Free Digital Manufacturing Software for Students

Yesterday I was reading a blog post about a boot camp for new engineers. The class bridges a gap in education and teaches new engineers how to “design, implement, checkout and commission a process control system.” The post notes schools can help bridge the knowledge gap in new engineers by introducing labs with industrial control systems.

We are working to help schools and students do that for plant simulation. Today we announced that students can now download Tecnomatix Plant Simulation for free. Future engineers can gain experiencein discrete event simulation and 3D logistic modeling. We provide a set of tutorials, how-to videos and template models to get students started.

If you’re not familiar with Plant Simulation, it is an object-oriented modeling tool worldwide by leading manufacturing companies. It allows organizations to run experiments and analyze what-if scenarios without disturbing existing production systems.

Here is a video that explains a bit more about how it is used in wind power production.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac5IODC2HwQ

Here is another case study on logistics planning with Europe’s Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics. In it, they note:

“Tecnomatix Plant Simulation software is well suited to our needs, because it lets us precisely evaluate all of the various problems and questions regarding offshore wind power assembly,“ says Kerstin Lange, a project manager at ISL.”“For example, the weather, which is the biggest and most important element of uncertainty. We can adjust its influences very well. We can depict other complicating factors, such as problems or losses that can occur during shipping, loading or transportation.”