Forge Analytics

Custom software development for simulation-based engineering

Services

Forge Analytics offers simulation data analysis and workflow solutions for all types of CAE simulation for engineering design, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD), thermal analysis, structural and durability analysis, modal analysis, acoustics and other forms of numerical analysis and physical test procedures.

Data Analysis and Visualization

Data analysis is the process of inspecting, transforming and visualizing data from numerical simulation and physical test processes with the goal of discovering useful information and supporting decision-making for engineering design and performance analysis.

Many simulation packages or physical test processes are well-configured for the analysis of a singular test, while others only provide raw data and leave it to the end-user to tranform the data to a useful format.

However, very few off-the-shelf software packages facilitate effective analysis and comparison of multiple tests, or analysis of structured sets of tests without significant additional scripting of the simulation software, or the addition of bespoke software to the data analysis process.

Forge Analytics will work with you to create a purpose-built data analysis and visualization process to transform your simulation and physical test data to the exact format you require.

Application Development

Many simulation data analysis tasks can be accomplished by creating custom scripts using the API of a simulation software package. Forge Analytics can help with any of your scripting needs.

Other tasks are much more complex and cannot be accomplished through scripting alone.

If you have simulation data processing or workflow requirements that would benefit from custom software application development, Forge Analytics can help.

We have broad experience in engineering application development, and provide development services for custom command-line interfaces, web-based applications and desktop applications.

Database Development

Many simulation-based engineering analysis processes require some form of long-term data persistence, or a centralized authority for further data processing and analysis.

Forge Analytics has experience with scientific database design and development and will work with you to craft a solution custom-tailored to your needs.

We will also help you integrate the database with existing processes and workflows, as well as provide any application or process development services to fulfill your requirements.

Pre-processing Automation

Often, simulation setup and preprocessing tasks can be automated to facilitate high-throughput simulation capabilties. While not all pre-processing tasks can or should be automated, established simulation recipes generally lend themselves to more productive setup workflows than are afforded through the general-purpose interfaces of most simulation software.

Forge Analytics will help you define and develop custom simulation setup interfaces and automate simulation setup and pre-processing tasks, either through scripted extensions to existing simulation software, or standalone solutions.

Post-processing Automation

Simulation engineers today often posess the capability to run more simulations each day than they can post-process, and the bottleneck in many simulation workflows has become the engineer's ability to analyze the simulation output.

High-throughput simulation activity requires the ability to rapidly assess your design space with a highly-automated post-processing workflow.

Forge Analytics will help you to automate your post-processing workflow and integrate it into your simulation batch execution process so that your engineers can spend their time understanding results and making decisions, rather than manual execution of results processing tasks.

Automated Report Generation

Simulation engineers are rarely the end-of-the-road when it comes to consuming simulation information. Results need to be disseminated to the rest of the organization, or to third parties.

Forge Analytics can help you steamline your reporting process by automating the generation of simulation report documents, slides or spreadsheets.

Forge Analytics also offers full-service application development, and can help you design and develop custom dashboards and applications for more interactive results communication.

Process

Step 1. Discovery

First, we'll meet to discuss your project in depth. Once we understand your needs, your users, and your use-case, we'll collaborate to establish project requirements.

This meeting is free of cost and commitment. If you think we may offer the services you need, contact us and we'll find time to talk. We're happy to answer any questions you have, talk about what we can do for you, or if needed, put you in touch with an organization that can better serve your needs.

Step 2. Upstream Requirements

Many software development projects for simulation analysis and workflow development have a number of upstream requirements that must be met for the project to be viable.

After we've had an initial discussion surrounding your project goals, we'll define and investigate all required preconditions for the project, to ensure that the project can succeed.

Step 3. Project Scope

Next, we will create a project roadmap and define a scope of work. For smaller projects, we may define a single development stage. Large projects may be defined in multiple stages with checkpoints for you to conduct testing and sign-off on progress throughout the course of development.

Step 4. Development

Once the project definition has been clearly established, Forge Analytics will begin development.

We will provide regular updates throughout the course of work, and hold ongoing meetings to ensure development progress remains in-line with your project requirements.

Step 5. Deployment & Acceptance Testing

After the completion of the development phase, Forge Analytics will assist with any required deployment steps.

Then, we will go through a period of acceptance testing to make sure the delivered work meets your needs.

Step 6. Maintenance & Support

If you desire, Forge Analytics can provide ongoing maintenance and support for any provided work.

New releases of commercial software occasionally produce breaking changes for any associated APIs. Scripting projects developed against commercial APIs may require ongoing support to ensure they continue to function properly through updates to new software versions.

Working with Forge Analytics

Complex development projects for simulation-based engineering process development require the integration of a number of tools and techniques, including scripting for commercial or open-source software, as well as ground-up software development work. Forge Analytics offers full-service development for CAE workflow and analysis projects.

At Forge Analytics, we believe in using the best tools for the job. We can work with any pre-proccessors, solvers or post-processing software you're using to fulfill your needs. If we haven't worked with a tool or software package before, we'll get up-to-speed before you're charged for any work.

This approach allows us to offer services that many engineering software vendors cannot. We have no commercial incentives to use a particular set of tools, so our work is conducted only with your interests in mind. We believe that engineering processes should drive software selection, and not the other way around.

Let's Work Together