The generative AI revolution sets sail for ship design, plus new details about Onshape’s upcoming AI Advisor.
Welcome to Engineering Paper, where every week we line your head with headlines about design and simulation software.
For starters, Onshape users will be excited to learn that Onshape AI Advisor is coming soon.
The product support chatbot was announced with little fanfare last September, but we haven’t heard much since then. Last week I got an update from Onshape founder and PTC chief evangelist Jon Hirschtick.
“Very soon you’re going to see us launch our Onshape AI advisor. It’s working internally in testing, and it’s going to be a vehicle for lots of cool AI features,” Hirschtick told me.
AI Advisor will provide conversational support, answering questions about Onshape features and best practices. It’s based on a commercial foundation model, but it’s trained on Onshape documentation, so Hirschtick says it will give better answers than a general chatbot like ChatGPT. Each answer will also include links to sources so users can dig deeper if necessary.
I recently described AI chatbots as the “Hello World” of AI applications—the first step, the low-hanging fruit, the “my boss said we need AI so here’s the quickest thing we can do.” That’s not a knock on Onshape AI Advisor; it may prove to be a handy tool, but I think we can all agree that AI’s potential in CAD software is much higher than a chatbot.
Hirschtick sees that potential. He described AI Advisor as “just phase one” of Onshape’s plans for AI and explained how it could evolve to directly support users, such as by writing code or even modifying geometry. Hirschtick also told me the Onshape team is exploring other AI features, including AI-based rendering and generative text-to-CAD.
You can read all the details in Onshape AI Advisor is coming soon—here’s everything we know.
Siemens partners for generative AI in ship design
Speaking of AI’s potential for design software, Siemens announced that it will collaborate with Compute Maritime to “push the boundaries of generative AI in the ship design industry.”
The collaboration will connect Siemens’ Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to NeuralShipper, Compute Maritime’s vessel design and optimization platform. NeuralShipper, which Siemens describes as “a digital naval architect,” quickly generates a fleet’s worth of vessel design options to serve as a starting point for engineering teams. Compute Maritime says the generative AI tool is trained on more than 100,000 designs spanning a wide variety of vessel types.
By connecting Simcenter STAR-CCM+ to NeuralShipper, Siemens says it will bring computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and results validation to the ship design software. “The combination… enables the creation of novel vessel types and demonstrates how designers can automate simulation processes and predict real-world performance, even for the most unconventional designs,” Dmitry Ponkratov, Siemens’ marine director for simulation and test solutions, said in the press release.
However this collaboration pans out, it certainly won’t be the first time ship designers use Siemens software. You can read about another example in Design software helping to build the largest cruise ships.
Bentley opens infrastructure award nominations
Are you, or do you know, an infrastructure project worthy of recognition?
Nominations are now open for Bentley Systems’ 2025 Going Digital Awards, an annual program honoring infrastructure around the globe. Spanning 12 categories including bridges and tunnels, rail and transit, structural engineering, and more, the Going Digital Awards will be decided by independent jurors and announced on October 15, 2025 at Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure conference in Amsterdam.
You can submit your nominations here before March 31, 2025.
Quick hits
One last link
Model-based definition (one of the many answers to the question No really, what is MBD?) is an alternative to 2D drawings that aims to imbue 3D models with manufacturing information. It’s an intriguing idea, but it hasn’t yet made it to the mainstream.
What’s holding MBD back? Engineering.com contributor Mike Thomas writes about his company’s failed attempts to implement MBD in 6 reasons we still can’t switch to MBD—and the ways forward.
Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: [email protected].
