Altair Releases New Inspire 2018 Software, Optimized for 3D Printing

A new year means new software updates, and engineering software developer Altair today announced the release of Inspire 2018. The simulation-driven design software is available through Altair’s solidThinking channel partner network and directly to its HyperWorks user community. Inspire is a powerful yet easy to use generative design/topology optimization and rapid simulation solution for design engineers. It creates and investigates structurally efficient concepts quickly and easily, leading to reduced costs, development time, material consumption, and product weight.

“Inspire 2018 enables designers and engineers to leverage simulation in new and inventive ways to accelerate the development of high-performance, innovative products,” says James Dagg, CTO for User Experience at Altair. “Inspire integrates well into large manufacturing enterprises for rapid simulation and lightweighting insights, and has an intuitive user experience that is ideal for small and medium-size businesses with little or no simulation experience.”

Inspire is designed to be used at the very beginning of clean-sheet design programs and for the design exploration of current production parts. It allows designers and engineers to rapidly assemble and simulate dynamic mechanical systems, automatically resolving loads on system components for optimization and analysis. It generates weight-efficient design proposals unique to specified conventional or additive manufacturing processes, and simulates the performance of competing design concepts for static loads, normal modes and buckling. Users can also export Inspire CAD geometry directly to 3D printers.

Motion – Assessment of complex mechanical Systems for load generation System Simulation

“In order to stay competitive while pushing the innovation envelope, simulation must drive the entire design process from the early concept design phase all the way through to production,” says Andy Bartels, Inspire Program Manager. “We continue to add tools to make Inspire more beneficial to its users in each step of the design process.”

New features include the ability to generate optimized lattice and mixed solid-lattice structures, visualize simulation results in 3D, and export lattice designs in .stl format for 3D printing. Users can view and interactively assign loads to load cases and import/export design loads in .csv file format with the new Load Cases Table. They can also design for additive manufacturing with overhang shape controls, helping reduce overhangs to create more self-supporting structures. Users also have the ability to automatically optimize the fit of PolyNURBS CAD geometry to generative design results with the new PolyNURBS Fit Tool.

“Inspire 2018 is available immediately to clients as an application software download and later this year as a cloud-based offering,” says Dagg.  “Branded as Inspire Unlimited™, the cloud offering of Inspire will include additional functionality such as secure data management, team collaboration tools, and on-demand high-performance computing (HPC).”

Inspire is easy to learn and easy to use, and works with existing CAD tools to help design structural parts right the first time, saving time and money. It works with Windows 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.

Altair is headquartered in Troy, Michigan and has 2,000 employees working in 69 offices throughout 24 countries. Its customer base includes more than 5,000 customers across multiple industries. The company has been involved in such innovative projects as 3i-PRINT with a focus on metal additive manufacturing, as well as partnerships and new software releases set to further advanced manufacturing.

If you’d like to learn more about Inspire 2018, you can do so here. You can also see video demos, register for a webinar, and request a free trial.

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[Images provided by Altair]