successfully integrated, plant owners and operators will be able to reuse the same data again and again as a project moves from design to construction to startup, maintenance and operation. Potentially, this integration will save considerable money and resources for the IT departments that would have to maintain these various systems.

If this is such a good idea, why isn't everyone doing it? In reality, most vendors of engineering design or control software are moving toward an integrated approach, but between them, Aspen and Intergraph hold most of the cards. EA Systems (Alameda, CA), a CAD competitor of Intergraph, has an alliance with Icarus Corp. (Rockville, MD), a cost-engineering software vendor. Hyprotech, now a division of AEAEngineering Software (Pittsburgh, PA), is linked with a variety of design programs of AEA's. Both of these alliances cover many aspects of simulation and design, but lack the control element. Simulation Sciences, recently acquired by Siebe International (Birmingham, England), which also owns Foxboro Co., has the simulation-control link, but lacks the plant-design component.

Intergraph and Aspen will first concentrate on integrating the Aspen Zyqad (formerly Zyqad Process WorkBench) product with Intergraph's Plant Design System (PDS) and SmartPlant software suites. This includes integration at the graphics and data model level. The alliance already has started initial work to implement Intergraph's Imagineer Technical graphics technology and Aspen Zyqad. Time will tell whether the alliance will make a substantial difference in information-management tools or, in an environment where just about everyone is moving toward Microsoft-compatible products, will have a relatively insignificant effect.

By Nick Basta

For more information contact:

Toni Lee Rudnicki or Mary Palermo, Aspen Technology, Inc., Tel: 617-949-1000.

Tom Greer, Intergraph Corporation, Tel: 256-730-3136.