Real-World Examples, Uses

Oregon-based Huntair Inc., which designs and manufactures specialized HVAC systems, says it has used the Simulator 360 software to develop and test an airflow delivery system designed to reduce airborne infections in hospital operating rooms.

The firm needed to test its CLEANSUITE airflow system design, which it says was inspired by clean rooms used in the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries.

Huntair says it created CFD models in Autodesk Simulation 360 to test the new system. It got results. The firm says its design helps cut down on airborne contaminants, which means they have a lower chance of reaching a patient during surgery.

To the Cloud, Faster

The latest release from Autodesk comes on the heels of a reorganization the company announced in late August following weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings of $64.6 million on revenues of $569 million—lower than Wall Street expectations.

The firm is cutting about 500 jobs, or 7% of its workforce, and accelerating its shift toward more cloud-based software and mobile products as part of the plan.

Autodesk's shift is taking place amid an explosion of cloud-based services in the marketplace. "There has been tremendous hype surrounding these services," Gartner Research says, but plenty of cases for which cloud computing delivers business value. They include development and testing environments, high-performance computing and batch processing, just the kind of computing resources that simulation testing needs.

Adds Autodesk's Rochelle, "We think the return on investment is compelling."