Another acquisition to expand its product offerings and global outreach.
Tech Soft 3D has completed the acquisition of Visual Kinematics (VKI), developer of DevTools, a suite of component software development kits (SDKs) for CAE applications. In October 2020, Tech Soft 3D acquired Ceetron AS, developers of 3D visualization technology for the CAE community. In February 2020, the company had announced a significant investment from Battery Ventures. They didn’t say how significant, but Tech Soft had said it would use the new cash for product development, acquisitions, and expanding its global reach. Hence, the recent acquisitions are in line with Tech Soft 3D’s plans to fuel growth by investing in product development, scaling the company’s global reach, and increasing its product offerings through acquisitions.
Visual Kinematics is based in Saratoga, California. It develops a component software product line needed for CAE simulation technology. Visual Kinematics’ tools support simulation solutions from ANSYS, Siemens, Dassault Systèmes, etc. Autodesk, Hexagon (MSC.Software), PTC, Ceetron, and ESI Group also rely on Visual Kinematics to deliver applications for structural analysis, heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics, and electromagnetics.
The press release follows:
November 11, 2020 — BEND, OR — Tech Soft 3D, the leading provider of engineering software development kits (SDKs), today announces that it has acquired Visual Kinematics (VKI), maker of DevTools, a suite of component software development kits (SDKs) for computer-aided engineering (CAE) applications. This acquisition continues the company’s growth plans to scale global reach and increase its product offerings. With this acquisition, Tech Soft 3D is now the clear market-leading provider of component technology for developers of CAE software.
“The CAE market is exploding and the applications for simulation will only continue to expand,” said Ron Fritz, Chief Executive Officer at Tech Soft 3D. “Analysing how your design will function in the real world offers such massive cost savings that simulation is already well established in the design process. Tech Soft 3D is focused on adapting our tools to address this rapidly growing market space, as well as taking some of the core capabilities available in these technologies to serve the needs of additive manufacturing, AR/VR, IoT, machine learning, AI, etc.”
Based in Saratoga, California, the team at VKI has spent more than 30 years developing a component software product line that addresses a spectrum of CAE simulation technology needs: from mesh generation and interoperability tools to solvers, visualization and graphics. VKI’s tools provide developers with the ability to import/export of the analysis results from the vast majority of the world’s most widely used simulation solutions including those from ANSYS, Siemens and Dassault Systèmes. VKI component tools have been installed in analysis products including mechanical, fluids, electro-magnetic and multiphysics applications. With a reputation for delivering innovative, commercially robust products, VKI is relied upon by the CAE industry’s largest and most respected software companies such as ANSYS, Dassault Systèmes (SolidWorks), Siemens, Autodesk, Hexagon (MSC.Software), PTC, Ceetron and ESI Group to deliver applications for structural analysis, heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics and electromagnetics.
“We have been committed to providing the absolute best solutions to our customers, enabling them to build integrated, customized, end-to-end CAE analysis solutions, and we couldn’t be happier knowing that our customers will now have even more tools at their disposal,” said Gordon Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer at VKI. “The commitment that Tech Soft 3D has to building the strongest suite of CAE development tools in the industry is unmatched, and we are excited to be joining the team.”
Tech Soft 3D has long been a provider of data access and engineering graphics SDKs to the CAE market, working with partners such as ANSYS, Dassault Systèmes (EXA), Altair, Numeca, MathWorks, and Siemens (CD Adapco).
“The VKI portfolio is the perfect complement to our HOOPS toolkits, as well as our recently acquired Ceetron SDKs for visualization of CAE results,” said Gavin Bridgeman, CTO at Tech Soft 3D. “We will be working hard to integrate our tool sets, offering the most complete and robust CAE component technology solution on the market. It’s an exciting time, and I look forward to building the future with our new colleagues.”
Tech Soft 3D intends to continue to maintain and support VKI’s existing customers and partners that are using its market-leading SDK offerings for CAE, and will retain their staff. Details of the acquisition are not disclosed. Tech Soft 3D is backed by investment firm Battery Ventures.
