Maple 13 and MapleSim2 offer 3-D visualization and animation capabilities designed to make modeling mathematics more interactive and accessible.
Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor -- Design News, May 6, 2009
In an effort to help engineers tackle the growing complexity behind the design of mechatronics products, Maplesoft has bolstered the visualization and animation capabilities of its flagship Maple technical computing software while adding new capabilities to its recently-released MapleSim multi-domain modeling and simulation application.
MapleSim2, which is now fully integrated with Maple at its core, delivers 3-D animation and visualization capabilities that can easily transform multibody models into realistic animations, improving engineers' insight into system behavior. Maple 13, the latest release of the company's symbolic computation engine, offers completely new 3-D plotting facilities designed to make 3-D plots more meaningful and easier to interpret.
Both releases are designed to address the increasingly complexity design engineers face when developing next-generation products. When designing in the area of hybrid cars, for example, engineers are much more reliant on sophisticated mathematical equations, and the new releases are optimized to make modeling mathematics more accessible, interactive and visual, according to Tom Lee Maplesoft's chief evangelist.
"Coming up with the equations can be upwards of 80 percent of the modeling time," Lee says. "We need to make more advanced mathematical technology more accessible to everyone because people are rusty in this stuff. Both systems now allow for much more drag and drop and interactive, visual representation of the physical systems. Underneath, we take care of all the math, which allows people to be engineers, not just more accurate mathematicians."
The new animation capabilities in MapleSim2, for instance, will automatically generate a 3-D animation of what a machine looks like and how it will behave. "You can push a button, and the robot you're designing comes on screen and moves around and you can see if an end is bashing against something or if something is disconnected," Lee explains. "That way, an engineer doesn't have to root through the mathematics or schematics."
At the core of MapleSim2 is Maple 13, the upgraded version of Maple's technical software. This upgrade builds on the last release adding additional CAD connectivity capabilities, including support for Siemens PLM Software's NX. Maple 13 also offers new plotting facilities, including extensive annotation tools and fly-through animations along with new solvers and point-and-click access to control systems analysis tools.
A single-user professional license of MapleSim2 is priced at $2,995, while Maple 13 costs $1,895.
