1. IGA 2018 industry highlights

Over 15 commercial companies were represented at IGA 2018. Here’s a glimpse into some of what they presented.

• LS-DYNA shared updates of their IGA keywords, and examples from a number of their partners, including some work featuring the Bezier Extraction format used to send data from third parties (like Coreform) to LS-DYNA.
• Beta-CAE shared impressive advances of IGA support in Ansa – they are putting a lot of attention on what it means for users to interact with smooth IGA elements.
• Both Elysium and ITI showed really interesting tech that can help use CAD data more effectively in IGA. 
• Honda shared its growing number of impressive IGA benchmarks.
• Greg Vernon from Honeywell FM&T (pictured above) shared initial results of an IGA benchmark of a spring compression problem co-developed with Coreform, showing nearly 50x speed-up with nearly 500x fewer elements using Coreform Analyze IGA software than with commercial FEA software.
• nVariate gave an update on the progress to include unstructured spline definitions (like T-splines or U-splines) in upcoming STEP ISO-standards.

2. U-splines technical paper now available

Coreform’s opinion on IGA is that the most significant technical hurdle towards commercial adoption has been the lack of suitable geometry. We believe U-splines solves this problem. At IGA 2018, Coreform co-founder Dr. Derek Thomas presented U-splines to a standing-room only audience, shown above. The U-spline technical paper is now available for the first time on the Coreform website. 

3. Summary of historic IGA industry panel

The advent of an industry panel at the conference marks a new era in IGA at this previously academic conference Just a few years ago, this was an exclusively academic conference. At this panel, representatives from 10 companies, most of whom are at various stages of embracing IGA as part of their strategy, took the stage on a panel chaired by the father of IGA, Coreform senior advisor Dr. Tom Hughes. They discussed topics such as how IGA either competes with or enhances other recent simulation innovations, recommendations for how to increase adoption of IGA, critical technical points for true CAD/analysis integration, how to drive change in the simulation market. Conclusion: though change is always hard, there are a number of paths forward for IGA be commercially adopted. 

The industry panel consisted of Tom Hughes – Chair (UT-Austin), Mark Gammon (ITI), Lambros Rorris (Beta CAE), Matt Sederberg (Coreform), Takehisa Tsuduki (Elysium), Oren Raz (Dassault Systems), Joe Walsh (intrimSIM), Kenji Takada (Honda), Greg Vernon (Honeywell), Tsuyoshi Yasuki (Toyota), David Benson (LSTC). Thanks to Ben Urick from nVariate for his help in preparing the panel.

4. Coreform poster session

There is a signifiant crop of PhDs and post-docs emerging with IGA-related dissertations. Twelve of them submitted posters of their work in the poster session, sponsored by Coreform. The first place winner was Mattia Tani, University of Pavia. His poster was called, “The wonders of continuity:  When Cp-1 IGA is faster than C0 FEA�. Pictured above are Dr. Tom Hughes and the Coreform poster contest prize winners.  From left to right, Roel Tielen, Tom Hughes, Mattia Tani, and Aishwarya Pawar.