Auto Industry
Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedAn 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.
Most RecentAuto Articles
- Women Car Buyers Still Met With Dealer Disrespect
- Lower Gas Prices Deflate Sales for Smart, Other Smallest Cars
- To Sell, EVs Will Need Sizzle and Sex Appeal, Says Merrill Lynch
- Toyota Finance Arm, Used Cars Help North America Recovery
- Million-Dollar Army Contracts are a Lifeline for EV and Battery Companies
- More »
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.
Brought to you by CBS MoneyWatch.com
- Best- and Worst-Paid College Degrees
- 6 Things You Should Never Do on Twitter or Facebook
- How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?
- 6 Big Myths about Gas Mileage
Most Recent Autos Articles
- Awesome and Tiresome; Our long-term BMW 750Li could be the ultimate driving machine. But it's not.(NEWS)
- Total Recall; The Subaru blows its engine, gets a do-over.(NEWS)
- A Learning Experience; Sampling two new Audis on the track.(NEWS)
- PACE CADETS; AT THE AMG ACADEMY, STUDENTS TAKE THEIR FINALS WITH THEIR RIGHT FEET.(NEWS)
- Fair Warning; Escort debuts GPS features on latest radar detector.(NEWS)


