Renesas 365, Powered by Altium, will be a cloud-based solution for electronic system design.
Welcome to Engineering Paper and this week’s batch of design and simulation software news.
First, thanks to all the readers who wrote in about last week’s column, in which I covered Backflip’s new mesh-to-CAD AI tool. Clearly I wasn’t the only one who was intrigued by it.
Reactions generally fell into two camps:
- Wow, how cool is that! or
- AI is one step closer to killing us all.
Which side are you on? Foil my attempts to achieve Inbox Zero by sending your opinions to [email protected].
And now the news.
Renesas announces Renesas 365, Powered by Altium
Semiconductor manufacturer Renesas has announced the first fruit of its $5.91 billion acquisition of EDA developer Altium in 2024. Renesas 365, built on the Altium 365 platform, will be released in early 2026 as a new solution for electronics system development.
According to Renesas’ announcement, the new solution “connect[s] Altium’s advanced cloud platform with Renesas’ comprehensive embedded compute, analog & connectivity, and power portfolio… [to] streamline workflows, accelerate time to market, ensure digital traceability and real-time insights, and improve decision-making from concept to deployment.”
Renesas will showcase live demos of Renesas 365 at Embedded World 2025 in Nuremberg, taking place this week from March 11 to 13.
Questions and answers on 3DLive, Dassault’s Apple Vision Pro app
This summer Dassault Systèmes will release 3DLive, an app for Apple’s Vision Pro spatial computing headset that will connect to the 3DExperience Platform.
What? How? Why?
I asked all those questions (though in slightly more syllables) of Tom Acland, CEO of 3DExcite at Dassault Systèmes. He explained 3DLive’s capabilities, the benefits it will bring to users and its place in Dassault’s vision of 3D UNIV+RSES.
“The VR thing’s been done before, but this is a next-generation capability for putting people inside the model,” Acland told me.
Don’t miss the full Q&A with Tom Acland on Engineering.com.
CoreTechnologie improves its CAD simplification software
CoreTechnologie has released a new version of 3D_Evolution Simplifier, its software for CAD model reduction. The update adds rule-based automation features that CoreTechnologie says will make it easier to prepare models for simulation, digital twins, product catalogues, virtual reality and other applications that benefit from simplified 3D models.
Features of the updated 3D_Evolution Simplifier include the shrinkwrap function, which filters out internal components; the bounding shape function, which replaces detailed parts with simplified substitute bodies; the mesh reduction function, which CoreTechnologie says can reduce mesh sizes by up to 98%; and more.
Kisters releases 3DViewStation v2025.0
Kisters has released the 2025 version of its CAD viewing software, 3DViewStation. The biggest update is a simplified user interface. With a reorganized ribbon menu that groups related functions together, 3DViewStation 2025 will require fewer mouse clicks and allow users to be more efficient, according to Kisters.
3DViewStation 2025 also adds the ability to organize views into groups, allowing users with large numbers of views to more easily navigate between them.
Autodesk cuts 9% of workforce
Late last month Andrew Anagnost, CEO of Autodesk, sent a memo announcing a massive 9% cut to the company’s workforce, totaling around 1,350 employees.
Anagnost wrote that the layoffs are a response to shifting corporate strategy, evolving investments in AI and cloud technology, and increasing economic and geopolitical uncertainties. “This decision was made by myself and CEO staff and is not the result of any third-party pressure,” he wrote.
Best of luck to all those affected.
One last link
I leave you with a brief reflection on humanity and its inventions from my colleague Lisa Eitel at Design World: A 1993 mystic on the nature of AI.
Got news, tips, comments, or complaints? Send them my way: [email protected].
