Press Release
MSC.Software Continues to Enhance MSC.Nastran Capabilities With Release of MSC.Robust Design 2004 r2
SANTA ANA, Calif. - June 2, 2004 - MSC.Software Corp. (NYSE: MNS), the leading global provider of virtual product development (VPD) products, including simulation software and services, today announced the availability of MSC.Robust Design 2004 r2. MSC.Robust Design drives probabilistic analysis with MSC.Nastran simulations by allowing the efficient investigation of multiple variables and design parameters. The results of MSC.Nastran and MSC.Robust Design simulations provide customers with deeper insight and better understanding of design sensitivity, allowing them to better manage risk and improve product quality, safety, and performance.
"MSC.Robust Design specifically supports stochastic simulation with MSC.Nastran and provides a very efficient environment to study the effect that real life uncertainties have on product performance," said Frank Perna, chairman and chief executive officer of MSC.Software. "Used in combination, MSC.Nastran and MSC.Robust Design help customers increase their productivity and improve their product development processes and results. We are convinced that our customers will see immediate benefit from providing access to the industry's most widely-used simulation tool from the industry's most powerful stochastics environment and, with a range of complementary services, enable rapid return on their investment in this exciting technology."
The second release of MSC.Robust Design is highlighted by the enhanced non-linear capabilities in MSC.Nastran 2004 (Sol600), which is based on the powerful technology of MSC.Marc. The simulation of 3D contact and nonlinear problems is increasingly important for manufacturers testing deformable bodies and complex assemblies.
In addition, a new bi-directional interface to Microsoft Excel provides users with the capability to leverage MSC.Robust Design's unique post processing capabilities on data generated from other sources. Furthermore, results from MSC.Robust Design can be exported to Excel for further annotation and inclusion in reports.
To complement the new functionality within MSC.Robust Design, MSC.Software has launched a number of new services offerings for stochastics simulation including:
- Training: Two-day standard course on MSC.Robust Design and stochastic mechanics is available at one of MSC's offices or at customer sites.
- Engineering Consulting Services: A customer provides MSC.Software with a model and certain design objectives, and MSC delivers a complete stochastic solution to the problem. The two specific services are:
- Stochastic Simulation: Computation of the most likely product performance, performance scatter (quality), outliers and pathologies determination (if any), for multiple disciplines (statics, vibration, buckling, etc.)
- Stochastic Design Improvement: Design-to-target, with particular focus on mass reduction, while satisfying multiple objectives (statics, vibration, buckling, etc.)
- Advanced Engineering Services: Special projects beyond the scope of the standard version of MSC.Robust Design and which involve coupling of different applications (proprietary codes, MSC.Software's Laminate Modeler, commercial crash codes, etc.). MSC.Software's 64 CPU Linux cluster is dedicated for this purpose.
Today's computer-aided engineering process is largely reliant upon deterministic analysis, where an engineer performs a computer test on a single model with one or more load conditions to obtain a single result. However, in the real world, both the model and environment have combinations of variability and uncertainty that must be considered to truly simulate possible outcomes. For example, passenger cars are manufactured with sheet metal, which is not always of uniform thickness. To obtain a realistic estimate of how the car will perform in terms of noise, vibration, or crash; the variability of sheet metal thickness and the manufacturing imperfections, such as those encountered in the welding process, must be taken into account. Using MSC.Robust Design, engineers can automatically consider a range of simulations that randomly varies the sheet thickness, material property scatter, weld imperfections or loading, in order to simulate a realistic variety of outcomes. When complete, the engineer is presented with a graphical representation of the model's quality and credibility, and estimates of probability of failure.
MSC.Robust Design is very important for those companies who manufacture vehicles or any other product where personal safety or risk is a crucial design requirement. The more complex a product is, the higher the chance that some combination of uncertainties will have an unexpected and potentially undesired effect. This phenomenon, which can only be observed if the virtual prototype incorporates uncertainty, manifests itself as outliers, which are isolated points that in many cases can be translated directly into risk and liability. It is therefore of paramount importance to anticipate their presence and to understand the circumstances under which they arise.
Virtual prototype models represent a valuable asset in a company - an investment that captures corporate know-how and experience as it relates to product performance. MSC.Robust Design provides an opportunity to not only consolidate this knowledge, but also to extract additional, often unexpected, information about a system and its performance.
MSC.Robust Design runs on Windows operating systems including Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It can also be used to run MSC.Nastran simulations in a networked environment (Linux, UNIX, etc.). It is currently shipping to customers in all world regions and is available under the MSC.Software MasterKey Licensing System. For more information about MSC.Robust Design, please visit http://www.mscsoftware.com/products/.
About MSC.Software Corporation
MSC.Software (NYSE: MNS) is the leading global provider of virtual product development tools that help companies make money, save time and reduce costs associated with designing and testing manufactured products. MSC.Software works with thousands of companies in hundreds of industries to develop better products faster by utilizing information technology, software, services and systems. MSC.Software employs more than 1400 people in 23 countries. For additional information about MSC.Software's products and services, please visit www.mscsoftware.com.
| Contact: Joanne Keates Vice President, Investor Relations MSC.Software 714.444.8551 joanne.keates@mscsoftware.com |
Contact: Catherine Meek Media Relations MSC.Software 714.445.5647 catherine.meek@mscsoftware.com |
