An on-line cyber library for design needs - Analogy Inc.'s ModelExpress design engineering software

Automotive Industries, March, 1998 by Mark Phelan

New software offers components tailored to automotive engineers.

After they finish shopping the Internet for books and CDs and playing "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," design engineers will soon be able to use their NT PCs to acquire custom-built models of electrical components ranging from power transistors to motors. The models will cost $50 to $1,000 depending on their complexity, and the net based components library is part of a new service from software specialist Analogy Inc., Beaverton, Ore.

The library, called ModelExpress, Is part of Analogy's new electric-power system design software, PowerExpress NT. Analogy also plans Express software packages for electrohydraulic and electromechanical systems.

The Express products are essentially industry-specific versions of Analogy's Saber design software, which has been used by Lucas/Varity for an electric power steering system, TRW for window motors and Cummins on a high-pressure diesel fuel system.

Saber requires more computing power than competing software, but its designs end up looking like a detailed schematic, says Eric Cigan, Analogy marketing manager for mixed technologies. "You need that level of detail to translate the theory of a design into hardware," Cigan says.

The existing Saber software has a library of parts programmable for specific design applications. Saber also includes high-level programming language to allow designers to "build" their virtual parts from scratch if nothing in the library applies.

Analogy spends 30% to 40% of its research and development budget developing parts templates for the library. Doug Lundin, Analogy vice president of marketing, says it has a catalog of 24,000 devices and is adding 1,000 to 1,500 a year.

"Designers want to be able to plug in parts; they don't want to have to reinvent the wheel" reprogramming the specifications of existing components, he says.

On the other hand, many of those 24,000 parts don't apply to the auto industry. That's where PowerExpress comes in. It offers a package of the parts and software most frequently used to design automotive high-current electrical power systems.

Analogy sells option packages so PowerExpress can also simulate the mechanical part of systems -- as in the Lucas/Varity electric power steering system, for example.

The automotive-oriented system costs less than the full-boat version -- $19,500 versus about $40,000.

The PowerExpress library consists of what Lundin calls generic design "templates," essentially black boxes the designer can include in the first draft before ordering pans to exact specifications.

"PowerExpress includes a template for a high-power transistor, for instance," he says. "When the engineer knows the exact part that's required, order it from the Internet library."

The detailed models of parts are delivered via e-mail in 24 to 48 hours. Analogy hopes to offer same-day delivery in the near future.

A full 8,000-part library sells for $5,000. Analogy hopes the ModelExpress Internet library will let engineers buy individual parts as needed for specific projects, avoiding the paperwork and hassles of getting approval for a capital-expense purchase.