Engineers are increasingly using a wide variety of software tools throughout the product lifecycle. To address customer requests and the need to integrate software for the automation of highly complex tasks, Altair Engineering, Inc. and Romax Technology recently developed a new interface between their respective RADIOSS and RomaxDesigner software tools to allow the transportation industry to design, analyze and simulate the complete transmission.

RADIOSS is a next-generation finite element analysis (FEA) solver for linear and non-linear simulations that can be used to simulate structures, fluids, fluid-structure interaction, sheet metal stamping and mechanical systems. This robust, multidisciplinary solution allows manufacturers to maximize durability, noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) performance, crashworthiness, safety and manufacturability of designs to bring innovative products to market faster.

RomaxDesigner is a virtual product development and simulation environment for the design and analysis of the complete transmission. It enables the optimization of engineering processes including system deflections, durability, dynamics, NVH, sensitivity analysis, and system and component modeling, design and analysis.

The new, highly automated RADIOSS-RomaxDesigner interface can be used by transmissions manufacturers within a variety of transportation industry sectors, including automotive, aerospace, off-highway, motorsports and rail, for the design, analysis and simulation of the complete transmission, including gearboxes, bearings, drivetrains and all other components.

For example, customers using Altair RADIOSS for structural and NVH analysis can now seamlessly, without pause, use RomaxDesigner for gear whine analysis on the same transmission components. Additionally, RADIOSS is used by OEM's to efficiently create flex bodies for gear whine analysis. The RADIOSS-RomaxDesigner interface now allows for the use of RADIOSS seamlessly from start to finish in the analysis and development of transmissions.

"Previously, engineers had to run the finite element analysis and then manually convert the results data to be used in RomaxDesigner for the analysis and simulation of the complete transmission," saysHarold Thomas, development director of implicit solver technologies for Altair. "The RADIOSS-RomaxDesigner interface is an exciting demonstration of how the open architecture of the Altair HyperWorks suite can be customized to interact with other software tools to meet customer requirements for task automation. Not only does this flexibility allow for a more integrated approach to the product design process, but it also translates into significant time and cost savings for the customer." 

"This improved interface demonstrates Romax's desire to integrate RomaxDesigner into the design and analysis workflow so that our customers can benefit from reduced time-to-market," says Jamie Pears, product manager for RomaxDesigner. "It also shows that these complementary products can provide a faster time-to-market than a traditional all-in-one solution."