ESTECO announces that modeFRONTIER advanced optimization capabilities are now available within ExaCLOUD® through the integration with PowerFLOW by Exa Corporation. ExaCLOUD is a scalable, secure, SaaS environment which provides access to Exa's full suite of simulation software on tens of thousands cores through a web interface.

Altair has acquired Solid Iris Technologies, a Greece-based technology company specializing in photorealistic rendering and visualization, with its high-end solution "Thea Render?. The companies have built a relationship over the past several years, with Altair using Solid Iris' Thea Render superior technology to provide rendering functionality in its solidThinking Evolve concept design software.

The Altair Partner Alliance (APA) added SimData Manager from PDTec AG to its software offering. SimData Manager provides simulation data management for efficient and systematic access to all simulation-relevant data throughout the entire computer-aided engineering (CAE) process chain.

In September, we have identified the 7 most critical, current challenges of automotive CAE through a survey among the CAE experts of the international automotive industry. These so called "Grand Challenges? will form the topics of the sessions of the 9th automotive CAE Grand Challenge, which will be held April 5-6, 2017 in Hanau, Germany.