Engineering news
Autodesk has added robust communications and application development tools to its software portfolio to strengthen its bid for the growing Internet of Things market.
The US-based software vendor, best known for products such as AutoCAD, Inventor and Revit, launched both Autodesk SeeControl and Forge this month at its annual users conference in Las Vegas, which was attended by more than 10,000 people.
SeeControl is a software system for controlling and managing remote products and devices. The SeeControl Internet of Things (IoT) platform has been integrated into the Autodesk portfolio after the company was acquired by Autodesk three months ago.
Forge is an online-based service to develop apps and services that use the data produced by internet and sensor-enabled products and devices. Forge is backed by a £66.2 million investment fund and training initiative for start-up companies that use the platform to develop apps and services.
Brian Roepke, director of Product Lifecycle Management and Internet of Things at Autodesk, said: “The future of making products is changing quickly and the expectations for online services have increased. The addition of SeeControl will help businesses gain competitive advantage by optimising existing products and capturing the necessary intelligence to offer their customers new services.
“Since the acquisition, Autodesk has moved aggressively to further develop SeeControl by connecting it with core Autodesk services such as 3D visualisation. Bringing the live data from SeeControl into our engineering tools will better inform the next generation of designs and empower SeeControl customers in ways that weren’t previously possible.”
The move significantly strengthens Autodesk’s IoT software offering, which has been seen to lag behind its competitor PTC’s. Thingworx, PTC’s IoT platform, was acquired in 2013 and integrated into its portfolio of products in 2014.
Both companies hope to dominate the market to provide development tools to engineers who want to integrate sensors and internet communications features into their products. Analysts predict that the IoT market will be worth billions in the coming years.